Science fiction

[MASUGNEN]

Hit me with recommendations in the field of science fiction. I like thought-provoking, hardcore, moody, why not postapocalyptic takes?

Science fiction as literature is for me terra incognita. Cinematographically, I appreciate the Russian school — Stalker, Days of Eclipse, Letters from a Dead Man —, also On the Silver Globe as well, of course, as Blade Runner. I understand these idiosyncratic preferences do not constitute a genre, but perhaps you feel what I'm looking after.

[widmerpool]

If you like Stalker give A Roadside Picnic a try. It's excellent. The film is more or less based on the last chapter, so there's a lot more in the book.

[MASUGNEN]

Strugatsky brothers are in general recommendable, right?

Retrieved yesterday a book by Italian master Gianni Montanari: La sepoltura (1972).

[Faust]

I don't know how Strugatsky brothers would work in translation, but in the former SU they were a huge hit. Of course it's all safe and Communist, but their heart is in the right place. Their best book by far (much better than the Roadside Picnic) is Hard to be God - I don't think there is a good English translation - try finding one in your own language.

Obviously you absolutely must read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, as all as The Martian Chronicles. Others - Solaris by Stanislav Lem, Arthur Clarke Space Odyssey 2001, Asimov's Foundation series.

[Faust]

On a separate note, I had quite a culture shock when I came to the US and saw the disdain that literary people have for science fiction. I could not understand it - to me good science, crime, adventure fiction always seemed like a great gateway into serious literature, because those books also posed philosophical questions and dealt with moral issues.

But then I walked into Barnes and Noble and saw how much shit there was along with the good stuff.

[widmerpool]

I've heard the translation of Roadside Picnic is good, although I haven't read it.

It's true about the attitude of English speaking countries to genre fiction. I remember a NYT review of one of the Fandorin books that said, in so many words, 'I just can't understand why such a talented writer is throwing himself away on detective novels.'

Clarke and Bradbury are definitely classics, on the other hand, I don't think Foundation has held up too well.

Recently I have enjoyed CS Lewis' science fiction trilogy, different and rather strange, and Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go.

[AKA*NYC]

i've always found sci-fi to be the most difficult yet most noble of genres. the conundrum is that the writers who really excel at it - burroughs, ballard, p.k. dick all come to mind - tend to do so by transcending its more conventional tropes and confines.

[mizzar]

You may want to try
Samuel Ray Delany "Babel-17" , "Nova"(best of his SF) and "Dhalgren"(not hard Sf).

[michael_kard]

Alexander Bogdanov - Red Star

Very dated, but that's part of its charm. Gotta love the author too, he was the 19th century da Vinci.

[MASUGNEN]

Thanks for several helpful recommendations!

Foundation trilogy and Hard to Be a God ordered. Both are rare in their Swedish translations, none available at the libraries. But I hit gold: got the latter for a fifth of the medium second-hand price.

Delany caused Swedish moral panic as Hogg was translated in 2009. His science fiction seems interesting. How about Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand?

[Pontifex]

I read a lot of sci-fi and one of the most though provoking for me is Accelerando by Charles Stross.

I also enjoyed the novels about Takeshi Kovacs by Richard Morgan
- Altered Carbon
- Broken Angels
- Woken Furies

Hard boiled crime/semi-cyberpunk.

[MASUGNEN]

Takeshi Kovacs — a Japanese-Hungarian! Like a Ukranian-Brasilian (Clarice Lispector)!

Please, Pontifex, send me a private message about essential Swedish sci-fi.

[theetruscan]

On a separate note, I had quite a culture shock when I came to the US and saw the disdain that literary people have for science fiction. I could not understand it - to me good science, crime, adventure fiction always seemed like a great gateway into serious literature, because those books also posed philosophical questions and dealt with moral issues.

But then I walked into Barnes and Noble and saw how much shit there was along with the good stuff.

I think part of the disdain comes from differing priorities. Genre fiction is more story and idea driven than most literature, and it seems that worse writing can survive due to better stories or stronger ideas. At least, that's been my impression from speaking to friends in the literary world.

Back to the original question:

Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age is excellent sci-fi. His newest book, Anathem, is great sci-fi/fantasy, though it really needed a strict editor. The first is "cyberpunk," but is pretty much science fiction.

William Gibson's Neuromancer is a classic.

Greg Bear's Darwin's Radio tells a story I very much enjoyed. Not especially dark I'm afraid.

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy is good, the first book verging on brilliant.

Dan Simmons's Hyperion is great. The followups are all shit.

Vernor Vinge has written some excellent books, though the names are escaping me.

[Icarium]

Vernor vinges fire in the deep, rainbows end and one more are good. I really like iain m banks material ie the culture series (excession and player of games et all) and the algebraist. Chris Moriarty and Alistair Reynolds
have some good stuff too

[Faust]

Neuromancer, of course! And this...