Classic Sci-Fi recommendations

[skeeterm5]

Rendezvous with Rama by Clarke, Made more poignant by the recent fly by of Oumuamua a short while back.

[popeyewhite]

Phillip K Dick has written a number or short story anthologies, they include some modern classics you may, or may not, have heard of. Personally I found some of his lesser known stuff far more enthralling than the easy-to-transfer-to-cinema more popular tales. In terms of hard technical space opera Arthur C Clarke is quite dull I thought and something more modern like House of Suns (Reynolds) fufils my requirement for a more modern 'classic'.

[Esceptico]

popeyewhite said:

Phillip K Dick has written a number or short story anthologies, they include some modern classics you may, or may not, have heard of. Personally I found some of his lesser known stuff far more enthralling than the easy-to-transfer-to-cinema more popular tales. In terms of hard technical space opera Arthur C Clarke is quite dull I thought and something more modern like House of Suns (Reynolds) fufils my requirement for a more modern 'classic'.

I tried reading Dick when I was younger but frankly found it confusing. I think Ubik in particular stands out as a novel where I was wondering what the hell was happening! I would like to read some of his short stories as several have been used for films.

[popeyewhite]

Esceptico said:

I tried reading Dick when I was younger but frankly found it confusing. I think Ubik in particular stands out as a novel where I was wondering what the hell was happening! I would like to read some of his short stories as several have been used for films.

I think he's released (posthumously obvs) at least five volumes of short stories. IIRC the tales that were made into movies were by no means the best of the stories..I suppose they were simply thought to translate well into 90 minutes of celluloid profit for someone in Hollywood. The original Total Recall has a satisfying plot twist that the movie completely bypassed.

[MikeGTi]

I've just started reading William Gibson's Nueromancer- seems alright so far

[Wayoftheflower]

MikeGTi said:

I've just started reading William Gibson's Nueromancer- seems alright so far

That's not a clas... damn, 37years old!

Truly visionary, I thoroughly enjoyed it, just exchange "Mega" in any IT reference with "Tera".

Follow it up with Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.

[Huff]

A short read you can find online - The Machine Stops (E.M. Forster, 1909)

[peterperkins]

skeeterm5 said:

Rendezvous with Rama by Clarke, Made more poignant by the recent fly by of Oumuamua a short while back.

One of my top 5 books..

Anything by John Wyndham is very solid and written in a certain British style.

[AlRaven]

Wayoftheflower said:

That's not a clas... damn, 37years old!

Truly visionary, I thoroughly enjoyed it, just exchange "Mega" in any IT reference with "Tera".

Follow it up with Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.

Two of my all time favourites, just bear in mind they are pre-modern internet and have their own (great) interpretation of same. Both milestones in Sci-fi by two of the masters of cyberpunk, I must have re-read them half a dozen times!

As a left field classic option, how about Keith Laumer? very good if you like alternative realities.

[Matt_N]

shed driver said:

One of my favourites is "The City and the Stars" by Arthur C Clarke.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_and_the_Sta...

Over 65 years old and still feels fresh.

SD.

Yeh I read this for the first time not long ago and really enjoyed it.

Others I’ve read this year:

Forever War / Free - Joe Haldeman (gave up on Peace)

Penultimate Truth - Philip K Dick

I am legend - Richard Matheson

Peter Hamilton - Mindstar Rising