Re:Ask YC: What's the most inspiring sci-fi book you've read?
by kryptos on Wednesday March 19, 2008 @11:19AM
(#140842)
Stanislaw lem.. i agree... Solaris was special.. and most purists seemed to suggest the translation from Polish was bad!... Olaf stapledon's last and first men, starMaker were both stunning...
Ursula le guin also come to mind
Re:Ask YC: What's the most inspiring sci-fi book you've read?
by liquidcool on Wednesday March 19, 2008 @07:55PM
(#141262)
If you're going to mention John Brunner, you can't forget The Shockwave Rider. I found it very prescient when I read it in the '90s. If William Gibson is the father of cyberpunk, I think that makes Brunner the grandfather.
Re:Ask YC: What's the most inspiring sci-fi book you've read?
by nazgulnarsil on Tuesday March 18, 2008 @11:05PM
(#140494)
forgot Time Travel
Connie Willis (To Say Nothing of the Dog, Doomsday Book) both great.
anything by Ursula K LeGuin as well.
Superhuman: Slan by A.E. Van Vogt More Than Human by Theodore STurgeon Odd John by Olaf Stapledon
Post Apocalyptic: The Day of The Triffids by John Whyndham Earth Abides by George R. Stewart A Canticle for Lebowitz by...don't remember
Space Opera/Adventure: any of The Culture novels by Iain M. Banks The Reality Dysfunction series by ...don't remember Hyperion series by Dan Simmons To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer
Dystopian: We by Yevgeny Zamyatin <---highly overlooked, predates 1984 and Brave New World
But the Absolute Best would be anything by: Stanislaw Lem (Cyberiad, Futurological Congress, Solaris) Alfred Bester (The STars my Destination, The Demolished Man) or Samuel R. Delany (Babel-17, Dhalgren, Trtion, Nova) oh and Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light and This Immortal are both great.
Some of Philip K. Dick's stuff is great, but everyone recommends him. :)
almost forgot John Brunner, check out Steel Beach, The Sheep Look Up, and Stand on Zanzibar.