Post your favorite science fiction book(s)

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Does anybody here like science fiction?

If so, what are you favorite books or media?

My personal favorites are the Foundation Series by Asimov, and some of Ray Bradbury's books such as Fahrenheit 451. And then of course there is Star Trek.

Dune by Frank Herbert, not to mention the first two sequels and the first two "Prelude to Dune" prequels, House Atreides and House Harkonnen.

The first three Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy books by Douglas Adams.

Various novels based on the Doctor Who series (not novelisations, but original stories), including:

New Adventures:

TimeWyrm: Revelation by Paul Cornell

Transit by Ben Aaronovitch

All-Consuming Fire by Andy Lane

Human Nature by Paul Cornell

Damaged Goods by Russel T Davies

Lungbarrow by Marc Platt


Missing Adventures:

Goth Opera by Paul Cornell

The Romance of Crime by Gareth Roberts


Eighth Doctor Adventures (EDA):

The Eight Doctors by Terrance Dicks

Alien Bodies by Lawrence Miles

Unnatural History by Kate Orman and Jonathan Blum

Interference (a book in two parts) by Lawrence Miles

The Taking of Planet 5 by Simon Bucher-Jones and Mark Clapham

The Gallifrey Chronicles by Lance Parkin


Past Doctor Adventures (PDA):

Illegal Alien by Robert Perry and Mike Tucker

Zeta Major by Simon Messingham

Divided Loyalties by Gary Russell

Spiral Scratch by Gary Russell


New Series Adventures:

Winner Takes All by Jacqueline Rayner

Only Human by Gareth Roberts

The Deviant Strain by Justin Richards

Nightfall by Isaac Asimov.

Ender's Game (and series) by Orson Scott Card
Alastair Reynolds, especially "Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days"
Frederick Pohl's "Gateway"
William Gibson, a little bit of Neal Stephenson.

Sci-Fi games and tv serials, not so much. but when i was a child i enjoyed star trek and seaquest dsv (for the talking dolphin).

movies...does star wars count? or matrix? frankly, the only one that i recall really enjoying is "Contact" starring Jodie Foster.

i guess i enjoy imagining sci-fi stuff better than 'seeing' it. watching a sci-fi movie is like watching a horror flick, i keep wondering how the special effects and props are made. distracts me from the storyline.

Stranger in a Strange Land, the Dune Series, the Ender series (haven't read all of either series), Douglas Adams, Kurt Vonnegut if anyone still calls him sci-fi. The list goes on, but those pop to mind first just looking around my room.

Starship Titanic
The Dune Trilogy

But I have these on audio book I could never actually read them.

Books:
1. Douglas Adams: The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
2. George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four
3. H.G. Wells: The War of the Worlds
4. Robert A. Heinlein: The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag
5. H.G. Wells: The Time Machine
6. Stephen Baxter: The Time Ships
7. H.G. Wells: The First Men in the Moon
8. Douglas Adams: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
9. H.G. Wells: In the Days of the Comet
10. Isaac Asimov: The End of Eternity
11. Ray Bradbury: The Martian Chronicles
12. Harlan Ellison: The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World
13. Isaac Asimov (ed.): Tomorrow's Children
14. Isaac Asimov (ed.): Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Treasury
15. Isaac Asimov: The Best of Isaac Asimov
16. Wilmar H. Shiras: Children of the Atom
17. Jules Verne: Paris au xxe siècle
18. Larry Niven: Neutron Star

Movies:
1. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
2. Aliens
3. Star Wars
4. Dune
5. The Empire Strikes Back
6. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
7. X-Men: The Last Stand
8. Flight of the Navigator
9. Star Trek: Generations
10. Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
11. The Matrix
12. The Omega Man
13. The Andromeda Strain
14. Robert A. Heinlein's The Puppet Masters
15. The Thing
16. Nineteen Eighty-Four
17. Back to the Future Part II
18. Time After Time
19. Return of the Jedi
20. Soylent Green

TV shows:
1. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
2. Red Dwarf
3. Stargate SG-1
4. Star Trek: The Next Generation
5. Babylon 5
6. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
7. Stargate Atlantis
8. Star Trek
9. Max Headroom
10. The X-Files
11. The Time Tunnel
12. Star Trek: Voyager

Records:
Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds

Where's Doctor Who?

I never could make head or tails of "Doctor Who", sorry. Nor of "Perry Rhodan", the longest-running science fiction "pulp" here in German-speaking countries.

So you could comprehend Star Trek, Red Dwarf and Hitch-Hiker's, yet cannot grasp the concept of Doctor Who?

In a word: yes. Those shows are all built on one easily-grasped premise - Starfleet in the 23rd/24th century, last human survivor three million years hence, escapee from the demolition of Earth roams the galaxy. I've never understood who the Doctor is, what his mission and authority is, when and where the action is taking place, why he is always accompanied by one (rarely two) human companions, why he keeps changing shape and character, ...as I said, I've watched perhaps twenty or more episodes, and they have made little or no sense to me.

Fahrenheit 451 is one of the greatest books ever written, for any genre.

Hell yeah.

Some more, though they're not strictly sci-fi:
American Gods
Neverwhere
Watchmen
Tithe: A Modern Fairy Tale (Holly Black's fairy series in general)
The Golden Compass (the His Dark Materials series in general)

It takes a bit to understand it, but basically, it's as simple as this:

The Doctor is a renegade member of an alien race known as the Time Lords, who, while they have time-travel, maintain a policy of non-interference with the universe. The Doctor, however, travels for his own reasons, mostly altruistic, in a stolen time machine called the TARDIS. He can change his appearance due to a quirk of Time Lord physiology that allows them to cheat death by rejuvenating every cell in their body.

The reasons why he has companions are varied. The first was his own grand-daughter, and then two of his grand-daughter's teachers who barged their way into the TARDIS. For companionship, or as a teacher, or because they are good at helping him with the situations they deal with.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_%28Doctor_Who%29 for more info.

That's a pretty good book, I have that series too.



I forgot to mention, I also like the Mars Trilogy series by Kim Stanley Robinson. There is a lot of hard science in that book that is at least plausible...

Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clark

Robota by Doug Chiang and Orson Scott Card

Red Planet by Robert Heinlein