Mind-expanding science fiction

[brunswick]

The Gateway series.

Any of the 100 or so Sci-Fi masterworks series.

Hyperion cantos (oh my god!!!!!!)

some of the banks culture are pretty good.

House of Suns by A.Reynolds is the nuts.

....i have read probably 250 sci fi books and the above are the creamiest cream of the crop, tho good shout above for enders game (for yougens really, tho the last chapter still blew my head off).

 

[Doc Lynam]

Yes I've read that. Probably one of the best sci-fi novels ever written. You should try "Fifth head of Cerberus " by Gene Wolfe.

Cheers yeah will check it out.

 

[brunswick]

ps why do people put pratchett and gemmel in scifi category, they are fanstasy.....it used to drive me nuts when they mixed the two and had "scifi and fantasy" sections in shops.....grrrr.....saying this tho, gemmel rocks it, makes lord of the rings look like the care bears.

 

[Doc Lynam]

From the "Alternative History" part of the SF spectrum try "Pavane" by Keith Roberts, set in a "present day" Dorset (Corfe Castle features strongly) where Queen Elizabeth I was assassinated and the Spanish Armada/Catholics "won". For reasons not fully clear until hinted at the end society is still steam powered, bereft of electricity and modern communications and reliant on a highly sophisticated network of manual semaphore signalling towers to communicate - these form a key element of the story. The book is made up of seven separate stories, all interlinked, and is an excellent and haunting fantasy.

This also sounds very good.

 

[GNF on Tour]

Looking for something to read - any recommendations in this genre?

Try the Riverworld Series by Philip Jose Farmer. I love SF and PJF is a visionary in that field.

 

[brightonlass2009]

The man in the high castle by Philip K Dick is a brilliant read

 

[The Rivet]

Lucifers Hammer by Jerry Niven and Larry Pournelle...............

 

[JCL666]

Forever war by Joe Halderman
Consider phlebas by Iain Banks
The stars my destination by Alfed Bester
pretty much anything by Philip K Dick.

In the vein of steam punk style of science fiction (as alluded to by Mr Pottings suggestion), i would recommend Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. I'm not really a massive fan of that style but it is a brilliant book.

 

[Captain Sensible]

Just put Star Wars on. End of.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

As always Aldous Huxley's "A Brave New World" is worth a read.

 

[SULLY COULDNT SHOOT]

Im a fantasy man rather than sci-fi and can rack a whole load of great fantasy authors but the one sci-fi author I cant put down is Ian Banks. Really class reading.

 

[Norman Potting]

Fantasy - try the "Gormenghast" trilogy by Mervyn Peake - from the same era as "Lord of the Rings" and "The Chronicles of Narnia" but perhaps not quite as well known. Excellent (IMHO) TV version done by the BBC (who else?) around 10 years ago.

 

[Silent Bob]

I've got those somewhere, I must dig them out. I think I read one and a half of them but have often thought about giving them another go.

They are a bit of a slog at times but definitely worth persisting with.

 

[SULLY COULDNT SHOOT]

If you DO want fantasy hardcore then the Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Eriksen and backed up by Esslemont are masterful.

Definitely not for teenagers.

 

[Dirk Gently]

Anything and everything by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournellle - great sci-fi writer and serious scientist team up to write gripping stories that actually have serious basis in science.

Particularly like Lucifer's Hammer, The Mote in God's Eye, Oath of Fealty & Footfall.

 

[kalinski]

As always Aldous Huxley's "A Brave New World" is worth a read.

this

 

[Jimmy Come Lately]

I think there's been a relative dearth of the "mind-expanding" type of science fiction recently because of the Singularity (oversimplified: the idea that once we manage to build an artificial intelligence smarter than ourselves, it will be able to design an even smarter AI, and so on in a runaway process that quickly results in machines that out-think us the way that we out-think a goldfish). As Charles Stross put it, "The Singularity is this enormous turd that Vernor Vinge crapped into the punchbowl of SF writing, and now nobody wanting to take a drink can ignore it." A result has been quite a lot of low-tech futures without smart AIs or anything else comparably advanced.

One way Stross has dealt with it is by looking at what might happen on the way to the Singularity. His novel (well, collection of linked short stories) Accelerando gave me a massive dose of future shock. Technology could change our society out of all recognition in the next fifty years - almost certainly not in the way that he imagines it, but he gives a good sense of how disconcerting it could be. You know how there are kids growing up today who think that email is clunky, old-fashioned technology for old people? Accelerando tries to show us the future through their eyes, then those of their children and then their grandchildren. It's so futuristic it's even available as a free ebook download.

Vernor Vinge himself had the fascinating idea of dividing the galaxy into zones such that closer to the galactic core there are physical limits on how quickly machines (and creatures) can think, whereas out towards the edges smart AIs, faster than light travel and other advanced SF treats become possible. A Fire Upon The Deep makes excellent use of this idea in its plot. It's a book that stays with you (partly for the lingering fear that Earth might really be in the "Slow Zone" and we'll never get to play with the fun tech).

More recently, The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi somehow manages to make a gripping techno-thriller out of the application of public-key cryptography. It's overflowing with clever ideas but it's also really well written. (Although it's possibly a bit unforgivingly opaque to readers who aren't already familiar with some of the currently fashionable SF jargon about nanotech, quantum computing, etc.)

I'd also second the suggestions of Hyperion, Snow Crash, and anything by Alastair Reynolds.

 

[Doc Lynam]

BBC News - Tributes paid to sci-fi author Ray Bradbury