Greatest SF novel of all time? And why?

POSTED BY: FREESOUP
UPDATED: Monday, August 10, 2026 16:37
VIEWED: 25112
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WILLIAMX

Sunday, January 11, 2004 2:08 AM

More really excellent stuff

Pat Cadigan -> Mindplayers
Walter Jon Williams -> Memory of Whiteness
Connie Willis -> Lincoln's Dreams
Gregory Benford -> Timescape

Damn though, can any of these be said to be best? What about the Stainless Steel Rat?

Out of control

FREMDFIRMA

Sunday, January 11, 2004 2:11 AM

A.E. Van Vogt.

The Weapon Shops of Isher.

-frem
"The right to buy weapons is the right to be free."

FAHQ

Sunday, January 11, 2004 2:19 AM

Starship Troopers was a character study. The war was merely the setting of the story. It had nothing to do with his military experience at all.

Never mind the garbage movie of the same title. Maybe if they called it something else it would not have sucked so badly. Who am I kidding? It was one of the most incredibly stupid movies. Bugs that fart plasma and launch asteroids that travel light years to Earth. I need to eat more beans...... Holy KRAP! There's an ASSteroid in my pants! Even thinking about that movie gives me gas.

Reason why Starship Troopers is my favorite?

It made me think and was instrumental in building my own values.

Moral responsibility. Taking responsibility for one's own actions and how one deals with the consequences, and NOT blaming or suing somebody else.

If our society was like the one described in the book, the moron who spilled the hot cofee in her lap and sued McDonald's never would have seen court, let alone the news for example.

Public whippings: Damn right. You screw up, you "take your lumps" as it says in the book.

For those of you who read it and didnt get it? Read it again and forget about the movie. The book preceeded it by quite a few years.

"My days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle."

WILLIAMX

Sunday, January 11, 2004 5:39 AM

FahQ, I agree with all except for the part where you say:
Starship Troopers was a character study.

All after this is dead on and brings me to say the book is a treatise on government and society, not a study at all.

Besides, Rico pretty much stayed the same humble dude throughout the thing. The war didn't really bother him too much (despite his mom getting wacked) and if he wasn't a trooper he would have had no direction at all. He got promoted cuz he was lucky . . . and kept a cleat head in action.

A good book though hugely idealistic.

TUNNEL

Sunday, January 11, 2004 8:00 AM

Has anybody here read Falkenberg's Legion, King David's Spaceship, or The war world series?

Written by Jerry Pournelle. Similar to Firefly 'verse, these books take place in a universe where the US and USSR teamed up colonize the planets. Anyway, it has a lot of the same themes, mixed culture, poor backwater world with no or low, high tech stuff.

Very good stuff, the moon of Haven gets a good bit of attention as it is the focus of the War World series.

I recommend reading these. Gives a good idea for how colony worlds can get screwed up, have a major loss of high tech gear, and why horses and low tech stuff would be more readily avaliable.

Note that these books have a well stated means of FTL travel and that one star systems is found with aliens. ("A Mote in God's Eye" and "The Gripping Hand" are the only books they deal with the aliens.)

Over all I found them to be very good books, though the War World series is written by a compilation of contributing writers.

CALHOUN

Sunday, January 11, 2004 12:23 PM

WilliamX, I remember Stainless Steel Rat!

Slippery Jim DeGriz.. :)

LADYJAYNE

Sunday, January 11, 2004 1:52 PM

Well, shoot, this is an ENTIRELY unfair question to me because I have some serious personal bias goin' on. I'll give ya my biased answers and then try to get some not-so-biased.

FOOL'S WAR by Sarah Zettel

While I have a special place in my heart for RECLAMATION, FOOL'S WAR is a better book. Better sales, too! LOL! Sarah is a dear friend of mine; I've known her since high school and I remember how gleeful she was when her old-fashioned idea of the "ship's fool" came to life after spending nearly a decade developing it.

It's a chilling read in a post 9-11 world, though. Her main character is an Islamic woman who recalls the "bad old days" when it was literally unsafe for a woman to wear a veil because of extreme anti-Arabic sentiments.

IN THE COMPANY OF MIND by Steven Piziks

Also a book I got to see through the development process. It's out of print now and my husband doesn't write under the name Piziks anymore, but I still think his first novel was his best. I saw him develop main character Lance Michaels from a silly gaming character idea through an unpulbishable novella hero to the chilling survivor of the abuse that gave him multiple personality disorder. Very dark and scary; totally unlike his Steven Harper books, but if you can find it, read it. :-)

Okay, now some not-so-biased stuff:

WILD SEED by Octavia Butler

You'll never read anything else like it. I just don't know what else to say. I'm always glad she writes short novels because they are so intense I don't think I could handle anything longer of hers.

THE HANDMAID'S TALE by Margaret Atwood

She'll deny to the day she dies that it's sf, but cheap & easy electronic data passage is the key to what creates this distopia. I love cyclical novels (ones that have both past and present passages that come together in the end; much like "Out of Gas" is written) and this is a good one. Not her best work (CAT'S EYE and THE ROBBER BRIDE are better) but her others are definitely not SF.

--Kala

FIREFLY68MTL

Sunday, January 11, 2004 2:34 PM

1. The Foundation Series, Isaac Asimov
2. Time Enough For Love, Robert A. Heinlein
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Rendez Vous With Rama, Athur C. Clack

JAYNEZTOWN

Sunday, March 31, 2024 4:56 AM

not that I agree

The 50 Best Science Fiction Books to Give You the Perfect Escape
https://www.aol.com/40-best-science-fiction-books-174900803.html

BRENDA

Sunday, March 31, 2024 9:44 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by FREESOUP:
I agree that Haldeman's "The Forever War" is worthwhile, and won RAH's admiration expressed by him personally to Joe in 1976 or thereabouts at a WorldCon.

Some see it as a rebuttal to "Starship Troopers", but both Joe and myself think it's more that RAH never had combat experience and was in the Navy, not the Army. YMMV.

What else do you think qualifies, and did my post pique your interest in "The Book of the New Sun" a tad?

You knew that one of my favourites is "Dune"

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