Sci-fi must-reads and must-views

[nomadthethird]

Wow thanks for all of these suggestions. Now I have something to do besides watch 24-hour news networks 24 hours a day...

Dune seconded with true fanboy gusto.

Never read the books, but I had a friend whose dad was really into sci-fi in high school, and we used to sit for hours playing that damn video game for PCs. Dorky but one of the best computer games ever.

 

[nomadthethird]

What's not cool about mirror shades and skateboards? Throw in a cut-off denim jacket with a back patch and you're there.

HA what was that movie with like futuristic pretensions that was about skateboarders in a dystopia? I think one of the Coreys was in it...

Prayer of the Rollerboys!

 

[vimothy]

Yeah I remember that film. Pretty mint.

 

[IdleRich]

Tarkovsky's 'Solaris'

Anyone read the book that Stalker is based on? I've heard that it's completely different from the film which doesn't make it any less interesting I think.

"I know what you mean with Gibson, but I think he writes about "cool" (how it evolves, how it's marketed) rather than trying to give you the impression that he's like that himself."

Yeah, that's what I reckon. Most explicit in Pattern Recognition which has a lot of interesting ideas (a girl who has physical allergic reactions to bad design) and fairly bad plot but is the one that has stuck with me the most out of his.

"Dune seconded with true fanboy gusto."

Yeah book was pretty good. Film was down to be made by Jodorowsky at one point as you probably all know - now that would have been something.

I know that Buick recommended some interesting sounding sci-fi stuff once that I immediately planned to read and then forgot about completely.

 

[datura]

Outside of one's mentioned so far I thought Flowers for Algernon was brilliant.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Yeah book was pretty good. Film was down to be made by Jodorowsky at one point as you probably all know - now that would have been something.

And Lynch was at one point considered for directorship of Return of the Jedi!

 

[luka]

im not sure i buy that line on gibson, at least not the sprawl ones. all the rastas speaking dodgy patios and listengin to gibsons version of future dub! that girls with mirror shades and retractable claws! christ! it has a certain enderaing naiveite i spose. having said that the sprawl ones are the only readable ones i think. i can't stand the near future ones.

terminator 1 and 2 and predator 1 and 2 are very good sci-fi films.

 

[Mr. Tea]

all the rastas speaking dodgy patios

Makes a change from pikeys trying to sell you one, I guess.

terminator 1 and 2 and predator 1 and 2 are very good sci-fi films.

Yeah, Hollywood blockbusters but still great - see also the first two Alien films. Again, totally obvious but you've got to love Blade Runner. West World is pretty good, certainly worth mentioning as a killer-android film pre-dating Blade Runner and Terminator...Robocop is great for its pitch-black humour and commentary on the excesses of capitalism and '80s boardroom culture.

Back To The Future, anyone?

 

[Octopus?]

Pat Cadigan's "Tea From An Empty Cup" pulled off the 'hip' future world quite well... still has its silly moments.

Gibson's future dub is rather cringe-worthingly described, but "Neuromancer" is still a good read.

 

[Dunninger]

Anyone read the book that Stalker is based on? I've heard that it's completely different from the film which doesn't make it any less interesting I think.

Yes, Roadside Picnic. The basic setting is the same, with the zone and all that, but the focus is different. Which is a good thing, in my opinion. I like both the book and the film.

 

[droid]

Stalker was based on that? Great book.

A few things that haven't (or barely) been mentioned:

Roger Zelazny: Lord of light
Haldeman: Forever war and Forever peace. 'Camouflage' is ok as well, in a pulpy kinda way.
Ursla K Le Guin: The Dispossessed
Burroughs: Cities of the red night
Robert Reed: Marrow and Well of stars
Fredrick Pohl: Gateway
Orson Scott Card: Enders Game (avoid the rest except maybe Enders Shadow)
Ian MacDonald: Brasyl (awful description there)
Ian Banks: Excession and The Algerbraist
Charles Stross: Glasshouse
Brian Aldiss: Barefoot in the Head

Id also suggest that the Ballard and Dick short story collections (2 and 5 volumes respectively) are the way to go if you haven't read much from those authors already.

 

[Blip]

I say "Alphaville".

 

[slim jenkins]

Me too.

and Carpenter's 'The Thing', Siegel's 'Invasion Of The Body Snatchers'...'2001: A Space Odyssey' and I back the other obvious biggies like 'Bladerunner' and 'Alien(s)'...and 'Robocop'.

Book-wise: William Burroughs and Ballard - the only two for me that have lasted my reading life. One page of Bill's is worth a million hard science space operatics and, as someone has already mentioned, aspiring 'punk' mohican psuedo hip nonsense where 'shades' and leather equal futurist 'cool' - futurusty chrome?

'Stalker' too.

 

[IdleRich]

I say "Alphaville".

I was going to say that but I'm not sure it's pure science fiction. Good though.
Does the The Day The Earth Caught Fire count as sci-fi, it's brilliant anyway, I guess The Day The Earth Stood Still is definitely sci-fi but it's not nearly as good.

"space operatics"

Yeah, always been suspicious of these, possibly my loss though...

 

[slim jenkins]

Don't worry about that...one's loss is always another's find...god how profound.

'Hard' sci-fi and space operatics are the literary equivalent of Yes triple albums. 'Space Odyssey' is 'Dark Side Of The Moon', though - which is fine by me (?) - and Burroughs is...Elmer Bernstein & The Pop Group? Ballard is...Subotnik & Eno...? Asimov is Springsteen. OK. Enough.

 

[droid]

Nothing wrong with a bit of space opera if done well. Ballard is good if you like reading the same book over and over and over and over and over again....

 

[vimothy]

Ballard is good if you like reading the same book over and over and over and over and over again....

OTM. It's a pretty good book, though.

 

[CHAOTROPIC]

Hard' sci-fi and space operatics are the literary equivalent of Yes triple albums. 'Space Odyssey' is 'Dark Side Of The Moon', though - which is fine by me (?) - and Burroughs is...Elmer Bernstein & The Pop Group? Ballard is...Subotnik & Eno...? Asimov is Springsteen. OK. Enough.

Asimov is Bob Dylan. Great ideas, voice like a frog with throat cancer. Now, Jack Vance ... Jack Vance is The Pixies. Meaningless genius. Asimov never wrote a page as good as anything in Planet of Adventure.

 

[droid]

OTM. It's a pretty good book, though.

And oddly compulsive. I find myself reading him more for the state of mind his prose evokes rather than anything else...

Of course, his earlier stuff is a slightly different story. I have to say my favourite works of his are the short stories. Like Dick (who based most of his novels on earlier short stories), he seems to have had an amazing spurt of creativity at the start of his career which he then elaborated on and dissected for the remainder of it...

Favourite Ballard short stories anyone? Id go for:

The Sound Sweep
The Killing Ground
Chronopolis
The Day of Forever

Off the top of my head.

 

[droid]

Asimov is Bob Dylan. Great ideas, voice like a frog with throat cancer.

That would be Dick then surely? Hes the worst combination of great ideas/abysmal writing ever. Ever tried reading 'maze of death'?