Author Topic: What is your favorite SF story that is not Star Trek or Star Wars?  (Read 34024 times)

Offline BazBear

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I must have read my fave five or ten times by now. Five replies and I fess up ;)....

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Offline Tanalia

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Re: What is your favorite SF story that is not Star Trek or Star Wars?
« Reply #1 on: June 05, 2014, 09:50:43 PM »
Hard to single out just one, but I'll go with Memory Blank by John E. Stith.

Offline Allan F

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Re: What is your favorite SF story that is not Star Trek or Star Wars?
« Reply #2 on: June 06, 2014, 04:54:05 AM »
Anne McCaffrey's "Dragonriders of Pern"

Well, it is like this: The truth doesn't need insults. Insults are the refuge of a darkened mind, a mind that refuses to open and see. Foul language can't outcompete knowledge. And knowledge is the result of education. Education is the result of the wish to know more, not less.

Offline gwiz

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Re: What is your favorite SF story that is not Star Trek or Star Wars?
« Reply #3 on: June 06, 2014, 05:14:23 AM »
"Lord of Light" by Roger Zelazny
Multiple exclamation marks are a sure sign of a diseased mind - Terry Pratchett
...the ascent module ... took off like a rocket - Moon Man

Offline Peter B

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Re: What is your favorite SF story that is not Star Trek or Star Wars?
« Reply #4 on: June 06, 2014, 06:44:04 AM »
For a series, Michael Kube-McDowell's "The Trigon Disunity" - "Emprise", "Enigma" and "Empery". If nothing else it has two of the more unusual aliens (not just actors in rubber suits), and essentially predicted the internet back in the mid-1980s.

For a standalone novel, John Brunner's "The Crucible of Time". A story of survival against the odds with very realistically and sympathetically drawn aliens.

For a short story, either "They're Made Out Of Meat" by Terry Bisson (http://www.terrybisson.com/page6/page6.html), or "A Pail Of Air" by Fritz Leiber (http://www.baenebooks.com/chapters/0743498747/0743498747___6.htm)

Offline Al Johnston

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Re: What is your favorite SF story that is not Star Trek or Star Wars?
« Reply #5 on: June 06, 2014, 07:32:39 AM »
My favourite short story would probably be Arthur Clarke's Reunion

Not sure if I could pick a standalone novel - if only because they keep acquiring sequels.

For a series, a toss-up between The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan stories ;)
"Cheer up!" they said. "It could be worse!" they said.
So I did.
And it was.

Offline Morgul

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Re: What is your favorite SF story that is not Star Trek or Star Wars?
« Reply #6 on: June 06, 2014, 07:32:59 AM »
Starship Troopers by Heinlein.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein

Pretty much anything by Heinlein.  I've got about half a dozen of his books that have literally fallen apart because I've read them so many times.

Offline gillianren

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Re: What is your favorite SF story that is not Star Trek or Star Wars?
« Reply #7 on: June 06, 2014, 10:46:08 AM »
For a series, a toss-up between The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan stories ;)

I'm rereading Borders of Infinity for the umpteenth time when there's a reason I want to be reading a paperback, not one of the hardcovers I'm currently reading from the library.  I met her once, too; nice lady.
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Offline darren r

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Re: What is your favorite SF story that is not Star Trek or Star Wars?
« Reply #8 on: June 06, 2014, 12:23:51 PM »
Fugue For A Darkening Island by Christopher Priest. It's a 'future history' novel so I'm not sure if it counts, though Priest is classed as an SF author. It was written in the '70's but has gained a special resonance in these increasingly less tolerant times.

If not, then The Time Ships or Voyage by Stephen Baxter.
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Offline Andromeda

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Re: What is your favorite SF story that is not Star Trek or Star Wars?
« Reply #9 on: June 06, 2014, 01:57:49 PM »
The Caves of Steel/The Naked Sun/The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov.
"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'" - Isaac Asimov.

Offline BazBear

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Re: What is your favorite SF story that is not Star Trek or Star Wars?
« Reply #10 on: June 06, 2014, 03:16:55 PM »
Robert Heinlein's The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.
"It's true you know. In space, no one can hear you scream like a little girl." - Mark Watney, protagonist of The Martian by Andy Weir

Offline smartcooky

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Re: What is your favorite SF story that is not Star Trek or Star Wars?
« Reply #11 on: June 06, 2014, 05:09:53 PM »
Robert Heinlein's The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.

Excellent book. It has one of my favourite quotes

Quote
Mike, you want to discuss nature of humor. There are two types
of jokes. One sort goes on being funny forever. Other sort is funny once.
Second time it's dull. This joke is second sort. Use it once, you're a
wit. Use twice, you're a halfwit."
"Geometrical progression?"
If you're not a scientist but you think you've destroyed the foundation of a vast scientific edifice with 10 minutes of Googling, you might want to consider the possibility that you're wrong.

Offline smartcooky

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Re: What is your favorite SF story that is not Star Trek or Star Wars?
« Reply #12 on: June 06, 2014, 08:25:47 PM »
I'm old enough to be a keen follower of the Clarke/Asimov axis so Foundation, Rama, 2001/2010/2063/3000 and the Robots series of short stories are always near the top of my list.

However for sheer "hard sci-fi" my single favourite book (not part of a series or trilogy) is "The Two Faces of Tomorrow" by James Patrick Hogan. In 1979, he foresaw fully automated computer control, the prospect of AI and the internet, in a way much closer to the actuality of today that most other sci-fi authors.

For humour, I cannot pass up the quirky, sometimes brilliant Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" series
If you're not a scientist but you think you've destroyed the foundation of a vast scientific edifice with 10 minutes of Googling, you might want to consider the possibility that you're wrong.

Offline Allan F

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Re: What is your favorite SF story that is not Star Trek or Star Wars?
« Reply #13 on: June 06, 2014, 11:48:15 PM »
How about the Ringworld series?
Well, it is like this: The truth doesn't need insults. Insults are the refuge of a darkened mind, a mind that refuses to open and see. Foul language can't outcompete knowledge. And knowledge is the result of education. Education is the result of the wish to know more, not less.

Offline cjameshuff

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