>Used to love Science Fiction
>Haven't read any in a little over a year, been reading older fiction or historical books
>Want to read a new sci-fi book but nothing looks good/interesting
Is there anything out there that might rekindle my love of the genre, or is this the end?
Last sci-fi series I read was Asimov's Foundation books, they were "meh" at best.
Scratch that, I lied, last sci-fi novel I read was Roadside Picnic.
Idk what you've read but check out le guin if you haven't done so
No. Hopefully your taste has evolved to something more literary.
If you want recommendations, you should first list few books which you read and liked.
after having read actual books, only Wolfe will have any merit as far as sci fi goes
Hell, I've read just about everything, I really enjoyed Niven's Ringworld books and Clarke's Rama books.
Anything with genuinely strange, far-out critters or situations would be appreciated.
As you keep reading sci-fi seems progressively less interesting imo.
The Fifth Head of Cerberus
Rogue Moon
A Voyage to Arcturus
just reread P.K.Dick, problem solved
Venusia
Lovecraft, Read the beginning of Call of Cthulu or Dagon. Solid oldschool
Not scifi, though.
OP, you're literally below trash. When the earth gets evacuated, you being left behind, as with the countless other stagnant retards like you, will be one of mankind's gifts to the future.
Have you read Lord of Light?
It's one of the most unique takes on sci-fi I've ever read. Probably my favorite sci-fi book ever.
Read Stanislaw Lem or Frank Herbert's Dune.
Found the English major.
Enjoy your scintillating career in burger-flipping.
You certainly start to realise that most sci-fi authors suffer from a stunted imagination. There's some profitable cherry-picking to be done in the genre, though.
Hyperion Saga?
Cyberpunk books?
Have you read other Strugatzky books? Lem?
read seveneves
>oh how unliterary
>I suppose if you must wallow you might 'read' some Wolfe
My god this board is full of absolute faggots, read Hammer's Slammers OP.
Been there, done that, and I'm afraid it's no going back. I mean, I read one from time to time, just to get my mind off the things that really interest me, but the magic is gone. All I see are simple plots, simple characters and huge sections of technical filler, that I need to skimp read through.
An advice for those that still love science fiction. Don't go from it. Stay with it, and you'll still have a lot of fun reading it.
If you haven't read Nineteen Eighty-Four, you really should.
>mfw Veeky Forums likes to pretend it isn't actually sci-fi.
Read Crusade's End
I feel like Iain M. Banks loses out on this board. The culture series is excellent, and his mainstream fiction isn't too bad either.
You'd be surprised how Lovecraftian horror implements science fiction and how it inspired sci-fi writers afterwards.
Have you read the Nights Dawn trilogy by Peter F Hamilton?
I could upload a digital version if you'd like
>sci fi
But it's board about literature, user.
>people who scoff at science fiction
>majored in liberal burger flipping while many sci-fi classics were written by STEM PhDs
Seriously this one. I could tell more but have to leave right now. Check goodreads or something.
Book of the New Sun. It's a perfect mesh of literary and sci-fi.
Just because you have a PhD in physics doesn't mean you can write an interesting story
Sci-fi is usually attacked for being a low-brow genre, not badly written.
What does low-brow mean, in this context? Anyway, if you compare the best sci-fi prose to the best of literary fiction it's really no contest. And I say that as a huge sci-fi fan
g-guess not
they are great books guys, i swear
...
seconded, but start with snow crash its shorter and if you like that youll like anything else by him. my personal fave is cryptonomicon
Do it senpai
>pick up first Hammer's Slammers omnibus
>introduction by Gene Wolfe
What am I supposed to make of this
Star Maker
It's pretty awesome
The Whisperer In Darkness is the most sci-fi of his stories, read that
I love sci-fi, but it feels like such a waste of time, I could be reading some deeper shit yet here I am reading a book as big as the bible about spacetravel.
I feel the same way about Veeky Forums.
Philosophical sci-fi is more interesting than scientific sci-fi.
Gonna repeat my recommendation of Star Maker then. It gets pretty thoughtful as it goes on, Stapleton's views of civilization and his deist beliefs really come through, it's a lot more than a story about aliens.
P K D
K
D
Phillip is unironically very philosophical. He absolutely loves to turn things we take for granted on their heads and write entire novels based on these kinds of things.
>Sci-fi is usually attacked for being a low-brow genre, not badly written
Entirely wrong. Bad prose (and characterisation) is by far the most common criticism.
Whats some good short stories?
Arthur C Clarke, The Star
thanks!
Ballard's short stories are good. Fun starting points might be The Intensive Care Unit, Manhole 69, Having a Wonderful Time, The Dead Astronaut and (getting into some of his weirder stuff) The Voices of Time.
Gene Wolfe as well, obviously.
>Hyperion Saga?
How does this compares to the Foundation Saga? I did a quick look up on google and it sounds pretty much like Asimov's.
Not OP btw.
Only speculative fiction I ever bothered with was Lovecraft. Is it worth going beyond that?
>buttmad manchild got his feelings hurt because someone criticized his pew pew masturbatory fantasy adventure books
>Hyperion
A+
>Fall of Hyperion
B+
>Endymion
C-
>Rise of Endymion
F
Stop after Fall.
English Major here, I have yet to have a class without at least one sci-fi novel. 'Never Let Me Go', 'Under The Skin', 'The Road', 'Oryx and Crake' and this semester 'The Windup Girl' features in my third-year unit "Utopian and Dystopian Visions."
So, you know, literature and sci-fi aren't mutually exclusive. And it's unwise at best, absolute idiocy at worst, to imply that an overlap between the two is impossible.
This, Hyperion and FOH are fantastic, didn't bother reading Endymion.
Read some Harlan Ellison, OP.
Those are good books but there are English classes on pretty much everything. It's not as if you only study literature, and that being featured in a university syllabus is some kind of honor.
Science fiction is generally tge worst genre. Generally, you ether get pulpy stuff, or hard scifi which is the most autistic shit.
Different user but they look pretty interesting and I'm adding them to my backlog, could you upload a digital copy for me?