1. #1

    [Books] A decent sci-fi book

    Hungering for a sci-fi adventure book. Modern / futuristic, first contact maybe?

    Just read Dune. Was good, but didn't live up to the hype. I just downloaded a book called Enders Game which seems to be a popular sci-fi novel. Never heard of it but will give it a read in the next week.

    I tried to find a novel on the upcoming film "Prometheus" as that's exactly the type of book I'm looking for. Human civilisation making first contact with aliens. They go to war. Shit goes down.

    Any recommendations?

  2. #2
    Old Man's War by John Scalzi

    John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army.

    The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce-and aliens willing to fight for them are common. The universe, it turns out, is a hostile place.

    So: we fight. To defend Earth (a target for our new enemies, should we let them get close enough) and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has gone on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding.

    Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity's resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force, which shields the home planet from too much knowledge of the situation. What's known to everybody is that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don't want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You'll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You'll serve your time at the front. And if you survive, you'll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets.

    John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine-and what he will become is far stranger.

  3. #3
    As Xenogeist said, Old Man's War and the follow up, Ghost Brigades, are both VERY good books and highly recommended.

    Also if you havnt already, read Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

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    Definitely read Ender's Game and other books in the series like Ender's Shadow and Speaker of the Dead afterwards. Very phenomenal books.

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    Starship Troopers. The best sci-fi/futuristic/army book I've ever read.

    For that matter, Heinlein has a lot of those "futuristic" books. He was an amazing author. Check out some of his other works too.

  8. #8
    Read all Space Odyssey novels, they are the best sci fi novels ever written (IMO). If you have seen 2001 Space Odyssey, once you read the book it will make much more sense.

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    Anything by Isaac Asimov, his short stories are particularly awesome. You should be able to pick up a collection of them at your local bookstore.
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  10. #10
    Deleted
    While not pure SciFi in its' own right, I really enjoyed Timeline a lot. It's a typical Crichton title, lots of action on one side and lots of techno fluff on the other.

    Timeline is a science fiction novel by Michael Crichton that was published in November 1999. It tells the story of a group of history students who travel to 14th Century France to rescue their professor. (wikipedia)

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    Deleted
    Literally anything by - Iain M Banks

  12. #12
    Stood in the Fire Vouksh89's Avatar
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    Armor. It's an amazing book. The only frustrating part is that the author died before he could finish the sequel.

    Some parts are hard to understand at first, since some of the characters have almost no back-story, but once you read it through about 2 times, it all comes together.

    Proxies Interesting read. Has an interesting take on the future of robots and touches on the Psyche of "who we are".

    Battlefield Earth My favorite book of all time. It's over 1000 pages long, but it's got so much depth and detail (but not overwhelmingly so) that you just get sucked into the story.

  13. #13
    If you're looking for humanity vs. seemingly insurmountable alien odds, I'd recommend Ian Douglas' Galactic Marines saga:

    "Heritage trilogy"
    -Semper Mars
    -Luna Marine
    -Europa Strike

    "Legacy trilogy"
    -Star Corps
    -Battlespace
    -Star Marines

    "Inheritance trilogy"
    -Star Strike
    -Galactic Corps
    -Semper Human

    While some of it may be hard to follow (he does get rather technical with some of the theoreticals of what might be our advanced technologies), the story is well laid out and not too terribly far-fetched. Good humor and action liberally interspersed make these well worth the effort of tracking them all down (been unable to find the last two from "Inheritance," myself, regrettably - no spoilers! >_<).
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  14. #14
    Field Marshal Lessadria's Avatar
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    Saga if Seven Suns is good, but rather long, seven books if i remember right.

    -edit- Not implying that seven books makes a series long, but some people may just want to read a short book or a short series of one or two books.
    Last edited by Lessadria; 2012-06-03 at 06:25 AM.

  15. #15
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Kraw View Post
    While not pure SciFi in its' own right, I really enjoyed Timeline a lot. It's a typical Crichton title, lots of action on one side and lots of techno fluff on the other.

    Timeline is a science fiction novel by Michael Crichton that was published in November 1999. It tells the story of a group of history students who travel to 14th Century France to rescue their professor. (wikipedia)

    Michael Crichton is notorious for bad science, for starters most of the dinosaurs in Jurassic park, werent even around during the Jurassic. small things like that really irk me about him.

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by akamurdoch View Post
    Michael Crichton is notorious for bad science, for starters most of the dinosaurs in Jurassic park, werent even around during the Jurassic. small things like that really irk me about him.
    It was called Jurassic Park because most kids can't tell the difference between the eras and the dinosaurs in them, and the park (in the book) was geared towards kids. It was a marketing gimmick. If anything, the other science about the dinosaurs in the book should be making you mad, not the name of the park/book itself.

  17. #17
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by akamurdoch View Post
    Michael Crichton is notorious for bad science, for starters most of the dinosaurs in Jurassic park, werent even around during the Jurassic. small things like that really irk me about him.
    That may be true, but in a SciFi novel you don't need super accurate science to write entertaining fluff. And that's what it's about, it makes you feel smart because the techno-babble seems logical at first glance, even if it's not. I mean, it's a book with about time travel. How accurate can the science be?

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