Sci-fi must-reads?

Well, list some and I'll read away like a constipated god.

P.S.
I read Dan Brown, so feel free to suggest intellectuel books.

The Hyperion Series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_(novel)

For all your intellectual needs.

>>2
Dan Simmons, eh?  Sounds like a faggot, he tries to ride along on Brown-sama's fame.

>>3
What does a complete idiot like you need intellectual books for.
Not like Dan Brown ever was in that category anyway.

>>4
You ignorant fool, how dare you call me a complete idiot when you are probably a nigger and a Jew.  Never will you rise to the intellectuel level of Dan Brown-sama.

Isaac Asimov. Robert Heinlein. Orson Scott Card. Larry Niven. Read anything ever written by any of these men. Then hit yourself in the face with a rolled-up print of the Mona Lisa for thinking Dan Brown is intellectual.

>>6
Oh come on, I was just trolling.

I've read some by Asimov, Heinlein and Card -- which books in particular do you suggest I start with (I prefer shorter stories, so don't go suggesting some massive series 'kay).

>>7
For Asimov, try "Robot Visions" or "The Complete Robot"; they're collections of short stories. "I, Robot" is also a good one, but it's damn short.

Card, Ender's Game obv. But also "Treason", perhaps "Enchantment" and "Seventh Son" (okay, okay, massive series on that one, but it's good!).

Heinlein: Read "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress". Read "Red Planet" and if you like that, "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel", "Podkayne of Mars", and probably a bunch more that I'm forgetting. These are all from what I call his 'fifteen-year-old boy' era. Then read "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls". If you like that, go for "Time Enough for Love" and "To Sail Beyond the Sunset". These are all from what I call his 'mid-life crisis' era. Read "Stranger in a Strange Land" if you feel like some trippy shit. But basically read everything this man has ever written. Except Sixth Column and Farnham's Freehold as they are both racist bullshit.

Yes, I know, I'm using quotes for book titles and they should only be used for short stories. Sue me, I don't feel like italics today.

Oh, and for Niven, Ringworld. Go for a couple of the sequels if you feel like you can stand it, but Ringworld is a must.

Why can't Niven write better? Great ideas, shitty execution. :(

no one suggested Phil K Dick?

the bible by noah

Hitchikers Guide To The Galaxy

Hello America, The Crystal World, and Best Short Stories by J.G. Ballard are excellent choices.

>>1

Try Uncle Tom's Cabin. I hear it's a fine read.

>I read Dan Brown, so feel free to suggest intellectual books.

ahahahahah....
Please, his books aren't intellectual. A good read, maybe, but far from intellectual.

Also, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip Dick

>>16
AHAHAHAHAHAHA HIS NAME IS DICK111111

>>16

Yeah, that comment was ripe for ridicule.

Here's a good starting point. I'm only listing novels, though.

Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (series)
Isaac Asimov - Foundation (series)
Isaac Asimov - The Gods Themselves
Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451
Arthur C. Clarke - 2001: A Space Odyssey
Arthur C. Clarke - The Fountains of Paradise
Arthur C. Clarke - Rendezvous with Rama (avoid the sequels)
Philip K. Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Philip K. Dick - Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Philip K. Dick - A Scanner Darkly
Philip K. Dick - Time out of Joint
Joe Haldeman - The Forever War
Robert Heinlein - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Cyril M. Kornbluth - Not This August (AKA Christmas Eve)
Ursula K. Le Guin - The Dispossessed
Ursula K. Le Guin - The Left Hand of Darkness
Walter M. Miller Jr. - A Canticle for Leibowitz
Larry Niven - Ringworld (the sequels get progressively worse, though I liked Engineers)
Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth - The Space Merchants
Carl Sagan - Contact
Roger Zelazny - Lord of Light

Do androids dream of electric sheep, by Phillip K Dick

BOB A HEINLEIN IS WIN</fact>

as previously mentioned, Phillip K. Dick wrote some terrific stories which (for me, anyways) combined the mars/rockets/space optimism of 1940s/50s era Asimov and Bradbury with the growing apathy and anxiety of the 1960s.

also, Harlan Ellison is, for my money, the best sci-fi short story writer of the 1970s (give or take a couple decades). "I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream" is one of the greatest tales of future nihilism ever.

I haven't read any of Michael Moorcock's fantasy shit,  but "Final Programme" is among the best of the new wave of sci fi in the 60s. If you like that, there's a whole bunch of other weird novels featuring the same character.

>>18
posted tons of classic must-read novels.

Everybody should read Dune by Frank Herbert.  Thats an awesome book right there. 

>>21

I'm the Anon who posted 18

I like a lot of Ellison's stuff, but he's done no novels to speak of (the only one I've read is Spider Kiss, which isn't SF) and I didn't feel like listing short stories.

As long as you mentioned it, though, some of my favorite Ellison stories (other than the one you already mentioned):

"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman
Jeffty is Five
Are You Listening?
A Boy and His Dog
The Discarded
Mefisto in Onyx
Mom (At least, I think that's what it's called; it's the one about a Jewish mother who continues to harass her son as a ghost)
The Very Last Day of a Good Woman

Larry Niven - Ringworld is a must. The Algebraist by Iain M Banks is also a must read, as is The Golden Age by John C Wright and its two sequels.

And if you haven't read Stars My Destination (alt. title: Tiger! Tiger!) by Alfred Bester, do that.

The Snow Queen, and subsequent novels, are all very good books. Written by Joan D. Vinge.

Also, the novels written by the german author Mark Brandis.

This is an American board alright: 25 posts without anyone mentioning Stanislav Lem. hahaha..oh wow.

>>26
Cyberiad ftw.

Good suggestions in here.  I'll add a couple.

Light reading:
  Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash
  Neal Stephenson - The Diamond Age
  William Gibson  - Neuromancer (and direct sequals)

Heavy reading:
  Samuel Delaney - Dhalgren
  Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson - The Illuminatus! Trilogy

Starship Troopers- Robert Heinlein

>>27 knows what he is talking about except I wouldn't fnord consider the Illuminatus! trilogy to be heavy reading..

Naked Lunch, motherfuckahz

>>27
not so much sci-fi, but Stephensons "Zodiac" is great too (Diamond Age is supposed to be very good too, but i could not yet get past the first few chapters)

also, on the subject of light reading:
all of Neal Ashers work, especially The Skinner and the Ian Cormac series (Gridlinked, Line of Polity, Brass Man, Polity Agent)
supposedly The Voyage Of Sable Keech is good too, it's situated on the same world as The Skinner but a couple years later.

also
Peter Hamilton: Nights Dawn trilogy, Fallen Dragon
Richard Morgan: Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, Woken Furies
Chris Moriarty: Spin State
John Scalzi: Old Mans War
John Steakley: Armor

maybe even Steve Perrys Matador series, although that is even farther from the requested "intellectual" but still mostly good fun.
and if you fancy some old fashioned space opera, you might want to give Lois M Bujolds Vorkosigan series  (couple Hugo winners in there) and maybe David Webers Honor Harrington series a read.

ok, enough semi-OT spam now

>>18
Canticle for Leibowitz is some delectable shit

Gibson for the win!
Mona lisa overdrive and virtual light are my personal faves.

Don't forget some Aldous Huxley, obviously its not that Sci Fi-y but books like Brave New World and After Many A Summer Dies The Swan are unmissable reads.

And if you havn't already, go back to the source and read Jules Verne and Wells, it can't do any harm.

"Enders Game"-Orson Scott Card

Sabriel, Liriel, Abhorsen, Anything in the Ender's Game Universe

Spares by Michael Marshall Smith.

Very fucking good.

Nobody but 5 has suggested intellectuel books as per the request, and I have reason to suspect 5 is the OP.
Everyone fails.

>>1
>>5
>>38
>intellectuel

same person

*somebody* got the joke!

although they failed to catch the subtlety...

problem is, it's not funny.

Ya might wanna check out http://www.rifters.com/real/shorts.htm, the author Peter Watts has three good novels free. I didn't care much for Blindsight (Vampires in Space kinda thing), tho it's not too bad. The rifter stuff tho, Starfish and Maelstrom were off the hook.

OP here (why has the name field been removed on this board?), just finished the Foundation trilogy.  It was pretty good, and I came buckets when the plot twists shoved their way up my veirgn asshole... now what?

Okay, how about some Dick?  DRRRRRRRR I SAID DICK!

Mein Kampf is pretty good. It has lazers and huge mecha robots, and big-titted scantly-clad womens.

Thirding the Harlan Ellison rec.

Check out The Essential Ellison, a massive collection that has all his best stuff.