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Top 200 sci-fi books

Thomas, I think the reason I didn't care for The Man in the High Castle is my basic dislike for alternative histories. Maybe dislike is too strong a word, but it'll do.

Sparky, I just pulled my copy of Red Mars, and yes it is technical, but I didn't have a problem with that, I think the soap operaish aspect bored me, plus it is so politically outdated. I see by my still present bookmark, I made it to page 185, not quite half way, but a goodly portion all the same.
 
Litany said:
Don't put it at the bottom of your pile, put it at the bottom of a bonfire.
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:D I wouldn't go quite that far, but yes towards the bottom of the stack.
I mean one never knows, one may run out of books.....:eek:
Now that would be a horror!
 
pontalba said:
Thomas, I think the reason I didn't care for The Man in the High Castle is my basic dislike for alternative histories. Maybe dislike is too strong a word, but it'll do.
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I don't mind alternative histories, but I didn't like this book. It was dull. Palmer Eldritch deserves to be on the list, High Castle doesn't.
 
saliotthomas said:
I also got two Wyndham in stock-kraken and chrysalides-

This K Dick is the world is the Germain had won the World War II,pretty scarry stuff!The man in the high Castel being Hiltler himself!
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Oh, meant to say, I bought The Chrysalids and Out of the Deeps. I think Out of the Deeps may be another title for The Kraken. :?:
 
Litany said:
Sorry, you misunderstand. He started it. That's it. This was a few years ago now.

He says it was more tedious sci fi than hard sci fi. Like a text book with a plot, but without the plot. There were about four pages on baking parachute silk and regolith into bricks and that was when he realised it was never going to improve so he gave up. He loves hard sci fi. He's an engineer. It was not a good book. Don't put it at the bottom of your pile, put it at the bottom of a bonfire.
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I like hard sci-fi but if it gets too tedious, I'll stop reading.
 
Pontalba ,i think they are different the Kraken wakes and out of the deeps are different.

I just mention the High Castel as an exemple,i'm not a big fan ether.As for the list,past 50 and you get me lost.
 
sparkchaser said:
I like hard sci-fi but if it gets too tedious, I'll stop reading.
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He likes Greg Egan, but I always hear it as Greg Evigan which then puts me in mind of When Things Get Knocked Over, Spill, or Fall Out of Cupboards.

I don't mind hard or soft sci fi, I just can't cope with bad science sci fi. By all means have a faster than light drive and never bother explaining how it works, but never give me Star Trek exposition that was wrong twenty years before the book was even written. In fact fake science is preferable because it doesn't date so quickly.
 
Fake science is fine if you set it in 2200 or beyond. I'll be long dead before it's proven to be rubbish. :p
 
So if I understand this correctly, and I like to think that I do, Litany, pontalba, saliotthomas and myself all didn't really care for The Man In The High Castle too much. How liberating. Right or wrong?

I've read about 4 or 5 of Dick's novels and that was my least favorite.
 
There 199 left on the liste.
Allen Steele is not in,a pity.
A few more Simmons would have been good,not Illium(i just got lost) but Carrion comfort is a must.
I liked Anubis gate from Tim Power(not the others)
 
joderu95 said:
So if I understand this correctly, and I like to think that I do, Litany, pontalba, saliotthomas and myself all didn't really care for The Man In The High Castle too much. How liberating. Right or wrong?

I've read about 4 or 5 of Dick's novels and that was my least favorite.
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Aye, 'tis that. :D

I still haven't read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, if I have the title correct without looking. The basis for Blade Runner, yes?
I did like that film, the director's cut. Of course Rutgar Hauer had something to do with that. :D
 
Yep, that's the basis for Blade Runner. Don't expect it to resemble the movie much.
 
pontalba said:
I still haven't read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, if I have the title correct without looking. The basis for Blade Runner, yes?
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I know you're not supposed to say this sort of thing in public, but the film is better than the book. :D

They're very different creatures though. Try not to be thinking too much of the film as you read it.
 
Litany said:
I know you're not supposed to say this sort of thing in public, but the film is better than the book. :D

They're very different creatures though. Try not to be thinking too much of the film as you read it.
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This doesn't really count as 'public' though. :D
Thanks.
 
Ah, but the film is better than the book. That's no opinion; it's a statement of fact.

I might watch Blade Runner tonight before Battlestar Galactica comes on.
 
My first impression reading that list was, "oh look, the usual anglo-centric list"; but then I started thinking, "are there any actual non-American/British sci-fi writers, besides Jules Verne?" I honestly can only think of Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics.
 
Heteronym said:
My first impression reading that list was, "oh look, the usual anglo-centric list"; but then I started thinking, "are there any actual non-American/British sci-fi writers, besides Jules Verne?" I honestly can only think of Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics.
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A subject worthy of its own thread. You want to start it or should I?

Koushun Takami's Battle Royale comes to mind. Also, I'd think the Russians wold have some too. And the Germans.
 
I was thinking about my alt-history isn't sci-fi comment and how it related to Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. I wonder why it gets classified as sci-fi.
 
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