Great Sci-Fi Novels

DarkStar

DarkStar

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This is a continuation from a discussion in a another thread.

I think an intelligent discussion of really great Sci-Fi books is not only more productive than "HL2 DELAY CONFIRMED!" type threads but also has more to do with HL2...After all, whats at the heart of the HL franchise. I would say the story.

Some of my favorites:

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
Ringworld - Larry Niven
Dune -Frank Herbert
Sphere - Michael Crichton
The Sentinel/2001: A Space Odessy - Arthur C. Clarke
Rendevous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke
Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Neuromancer - William Gibson
1984 - George Orwell
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut

AND, most importantly when it comes to its influence on the HL series and videogames in general...

War of the Worlds - H. G. Wells

What books do you guys like? What novels/writers have influenced the HL series the most? We can expand the discussion to movies if you want to take it there...
 
I'm sure some of Dick's work should be in there.

(In one of Dick's stories I saw the name "Freeman" and the name "Gordon". Another one talked about the "Industrial Combine". Mostly all coincidences)
 
Ahem

Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein

(although the Antlions are more based on the film, I hate that film, the director didn't even read the book.)
 
heh i like most of the books by John Ringo i cant remember the name of the book but it was about a bunch of aliens invading earth hehe.

edit. ok i found the book its called A Hymn Before Battle.
 
Arthur C. Clarke's "2001: A Space Odyssey".

An incredible reading experience, involves some deep stuff about human's and why we are the way we are and it even beats the movie.
 
Good list, although I've never manged to get into Gibson. David Brin is worth checking out, IMHO.
As for influences, about the closest thing I can think of is something like the Andromeda Strain.
 
Originally posted by DarkStar
This is a continuation from a discussion in a another thread.

I think an intelligent discussion of really great Sci-Fi books is not only more productive than "HL2 DELAY CONFIRMED!" type threads but also has more to do with HL2...After all, whats at the heart of the HL franchise. I would say the story.

Some of my favorites:

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
Ringworld - Larry Niven
Dune -Frank Herbert
Sphere - Michael Crichton
The Sentinel/2001: A Space Odessy - Arthur C. Clarke
Rendevous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke
Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Neuromancer - William Gibson
1984 - George Orwell
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut

AND, most importantly when it comes to its influence on the HL series and videogames in general...

War of the Worlds - H. G. Wells

What books do you guys like? What novels/writers have influenced the HL series the most? We can expand the discussion to movies if you want to take it there...
Click to expand...

Ender's Game's probably my favorite out of those
 
starship troopers was an amazing book, i dont even consider the movie to be based on it. i can safely say it is one of the most horrible adaptations of a book to film EVER. i could rant forever, but it would make me too mad. heinlien must be rolling in his grave.
 
Originally posted by Feath
Ahem

Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein

(although the Antlions are more based on the film, I hate that film, the director didn't even read the book.)
Click to expand...

very true.....the starship troopers book was great.....i saw the movie and was like WTF?
 
Originally posted by Cheetarah654
starship troopers was an amazing book, i dont even consider the movie to be based on it. i can safely say it is one of the most horrible adaptations of a book to film EVER. i could rant forever, but it would make me too mad. heinlien must be rolling in his grave.
Click to expand...

The director (Paul Verthoven) has admitted that he didn't read the book past the first few chapters.

That explains the entire change in Zim from wise yet strict to sadistic git.

And Dizzy from male to female.

And near enough everything.
 
Some of the Dectologies (sp) by L Ron Hubbard were good....at least when I was young I though they were good. Have not read them since Jr High.
 
Originally posted by Feath
The director (Paul Verthoven) has admitted that he didn't read the book past the first few chapters.

That explains the entire change in Zim from wise yet strict to sadistic git.

And Dizzy from male to female.

And near enough everything.
Click to expand...

atleast we saw denise richards tits......
 
Hitchhiker's Guide and Ender's Game are great books. I don't know about the rest so I guess I'll just have to read them. If I had to choose though, I would have to say my favorite sci-fi novel right now is 'Snow Crash' by Neal Stephenson. Wow. The intro to the book just blew me away. I highly recommend this book to casual and avid sci-fi readers.
 
Originally posted by G0rgon
Aliens trilogy.
Click to expand...

yah, its a fantastic triology (note how im leaving out the 4th) but it was never adapted from a novel, geiger ownz btw
 
Vacuum Diagrams by Stephen Baxter

and the Mutineer's Moon trilogy by David Weber
 
An FYI for Starship Trooper's fans:
There was a short lived 40 episode TV series that was based on the book not the novel. Was titled Starship Troopers: Roughneck Chronicles and was entirely CG animated, an amazing feet for a few years ago. It tended to be corny in parts (it was a saturday morning show so it had to be) but it occasionally was absolutely fantastic. Includes all the powered armor and the skinnies.
 
Originally posted by FortisVir
Vacuum Diagrams by Stephen Baxter

and the Mutineer's Moon trilogy by David Weber
Click to expand...
Agreed on Baxter - although some of his stuff is definitely 'hard SF'. Along the same lines I'd recommend Greg Bear and Gregory Benford.
 
Originally posted by Direwolf
An FYI for Starship Trooper's fans:
There was a short lived 40 episode TV series that was based on the book not the novel. Was titled Starship Troopers: Roughneck Chronicles and was entirely CG animated, an amazing feet for a few years ago. It tended to be corny in parts (it was a saturday morning show so it had to be) but it occasionally was absolutely fantastic. Includes all the powered armor and the skinnies.
Click to expand...

I saw that and was quite impressed, although I remember elements of the films in it.
 
Would the Halo novel count as a Sci-Fi novel? Or would it be considered as a PC-tie-in?
 
Both, I'd say. Mostly these tie-in books aren't that hot, though.
 
Sh*t, where to start........

Books I have read and like very much(sci- fi anyway):

The "Gap" series-Stephen Donaldson
"Riverworld"series-Phillip Jose Farmer
"Nights Dawn" trilogy-Peter Hamilton(just brilliant, also the Greg Mandel series)
"Souls in the great Machine-Sean McMullen(and all the books that followed,great Aussie author)
Of course Phillip K Dick-"Do androids dream of electric sheep?" and "We can dream it for you,wholesale"
"Chasm city,Revelation Space,Revelation Ark and Diamond Dogs/Turquoise Days"-Alastair Reynolds
All the sci-fi Iain M Banks stuff-"Consider Phlebas,Use of Weapons "etc
"Neuromancer" and all the books that followed-William Gibson(Paul McAuley writes similat cyberpunk stuff)

thats just a few off the top of my head....

"Red Dwarf "-books are great ,series is even better.........
 
Hmm, I pick up a few in BAM every now and then, my favorites would be. (I have ALOT more fantasy then sci-fi, so I've only read some.)

-Expendable (and other books related therof) - James Alan Gardner

-The Engines of God - Jack McDevitt

-Aliens Vs. Predator series, Predator Series, Alien series - multiple authors (probably a result of me watching predator, predator 2, and all the aliens at least 90 times each.. my mom gets annoyed with how much I watch it.. almost as much as she does with how much I've seen Tommy Boy)

-Resident Evil series - (multiple authors?)

-Halo: The Fall of Reach (has some awsome backstory to the game, made me want to kick aliens asses so bad I beat it 42 more times or so, rofl.. I've played through once using only melee on normal, hehe)

Prey - Michael Crichton

Psychohistorical CRISIS - Donald Kingsbury

Fantasy
----
-Sword of Truth series - Terry Goodkind
[Wizard's First Rule, Stone of Tears, Blood of the Fold, Temple of the Winds, Soul of the Fire, Faith of the Fallen, The Pillars of Creation, Naked Empire] (fav. books of all time have each read each like 10 times, each like around 800-1200 pages, if you haven't read it you must.. Faith of the Fallen is especially good)

Magic: The Gathering: Arena - William R. Forstchen (smaller book, but great writing overall, one of my favorite older books from that younger time)

The View from the Mirror series - Ian Irvine
[A Shadow on the Glass, The Tower on the Rift, Dark is the Moon, The Way Between the Worlds]

Dhampir - Barb & J. C. Hendee

edit- the halo book is actually great for a tie-in, best I've ever seen, the space combat is actually strategic and inventive
 
That would be Haldeman. Good one. This thread grows really fast, I'm just gonna list off some excellent authors
Charles Sheffield is great as is Greg Bear. I saw someone mentioned Banks and Hamilton, they're awesome. Highly recommended.

Uh... Roger Macbride Allen is pretty good as is Alfred Bester if a little different.

Tried not to repeat too many, but a lot of the books\authors already mentioned are all awesome. Can't say I much care for books that arose from computer games or movies though.
 
Originally posted by Aethaecyn

----
-Sword of Truth series - Terry Goodkind
[Wizard's First Rule, Stone of Tears, Blood of the Fold, Temple of the Winds, Soul of the Fire, Faith of the Fallen, The Pillars of Creation, Naked Empire] (fav. books of all time have each read each like 10 times, each like around 800-1200 pages, if you haven't read it you must.. Faith of the Fallen is especially good)
Click to expand...

OMG!! You are the one of the few people I know of that have read all the Sword of Truth novels!!! That series is so good!! There's another one out now, I saw it at Wal-Mart, but they didn't have it in paperback...


/me = broke

EDIT: I think it's Naked Empire....
 
Oh, the Sword of Truth series is great, I'm working my way through it now. Not really SciFi though, is it? (I just finished Faith of the Fallen, have the next one on hold.)

Anyway, I just remembered two authors actually, who happen to have written several books together - William Barton & Michael Capobianco. Just a note - these two are not for young people, they can be very graphic (sexually as well as violently). Still very good authors.
 
The Forever War is a FANTASTIC book. Highly Recommended.
 
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
The Foundation Trilogy
The earlier robot books
Enders Game


Those are my favorites, the first one is the inspiration for Blade Runner.
 
Has anyone read the discworld novels by Terry Pratchet? He does for fantasy what Douglas Adams did for sci-fi. Dry and intelligent humor in every line. He is truly a comedic poet.

BTW, the Sword of Truth novels fuc|<ing rock! No doubt the best "adult" fatasy I've ever read.

For a more twisted fantasy try ANYTHING by H.P. Lovecraft, he wrote mainly short stories, but they are far more creepy in 20-30 pages than anything King or Koontz ever put out. Sorry I'm rambling....4 pints og guiness and i'm on the tipsy side.
 
Originally posted by N0N1337H41
Has anyone read the discworld novels by Terry Pratchet? He does for fantasy what Douglas Adams did for sci-fi. Dry and intelligent humor in every line. He is truly a comedic poet.
Click to expand...

I love Terry Patchett and Douglas Adams. Both are (were) amazing. I have all the Discworld books.
 
You've picqued my interest comparing him to Douglas Adams.
I'll have to check them out now.
 
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