What Is Your Favorite Sifi Book?

The mention of Frederick Pohl brought another one of his to mind, Slave Ship. Man learns to talk to the animals, and being man, turns that ability into a weapon of war... Good stuff...

Rob Croson said:

Ender's game was OK (but not great) when I read it first when I was pretty young. However, the entire premise seems way too far fetched for me now.

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You've reminded me of this XKCD comic:


I'll have to read some of the books listed here. Not too much cyberpunk has been mentioned. I read a few of those, mostly as a teenager. Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, Otherworld, Neuromancer and Holy Fire come to mind as books I enjoyed. More recently, - I'm not sure if it's "punk" at all - Ready Player One was pretty good.

SummerSnow said:

You've reminded me of this XKCD comic:
I'll have to read some of the books listed here. Not too much cyberpunk has been mentioned. I read a few of those, mostly as a teenager. Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, Otherworld, Neuromancer and Holy Fire come to mind as books I enjoyed. More recently, - I'm not sure if it's "punk" at all - Ready Player One was pretty good.

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That's one problem with something based on Science and social engineering, all that changes. People in effect, have a wider (or different) assortment of experience and educational materials, more so than the authors had back in the day. And too, roles of women, men and morality has changed. So to a lesser degree, other fiction works can get out dated as well. What is really interesting are the ones that stay relevant.

My fantasy is to see some of the ones outdated merely for the science involved, get updated. Of course that's good only for the new readers, we'd be bored with an update because we already read that, so we need a new storyline anyway. The hugh secrete here is that the elements of human storytelling is what we respond to, it's not so much about science after all is said and done.

In a way, classic fantasy has more longevity, since the premise is impossible(or improbable) anyway (and that isn't the point of course), it stays improbably longer. So long as the geo-political and social elements remain relevant (and use of language), it's good for a new readership.

And that is the key point of difference between SciFi and Science Fantasy, one intends to be at the edge of possible. The other just pretends to be. Guess which spans more generations of readers on the average(in therory)?

Kind off like the eight year long Elio Dream...................................on the edge of possible and not just pretending to be. I read mostly trade journals and cooking magazines. However, I do enjoy SciFi and/or SciFantasy Movies.

Rickb said:

Kind off like the eight year long Elio Dream...................................on the edge of possible and not just pretending to be. I read mostly trade journals and cooking magazines. However, I do enjoy SciFi and/or SciFantasy Movies.

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Then you'll have to watch "Independence Day: Resurgence".... I'm in it... as an extra, but still. It was a blast filming.

So that we can cheer at the appropriate time, which scene(s)?

Ty said:

Then you'll have to watch "Independence Day: Resurgence".... I'm in it... as an extra, but still. It was a blast filming.

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Since it's supposed to be twenty years after the first movie, they should've shown a bunch of Elios driving on the streets!

floydv said:

Since it's supposed to be twenty years after the first movie, they should've shown a bunch of Elios driving on the streets!

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If Elios were featured in the movie they would be EVElios or hover EVElios.

So.... threads about the Elio eventually devolve off-topic, and off-topic threads eventually evolve into Elio-related ones?

Sethodine said:

So.... threads about the Elio eventually devolve off-topic, and off-topic threads eventually evolve into Elio-related ones?

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Yes, Elio's Circle of Life...........with the exception of the food and recipes thread.......until somebody mentions an Elio tail gating party with their SiFi Book Club.