The Greatest Sci Fi Story Ever Told

[Taltos]

Oh, Sundiver is really the earliest piece of Uplift Galaxy. Then comes Startide Rising and Uplift War

have to agree with this one, the first trilogy is brilliant

and then goes Jijo trilogy.

and it goes down the drain. Bought all three books, waited for a month to get the last one from amazon - and then only got halfway through the first book. The constant changing of viewpoint was awwwwwwwful why oh why he had to do this, the first books were so good

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Was there anything worng with those books apart from the changes in viewpoint? I'll admit that I'm rather surfeited with that particular head-hopping approach (thanks to the efforts of several fantasy authors), but I'm willing to endure it once in a while.

 

[Taltos]

Was there anything worng with those books apart from the changes in viewpoint? I'll admit that I'm rather surfeited with that particular head-hopping approach (thanks to the efforts of several fantasy authors), but I'm willing to endure it once in a while.

Also the problem was that the story was going nowhere. The first 200+ pages were about showing everyday life on that planet, after that something started to happen.

Lets just say that, with dragging beginning and constantly jumping viewpoint, these books were too much effort to get into and as I had other books waiting, it didn't seems worthwhile.

Damn, no i have a urge to try to finish at least the first book, damn you

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Be sure to let us know how it goes, if you do!

 

[Stalker]

Yes, in attempt to describe the events taking place simultaniously here and there, Brin somewhat went too far with it, but I think, such a style of his is orth the effort. Then in the third book, all the lines of the plot tie up together and you've got a complete picture. All the rest is up to the reader's taste.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Maybe we could start up a new thread about Brin's Uplift books? Anyone up for that?

 

[Quokka]

From what Ive read in SF, I'd have to agree with Dune, the series was good but the first book as a stand alone was brilliant. I personally loved Gregory Benford's Timescape though probably not a title for the 'Greatest'. Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes) would also be right up there.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Since mention has been made of Algernon, one of the most profound character studies in SF, I'd like to add Robert Silverberg's novel, Dying Inside, which deals with a telepath who is going through the process of losing his powers due to old age. Sort of a Kafka-like tale in SF robes.I've always grouped it wth Keyes' novel in my mind for the total immersion into the central character and his transformations.

 

[Stalker]

Maybe we could start up a new thread about Brin's Uplift books? Anyone up for that?

Why not? I'm in.

 

[a|one]

Not so much into the sf but lets see...

The White Plague was quite interesting, as was Day of the Triffids. And I liked Chalker's Quintara Marathon.

For movies I'd have to go with the first Matrix film and Donnie Darko, for very different reasons.

TV shows... not coming up with anything, but I liked this made-for-TV movie called Cube.

 

[stirdgit]

From the looks of it, there are quite a few books I have to read. For everyone who has posted on this topic - and those who will post - thank you. I have been looking for some great reading material. Knivesout, Dying Inside sounds fascinating. I am going to have to pick that one up. Thank you.

 

[Eradius Lore]

book- dead sky, black sun by graham Mcneill
series- star trek, red dwarf
film- star wars

 

[GOLLUM]

Being someone who particularly enjoys the EPIC storyline ableit primairly in the Fantasy genre, I'd have to say of the few Sci Fi books I've read DUNE is easily the best in terms of complexity, stroyline, characterization etc...

 

[Leto]

From the looks of it, there are quite a few books I have to read. For everyone who has posted on this topic - and those who will post - thank you. I have been looking for some great reading material. Knivesout, Dying Inside sounds fascinating. I am going to have to pick that one up. Thank you.

Be careful that except the main character's mutation, this book take place in real New York from the 70s. No other fantastic details. Knowing that, enjoy it, it's not one of the best sci-fi novel in my book, but simply one of the best novel, all genre compared.

 

[Stalker]

Except for a single assumption, Algernon doesn't contain any further Sci-Fi elements either but that doesn't diminish the greatness of the book.

 

[Leto]

I have to confess I've never read Flowers for Algernon as it was on my school list.

 

[Stalker]

So, you have all opportunities to do it now.

Wow, with all our differences, I found how close we are. So, I also missed too many classical books just because they were included into my school list! So, we might have more in common than we thought! Paris was a different planet for me, now it came light years closer!!!

 

[Leto]

Same continent, just a few hours in plane. Although I've personnally never been farther east than Bratislava yet. But combining love of travel and cheap ticket prices (thanks to Internet), I've got plan to expand my explorations.
And the problem now is that my to-read list is so huge, I'm not sure a lifetime will be enough to read all of them.

 

[Glen C]

Best novel - War Of The Worlds

Best Film - Forbidden Planet

Best Short story: Surface Tension by William Ten (Me thinks)

Best TV series Red Dwarf

Glen

 

[Amorph]

In terms of novels (or series of novels), mine would come from the below list:

Larry Niven's Ringworld trilogy.
Poul Anderson's Tau Zero.
Frank Herbert's Dune, obviously. Personal favourite of the six was actually Children Of Dune, and I consider it went downhill from there.
Robert Silverberg's Majipoor Cycle.
Iain M. Banks' Culture novels. Though I also recently read Inversions, and that was superb.
I'd also like to nominate Niven again, along with Jerry Pournelle and Steven Barnes for The Legacy Of Heorot.

For visual pleasure... it's quite rare for me to watch a sci-fi television series or film that I'm genuinely happy with, and off-hand I can't think of one I would describe as a favourite. For that reason, I'm instead going to mention Howard Tayler's Schlock Mercenary, which I do enjoy reading a lot. Static rather than moving images.