Hi. I like sci-fi in movies and I felt like I needed to read more as part of a 2018 new year's resolution so of course I'm gonna go for the sci-fi genre. :'D

Chances are this thread will die from no one posting in it /cue the tumbleweeds already but just in case anyone is interested ... in posting their sci-fi reads. Past reads, last reads, favorites, whatever. Got a story to share? Do you follow the Nebula or Hugo Awards? Do you prefer one or the other (is that a thing? idk)?

! Also, if you're posting spoilers please put them in the spoiler tag so others can avoid them if they want to! Thanks! c:

and.. here are my shares...

with the book Solaris by Stanislaw Lem: me before reading: omg I love the movie by Steven Soderbergh with George Clooney and usually I hate reading the book after seeing the movie because I get so bored knowing what will generally happen but this movie was amazing, I really wanna see how it was written!! me after reading: the movie sucked so much as an adaptation, it is forever ruined for me, Steven Soderbergh, why did you do this to Solaris?? what is wrong with you??? /cry

with the book The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K Dick: me before reading: So I really wanna read a Philip K Dick novel but a lot of these are already movie adaptations so hmm lemme choose something that wasn't made into a movie I've seen already. Ooh, mind altering book? well .. this looks nice. me after reading: $#&(!% I can't even-- my mind is --- I see why this hasn't been adapted into a movie now omg. And then I thought I was just thinking how evil Palmer Eldritch seemed until I read this quote by the author:

Hello, nice to see a thread like this as I loooove Sci-Fi (even though I don't have much time to read lately) and am happy to share my favourites.

I totally recommend Isaac Asimov. I read the Foundation series, and especially loved the first three books. The world of political games settled in the vast colonized galaxy was so fascinating to me. I also really liked the plot twists. The continuation of the series wasn't so good in my opinion but it still was worth a read.

I also read I, Robot, Nightfall and The Last Question from Asimov. I, Robot is one of the best books I've ever read. To me it was just plain beautiful and left me deeply moved long after I had finished it. I enjoyed Nightfall and uncovering of the truth presented in the story. The Last Question was just... wow.

I appreciate Stanislaw Lem greatly. Loved Solaris. Unfortunatelly I have only read two books by him and the second one is The Invincible. I recommend it sooo much.

Lastly - The Penultimate Truth by Philip K. Dick. It was... strange. I didn't like the writing style (the translation could be responsible though) and I found focusing on social stuff rather than scientific things a bit boring.

So. That's it - it's definitely not much as I wrote it down BUT I am slowly (truly slowly) and steady working on getting to know more books from this genre.

[edit] Edited for correcting a mistake and for pinging because I don't know if thread creators are informed about replies :-)

aah, a post, this is exciting! o3o

I dislike series because I have commitment issues, like I don't want to read x number of books only for things to continue in a shitty fashion and then I've invested all that added time to finishing them. :s

I wanna read some Asimov books though, thank you for the recommendations. :D

Solaris was amazing. I still can't believe they ignored the scientific bits or well the planet itself in the most recent English adaptation with George Clooney. :0

I haven't heard much about that particular PKD book. Sounds like soft sci-fi if it focuses on social things. I need to see where I stand with PKD's books. My next book to read is A Scanner Darkly, I can let you know just how strange that was. xD

I'm currently reading Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, the guy who wrote Fahrenheit 451. I've only read his sci-fi short stories besides the latter book so it's nice to be able to read another novel by him. I'm enjoying his Americana suburbia life, it has a 1950s feel even though no exact years are given. Not exactly sci-fi, more fantasy/horror given a carnival basically randomly shows up in town but yeah, wanted to give another book of his a try.

A list of sci-fi writers I'm aiming to read include (besides the ones we mentioned!): Kurt Vonnegut Robert A Heinlein Roger Zelazny Arthur C Clarke Christopher Priest and then some series if I can handle them haha from.. Frank Herbert (I know I said I hate series but I want to see how much I'd tolerate the Dune series, I saw the 1980s movie and I love everything by that particular director but was SOOOO bored by it, almost to the point of tears even though it had some cool scenes) Ursula K Le Guin Cixin Liu they were the ones that most caught my eye, knowing my turtle pace, this will last me for at least a year or three haha :'D I also wanna read more Stephen King and H P Lovecraft because I like horror too. xD

(thread creators only are informed if they subscribe, anyone can actually subscribe and be informed, otherwise pinging helps, I don't subscribe to topics!)

I will gladly read your opinion on the PKD's book you wrote about as I know he is a valued artist and I really want to give him a try.

I have recently started Prelude to Foundation by Asimov and am not very excited about it because to me only the main three books from the series are truly outstanding but I want to read all I can of Asimov's work.

Besides Asimov, I want to read all I can of Lem's work and am as well as you interested in Ursula Le Guin. Also I would be glad to find some time to dive into Julius Verne's stories. And I am going to read something about the authors you listed, some of them I have never heard about.

As a slow reader with a limited amount of time I understand your commitment issues but I'm really happy I decided to pick first tome of Foundation in the library years ago :-) If you ever decide to read this series then I will be jealous you will be on the beginning of this adventure ;-)

I saw Kurt Vonnegut and lbr had to post. :D
I love sci-fi, but I haven't been reading as much of it lately (and what I have read hasn't been the best).

sorry, I let this die ;O; March has been kind of hectic work wise and I'm just fhkjsghkdghkd tired or distracted by less social things (like reading lol)

PKD's Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch was a headspin, PKD just drops you in the middle of the action with new concepts and words and you're like whoa there what is going on and when you finally connect what is going on, it turns more nightmareish and there's no looking back xD (I say this just starting my second PKD book Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, so I may be entirely wrong based on two book assumptions of course, but that's how it felt like with the first book)

I was only able to pick up Asimov's The Naked Sun (because I didn't want to start on a series just yet) which is apparently the second book in his Robot series so I don't know if I should go ahead and read it or try to read them in order or... /cry T_T

I finally finished Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes and man I don't know if I just didn't like the horror or the coming of age hit you over the head with long speeches which seem implausibly silly type book or what but it was such a letdown. :l

But then I read Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut and it did not disappoint. I love Vonnegut's writing style. It was hilarious in a dark way. Also, I've seen Ice-9 referenced in a game I played so it was quite surreal to see it in its original source (well, sort of, Vonnegut took it from another guy's short story so I guess he didn't use it first either). Kurt Vonnegut aaah I loved his style in Cat's Cradle. I wonder if it repeats in other books. I got The Sirens of Titan on my to read list.

Vonnegut's style is very similar across all of his novels, and while they don't all inhabit the same "universe" they do reference one another. I call it him plagiarizing himself because he essentially refers to things but they don't necessarily tie in. For instance the Tralfmadorians are referenced in both Sirens of Titan and Slaughterhouse-Five yet have no correlation, and Kilgore Trout is in many of the books but not really the same "person." Treasure hunts! It;s so fun.

Cat's Cradle is one of my favorites of his! Sirens of Titan is another fave - that was the second book of his that I read (first was Slaughterhouse-Five, which I HIGHLY recommend). Oh man and now I wanna read all his books again. >.> Right now I am re-reading The Game is Life series by Terry Scott, which is the perfect sci-fi for me: a blend of philosophy, religion, and Game Theory! The whole series essentially answers the question "what if we are living in a computer simulation" and the way it ties in so maby philosophical themes... it is ingenious. I forgive the typos (I think it may be self-published). :P

haha that works for me! :"D Yeah, Slaughterhouse-Five is on my list, the more popular books are checked out so I'm reading the more obscure stuff. xD

My library doesn't carry that series. Probably because it's new and obscure. /cry Did you think it had a proper ending? Reading some of the 1-2 star reviews of the series, it seems like people felt it was a Big Brother / soap opera production and mediocre writing (maybe it's them typos idk xD).

Oh my... last time I read it there was only planned to be 5 books in the series, and now I see that it is up to 8! I have read the first four books and loved every single one of those, but I cannot speak for the ending as of yet. I am getting there, though!

The writing isn't the most nuanced, but I think what was executed really well is the story itself and how masterful he weaves concepts of meaning, identity, reality and religion in a way that is incredibly accessible to the average user but for someone like me that LOVES philosophical theory. I have reviews of the first three books in the series up on Goodreads right now, and am making my way through book 4 in my re-read. (link to book 1's review)

The good thing about the Kindle is the first book is always free to buy, so it is a no-risk situation. And the series is loanable on Kindle as well. :o

I recommend Ender's Game if you haven't read it. Greatly enjoyed that one. Might be a "duh" recommendation, but I still toss it out there. :D

Also, Freehold by Michael Z. Williamson. I only got halfway through it, but it was on loan from a friend who desperately wanted it back for a re-read. Since I was very slow (it's kind of a big book, and I take breaks when books are over 300 pages). I really, really enjoyed it though. And you can get it for free from Google right now (just learned).

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