bdshort

I've sort of been getting the urge to read something again, and I think a good sci-fi book would fit the bill... I'd like something that is either apocalypic in nature, but any suggestions are welcome.

I know Arthur C. Clarke wrote a book called The Hammer of God (or something like that) which I read a while back and enjoyed... I thought I remembered reading about another book from someone else with a similar title, but I can't remember what it was.

**Edit** I think I'd like some good hard sci fi too.

Brian

giladc

If you're looking for hard sci fi, there's an excellent anthology called The Ascent of Wonder, edited by David Hartwell. It has a couple of short stories by Clarke, also some by Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and lots of other writers (even Edgar Allan Poe!)

Some other good books are The Boat of a Million Years by Poul Anderson, the Riverworld series by Philip Jose Farmer and Childhood's End by Clarke.

stegon66

I'll recommend one of my favorite novels: Haruki Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. The plot isn't easy to describe so here's a link to Amazon's synopsis with customer reviews:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books

benedict

Check this out!

funkyryno

Excellent!

Wow, I think I've already read half of those.

benedict

<small> </small> Another list for you to work though: http://urlcut.com/postapocalypse

Shannon Nutt

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Best Sci-Fi novel ever, IMHO.

Chris Camfield

Have you read anything by Iain M. Banks?

Jason Bovberg

THE SPARROW by Mary Doria Russell...wow.

Tuan Jim

Fun stuff I've read recently:

A Fire Upon the Deep by Verner Vinge -- really hardcore stuff -- different levels of space, cosmic entities, bizarro aliens -- Excellent.

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller -- post-apocalyptic, slower, more reflective. Very interesting, excellent overall.

I plan on picking up the sequel to "The Forever War" pretty soon. Saw that in B&N a few months ago.

Josh-da-man

Dan Simmons' "Hyperion" and "Fall of Hyperion" are probably my favorite "big" space opera books. Definitely have an apocalyptic, "end of the world/universe" feel to them.

mgbfan

I'll second that recommendation. Hyperion is a FANTASTIC SF novel, huge sweep, compelling characters, lots of jaw-dropping "Oh my God" kind of moments.

That said, I recommend Hyperion with one word of warning. Don't even think about considering Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion to be two novels. It's one novel, split down the middle. Unless you're prepared to read both, don't bother. The second two books are entirely average, but the first two ... man, those are fantastic. Very Big Ideas, kind of all that's good about science fiction.

It ain't "sci-fi," though that only matters if you understand the distinction between "science fiction" and "sci-fi" ... (science fiction is for people with a brain, sci-fi is fanfic Star Trek trash and the like).

Eric F

Hyperion is a SF take Cantebury Tales. Interesting stuff.

Since Mars is in the news these days, how about Kim Stanley Robinson's "Mars" trilogy? Hard SF and political intrigue all in one series. All about Mars colonization.

neiname

That's silly, men will never walk on the moon colonize Mars. Science Fiction, always a good predictor of the future.

I have always been partial to Dune, if you haven't read it already.

mgbfan

Ahh yes, of course. That recommendation just goes without saying. Everyone who is even remotely a fan of SF must read Dune.

bboisvert

I'll second that recommendation. A real gem.

You also can't go wrong with Ender's Game or Dune, if you haven't read either of those.

neiname

Well, if you have read Dune and the sequels I would recommend the prequel, they are a good read.

Beaver

I also like the Sparrow. Snowcrash by Neil Stephenson was another good one.

mgbfan

Oh god, I could not disagree more. The Dune "prequels" are utterly abysmal, unreadable, horrible, awful.

Read Dune and the sequels. The books written by Frank Herbert. Some of the later ones are flawed, but they still stand up as a grand and epic read.

Run like mad away from the prequels - they are little more than fanfic trash, written by two untalented authors (Herbert's son and Kevin Anderson, who writes Star Trek garbage and other fanfic). I cannot emphasize enough how bad the prequels are. It's just Herbert's son trying to capitalize on the genius of his father.

Nuff

I have to echo the previous poster, Ender's Game is not only my favorite sci-fi novel but it is probably my favorite novel of all time. Simply fantastic. (I was not terribly fond of the sequels but the original is great! )

Eric F

I like the Dune prequels. The Machine Crusade trilogy is a lot better than the earlier one. Fun, relatively quick read.

theneobez

Well it's summer and I have some time to do some reading. I just wanted to thank you guys for the recommendations. . .I'm going to buy Neuromancer and Dune pretty soon, and then Ender's Game. Also that Hard-Boiled Wonderland looks incredible. Any other good Science Fiction (futuristic, not necessarily apocalyptic but just a great compelling story)?

Might I recommend Timothy Zahn's Star Wars books too, they're just incredible. I generally avoid these books that take place existing worlds but I must make an exception for Zahn.

Hiro11

That's where my user name came from. That and Neuromancer are my two favorite sci-fi books.