What are the best Science Fiction novels?

Try "The Three Body Problem" by Cixin Liu.

Dune. No movie has ever done it justice.

The Handmaid's Tale

R2, agreed.

Also, The Tomorrow File, authored by Lawrence Saunders..

Saunders basically wrote about what we experienced during the Trump admin., back in the 80s.

Also, it’s a socio-political science-sci-fi fictional novel, specifically.

Thanks for starting this tread. I’ve never been a fan of Sci Fi but I’m interested in trying again. Loved Handmaids Tale. Looking forward to DL recommendations.

The Mars trilogy (Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars) by Kim Stanley Robinson. Great reads on colonising Mars that covers socio-political/economics as well as beautifully written speculative technical details.

The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester is fantastic.

The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness are the best of Ursala LeGuin, IMHO.

Likewise, Star of Gypsies and Gilgamesh the King are the best of Robert Silverberg, although he is more famous for his fantasy novels.

Then there are the classics, such as Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, and 1984. Flowers for Algernon was a short story that was expanded into a novel and then made into a movie called "Charly." I never saw the movie (it's on YouTube), but the book is excellent. I read Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut as a teenager; Vonnegut is notoriously quirky, but if you like him, you really really like him.

I read a lot of science fiction as a teen, but mostly sci-fi short stories, which generally pack quite a wallop. I think a short story is the best showcase for this genre. Many of the original Twilight Zone episodes were based on sci-fi short stories such as "It's a Good Life," where the story is actually much better than the TV episode.

I attached a Vonnegut short story -- it's a quick read, maybe a couple of minutes. "The Lottery," a short story by Shirley Jackson, is also available online for free.

Happy reading!

Thanks guys, these are great suggestions! I am thinking about starting Asimov’s “Foundation” series. Is it worth it?

Also, where do I start with Arthur C Clarke?

R1 being made into a Netflix show by the same guys who did Game of Thrones. I’m excited because the book was excellent but afraid of how they’ll dumb it down

Slaughterhouse-Five is extraordinary.

Try Lem's Solaris and Eden.

Arthur C. Clarke: start with Rendezvous with Rama and Childhood's End.

I'm R7 R13 and R14 and I'm throwing out suggestions as friends' replies comes back to me.

Check out Alistair Reynolds.

Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, and The Man in the High Castle are all based on stories or novels by Philip K. Dick.

I like a lot of the books mentioned as well as:

Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination

Walter Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz

John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids

Poul Anderson's novella Flight to Forever

and yeah I'll say it: Stephen King's The Tommyknockers

Iain Banks - Culture Novels Alastair Reynolds - Revelation space series James S. A. Corey - The expanse series

That will keep you busy for a while.

Iain Banks - Culture Novels

Alastair Reynolds - Revelation space series

James S. A. Corey - The expanse series

"Earth Abides" by George R. Stewart is very good. It's about an illness that almost wipes out humanity (at the outset of the book), and deals with the way that the survivors try to re-establish their lost culture. I read it when I was about 16 and have never forgotten it. The Kindle version has over 1600 reviews on Amazon right now, 4.5 star average. It's been in print continuously since it was first published in 1949, so it must have something to recommend it.

If you like Lem, why not read more of him? I don't think you'd like his lighter stuff but there's Fiasco, Solaris, and maybe The Futurological Congress.

Lots of good recs already. I'll second Alistair Reynolds for SF on a grand scale. Some of his books are overlong but I still enjoy them, especially Chasm City and Revelation Space. (The latter takes quite a while to get going but it's worth it.)

A few random suggestions off the top of my head:

Blood Music (by Greg Bear) might be an interesting companion piece to The Invincible. It starts with biotech allowed to evolve beyond control and gets a little gonzo.

The Mote in God's Eye (Niven & Pournelle) is a classic about first contact with an alien race and what this means for humanity.

For something on a smaller scale, Nancy Kress's Beggars in Spain trilogy is basically about whether technology can close the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

And I've gotta plug one of my favorites, Theodore Sturgeon, even though I'm not sure he fits the brief. His best stuff isn't hard at all, very internal and emotional, though it is arguably philosophical. You might check out More Than Human or The Cosmic Rape.

Thanks R21, OP here. I also like Lem's lighter stuff, and have ready it almost all of it some 30 years ago, but I really think that "The Invincible" is one of this best. I find it better than Solaris. It essentially predicted the dangerous consequences of AI and swarm intelligence (in 1954) . And, yes, I like long novels on a grand scale, so thanks for all of your suggestions.

Thanks [R21], OP here. I also like Lem's lighter stuff, and have read almost all of it some 30 years ago, but I really think that "The Invincible" is one of this best. I find it better than Solaris. It essentially predicted the dangerous consequences of AI and swarm intelligence (in 1954) . And, yes, I like long novels on a grand scale, so thanks for all of your suggestions.

You have to be careful with SF - so many of the authors are homophobic. It mars the Dune books, for example.

That's just not true, R24!

And thank you, OP. I haven't read The Invincible and I think I will now.

Neuromancer - William Gibson

A hacker is hired to penetrate an AI. This novel marks the first use of the word cyberpunk. Great worldbuilding, some very creepy moments. Gibson can write pretty well, and his novels show great variety. I'm currently reading [italic]Agency[/italic], the prequel to [italic]the Peripheral[/italic].

Another vote for Ian M Banks. The culture novels are sly and witty while staying true to their sci fi roots.

Walter John Williams: City on Fire and Metropolitan. also Dan Simmons: Hyperion series and Illium/Olympus series.

Bradbury’s classics The Illustrated Man and The Martian Chronicles, and another vote for Miller’s A Canticle for Liebowitz.

Another vote for Gibson's "Neuromancer".

Adding Frederik Pohl's "Gateway".

You might want to check out Samuel R. Delany, particulary his mid-period work like Dhalgren and Trouble on Trion. Gene Wolfe's works might interest you as well.

'The Time Machine' by H.G. Wells.

Another vote for Iain M. Banks' "Culture" novels. Start with The Player of Games.

Two classics from the 30’s:

“When Worlds Collide”

And its sequel, “After Worlds Collide,” which is even better.

By Balmer and Philip Wylie