What is the single best science fiction novel of all time?

[Ruin Explorer]

And I'm not telling them what not to like: Clarke is a good writer who's work I enjoy. But his characters are largely defined by their profession - this is a scientist, this is an engineer. That's a deliberate choice by the author - he is not writing about people, they aren't important.

I'd say that this is broadly true. It's notable that with the third and fourth Rama books, written together with Gentry Lee, suddenly try to be much more interested in the characters as people, with foibles, peculiarities, life-goals and so on, that aren't necessarily aligned with their profession, and where some of them aren't even particularly skilled individuals/professionals.

And it's an absolute disaster and drains a huge amount of energy from those two books, and honestly those characters are so poorly written (and even insulting in a couple of cases, as I recall) that they're nothing but a detriment and frustration.

I think there's an entire SF/technothriller subgenre of sort of "scientific mystery slowly unveiled" books, by Crichton, Clarke, and countless imitators, where genuinely, it is questionable as to whether we - the audience - care about the characterisations beyond the superficial, and indeed whether there's any real benefit to it. In some cases, sure (especially where there's a significant metaphysical element), but in a lot of others, especially where there's no metaphysical element, trying to give people unveiling the mystery too much in the way of personality and peculiarities often feels like it's a misunderstanding of the genre and actively a detriment. And a lot of authors sort of fall into this trap of trying to give us complex characters when honestly, no, that doesn't help, this story isn't really about that.

It's funny to say that because in most SF I value strong and deep characterisation, just not that subgenre. It's also pretty rare in SF, which makes this entire discussion kind of wild. Honestly there's no way one can claim Clarke, Asimov, Niven and others were particularly deep or convincing character writers - Alfred Bester or Philip K. Dick maybe - but that doesn't make them bad SF writers. The Mote in God's Eye was mentioned earlier - it's extremely interesting, memorable and important SF book, despite having wildly and hilariously retrograde views and a subtext verging on the eugenic, and despite have paper-thin human characters.

 

[overgeeked]

Wow. That's harder than I thought. So many top choices. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Gateway, Man in the High Castle, Neuromancer, Old Man's War, Redshirts, Rendezvous with Rama, Starship Troopers, Stars My Destination, Stranger in a Strange Land, Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Ubik...it depends on the day of the week, really.

If I had to narrow that list down it would be a tie between Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Gateway, and Neuromancer.

They all hit my sense of wonder better than the rest. I re-read them all every couple of years. I think I might be due for another round.

 

[Hussar]

My point is that in science fantasy, the science words aren't the meat. They are just incidental pieces of setting. They are the napkins on the table.

What is the meat of Dune? The heart of that text is the orphaned Chosen One's battle for redemption and ultimately to become the new emperor of a feudal heirarchy. The key elements are battles, which ultimately boil down to sword fights (more or less) or attacking while riding giant sand worms, witches and prophesies, and rallying a nomadic people to fight the corrupt Empire.

That is straight fantasy. You can do away with all the quasi-science words and just call stuff like the prophesies magic, and nothing changes. That is, in fact, almost exactly what George R.R. Martin did.

Edit: I'm overstating. The Dune film is pretty much straight hero's journey fantasy. The Dune novel does spend a lot more time setting up its galactic civilization and exploring the implications of interstellar trade etc., so could equally be characterized as soft sci-fi with a fantasy plot.

Ok. Gotta step in here.

Dune is the examination of free will in the face of omniscience. Everything in the story stems from that line. It’s basically transhumanism before that became a thing.

It’s also a serious work on the impact of scarcity in geopolitics and how that scarcity impacts everything.

All the tropes you keep talking about are just that -tropes. Which do not define genre.

 

[Hussar]

So many to choose from.

A personal fav is Haldeman’s Forever War. Just hits so many good beats.

In shorter fiction I’d probably go with The Cold Equations by Tom Godwin. Just because it hits SF themes so really well.

To be honest, I find SF much, much better in short story or novella length. Novel length SF tends to waffle on endlessly about how really smart it is. I bounced off of Hyperion, despite it being one of the greats, really hard because I just stopped caring about all this minutiae that was in it.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

Dune is up there: I've revisited a few times over the last 40 years and I can't say I've ever been disappointed with it.

But my vote goes to The Dispossessed by Le Guin.

 

[tomBitonti]

Dune is up there: I've revisited a few times over the last 40 years and I can't say I've ever been disappointed with it.

But my vote goes to The Dispossessed by Le Guin.

Nod.

But, strictly, The Dispossessed, uses science to create a canvas, then tells a story which is not really sciency.

(Apologies .. this is a bit of a ramble.)

That being said, I struggle to find a true science fiction story. Solaris and Roadside Park stand out. Maybe some of Clarke, but that struggles to be more than a tour of grand ideas. Maybe Frankenstein, but that relies far too much on pathos to give the core idea a full treatment. A Clockwork Orange maybe, but it’s more an exploration of psychology. Egan tries very hard to imbed truly different physics in his books, but they end up very difficult to get through. Flowers for Algernon (the short story) and Ender‘s Game (the short story)? Maybe some of Cherryh’s early more philosophical works? Or, some of the works of Delaney?

An awful lot of science fiction, when deconstructed, struggles. The Time Machine, for example, struggles to be more than a presentation of Wells envisioned future history.

TomB

 

[Kobold Stew]

Picking a single book is invidious, but two leap out to me as plausible contenders. Since Mote in God's Eye has been suggested, I'll put forward Vernor Vinge's Fire Upon the Deep.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

The Dispossessed, uses sciency to create a canvas, then tells a story which is not really sciency....That being said, I struggle to find a true science fiction story...An awful lot of science fiction, when deconstructed, struggles. The Time Machine, for example, struggles to be more than a presentation of Wells envisioned future history.

TomB

I regard science fiction as a pretty broad church, which can accommodate a wide variety of styles and emphases.

To me, the best science fiction is that which tells a human story - together with its psychological, political, relational, moral and philosophical/religious concerns. Which is to say, the things which make us human.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I think there's an entire SF/technothriller subgenre of sort of "scientific mystery slowly unveiled" books, by Crichton, Clarke, and countless imitators, where genuinely, it is questionable as to whether we - the audience - care about the characterisations beyond the superficial, and indeed whether there's any real benefit to it.

Absolutely. And it can be traced back to Wells. See the unnamed narrator of The Time Machine. We don't have much characterisation because it's a distraction from what the story is about.

Most of these writers can write engaging characters (not so sure about Crichton, he would be my pick for "overrated"), but only do so when it's relevant.

As for the Rama sequels, they are mostly Gentry Lee's writing, with Clarke acting in a sort of "executive producer" role.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Ok. Gotta step in here.

Dune is the examination of free will in the face of omniscience. Everything in the story stems from that line. It’s basically transhumanism before that became a thing.

It’s also a serious work on the impact of scarcity in geopolitics and how that scarcity impacts everything.

All the tropes you keep talking about are just that -tropes. Which do not define genre.

Animal Farm is a novel about a group of talking animals trying to run a farm.

The trouble with having subtext is it can be easily missed. How many people watched the movie version of Starship Troopers and thought the humans were the good guys?