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

[thullgrim]

Dune. And it’s not even close.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Dune. And it’s not even close.

Does it have sequels, though?

 

[Cadence]

Is Dune Science Fantasy? Is Science Fantasy a subgenre of both Fantasy and Science Fiction?

 

[Mannahnin]

Two threads posted literally the same minute. Whizbang's has more responses do far, but the quality level in here is very high.

HMMM.

Guess I'm posting here and hoping for the merger.

I think I have to give it to Dune. There are some Heinleins I'd be very tempted by, and a dark horse like Neuromancer could get a shout in. Also some sentimental faves like John Steakley's Armor, which retroactively boosts Heinlein's Startship Troopers too.

 

[Mannahnin]

Is Dune Science Fantasy? Is Science Fantasy a subgenre of both Fantasy and Science Fiction?

How is Dune Science Fantasy? I could see it as Space Opera.

The first book is really strongly predicated on the extrapolation of some scientific ideas, including ecology and terraforming.

 

[Cadence]

How is Dune Science Fantasy? I could see it as Space Opera.

It's been several decades and the vague feelings in my memory are quite possibly playing tricks on me, but a quick google search didn't disabuse me of the question. I don't have enough memory of the the particulars of the book to pick a good link from among them, or to decide if it's a case that if something is popular enough you can find someone with just about any view about it.

 

[Mannahnin]

It's been several decades and the vague feelings in my memory are quite possibly playing tricks on me, but a quick google search didn't disabuse me of the question. I don't have enough memory of the the particulars of the book to pick a good link from among them, or to decide if it's a case that if something is popular enough you can find someone with just about any view about it.

Are you using roughly this definition?

Science Fantasy - TV Tropes

Robots and wizards, spaceships and dragons, lasers and fireballs. Mix these ingredients in your cyber-witch's boiling pot of dark matter, and you've got yourself Science Fantasy. Science Fiction and Fantasy stories can be difficult to tell apart …

tvtropes.org

 

[Cadence]

Are you using roughly this definition?

Science Fantasy - TV Tropes

Robots and wizards, spaceships and dragons, lasers and fireballs. Mix these ingredients in your cyber-witch's boiling pot of dark matter, and you've got yourself Science Fantasy. Science Fiction and Fantasy stories can be difficult to tell apart …

tvtropes.org

Thanks for the link, I hadn't been there.

I think mostly this part: "Science Fantasy works, on the other hand, take traditional Fantasy and Science Fiction tropes and throw them in a blender, purposely creating a setting that has the feel of both."

The stuff in my memory doesn't feel like much on the rest of that page, and as the page notes, there certainly exists more than a little "Sci_fi with a smidgen of Fantasy".

Further down in the examples it has:

"Dune by Frank Herbert series is science fiction, but apart from ‘’Star Wars'' it might be the best well-known example. The Galaxy has an Emperor and several rival feudal-aristocratic families rule over even complete planets. There is a quasi-magical order of witches, although the story is otherwise within a fairly straightforward interplanetary science fiction setting."

 

[Parmandur]

Thanks for the link, I hadn't been there.

I think mostly this part: "Science Fantasy works, on the other hand, take traditional Fantasy and Science Fiction tropes and throw them in a blender, purposely creating a setting that has the feel of both."

The stuff in my memory doesn't feel like much on the rest of that page, and as the page notes, there certainly exists more than a little "Sci_fi with a smidgen of Fantasy".

Further down in the examples it has:

"Dune by Frank Herbert series is science fiction, but apart from ‘’Star Wars'' it might be the best well-known example. The Galaxy has an Emperor and several rival feudal-aristocratic families rule over even complete planets. There is a quasi-magical order of witches, although the story is otherwise within a fairly straightforward interplanetary science fiction setting."

Yeah, I really wouldn't call Dune Science Fantasy. Having a feudal galactic government was a pretty normal sci-fi trope at the time, see also Foundation.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Psychic powers, like those in Dune, really push the limit on "science," IMO, even more than FTL. But psychic powers typically fall under sci-fi, for whatever reason.