Sci-Fi books that got you to go 'wow'

[Villano]

I loved Monkey Planet, on which they based the film Planet Of The Apes. Not sure of the author's name off-hand.

Also, The Island Of Dr. Moreau, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein, and War Of The Worlds. Gotta go with the classics.

 

[Limper]

CS Friedman "This Alien Shore" and "The Cold Fire Trilogy"

Cards "Enders Game" The rest of the series is OK but the first book rules.

"Dune" the one story to rule them all.

 

[Dinkeldog]

Stranger in a Strange Land
The Cat who Walks Through Walls
Starship Troopers

I liked 2010 more than 2001.

Sundiver and the Uplift trilogies

Earth by Brin.

The Fifth Element by Starhawk.

 

[Ghostwind]

When I was around 12 or 13, I got hooked into sci-fi by reading the James Blish adaptations of the original Star Trek episodes. Seeing that I was getting heavy into reading, my Dad introduced me to Robert Heinlein's Tunnel in the Sky and I couldn't get enough. From there I devoured books like:

-Red Planet
-Have Spacesuit, Will Travel
-The Star Best
-Starship Troopers
-Space Cadet
-Time for the Stars
-The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Obviously from there I broadened my horizons but I have to credit both my Dad and Heinlein for making me see a universe beyond Star Trek.

 

[Black Omega]

Though I liked Starship Troopers, it's a little too textbook for me in places. Interesting in a somewhat fascist sort of way.

The Falkenburg series is indeed well worth a look.

And I'll take a moment to pimp Julian May's books. Pliocene Exile, Intervention and the Galactic Mileu series are all interesting, in different ways.

Harry Turtledove's WorldWar series where aliens come to Earth during WWII is also excellent.

 

[Thorin Stoutfoot]

The Long Run, Daniel Keys Moran
The Last Dancer, Daniel Keys Moran

Excellent novels and much under-rated.

 

[Rhialto]

The Stars, My Destination by Alfred Bester.

Great stuff...

 

[LostSoul]

I really enjoyed the Gap saga by Stephen R. Donaldson.

As have I. I've never been able to finish the series, though (somthing else always got in the way), but I've gone back to it and read the first three books a few times. It's good stuff.

I'm also a big fan of Dune, and I've read the entire series. The last two books are better than the middle ones.

 

[The Sigil]

Gibson's Neuromancer is a classic and is one of those books that anyone who is serious about SF should read.

Personally, I found Neuromancer to be among the more vacuous, shallow, and generally worthless books in the genre. But that's just me... obviously a lot of other people enjoyed it. Just not quite my cup of tea, I guess.

Ender's Game is a good book but the numerous sequels pound the same keys. Card is hit-or-miss for me - his Homecoming series started out fantastic only to completely collapse in the final book.

*Chuckles* I know OSC - in fact, I am the basis of the main character (Stevie? It's been WAY too long) in his book "Lost Boys" (the rest of my family is the Cooper - rather than Cooley - family - albeit with a little poetic license since my dad's name is not Spike - and he "adopted" me into his family for the purposes of the book). Card *is* as you suggest, hit-and-miss... though (and hopefully I don't drag this too far into religion here) for me, the Homecoming series was, well, an exceedingly dry read - because I was quite familiar with the source material he was pulling from. As you may or may not know, Card is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints - and the Homecoming Series is very much a Sci-Fi version of portions the Book of Mormon (though Card, as is his wont, tends to use his books to explore the psyche of his characters). Since I happen to be intimately familiar with the Book of Mormon, I literally was reading most of the books replacing characters' names as I went with the Book of Mormon equivalents (e.g., Nafai = Nephi). Hence, he seems "stuck" to the storyline as it unfolded in the original - which, if it is not satisfying to you there, likely will not be satisfying to you here, either! ;-)

Card is an accomplished writer, and a good friend, but I will admit he tends to hammer on certain points way too often and way too repetitively for the comfort of most. All that said, I personally enjoyed the later books in the Ender series - esp. Xenocide and Speaker for the Dead (not so much Children of the Mind) much more than Ender's Game - but that's because I enjoyed the psychological exposition (wasn't thrilled with the deux ex machina devices employed toward the end of the trilogy). The science fiction, for me, took a back seat to the characters - always a good thing (IMO) for a book. Ender's Game is a fun sci-fi book, but the depth of Xenocide and Speaker for the Dead intrigued me more (here's a man dealing with the fact that he personally is responsible for wiping out an entire race - even though he did so unwittingly, you can tell guilt is eating him up) - despite Card's occasional preachiness in those books. If Card has a flaw as a writer (and it IS one he recognizes), it's that his value systems - which are way more conservative than most of his readers' - tend to crop up in his books and sometimes he bludgeons you over the head with them. Even I, who ostensibly shares his value systems, find that annoying at times.

--The Sigil

 

[The Sigil]

-Have Spacesuit, Will Travel

Oh, wow, I haven't seen that one for a LOONG time. Mother Things and squid faces, and "Peewee to Junebug" and Oscar the spacesuit... good stuff.

I'll add Fahrenheit 451 to the list, if it hasn't been already. *wicked grin*

--The Sigil