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

[reddist]

I'm sure I'll be labeled "sheep" for these, but two of my favorites are:

Ender's Game :OSC
Starship Troopers: RAH

Steakley's "Armor" is similar to Starship Troopers in many respects, but if you liked "Armor," go get Steakley's "Vampires."

Childhood's End, by Arthur C Clark is another good one.

And as a side note, I'd offer up GW's Warhammer40K books as a nice brainless serving of sci-fi military fluff.

-Reddist

 

[Sixchan]

Hmm...
War of the Worlds,
Brave New World,
Rendevous with Rama
1984,
The Worldwar series (couts as Sci-Fi, right?)

 

[Mistwell]

Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress. One of the most amazing books ever.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

If you like military sci-fi, may I suggest:

Gordon Dickson's Dorsai series
David Drake's Hammer's Slammers series
Jerry Pournelle's Falkenberg's Legion series
David Drake/SM Stirlingis The General series

also:

Joe Haldeman's Forever War
Any of Niven's Known Space stuff (including the Ringworld trilogy)
Isaac Asimov. Period.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Hmm...for near-future scifi, I'd say the first three of James Hogan's "Giants" novels:

Inherit the Stars
The Gentle Giants of Ganymede
Giants' Star

 

[Daiymo]

Many of my choices have been listed already. For me, I would also add The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Great alternate history/cyberpunk/steampunk/mystery book, well worth a re read.

Also in the vein of alternate sci-fi The Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove.

 

[DM with a vengence]

Peter F. Hamilton.
For near future he has the Mindstar series, Mindstar Rising, A Quantum Murder, and the Nano Flower. Basically Global Warming has caused Earth's ecosystem and economy to collapse, and multi-billionaire tycoons are putting it back together in their image, and caught in the middle is Greg Mandel, veteran, detective, and pyschic (but not in a cheesy way.)

And then their the epic Night's Dawn series, which is far future, where the dead are coming back and possessing living bodies.

 

[Lurks-no-More]

Hmm... I'll just mention things that I haven't seen addressed yet.

John Wyndham's books ("Day of the Triffids", "Midwich Cuckoos", "Wakes the Kraken" etc.) are great. Very dry British style, but very, very good.

Ken McLeod's "Star Fraction".

Everything by Stanislaw Lem.

Nearly everything by Ben Bova.

Kim Stanley Robinson's "Mars" series.

 

[Inez Hull]

"Against a Dark Background" Iain M Banks. This guy has the most fertile imagination of any author I have ever read and this is his best book by my reckoning. "Consider Phlebas" and "The Player of Games" were really good also.

I also really enjoyed Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy, esp. the first book "The Reality Dysfunction" ??? The rest of the series wasn't quite as interesting but the first book was an absolute ripsnorter.

Anything by Neal Stephenson also gets the nod from me. I also enjoyed the novels he co-authored as Stephen Bury.

[edit] Also, how could I forget Ursula Le Guin? Her Hainish novels are great.

 

[WizarDru]

Known Space and Other Stories, by Larry Niven.
True Names, by Vernor Vinge.
Neuromancer, by William Gibson.


There are more, but based on the limiting criteria you specified, I'll stop with those. True Names, written in 1980, was amazingly spot on in it's prediction of Internet Culture. Particularly if you factor Everquest into the equation. Note that he was four years ahed of Neuromancer, and two from Johnny Mnemonic. Neuromancer was just a mind explosion, when it was new. It re-imagined, for the general public, what the future might be. Gibson may not have invented the genre of cyber-punk, but he brought it to the masses in a way never before seen.

And Larry Niven, once my favorite author, still manages to deliver a solid punch with his short stories. His near future stories, particulary dealing with Gil Hamilton and ARM, as well as the slightly near future stories were always some of my favorites (such as the teleporter tube whodunnit story).