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


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Mannahnin

Scion of Murgen (He/Him)
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.
 


Cadence

Legend
Supporter
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

Scion of Murgen (He/Him)
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?

 

Cadence

Legend
Supporter
Are you using roughly this definition?


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

Book-Friend, he/him
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.
 


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