A Good Summer Read? 1485
binaryhead asks: "Well, the semester has just ended, and I have graduated from school! :-) I start my full-time job in a month and want to read a good book in the mean time. Having read Snowcrash, Neuromancer, and most of the hacker biographies, I am trying to find a scifi-geek-hacker book that people like. I might try the new Kevin Mitnick book, but I wanted to see what Slashdot preferred. Thanks."
Ender's Game (Score:5, Informative)
Michael Crighton(sp?)'s "Prey" (Score:2, Informative)
Cuckoo's Egg (Score:5, Informative)
Good documentary account of tracing international hackers from a sysadmin-like guy's point of view. A little dated now but well-written, humorous and very entertaining.
Powers Graphic Novels (Score:2, Informative)
The Powers comic series is ground breaking and really well done. The basic premise is that there is a cop investigating the murder of a superhero.
Really stunning work and surprisingly moving. Great written dialog.
Re:Gibson.... (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Ender's Game (Score:4, Informative)
Pattern Recognition (Score:3, Informative)
Hyperion (Score:3, Informative)
It's something fresh and original and it'll change the way you think
Weird dark and twisted sci-fantasy (Score:2, Informative)
art of deception (Score:5, Informative)
This isn't in your requested genre... (Score:4, Informative)
- The Fountainhead
by Ayn Rand, of course, then onto- Atlas Shrugged
...There are few better favors you can do yourself before entering the working world in earnest than to have a nice philosophical framework.
Good luck!
Mitnick Book (Score:2, Informative)
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (Score:5, Informative)
Cat's Cradle
Player Piano
The Sirens of Titan
I enjoyed them 30 yrs ago as much as in the past few weeks. Unemployed and all. Don't forget 1984, The Doors of Perception and Fahrenheit 451. Enjoy.
The best of the best (Score:2, Informative)
Just one? (Score:5, Informative)
One book in a month of nothing to do? Maybe one book a week, if you're slow!
Anyways, Cryptonomicon was a good read, if a little lengthy. In fact, anything by Stephenson that you haven't read (Zodiac and Diamond Age were great). Just ignore the complaints about endings and enjoy the rest of the story.
Asimov's Foundation series is a great choice as well. Not so much with the hacker angle (well, hacking of a different kind, surely) but very interesting.
If you want to go military geek sci-fi, David Weber's Honor Harrington series is excellent. You can get the first book, On Basilisk Station from the Baen Free Library [baen.com]. And if you buy the most recent book, War of Honor, in hardcover, you get a CD that has all the books in the series on it. Or you can just download the CD somewhere online.
Just a few suggestions. I have a ton of other things on my reading list, but that's a start.
-Todd
New Mitnick Book (Score:2, Informative)
Another thing to look into is some of the more esoteric cool networking software out there... not exactly reading but something to do... kernel patches are fun!
Code Book, by Simon Singh (Score:3, Informative)
don't waste your time though trying to solve the puzzles at the end, unless you're bored...the puzzle and 10,000 pounds were won less then a year after the challenge was issued, I think...
RB
Book suggestion (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Robert Anton Wilson (Score:3, Informative)
Shroedinger's Cat Trilogy
Masks of the Illuminati
This is a trilogy of sorts that includes trilogies for the first 2 books of the trilogy. Great reading though, very stimulating, funny, and you'll probably learn something.
The Principia Discordia [principiadiscordia.com] is a fun read too, and available online. Better to check it out as a book and randomly flip through it though.
Re:Fantasy? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:How about... (Score:2, Informative)
Chabon is good (Score:3, Informative)
I also read Masters of Doom recently, which is about the early days of id software, Carmack, and Romero. It's a New Journalism book, where the author recreated dialog in conversations and things like that so it reads more like a novel than non-fiction. The writing's not the best, but it's entertaining, especially if you remember reading the trials and tribulations of Quake, Quake2, and Daikatana on the Shugashack and Bluesnews.
Finally, if you've not read William Gibsons Count Zero, it's excellent. I've read Neuromancer, Pattern Recognition, Idoru and am finishing Virtual Light right now, but I think I like Count Zero better than the others. Virtual Light, Pattern Recognition, Idoru, and Count Zero all share similar themes (strong but secretly vulnerable heroines in trouble with big corporations) but Count Zero does it better than the others.
I also just finished The Diamond Age, by Stevenson. I was pretty unimpressed with it. Its plotlines aren't as intricate as Cryptonomicons, and it seems kind of like Stevenson trying to be Gibson. I was pretty unimpressed. I'm going to pick up another Stevenson book after I finish with Virtual Light.
I could dig up some Amazon links, but I'm too lazy.
Hope this helps!
Philip K. Dick (Score:5, Informative)
Oh my! (Score:5, Informative)
As for my list, Frank Herbert's Dune is always a good read and, though I know many people would disagree, the fourth book, God Emperor of Dune is my favorite of the series. It's the culmination of the subtle (in the first book) Nietzschean subtext involving becoming the greatest predator ever to live, and so forth. Sounds goofy, I suppose, but I liked it.
Another, possibly less well-known though, again in my opinion, much better written series is Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. Gene Wolfe loves to play mind games with his readers and more often than not you're presented with puzzles that at first you don't even realize are puzzles. The whole thing is very novel and, while short (four books with about 200 pages each -- compare that to Jordan's drivel which is 7, or maybe more now, at around 1000 each) it is intense and well worth the read. Aside from the intellectual motivation to read the series, it is also simply a great story. You won't see Gene Wolfe using science-fiction as a way to retell mostly old stories(*) in some sort of "futuristic" setting. Could I possibly gush some more? Maybe, but seriously, this is one of the finest pieces of real science-fiction to come out in a long time, perhaps ever.
(*)Ok, I lie, he does retell old stories and seemingly use the old ploys most science fiction authors do, but always in a way to poke fun at that way of writing. For example, all of his characters' names sound like science-fiction character names (Severian, Ymar, Palaemon, etc.), but in reality they're all names of obscure Catholic saints. Also, his retelling of the story of Theseus and the Minotaur using 19th century ships (which ones, I won't say, since even this fact isn't all that obvious when reading it) is wonderful.
Anyhow, in summary, etc., and so forth, I suggest you give Gene Wolfe a try. Really. Do it. HURRY!
Note on Ayn Rand (Score:5, Informative)
In addition, The Fountainhead has one of the ugliest scenes I have ever come across in any piece of literature. I'm referring to the scene involving Roarke and Dominique, which in my mind, seems more or less equivalent to rape, yet is not treated as such in the book.
I'm just trying to give adequate warning for those who don't know what to expect from the books, they are very powerful and well written.
Re:How about... (Score:4, Informative)
Water-Method Man, John Irving
Sound and Fury, Falkner
Of Human Bondage, Maugham (Perfect for someone just getting out of school)
All Quiet on the Wester Front. (Not exactly a day-brightener, but should be required reading for all humans)
A good proto-hacker story is A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Mark Twain was a bit of a technology buff/hacker himself, and a failed VC. IIRC, he blew his Huckleberry Finn/Tom Sawyer fortune on some kind of early typesetting machine or typewriter or something. I suppose I could look it up if I felt like it, but Google is way over on that other tab in Moz.
But yeah, try something non-hacker once in a while. It's good and good for you.
Things that I like after 40 years of reading SciFi (Score:5, Informative)
City by Clifford Simak - classic.
Shockwave Rider - the first real computer/scifi cyberpunkish book. The term 'worm' comes from this book.
Naked Sun - Asimov - genesis of R. Daneel Olivaw, the character that Commander Data was based on.
Nine Princes in Amber - after Lord of the Rings my favorite fantasy book.
Left Hand of Darkness - IMHO the 2nd best scifi novel ever written after only Dune.
Ringworld by Larry Niven - extrodinary world building and imagination in hard scifi genre.
Gateway by Frederick Pohl - ditto.
Startide Rising, David Brin - wonderful novel set in world where man is lifting other species to intelligence. Terrific writing, and the sequels are excellent too.
More books to read (Score:5, Informative)
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- Propaganda by Jacques Ellul
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
And here is a book I'm working on now...I'm still about 1,100 pages from knowing if it will deliver the goods:Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy (Score:5, Informative)
And I have to say, it was the most fun I've had reading a book in a LOOONNNGGG time! It's a fairly quick read, but it's completely enjoyable. I highly recommend picking it up if you haven't already read it.
My final recommendations today: Intelligence! (Score:3, Informative)
The other is George Dyson's Darwin Among the Machines: The Evolution of Global Intelligence [amazon.com]. Incredible history of communication and computing with a pretty cool argument abuot the possible future of computer intelligence. He doesn't follow the well-worn tracks of those who basically posit a Short-Circuit-esque [imdb.com] Johnny5 for the future of computers, instead exploring the actual nature of intelligence and how it may emerge uniquely among computer networks. A presentation [edge.org] of the thesis is available at Edge.org.
You won't go wrong with these books.
Stay young with reading! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:How about... (Score:5, Informative)
The book is neither about Zen Buddhism or motorcycle maintenance. Its tremendously good, and thought provoking, particularly for those analytical minds out there. I can't recommend it enough.
Uplift saga (Score:3, Informative)
You won't feel special.. (Score:3, Informative)
Not only is the plot fast and compelling, but the pseudo-history secret society stuff is fascinating. You'll never look at Da Vinci's 'The Last Supper' the same way again, guaranteed!
Sure, you may be reading the same book as the guy next to you on the train-- but it's popular for a reason!
Ripoff? No way. (Score:1, Informative)
I actually really enjoyed the first 6 or so books of the wheel of time, and I still read the series. However, comparing the two (Goodkind/Jordan), one is getting better while the other gets worse (IMO). Goodkinds 6th book, Faith of the Fallen, is one of the best fantasy novels I've read in a long time. Jordan's 7th/8th/9th books were somewhat tedious and drawn out.
I agree with your recommendation though... read both series. They are good!
-Tiak
The Prince (Score:2, Informative)
It was written in 1505, and has some interesting insights on how to gain and keep power.
Google it, it's free. Or at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553212788
short story collections (was Re:Vinge of course) (Score:3, Informative)
Another story like to that (which was amazingly prophetic) was the short story ``Catacomb'' which was published in _Dragon Magazine_ a long while back.
Another excellent short story collection is Hal Clement's _Space Lash_ (originally published as _Small Changes_). ``The Mechanic'' is a fascinating story (though badly described on the back cover text) of genegeneering by ``mechanics'' whose knowledge encompasses that of several PhDs of the previous generation.
William
Re:Gibson.... (Score:3, Informative)
A Very Good Far-Future Virus/Hacker Tale.. (Score:3, Informative)
Also, I would second the Daniel Keyes Moran titles cited earlier.
My own idiosyncratic essentials (Score:3, Informative)
_Stand_on_Zanzibar_, John Brunner
_Lucifer's_Hammer_, Larry Niven
_The_Left_Hand_of_Darkness_, Ursula K. LeGuin
_Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenanc
_Gateway_, Fred Pohl
_The_Forever_War_, Joe Haldeman
_Slow_River_, Nicola Griffith
_The_Sheep_Look_Up_, John Brunner
_Lord_of_Light_, Roger Zelazny
_The_Doomsday_Book_, Connie Willis
_The_War_of_the_Worlds_, H.G. Wells
_Earth_Abides_, George R. Stewart
_A_Canticle_for_Leibowitz_, Walter Miller
_Been_Down_So_Long_It_Look_Like_Up_To_Me_
_The_Folk_of_the_Air_, Peter S. Beagle
_Aegypt_, John Crowley
_The_Day_of_the_Triffids_, John Wyndham
_Rocannon's_World_, Ursula K. Leguin
_Planet_of_Exile_, Ursulak K. Leguin
_Ringworld_, Larry Niven
_The_Long_Walk_, Slavomir Rawicz
_We_Die_Alone_, David Howarth
all that being said, two books tower above all other summer reading
_Treasure_Island_, Robert Louis Stevenson
_Huckleberry_Finn_, Mark Twain
The Black Company (Score:2, Informative)
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Score:3, Informative)
Non Fiction? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Dune (Score:2, Informative)
Tom Clancy later stuff is shite... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Things that I like after 40 years of reading Sc (Score:5, Informative)
I haven't been reading for quite forty years... but... some books / series to add (in no particular order) which I haven't seen added elsewhere in this list:
- _Wild Cards_ - comic books w/ almost realistic physics
- _The Stainless Steel Rat_ by Harry Harrison - classic science fiction, and available in Esperanto!
- Barry Hughart's ``Master Li Novels'' - _Bridge of Birds_, _The Story of the Stone_ and _Eight Skilled Gentleman_ --- read these in private if you're embarrassed by laughing out loud. Fantasies of a China which never was but should have been.
- Roger Zelazny's _Damnation Alley_ and its sequel _Hardwired_ by Walter Jon Williams (who says ``thanks'' to RZ for ``letting me play in his alley'' in the foreword).
- Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion cycle, esp. the Jeremiah Cornelius books. This is where the concept of ``multiverse'' reaches its full breadth and depth.
- Stephen Brust's ``Taltos'' books, _Jhereg_, _Yendi_, &c. (Spoiler: Interesting application of Clarke's law). There's a prequel series written in the style of Alexandre Dumas which are a lot of fun (everyone did read Dumas as a child, right? If not, go and read _The Count of Monte Cristo_ and all the other books first)
- John Varley's Gaea trilogy - _Titan_, _Wizard_ and _Demon_
- _The Princess Bride_ S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure --- the good parts version by William Goldman. Get the older edition (Ballantine Books 1973 if possible 'cause the newer editions have a bunch of typos
- L.E. Modesitt, Jr. _The Forever Hero_, _Dawn for a Distant Earth_, &c. - fun to read as a pastiche of other books which doesn't require that much thought
- Steve Perry's Matador books are a lot of fun and an interesting view of human potential (though he cops out and punts on the immortality issue when he did the Stellar Ranger books
- Jack Chalker, esp. his Well of Souls books
- C. J. Cherryh, - her Merchanter novels are classics, _Rimrunner_ is particularly good (though one pretty much needs to read _Downbelow Station_ first for the background. Her Morgaine books are also fantasy classics.
- Fred Saberhagen - his Dracula books are way cool (haven't read his novelization of the movie though---get _The Dracula Tape_ instead), as well as _The Frankenstein Papers_. and for the sci-fi tie in, ``Berserker''
- Jack Vance's _Dying Earth_ is a classic, and his Lyonesse trilogy should be
- Manly Wade Wellman wrote a lot of good stuff, but there're few things as wholly American and mystical, and moving as his stories about Silver John---the short story collection _John the Balladeer_ is a good beginning.
- Robert Heinlein 'nuff said
- Lord Dunsany - _The Charwoman's Shadow_ is haunting, and interesting to contrast with _The Return of the King_. I'm fortunate to have a Modern Library edition of _The Book of Wonder_ from ~1908 or so which is a frequent companion when camping.
- R. A. MacAvoy's books are quite good, and here _Tea with the Black Dragon_ even works in a couple of people who work w/ computers---way cool, though a bit dated.
Lastly, Terri Windling at Ace Books created ``The Fairy Tale Series'' which are re-tellings of classic fairy tales by contemporary authors, all of which are quite good, especially the haunting _Briar Rose_ by Jane Yolen which I think everyone should read.
William
(whose resume's objective line reads, ``To make beautiful books''
Dragonlance is good too (Score:3, Informative)
I agree that Jordan's "Wheel Of Time" is the ultimate though.
Richard Feynmann? (Score:5, Informative)
Read John Brunner (Score:2, Informative)
Shockwave Rider
Stand on Zanzibar
The Sheep Look Up
Jagged Orbit
Also Islands in the Net by Bruce Sterling.
=brian
Arthur C. Clarke... (Score:3, Informative)
Oh, and seeing we've had the Ayn Rand enthusiasts, you could try some other flavours of political philosophy. Machiavelli's The Prince, John Stuart Mill's On Liberty and Marx's Communist Manifesto are all reasonably accessible and are certainly worth a read.
some excellent reads (Score:2, Informative)
The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins
Godel, Escher, Bach, Douglas Hofstadter
The Gold Bug Variations, Richard Powers
Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
The Scar, China Mieville
Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud
Darwin's Blade, Dan Simmons
Enchantment, Orson Scott Card
Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond
He, She, and It, Marge Piercy
Lo's Diary, Pia Pera
Pattern Recognition, William Gibson
The Soul of a New Machine, Tracy Kidder
books in my library rated 'excellent' [singlefile.com] or 'great' [singlefile.com]
For the love of God, don't start the Wheel of Time (Score:5, Informative)
The series is good up until the 5th or 6th book, at which point it stalls and dies a long, slow, painful death. I recently bought the 10th book out of the same vague sense of obligation that sent me to the theater for Star Wars: Episode II, and I wouldn't want anyone else to be sucked into that vortex.
On the other hand, if you want a good fantasy series, take a look at George R. R. Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" (starts with _A Game of Thrones_). Another multivolume, incomplete series, but he promises only 6 books, so maybe it'll work out. I also just recently read Neil Gaiman's _Neverwhere_, a dark-comedy urban fantasy (how's that for a sub-sub-genere?), which is excellent.
The Jargon File knows (Score:4, Informative)
Greg Bear - Darwin's Radio, Blood Music, etc. (Score:1, Informative)
The world Bear writes about in Slant and Moving Mars brings to mind Bruner's world(s) of Stand on Zanzibar, The Sheep Look Up, Jagged Orbit, and to a lesser extent The Shockwave Rider.
Bear is one of the few writers to really get nanotechnology and use it in ways that don't suck.
Darwin's Radio - Dormant viruses encoded in the human genome become active and reprogram our genes. Nebula award winner, Hugo nominated.
Slant - In the future nearly everyone has nanotechnological monitors that stabilize their brain functions and help keep them sane. Someone has engineered a disease that prevents these therapies from working. Cool AI stuff, excellent ideas about nanotech.
Blood Music - A biotech research creates intelligent cells. In order to prevent his research from being destroyed, he injects them into his own body to smuggle them out of the lab. Some very interesting ideas about the nature of intelligence and awareness. Incredible concepts for impact of creation. I felt a bit let down by the ending, it seemed like a bit of a cop out. Still a great read.
Moving Mars - Yet another "colonists on Mars want independence from earth" book. This one is well done. It takes place in a later version of the world from SLANT, so you get to see some cool nanotech and AI stuff. It provides an interesting and new take one this subject. Interesting characters, too. Nebula award winner.
BTW, If hard scifi is your thing, check out Hal Clement's Half Life.
My fave reads in the past couple of months: (Score:3, Informative)
Ken MacLeod - Cosmonaut Keep
L.E. Modesitt Jr. - Gravity Dreams
Vernor Vinge - Fire Upon the Deep & Deepness in the Sky
And some music, for the sake of something different:
Opeth - Damnation (great acoustic album with tons of Mellotron)
Soilwork - Natural Born Chaos
Gordian Knot - Emergent
Wheel of Time (Score:2, Informative)
But, as someone else mentioned, the later books in the series have gotten very tedious. I'm sorry, but endlessly resurrecting the bad guys after the hero kills them off (trust me, it's not much of a spoiler) gets old after a while. And in the most recent book, which I made the mistake of buying in hardback, nothing happens. Well, one significant thing does, but it's on the very last #$#$% page. The rest of it is total filler that doesn't even advance any of the infinitude of subplots, much less the main plot.
Laura
A few suggestions (Score:3, Informative)
Re: After watching Matrix 2, read Sophie's World (Score:1, Informative)
Sophie's World isn't hardcore philosophy either, but is easy to digest and covers the philosophical questions posed in the Matrix movies as well as many other equally (or more) interesting questions.
However, it does lack Carrie-Anne Moss in PVC.
Re:Cuckoo's Egg (Score:1, Informative)
Non-hacker/non-sci-fi summer reads (Score:2, Informative)
Portnoy's Complaint, by Philip Roth. Excellent off-the-wall psychoanalysis of growing up Jewish in New York City. It's really wild in some places, and laugh out loud funny most of the time.
The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It's not light reading, but it's fascinating. A study of family relationships, life in tsarist Russia in the 1870s, religion, politics, everything.
Doctor Faustus, by Thomas Mann. It's dense German prose, even after the translation to English. But I'm a musician, and this book is all about music, art, the history of Germany, and Hitler's rise to power, all wound up in the biography of a composer who sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for musical success. It's one of the five best books I've ever read.
My big summer read for this year is Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. It's my wife's favorite novel and she identifies strongly with the lead female character. Since I've never read it, I figure it's about time I got to know something that she enjoyed so much.
I've also spent time reading the latest Dune novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson, a few Star Wars novels, all the Harry Potter books, and I'm currently reading a history of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I think that as long as you spend your summer reading and keeping your mind in shape, it doesn't matter what you read. Just enjoy yourself.
Close To the Machine! by ellen ullman, programmer (Score:2, Informative)
I'll let the text speak for itself:
Re:Iain M. Banks SF Books (Score:3, Informative)
Bad starters for PKD. Try these. (Score:4, Informative)
Try:
A Scanner Darkly: Still relevant (if not more so in today's surveillance culture) criticism of the war on drugs, exploration of drug culture, and paranoia/conspiracy. Great character work. *if you can only read one PKD story do this one or Man in the High Castle.
Bladerunner (that's the title they sell it under now, I know): Okay, you've seen the movie, but the book has very little to do with the movie except with setting, a little plot, and character names. Excellent PKD exploration on human vs non-human and moral ambiguity.
Ubik: excellent work of sci-fi. Touches heavily upon PKD's "kipple" theme.
The Man in the High Castle: one of the first, if not the first "elsewhere" story. Superb in many ways.
Eye in the Sky: Ubik-like mindbender.
Solar Lottery: No one ever recommends this because its so unlike PKD (first published novel I believe) but its a great short read and you can pick up on some future themes PKD explores later on.
My SF/F/H Recommended Reading List (Score:3, Informative)
Novels
Rats & Gargoyles - Mary Gentle
The Werewolves of London - Brian Stableford
The Exorcist - William Peter Blatty
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkein
Dune - Frank Herbert
1984 - George Orwell
The Chronicles of Amber (Original Five) - Roger Zelazny
Neuromancer - William Gibson
The Long Walk - Stephen King
The Vampire Lestat - Anne Rice
Salem's Lot - Stephen King
Phases of Gravity - Dan Simmons
The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson
The Book of the Long Sun - Gene Wolfe
Blood Music - Greg Bear
Eon - Greg Bear
IT - Stephen King
The Glass Hammer - K.W. Jeter
Moving Mars - Greg Bear
Hyperion/Fall of Hyperion - Dan Simmons
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein
Bridge of Birds, The Story of the Stone, Eight Skilled Gentlemen - Barry Hughart
The Time Ships - Stephen Baxter
Weaveworld - Clive Barker
Lucifer's Hammer - Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
The Hereafter Gang - Neal Barrett Jr.
Stand on Zanzibar - John Brunner
Permutation City - Greg Egan
The Light at the End - John Skipp & Craig Spector
Crucifax Autumn - Ray Garton
A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge
The Sheep Look Up - John Brunner
The Child Garden - Geoff Ryman
Carrion Comfort - Dan Simmons
The Bridge - Iain Banks
Perdido Street Station - China Mieville
Evolution's Shore (a.k.a. Chaga) - Ian McDonald
The Stone Canal - Ken MacLeod
A Deepness in the Sky - Vernor Vinge
Holy Fire - Bruce Sterling
Geek Love - Katherine Dunn
Terminal Cafe (a.k.a. Necroville) - Ian McDonald
The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell
The Night Watch - Sean Stewart
Nifft the Lean - Michael Shea
Summer of Night - Dan Simmons
Fevre Dream - George R. R. Martin
The Magic Wagon - Joe R. Lansdale
Mona Lisa Overdrive - William Gibson
The Book of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe
Perfume - Patrick Süskind
The Difference Engine - William Gibson & Bruce Sterling
Synners - Pat Cadigan
The Xenogenesis Trilogy - Octavia Butler
Lord of the Hollow Dark - Russell Kirk
The Anubis Gates - Tim Powers
Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
Last Call - Tim Powers
Door Number Three - Patrick O'Leary
The Paratawa Trilogy - Christopher Hinz
Declare - Tim Powers
Metropolitan, City on Fire - Walter Jon Williams
The Paper Grail - James P. Blaylock
The Foundation Trilogy - Isaac Asimov
Firelord - Parke Godwin
The Shaft - David J. Schow
Empire of the East - Fred Saberhagen
Some recommendations (Score:2, Informative)
Stranger in a Strange Land
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (book Bladerunner was based off of) by Philip K. Dick
Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress
Brave New World by Aldus Huxley
1984 by George Orwell
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
All of those except for possibly Beggars in Spain should be required reading for any sci-fi/geek book lover.
If you're willing to look beyond the geek areas my highest recommended book would be On The Road by Jack Keroac. I've read it 5 times and I'm sure I'll read it at least as many more.
Getting in on this topic a little late... (Score:2, Informative)
Wow, good recommendations. (Score:1, Informative)
Spider Robinson: "Callahan's Crosstime Saloon" series, "Lady Sally" series, "The Free Lunch", "Stardance" series. Spider's work is usually humorous and chock full of humanity. If you've been reading Slashdot lately, you've probably seen his "Melancoly Elephants" short story in regards to governmental copyright abuse.
Harlan Ellison: Pick up any collection of his short stories or his non-fiction essays. Ellison's stuff is not always Science Fiction, in fact Harlan venomously argues that his stories are not Science Fiction at all. Most of his work is about the injustice in life and the angry backlash it engenders. Some recommended short stories: "Paingod", "All the birds come home to roost", "Repent Harlaquin, said the Tick-Tock man", "A Boy and His Dog", "Flop Sweat". If you are an old skool Star Trek Fan, you're probably familiar with "City on the Edge of the World", which was originally written by Ellison (and ghost hacked by the Paramount studio writers of the 1960's).
Steve Miller and Sharon Lee: Their Liadan Universe stories are some of the most entertaining Space Operas I have ever read. The cultural backdrop for these stories is as complex and complete as anything I have seen. Their work is somewhat comparable to Lois McMaster Bujold's "Miles Voroskaven" series (which I also recommend).
Robert Sawyer: "Illegal Alien", "Hominids" and "Humans", "Factoring Humanity", "Flashforward", "Terminal Experiment" and "Calculating God" are recommended books.
Theodore Sturgeon: Most of Sturgeon's work is good, but "More Than Human", "Microcosmic God", "Born of Man and Woman" and my guilty pleasure favorite "Killdozer!" are
recommended (the made for TV movie of "Killdozer!" is a B-movie classic!).
Murray Leinster: "A Logic Named Joe" is worth tracking down. Written in 1946 it describes the modern internet in eerie accuracy.
H.P. Lovecraft: No spaceships here, but plenty of alien inteligences and fantastic settings. Lovecraft's work is more properly Horror or Fantasy. Recommended works: "The Dunwitch Horror", "Colour out of Space", "Cool Air", "Pickman's Model", "The Shadow over Innsmouth", and of course "The Call of Cthulhu".
Issac Asimov: "Nine Tommorrows" and "I, Robot" are great collections of Asimov's short story genius, while the "Foundation" trilogy is a fine example of Asimov's novel chops.
Ray Bradbury: "The Martian Cronicles" is a great collection of stories. And there is his dystopian classic "Fahrenheit 451".
Neville Shute: "On the Beach": A fine story about what happens after the nuclear war. Don't read it if you like happy endings.
Hal Clement: "Mission of Gravity": Cool story from the King of Hard-Science Fiction.
Kim Stanley Robinson: "Red|Blue|Green Mars" is a great trilogy about terraforming Mars.
Joe Haldeman: "The Forever War" is a great novel about the disgusting futility of war.
Frank Herbert: "The White Plague" and "The Heisenburg Experiment" are cool books about genetic expermentation and of course there's his "Dune" series.
Eric Flint: "1632" is one of my favority alternate history books -- not exactly science fiction, but an entertaining read. Also Flint's "Belesarius" series is a good read. Other recommended authors of military Science Fiction are David Drake and Steve Weber. "The Warmasters" is a good intro to all three of these authors, featuring short stories from their most famous settings.
H.P. Wells: Wells' works are so good, they've become part of the human collective conciousness: "The Invisible Man", "War of the Worlds", "The Time Machine". Throw in Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" and Jules Verne's "10,000 Leagues under the Sea" to round out your old skool Science Fiction collection
Neil Stephenson: Almost all of his books are awesome. "Z
Re:Jack Womack, Jeff Noon,Dick, Wilson, Brautigan (Score:2, Informative)
And then there is Jeff Noon, another Brit. His world and writing has become quite good, though often he is round on the edges, but the language angles are always challenging and inventive. Vurt will soon be made into a movie, and it's about wonderful trip drugs encoded on feathers, allowing a
And then the usual suspect Philip K. Dick. A Scanner Darkly, Valis, The Man in the High Castle, and Confessions of a Crap Artist are tremendous, as are most of his 60s-70s work.
Robert Anton Wilson tends to run well with a lot of geeks. The Illuminatus presents a wonderful summerful of reading, as well as following up with Scrodinger's Cat. Will make the mind melt for a good amount of time. His other books like Quantum Psychology, Prometheus Rising, and Reality Is What You Can Get Away With are also great reads.
And then there is my favorite author, who makes summertime and anytime worth considering and thinking about, Richard Brautigan. Take a nice summer day to read In Watermelon Sugar and watch a new reality unfold before your brain and come out with a unspecific new way of thinking about things, in a way perhaps beyond what one commonly percieves as thinking.
Great summertime music to listen to include the illustrious, instrumental Tortoise's TNT. Always sweetens the days and compliments and reading and writing and general life living.
d. Taylor Singletary
reality technician. [elephantus.com]
American Gods (Score:4, Informative)
A world of options... (Score:3, Informative)
Anything early and non-biographical by Vonnegut is a good choice. He's written about 12 autobiographies at last count, and paying to get the same stories about his life over and over again gets a bit tedious. That said, Slaughterhouse Five and Cat's Cradle just can't be beat.
In our current socio-political situation, there's quite a few books that are more than a little relevant: 1984, Brave New World, Catch-22...
So the books above plus Ringworld give you
An idea: why not branch out a bit? it pays to have some knowledge of other cultures and non-tech related things. Get a little more well-rounded!
James Clavell's Asian Saga is amazing (they were derided as mass-market page turners back in the day -- maybe correct, but the man can tell a great story). They work better if you read them in chronological order by when the story is set (ie, start with Shogun, then Tai-Pan) instead of the order they were released in. They're hella page turners, and I'd have to say that 4 of the 6 in the series were amazing... passing on Whirlwind and Gaijin wouldn't hurt you much -- if you can even find Whirlwind -- it's been out of print a long time. Added bonus: you'll be able to speak a bit of pidgin Japanese by the end of the first two.
Considered brushing up on some Shakespeare? Most people loathe it because they're introduced in a rather hostile environment in school. Check out Macbeth or Othello. Awesome insight into human nature.
My fiancee introduced me to Paul Auster's books. Breathtaking writing.
Driving Mr. Albert (Michael Paternini) is a travelogue detailing a cross-country trip with Einstein's brain in his trunk. Amazing stuff that goes in the truth is stranger than fiction file.
My personal favorite book that I've read in a year or so, I gave to my fiancee as a gift -- Balzac and the little Chinese Seamstress. It's set during the chinese cultural revolution and is a modern-day fable. Simple, sweet, and a hell of a punch line at the end
If none of these float your boat, get your hands on a banned book [upenn.edu] list.
I'm not saying that everything on it is worth reading - but words put together in such a fashion that they can create public outcry deserve a look, at least while our first amendment is still in effect.
Cryptonomicon, Earth, A Deepness in the Sky, HHGTG (Score:4, Informative)
Otherwise there a whole CD or more worth of free sci fi, so you can get a taste of what authors you like here
http://www.baen.com/library/
I really like Lois McMaster Bujold - her "Vorkorsican" novels start with "Cordelia's Honor" which is really two novels published together ("Shards of Honor" and "Barrayar"). Epic like Starwars with much more attention to detail (are you ever annoyed when a novel fails to complete an idea, and leaves some character hanging, or contradicts its universe rules in every new release?).
And I like David Weber - "On basilisk Station" and I just finished CS Friedman "The alien shore" which I liked. Most of these involve space travel. "The alien shore" involved spaceships and social structures and computer gadgets.
David Weber was very military, as is Lois McMaster Bujold, and I don't like strict hierachies but I like these books. I like Elizabeth Moon's "Hunting Party", about Heris Serrano, again in a very hierachical society. I guess I like the breaking the rules bit that most of these use to create the drama.
David Brin - "Earth" is an epic plot weaver, the ultimate internet, combined with some interesting physics, maths and enviromental outcomes. I needed 6 bookmarks to read that one.
I hated Robert Jordan Wheel of time series because he never finishes, there are dangling ideas everywhere and it looks like every book just spawns more threads without completion. Very frustrating. I also disliked CJ Cherryh "The Chronicles of Morgaine" because it was a little bit Arthurian legend (I am sick to death of Arthur), but if you want to know where the "Stargates" come from, then it is interesting.
"A deepness in the sky" by Vernor Vinge is another great epic. It is sort of a prequel to A fire upon the deep (1993), and covers 1000's of years of time, space travel, aliens and humans, traders and religious fundamentalist dictatorships. And interestingly explores the consequences of dependence on computer systems and human augmentation with biotech.
I also like Julian May, Golden Torc series; Anne Macaffery, Mercedes Lackey (although they're a little girly-princess). Terry Goodkind is good but a little too much s&m for me. And for good detective crime fighting, I like Dick Francis, so far as I know he wrote only one computer related story "Twice Shy" and it is quite historical now ie it used cassette tapes to load the programs.
For cultural completeness, if you haven't already read these, you must read Tolkein ("Hobbit", "Lord of the Rings" etc), and Douglas Adams "Hitchikers guide to the galaxy" series.
my recent reading (Score:3, Informative)
Danny.
Hello? Zelazny!! (Score:2, Informative)
The guy didn't win multiple nebula and hugo awards for nothing. He has some of the most original and interesting ideas that I've read and my god can the guy suck you in quickly.
So for his sci-fi stuff read "The isle of the dead", "To die in Italbar", "Damnation alley" -- also a movie made in the 70's. His Amber series is pretty famous and extremely excellent in my opinion, it's kind of a blend of sci-fi & fantasy, a bit heavier on the fantasy.
Anyway, if you like Gibson you'll love Zelazny.
interesting books not listed yet on /. (Score:1, Informative)
by Israel Regardie
-Very interesting look at his early years when he developed his 'style of magic'. Story by his defunct star student, Regardie.
Futureland [amazon.com]
by Walter Mosley
-An amazingly fresh cyberpunk book! Superb series of short stories linked together.
Evasion [amazon.com]
by the Crimethink Collective.
-Sort of a post-modern Tom Sawyer story about hopping trains, living without a job, and shoplifting to survive. Come be useful info if Bush is re-elected!
The Way of the Peaceful Warrior [amazon.com] by Dan Millman
-A cool motivational/Zen book that has a big positive impact on most folks who read it.
Connie Willis (Score:3, Informative)
Reach out a little (Score:2, Informative)
While sci-fi, fantasy, tech books, etc... are fun to read, it's important to read about other things as well. You may spark interest in things that might never have crossed your path, or gain insight into your life and the world you live in. there's alot to gain from a book - more than what's on the page. The following books cover a breadth of subjects: music, art, philosophy, the mind, mathematics, society, history - not as individual topics, but instead linked together in ways that aren't very obvious. That alone would make you think some more, and the more fuel you have for that, the better off you'll be.
</lecture>
Gödel, Escher, Bach (Douglas R. Hofstadtler)
Take multi-level music (bach), recursive art (escher), and incomplete systems (gödel), string it together along the lines of reasoning, logic, computer science, and a good story and you'll eventually end up talking about Artificial Intelligence. Not a 'light' read, but challenging and satisfying in all it covers.
Gravity's Rainbow (Thomas Pynchon)
I just like this book a lot. There's quite a few different themes running independantly, touching every now and then, eventually converging. The most top-level theme is the search for an officer who is distantly related (in every sense of the word) to the German V2 rocket bomb. it's funny and has a lot going on in it. Pynchon's writing takes a bit to get used to, but it's worth the effort.
The Mind Within the Net (Manfriend Spitzer)
An intro to neural networks and how they are used to test theories on the biological functions of the brain.
Synaptic Self (Joseph LeDoux)
This book begins with the brain's biochem/electric functions. As it progresses, you'll find it parallels Spitzer's book from a biological perspective - alot of the technical aspects presented by Spitzer (i.e. modules, networks, systems) are realized in terms of physical biology.
The Metaphysical Club (Louis Menand)
Basically a history of the most prominent ideals in our society. It's interesting reading, and, considering most of the players date to the Civil War, surprisingly relevant in today's society.
Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
This is a fun book to read, good story. There's also quite a bit going on, but i've only read it once so i can't really give a revealing opinion of it.
Pratchett's Discworld (Score:3, Informative)
We're 106 leagues from Ankh-Morpork....
David Brin or Philip K. Dick (Score:2, Informative)
If you're willing to risk getting sucked into a big series, then I'd start out the "Uplift" series of books with "Sundiver". It also works well on its own, but you'll probably be compelled to read the rest if you like it.
Someone whose speculations head off in entirely different realms is my personal favorite: Philip K. Dick. A lot of his stuff kind of requires that you have a basic understanding of how his writing operates but some that are accessable to a first-timer, assuming you are one, include "Time Out of Joint", "Ubik", and "A Scanner Darkly". Set and written in the 50's, 60's, and 70's respectively, each provides a good insight into his style as it evolved. An added bonus of TOOJ is that it is the book that exposes "The Truman Show" as the blatant second-rate rip-off that it is, not that I'm holding a grudge over it.
I don't recommend "Valis" for a beginner as it really requires too much background knowledge of Dick's life to make a lot of sense out of it. But if you're willing to be confused, it's a book that can be plumbed over and over again for insight.
LuCkY WaNdEr BoY (Score:2, Informative)
Gibson on the Web (Score:2, Informative)
Try "hard SF" rather than hacker SF (Score:3, Informative)
Less "hard" SF to consider - The Stars My Destination [forum2.org], by Alfred Bester, Nova [attbi.com] by Samuel R. Delany. Maybe even Peter F. Hamilton [york.ac.uk] (start with The Reality Dysfunction), if you liked Stephenson.
Books to mess with your mind (Score:2, Informative)
I'm surprised no-one's mentioned this yet, but there's an excellent node at Everything2 with books liable to give you a mind-job:
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=10161It's got Iain Banks, Henlein, Stephen King, and loads of good authors.
Re:How about... (Score:4, Informative)
NON-FICTION:
* Joe Simpson - Touching the Void ("Dark Shadows Falling" is good too, but "Touching the Void" is the one you won't be able to put down)
* Jon Krakauer - Into Thin Air (you should probably also read Anatoli Boukreev's "The Climb" for his account of the Everest tragedy, though it's nowhere near as good a book as Krakauer's)
* Nick Hornby - Fever Pitch (for all sports fans)
* Steven Vogel - Cats' Paws and Catapults: Mechanical Worlds of Nature and People
* Simon Winchester - The Map That Changed the World
* David Attenborough - Life On Air (biography)
FICTION:
* George RR Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire series
* Kim Stanley Robinson - Red Mars (the rest of the trilogy is also good, but nowhere near as good as the first book IMO)
* Matthew Reilly - Ice Station (I challenge anyone to put this down once the action starts)
* Erich Maria Remarque - All Quiet on the Western Front (should be required reading for everyone)
* Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
* Stephen King - Christine
* Robert Ludlum - The Bourne Identity (please don't judge this on the movie - the book is on another level)
* John Fowles - The Collector
* Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series
there's lots more, but hopefully there's some decent ideas for someone there.
Re:Gibson.... (Score:4, Informative)
I also can't speak highly enough of John Courtenay Grimwood [j-cg.co.uk]. This guy's stuff is broadly in the Cyberpunk genre, but again, very different. Look at Amazon UK [amazon.co.uk] which has more on offer than the US site.
A third option are the Marid Audran/Budayeen trilogy (and others) [amazon.com] by George Alec Effinger.
Enjoy!
Trib
Read "higher" literature (Score:1, Informative)
Ulysses (and Finnegans Wake), by James Joyce. Two ontological romances (you have to read them and think about them to understand what I mean), with the kinds of word-play hackers adore.
Lolita - beautifully written, by a man writing in his second language!
A Clockwork Orange - entirely written in an artificial pidgrim language.
Anna Karenina - a slow, deeply psychological novel by Tolstoy. Try to use your analytical skills to find the structure for this one.
Grande Sertão: Veredas - by Brazilian writer Joao Guimaraes Rosa. A precious, nearly-unknown piece of universal literature. Unavailable in English, though, except in a poor translation that does not deserve any credit. (I've read it in Italian)
Goedel, Escher, Bach - the hacker's Bible? And so much more. Hackers are supposed to be such forward-thinking people. I don't know why, when it comes to literature, most of them reach for the cheaper, more obvious books.
confederacy of dunces (Score:3, Informative)
this is the funniest book i ever read. otoole wrote it, didn't publish it, then commited suicide. his mom found it and brought it to a publisher, and it won a pulitzer.
Re:Jack Womack, Jeff Noon,Dick, Wilson, Brautigan (Score:2, Informative)
Damn! I wish it was saturday!
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Gibson.... (Score:2, Informative)
Also, that music trivia guy in Chia's Sandbender in 'Idoru' sounds a lot like David Bowie, doesn't he?
Hail Eris! (Score:2, Informative)
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson
Great Resource (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Philip K. Dick (Score:2, Informative)
Good Math Reads (not an oxymoron) (Score:2, Informative)
The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography by Simon Singh - Singh does a great job of tracing codes and codebreaking through history without getting too heavy on the math. Great for historical context.
Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem, also by Singh - I never knew mathematicians had such personality. Great story of centuries of failed efforts and finally personal triumph.
History of Pi by Petr Beckman - Beckman is a bit zealous and manages to make his politics come through even in this book that does nothing more than explain how different cultures first realized the relationship between the diameter of a circle and its circumference and then how they figured out how to calculate it. Very interesting for its blend of math, history and cultural relativism.
Re:Gibson.... (Score:3, Informative)