Any recommendations for serious science fiction book or film (movies)?

kelper · Mar 7, 2024

Can you recommend any really good science fiction that does not disolve into fantasy woo like 2001 A Space Odyssey, Contact and the like?

The Martian with Matt Damon was scientifically accurate but did not try and predict the future so was a bit dull. I liked Inception.

Arthur C Clarke's books were brilliant, especially Rendezvous with Rama.

My all-time favourite novel is Dragon's Egg by Robert L Forward Dragon's Egg - Wikipedia

It was Arthur C Clarke who posited the idea of man made satellites and he also wrote about the 'space elevator' proving that, at the time, there was no material strong enough to provide the tether. One day, space elevators might be a cheap way to lift objects into Earth orbit. He has done all the necessary maths!

Ghot · Mar 7, 2024

@kelper

You have great taste in SF.
I have all Robert L. Forward's fiction books. Check out "Rocheworld" also.
(just skip over the overly explained rocket technology)

And I think I've read all Arthur C. Clark's fiction, over the years.

The 2nd movie... 2010 The Year We Make Contact (1984), was much better than... 2001: A Space Odyssey
Much better.

I'm now gonna go through my movies list to find some other excellent SF flicks...

Aliens (1986)
Arrival (2016)
Avatar (2009)
Blade Runner (1982)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Colossus The Forbin Project (1970)
Cowboys & Aliens (2011)
Fantastic Voyage (1966)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
Forever Young (1992)
Gravity (2013)
Hollow Man (2000)
I Robot (2004)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)
Logan's Run (1976)
Men In Black (1977) (and the 2nd one as well)
Mysterious Island (1961)
Short Circuit (1986)
Soylent Green (1973)
Space Cowboys (2000)
Starman (1984)
The Andromeda Strain (1971)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
The Fifth Element (1997)
The Final Countdown (1980)
The Keep (1983)
The Langoliers (1995)
The Man From Earth (2007)
The Mothman Prophecies (2002)
The Objective (2008)
The Philadelphia Experiment (1984)
The Time Machine (1960)
The War of the Worlds (1953)
The X-Files (1998)
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
When Worlds Collide (1951)

Some excellent SF books...

That should hold you for a while.

Flashorn · Mar 7, 2024

Ghot said:
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Love that one and most on your list
Do you have any time left after watching all those movies??
There is / was a remake of that movie. Don't know how good
it is as I haven't seen it yet.

The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) ⭐ 5.5 | Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi

1h 44m | PG-13

www.imdb.com

The Core

The Core (2003) ⭐ 5.5 | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

2h 15m | PG-13

www.imdb.com

kelper · Mar 7, 2024

For me, sci-fi has to include solid science. Most sci-fi is actually fantasy. Isaac Asimov wrote proper sci-fi.

kelper · Mar 7, 2024

@Ghot most of those don't count as science fiction to me, but will check some titles that I don't recognise. So, thanks for posting.

Ghot · Mar 7, 2024

kelper said:
@Ghot most of those don't count as science fiction to me, but will check some titles that I don't recognise. So, thanks for posting.

I understand.
Most of the books I listed are hard science.

It's hard for me. I think I read ALL the golden age SF authors.

May want to check Larry Niven books, too. Namely...
The Mote in God's Eye
The Integral Trees
The Smoke Ring
And ofc... the Ringworld books.

Just got this about a year ago... seven Jules Verne books in one binding. (complete and unabridged)
Very well made hard back book.

Jules Verne omnibus

And out of all the movies I listed... make sure to watch: The Final Countdown (1980)
Excellent flick!

kelper · Mar 7, 2024

Dhalgren by RD Delaney is about a poet in a post apocalyptic world. Not sci-fi but would be in that section in a bookshop. Oddly fascinating. As was Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart. That really scared me.

As did Dianetics the modern Science of Mental Health by L Ron Hubbard as it all seemed so convincing. It claimed to be science but was total fiction, written for a bet.

Ghot · Mar 7, 2024

kelper said:
Dhalgren by RD Delaney is about a poet in a post apocalyptic world. Not sci-fi but would be in that section in a bookshop. Oddly fascinating. As was Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart. That really scared me.

As did Dianetics the modern Science of Mental Health by L Ron Hubbard as it all seemed so convincing. It claimed to be science but was total fiction, written for a bet.

Dhalgren was another excellent book.

You have good taste.

Here's some of the authors, I still remember...

Delaney
Jerry Pournelle
Clifford D. Simak
Ray Bradbury
Robert A. Heinlein
Frederik Pohl
ofc, Clarke and Asimov
Theodore Sturgeon
Philip K. Dick
Robert Silverberg (into animals)
Poul Anderson
Ursala Le Guin
Kim Stanley Robinson
Brian Aldiss
Piers Anthony
Greg Bear
Gregory Benford
David Brin
Gordon R. Dickson
Stephen R. Donaldson

LOL... there's too many... here's a list of the sci-fi authors...

List of science-fiction authors - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

kelper · Mar 7, 2024

@Ghot

Do you think we could include Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for its sheer imaginative tales of interplanetry travel?

Ghot · Mar 7, 2024

kelper said:
@Ghot

Do you think we could include Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for its sheer imaginative tales of interplanetry travel?

Oh, yeah. I didn't think you would count that as hard SF.

The sequel, "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe", too.

And you better believe that I know where my towel is.

The answer to Life, the Universe and Everything is... 42

PerpetualCycle · Mar 7, 2024

Arrival is the best sci-fi movie I have ever seen, and I have seen a lot.

Nvels are Dune series and other Frank Herbert, Stranger in a Strange Land, Dahlgren by Delany, and the Foundation Series.

Those are my favorite serious Scifi off the top of my head.

kelper · Mar 7, 2024

How is Dune sci-fi? It's just fantasy.

Ghot · Mar 7, 2024

kelper said:
How is Dune sci-fi? It's just fantasy.

Dune is sci-fi... but IMO, only the first book is any good.
The sequels are pretty much just more Dune politics with the names changed.

Steven Brust is a great author as well, but more fantasy.
Still... his books listed below are a great and highly original read.
The Phoenix Guards
Five Hundred Years After
The Paths of the Dead
The Lord of Castle Black
Sethra Lavode

You can read a sample, here... LINK

The books are written like they talked, around the time of The Three Musketeers.
I've read these five books, so many times, they are falling apart.

Great website for finding an author's books list...
Just search for the author's name at top right...

Book Series in Order

A List of Characters and Authors and Their Books

www.bookseriesinorder.com

That's where those pics came from in post #2

And let's not forget, the best sci-fi ever. I devoured these in 4th grade...

These are the books that got me hooked on sci-fi.

I went straight from these to Jules Verne and J.R.R. Tolkien. And then 99% of the golden age sci-fi authors.

kelper · Mar 7, 2024

Ghot said:
@kelper

You have great taste in SF.
I have all Robert L. Forward's fiction books. Check out "Rocheworld" also.
(just skip over the overly explained rocket technology)

I have ordered the first of the Rocheworld series; thanks for the tip.

kelper · Mar 7, 2024

Ghot said:
And out of all the movies I listed... make sure to watch: The Final Countdown (1980)
Excellent flick!

Time travel woo is not for me, I don't see it as science fiction but that;s just my opinion.

Did you like the Lensman series by EE Doc Smith?

Ghot · Mar 7, 2024

kelper said:
Time travel woo is not for me, I don't see it as science fiction but that;s just my opinion.

Did you like the Lensman series by EE Doc Smith?

No to Smith.

And trust me... The Final Countdown is an awesome movie.
Well cast, well made, and very original.

kelper · Mar 7, 2024

Ghot and others have led me to conclude that the era of truly imaginative science fiction is over. All the things we dreamed of when I was young (I was born in 1955) have come to pass. Man landed on the Moon. Automation is here. AI is here and robots are building cars. We have robotic surgeons and machines that understand our speech.

One thing I love about old movies set in the future was that they tell us more about the time they were made than anything in the plot. Look at all those men wearing pants (trousers) almost up to their armpits.

Star Trek has a command structure copied from the US Navy of the sixties with midshipmen and other historical ranks!

Galaxy Quest and Starship Troopers seemed to me to be far more creative..

Dr Strangelove was amazing, especially in its portrayal of a launch sequence in a real Minuteman bunker.

kelper · Mar 7, 2024

How about the 'Man who Fell to Earth' with David Bowie. It seems now to be a warning about Elon Musk who is surely an alien!

There was a TV series about UFOs starring David McCallum that I loved but can't find out about. He played Illya Kuryakin in The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

cereberus · Mar 8, 2024

Dune Frank Herbert. Nothing else compares.

A Guy · Mar 9, 2024

Been many years, but I remember Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke as being very scientific. Award winning book

Do androids dream of electric sheep? Philip K. Dick...basis for the Blade Runner movie

The Andromeda Strain Michael Crichton

People often recommend The Expanse series, nine novels

A Guy