Who is your favorite Science Fiction Author? \ stacker news ~BooksAndArticles

Who is your favorite Science Fiction Author?

1022 sats \ 78 comments \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 20 Oct BooksAndArticles

There are a lot of really good Sci-fi authors out there. Some wrote single books, some wrote series. Who did you like best? If it is “OTHER” type the name into the comments.

1 . Asimov24.1%

2. Dick24.1%

3. Heinlein6.9%

4 . Herbert6.9%

5. Brin0.0%

6. McCaffery0.0%

7. Other37.9%

29 votes \ poll ended

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27 sats \ 5 replies \ @Satosora 20 Oct

I enjoy robert heinlein. I read a lot of his books when l was younger.

21 sats \ 4 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 20 Oct

Heinlein was interesting, he had two phases. Which phase did you like best early or late?

10 sats \ 3 replies \ @orangecheckemail_isthereany 20 Oct

Could you briefly describe these phases as you see them for those uninitiated or laymen among us?

21 sats \ 2 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 20 Oct

His early phase lacked the weirdness of the later phases. He got interested in writing almost semi-porn in the later phase. Then he had a surgery for carotid artery blockage and had another phase that was more the usual for science fiction. Anybody can correct me if they have another opinion. Please change my mind.

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @orangecheckemail_isthereany 20 Oct

I've read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Stranger in a Strange Land, and Starship Troopers. Which phase(s) would these be from?

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 20 Oct

I would put them in his early phase. Stranger in a Strange Land would be right at the boundary between the early phase and next phase. After that things got different.

145 sats \ 7 replies \ @jk_14 20 Oct

Stanisław Lem (no 1: Solaris)

32 sats \ 4 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 20 Oct

Very interesting!! This is an old school author!

10 sats \ 3 replies \ @jk_14 20 Oct

Truły speaking, 30 years ago I had the same problem like today: if Solaris (Lem) or if Ubik (Dick) is my favorite... ;)

21 sats \ 2 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 20 Oct

Personally, it is really hard to come up with only one. There are a lot of good authors that have interesting stories. I like the ones that get involved in longer series.

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @jk_14 20 Oct

If you want to read something old, similar to those two above, you must search for this:

https://goodreads.com/book/show/54873914.Robot__Penguin_Science_Fiction_

(random comment: "Too insane for a review" ;)

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 20 Oct

Penguin is only one of the myriad publishers of Science Fiction. I suspect they will only point at what they published as the “good reads”

42 sats \ 1 reply \ @JesseJames 21 Oct

^^^What he said...+1

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 21 Oct

I will have to look into him again.

32 sats \ 10 replies \ @TheMorningStar 20 Oct

None other than HG Wells

The first Man in the Moon

0 sats \ 9 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 20 Oct

Wells is super Old School. Unfortunately, he was a Fabian in all of his viewpoints.

52 sats \ 8 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 20 Oct

Free markets don't always provide the best outcomes.

0 sats \ 7 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 20 Oct

Since when was that? You are saying command control economies have better results, no? Can you show one command control economy that has even made it over the long run? Free markets (black markets) have existed forever, even in so-called command control economies!

0 sats \ 6 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 20 Oct

Chinas economy has grown faster than any comparable. Yes a government that has the interests of the wider economy can theoretically promote and stimulate the economy- this is proven without any doubt through history for example in post Mao China- the growth of the Chinese economy is a result of strategic development of infrastructure and controlled allowance of competition and private ownership. Without centralised management and development markets will crash, cartels and monopolies will form, price fixing market rigging will occur...this was pointed out by Adam Smith but I guess you have not read his full works...

0 sats \ 5 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 20 Oct

OK, if you say so.

0 sats \ 4 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 20 Oct

Ok, as you can't refute it.

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 20 Oct

No, OK, because it is not worth even trying to refute it. In China, it was the Dengist movement that did the heavy economic lifting.

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32 sats \ 4 replies \ @jimmysong 21 Oct

Ken Liu, and not just because he wrote the foreword for my first book.

39 sats \ 2 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 21 Oct

Sorry, I am not familiar with Ken Liu. What did he write?

63 sats \ 1 reply \ @jimmysong 21 Oct

He's probably most famous for his short story Paper Menagerie, which won the Hugo, Nebula and World Science Fiction awards. He's written the 4-book epic Dandelion Dynasty series, has a few short story collections including one in the Star Wars universe, and a few other books, almost all very unique in their approach. He also translated the first and third books of the Three Body Problem trilogy and has a bunch of short films and TV series based on his stories. He's one of the few sci-fi authors that treats Bitcoin properly.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 21 Oct

Wow, I guess I have been out of touch with the awards scene for too many years. I will have to look them up again, soonest. There must be I missed a whole lot of decent books. I got bummed out by the St. George Floyd peaceful gatherings that were in the area of Uncle Hugo’s SF Bookstore when it curiously caught fire and all those books went up in cinders. Yep, really bummed.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @DesertDave 21 Oct

Someone opened back up Christianity and renamed it to spirituality. I just learned you founded it originally. I'm curious why you decided not to keep it up.

61 sats \ 2 replies \ @supertestnet 21 Oct

Jules Verne

Three of his novels contain incredible insights into the future trajectory of mechanical science:

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
- Mostly-accurately describes how submarines would work
- Including how they expel air to sink
- And how they decompress air to rise
- And how they refill their compressed air tanks while surfaced
- And how they use giant rotating "fans" to move forward and backward
- Mostly-accurately describes the flora and fauna of sea animals in various parts of the world
- Bonus: great characters, motivations, and plot
Robur the Conqueror
- Accurately describes three methods for controlled flight before the invention of airplanes
- Accurately describes the principles of operation of gas-filled aircraft like airships and hot-air balloons (but this is not surprising because they were a regular part of scientific experiments in Verne's time)
- Accurately describes how rotational motion induces lift (if the motor is placed horizontally) and can be used to design helicopters
- Accurately describes how an airfoil induces lift when air is passed over it and can be used to design airplanes
From the Earth to the Moon
- Accurately predicts that American space exploration would begin with launch facilities in Florida and Texas
- Accurately explains why, namely, because Earth's rotation can assist with the launch and this rotation is relatively faster in the south
- Accurately describes the quantity of propellant needed to get a spacecraft to leave earth's pull
- Accurately describes the effects of gravity reduction as the ship leaves earth's pull

It wasn't just that Jules Verne imagined the future. He figured out how his mental inventions could work in reality, with mechanical descriptions and sometimes precise instrumentation. In many cases he described potential future equipment and technology in great detail, including mathematical formulae for how much lift could be generated by a submarine or an airfoil or an explosion, including environmental factors as influences on his calculations, and the stuff he described often came to fruition.

Basically, he was doing "hard science fiction" over a hundred years before it was cool. Or anyway he tried. He was also not always super careful, and drew about as many "wrong" inferences as right ones. But when he was right, his precision astounds me.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @fm 21 Oct

spot on.. among my first choices..

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 21 Oct

Jules Vern was good but that was long ago! I especially liked 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

11 sats \ 0 replies \ @DesertDave 21 Oct

Dick because it's funny. Hahahahaha

11 sats \ 3 replies \ @Undisciplined 21 Oct

Vonnegut - He's my favorite author and he wrote some science fiction.

I'd probably take Heinlein and Herbert out of the more conventional sci-fi authors.

27 sats \ 2 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 21 Oct

Vonnegut is also an interesting choice. I am beginning to think that this poll is looking more and more like a Rorschach test. You can almost see certain personalities being attracted to certain authors

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @Undisciplined 21 Oct

No doubt that's true

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 21 Oct

It is good to see that my observations can be replicated!!! I guess I am just not in the Fauci sort of league.

120 sats \ 3 replies \ @jasonb 20 Oct

Liu Cixin

21 sats \ 2 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 20 Oct

I seem to remember seeing this author’s name somewhere, before. I can’t quite place it. Could you hint me in on some of his work?

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @jasonb 20 Oct

He does the three body series. Its basically an alien invasion from a hard sci-fi perspective (so literally hundreds of years from the first time they contact them until arrival) that starts in the trauma of the Chinese cultural revolution.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 20 Oct

Sounds good, I’ll have to look him up on my next trip to the bookstore.

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @rheedi0 21 Oct

Le Guin should be on this list

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 21 Oct

Yes, again I agree! But the list is only so long. It only contains this number of authors because I couldn’t put more in the list.

20 sats \ 5 replies \ @028559d218 21 Oct

Larry Niven. I remember a Mote in god's eye like it was yesterday

0 sats \ 4 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 21 Oct

The Ringworld books and Integral Trees are also good.

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @028559d218 21 Oct

Yes they are I loved the ringworld books

10 sats \ 2 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 21 Oct

There was also one called Footfall, I believe that was pretty good. Perhaps that was written with somebody.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @chaoticalHeavy 21 Oct

Footfall

With Jerry Pournelle

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 22 Oct

Yeah, I saw that article after the edit period was over!

11 sats \ 2 replies \ @7e6e393a56 20 Oct

I have to mention, perhaps the creator of science fiction Jules Verne

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 20 Oct

You might have an argument on your hands about Poe and Shelly over the creator of SF. I think there were many who contributed to the beginnings.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @7e6e393a56 20 Oct

You are right. My memory betrayed me

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @orangecheckemail_isthereany 20 Oct

I'd strongly recommend the short story "The Machine Stops" by E.M. Forster. Very small time investment. I think it's really great story and very applicable to the times. Seems like the film Wall E took quite a bit of inspiration from this. I think more steps should be taken to mitigate the risk illustrated by the story.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 20 Oct

A.E. Van Vogt wrote some neat little novels about “Weapon Shops”. I thought they were really good, too.

10 sats \ 2 replies \ @Coinsreporter 20 Oct

Asimov without a doubt.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 20 Oct

I like his Foundation Series which in the end folded in the Robots, too.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Coinsreporter 20 Oct

All of his works are great. My favourite is "Three Laws of Robotics"

11 sats \ 4 replies \ @anna 21 Oct

Philip K. Dick sticks with me because his books feel so pertinent to the times we’re living. In particular, the absurdity of putting blind faith into AI, surveillance, and subscription models

22 sats \ 3 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 21 Oct

I don’t know how Dick foresaw what he did! He was very accurate on many points. The written rumor was that he was a heavy user of hallucinogenic additives.

11 sats \ 0 replies \ @DesertDave 21 Oct

Makes sense.

20 sats \ 1 reply \ @anna 21 Oct

Oh yeah, I believe it. I think he is spot on in the way he portrays not just the technology but the psychology behind it

11 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 21 Oct

Some of his situations, plots and characters were just surreal. Very interesting but totally surreal.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @fm 21 Oct

Eric Arthur Blair..

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 21 Oct

Yes, but he isn’t ordinarily recalled as Eric Arthur Blair. George Orwell is a more famous name.

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @xz 21 Oct

Was tempted to answer Dick or Herbert. I found Herbert quite easy to read. Hellstron's Hive was pretty good, although I think it was one of those reads slightly outshone by his more famous title. Dick, it's hard to say, I found, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and others I've picked up quite hard to read, I think that was being influences by movies.

Quite into Jeff Noon. If you don't know him, I think Pollen is his most read book. It's one of those books that requires a fair amount of unbroken attention to get into it, and hard to explain. It's set in the UK, as I remember.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 21 Oct

This is another new author to me. I just have to get to the bookstore ASAP. Unfortunately, they do not accept bitcoin!

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @xz 21 Oct

I have the same thoughts when I peruse bookstores. I bought a few Bitcoin titles at the first conference I made it to this year. My only regret was not buying more, as there were a lot of ancilliary topics and titles.

We need a robust p2p second hand book market.

7 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 21 Oct

If you are into Science Fiction, Uncle Hugo’s Science Fiction Bookstore will pick out books and send them to you. You can ask for books of any kind or specific books. When I was living in Japan, I had them send me boxes of perhaps 50-75 books at.a time. They also do Uncle Edgar’s Mystery Bookstore. They are totally independent.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Taurus 21 Oct

Christian Grenier

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 21 Oct

What did he write? What kind of stories?

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @DesertDave 21 Oct

I don't know how to read, so...

11 sats \ 1 reply \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 21 Oct

I guess that leaves you out of so much of life. I cannot read some languages, either.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @DesertDave 21 Oct

Well, maybe I can kind of read. Do you read multiple languages?

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @orangecheckemail_isthereany 20 Oct

I should read more scifi but Heinlein would probably be the one I'd pick from the few I've read.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 20 Oct

He is a good start.

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @orangecheckemail_isthereany 20 Oct

I did read the famous one from PKD but no others of his though I think I should. I've listened to Tom Luongo quite a bit, I like the guy and respect him and he is a very big fan of PKD. Which authors and specifically which books would you recommend?

edited to add (append-only style): Foundation series and Dune seem a bit daunting (they're very long right?). Should probably read Dune, at least the first one edited to add some more: I like the fact that massive spans of time are covered / narrated in the Foundation series. Dune as well but maybe not to the same extent but still a large swath of time iirc (from reading or hearing stuff about the books) adding some more: I remember reading the Nexus series by Ramez Naam. Some guest on some interview recommended that series. Or might have listened to podcasts with the author. Might have been Singularity one-on-one. I seem to remember liking those and the way they were written.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic OP 20 Oct

Wow, now you’ve got me!! I have about 2,000 paperbacks and about 200 hardback Science Fiction books. To give only a few recommendations would be difficult. Dick is good, though for starters, I would recommend Heinlein’s Future History series of short stories, novellas and novels. Otherwise Herbert’s series, Asimov’s Foundation Series and Niven’s Ringworld stories are, too. Does anyone else have good ideas to start someone off reading Science Fiction?