so what was the first sci-fi book you can remember reading.....

Tintin : Explorers on the Moon (at the age of six!!)

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Tunnel in The Sky Heinlein.
I think I was about 9 years old.

so what was the first sci-fi book you can remember reading. and what was it about the story that got you hooked on sci-fi?

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so what was the first sci-fi book you can remember reading. and what was it about the story that got you hooked on sci-fi?

[/quote]

"old Doc Methuselah" L. Ron Hubbard (age 10-ish).

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Belief gets in the way of learning

The author that brought me into the genre is Orson Scott Card, not only for his "Ender's Game" series, but also for his fantastic "Homecoming" series.

What an imagination this guys has! And, Man, can he ever write well!

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/orson-scott-card

and see his official website, hatrack.

http://www.hatrack.com


P.S. Jim: What a great list!

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The author that brought me into the genre is Orson Scott Card, not only for his "Ender's Game" series, but also for his fantastic "Homecoming" series.

What an imagination this guys has! And, Man, can he ever write well!

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/orson-scott-card

and see his official website, hatrack.

http://www.hatrack.com


P.S. Jim: What a great list!

Edgar Rice Burroughs was probably the first....the 'John Carter of Mars' series....

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Founder of BOINC team Objectivists. Oh the humanity! Rational people crunching data!
I did NOT authorize this belly writing!

"Dark is the Sun" by Philip Jose Farmer when I was 9. Still a favourite!

His Riverworld books and World of Tiers series are also excellent.

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Reality Internet Personality

A few of my favorites in no particular order:

All My Sins Remembered - Joe Haldeman
Mindbridge - Joe Haldeman
The Mote in God's Eye - Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
Ringworld - Larry Niven
The Heritage Universe series - Charles Sheffield
Childhood's End - Arthur C Clarke
The Andromeda Strain - Michael Chrichton

Favorite childhood reading:
A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle

Some of my favorites.....

Journey Into the Void -(Margare Weis, Tracy Hickman)
Guardians of the Lost - (Margare Weis, Tracy Hickman)
Well of Darkness - (Margare Weis, Tracy Hickman)
Magician Trilogy - Raymond E. Feist
Neuromancer - W.Gibson
Mona Lisa Overdrive - W.Gibson
Burning Chrome - W.Gibson
Dragon Lance Chronicles Trilogy (Margare Weis, Tracy Hickman)
Dragon Lance Legends Trilogy (Margare Weis, Tracy Hickman)
Battlefield Earth - L. Ron Hubbard (the movie was complete crapola)
Mission Earth Series - L.Ron Hubbard
Rama II - Arthur C. Clarke
Dune - Frank Herbert
Dune Mesiah - Frank Herbert
Children of Dune - Frank Herbert
Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein

Sometimes you just gotta go back and re-read the ones you really fell in love with.....

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Belief gets in the way of learning

Robert Jordan - the WHEEL OF TIME series... think ive got up to 10 novels of his, each one is BIG [around 800 pages]... so it takes a few months to plow through all these

Ben Bova - lots of good stuff from him
Tobias Hill - The Cryptographer...a good read 264 pages.
Robert Harris - ENIGMA 387 pages
Phillip Finch - F2F .. a psycho stalks the net, death is a call away... 280 pages
Clive Cussler , he carries certain characters through series of books

off the sf track but worth it.. Takashi Matsuoka - Cloud Of Sparrows... a realy good read

Robert Jordan - the WHEEL OF TIME series... think ive got up to 10 novels of his, each one is BIG [around 800 pages]... so it takes a few months to plow through all these

Ben Bova - lots of good stuff from him
Tobias Hill - The Cryptographer...a good read 264 pages.
Robert Harris - ENIGMA 387 pages
Phillip Finch - F2F .. a psycho stalks the net, death is a call away... 280 pages
Clive Cussler , he carries certain characters through series of books

off the sf track but worth it.. Takashi Matsuoka - Cloud Of Sparrows... a realy good read

The Philip K. Dick collected short stories are fantastic. I have 5 of the 7 (or is it 6?) volumes and love to read a few every now and then. His novels are all amazing as well although I find I can only read one at a time or I start feeling very disconnected from the world - not surprising really when you consider the character of the author.

Robert

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so what was the first sci-fi book you can remember reading. and what was it about the story that got you hooked on sci-fi?

"old Doc Methuselah" L. Ron Hubbard (age 10-ish).[/quote]

The Galatic Patrol by EEC Doc Smith third book in the lensman series,. I can even rember where i bought it a little book shop in Failsworth Manchester UK got hook on HC scifi liike asimov, heinlein, hamilton, clarke, Weber flint and many others

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Sapiens dominabitur astris.
The wise shall exercise dominion over the stars.

I was lucky when I went to school in the 60's that one of the books we had to do was John Wyndam's 'Day of the Triffids' which got me into SF. Other books by him are 'The Kraken Wakes' and 'Midwitch Cuckoo'. I enjoyed at the time Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars and Venus series though these are now bit dated.

An author not mentioned is Edmond Cooper who wrote several short books of which 'The Overman Culture' is my favorite.

Regards

Luigi

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.


A person who makes no mistakes, creates nothing.

A lot of people have mentioned William Gibson, author of "Neuromancer" and inventor of the term "cyberspace". He's an excellent researcher, very up on current affairs, and he has an interesting personal blog site that you may enjoy.

http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/blog/archive.asp

I was very taken with Lucius Shepard's novel "Green Eyes", a facinating mix of sci-fi and New Orleans voodoo. I found it on this list below, which is a pretty good one. If you can't quite remember the author or title of a good sci-fi book, chances are you'll see it here:

http://www.ku.edu/~sfcenter/sflib.htm

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so what was the first sci-fi book you can remember reading. and what was it about the story that got you hooked on sci-fi?

"old Doc Methuselah" L. Ron Hubbard (age 10-ish).

The Galatic Patrol by EEC Doc Smith third book in the lensman series,. I can even rember where i bought it a little book shop in Failsworth Manchester UK got hook on HC scifi liike asimov, heinlein, hamilton, clarke, Weber flint and many others

Actually i did read an EE Doc Smith novel... i cannot recall the name (it was years ago), but it was definately from the lensman series. Do you know the other two books??

@Luigi

The day of the triffids was quite a cool concept. I read it in the 80's and watch the serial (BBC from memory).

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Belief gets in the way of learning

The Lensman Series
1. Triplanetary
2. First Lensman
3. Galactic Patrol
4. Grey Lensman
5. Second Stage Lensman
6. Children of the Lens
7.Masters of the vortex.

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The Lensman Series
1. Triplanetary
2. First Lensman
3. Galactic Patrol
4. Grey Lensman
5. Second Stage Lensman
6. Children of the Lens
7.Masters of the vortex.

Excellent! Thanks man. I am going to see if i can hunt them down.... i wonder if it is still in print..... hmmm perhaps not. Will see.

I have moved away from science/fanatasy fiction in recent years...... there are now so many titles from so many authors but you have inspired me! Thanks!

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Belief gets in the way of learning

A lot of people have mentioned William Gibson, author of "Neuromancer" and inventor of the term "cyberspace". He's an excellent researcher, very up on current affairs, and he has an interesting personal blog site that you may enjoy.

http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/blog/archive.asp

I was very taken with Lucius Shepard's novel "Green Eyes", a facinating mix of sci-fi and New Orleans voodoo. I found it on this list below, which is a pretty good one. If you can't quite remember the author or title of a good sci-fi book, chances are you'll see it here:

http://www.ku.edu/~sfcenter/sflib.htm

The first time i picked up Neuromancer, i simply could not put it down. It really blew me away.... especially characters like 'molly' and the turing 'life forms' etc the Yakuza man... it was as was the third...LOL. I read it at a time that was 'pre-Internet'.

In fact after i read two, or three of his famous books in a row over a few days, i need a few more days to 'come back to reality'...... haha.

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Belief gets in the way of learning

The first time i picked up Neuromancer, i simply could not put it down. It really blew me away.... especially characters like 'molly' and the turing 'life forms' etc the Yakuza man... it was as was the third...LOL. I read it at a time that was 'pre-Internet'.

In fact after i read two, or three of his famous books in a row over a few days, i need a few more days to 'come back to reality'...... haha.

It was the same for me, Enigma. Isn't he something? And his writing is so sharp and spare and edgy. I used to wait for months in anticpation! ...of a new book by him coming out.

Speaking of pre-internet days: Another guy who did incredible amounts of research, and also showed me what the internet was going to look long before it happened, was Bruce Sterling with "Islands on the Net", published in 1988.

Anyone who's a writer and wants to see how good these guys are at creating a world should read the book they wrote together, "The Difference Engine". They show what would have happened if mechanical (rather than electrical) computers had been invented in Victorian times. While it's not their best book, it really shows how they go about their business of writing, the depth of it all.

Your post Enigma, caused me to google them both this morning. And, what a find! I've got an interesting article by Bruce Serling at the link below. And! Gibson's got a new paperback out! "Pattern Recognition" ...I'm going to run to the bookstore to get it. So, thanks for that!

http://www.viridiandesign.org/2006/03/viridian-note-00459-emerging.html

"Spimes": I've gotta think about those. After all, the man's been right before.

These guys, Gibson and Sterling were the greats of the Cyberpunk genre, the "near futurists" if I can call them that. Their hard-core deep research showed you what was to come. After that, sci-fi went heavilly into a pure fantasy mode and left science and the future behind, so I lost interest. I wonder sometimes if that was part of an editors' plot to keep us ignorant.

I miss these guys though: their research, their information. *sigh*

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i've seen gibson's books around - how could i not - but have never read any. i'm thinking it may be time to remedy that situation. how did you describe his writing? sharp? spare? and edgy? when most books seem bloated, i find it so refreshing to find an author who, with a minimum of words, hits the nail on the head - so to speak. it may be blaspheme to praise a non-sci-fi writer, but i've always admired hemmingway's short stories for that very reason.

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people demand freedom of speech as a compensation for freedom of thought which they seldom use - soren kierkegaard

i've seen gibson's books around - how could i not - but have never read any. i'm thinking it may be time to remedy that situation. how did you describe his writing? sharp? spare? and edgy? when most books seem bloated, i find it so refreshing to find an author who, with a minimum of words, hits the nail on the head - so to speak. it may be blaspheme to praise a non-sci-fi writer, but i've always admired hemmingway's short stories for that very reason.

I agree with you on Hemmigway also being a very spare and 'simple' writer. It takes great clarity of thought to reduce a complex thought to a simple, short expression of it. You really have to understand something clearly before you can express it clearly, don't you agree?

I think you'll find that Gibson has that clean terse narrative that you enjoy with Hemmingway. I'd try "Neuromancer" as a start; it won both the Nebula Award (from other sci-fi writers) and the Hugo Award (from the fans).

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