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- Just about anything by Frank Herbert. For Dune, I'd stop at God Emperor of Dune.
- Nathan Lowell's Ismael Wang books - he's an 18 year old thrust into an interstellar merchant fleet of solar clippers.
- The entire Robots to Empire and Foundation series by Asimov
- Heinlein's future history series
- Stainless Steel Rat series
- Brave New World
- Starship Mage series by Glynn Stewart. They won't win awards but they're fast, fun romps through the future.
I'm sure there are others but these are off the top of my head.
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obermd wrote: Just about anything by Frank Herbert. For Dune, I'd stop at God Emperor of Dune.
Agreed. I've read a few of the in-universe books by his son Brian and Mark Anderson. They weren't bad, just there was a bit too strong a whiff of capitalizing on his dad's talent.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Probably...
The Foundation series (the original 3 books, a bit less for the other prequels and sequels).
Dune (the original 3 books, obviously, and a bit less for the other prequels and sequels)
The Lost Fleet (Jack Campbell)
And I know, unpopular and controversial because of the Author and what he stand for (will remain nameless and no link provided), but they are fun and entertaining....
Battlefield Earth (the movie was horribly bad) and Mission Earth.
I'd rather be phishing!
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 I never realized this was the same person (the book author and the controversial one). I am speechless.
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Maximilien wrote: Battlefield Earth
The book I enjoyed, the film stands out as one of the absolute worst ever.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -
RAH
I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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Too true. I was really looking forward to the movie.
// TODO: Insert something here Top ten reasons why I'm lazy
1.
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Maximilien wrote: Battlefield Earth
I am ashamed to admit I read the whole damned thing, thereby wasting a couple of weeks in my reading life. At that time I always finished a book, even when it was awful. I could have been reading something more entertaining, like used toilet paper.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Having +/- 1200 of them it is very hard to choose ( I know, I am an addict ) but I did enjoy the Foundation series, the Dune series, The dragons of Pern and many others. Special mention though for Douglas Adam's and Terry pratchett's stuff. After all it is very hard to beat 42 and the idea of a discworld. 
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1200 as hard cover ? And the mansion that goes with it ?
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Nope, all of them are paperbacks so I don't need a mansion. Its amazing what you can do with a custom home built bookcase. Mind you, it does take an entire wall though. 
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I've got around 2,000 now, and that's after heavily winnowing my book collection over the last 20 years. When we moved into our previous house, the moving company added a surcharge for the 250+ boxes of books my wife and I had between us.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Special effects are now robust enough for Pern.
Anne refused to sell the rights?
I’ve given up trying to be calm. However, I am open to feeling slightly less agitated.
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I think I'd like to see Pern done as a limited series on Netflix or one of the other streaming services. There are enough characters and story arcs to be worth a couple of 10-episode seasons.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Anything by Harry Harrison - I am re-reading a collection of 50 short stories by him at the moment.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Does one lose his access to the lounge if he admits to never reading SF?
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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No, I have never read any programming book neither.
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theoldfool wrote: he admits to never reading SF?
No, but it does beg the question:
What's wrong with you?
Software Zen: delete this;
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Dropped on my head when I was little. Why else would I try to write code?
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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That makes sense. In my case, I climbed to the top of my mother's upright piano when I was four and fell off, whacking my head on the way down. The scar is still visible on my scalp.
Software Zen: delete this;
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The classics are classics for a reason and most of them hold up very well today.
Dune (the first one) - builds an entire galactic civilization and an incredible story in one book. Loved it. The next few - not as much.
Off the beaten path though:
One book I read that I really enjoyed was 'The Excalibur Alternative' - David Weber. Good stand-alone story in the age of 10 book series.
James Hogan had some great takes on robotic evolution in Code of the Lifemaker, and on AI in The Two Faces of Tomorrow. I don't know how well these have aged in 40 years though.
David Brin 'The Practice Effect' has a great twist on fundamental physics in an parallel universe.
My two cents.
If you can't laugh at yourself - ask me and I will do it for you.
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Was it you who talked about Rene Barjavel's The Ice People several years back here?
I ended up convincing a friend to buy a second hand copy off some foreign Amazon site (they were not active in India then and still don't sell second hand books) and bring it to me the next time they came. I rather enjoyed it, although the ending was sad. So thanks a lot for the (much) earlier recommendation.
I also liked:
Clifford Simak - City.
Arthur C Clarke - Rendezvous with Rama.
Hal Clement - Mission of Gravity.
Cheers,
Vikram.
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Vikram A Punathambekar wrote: Was it you who talked about Rene Barjavel's The Ice People several years back here?
Either me or KaRL, who was the only other person that I know (also IRL) who also knew Barajavel. But wow, good memories ! And what an effort you got into to buy the book 
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Ah yes, might have been Karl with the backwards R, but probably you.
Yes, I went to a lot of effort to buy some secondhand books ~10 years back. The aforementioned Mission of Gravity and City were also bought on Amazon US/UK secondhand.
Cheers,
Vikram.
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