Science Fiction Recommendations

[MTC]

What are your favourite science fiction authors? I've always enjoyed reading Philip K. Dick, J.G. Ballard and Ray Bradbury, but would like to expand this fairly limited horizon a bit more.

The recent collection of SF novels from the Library of America looks interesting but I am only familiar with a few of the included authors, so not really sure whether to buy or not.
http://sciencefiction.loa.org

Recommendations of more contemporary science fiction authors would also be much appreciated.

Dune is a very special book for me.

[gveranon]

I read a lot of sf when I was in my teens and twenties. Since then, my reading interests have taken me in different directions, so I don't have many contemporary recommendations.

If you're looking for negative, pessimistic sf, I recommend Barry Malzberg's blackly comic novels and stories (Beyond Apollo, The Passage of the Light). Also James Tiptree, Jr. -- many Ligottians would appreciate stories such as "The Last Flight of Dr. Ain" and "A Momentary Taste of Being." Thomas Disch's Camp Concentration. Cyril Kornbluth's short stories.

For more recent sf, I recommend Richard Powers' Orfeo and Quentin S. Crisp's Blue on Blue. I consider both of those novels to be superior works of contemporary sf, but I don't think either could have been published within the genre.

For conceptually mind-blowing sf, I recommend Greg Egan and Rudy Rucker. For bleeding-edge near-future sf, Bruce Sterling. In my opinion, these authors aren't as literarily accomplished as the ones I mentioned above, but they're not bad, and their stories and novels are well worth reading.

I keep thinking of more names, but I'll stop.

[MTC]

Thanks for the recs so far. Dune is special to me as well James, I've read it several times. The other recommended writers are mostly unknown to me which is of course very exciting!

I was just reminded that I've often heard Jack Vance mentioned in connection with Clark Ashton Smith, specifically the Dying Earth series. Being a long-time fan of CAS I wonder if Vance's books are worth tracking down? And in continuation of Vance, possibly Michael Shea?

[bendk]

Two books that I have found invaluable in this regard are:

Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels by David Pringle

Science Fiction Book an Illustrated History by Franz Rottensteiner

And you can get them both pretty cheap. The Rottensteiner book is especially enjoyable in terms of its production value. Informative and profusely illustrated.

[Piranesi]

Some of the first fiction I read was science fiction. The school library had a small section of science fiction and the stories I loved most played out in some dehumanised society where everyone was controlled and under constant surveillance by the authorities. Sounds a lot like today... But then two people would fall in love and rebel against the tyranny – and lose. As I later discovered, all of these novels were rubbish.

They were also derivative of a much better novel: We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. It’s exiting, philosophical and humorous, and it hurts. I can’t count the times I’ve read this book.

Nor can I count how many times I’ve read Slaughterhouse-5 by Vonnegut. It may be a slim novel but it’s full of pathos and bathos, sorrow and laughter, philosophy and adventure.

These two books are among my favourites.

[gveranon]

Quote Originally Posted by MTC

I was just reminded that I've often heard Jack Vance mentioned in connection with Clark Ashton Smith, specifically the Dying Earth series. Being a long-time fan of CAS I wonder if Vance's books are worth tracking down? And in continuation of Vance, possibly Michael Shea?

I haven't read much Vance. He was a very good writer, and I enjoyed what I read ("The Moon Moth," The Languages of Pao), but for some reason I haven't felt moved to read more. I've read some of Michael Shea's short fiction, and "The Autopsy" especially sticks in my mind. I haven't read Shea's Vancian fiction.

By the way, the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction site is an excellent resource. Long before this was a website, it was a large tome that went through several editions, and some great critics and scholars have done extensive work on it (John Clute especially, but also Brian Stableford, David Langford, and many others). It has been accreting since the 1970s. In addition to author entries, there are theme entries with discussions of different subject matters in sf and types of sf. This might help guide you to what you want to read. (There is a similar Clute-edited Encyclopedia of Fantasy, but so far it has had only one edition as a book, and it is not on the web.) Apologies if you already know all this.

bendk, I also really liked Pringle's book. I haven't seen the Rottensteiner book since I spent hours poring over it in my high school library!

[MTC]

Reading James Tiptree Jr. has been the best experience. I'd really like to seek out her other books. But first next stop: Thomas M. Disch. Which accidentally I will be reading simultaneously with Sadegh Hedayat's The Blind Owl; perhaps not a bad combination.

[MadsPLP]

I can't say I read much science fiction, and my knowledge of the genre is at best superficial, and these are relatively well known works, but Solaris by Stanislaw Lem was superb and chilling.

And I picked up Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon based on recommendations from TLO'ers recently, and was very much captivated.

Anna Kavan's Ice is - insofar as it could be called science fiction - superb, and you would certainly like it, MTC. Like it very much, especialle given your interest in Ballard (I rate this novel higher than what I've read by Ballard).

William Gibson's Neuromancer was particularly impressive to me, as far as recent reading goes. Stylistically and conceptually marvelous.

Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl, in spite of some glaring faults, was still a rather convincing dystopia.

Michael Cisco's Animal Money is one I'm still plodding through, but it is destined to be dubbed a modern classic some decade or two down the road. Not explicitly SF but there are SF elements throughout.