posted
Oooh, ooh, I forgot a favorite one. How about Flowers For Algernon. Not hard Sci-Fi I know but what else would it be classified as?
Posts: 2022 | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Obviously I'm a Sci-fi whore. I spread my affection indiscriminately but I just thought of another classic, Harlan Ellison's A Boy and His DogPosts: 2022 | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
You know, I don't think I've ever gone to more trouble to aquire a book than I did that one. I searched for an affordable copy of it for years, back before the Internet made it easy to do something like that. Honestly I was more than a little disappointed when I finally got to read it, but it wasn't because of any failing of the book itself--I'd just built it up past any possible level of achievable greatness in the years I spent searching for it.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Yeah, that's why I put the winking smiley--I was afraid that someone would take me seriously.
I was also worried that someone would actually think that I liked Battlefield Earth, but happily that comment seems to have been either overlooked or taken in the spirit in which it was intended.
posted
I actually thought you were serious about the book. But everyone is allowed to be totally wrong on occasion. Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
Non-Orson material: Not sure if it counts but I LOVED "Darwin's Radio," (hated the sequel) and I loved Dan Simmons' "Hyperion" series.
Posts: 752 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Really rivka? Just for the record, I think that Battlefield Earth may be the *very* worst SF novel I've ever had the unfortunate expereince of reading. It is horribly, horribly bad.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
quote: Alfred Bester -- wasn't he the Psi-Cop on B5?
I just figured it out! Alfred Bester was a Psi-Cop on Babylon 5. But first, a more different Alfred Bester wrote The Demolished Man, a book which was obviously the template for Babylon5's telepaths.
I'm not going to nominate it for best novel, but I highly recommend The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester, written in 1953.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Noem, I haven't read it, but I've heard enough about it to be glad of the fact. But I do know at least a person or two who have affection for the book. Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I've always been a sucker for the whole "humanity pulling itself up from the ashes" subgenre, so I was really predisposed to like this book. It's been over a decade since I've read it, so the details are pretty fuzzy for me at this point, but I remember that among other problems, the book had the most poorly drawn aliens I've ever seen.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
I read Battlefield Earth about a quarter century ago and don't remember many details other than the fact that it was gigantic. I don't think I would call it the worst I've ever read but I concur that it doesn't belong on a list of best Sci-fi novel ever.
posted
I've had books I just couldn't finish. Those are the ones I would slap "the worst" appellation on. While I don't remember much of the story simply the fact that I was able to digest the whole thing removes it from my "worst" list.
Posts: 2022 | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I read a book that was called Guerilla something, that was sooooo bad that I knew I'll never read anything (SF) worse than that. Up to now, it proved true...
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
It's funny though--it was a tough book to find. Somehow it was in the erotica section of a sleazy used bookstore.
Or...so I'm told. By...by the guy who sold it to me at the...uh...church booksale. Yeah, that's the ticket, the church booksale. All the proceeds went to, um, orphans. Or something. Yeah. Well,
::clears throat, cocks head, pretends to hear someone calling::
What? Oh! Okay, I'm coming!
Listen, gotta run. Anyway, you should see the cover on this thing. It's something else.
posted
Ali was the Greatest. We all know that. And, I can't pop a single memory of an SF novel about the guy (even loosely analogistic) out of my memory stacks...
posted
If the nominations were still open I would nominate the entire War Against the Chtorr series by David Gerrold. Specifically, A Matter for Men and A Season for Slaughter.
And I really liked Battlefield Earth. Definitely not greatest of all time, but certainly up in the top 100.
Posts: 218 | Registered: Nov 2001
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
Yeah, that's why I put the winking smiley--I was afraid that someone would take me seriously. ![[Dont Know]](graemlins/dontknow.gif)
![[Laugh]](graemlins/laugh.gif)
porter
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
Nobody seconded Mouth Hungry. Do none of you recognize good SF when you see it?
