Best Sci-Fi Fantasy Thrillers

[Twisties]

The Micheal Chrichton thread inspired this thread.

 

Lately I've been enjoying Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's Pendergast series, and Thunderhead (the first of their works that I read). Inspired me to drag Sharon over to the museum when we were in NYC a couple of years ago.

 

What are the best sci-fi or fantasy thrillers you've read?

 

 

[Whip]

Dean Koontz

 

Strange Highways

[Dave McReynolds]

Anything by Neil Gaiman: American Gods, The Sandman, Stardust, etc.

[FlyingFinn]

Like Koontz myself too, but "From the Corner of His Eye" is my all time fave from him.

 

If we talk about movies, when I saw the Event Horizon in the movies it scared/disturbed me so well I had walk out for a while.

So yeah, for me that movie works.

 

--

Mikko

[Ken H.]

Not sure if your could classify Douglas Adam’s, "Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy" series as Sc-Fi Fantasy Thrillers, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed them all.

 

(I thought the movie adaptation basically stunk though.)

[MattS]

William Gibson's Neuromancer rings a bell.

[Hoover]

Best books I have ever read:

 

L Ron Hubbard: Battlefield Earth

Stephen King: The Stand

 

[Damean]

Starship Troopers, by Robert A. Heinlein. So unbelievably better than the movies. And, of course, the 2001 series by Aurthur C Clark. All 5 were great.

[FlyingFinn]

Starship Troopers, by Robert A. Heinlein. So unbelievably better than the movies.

 

That must be either:

a) the worst movie I've ever seen, or

b) the best sci-fi satire I've ever seen

 

my inclination is towards a).

 

--

Mikko

[Twisties]

How many have read Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson? I'd have to put that up as my favorite future history/Sci-fi thriller, even more than Asimov's.

 

Love the way he modeled the distribution of solar system resources, mega-trends, and political/social intrigue into a riveting story.

 

 

[SageRider]

How many have read Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson? I'd have to put that up as my favorite future history/Sci-fi thriller, even more than Asimov's.

 

Love the way he modeled the distribution of solar system resources, mega-trends, and political/social intrigue into a riveting story.

 

Great trilogy!

[ltljohn]

Sci FI

 

Ringworld by Larry Niven

 

Robert Heinlein

Number of the Beast (funny)

I will fear no evil

Stranger in a strange land

The moon is a harsh mistress

And many more

 

Issac Asimov

Foundation series

All of the Robot books and stories

Lots of other short stories

 

Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 451

The Martian Chronicles

Something wicked this way comes

A sound of thunder

Here there be Tygers

and many more stories

 

 

Frank Herbert

The Dune Series (no not the horrible movies or the later books written after he died and his name was used)

 

Fantasy

J.R.R. Tolkien

The Hobbit

The Fellowship of the Ring Trilogy

 

Katherine Kurtz

The Deryni novels (series)

 

David Eddings

The Belgariad series

The Mallorian Series

The Elenium Series

THe Tamuli series

 

 

Anne McCaffrey

The Dragonriders of Pern (Series)

 

 

Stephen R. Donaldson

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever (Series)

 

 

Even though it is fiction and not Sci fi or fantasy, if you want to read and incredibly intense book read

Gerald's Game by Stephen King

I think I have read about 90% of everything he has written including writing under pseudonyms and Gerald's Game is probably the most intense thing he has ever written. (Warning, not for the squeamish)

[AZKomet]

Don't read Sci Fi stuff. More of a real science guy....I do watch Sci Fi films though. Star Trek was a fav of mine.

 

Books? Not unless Steven Hawking's The Theory of Everything counts, or maybe The Evolution of Man by Darwin, or Sigmund's books! That was scary enough. I can't figure out how to get out of the anal stage!

[Selden]

In no particular order:

 

The Ender series by Orson Scott Card, especially Speaker for the Dead

Almost anything by Ursula Leguin, especially Left Hand of Darkness

Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy

Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep

The Snow Queen, by Joan Vinge (featuring Arienrhod!)

Neuromancer, by William Gibson -- the original cyberpunk novel, often imitated, never equalled (even by Gibson)

Harry Turtledove's Colonization series (although after the first two, the following volumes become derivative and lose their edge)

Souls in the Great Machine, by Sean McMullen. (Librarians rule the world, in 40th century Australia!)

 

Just call me Hairy Selden.

 

[mikeR1100R]

+ 1 on L. Ron Hubbard's "Battlefield Earth".

[lawnchairboy]

Favorite Koonz scifi books: "lightning", followed closely by the story with the intelligent dog, but can't remember the title at the moment...

 

chris

 

 

[Bheckel169]

What? No Poul Anderson or Robert Silverberg?

Bruce

[Twisties]

What? No Poul Anderson or Robert Silverberg?

Bruce

 

We're only just getting started

[Bheckel169]

Two classics

Earth Abides and A Canticle for Leibowitz

I do have a question too. I remember reading a book about a boy or young man who begins a journey by leaving his home and going through a door which was against the rules. His journey took him through numerous adventures and different communities and situations until he finally finds out he's in a spaceship that left earth decades, hundreds of years or something like that before. They'd been on the ship so long they forgot where they were. Anyone know the name of the book and/or who wrote it?

Bruce

[Quinn]

A Canticle for Leibowitz was a better short story than novel in my opinion. Are you thinking of Harry Harrison's Captive Universe? Boy in Aztec civilization discovers that his civilization is inside a "space ark" being watched over by a semi-monastic order of idiots.

 

On the fantasy side, I'd go with L. Sprague DeCamp's Incomplete Enchanter and Lest Darkness Fall.

 

 

[Bheckel169]

No, not that book but strikingly similar. On this vessel he finds out they've been circling the Earth waiting for the radiation to subside after a nuclear holocaust.

Bruce

[Whip]

The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything

 

John D. MacDonald

 

 

....he later invented my favorite character of all time.

 

Travis Magee.

[bakerzdosen]

You know, I keep trying to find an appropriate way to put this and tie it in to journalism, but alas, I can't.

 

So, I'll just say that it's a good thing we can't discuss politics, because, well, I'm sure you can figure out what I'd say next about the best "sci-fi fantasy" I've ever read.

[Lynn]

I would have to go with Heinlein's The Puppet Masters. While I prefer Starship Troopers and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress as books, I think The Puppet Masters is closer to being a thriller.

 

 

[MotorinLA]

Victor Koman

-The Jehovah Contract

 

Robert A. Heinlein

-Stranger in a Strange Land

 

Orson Scott Card

-Ender's Game

(Now I need to read the rest of the series...:smile:)

[KMG_365]

Solaris, by Stanisław Lem

 

I read it in High School then in college I saw the original Russian movie with German subtitles . . . which didn't seem to help or hurt the understanding any!

 

I also saw the Clooney re-made version recently . . . a nice attempt at the original movie, but the book worked much better for me.

 

I never was that much into thrillers, but in addition to many of those listed above I also enjoyed the Chronicles of Amber, by Roger Zelazny. First books I ever remember staying up all night just HAVING to finish! I was also reading too much Gurdjieff and Ouspensky when I was younger . . . which probably explains a great deal.

[Twisties]

So, I've read maybe half of the books people have listed. Yeah, my percentage was higher before Jamie posted .

 

Anyway, realizing that a lot of these we're mentioning are Hugo and Nebula winners, and that I hadn't looked at the lists recently, decided it was time.

 

Hugo's

 

Nebula's

 

Topping both lists was "The Yiddish Policemen's Union". A quick check confirmed two copies at my nearest branch library, so I was off to pick it up. Get there and see no sign of it. Back to the catalog and I see it's in Mystery.... hmmm interesting.

 

Find the book and start reading. Within two pages I've had to do two google searches for words or phrases... now I'm not a fan of books that have to be read with a field guide, but on the other hand this is very strange for a book that is winning sci-fi awards.

 

The writing, in a yiddish voice, is intriguing, but I'm not seeing much hint of anything sci-fi. Our detective appears to be in a classic mold. Finally on page 8 I note that the population of a city doesn't seem right... a trip to Wikipedia... off by three orders of magnitude (a factor of 1000)... hmm alternate universe? I'll keep reading...

 

Oh well, and just in case your interested, "sholem" as used in the book to mean "gun", is a play on words, sholem = peace; gun = piece. Shammes means cop or detective and was much easier to figure out.

 

Well, our little branch library didn't have any of the other winners that I had not already read... so after this I'll have to visit one of the bigger branches across town.

 

Jan