Favorite science fiction?

Asked by Michael Nielsen

A few things I love: anything Ted Chiang, with a special spot reserved for Story of Your Life (Arrival):

Save
Share on Twitter Copy link
Recommended by Sergei Jon Mellon Alexander Ilyin and 2 others
On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backwa
www.goodreads.com
A race for survival among the stars... Humanity's last survivors escaped earth's ruins to find a new home. But when they find it, can their desperation overcome its dangers? WHO WILL INHERIT THIS NEW EARTH? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among
www.goodreads.com
The story of a man with a vision - immortality : for those who can afford it is found in cyberspace. Permutation city is the tale of a man with a vision - how to create immortality - and how that vision becomes something way beyond his control. Encompassing the lives and struggles of an artificial l
www.goodreads.com
"Story of Your Life" is a science fiction novella by American writer Ted Chiang, first published in Starlight 2 in 1998, and in 2002 in Chiang's collection of short stories, Stories of Your Life and Others. Its major themes are language and determinism. (From Goodreads)
www.goodreads.com
Michael Nielsen 7 months ago

A few things I love: anything Ted Chiang, with a special spot reserved for Story of Your Life (Arrival):

river 7 months ago

I read Story of Your Life for the first time when I was fifteen, and every few years since then. It only gets more and more devastating, life-affirming. A great lifelong touchstone.

These works of novels and short fiction center around the Culture, a post-scarcity semi-anarchist utopia consisting of humanoid races and managed by supe...
www.goodreads.com
Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg 7 months ago

Iain Bank's Culture series has some of the same qualities, especially the earlier ones (Excession, The Player of Games, and Use of Weapons).

Recommended by joao and Naomi Saphra
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission--and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he
www.goodreads.com
An alternate cover edition for this book can be found here. In these nine stunningly original, provocative, and poignant stories, Ted Chiang tackles some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine. In "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," a portal through tim
www.goodreads.com
hello, cerise 7 months ago

He's fantastic. My favorite's Exhalation. Never seen an author cream so much in such small amount of text.

The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is a postcyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson. It is to some extent a science fiction coming-of-age story, focused on a young girl named Nell, and set in a future world in which nanotechnology affects all aspects of life. The novel deals with them
www.goodreads.com
An antimeme is an idea with self-censoring properties; an idea which, by its intrinsic nature, discourages or prevents people from spreading it. Antimemes are real. Think of any piece of information which you wouldn't share with anybody, like passwords, taboos and dirty secrets. Or any piece of i
www.goodreads.com
A classic work of science fiction by renowned Polish novelist and satirist Stanislaw Lem. When Kris Kelvin arrives at the planet Solaris to study the ocean that covers its surface, he finds a painful, hitherto unconscious memory embodied in the living physical likeness of a long-dead lover. Others
www.goodreads.com
Brian Skinner 7 months ago

Stanislaw Lem Solaris, in particular, I regard as a masterpiece

Mycroft Canner is a convict. For his crimes he is required, as is the custom of the 25th century, to wander the world being as useful as he can to all he meets. Carlyle Foster is a sensayer--a spiritual counselor in a world that has outlawed the public practice of religion, but which also knows that
www.goodreads.com
Eugene Vinitsky 7 months ago

I don’t know if Too Like the Lightning counts as Sci-Fi but it is extraordinary world building and thinking through of a setup

Recommended by Jan Stette and mat kelcey
Diaspora book. Read 696 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. By the end of the 30th century humanity has the capability to travel the ...
www.goodreads.com
Jan Stette 7 months ago

It’s fantastic! I don’t think any other novel has given me as much of the almost physical sensation of having my mind stretched and twisted.

Load More
Personalize your experience

Join our community of people discovering and sharing the best content out there.

Sign in with Twitter