I am a huge fan of sci-fi books. Arthur C Clarke, Robert A Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, the list goes on...

My favorite ones are the old dusty copies. The tiny books, yellowed with age, crisp to the touch, and aromatic of the dusty bookshelf they once inhabited. That's sci-fi to me.

I suppose I really am not heading anywhere with this post, so let me give it purpose.

Does anyone recommend one such classic to me? I am looking for a really good one, one of your favorites.

Please PM me with your favorite or recommendation.

I love science fiction too! Have you ever read any books by Orson Scott Card? He's written a whole series about this boy named Ender. The first book in the series is called Ender's Game if you're interested. If a remember correctly, the book is set in Earth's future where mankind has barely survived two invasions by the "buggers", an insectoid alien race, and the International Fleet is preparing for war. In order to find and train the eventual commander for the anticipated third invasion, the world's most talented children, including the extraordinary Ender Wiggin, are taken into Battle School at a very young age. The book takes place around the year 2135, and its sequels, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, A War of Gifts, Ender in Exile: Ganges, follow Ender to different worlds as he travels far into the future. It's a great book, and I think you'd really enjoy it. The series actually branches off into two parts. One side specifically follows Ender through his travels in space after the war is over, and the other side follows the lives of the kids from Battle School once they return to the earth and start a global war against on another.

I wish I could add new and different names, but you guys hammered my favs. My list of top SF:

1. Ender's Game
2. Foundation Trilogy
3. Moon is a Harsh Mistress
4. Glory Road
5. Stranger in a Strange Land

I think I remember hearing the title Stranger in a Strange Land. Could you give me a brief description of the book as well as what you liked and didn't like about it so I'll know whether or not it is worth my while to read it?

Stranger in a Strange Land is supposedly a really good book. (One which I've wanted to read for a while; no copy of it within access though)

From what I remember reading about it, Stranger in a Strange Land is about a man who's born on another planet (Mars, I believe) and raised by aliens. In his adulthood, the man is retrieved by astronauts and returned to Earth.
I don't remember much else about what the book is about,
I don't really want to say much else anyway, lest I accidentally say a bit too much and give away vital parts of the story.

This thread, however, has moderately inspired me to go work on my own science fiction story again, that I've been horribly neglecting for the last like...
Five, six years.

I am also a huge fan of science fiction books. In my childhood Julvern was my favorite. But now my favorite science fiction writer is Dr. Md. Jafor Iqbal. His every science fiction books are excellent. At first, when I read his book "Kopotronic Shukh Dukhkho" (The happiness and unhappiness of robots), I was really wondered! What a beautiful story! What an excellent idea! Since then, I am a big fan of his science fiction. But all of his books are written in bangla.

LiveHiFi, if you're still around, could I ask you to eliminate the last line in your original post? The whole point of this board is interaction where we all learn, not private messages that no one but you learns from.

With regard to your query, I remember enjoying Asimov's Foundation series very much and I, Robot was one of my favorites as well. Pretty much anything A.C.Clark wrote was good, but Heinlein was always my favorite. Red Planet, Farenheit 411 I believe was the title referring to the temperature that paper spontaneously ignites was awesome if I recall. Some of the older SciFi by Edgar Rice Boroughs was pretty amazing stuff for its time and is always worth checking out, too. I don't know where everything is or I'd just look. I've got a pretty decent SciFi collection myself. Enjoy your stories!

This post has been edited by Watermonkey: Apr 17 2008, 03:05 AM

I love Sci-Fi too. Recently I realised my libary is full of sci-fi, that I dont read anything else. So now, I gave a break... to search other genres.

Take a look at these:
http://listverse.com/literature/top-15-gre...-fiction-books/
http://listverse.com/literature/top-10-obs...fiction-novels/
http://listverse.com/literature/top-15-sci...on-book-series/
http://listverse.com/literature/10-free-sc...n-books-online/

In my opinion the best book on Earth is The City and the Stars :) :)