The Sci-Fi Book Classics You Need to Read Before You Die

Popsugar ^ | 09/06/2014 | NICOLE NGUYEN

[Fzob]

Happy National Read a Book Day! Celebrate with these essential sci-fi classics. Space, dystopian futures, robots, technology, aliens . . . what is there not to love about science fiction, a genre that stretches the imagination and offers a glimpse into what lies in a galaxy and time far, far away? Now that you've indulged on the most compelling, classic epic fantasy series, it's time to switch gears. Onward, futurists!

We recruited our own POPSUGAR editors to help compile the ultimate list of geeky reads. And this week, we're showcasing the best sci-fi narratives, with all the traditional elements of the genre: artificial intelligence, travel to remote parts of the universe, futuristic gadgets, wormholes, apocalyptic political systems, and extraterrestrials.

This list of essential geek reads isn't complete — there are plenty of time-travel, tech, and graphic novel editions still to come. But in the meanwhile, take a look at our recommendations for science fiction stories every geek must know, and tell us which books you'd add to the list.

[djf]

UBIK

Philip K. Dick

[ChildOfThe60s]

I can’t imagine Ringworld being done as anything less than epic series of multiple movies.

It’s just too grand, too overwhelming, too much to be shrunk down. Unless I produced it, I can’t imagine it meeting the expectations of my imagination.

I never watched Dune for that reason. Never even read the reviews.

[mills044]

You very nearly mirrored the exact words I had imagined posting. Hyperion saga is brilliant- stunning imagery, sweeping imagination. I actually feel it overwhelms tolkien’s epic nature.

So many parts blew me away. One in particular: in book 2 (or 3?), protagonist returns to a forest world, where a stupendously large tree used to grow. The World Tree, which served as a Capitol building of sorts until being destroyed from space,is now just a burned out stump. But what a stump! Towering in the distance, literally the size of a mountain.

I don’t do it justice. Incredible author.

[GeronL]

because utopianism is so unrealistic it doesn’t suit sci-fi but more fantasy

[Dust in the Wind]

This is the cover of the copy I read.

Ringworld
by Larry Niven

A new place is being built, a world of huge dimensions, encompassing millions of miles, stronger than any planet before it. There is gravity, and with high walls and its proximity to the sun, a livable new planet that is three million times the area of the Earth can be formed. We can start again!

I like this depiction...

The shadows are the night time. The 'details' of it are something I went to dream time with. Imagine Lewis and Clark times millions more in area. I need to finish the trilogy.

[GeronL]

libertarian utopianism is more fantasy than science fiction

[FlyingEagle]

Everything by Gibson

[JRandomFreeper]

Still don't see a difference between philosophical libertarianism of the 1700s and the current Libertarian party?

That's your purposeful blindness.

/johnny

[Ransomed]

The rest aren’t as good but still worth reading.

It was a loop of ribbon the size of Earth’s orbit or so and a million miles wide, with 1000 mile high walls on the inner surface edges to hold in the atmosphere as it spins. Pretty cool stuff.

FReegards

[GeronL]

I was talking about utopianism in all its forms.

[JRandomFreeper]

You think the Founders dabbled in utopianism?

/johnny

[Lady Heron]

Otherwise know as the never ending series by fans....at least until he died.

Only problem is that it is fantasy not sci-fi

[Professional Engineer]

L.Ron Hubbard’s writing has improved since he went to the big Engram in the sky. Battlefield Earth Book 1 was so bad I couldn’t put it down. It was like watching a train wreck but with words.

I never read Battlefield Earth. The Mission Earth series was so captivating I read each book in one sitting.

[Billthedrill]

OK, here's a weird list:

Podkayne of Mars by Heinlein. Read the real ending in Grumbles From The Grave and bow to The Master.

Neuromancer, by William Gibson. As time goes on it becomes less and less possible to understand how incredibly prescient this was.

The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. Simply the greatest SF ever written. I'm not joking. It is dense, difficult, and brilliant.

[bitt]

the follow-up, ‘From Time to Time’, was great too...he finished it just before he died..

[Lady Heron]

After waiting 55 years for John Carter to get to the big screen, I’ve seldom been so bitterly disappointed.

"Eragon"

[Swordmaker]

E.E. Doc Smith and his Lensman series. A classic!!!!

"Doc" Smith, with the Skylark of Space series, a series which he started writing in 1917 with his co-Author, Mrs. Lee Hawkins Darby, was the first Scientifiction (yes, that's what it was called back then) that escaped from the confines of the solar system and went to explore the stars. He was a true pioneer.

This is quite a coincidence, but just two days ago, I found E.E. "Doc" Smith's "Skylark of Spac,e" "Skylark III," "Skylark of Valeron," and "Skylark DuQuayne" on iBooks in reprint ebooks for very reasonable prices, along with "Spacehounds of the I.P.C." and "The Galaxy Primes," all books I last read more than fifty years ago. Alas, I could not find any of the wonderful Lensman series, which was what I was looking for. I have a First Edition Grey Lensman hardback copy I found in a military surplus store fifty years ago. I really want to reread them.

There were a lot of reprints of the Stephen Goldin "Doc" Smith postmortem "collaborations" in which Goldin took Smith's unwritten story ideas and, in my opinion, incompetently wrote them up as novels.

There were, however, some novels I had never seen that were pure E.E. "Doc" Smith available for download! . . . whee! Yay!

[TEXOKIE]

Thanks for the report... and for your list!

[lastchance]

“Little Brother” by Cory Doctrow.
Jirel of Joiry series by C.L. Moore.
“More Than Human” by Theodore Sturgeon
The Incarnations of Immortality series by Piers Anthony.

[kalee]

CS Lewis Space Trilogy

Madeleine L’engle Wrinkle in Time and others in the series

Connie Willis Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, and Lincoln’s Dreams

And as others have mentioned
Canticle of Liebowitz
The Stand
Alas Babylon
Lucifer’s Hammer