I'VE NEVER READ A SCI-FI NOVEL
I've read plenty of Fantasy, Horror, and other genre stuff but for whatever reason I've never gotten to Sci-Fi. Where should I start? Is pic related a good jumping in point?
Stanislav Lem, especially Solaris. That's where you should stop as well, most of the other stuff doesn't transcend the genre. Maybe the Strugatzkijs, but they are not on the level of Lem.
>>8144472
I gotcha.
Arthur c clarke can be good. Apparently the rama series is widely loved but i've never read it. Childhoods end, I have. And I agree with many people who say it's his best. The space oddysey series by him was alright but you have to be patient for it.
Dune is liked by a lot of people, I found it painful to trudge through. I hate the way he writes and I was attached to none of the characters, but the series was not without it's good ideas.
A lot of people differ on the ender series. People hate the author, but whatever. Apparently he's a racist or something but you can't tell in the books. The first one is alright, then as the series progresses the story changes in tone and topic a lot. Good variety there.
Phillip k dick is cool if you're somewhat of a psychonaut or like gnostic sort of ideas, but like many scifi authors the actual way he writes can be painfully bad. And it's really easy to write stories about characters who go nowhetre and do nothing but drugs. All you have to do is do nothing and know nothing but drugs.
I've only read the first of the foundation trilogy, but it was a bit ruined for me because i'm on my way to a psychology professorship and the idea of psychohistory is retarded. But other than that I loved reading about a bunch of academics taking the universe back from a dissolving culture.
I wish you'd posted this next week. I'm starting C.S. lewis' space trilogy today and I would have had something to say about that one too.
>>8144493
odyssey*
I knew it didn't look right.
>>8144493
>but it was a bit ruined for me because i'm on my way to a psychology professorship and the idea of psychohistory is retarded.
Please elaborate.
>>8144514
Well I can't remember the timeline exactly but the first novel covers the first hundred or so years of a period where the galactic empire falls apart. This seldon guy uses "psychohistory" (a super complex branch of psychology involving statistical methods) to predict the future and create a 1000-year plan to save a couple hundred of these academics on a distant planet to become the new rulers of the universe after everything goes to shit. And psychology is already chock full of aimless pontification, undefined and interchangeable terminology, vague overarching concepts which apply loosely to anything but directly to nothing, and confirmation bias that comes with statistical methods. Plus when I was younger I was all into terence mckenna and carl jung the I-ching and mysticism and then when I learned how ridiculous these people were I was very disappointed and felt i'd wasted so much time. So when I saw the idea of psychohistory I was just like aw goddammit.
>>8144472
Appreciating the Quantum Thief and its sequels is honestly less about whether you like science fiction and more about how quick on the uptake you are, because Rajaneimi doesn't explain anything until about halfway through the second book, and you basically need to work out what he's saying from context. He's also extremely well read-- practically every other word in his books is a reference to some other piece of literature, or a reference to physics and mathematics, or, in the third book, to popular nerd culture (which turned some people off).
For vast swathes of the text he seems like he's speaking a different language, especially when he name drops concepts from game theory, programming and theoretical physics.
The book pictured in your post is the best of the three, in my opinion. It's basically a detective novel, so much so that half the characters names are lifted directly from Maurice LeBlanc.
>>8144489
Solaris looks really interesting. I'll read it.
>>8144493
I suppose I should read Dune--because its Dune, if not for any other reason.
I really dig gnostic ideas so Phillip K Dick seems promising. Where should I start with him?
>>8144810
Your description makes him seem like the Sci-Fi Umberto Eco; is that an accurate comparison? Seems interesting.
>>8144877
>Where should I start with him
Valis is what i'd say but I haven't read a lot of him. But if you're looking for information as god and people transcending individual consciousness, that's where to go.
>Dune is interesting but just dry as fuck. Pun intended.
>>8144493
Foundation was hard for me to stick with because every few chapters a hundred years passes and all the characters are dead.
>>8145043
Didn't mean to greentext the dune thing.
>>8144877
Maybe in a decade he'll be on Eco's level but he's definitely got the same DNA. The dude has multiple degrees in mathematics and various sciences, speaks multiple languages and has read everything. The second book pulls heavily from 1001 Arabian Nights and even the Manuscript Found in Saragossa, of all things. He's definitely the smartest and best read SF writer around right now.
>>8144528
at the start, pyschohistory is much more along the lines of political science than psycology. aka the science of groups, rather than individuals, which at least seems plausible as something a person could empirically measure and predict.
this shit right here
>>8145082
You're confusing political science with sociology. And no. No it does not seem plausible. It's absolute nonsense.
>>8145086
Just finished reading this. This has, in my opinion, the greatest ending in any science fiction book I've ever read. The only word to describe it is "soaring." I literally sat agape when I finished it.
>>8145051
Oh and I forgot to mention that the second book in the trilogy is also a love letter to Douglas Hoffstader.
>>8144472
The quantum thief and its sequels are great sci-fi but I absolutely would not start with it if you're new to the genre.
>>8144472
>Is pic related a good jumping in point?
if you like strong female characters...
>>8136890
Ask the Professors
