Favorite Science Fiction

pgmcc: Dune was an amazing political story told in space. It is like Lampedusa's "The Leopard" imagined in space. It has the same lessons and observations of life and political upheaval.

CarltonC: For me, the most wondrous alien world building story. First read in the 1970’s and reread with equal joy about ten years ago.

vwinsloe: A cautionary tale, not a road map.

suzemazice: Dune was my very first science fiction novel I read. In college, a seatmate had it and said she was taking a class. I read it and was hooked. My favorite part is when Paul is being tested and the mantra he recites… “I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see it’s path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

tardis: This is representing the whole Murderbot series for me.

Maddz: I'm with Tardis on this one!

Frank_Thomas: good

CarltonC: By the time I read in 1980 I had read enough SF for this to really hit the spot: funny and quotable.

igorken: Humour is hard. Adams makes it look easy.

Maddz: Witty take on various SF tropes.

Boand: My most favourite and enjoyable Sci-Fi book ever! Also a laugh a minute, and hugely memorable

Aquila: Really hard to choose between this and The Dispossessed, but I love and read this more.

CarltonC: When I read this was so far beyond anything that I had thought about before, it was a whole alien world.

weebaby: The story behind how it got written always moves me. Plus, the main character reminds me a LOT of my oldest son!

igorken: Unputdownable.

gilroy: Interstellar war, starships, space stations, extraterrestrials. What isn't science fiction about this to warrant a downvote?

al.vick: I think I like the robot series better, but they are all in the same universe/series

weebaby: I got so excited by Grace's excitedness when he made a new discovery!

al.vick: Favorite first contact.

rhondak101book: I have taught this book many times. Each time I teach it, I always find something new, or I am surprised how much I am enjoying re-reading it.

gilroy: To the modern reader, I imagine this feels like a contemporary fiction or even nonfiction, but it is clearly a science fiction piece, even if it isn't starships and explosions. Not sure why the downvote.

hipdeep: Bradbury predicts wall-size TVs, sleeping in your AirPods, and personalized adaptive feeds of content, all well before they happened. Plus there's fire-shooting robots. Clearly sci-fi.

weebaby: This book is absolutely foundational to the scope of my thinking; how everything in the universe is connected. I had a recurring dream as a child of the planets coming down to me in my backyard and singing to me because of this book.

paradoxosalpha: Worth ten times its weight in socio-political theory.

CarltonC: Made me think about politics.

weebaby: I fear this is in the process of because true in America.

weebaby: I was just thinking last night how EXCELLENT this book is!

Neil_Luvs_Books: A series of stories explaining why each character has chosen to pilgrimage to the Shrike - a kind of death cult around a being sheathed in blades. What the stories have in common and why they have been brought together is the mystery that binds this well written story together.

CarltonC: An inspired post-apocalyptic novel, not without its horror, but well written and engaging.

kevinashley: So many of Iain M. Banks works are worth inclusion on this list but this is the only one (so far) I've wanted to re-read. Space Opera with a side helping of whimsical ship names.

igorken: Iain M. Banks' space opera is among the best out there.

Maddz: One of the few post-apocalypse novels I can tolerate.

paradoxosalpha: Martian romance, Cabellian comedy, and Thelemic tragedy; a touchstone for gnosis.

gypsysmom: Published when I had read all of Heinlein's juvenile books and ushered me into the world of adult sf.

featherbear: In the country of the blind! Feudalism! Monsters! The dark side of Richard Powers's The Overstory!

themulhern: I think this is probably Wells's best science fiction work, and it is funny, in a grim way.

igorken: The quintessential cyberpunk novel.

gypsysmom: Still holds up even though it's over 40 years old

elenchus: Anathem and Excession make for an interesting pair: different approaches to the same discussion.

themulhern: Stephenson peaked with this book. There is everything he always writes about, arranged in the best possible way.

igorken: Probably not for everybody, but certainly top 10 for me.

rhondak101book: I really like Miéville's writing, and I think this is his best book.

tardis: This is definitely science fiction and one of my favourites from way back. Don't know why it was thumbed down.

elenchus: I can see no rational reason for excluding this title from this list, but as there is no formal way to contest the downvote, I'm including on my list to counter the unjustified thumb despite not yet having read the work myself. (It is on my wishlist.)

kevinashley: Hospital station (and others in the same series) isn't deep but it is entertaining and easy reading with a touch of humour.

AnnieMod: No idea what the down thumb is for but this is definitely SF. And one of my favorites when I was just starting with the genre. :)

gypsysmom: Atwood can write in any genre but this sf book really shows her chops.

pgmcc: This was totally cohesive story told in a balanced and realistic fashion. My favourite part was the ending where it stated "The Ramans do everything in threes". The subsequent books were a disappointment. Rama II was simply the same again. The following two books were pointless exercises in attempted sociological discussion, but proved too off course to be worth following.

pnppl: Not my fav of his but he nails keeping the Ramans mysterious while still giving us tidbits, feels oddly realistic

waltzmn: For the neurodiverse, this is truly a great book about failure to fit in and its costs. Had the standalone novel not been listed by someone else, I would recommend getting the book as part of Anthony Boucher’s “A Treasury of Great Science Fiction,” which also contains Theodore Sturgeon’s though-provoking “The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff” and Alfred Bester’s much-loved “The Stars My Destination.”

midnightblues: Clever, engaging, fast-paced, way more complex than you might credit at first, and it gets better the further in you get. The most fresh and inventive series I've seen in a long while.

Aquila: Empire and what it takes not to be subsumed.

jpalfrey: A story of love, politics, and comedy

paradoxosalpha: The best of Vinge's Zones of Thought books.

Maddz: We aren't as intelligent as we think!

Aquila: Mind blowing (didn't help that my ebook reader gave me the sections out of order)

pnppl: Hard sf with vampires

tardis: Any of the Vorkosigan books could be on my list, but Memory is the one I re-read most often.

rhondak101book: The whole series!

karenb: Such a delightful book, doing several things and succeeding at all of them.

pnppl: The greatest short story author alive

Maddz: Decent mil-SF that reads as SF rather than a far-future human military.

waltzmn: The only one of my ten choices that veers a little away from hard SF, but, like “The Snow Queen,” it partakes of the medieval romance, with right finally prevailing after defeat after defeat.

waltzmn: The first Lije Baley novel, and the best; still one of the greatest SF/detective stories, and the first full-length Positronic Robot novel. Far better than its sequels, and a pioneering work; there weren’t many early mystery SF stories. It eventually tied in with the “Foundation” series, too. Is it better than the other prototype SF/mystery, Hal Clement’s “Needle”? Glad I don’t have to decide.

cindra-cat: Lije and Daneel are the perfect duo.

EerierIdyllMeme: Hardcore sci fi with serious social and political discussions.

Karlstar: The Culture novels are scifi at its best and Excession is one of Banks' best.

elenchus: Anathem and Excession make for an interesting pair: different approaches to the same discussion.

pnppl: The ultimate Culture novel. Pure ship mind fanservice and introduces a novel term for civilizational encounters to boot

slimikin: (representing the entire Vorkosigan Saga)

featherbear: pioneering animal sentience SF as space opera

cindra-cat: Just so cool.

rhondak101book: This is probably not my favorite David Mitchell, but it is probably his best book.

gypsysmom: I still get nightmares about HAL

pnppl: UKLG does PKD, lovely

gypsysmom: I could have picked any book by Connie Willis but this one combines sf and historical fiction so well.

karenb: Brilliant and funny, starts with the history and goes into alternate histories

Maddz: One of the funniest web comics I've ever read.

jjmcgaffey: And the entire Liaden Universe - magnificent drama of manners and spaceships. And assassins, and psychic powers, and...

cindra-cat: Having neat science gadgets didn't really make life better or different from what we have. Societies are still made of people.