Recommend me some Sci-Fi literature

[Belzub]

Well yeah, esp Dick's stuff...and that was a crafty edit too

I truly am the King of the Quick Edits.

 

[Sedgley Warrior]

And a good 1st post it is too!! Noon's great, if a little 90s/E culture/Lewis Carroll doncha think?

Maybe Vurt was, but Automated Alice demonstrated how versatile and timeless an author he could be. 'Falling Out of Cars' was a great new novel.

 

[Good Intentions]

Not British, but European, and absolutely a must to compare the Golden Age stuff next to is the Polish genius Stanislaw Lem. Having something to compare Clarke (and the non-Brits Aasimov and Heinlein) to on this side of the Atlantic will give you a lot of background and insight into what the Golden Age literature was trying to do. Since Lem went out to tear it all to shreds (so did Dick too, in fact)

 

[laptop]

I'd been trying to think of a way to get Lem permitted.

I know!

Everyone must read A Perfect Vacuum. Some of the nonexistent books reviewed therein are by nonexistent British authors and you can therefore discuss, er, their nonexistent Britishness, compared to the nonexistent others...

 

[Good Intentions]

How about a comparison of the Cyberiad to Beowulf

 

[laptop]

How about a comparison of the Cyberiad to Beowulf

Or "Non Serviam" (just one of the pieces in A Perfect Vacuum - 30 pages) to the whole of the British Empiricist philosophical tradition

Or „Die Kultur als Fehler" - "Culture as a mistake"... 14pp...

 

[Good Intentions]

"The Day the Icicile Works Closed" to "The Full Monty"

 

[rich!]

I'm currently studying British Sci-Fi for a uni module

You need two things:

Interzone

BSFA

Then, as to specific authors, John Brunner, Ken MacLeod, Peter Hamilton, Mike Moorcock, John Wyndham, CS Lewis, China Mie'ville, Alastair Reynolds, M. John Harrison, Ian McDonald (I think)

Also, John Clute and Peter Nicholls produced an "Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction" some years ago: that prompts me to mention Brian Aldiss and Gregory Benford

 

[Good Intentions]

I remember Interzone from when I was switching over to heavier sci-fi - I really recommend it.

And the Clute-Nicholls Encyclopaedia has given me hours and hours of informative, useful reading.

 

[rich!]

... heavier sci-fi ... the Clute-Nicholls Encyclopaedia ...

You got that bit right.

It makes pretty good ballast for anything unstable as well...

 

[fractionMan]

I think Neal Stephenson is British. If he is, I'd check out The Diamond Age.

 

[tollbar]

From the 60s. Brian W Aldiss.

Keith Roberts.

 

[greenman]

Not strictly sci-fi, (set in a low-tech post nuclear holocaust future) but Russell Hoban, Riddley Walker

He came to talk at my school when I was a kid

 

[Derian]

Brian Aldiss - The Malacia Tapestry

Seconded - Hoban's 'Riddley Walker'

Throw into the pot - Mordechai Roshwald 'Level 7'

Also A.A. Attanasio 'Radix' and maybe 'In Other Worlds'

But the division between Sci-Fi, Sci-Fi/Fantasy and Fantasy is unclear. Me, I love Michael Moorcock and C.S.Lewis - but agree that I'd personally class them as fantasy.

 

[Ryazan]

Huxley is god. Brave New World is a classic piece of writing and my favourite book of all time. If you consider it was first published in 1932 it was a visionary piece of writing, predicting the advent of the pill and other things unheard of back in the 30's. It's a warning to the world about the dehumanising aspects of scientific and material 'progress'.

Orgy porgy, Ford and Fun.

 

[strung out]

Many thanks for everyone's kind and useful help... much appreciated! Will explore some of the suggested texts asap

 

[electric.avenue]

Benford - yes!

You need two things:

Interzone

BSFA

Then, as to specific authors, John Brunner, Ken MacLeod, Peter Hamilton, Mike Moorcock, John Wyndham, CS Lewis, China Mie'ville, Alastair Reynolds, M. John Harrison, Ian McDonald (I think)

Also, John Clute and Peter Nicholls produced an "Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction" some years ago: that prompts me to mention Brian Aldiss and Gregory Benford

Benford - seconded. Sci fi is not really my preferred genre, but I thought Timescape was brilliant in terms of the idea behind the plot. Benford obviously knows something about science, as opposed to just going off on a bizarre flight of fancy, which I feel a lot of sci fi writers do. However, I sometimes thought that the book contained a bit too much trivia in the characterisation.