July 2019 - discoverscifi.com

What’s the best romantic relationship in a sci-fi story?

July 25, 2019/1 Comment/in Books, Insider /by Discover Sci-Fi

Not all science fiction is big on character development, and that's our bag too, but for this week let's talk about the best romantic relationships in a sci-fi book, short story, or series? Many of the titles we've talked about in the past have focused on solo characters, or military men and their machines, but some tales have an exciting romance to them, even if they don't work out in the end.

So what do you think the best romantic relationship or dynamic is that you've ever read in sci-fi? Maybe it's sappy, maybe it's two really well-developed characters, maybe there's a really great particular scene? Nominate some couples and the story titles below, and tell us in the comments why you chose that one.

The Top 10 Title Names in Science Fiction

July 18, 2019/14 Comments/in Books, Insider /by Discover Sci-Fi

Funniest titles, most provocative titles, or titles that just sum up a book or story's contents really well, you nominated dozens of great science fiction titles that are all worth reading their full contents (here's the original nomination list from the blog, and the original nomination list from the Facebook group, with well over 80 titles!). After meanly forcing a choice between the top 10 selections from the combined lists, we have the top 10 title names Discover Sci Fi readers and fans enjoy. Happy reading!

10. Have Space Suit—Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein

At tenth place we have Robert A. Heinlein‘s Have Space Suit–Will Travel. It's a short book for young readers, as well as old, which some of you on our Facebook site shared was your first science fiction read! Heinlein's presence is also closer to the top of our list as you scroll down, but this title is certainly charming.

The story follows Kip Russell who wants nothing more than to go to the moon. But after entering a contest to help realize his dream, he is thrust into a space adventure he could never have imagined—with the most unlikely of friends and enemies.

9. (a) The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

We had a tie for ninth place!

By far the oldest title on this list, The War of the Worlds was written by H.G. Wells in 1898. It's been adapated to other media, including film, but also to radio drama by Orson Welles in 1938. That live broadcast became a bit famous for having incited panic in listeners who allegedly believed it was a real newscast, but that panic seems to have been hyperbolized over the years.

In the original novel, Earth is invaded by Martians and is one of the earliest stories to detail a conflict between mankind and an extraterrestrial race. In first-person narrative we follow an unnamed protagonist in Surrey and his younger brother in London as southern England is invaded. Apparently, Wells said that the plot arose from a discussion with his brother Frank about the catastrophic impact of the British on indigenous Tasmanians. He wondered what would happen if Martians did to Britain what the British had done to the Tasmanians. (Although the Tasmanians did not have the lethal pathogens that Britain is armed with in the novel!)

Not only did this work numerous adaptations it even influenced the work of scientists, notably Robert H. Goddard, who, inspired by the book, invented both the liquid fuelled rocket and multistage rocket, which resulted in the Apollo 11 Moon landing!

9. (b) So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams

Coming in tied for ninth place is So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish. This is the fourth book in the Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy (not a typo) by Douglas Adams. It continues to follow Arthur Dent, who we met in the first book of the series, who is now back on earth. He wonders whether the last few years of his life were a complete figment of his imagination. But then he receives a mysterious fishbowl and realizes all the earth's dolphins have disappeared. When he uncovers his badly battered copy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy he begins to realize something really did happen, and God left a Final Message of explanation as to what it all means.

7. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury has a number of curious titles, so it's interesting that this is the one that made the cut. Something Wicked This Way Comes is a slightly unsettling story of friendship and balances dualities like childhood versus the old, dark versus light, and good versus evil. A strange show comes to town one week before Halloween. Two boys, Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway, soon discover the evil of this carnival, which promises to make your every wish and dream come true. But with those wishes and dreams comes a price that must be paid. Behind the mirrors and the mazes is the nightmare of a lifetime.

6. I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison

A creepy title for an appropriately creepy shorty story by Harlan Ellison! One of our Facebook members read it as a fairly young child and still shudders thinking of it.

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is set in a post-apocalyptic world where four men and one woman are all that remain of the human race. Programmed to wage war on behalf of its creators, AI became self-aware and turned against all humanity. The five survivors are prisoners, kept alive and subjected to brutal torture by the hateful and sadistic machine in an endless cycle of violence.

5. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

The original title that the 2004 movie is based on, I, Robot is a short story collection by Isaac Asimov. It covers a number of robots of all kinds: funny ones, insane ones, and ones with a cult-personality complex. Many of the stories are rooted in the often-referenced “Three Laws of Robotics:”

1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm
2) A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

Another title that was adapted to film is this novel with this curious title, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by one of the masters of curious titles, Philip K. Dick (PKD). Another of his interesting titles that was discussed was Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said. Of course, the movie adaptation is a bit different.

Simulacra of humans are built and sent along with immigrants to Mars to take the place of the millions of humans that have died after the World War in 2021. The governments on Earth become fearful of these androids abilities to blend in, and ban them from Earth. Rick Deckard, an officially sanctioned bounty hunter, is commissioned to find rogue androids and “retire” them.

3. Stranger In a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

This is only Robert Heinlein's second title that made it to the top 10 titles list here at Discover Sci-Fi (yep, wait for it, there's one more). Stranger In a Strange Land is a Hugo Award-winning novel about a man raised by Martians on Mars. He has never seen another member of his species. When he is sent to Earth, he is a stranger who must learn what it is to be a man. But his own beliefs and his powers far exceed the limits of humankind, and as he teaches them about grokking and water-sharing, he also inspires a transformation that will alter Earth’s inhabitants forever.

This title comes from the Biblical book of Exodus 2:22 “And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land” (King James Version). The verb “grok” became part of our English vernacular, thanks to Heinlein. It roughly means to understand (something) intuitively or by empathy.

2. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Yep, it's the titular series-opener by Douglas Adams. Not only is this series featured twice in this list, it's also been nominated several times in other lists here at Discover Sci-Fi, including as a top film sci-fi book-to-film adaptation, and as the source of a most iconic character, Arthur Dent.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy‘s title is based off a book within the story itself. Ford Prefect, a friend of Arthur Dent, reveals himself to be a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and has been, for the last fifteen years, posing as an out-of-work actor. The contents of The Guide have all sorts of advice, including drinks recommendations. It also is the source of the famously supreme utility of the towel:

… a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: nonhitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.
(The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams, chapter 3.)

1. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein.

Discover Sci-Fi readers are smitten with Heinlein! The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is Heinlein's third title in our top 10 titles list, threading his way to the very top. It really is an evocative title name, as well as one of Heinlein's greatest works.

In this novel we witness a revolution on a lunar penal colony—aided by a self-aware supercomputer. This is the framework for a story of a diverse group of men and women grappling with the ever-changing definitions of humanity, technology, and free will—themes that resonate just as strongly today as they did when the novel was first published.

So, did your favorite title make through the nominations and to the top ten list? There are so many great titles out there! Some of the runners-up include The Lefthand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin and “Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison. Share some of your favorites below and let us know what you thought of some of the winners of this list.

And don't forget to make your voice heard during future nominations round to be sure your vote can be considered for the top 10 finale.

*Some copy in this post was pulled from Amazon & Wikipedia.

What are the best title names of science fiction stories, books or series?

July 3, 2019/3 Comments/in Books, Insider /by Discover Sci-Fi

Science-fiction authors are tremendously innovative thinkers. But some title names are definitely better than others. There are funny ones, thoughtful ones, spoiler alerts but there are also some kind of bland ones. Just considering the titles, what are some of your favorites? And let us know what your criteria are! Is the title that you nominated just a really epic one? Does it have one of your favorite made-up technologies in it?

This week you can nominate as many as you like, next week we will narrow down to the top 10. You can check out how people are voting over on the Discover Sci-Fi Facebook group here.

What’s your pick for the best title names of science fiction stories, books or series?

July 11, 2019/0 Comments/in Books, Insider /by Chloe Cotter

The Top 10 Greatest Sci-Fi Writers

July 4, 2019/94 Comments/in Books, Insider /by Discover Sci-Fi

It was a painful vote for many of you, especially to narrow it down from over one hundred nominations to the top ten sci-fi writers of all time. As so many of you pointed out, there are wonderful writers that should have been on the list! But, according to our tallies here on the Discover Sci-Fi blog, and over on the Facebook group these were the top 10 writers you all voted for, interestingly, in a slightly different order on Facebook than on the blog.

If you'd like to view the original nomination list here on the blog, you can find it here.

Of course, it's impossible to really list all the great works of these phenomenal writers, so we've just chosen one to highlight, but please, share with us your favorites in the comments below!

And now, without further ado, here are the top 10 writers in order from tenth to the very best sci-fi writer of all time (according to you!)!

*The results were decided by you based on votes tallied up between our Facebook group and on our blog.

10. Frederik Pohl

Frederik Pohl (1919 – 2013) had an illustrious career spanning nearly 75 years. He won four Hugo and three Nebula Awards among many other awards. He wrote under a number of pseudonyms including Charles Satterfield, Paul Flehr, Ernst Mason, Jordan Park (two collaborative novels with Kornbluth), and Edson McCann (one collaborative novel with Lester del Rey). One of his later works, The Last Theorem, he worked on with Arthur C. Clarke, another writer on this list!

It was The Space Merchants with which Pohl blasted onto the literary scene, writing it while he was fighting during World War II. As would become his future style, The Space Merchants demonstrates his uncanny trend-forecasting style for futurism and satire. An author within a genre that wasn't really a genre for another decade or so.

Share some of your other favorites of Pohl's incredibly long and varied career in the comments below. And if you're looking for The Space Merchants, you can find it on Amazon here.

9. Larry Niven

Larry Niven (1938 – ) has won Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, Nebula awards, among others. (You're going to see a lot of award winners on this list!) He has written numerous novels and short stories, beginning with his 1964 story “The Coldest Place”. His other writing endeavours have included TV scripts and also writing for the DC Comics character Green Lantern!

One of his most famous books (which became a series) is Ringworld. The concept is based on his idea of a kind of Dyson sphere world, in this case, a Ringworld: a band of material, roughly a million miles wide, of approximately the same diameter as Earth's orbit, rotating around a star. This influenced Iain M. Banks in his Culture series, which features about 1/100th ringworld–size megastructures.

As a mega sci-fi influencer there are many other works we could have highlighted to demonstrate Niven's influence on the sci-fi genre. Want to recommend some others? Drop a line in the comments below. You can find book one of Niven's influential Ringworld series on Amazon here.

8. Anne McCaffrey

We are so proud to have Anne McCaffrey (1926 – 2011) on this list as she is the only woman to have made this top 10 list… something we hope to see changing over the coming years as more female authors get exposure. McCaffrey held a 46-year career as a writer, and she became the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction and the first to win a Nebula Award.

She is probably best known for her Dragonriders of Pern series. Marvellously, her 1978 novel The White Dragon (the third in the series) became one of the first science-fiction books to appear on the New York Times Best Seller list. Another favorite that we've shared when McCaffrey was on our top 10 list of favorite bio-tech enhancements was The “Brain & Brawn Ship series” (or Brainship or Ship series) which starts with The Ship Who Sang.

Please share with us your other McCaffrey favorites in the comments below. And you can find the first book of the Dragonrides of Pern (Dragonflight) on Amazon here.

7. Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury (1920 – 2012) worked in a number of genres, including fantasy, horror and mystery fiction, but is perhaps best known for his science-fiction. He was the recipient for numerous awards, including a Pulitzer citation, and had an impact crater on the Earth's moon named Dandelion Crater by the Apollo 15 (1972) astronauts, in honor of his novel Dandelion Wine!

One of his most famous works is Fahrenheit 451, a dystopian science-fiction novel in which television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, since rather than putting fires out, firemen start them, and have burned almost all the books known to have existed. This kind of dystopic, societal-critique is a common theme in Bradbury's work, including in his many short stories.

It's terribly hard to choose just one Bradbury work to feature, and his Martian Chronicles would be the next we would choose. Do you have another recommendation? Share it with us below!

And you can find Fahrenheit 451 on Amazon here.

6. H.G. Wells

H.G. Wells (1866 – 1946) is often referred to as the “father of science fiction” alongside Jules Verne. He wrote in many genres and, as many of these great authors, was a social critic and wrote about politics. The science fiction historian John Clute describes Wells as “the most important writer the genre has yet seen”, and notes his work has been central to both British and American science fiction.

A renowned futurist and “visionary”, Wells foresaw the advent of aircraft, tanks, space travel, nuclear weapons, satellite television and something resembling the World Wide Web. His first novel was The Time Machine, a science fiction tale about a gentleman inventor living in England, who traverses first thousands of years and then millions into the future, before bringing back the knowledge of the grave degeneration of the human race and the planet.

As a prolific author, it's hard to recommend just one of his titles. What do you think, have you read this one, or do you prefer one of his others? Share in the comments below. And as always, you can find The Time Machine on Amazon here.

5. Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert (1920 – 1986) held a number of other titles (ecological consultant, photographer, journalist, etc.) as well as being a famous science-fiction author. As with many other of these great authors, Herbert's debut on the sci-fi scene was with a short story, “Looking for Something”, in 1952. Herbert was the first science fiction author to popularize ideas about ecology and systems thinking. He stressed the need for humans to think both systematically and long-term.

Herbert's novel Dune is the best-selling science fiction novel of all time, and the whole series is widely considered to be among the classics of the genre. The novel originated when he was supposed to do a magazine article on sand dunes in the Oregon Dunes near Florence, Oregon. He became too involved and ended up with far more raw material than needed for an article. The article was never written, but instead planted the seed that led to Dune.

The Dune series is a marvelous one, but he wrote several others, including some that were published posthumously. Do you have a preference for one of his other works? Please let us know about it!

And you can find the first novel in the Dune saga on Amazon here.

4. Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick (1928 – 1982), sometimes known as PKD, also wrote under a couple pen names, including Richard Phillipps and Jack Dowland. He started publishing science fiction in 1951 but it wasn't until 1962 when he published the alternative history novel The Man in the High Castle that Dick earned acclaim, including a Hugo Award for Best Novel.

A variety of popular Hollywood films based on Dick's works have been produced, including Blade Runner (1982), Total Recall (adapted twice: in 1990 and in 2012), Minority Report (2002), A Scanner Darkly (2006), and The Adjustment Bureau (2011). Meanwhile, the novel The Man in the High Castle (1962) was made into a multi-season television series by Amazon, starting in 2015.

The movie Blade Runner (1982) is now a classic, and the novel that inspired it Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a thrilling one, published in 1968 in the middle of Dick's heyday. It's a prescient novel to read (or re-read) now, since it is set in 2021, when the World War has killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Driven into hiding, unauthorized androids live among human beings, undetected. Rick Deckard, an officially sanctioned bounty hunter, is commissioned to find rogue androids and “retire” them. But when cornered, androids fight back—with lethal force.

Philip K. Dick's works are stunning and thought-provoking. What are some of your favorites? Mention them in the comments below. Or check out Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? on Amazon here.

3. Arthur C. Clarke

Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917 – 2008) was a British science fiction writer, science writer and futurist,[3] inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. He was made a Knight Bachelor “for services to literature” at a ceremony in Colombo.

Clarke was a lifelong proponent of space travel and he is famous for being co-writer of the screenplay for the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Clarke was a science writer, who was both an avid populariser of space travel and a futurist of uncanny ability. 2001: A Space Odyssey, was extended well beyond the 1968 movie as the Space Odyssey series. This allegory about humanity’s exploration of the universe—and the universe’s reaction to humanity—is a hallmark achievement in storytelling that follows the crew of the spacecraft Discovery as they embark on a mission to Saturn. Their vessel is controlled by HAL 9000, an artificially intelligent supercomputer capable of the highest level of cognitive functioning that rivals—and perhaps threatens—the human mind.

What are your other favorites of Clarke's? Share them below and check out 2001: A Space Odyssey, the first in the Space Odyssey series, on Amazon here.

2. Robert Heinlein

Robert A. Heinlein is another author who has made our top 10 lists multiple times, including top military sci-fi books and top sci-fi books of all time. The favorite around here is often Starship Troopers.

Heinlein was an American science-fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and retired Naval officer. Sometimes called the “dean of science fiction writers,” he was among the first to emphasize scientific accuracy in his fiction, and was thus a pioneer of the subgenre of hard science fiction. His published works, both fiction and non-fiction, express admiration for competence and emphasize the value of critical thinking. His work continues to have an influence on the science-fiction genre, and on modern culture more generally. And rightfully so! His work has appeared in almost every one of the top 10 lists we host here on this blog.

Heinlein used his science fiction as a way to explore provocative social and political ideas, and to speculate how progress in science and engineering might shape the future of politics, race, religion, and sex. Within the framework of his science-fiction stories, Heinlein repeatedly addressed certain social themes: the importance of individual liberty and self-reliance, the nature of sexual relationships, the obligation individuals owe to their societies, the influence of organized religion on culture and government, and the tendency of society to repress nonconformist thought. He also speculated on the influence of space travel on human cultural practices.

What are your other favorites of Heinlein's? Share them below and check out Starship Troopers here.

1. Isaac Asimov

We heard you! With over 500 total votes, Isaac Asimov (1920 – 1992) was the resounding top science fiction favorite of all of us Discover Sci-Fi readers.

Asimov was one the world's most celebrated and prolific science fiction writers, having written or edited more than 500 books over his four-decade career. His Foundation Trilogy is recognized by sci-fi fans everywhere as one of the greatest books in the genre. In 1966, the Foundation Trilogy received the Hugo Award for Best All-Time Series, beating out the Lord of the Rings.

Some well-deserved praise for Isaac Asimov and his Foundation series:

“A true polymath, a superb rationalist, an exciting and accessible writer in both fiction and nonfiction, Isaac Asimov was simply a master of all he surveyed.”— Greg Bear

“Asimov served wondrous meals-of-the-mind to a civilization that was starved for clear thinking about the future. To this day, his visions spice our ongoing dinner-table conversation about human destiny.”— David Brin

What are your other favorites of Asimov's? Share them below and check out the Foundation Trilogy on Amazon.

So… What do you think of that list? Did you agree with all of the books chosen on this list? Join us here in our Facebook group to chime in on the debate, and then check out our most recent poll while you're there. Don't have Facebook? You can share your views in the comments below.

*Some book-related copy in this post was pulled from Amazon & Wikipedia.