Hyperion

All fiction. - The Great Gatsby. Really enjoyed it and seemed fitting with the current times. - Buddenbrooks, Thomas Mann. Generational wealth come and gone. Good for putting things into perspective. - Things Fall Apart, Achebe. - The Pearl, John Steinbeck - Hyperion (first book), Dan Simmons. Great sci-fi. Bought the second book and look forward to reading it. - Stoner, John Williams. Incredibly well written book - One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez. Still finishing but I hope to finish in time for next year

Hyperion Dahlgren What to do when there is no Doctor

"A Canticle For Leibowitz" "The Sparrow" "Lord of Light" "The Immortal" "Hyperion" "The Last Question" "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" "Stranger in a Strange Land" "The City and the Stars" "Childhood's End" "Anathem" "Eifelheim" "A Case of Conscience" "VALIS" trilogy "The Book of Strange New Things" "Behold The Man" "The God Engines" "Book of the New Sun" "The Parable of the Sower" "The Dosadi Experiment" "Grass" "Project Pope" "Calculating God" "Factoring Humanity" "Jesus on Mars" "Surface Detail

I second Hyperion and Neuromancer -- both are amazing book and a great representation of modern and classic sci-fi

Multiple re-reads: - Saga of the Exiles by Julian May, which merges science fiction with folklore/fantasy in Pliocene Earth - Hyperion by Dan Simmons, excellent SF with a feel of the Canterbury Tales about it - Neuromancer by William Gibson, plus the follow-ups (all the Sprawl) are very good too - The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner, about the eco collapse of the US in the 1980s (10 years after it was written) and which William Gibson called a "brilliant novel" And a couple of guilty pleasures: - Venus Equilateral by George O Smith, 1940s stories based around a three mile long space station at the L4 point in space, a bit like Babylon 5 meets DS9 in the era of vacuum tubes - Necrotech by KC Alexander, a brutal and obscene body-mod cyberpunk dystopia (the sequel of which, Nanoshock, has a superbly offensive opening sentence) - Halcyon Drift by Brian Stableford, about a corporate dystopia and a pilot who hooks up his body to merge with his ship (a bit blase now but less so then, especially as I had read far less at the time) - Bio of a Space Tyrant by Piers Anthony, a 6 book series following the rise of a refugee to becoming the Tyrant of Jupiter

Perhaps a standard list but: Hyperion, Deepness in the Sky, Snow crash, Permutation City, Exhalation and other Ted Chiang

Hyperion Ringworld Titan

The Hobbit - Tolkien Wizard's First Rule (Sword of Truth Book 1) - Goodkind Faith of the Fallen (Sword of Truth Book 6) - Goodkind Ender's Game - Card 1984 - Orwell I'm looking to read Asimov's Foundation series again. Maybe spend more time with Hyperion.

Foundation (Isaac Asimov), Hyperion (Dan Simmons) and Three Body Problem (Liu Cixin) stand out from all the SF I've read, and I've read a ton.

Martian Chronicles, Crystal Express+Cysmatrix, Neuromancer,Hyperion, Portico...

Asimov's original "Foundation" - it's effectively a collection of 4,5 short stories. I recommend to remain at a discreet distance from the rest of the series. While good within the universe, they are ... different. "Ender's Game" and "Speaker for the Dead" by O.S.Card. (Do not touch Xenocide without a hazmat suit. And if you do, burn it before reading.) "Snow Crash" by Neil Stephenson. "Rendez-vouz with Rama" by Arthur C. Clarke. If you're up for some thought-provoking stuff, "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Heinlein. Not the easiest read but your carve-out basically rules out "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress". "Embassytown" by China Mieville. EDIT: I forgot "Hyperion" by Dan Simmons.

Dune. Definitely Dune. The most epic sci-fi world that is so far in the future it feels like it could be middle earth. Politics, mysticism, prescience, intergalactic travel build an amazing world that feels utterly alien but still relatable. It’s like reading about modern battles between oil, culture and money, but in countless years and star system into the future. Honorable mentions for Hyperion and Neuromancer for my favorites :)

Hyperion by Dan Simmons. I put this book off for years because I hated the covers of them. Amazing read, best sci-fi I ever read. The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. Must read for a sci-fi fan.

Lord of the Light Dune Neuromancer Hyperion Snow Crash Use of Weapons Pandora's Star / Judas Unchained

Second all of these choices, and I will add Hyperion and its sequels to the list.

Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, Dune, Foundation series, Martian Chronicles & Illustrated Man, Ender's Game, Accelerando, Hyperion, The Forever War, Player of Games, Snow Crash

"Old Man's War" by John Scalzi "Hyperion" by Dan Simmons

Well I'm definitely into sci-fi literature. There's simply nothing else nowadays (being in my early thirties) which can caught my attention and limited free time. It's hard to sum it up to a couple of favorites... If you prefer hardcore sci-fi over the rest - as I do, those are definitely first choices: - Iain M. Banks Culture books ("Excession" being the best of all to me) - Simmon's "Hyperion" and "Fall of Hyperion" Some authors managed to bring some good pieces of space-opera without being too much cheesy: - Hamilton and his Void books, - and, of course, Herbert and the Dune stuff. But I must warn the casual reader here: those kind of books can get really massive. Second choices - but still really good books, would be stuff written by great guys like Asimov ("Foundation"), OS Card ("Enders game") or RC Wilson ("Spin").

Dan Simmons Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion are two of the best novels I've read. I read a lot of scifi, and I think they have held up very well compared to some other works that came out in the 80s through the early 90s. They present a lot of challenges that mankind may face in the future as our technology exceeds us, but they are also very entertaining.

Thanks for posting this thread, I can see in the other comments lots of books that I now want to read. For me I don't have a one favorite book, but my take would be: - 1984 from Orwell - the Foundation series, from Isaac Asimov (and basically, in my taste any book from Asimov has some good chances to be good) - Hyperion, from Dan Simmons (a good scifi writer as well).

+1 for "Hyperion" + "Fall of Hyperion" – both are amazing books that I just finished. Also, "Glasshouse" by Charles Stross was pretty rad too.

Don't miss sivers's great list: http://sivers.org/book As for mine, Science Fiction (I like these authors so I'd recommend most of their books -- listing which ones I think are a good 'starter novel' for them): Charles Stross: Halting State Vernor Vinge: A Fire Upon The Deep Iain M. Banks: Culture novels, start with Player of Games David Louis Edelman: Jump 225 Trilogy Daniel Suarez: Daemon and Freedom(tm) John Scalzi: Old Man's War series Dan Simmons: Hyperion Self-improvement: The Talent Code Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion Non-fiction: Amusing Ourselves To Death (highly recommended) The Science of Fear The Black Swan Tokyo Vice Racing The Beam (Atari history, very cool) books by Daniel Pink Guns, Germs, and Steel The Prize by Daniel Yergin Fantasy: Anything by Gaiman or China Mieville, pretty much. EDIT: links to previews (legally) available online Charles Stross's Accelerando (entire book): http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelera... (http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelerando/accelerando-intro.html)…

I basically discovered Vernor Vinge. A Fire Upon the Deep, by Vernor Vinge A Deepness in the Sky, by Vernor Vinge The Peace War, by Vernor Vinge Marooned in Realtime, by Vernor Vinge Hyperion, by Dan Simmons Mrs. Perkins's Electric Quilt, a fun book about some math and physics problems

Hyperion by Dan Simmons. It starts off with separate storylines touching on all the great sci-fi clichés - time travel, FTL travel, computer nets, out-of-control AIs, lost civilisations, humanity scindered into two estranged parts, mysterious monsters, strange maladies, it has everything. Except, at first, this pastiche just feels disjointed. But then, near the end, all of this wierd stuff, that you never really understand, gets pulled together into one, cohesive whole. Hyperion is basically just a brilliant story, very enjoyable to read. That said, if I was to criticise Hyperion, it would be that it doesn't fulfill very well one of the important functions of science fiction - the examination of the impact of technology on society. Which leads to my second recommendation - The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula Le Guin. Le Guin in general is excellent for examining in depth the effects that small changes in technology may have on human society - it follows naturally I guess from the fact that her father was an anthropologist...

Some more SF/Fantasy yarns: - Hyperion by Dan Simmons - 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear and all the other Zamonien books (only know german version) - Pollen by Jeff Noon - Otherland by Tad Williams - Ubik by PK Dick