Starship Troopers

Other than the Bible, that would be Dune and Starship Troopers. I can't really put my finger on how specifically they influenced me, but I often find myself recalling scenes and quotes from those two books when discussing deeper topics with family and friends.

Not the person you were responding to, but if you ignore the hundred-page speech (which isn't that difficult to do) it's a fairly serviceable pulp sci-fi romance novel. It's far from Shakespeare and far from my favorite thing I've ever read, but it'll do in a pinch. I don't care for the philosophy/politics, but I've read a lot of good sci-fi that I didn't care for the philosophy behind. I like Starship Troopers, which isn't as fascist as some people think but is certainly right-wing. I like Orson Scott Card, regardless of what I think of his opinions on gay people. I like the Culture novels, which are lowkey anarcho-communist. I like China Mieville, and he's an unsubtle hardcore Marxist. Those are all much better than Rand, but not totally out of the ballpark (I think the Fountainhead is actually much better written than Atlas Shrugged). I agree with the original thread comment: people who can't separate literary and political merit are usually pretty tiresome in lots of other ways.

Wow, I can’t believe I just found this thread and not one mention of Jack Vance. His "Planet of Adventure" series, Alastor series or Demon Princes novels are classics. His command of language and dialogue is unparalleled. Every modern sci-fi author cites him as an influence. Gateway by Frederik Pohl is another underrated one from the 70s although the sequels are disappointing. The Forever War Joe Haldeman and Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers are also indispensable.

Not a book, but the essay "Conscience of a Hacker" has never been far from my mind. In middle-school, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Starship Troopers started a fairly strong libertarian bend as well as a somewhat antiauthortarian In high-school, Atlas Shrugged gave me a clear vision of how important it was to create things with the skills I'd learned, and how naked self-interest could shape a society. In college, Pump Six illustrated the failings of "In the future, it's going to be even more awesome to be rich and white". After college, The Jungle showed me both the importance of social safety nets and how easily people who say "I'll just work harder" get screwed by the system--any system. Makers gave me a better appreciation for taking care of my self and my body. ~ It's important, I think, to constantly be reading new things and taking in new ideas; had I stopped with Atlas Shrugged, for example, I'd probably be a lot different (and more naive) than I am today.

Snow Crash is great. Generally I'd recommend some "classics", just to see who treaded some ground first, i.e. who gets copied by everyone. Isaac Asimov - Foundation (and the rest of the trilogy) Robert A. Heinlein - Stranger in a Strange Land / Starship Troopers / The Moon is a Harsh Mistress Alfred Bester - The Demolished Man / The Stars My Destination Jack Vance - The Dying Earth Philip K. Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep / The Man in the High Castle Larry Niven - Ringworld etc. etc. A list of Hugo Award winners[1] might come in helpful. Another advantage of having read "the greats" is that if some critic says that new author X writes "in the style of Y" you have a slightly better idea if you might like it. Tastes vary, of course. Personally I never got what's supposed to be so great about Ender's Game. Teen Mary Sue geek power fantasy with questionable morals. Then again, lots of people said similar things about Heinlein… [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel

If you like Foundation, you might like the Ringworld series by Larry Niven. Ringworld is a classic. Robert Heinlein's books are great. Some come to mine are The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Starship Troopers (much better than the movies), Stranger in a Strange Land, Double Stars, and The Puppet Masters. Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness is amazing. The Earthsea series are fun read if you want to get beyond SciFi.

Anything by Heinlein - "Starship Troopers" especially Ayn Rand - "Atlas Shrugged"