Favorite sci-fi books?

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"Armor" by John Steakley - Heavily inspired by Starship Troopers, but with a focus on psychology instead of philosophical and political matters. Depicts shell shock better than anything I've read, except perhaps the only other book by the same author.

"Zones of Thought" series by Vernor Vinge. Character-driven space opera by a guy with a good understanding of both anthropology and computer science.

"Santiago: a Myth of the Far Future" by Mike Resnick. Well-paced space western where every single character is memorable. Overall joy to read.

"Rolling Hot" by David Drake. Part of the "Hammer's Slammers" universe/series. It's a sci-fi retelling of the Tet Offensive. Exhausted vets and fresh recruits are forced to go on a protracted assault/journey towards a distant city. Immersive, grounded and a little heartbreaking.
 
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress - Basically lolbertarian sci-fi but still very interesting and fun read.
Rant by Chuck Palahniuk - Written in a style that takes a while to get used to but it's very fun and offers easily the most interesting version of the Grandfather Paradox and immortality I've ever seen. It is a Chuck Palahniuk novel though so prepare to be disgusted by alot of things (Black Widow priapism for example).
 
It's set in the future (at the time of writing) and it involves speculation about future scientific advancements like the telescreen and the mind reading equipment at the ministry of love.
 
Not Really Here said:
The Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell is an interesting space opera exploring what would happen if a legendary hero of the past actually came back at the time of his nation's greatest need.
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Came here to recommend this. Instantly got lost in this series. It does get a bit long in the premise by the end(and a new trilogy is starting this year that I'm mixed on), but I really enjoyed the focus on a fleet based story and maybe the most in depth fleet combat I've ever read.
 
I immemsely enjoyed the Honor Harrington series by David Weber. Hard scifi space battles, crazy tactics, and galaxy politics.
 
data-analysis-cosby said:
Blindsight by Peter Watts has:

An eerily plausible sci-fi take on vampires
A first contact story informed by marine biology and neuroscience
Enough creepy imagery to haunt you for months

Highly recommended.
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And trannies. The books pretty boring once it gets past the concept and then the ending is a shit twist for no reason.

Ring worlds a great book. Sequels suck but the first is good.
The tomorrow war. Same as above.
 
When you say "like Hyperion Cantos" I am interpreting that to mean "The New Space Opera."

Surface Detail (and just to save myself some time the entire Culture series)

A Fire Upon The Deep (basically everyone writing Space Opera worth reading lists this as an influence. You can effectively divide Space Opera into "stuff written before this book" and "stuff written after").

Revelation Space (and sequels)

Blindsight

Plus the anthology series literally called "The New Space Opera"

Edit: Oh, don't forget the Xeelee Sequence!

All of the above are books I would recommend in the same breathe as Hyperion.

Outside of that genre I also like: Children of Time, The Three Body Problem, Uplift War, A Canticle for Leibowitz, Snow Crash, The Left Hand of Darkness... really I could be here forever.
 
Methuselah's Children- A clan of immortals wander the galaxy and go on adventures.

Snow Crash- Cyberpunk pizza delivery man battles Scientologists and an Eskimo.

Dangerous Visions- A great sci-fi anthology.
 
I liked Time Machine (H.G. Wells).

Also Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury) - I think both books are set in the same fictional universe.

Also Rendezvous With Rama (Arthur C. Clarke) - haven't read the sequels though.
 
Earth Abides by George R. Stewart, The Inverted World by Christopher Priest, and Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov. Jurassic Park is good fun too.

The Last Question and Robot Dreams by Isaac Asimov, as well as Arthur C. Clarke's Time's Arrow and The Wall of Darkness, are some of the more interesting short stories I can think of off-hand.
 
"The coming Race" is my favorite-
which sounds like some neo nazi shit but it's one of the 1st sci fi novels. It came out in the late 19th century, claiming the events actually happened.
Basically a young man hears of a series of underground caverns from a friend who's shaken from what he's seen. The 2 go down how ever far into a mine shaft and the buddy falls to his death, and the young man is stuck with out a back up.
Down there he see's strange creatures, ends up meeting some humaniods who resemble those winged people on the sides of greek vases.
Turns out the main humanoid has a daughter who's in university and ends up teaching the man the language. and they sorta have a thing for each other. I forget the details but the underground societies are with out war, and harness the power of the Vril Device. They also have a form of flight/gliding with artificial wings.
It's a really good book, it's told from a 1st person perspective, almost like the guy is telling you about what happened over a drink.
The book goes really deep into the culture of the Vril society, even going on to explain the language. I was learning an actual language at the time and was already drowning in verb endings so I bailed on the book, but once I find it again I plan on diving right back in. I really did not do this book any justice but I reccomend you look into it. That way when you hear some retard going on about the hollow earth and the secret vril society, you'll know where it came from.

I listened to the War of the Worlds audio book and it blows the movie out of the water. Aliens attacking Victorian England was really right up my ally. I didnt expect it to be that dark. Gave me some fucked up nightmares when I fell asleep listening to it.

H.G. Welles Time Machine was pretty damn good too, I don't know why I never got through it. I always get to the part when the time traveler gets to the future and goes looking around, and when he comes back to where he "parked" the machine is gone and the dude freaks and pleads with the future people, but they kinda laugh at how odd he is. The traveler ends up hanging around some future chick who get's attached to him, and she's really amused by lit matches. They lost match technology in the future, cause why not.
 
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