2 hours ago, pinball1970 said:

I know I'm in the minority on this. My problem I think is that I read Lord of the Rings when I was too young and read everything else when I was too old, fantasy wise. I just ended up making comparisons.

I think if I would have read "Hitchhikers" when I was older I probably would not have given it a fair chance.

Not necessarily.

Pratchett does nothing for me, but some fantasies can be fun.

You generally have to suspend (dis)belief for some aspect of the story in SF, whether it's people magic or technology magic.

4 hours ago, studiot said:

Pratchett does nothing for me, but some fantasies can be fun.

You generally have to suspend (dis)belief for some aspect of the story in SF, whether it's people magic or technology magic.

It seems to me that mr Pratchett, got the difference...

13 minutes ago, dimreepr said:

It seems to me that mr Pratchett, got the difference...

Sorry I don't understand your comment.

11 minutes ago, studiot said:

Sorry I don't understand your comment.

nuance, could b

a different

The tv series The Expanse was based on a series of books, it is actually a good hard sci fi.

15 hours ago, pinball1970 said:

I know I'm in the minority on this. My problem I think is that I read Lord of the Rings when I was too young and read everything else when I was too old, fantasy wise. I just ended up making comparisons.

That actually makes a lot of sense to me. I read Lord of the Rings when I was very young, but also Pratchett not long after (as well as Douglas Adams). I think the silliness of those books made things a lot easier for me when I was a youth. There is at least a decent chance that I wouldn't have the patience for silliness anymore if I picked it up now (but I suspect that once/if I retire it might change again).

6 minutes ago, CharonY said:

That actually makes a lot of sense to me. I read Lord of the Rings when I was very young, but also Pratchett not long after (as well as Douglas Adams). I think the silliness of those books made things a lot easier for me when I was a youth. There is at least a decent chance that I wouldn't have the patience for silliness anymore if I picked it up now (but I suspect that once/if I retire it might change again).

As a biologist you might then just appreciate the science behind the McCaffrey Pern books.

Her other books are rather pedestrian and predictable though.

Did you like Watership Down ?

Edited September 6Sep 6 by studiot

13 minutes ago, studiot said:

As a biologist you might then just appreciate the science behind the McCaffrey Pern books.

The “we don’t remember our history” theme might hit a little hard these days

I have read most of the books mentioned in this thread and agree that it mostly comes down to taste. If you are familiar with the workings of the military, I highly recommend Harry Harrison's dystopian "Bill the Galactic Hero" series, not particularly strong on science but (IMO) hilarious on the social commentary.

5 hours ago, studiot said:

As a biologist you might then just appreciate the science behind the McCaffrey Pern books.

Her other books are rather pedestrian and predictable though.

I don't know, I found "The Ship Who Sang" to be rather thought provoking but that was many years ago. (I would tend to agree about her "dragon" books, tho, regardless of how entertainingly written they are)

2 hours ago, studiot said:

As a biologist you might then just appreciate the science behind the McCaffrey Pern books.

Her other books are rather pedestrian and predictable though.

Did you like Watership Down ?

I have read McCaffrey and I remember it as a fun mix of fantasy tropes and what essentially is a scifi background. That was of course way before I became a biologist. But then, I'd take any excuse to get a flying fire-breathing lizard.

On 9/6/2025 at 4:17 PM, studiot said:

Did you like Watership Down ?

That one wasn't really that popular in Germany compared to the UK and I never came across it.

Like a number of other contributors here, I would recommend borrowing compilations of short stories from the library and follow up on other works by writers in those compendiums that appeal to you. There used to be excellent yearly anthologies of the Hugo and Nebula award winning stories. Science Fiction writers have to be versatile to survive, and most of them are equally adept at writing short stories or novellas, as well as churning out vast shelf-bending series of novels set in some imaginary universe.

It might also help to clarify what types of scientific disciplines or themes intrigue you, and then look into the biographies and backgrounds of SciFi writers to check for matches. For example Larry Niven mentioned by TheVat is an American author who took maths and psychology at University - allegedly because he thought it was the fastest way to graduate. Isaac Asimov was a professor of biochemistry at Boston University, Fred Hoyle was an astronomer at Cambridge University, Arthur C. Clarke was a radar specialist with the RAF during WW2 who subsequently took first class honours in mathematics from Kings College London.

Some writers are indelibly marked by their life experiences. Frank Herbert the author of the Dune series for example was born in Tacoma Washington, but left a troubled parental home to live with an uncle and aunt near Salem in Oregon in his teens and became fascinated with unique sand dune landscapes there. He wrote one entirely factual account about the work of the US Department of Agriculture to stabilise the dunes “They Stopped The Moving Sand Dunes”, as well as a collection of fantasy short stories that later turned into Dune.

British author J.G. Ballard was born in Shanghai, and was interned at the age of 8 by the Japanese (along with his parents) in the notorious Lung Hwa prison camp for the duration of WW2. He saw the flash of the second atom bomb explode over Nagasaki from 500 miles away, and witnessed numerous other atrocities at a formative age, which lends his dystopian futurist fiction an unnerving edge.

Philip K. Dick was a deeply serious and highly gifted American author who found himself typecast and trapped by the fact that his earliest writing was published in pulp-fiction SciFi magazines. Nobody would take him seriously as a literary writer thereafter, and he was forced  to overwrite at atrociously low rates of pay for most of his life just to put food on the table for his family, and he developed a dangerous amphetamine habit in the process.

Anyway, I hope you have fun discovering themes and authors that appeal to you - It’s all highly subjective.

Interesting; did not know any of that.
Thanks @toucana

37 minutes ago, toucana said:

British author J.G. Ballard was born in Shanghai, and was interned at the age of 8 by the Japanese (along with his parents) in the notorious Lung Hwa prison camp for the duration of WW2. He saw the flash of the second atom bomb explode over Nagasaki from 500 miles away, and witnessed numerous other atrocities at a formative age, which lends his dystopian futurist fiction an unnerving edge.

There seem to be very few with neutral opinions on Ballard. I liked my first Ballard short story, The Drowned Giant, which gave fair warning to readers of delicate sensibilities that his other fiction may harbor matters grotesque, shocking, and offensive. Crash is a case in point. I have a film buff friend who rarely criticizes any film that shows some originality, but who described the Cronenberg adaptation as "loathsome." I recall a review of the book which said that Ballard was "beyond psychiatric help." I thought The Drowned World (1962) was brilliantly prescient in regard to climate change. And Empire of the Sun is the novel which draws on Ballard's experiences you describe - and adapted by Tom Stoppard for a film which hoovered up awards and raves.

Another British writer of about that generation, who only wrote a couple science fiction novels outside of a mostly mainstream career, is Anthony Burgess. I can't really recommend his End of the World News (aside from the clever wordplay), but Clockwork Orange is a classic.

Another mainstream writer who moved into dystopian SF is Margaret Atwood. I think her most popular one, The Handmaid's Tale, has gotten so much attention that it tends to obscure other fine novels like Oryx and Crake (giving up on italics here, the new web host software seems to want to fight with me every time I try to use my them) or The Year of the Flood. (Both Atwood's parents were scientists, and her respect for real science shines from her books)

Edited September 8Sep 8 by TheVat

8 hours ago, CharonY said:

That one wasn't really that popular in Germany compared to the UK and I never came across it.

I assumed you know about Watership Down since it was a blockbuster film and hit for Art Garfunkel.

But I asked because I was thinking about another such novel (actually a series of 3) tracing the semise of the red squirrel under pressure from the invading greys and based on fact, rahter than just being a nice personification story about animal colonies.

For instance red squirrels bury nuts, but grey squirrels don't.

The Silver Tide

Michael Tod

I also liked James Blish and his spindizzy series, very imaginative.

Edited September 8Sep 8 by studiot

7 hours ago, TheVat said:

There seem to be very few with neutral opinions on Ballard. I liked my first Ballard short story, The Drowned Giant, which gave fair warning to readers of delicate sensibilities that his other fiction may harbor matters grotesque, shocking, and offensive.

Growing up in Britain in the 1960s, I vividly recall the classic paperback Science Fiction novels published by Penguin Books which all had striking surrealist artwork on the front covers. They were the handiwork of Germano Facetti who was the head of graphic design at Penguin from 1962-71, and he put images by Yves Tanguy on the covers of "Mission of Gravity" - Hal Clement (1954), "The Drowned World"- J.G Ballard (1962):

https://sciencefictionruminations.com/2019/01/06/adventures-in-science-fiction-cover-art-yves-tanguy-and-penguin-sf-cover-art/

images by Max Ernst on "The Crystal World" - J.G Ballard (1966), "The Man in The High Castle" - Philip K. Dick (1962), and Rene Magritte on "The Fifth Planet"- Fred & Geoffrey Hoyle (1963) - among many others.

https://sciencefictionruminations.com/2016/04/02/adventures-in-science-fiction-cover-art-max-ernst-and-his-landscapes-of-decay-on-sff-covers/

J.G. Ballard in particular was fascinated by this cross-over between surrealism and Science Fiction in what he called “inner space”, and he wrote a seminal article about the subject called “The Coming Of The Unconscious” in 1966.

https://www.jgballard.ca/non_fiction/jgb_reviews_surrealism.html

“The Drowned World” was incidentally the second part of a trilogy of apocalyptic climate change novels by J. G. Ballard that began with his debut novel “The Wind From Nowhere” (1962) and finished with "The Drought/Burning World” in 1965.

“Empire of The Sun” (1984) was the first part of a prize-winning autobiographical novel by J. G. Ballard, followed by a sequel “The Kindness of Women”(1991).

On 9/8/2025 at 1:43 AM, toucana said:

Like a number of other contributors here, I would recommend borrowing compilations of short stories from the library and follow up on other works by writers in those compendiums that appeal to you. There used to be excellent yearly anthologies of the Hugo and Nebula award winning stories. Science Fiction writers have to be versatile to survive, and most of them are equally adept at writing short stories or novellas, as well as churning out vast shelf-bending series of novels set in some imaginary universe.

It might also help to clarify what types of scientific disciplines or themes intrigue you, and then look into the biographies and backgrounds of SciFi writers to check for matches. For example Larry Niven mentioned by TheVat is an American author who took maths and psychology at University - allegedly because he thought it was the fastest way to graduate. Isaac Asimov was a professor of biochemistry at Boston University, Fred Hoyle was an astronomer at Cambridge University, Arthur C. Clarke was a radar specialist with the RAF during WW2 who subsequently took first class honours in mathematics from Kings College London.

Some writers are indelibly marked by their life experiences. Frank Herbert the author of the Dune series for example was born in Tacoma Washington, but left a troubled parental home to live with an uncle and aunt near Salem in Oregon in his teens and became fascinated with unique sand dune landscapes there. He wrote one entirely factual account about the work of the US Department of Agriculture to stabilise the dunes “They Stopped The Moving Sand Dunes”, as well as a collection of fantasy short stories that later turned into Dune.

British author J.G. Ballard was born in Shanghai, and was interned at the age of 8 by the Japanese (along with his parents) in the notorious Lung Hwa prison camp for the duration of WW2. He saw the flash of the second atom bomb explode over Nagasaki from 500 miles away, and witnessed numerous other atrocities at a formative age, which lends his dystopian futurist fiction an unnerving edge.

Philip K. Dick was a deeply serious and highly gifted American author who found himself typecast and trapped by the fact that his earliest writing was published in pulp-fiction SciFi magazines. Nobody would take him seriously as a literary writer thereafter, and he was forced  to overwrite at atrociously low rates of pay for most of his life just to put food on the table for his family, and he developed a dangerous amphetamine habit in the process.

Anyway, I hope you have fun discovering themes and authors that appeal to you - It’s all highly subjective.

Good post +1

Not sure if it's been mentioned yet but one I particularly loved growing up was 'Ender's Game' by Orson Scott Card. It's a fun read.