Fantasy/Sci-Fi book recommendations.

[Sfjeov]

Snow Crash was pretty cool with the whole online ancient mind virus

 

[Spyrone]

Well, I got a lot of SF recommendations for ya...

Disagree. Heinlein's book led Paul Verhoeven, a survivor of WWII who experienced the war much more directly than Heinlein did (as Heinlein never even shipped out to the front), to adapt it to film as a satire of fascism because he thought Heinlein's "utopia" was promoting the very problem he lived under. I think if you want to get the more authentic experience, just watch the film.

Not just that, but the fact that 90% of Heinlein's book is just a political screed, especially given it's for strain of militant authoritarianism masquerading as "libertarianism" that disallows citizenship to it's own people unless they serve in the states military or bureaucracy makes it especially boring. If I'm reading a book called "Starship Troopers" that's supposedly about the titular characters helljumping out of starships to throw nukes and lasers at various aliens, then I want to read about that. I don't want to read about how militant oligarchic capitalism is the best form of ideology ever and is destined to existential conflict with any other ideology out there. That's misleading, especially given the ideology he presents is nearly fascist.

The true cyberpunk origin.

I think PKD comes before Neuromancer. Eight years now it's been on my to-read list

William Gibson is literally my favorite author, but he didn't invent cyberpunk. Nor did Philip K. Dick, Ridley Scott, Hampton Fancher, David Peoples or any of other the people involved with Blade Runner. Nah, as far as I can tell the first person to mix the themes of decadence, societal decay, high tech and low life together was Stephen King. The Running Man (the book released in May 1982) has all of those themes, and has an even darker setting than the movie.

 

[Facesforce]

Actually I want to recommend another Frank Herburt novel, but not from the Dune series: The Santaroga barrier. It's essentially a psychological scifi about a psychiatrist entering this town where every one seems to have a altered consciousness. It is a bit older, what with 1960s mindset going on, bit it's interesting reading what is essentially a contemporary scifi instead of a futuristic one.

Ah, what else can I recommend... Yokohama Station SF was fantastic, really atmospheric piece.

Oh, and I can't forget my all time favorite: Robot's have no Tails, by Henry Kuttner. Basically it's about this amoral mad scientist named Gallagher who is only a genius when he's drunk, and then he sobers up and has to deal with his drunken mad science rampage. I especially liked the story about him dealing with a time machine that drops his corpse off at his doorstep, only to rematerialize a younger version of him who is dead every hour or so. The entire section about him dealing with a hangover, while trying to figure out a legal defense for the cops due to them picking up his own corpses filing up the mourge was amazing. That scene lives rent free in my mind till the end of time.