# Suggest some awesome science fiction books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 13, 2008, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-awesome-science-fiction-books/467790 "2008-10-13T23:26:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-awesome-science-fiction-books/467790/81 "2008-10-19T15:03:50Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > I just finished the Hugo Award winning “Yiddish Policeman’s Union” and it was a fantastic book. I’d argue strongly that it isn’t SF/Fantasy, but the Hugo Committee disagrees with me. But I like Michael Chabon. His “kid’s” book - “Summerland” is also very good - easier to read (he can write very poetic prose), and more SF/Fantasy-ish. Yeah–genre conventions are hard to work with. There certainly are authors who color within the lines, so to speak, but IMO they tend not to be the better authors. Sometimes you get a book with all the trappings (aliens, space ships, fancy gadgetry, etc.) that are excellent (_Sparrow_, as recommended above, is a marvel). More often, though, it’s the folks that pick and choose conventions, and then spin off from them to an original work, that capture my interest. I’ll recommend books in a category that I’ll call quiet SF. These are works that are more about character than about spectacle. Nothing wrong with spectacle–_Red Mars_ is an excellent book that’s very heavy on the spectacle–but I’m recommending something else. Most of these, if not all of them, have been recommended above; I just wanna gather them under this category. Anything by Ursula LeGuin. Obviously I’m a big fan (given my username). Her action sequences are few and far between, and occasionally I’ve found myself 2/3 of the way through one of the scenes before I realize what tremendous violence has just happened. It’s all about the characters with her, characters and societies and their interactions. _The Dispossessed_ is my favorite. _The Sparrow_. Best SF I’ve read in a long time. _The Yiddish Policeman’s Union_. It has no trapping of science fiction, is instead in the category of speculative fiction: it asks the “what if?” question of what if Israel were a failed state? Excellent book. Gosh, I thought there’d be more. I’ll try to think of some more in this category. I like this kind of book a lot. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-awesome-science-fiction-books/467790/82 "2008-10-19T15:13:29Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > H. Beam Piper had a future history as extensive as Heinlein’s, and out of it I’d recommend, for an easy beginning, Little Fuzzy. It takes place on a colonized planet, and deals with what happens when it’s discovered that a sentient race already inhabits the place… I really like Piper, and this book is a good intro to his stuff. H. Beam Piper’s _Paratime_ stories are also excellent; they’re favourites of mine and I’ve been working on a way to incorporate a similar concept for some short stories of my own. _A Canticle for Leibowitz_ and _The Postman_ are also excellent books and must-reads, IMHO. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-awesome-science-fiction-books/467790.md?page=4)