What Sci-Fi Shows Should I Watch? Books I Should Read?

Cafe Society
1

In an ever expanding quest to broaden my horizons and widen my niche, I have decided that I need to become less of a Trekkie and more a Sci-Fi fan in general.

I’ve been a fan of the genre since my teens but *Trek *has always been my main area of interest and for a good seven years, pretty much my *only *area. I finally broke out of my pigeonhole around 2001 in regards to literature and have been enjoying Card, Crichton, Turtledove, Bear, Bova, and others but I’m still woefully uninformed about the vast majority of the field and often get overwhelmed when trying to find a new book to read at a store since there’s only so much money I can spend and I obviously want something I’m sure I’ll enjoy.

Can anyone offer some suggestions? I’d prefer to focus on things written in the past thirty years, if possible, because I don’t really care for most of the giants of the field that I’ve read. I can’t explain why as I’m no critic but Asimov, Heinlein, et al just don’t do anything for me. I do like Orwell, though. Both Animal Farm and *1984 *were magnificent.

So far as television (and movies?) go, I’ve been even more lax and it wasn’t until the past year that I’ve started searching out new material. Sadly, with no TV, it’s going to be even more difficult for me to get into new shows but I do have Netflix and intend to try to use it to find stuff but I want to get ideas as to quality first. Aside from obvious series like *Firefly *(and other Whedon shows), what else should I seek out? I really want to see *BSG *but it’ll be a while before that happens. Is X-Files worth trying to get into after the fact? Alien Nation? What about movies?

Any suggestions are welcome.

2

Well, BSG should top your rent list. Add to the list all of Babylon 5. IMO, skip **X-Files ** completely.

As for books, seek out S.M. Sterling, Spider Robinson, Kim Stanley Robinson, early **Larry Niven ** (his last few books have sucked!), and the Sten series by **Chris Bunch ** and Allan Cole.

While you are breaking free of past constraints, add **Terry Pratchett ** to your list. :smiley:

3

The first few seasons of the X-Files were good, but the show started to develop a serious case of “We never resolve anything!” after that. You didn’t mention Bradbury or Ellison in your OP, so if you haven’t checked them out, you should.

And you know I’ve got to recommend Babylon 5. If you can get away from the notion that you’re either a ST fan or a B5 fan, you’ll discover that they’re both very enjoyable shows. You’ll probably still have a preference for one over the other, but there’s nothing wrong with that.

4

The Firefly, X-Files (at least the first 6 or 7 years) and Alien Nation are great.

In order of priority for other shows:

Farscape
Babylon 5 / Crusade
Earth: Final Conflict (Seasons 1-3)
VR-5
Space: Above and Beyond
Stargate: Atlantis (Season 1 should be out on DVD soon)
Stargate: SG-1

5

Well, I can’t give you the definitive answer, but I would suggest:

TV

Babylon 5
Alien Nation (yes, it’s worth it)
X-Files (try to start at the beginning)

Books

Dune
anything by Larry Niven (Known Space books)
Nova, Triton, Dhalgren- three books by Samuel R. Delany
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Movies

BLADE RUNNER
Schwarzenegger’s sci-fi flicks- The Running Man, Total Recall, the Terminator series
Minority Report
there are a lot more, I’m sure someone will be along…

6

I’m not the type to create feuds where there are none that hates all other sci-fi or holds grudges against other series (well, except for ST vs SW. A Borg Cube would make a Death Star its bitch [Hi, lno]), I’ve just never really gotten around to trying other shows as I’m horrible about finding something I like and then focusing on it to the exclusion of all else.

Besides, considering Deep Space Nine is my favorite Trek and it is often accused of ripping off Babylon 5, I need to watch it if for no other reason… I just forgot to mention it in my OP.

It, BSG, and Firefly are the three I’m most curious to see.

7

As for books, I’d check out the Honor Harrington series by David Weber it’s fun Sci-Fi, but on an operatic style . Likewise, John Ringo writes fun Sci-Fi, check out his Hells Faire series. A nice combination of Sci-Fi and the supernatural can be found in Peter F. Hailton’s “Night Dawn Triology”. Those will keep you busy for while.

Now If you’re intersted in hard Sci-Fi (i.e based on sound science), I’d recommend Stephen Baxter, but not recommended for the light reader, he routinely uses big concepts that’s hard to warp your head around. A lighter version of hard Sci-fi would be Niven, he uses explored concepts (both science and exploration) to do make fun stories. I’d try Footfall, The Mote in God’s Eye and Ringworld.

PS silenus’ recommendation of Stirling is a good start too for a Trekkie. He has a current series co-written by James “Scotty” Doohan that I enjoyed. Likewise Shatner also has a couple of Series. Personally I prefered the “Quest for Tommorrow” series vs. TekWar, but that maybe because TV f@#ked it over for me before I had a chance to read the books.

8

I’ve read a bit of Shatner and he’s a hack and I have Doohan’s book laying around in my room at home somewhere but am not particularly interested in reading it. I love Trek and all but it’s time to try to move on a bit and what better omen do I need than the cancellation of Enterprise?

Feel free to recommend me any sort of sci-fi. I’ve tried a bit of everything, from dystopic futures, to hard sci-fi, the fantasy flavored, and everything in-between and haven’t found any specific subgenres I dislike as a whole… I’ve enjoyed it in all its forms. I just need guidance.

9

Rereading that, I sound a little snarky and apologize if I came off that way, Stuffy. I just don’t want the reccomendations to take the path of “If you like Star Trek…” since I’m wanting something new and not just a retread of what I already like.

10

As an old-time SF fan, my feelings are going to differ from many others on this Board.

TV:

Some of the old episodes of the original Outer Limits, Twilight Zone and Star Trek are excellent. In particular, see Harlan Ellison’s scripts Demon with a Glass Hand (my choice for best TV SF ever) and Soldier from OL and City on the EDge of Forever for ST. I also liked I, Robot on OL (which I understand they redid for the newer series, but I never saw) and Feasibility Study. There were several good episodes of TZ and the original Star Trek series. These latter were penned by noted SF writers (or up-and-coming SF writers) such as Theodore Sturgeon, Rober Bloch, David Gerrold, Norman Spinrad, the aforementioned Ellison, and a posthumous Fredric Brown. That’s something that none of the later series in the franchise ever did, and is, I suspect, why I never liked any of them as much.

There have been occasional good shows or one-offs on TV that I liked (Larrty Niven’s Inconstant Moon on the new Outer Limits, an adaptation of Godwin’s The Cold Equations that was a bit sappy, but not bad, some random episodes of the second Twilight Zone series), but I haven’t been teriffically impressed by TV science fiction of late. I’ll have to look into Babylon V, which I never got into, because it’s got a good rep.

Movies:

My top few SF films:

Forbidden Planet – the best translation into celluloid of vintage 1940s SF
2001 – despite its flaws, the best translation of 1950s SF onto film (movies are always at least a decade behind literature) Visually gorgeous, and one of the most mature films
The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Thing Bothy versions, for different reasons
The Hidden – a ripoff of Hal Clement’s “Needle”, but very well done, on a modest budget.
The Terminator and, to a lesser extent, its first sequel
RoboCop
2010, despite its flaws
The Matrix , despite its flaws
It! The Terror from Beyond Space – great sf on a tiny budget
Aliens
Books:

Too many to list. Get The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, volumes I and IIA and IIB (but not III or IV), as has been suggested before). Adventures in Time and Space is a seminal anthology, and I recommend the Del Rey series The Best of … series. You’ll have to scour used book stores or cites for some of these.

Read just about anything by Heinlein or Clarke or Asimov or Clement, especially the earlier work. There are too many others to mention – see earluier threads on this topic.

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In books, I’ve gotten away from that stuff in recent years, but I still dig the Pern books by Anne McCaffrey and read them whenever a new one comes out. (Such as now, although this one’s by her son Todd.) I also enjoy the work of Jack L. Chalker, which you can mostly find at used bookstores there days.

–Cliffy

12

I’ll add another vote for Babylon 5. Can you get this from Netflix? If so, then go ahead and get it, but if not, well…it is close to $100 a season to buy them. Be wanred, though, B5 is a little slow in the beginning, things don’t start to pick up until season 2 (although season 1 was certainly good, just not as good as saesons 2-4 (and season 5 didn’t exist :wink: .)

13

George R.R. Martin published a series of short stories under the title “Tuf Voyaging.” They all tell the story of Haviland Tuf, a small-time trader who … uh … acquires a starship of enormous power. I’m not a huge sci-fi fan, but I absolutely loved that book.

I’m 99 percent sure it’s out of print, but I’m guessing it can be purchased off the intarweb somehow. Martin has other sci-fi series out there, but I’m not familiar with them and so can’t recommend them.

14

Just to throw out an author not yet mentioned: Joe Haldeman. “Mindbridge” and “The Forever War” are excellent.

To throw out an off-the-wall movie: “Battle Beyond the Stars” is “The Magnificent Seven” in space. It’s very underrated and well worth a look.

15

The book Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card is a fantastic book.

Films - IMDB have a top 50 Sci-Fi films (by vote) here

16

For hard SF from the last 25 years, look into some of James P. Hogan’s stuff. In reviewing one of his earlier works, Isaac Asimov said something like, “We are looking at the new dean of Hard SF. Arthur Clarke, move over!” Later, Arthur Clarke did a review of another Hogan work and said, “As much as it pains me to say so, Isaac is right.”

That said, he’s written some truly screwy stuff lately (like ‘The Cradle of Saturn’, which takes Velikovsky (sp?) as serious science). But you can’t go wrong with the Giants series (‘Inherit the Stars’, which is a spacefaring adventure about evolutionary biology, ‘The Gentle Giants of Ganymede’ in which we make first contact, and ‘Giant’s Star’, in which earth people help avert an interstellar incident which could have destroyed both Earth and the Giant’s world. The much-later fourth book, ‘Entoverse’ is not as good, but I would probably read it for completeness.) ‘Bug Park’ and ‘Voyage from Yesteryear’ were also good.

For short stories, get any of Gardner Dozois’ ‘Years Best SF’ anthologies. The editor is one of those people through which the pulse of the entire genre flows (just read his summary of the year in SF literature, magazines, movies and TV in the front of each of these anthologies). Also, if you can find it in a used-book store, Asimov edited a volume called ‘The Super Hugos’. As you know, the Hugo awards are voted on by the fans at the annual World Science Fiction Convention. One year, they had them vote on their favorites of all the previous winners. The winning stories are in this book and they are all great examples of what’s popular with the fans.

17

Books:

Read the anthologies that CalMeacham recommended. When you find a short story that you like, read everything you can find by that author.

In general, I would recommend the ABC’s: Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke.

Robert Heinlein is one of my favorite authors. Some people love him, some people hate him with a passion. Some people love his earlier works, but hate his later works, some people hate the early stuff but love the later stuff.

Larry Niven: His novels are more famous, but his short stories are his best work.

Hal Clement: Needle and its sequel, Through the Eye of a Needle.

Some people love Frank Herbert’s Dune and some people hate it, but it’s worth reading if only to see what the fuss is about.

For lighter reading, try some of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novels: the Mars series, the Venus series, the Earth’s Core series. It’s not Great Literature, but it’s a fun time-waster.
Movies: Most of my favorites have already been mentioned. Let me add a few more.

Silent Running. A lot of 1970’s eco-preaching, but it has its good moments.

It Came From Outer Space. It starts out like a stereotypical 1950’s alien-invasion flick, but it ends much better.

18

For books, I would recommend:

Dan Simmons’ Hyperion/Endymion saga
John Varley’s Gaea Trilogy and Steel Beach
Robert Charles Wilson’s The Harvest

TV:
Original and 80’s Twilight Zone
I watched 3 episodes of Firefly and still want those 3 hours of my life back. Apparently, worshipping Josh Whedon is a prerequisite.
Deep Space Nine
Quark (so that you don’t too serious)

19

Yikes, I’m currently reading a Haldeman and finshed a Hogan recently and mentioned neither. :smack:

Not at all, it’s why I left the Star Trek similar stuff for the end of my post. BTW, am I the only one who likes some of the episodes of the newer Outer Limits? Some of those have great concepts.

20

Heh… you ***did ***notice that I was the OP, right?