# What's your favorite science fiction storyline? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 7, 2001, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-science-fiction-storyline/48856 "2001-01-07T11:53:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Soup\_Nazi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@Soup\_Nazi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soup_Nazi)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-science-fiction-storyline/48856/21 "2001-01-08T01:33:49Z")
IMO, one of the absolute BEST science-fiction books is “Battlefield Earth” by L. Ron Hubbard. It is a total epic adventure. Very long too. Never a dull moment either. Too bad all of his other books sucked big one. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-science-fiction-storyline/48856/22 "2001-01-08T03:35:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CalMeacham \* > \*\*Fenris: > > "William Tenn " is a pen name for Phillip Klass, but NOT the same Phillip Klass that used to be an editor at Aviation Week, and who wrote so many book debunking UFOs. In fact, he placed a notice in “The Skeptica;l Enquirer” saying just that. \*\* He’s not!?! I must have missed the notice (I only get SE irregularly). Damn. One of those “cool factoids that can be used to impress friends” has been taken from me. Oh well. Thanks for the info. They’re both great writers in any case. Fenris ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-science-fiction-storyline/48856/23 "2001-01-08T04:23:02Z")
Fenris: Not only that, but the “Federick J. Pohl” who wrote “Prince Henry Sinclair” and other books on pre-Columbian voyages is not the same as Fred Pohl the science fiction writer. This seems to be a problem with writers – its like they didn’t budget enough names. There were TWO famous writers named “Winston Churchill”, and the only one we remember today – the politician – was a lot less well-known when the other was active. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-science-fiction-storyline/48856/24 "2001-01-08T04:38:00Z")
CalMeacham: I’d never heard of Fredrick J. Pohl, so I was never confused by them 😉 However… If you tell me that my big used book find today was wrong, I’m not gonna be happy. I’m a huge Theodore Sturgeon fan and, at a used bookstore, I found two Westerns (The Rare Breed and The King and Four Queens) and a crime novel (Some of Your Blood) by Theodore Sturgeon. They’d better be the same guy… Fenris ---
**Author:** ![FEotU](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@FEotU](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FEotU)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-science-fiction-storyline/48856/25 "2001-01-08T05:52:27Z")
Definitely the 12 volume Timewars series by Simon Hawke. As the storyline progresses, the plot becomes quite convoluted (always a good sign in time travel stories). And in the course of their adventures, the heroes meet various characters from legend and history (Ivanhoe, Robin Hood, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, the Scarlet Pimpernel). ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-science-fiction-storyline/48856/26 "2001-01-08T06:30:06Z")
RealityChuck: Good to hear 🙂 . Eulalia: I’m a fan of Blaylock as well 🙂 . In fact I’ve always self-identified quite a bit with the protagonist of _The Last Coin_ - Which is probably a far too revealing comment about my personality 😃 . CalMeachum: Did both of the Frederik Pohl’s write sf? I’ve always wondered at _Gateway_ and _The Space Merchants_ being by the same fellow ( and yes I realize the second was co-written - But it still seemed such a stylistically different work ). - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![Fatwater\_Fewl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4491bb/32.png) [@Fatwater\_Fewl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fatwater_Fewl)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-science-fiction-storyline/48856/27 "2001-01-08T07:16:09Z")
Has anyone read any of Ian M. Banks’ _Culture_ novels? _The Player of Games, Consider Phlebas, Excession_, etc… They take place in a future where humans are allied with AI’s, known as Minds (whose physical bodies can range from tiny drones to immense – and hilariously named – ships), in a peculiar culture called, well… the Culture which is, apparently, the most vigorous galactic civilization of its time. The books explore the behaviour of the Culture’s and/or its citizens towards themselves and other civilizations. ---
**Author:** ![Fatwater\_Fewl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4491bb/32.png) [@Fatwater\_Fewl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fatwater_Fewl)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-science-fiction-storyline/48856/28 "2001-01-08T18:49:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tamerlane \* > \*\* > CalMeachum: Did both of the Frederik Pohl’s write sf? I’ve always wondered at _Gateway_ and _The Space Merchants_ being by the same fellow ( and yes I realize the second was co-written - But it still seemed such a stylistically different work ). > \*\* Well, I ain’t **CalMeachum** (who, by the way, has my vote for best sig line ever), but I can tell you that it was indeed the same Frederik Pohl who wrote both _Gateway_ and (with ?? Kornbluth) _The Space Merchants_. Putting the matter of collaboration aside, I’d say that Pohl’s stylistic difference in those two works is explained by them being written between fifteen to thirty years apart… I don’t have the books in front of me, so I can’t tell you the exact pulication dates. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-science-fiction-storyline/48856/29 "2001-01-08T19:08:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by nothamlet \* > \*\*Has anyone read any of Ian M. Banks’ _Culture_ novels? > _The Player of Games, Consider Phlebas, Excession_, etc… \*\* I think they’re wonderful and promote them every chance I get, having discovered them while living in Europe. Unfortunatly, last I checked, most of these are out of print in the USA, which is a crying shame… ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-science-fiction-storyline/48856/30 "2001-01-08T19:13:07Z")
Only one of the Fred Pohls wrote sf – and, as has been pointed out, he produced both Gateway and(in collaboration with the late C.M. Kornbluth)"The Space Merchants. His style has varied over the years, and I think he got better. You might want to check out “The Merchant’s War”, the sequel to The Space Merchants, written by Pohl alone after Kornbluth’s death to compare styles. I don’t know if the Sturgeon who wrote the westerns is the same as the sf author, although it wouldn’t surprise me. Fredric Brown wrote sf, fantasy, and superb mysteries with equal ability. You might want to look up Sturgeon’s bio in Nichols’ “Encyclopedia of SF” or some other source. Thanks for the compliment on my sig. It’s my own. But if you want stuff in similar styles you might want to have a look at [http://www.NancyButtons.com](http://www.NancyButtons.com) or [http://www.perspicuity.com](http://www.perspicuity.com) . I see their stuff at a lot of sf cons, and it appeals to my warped sense of humor. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-science-fiction-storyline/48856/31 "2001-01-08T20:02:27Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by CalMeacham \* > \*\* > I don’t know if the Sturgeon who wrote the westerns is the same as the sf author, although it wouldn’t surprise me. Fredric Brown wrote sf, fantasy, and superb mysteries with equal ability. You might want to look up Sturgeon’s bio in Nichols’ “Encyclopedia of SF” or some other source._\* I won’t have access to my copy of the Encyclopedia until tonight, but I’ll check and post, just as an FYI for anyone interested. As long as we’re talking about SF writers who’ve done mysteries, I recently read Boucher’s Rocket To The Morgue. Great book and a nice look at some thinly-disguised SF authors. (In my used book haul yesterday, I also picked Sharon McCrumb’s Bimbos of the Death Sun, also a SF mystery. It’ll be interesting to compare) Fenris ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-science-fiction-storyline/48856/32 "2001-01-08T20:08:39Z")
Fenris: “Bimbos of the Death Sun” is GREAT, as others on this board have attested. If you can, get the sequel – “Zombies of the Gene Pool”. ---
**Author:** ![Narile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@Narile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Narile)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-science-fiction-storyline/48856/33 "2001-01-08T21:24:59Z")
_Canticle for Lebowitz_ is definitly excellent. _Earth Abides_ is also a very good post-apocolyptic work. For magic science fiction, you can’t go wrong with R. Garrett’s _Lord D’Arcy_ series. Locked room mysteries where magic is science. Glen Cook’s Garrett mysteries are also enjoyable, think Nero Wolfe where Nero Wolfe is a ghost. 🙂 Daniel Hoods _Fanuilh_ series is enjoyable, do not think it is a copy of Brust because it involves a minature dragon familiar. H.Beam Pipers _Lord Kalvin of Otherwhen_ is probably the best treatment of the multiple realities theme. ---
**Author:** ![egkelly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/db5fbb/32.png) [@egkelly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/egkelly)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-science-fiction-storyline/48856/34 "2001-01-08T21:47:41Z")
I still love Asimov’s “FOUNDATION” series. The whole concept of hari Seldon’s “Psychohistory” always intrigued me-the idea that the future could be predicted from calculations is a great theme. Anyway, the really interesting thing was how the "simulacrum’ of hari Seldon would emerge at critical times in the future, to offer comfort to the people present. It is almost as if Asimov had treated Seldon as an old-testament prophet. I’d love to see a movie version of “Foundation”! ---
**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-science-fiction-storyline/48856/35 "2001-01-08T22:52:30Z")
I love alternate present or near-present storylines. A prime example of this would be the sadly ended _Wild Cards_ series, in which an alien virus afflicts Earth in the late 1940s, killing many people and mutating others into jokers (gross deformities) or aces (superpowers). The books are about how the United States deals with the resultant social, cultural, and political implications. It reads like funny, violent, comic book _verite_–kind of a brightly colored Watchmen. Fantastic. Also in this vein is Harry Turtledove’s _The Guns of the South_, which imagines a band of Afrikaan separatists from the early 21st century traveling back to 1862 (I think it’s '62) to supply Robert E. Lee with AK-47s. Wonderfully realized, and apparently as realistice as can be expected from such a premise–James McPherson, for one, has commented on the accuracy of historical detail. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2001, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-science-fiction-storyline/48856/36 "2001-01-09T00:47:00Z")
The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman(?) Story of inter-galactic warfare that spans centuries, told by one unlucky soldier who, thanks to frequent flying at light-speed, gets to see the war from end to end. Great stuff; funny as hell. ---
**Author:** ![Fugazi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@Fugazi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fugazi)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2001, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-science-fiction-storyline/48856/37 "2001-01-09T10:10:03Z")
Fenris: If you like magic/science stories may I recommend the Flux and Anchor series by Jack L. Chalker Featherlou: I recently read an “end of the world” story called Cradle of Saturn by James P. Hogan that was really good. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2001, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-science-fiction-storyline/48856/38 "2001-01-09T10:22:33Z")
If you like ‘scientific magic’ stories, Niven has written a LOT of them that are very good, the most recent being ‘The Burning City’. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2001, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-science-fiction-storyline/48856/39 "2001-01-09T12:39:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fugazi \* > \*\*Fenris: > > If you like magic/science stories may I recommend the Flux and Anchor series by Jack L. Chalker. \*\* Read it and loved it. 🙂 One of my favorites, despite the standard weird treatment of women that Chalker does in his books (Note to Chalker: Come on Jack, how many more times can we watch a woman brainwashed or magically transformed into a sex-crazed animal? Find a new fetish). **Badtz Maru** I read the Burning City in hardcover and enjoyed it, but I thought the first half of the book was better. Fenris ---
**Author:** ![sliv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@sliv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sliv)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2001, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-science-fiction-storyline/48856/40 "2001-01-09T19:35:11Z")
For alternate history stuff, I highly recommend the gaming supplements GURPS Alternate Earths and Alternate Earths II. Each has 6 fully realized alternate histories ranging from the usual suspects (Nazis win WWII, americans lose war for independence) to the outre (Tesla marries JP Morgan’s daughter, major world power the Aztecs). Sure, they’re game supplements, but they make for great reading. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-science-fiction-storyline/48856.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-science-fiction-storyline/48856.md?page=3)