What's your favourite science fiction book? You get the chance to vote here.
Out of the ones on offer mine were: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, and Enders Game by Scott Card. (I hate Card's politics but I loved the book.)
What are yours?
14 COMMENTS:
What a fun poll!! I voted 1984, Slaughterhouse Five and Time Machine! I remember how Brave New World upset my hippy communal equilibrium ethics! LOL! take care
x
I hate these polls because it gets all confused in my head whether I should be voting viscerally or academically. And if viscerally, would I still love a book as much now as when I read it in my teens or early 20s?
But vote I did:
2001: A Space Odyssey
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Brave New World (I followed my academic heart on this vote)
Close runner-ups:
Dune
Ender's Game
Stranger in a Strange Land (this one I'm betting would not still hold up if I reread it now, 30+ years later)
I'm basically finding it impossible to choose ...
Ender's Game
Dune
Hitchhiker's Guide
Responding to Phoenix' comment, I always vote viscerally in these polls. I'm not convinced a novel is "great" if I have to take a class to be taught why it is so.
Kitty, I haven't read Slaughterhouse Five. I found a copy of 1984 in some second-hand books in our loo when I was a kid, and devoured it, then found out it was set for A level! Great to have a sci fi book on the menu! And the Time Machine was one of the greats but it hasn't stayed with me how some of the others have.
Phoenix, should I even admit that I haven't read 2001: A Space Odyssey? I feel like I know it because of all the spoofs on the film. How naughty of me. I loved Stranger in a Strange Land; Dune I was less sure about. I loved the world-building but all the politicking left me cold.
Simon, I know what you mean. On a different day I could have picked two different books. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress would always make it in my top few, though. That book stayed with me long after I'd read it.
Adam, I like your choices. It hadn't even occurred to me that there were two ways to vote: I just went with what really meant something to me.
I voted for "The Time Machine" and "Fahrenheit 451." I'll never forget picking up "The TIme Machine" at the Heorot (a Viking bar) in Muncie, Indiana and reading a good chunk of it by candlelight.
Responding to Phoenix's comments, I always vote viscerally. Even if I wouldn't love a novel today the same way I loved it in my twenties, I have to give it props for changing my life at that point.
Stacy, that sounds like an incrdibly atmospheric way of reading The Time Machine!
Is Red Dwarf in there?
Sx
Miss Scarlet, good to see you in here again! I didn't see Red Dwarf there, it was all books. Great series, though!
I'm embarrasingly short of Fi credentials, though I do recall being deluged with Perry Rhodan books at the age of 11.
Ah! But Red Dwarf is also in book form for us die-hard fans!
I make mention of Star Trek on my blog today... and nobody seems to understand what I'm blathering about; nothing new in my comment box, I know, but I think I made a pertinent point, albeit in a short, concise and abstract way.
I will shut up now.
Sx
Miss S, I couldn't see a post on your blog. Which one is it on?
It's on the new one - now called Miss Scarlet!
Sx
Miss S, I've added it to my blog reader. Why not post the link here?
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