Slapstick
Kurt Vonnegut
It is always odd putting kurt vonnegut into the category of sci-fi in that much of his bizarre thinking can't really be blamed on his thinking ahead of the technology development but rather he just thinks totally different... In this case gravity is something that increases and decreases on different days... There are heavy gravity days and light gravity days... I mainly read kurt vonnegut because he is so fun but in addition to that his thinking is so so so so so so different that a dose now and again I think can't help but expand my own imagination and scope for thinking.
Uglies
Scott Westerfeld
A book about a post apocalyptic society in which on your 16th birthday everyone gets an operation to be made beautiful. A nice easy best seller ramble. Nothing overtly penetrating though the concept is appealing as food for thought. Perhaps even more than the concept of built in equalizing beauty the abstract of a series of lies that the main character continually chooses and lives with generates far more drama.
Making Money
Terry Pratchett
About 8-9 years ago I started reading sci-fi in earnest at the suggestion of John Granholm. A key goal is to expand my own thinking in being exposed to some of the widest mainstream thinking we have on the planet. I think it has had a tremendous influence on me... A world has literally opened to me...
I have added a new author or two each year on additional recommendations. So this was my first with Terry Pratchett and, for me, I would put him in mid range relative to other sci-fi writers I enjoy more. BUT when it comes to expanding thinking Terry Pratchett seems to have a trait above many of the others: he inserts seeming "hyperspace" into the plot line -- not the Kurt Vonnegut hyperspace but a different sort... He feels uninhibited to have it all "make sense" or fit with "continuity". Terry Pratchett seems to say "hey, I am a science fiction writer and therefore I can have my story go anyway I want to at any turn and I can introduce new elements as I so chose! That's what I do!" For instance, we learn from seeming nowhere late in the story that a key character, Mr. Bent, was conceived in a one night stand between a clown in a traveling circus and a local woman (serious)... His mother raised him with a deep hatred and disgust for all things clown-like feeling forsaken... Mr Bent's odd world-class anal retentive and zero-laughter/excitement (ZERO) personality is thus explained late in the book and he eventually finds his inner-clown which becomes a key element in the resolution of a banking crisis... Yes, a banking crisis and a clown-fathered hero... That is just ONE example... Just one example... So, in the context of my requiring reminding now and again of how narrow my own thinking might be I am thankful for Mr. Pratchett's contribution.
The Diamond Age
Neal Stephenson
It is hard to describe a Neal Stephenson Sci-Fi novel... Brilliant, complex, gripping, demanding of attention to the smallest detail and extraordinary in seeing forms of the future way ahead of time. His Snowcrash was brilliant in describing the power of virtual worlds as the characters intricately dance between "reality" and "virtual reality"... But I thought Diamond Age was even better and the cultural commentary more profound.
Blade Runner
Philip K. Dick
Wonderfully simple and quickly engaging futurist novel in a time when most humans have died or vacated earth while some androids have infiltrated earth and are targets of bounty hunters.
Caves of Steel
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov wrote 440 books during his lifetime… 440… The common message is that robots are a good thing… Developed his famous three rules of robotics
Ender's Game
Orson Scott Card
The future of war with a child hero
Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury
The best piece written on censorship
Life, the Universe and Everything
Douglas Adams
I could read Douglas Adams forever and ever... not quite as good as the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy but what is?
Prey
Michael Crichton
Somewhat goofy ending to a nanotech disaster... hope they don't make a movie but
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea
Jules Verne
Read this with my son Eamon. Glad I read this classic. Amazing this book was created in the middle of the 19th century and can realize how it brought with it a new genre of sci fi. At times challenging to place myself in the mindset of Jules Verne given how much I have been exposed to.
Shadow of the Hegemon
Orson Scott Card
Much more than just little children battling for supremacy of the planet… awesome
Snow Crash
Neal Stephenson
Complex interplay between reality and cyberworld… ridiculously imaginative and expanding
Stranger in a Strange Land
Robert A. Heinlein
Human raised on Mars comes to Earth… classic and controversial
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams
Awesome… they don't make them better than this
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Douglas Adams
Superb sequel to Hitchhiker
The Shockwave Rider
John Brunner
Worms worms worms… excellent
True Names
Vernor Vinge
Includes a forward with expert's thoughts on identitiy -- a key Vinge theme
So Long and thanks for all the fish
Douglas Adams
I just so wish he was alive and writing these books forever. I read Sci Fi to expand my brain... Wow... This writer always reminds me that our brains can be far more effective...