Any number of Philip K Dick short story collections. I honestly couldn't name a thing that's been made in the last decade. I have no idea what to recommend in the realm of modern scifi. Spares by Michael Marshall would be the most recent book and it was alright. Its sort of a much more intelligent take on the story you saw in The Island, basically.
I'd also reccomend most anything by Niel Gaiman, but I tend to consider that stuff more modern fantasy, or postmodern. Oh, and The Road by Cormack Macarthy I suppose deserves a look being the first scifi novel in years to win a Pulitzer.
Snowcrash - Neal Stephanson Neuromancer - William Gibson Ender's Game - That Shadow Complex guy The Nights Dawn Trilogy (The Reality Dysfunction / The Neutronium Alchemist / The Naked God) - Peter F. Hamilton The Songs of Distant Earth - Arthur C. Clarke A Deepness in the Sky / A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge Have Space Suit, Will Travel - Robert Heinlein (aimed at younger readers, but still great)
and not really science fiction, but I really liked it anyway:
Earthquake Weather / Expiration Date - Tim Powers
Plenty more where that came from. I've got mountains of the stuff.
David Brin has a lot of interesting ideas about space, you should look into a short story collection of his. Especially "Crystal Spheres". He's also got a lot of books set in the same universe if you're into robust backstories. Just look up "Uplift Universe".
Also, the 2001 book series, which I haven't finished, is pretty interesting, especially if you liked the movies and want to know more about that "universe". Arthur C Clarke is generally recommendable if for nothing else than to see the lasting influence his ideas had.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, The War of the Worlds, and The Invisible Man are all pretty good. Otherwise, as the others have stated, the Dune series is pretty good, as is Ender's Game.
Darth Bane: Path of Destruction The book that got me into reading was "Darth Bane Path of Destruction" written by Drew Karpyshyn who is a writer at Bioware and one of the folks who worked on Knights of the Old Republic, which this book is set a few hundred years after. Even if your not a fan of Star Wars --shame on you-- or the KOTOR game it is an amazingly well written novel and had me tearing through page after page dieing to know what happened next. It is the story of a young boy who is essentially born into slavery to a company and an abusive father on a mining asteroid and follows his progression from there to being one of the most powerful Dark Lords to ever exist. A real coming of age story if you will, joking ^_-
My all time favorite Novel series. After i read that novel i immediately picked up "Star Wars Republic Commando: Hard Contact". It is the first book in what was a running series that followed the lives of a group of commandos and their mentor/teacher/adopted father Kal Skarata, as they deal with living through the Clone Wars and eventually the Imperial Army. It is written by my new favorite author Karren Travis but sadly do to George Lucas shitting on all her books story by essentially saying fuck you non of that happened, she stopped writing the books. There is one last book in the series that is supposed to come out this year or the next and that will be her last Star Wars work.
If your not familiar with her work but have heard about her online don't believe everything you may have heard. She has taken a lot of shit from fans because she wrote her stories from the perspective of the common soldier on the battle field. Because of what that persons view would be Jedi characters where often shown in a negative view which angered a lot of fans as they see all Jedi as being these paragons of light and unfailable beings.
If it wasn't for this novel i don't think i ever would have read once i got out of school. I read this book when i was in high school and it was honestly the first book i ever read that made me feel like i was reading something special that most people would never known about. It is a story of a boy genius who invents a machine that can tell if someone is lieing and it cannot be fooled. The story is then about how this invention essentially makes the boy the head of the most powerful company in the world and details how this invention and other things he invents change the world, as well as him trying to cover up a dark secret that if found out may send him to jail for life and destroy everything he has worked for.
@crusader8463: Thanks for those, Im a huge Star Wars fan so I might check those out, also, I have read a couple of books by Drew Karpyshyn, namely the Mass Effect books
@Venatio: I just found out after about 10-12 years of not remembering the name of the very first book i ever read that made me know there is such a thing as a good book. it is "His Majesty's Starship". I cant think of a way to write it without spoiling it so i will just copy paste the books back cover. I read it when i was in my early teens so it may not hold up, but i have so many good memories of this book.
Ohh the memories... Captaining HMSS Ark Royal as part of Earth's first interstellar delegation should be an honour. Try telling that to Michael Gilmore. His passengers are an ill-tempered prince and an inscrutable quadruped alien. His First Officer is ready to mutiny if Ark Royal engages its weaponry. The ship's A.I. seems to have turned renegade. And the neighbouring vessel harbours a genocidal maniac. Oh, and it's altogether possible that they're heading into some kind of trap ...
This is more 'speculative fiction', but JG Ballard's short stories. They will seriously make you think (if that's what you want, rather than pew-pew lasers).
Also, Phillip K. Dick's A Maze of Death.
And finally, A Canticle for Leibowitz (about a monk in a monastery in a post-nuclear wasteland that finds some pre-nuclear-holocaust technology).
" This is more 'speculative fiction', but JG Ballard's short stories. They will seriously make you think (if that's what you want, rather than pew-pew lasers).
Also, Phillip K. Dick's A Maze of Death.
And finally, A Canticle for Leibowitz (about a monk in a monastery in a post-nuclear wasteland that finds some pre-nuclear-holocaust technology). "
I think he wants pew pew lazers. And space magic. I gather based on what he's responding to he's looking for something like Star Wars. So um. Mass Effect has some novels probably.
Otherland is an epic cyberpunk story Tad Williams 4 book series "Otherland"
It's kind of like the Matrix but better because it doesn't suck after the first book. It's got a large cast of various characters, but main focus is on an African woman, a teenage boy somewhere in North America and his friend who lives somewhere else (I can't recall). Anyway, the go download themselves into the world wide web and experience virtual worlds as if they were real, but then something goes wrong and they become trapped. There is much much much more to the story than that, but that will give you an idea of what's what. The series is 4 books, each one over 1000 pages so it's not a simple tale. It's very epic, but it moves with such fluidity that I barely noticed the size.
At one point someone was developing an MMO based on the book's setting, but I don't know what progress has been made on it. ( Source)
Can't believe anyone hasn't mentioned the Hyperion Cantos yet (Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, Rise of Endymion). All great reads. Also, Spin (and its sequel Axis) by Robert Charles Wilson are just stunning. I'd go so far as to say Spin is one of the best books I have ever read.
I had read about 30 stories for my Science Fiction course, and even though I could relate to a few things in Ender's Game and Starship Troopers, I enjoyed Snow Crash the most because of its humor and concepts.
" @Alphazero: Good recomendations, do you have any more? "
Let's see...
Fallen Dragon by Peter F Hamilton. -- He does epic space operas really well, but contains himself to a single book in this one. Anathem by Neal Stephanson -- Name of the Rose meets quantum mechanics. Space Cadet by Heinlein -- Another one aimed at younger readers, but a great story Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein -- Sci-fi Jesus allegory. A bit dated, but you have to read it at least once. Jubal lives the good life. Foundation / Second Foundation / Foundation's Edge by Isaac Isamov -- The Mule impels you to read it Altered Carbon / Broken Angels by Richard K. Morgan -- Dark, dark future noir. The Commonwealth Saga (Pandora's Star / Judas Unchained) by Peter F Hamilton - Okay, I admit it. I'm on a Hamilton kick. Misspent Youth is also technically in this timeline, but I'd skip it.... although the writing is more densely kinky if that's your thing. Not Late-Heinlein kinky, but getting there. Code of the Lifemaker by James P Hogan -- Karl Zambendorf is a great character. Also robots! A.I.! Spaceships! All good stuff. M.E. by Thomas T. Thomas -- First person story of an A.I. dealing with the big bad world.
Others have mentioned him, but I'll also reiterate my love for the work of Philip K Dick. He was mad ahead of his time, and the volume of his drug-fueled output is nuts. His earlier stuff is just as good to read as his later works. I'd recommend Eye in the Sky, Time Out of Joint, Flow My Tears..., A Scanner Darkly and any number of his short stories (The Golden Man is a great tale).
the forever war and of course A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Orphanage is a personal favorite although i lost my copy and cant remember the authors name. anyone know what i'm talking about? the main character's name was jason wander, there were slug aliens of some sort?
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