Best science fiction story of all-time nomination thread

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Hijack :

Who do you guys think is best? Clark, Asimov, or Heinlein? I am going with Asimov but they're all very close.

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Heinlein for me, but that's because I like character driven stories. Asimov was great, but his was more about the story and less about the characters. The foundation series is a good example as hundreds, even thousands of years pass over the series. It's not until later foundation books he has real character, rather than just plot, development. Various robot books are often more about the philosophical issues about sentient robots than the characters themselves. Not a knock on him, just a style difference.

Heinlein has other issues, but I liked his characters.

However, for me, all 3 of them pale in comparison to Robert Forward. He had incredible characters, human and alien, as well as very hard-core sci-fi backing up everything.

I very much like Julian May's pliocene exiles series, but again, very character driven. The sci-fi part is basically fluff/background.

Card's Ender's Game I also thought was great. Again though, it's character driven whereas the sci-fi is mostly just setting.

[Andrew Karpinski]

btw anyone who hasn't read "A Fire Upon The Deep" owes it to themselves to pick it up. It is probably the greatest science fiction novel I have ever read in my life.

[Dominic]

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Dune. Thread over.

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SHORT stories, people. Sheesh!

[poincaraux]

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Dune. Thread over.

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SHORT stories, people. Sheesh!

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If people can't make it all the way through the fourth line of the OP, how on earth did they finish anything longer than a short story?

My favorites have already been mentioned. I like a lot of Niven's stuff too, but I don't think it's quite as good as some of the better stories in this thread.

[Andrew Karpinski]

I found Niven a little over-rated but I've only read a collection of his short stories, never any of his novels. He is really well recommended by some authors I liked but I couldn't get into his short stories. I always found them pretty boring.

[incognito]

The Second Variety by Philip K. Dick. It's a great story and an obvious influence for some good stuff that came afterwards (The Terminator, and especially the new Battlestar Galactica)

[Jeff W]

Science Fiction Hall Of Fame Compilation

I've been reading it off and on since I read this thread. It has several of the stories mentioned in this thread and some other excellent ones--it's widely considered the best science fiction short story compilation.

Aside from the stories mentioned in this thread, I really enjoyed Microcosmic God and Arena.

[oreopimp]

Who Goes there by Joseph Campbell. written in 1956 (but reads v v current and scientific, its pretty sick and oozes atmosphere) It was later made into this movie, another great scifi/horror masterpiece:




Both are worth checking out. The story compiments the movie well because it goes into detail on the alien and what the alien was making in the movie.

[oreopimp]

also Sandkings by George RR Martin. it was made into a outer limits episode (never saw it, but the short story is v v good)

[bdohaney]

I have read a lot of these, but to this day, I have to say that my very favorite is "The Hithchiker's Guide to the Galaxy" Great book.