Back in the 70's/80's, I remember seeing a series of scifi/fantasy books, where the cover art for all the books had a consistent theme of a red/orange sun that figured prominently. What was it? [more inside]
posted by nomisxid on Oct 6, 2009 - 19 answers

Looking for book recs about sci-fi, specifically about gender issues and jetpack-related physics. [more inside]
posted by mumble on Aug 23, 2009 - 27 answers

Want to help remember a book title? 'Course ya do! It's from the 80s and, if I remember correctly, involves some kids that discover a new game at the local arcade. There's a pilot's helmet on top of the machine, and when they try it on and attempt the game they find they can travel through time. I believe the cover was a picture of the machine and the helmet. At one point they use it to break into a research facility or something, but before that I think they go back too far and it's still being built (leading to some fretting about jumping forward in time and ending up halfway through a wall or floor). I know somebody out there can field this one!
posted by Monster_Zero on Jun 23, 2009 - 2 answers

Science fiction - filter: I used to read and love Dick, Farmer, LeGuin, and others who coupled great writing with directly confronting sex, violence, and societal change. What contemporary authors might I like? [more inside]
posted by Forktine on May 28, 2009 - 40 answers

Name-that-golden-age-SF-bookfilter: a kid wins a contest to go to a space station, and it's not Have Space Suit--Will Travel. [more inside]
posted by The Bridge on the River Kai Ryssdal on May 7, 2009 - 9 answers

What books or series spur their own mythology or philosophy? I love getting lost in the world of a book or movie. Past books and series such as "Harry Potter," "The Da Vinci Code," "Lost," "The Matrix" movies, "Buffy" and "Star Wars" come with their own universe - people analyze them, look for mythological/philosophical undertones, solve puzzles and come up with their own theories. [more inside]
posted by adverb on Apr 24, 2009 - 69 answers

Wanted: Science Fiction Books moved by a great central idea such as: Ringworld by Larry Niven or The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. [more inside]
posted by MasonDixon on Mar 25, 2009 - 34 answers

Short Story Askme: I read a short dystopian story many years ago set in a run-down, post apocalyptic future. A queue of people line up on a street to spit at a painting. The painting represents all the problems of the past. It is implied that the painting is The Mona Lisa. What is the story?
posted by bollockovnikov on Sep 25, 2008 - 2 answers

How do I break into one of the larger publishing houses? [more inside]
posted by prunes on Sep 4, 2008 - 21 answers

What are some good sci fi novels/short stories that focus on robots? Difficulty: no Asimov. [more inside]
posted by olinerd on Jul 19, 2008 - 23 answers

WhatWasThatBookFilter: a friend of mine needs help tracking down a fantasy/sci-fi paperback she read back in 1997. Full description below. [more inside]
posted by bettafish on Jun 11, 2008 - 5 answers

Recommendations for Sci-Fi while on the Treadmill? [more inside]
posted by Smarson on Jun 3, 2008 - 25 answers

Walter Tevis's classic sci-fi novel The Man Who Fell To Earth was published in 1963. Does anyone know how and why, then, the current edition came to contain a reference to the 1972 Watergate scandal? [more inside]
posted by johngoren on May 23, 2008 - 12 answers

Book-rec-filter time! Looking for sci-fi themed books for a young child. Can you suggest any? [more inside]
posted by Janta on Mar 18, 2008 - 9 answers

I'm trying to make an expansive and widely-varied reading list of time-travel books and stories. Suggestions? [more inside]
posted by scarylarry on Mar 11, 2008 - 43 answers

My girlfriend's mother and I have a real intellectual rapport, in some ways. Recently we've been talking about literature. She's extraordinarily widely read, but only really within the canon. I've been fronting, claiming that genre fiction like sci-fi has plenty of stuff of genuine literary merit in it. She's called my bluff and asked for a recommendation. What would you suggest? I was thinking something strange and ornate like Cordwainer Smith, but am open to advice.
posted by nicolas léonard sadi carnot on Mar 4, 2008 - 74 answers

In your opinion, who are the best female science fiction authors? What are the best scifi books written by women? [more inside]
posted by taz on Feb 8, 2008 - 106 answers

Looking for the name of a sci-fi book. Man is injected with a serum that causes him to shrink forever, eventually discovering there are universes smaller than atoms. [more inside]
posted by Gudlyf on Feb 7, 2008 - 9 answers

I'm looking for a series of hardback science fiction anthologies I dimly remember from childhood (sometime in the mid 80s). I think it had a one word title with a number, and the series went up to at least number five. I remember two stories in particular... [more inside]
posted by Artw on Jan 13, 2008 - 11 answers

Recommendations for dystopian sci-fi, with a Canadian twist. [more inside]
posted by the dief on Dec 17, 2007 - 18 answers

Science fiction book recommendations please. [more inside]
posted by seanyboy on Oct 12, 2006 - 43 answers

Help find a SF book that my friend can't quite recall, but remembers themes of? [more inside]
posted by Meep! Eek! on Sep 1, 2006 - 7 answers

Which famous sci-fi author bet another author that if he wrote the worst book he could, it would become a hit? [more inside]
posted by pornucopia on Mar 21, 2006 - 25 answers

I'm looking for a book of spaceship art I used to look at in Waldenbooks as a kid.. [more inside]
posted by jockc on Nov 17, 2005 - 9 answers

I need recommendations for excellent science fiction books, movies, short stories (or anything, really) centered around life, scientific exploration, and/or research in the arctic, antarctica, or similar fictional extreme cold climates. [more inside]
posted by aebaxter on Nov 15, 2005 - 30 answers

SciFiLit: I don't get it. Help me to. [more inside]
posted by TiredStarling on Jul 9, 2005 - 79 answers

As a kid, I had a coffee-table size book of sci-fi paintings. Each page was ostensibly the specs and history of a given spacecraft, and the paintings were quite detailed and in the "realist" mode. As you read about each craft, however, a narrative unfolded about a galactic war. The story arc was sussed out in little details dropped about each ship, famous engagements it took part in, etc. The only ship I remember was an "enemy" ship, the Tarantula, which would ambush victims by hovering up out of a pit suddenly. Anybody know the title, artist or illustrator?
posted by everichon on Jun 13, 2005 - 34 answers

Trying to remember the name(s) of a series of books I read, ooh, 10-15 years ago (ouch). Scifi/fantasy genre, female author. Susan something? Anyhoo, there were these big fortresses, and it was completely dark inside and all the people hid inside them while the big flappy things ruled the land outside. Your typical three-volume fallen from grace to rise again with the strength of our courage and sweat of our brows kind of thing, but (with a precious few moments) set entirely in these dark fortresses. [more inside]
posted by 5MeoCMP on May 15, 2005 - 8 answers

I remember reading a book about a young girl living in an underground city. She decides to escape for some reason, and ends up taking a young boy with her too. They journey up to the surface, evading capture by some sort of authority figure. Help me! I want my daughter to read this. (It's a young adult book) [more inside]
posted by cosmicbandito on Apr 25, 2005 - 14 answers

Spoilerfilter: What happens in books 2 and 3 of Tad Williams' Otherland series? I read the first book and liked much of it, particularly some of the characterization, but dreaded the long, rambling stretches where characters like Paul Jonas wander aimlessly through a series of detailed-but-not-plot-relevant virtual landscapes. Reviewers almost always mention that the series drags in the 2nd and 3rd books -- "nothing significant happens," "the characters seem to jump from one exotic locale to another without any real explanation about why they're there" -- so I've decided to jump to book four. What useful plot information do I need from among the 1400+ pages of aimless wandering in books two and three?
posted by mediareport on Feb 19, 2005 - 7 answers

I've enjoyed two books in what I would think would be an extremely small sub-genre of Science Fiction. Both The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein and Millennium by Ben Bova are about a moon colony rebelling against the Earth. I'd like to read more, can anyone suggest any others?
posted by Plutor on Feb 7, 2005 - 23 answers

Since the AskMe crew seems to do so well at finding long-lost books, give this one a crack (MI). [more inside]
posted by tetsuo on Dec 14, 2004 - 2 answers

What are some good sites on what's new/hot/recommended in sci-fi? Literature that is, not movies or TV shows.
posted by skallas on Dec 4, 2004 - 5 answers

I'm looking for a fiction anthology, and only vaguely remember the title or what the book looked like. [more inside] [more inside]
posted by FunkyHelix on Nov 28, 2004 - 4 answers

Can you identify this science fiction story? My friend's been looking for a copy for years...[more inside]
posted by deliriouscool on Nov 18, 2004 - 8 answers

i'm reading gibson's pattern recognition. i'd like something the same, but better. more inside. [more inside]
posted by andrew cooke on Jun 20, 2004 - 27 answers

Who can recommend some good time travel fiction? (Yes, I'm a geek)
posted by Robot Johnny on Jun 10, 2004 - 46 answers

Some years ago, I read a book called something like "Time Like a Slow (Flowing?) River". It was the sequel to another book in which environmentally indignant aliens had conquered Earth to save it from humans and placed strict restrictions on earthlings until they became better environmental stewards. People had to travel by solar powered paddleboats, abandon fossil fuels, etc.
I have had no luck on Google or Amazon (and it's not this). Does anybody know the name or author of either of these books?
posted by signal on Apr 29, 2004 - 3 answers

Quicksilver. What am I missing? (more)
posted by heather on Dec 9, 2003 - 16 answers