Can anyone share a science fiction novel they have enjoyed lately.
Fritz Lieber’s “The Night of the Long Knives” is an excellent sci-fi novel. Probably one of the first post nuclear apocalypse novels. And the good thing is it is Public Domain which means you can get it free and legal quite easily. PLUS if you really enjoy it you can make a game out of it.
Just recently re-read Michael Chichton’s “Sphere.” Freaky, freaky book. Sort of a techno-sci-fi-thriller.
I like Ender’s Game or basically the whole triology, its a “not your typical” type of SciFi
Creative Inspiration can be a tough one if you’ve run dry. This just proves that nothing is original though 
So your out of inspiration? Then, this is a good time to start a new idea with the absolutely original premise you’ve forgotten everything and need to go on a journey of discovery to… Oh maybe not so original. But it still might be a good way to inspire yourself 
Im reading Ubik at the moment, but seems like Im the last one on this planet that discovered it
I just read “Swarm”, the first book in the Star Force series, it was pretty good (and like $2 on kindle ).
Anything by Charles Stross, John Scalzi, Verner Vinge, and Ian Banks - I think these guys are the best in SciFi working today. Then there’s the classics by Heinlein, Frank Hebert, Asimov, Stanislaw Lem, and of course Phillip K Dick. And if you haven’t yet feasted on the masterpieces of Robert E Howard and HP Lovecraft from almost 100 years ago, you might give them a look.
“There is nothing new under the sun” was said approx 3000 years ago. I wonder what games they were making then?
Thank you for all the great ideas. I spent the night on the Kindle reading Ender’s Game. I had forgotten how much fun it is to read something non-instructional. I think I am going to bookmark this post and sample everything.
…and no @brokenpoly, you aren’t the last one to discover Ubik
Some other suggestions (from my own sci-fi library)
Arthur C Clarke (basically anything from him is worth the read)
- Rendezvous with the Rama
- the Space Odyssey series (there are 4)
- Childhood’s End
Edgar Rice Burroughs (not really hardcore sci-fi, but good stories and fantastic worlds)
- The Barsoom Series (John Carter of Mars)
- The Venus Series
There are many others, but I can’t really remember them… If it comes back I’ll post it here
Reading these books really bring out a lot of ideas for games… especially if the book has no illustrations whatsoever (I have a pdf library on my mobile, so images are cut off). It forces you to imagine everything, and most likely what you visualize will be nothing like what others see… which means it’s an original, albeit directed, creation. But there’s nothing keeping you from taking your own mental picture of stuff you read in books and recycling them into your own creations.
Cheers
Fixed.
Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series is also very interesting. But then, most of his novels and shorts come from roughly the same universe so are worth a read.
Not a contribution to the thread but a question, maybe someone can tell me the author’s name of a short sci-fi story, which goes like that:
A man has just served a sentence for a future homicide. That means, you can spend a couple of years in jail and then you get sort of a licence to kill one man/woman of your choice. So, this man, after having served his sentence, gets this licence. He’s got a target (a man, he didn’t like his whole life, or something like that), the freedom to choose any weapon, time and place to commit the homicide, and no pressure, no fear of beeing caught. Because of his moral conflicts he decides not to kill the man.
I’ve read the story about 15 years ago and would read it and his other books again, but I can’t remember the name of the author. I was into comic books in those days and, inspired by his short stories, wanted to draw my own one. Now that I’m searching for an inspiration for a game as well I thought maybe someone knows the story and the author.
The story sounds interesting.
But why would you first serve a sentence, and then commit the crime.
Just imagine your intended target dies 1 day after you start your sentence.
You’re right, I had the same thought. But I’m sure that I forgot the most details of the story after 15 years. Maybe you have to spend a couple of months instead of years in jail, due to the overpopulation of the earth… Maybe there is some kind of sentence “rebate” (haha) for such murderer, unlike the impulse driven murderer (robbery, rape etc), who must serve the full sentence after commiting the crime… I don’t know. Anyway, it must be a weird system of justice.
I found it! The story is called “Time In Advance” by William Tenn. I’m reading it right now 
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The first publication was in 1958. As I expected, my memory has twisted the story a little bit since the first time I read it. The pre-crime sentence is a bit tougher than I thought. And, as I said before, there is really a sentence discount for pre-murderers :).
It’s a good read. Even if it’s from 1958, with a bit of imagination you can easily convert it to the modern sci-fi point of view.
And if you’re going to read it, forget about the ending I’ve written above. It may be completely wrong, due to my memory leak .