Mind-bending (science) fiction

[ElderToadstool]

Recently I've been reading a lot of Philip K. Dick, Kurt Vonnegut, and Jorge Luis Borges and I love the way they handle philosophy and religion so adeptly in their fiction. I was wondering if anyone could suggest any other far-out, intellectual speculative fiction.

 

[Artifice Orisit]

Isaac Asimov wrote some interesting stuff, beware though, it's very retro sci-fi.

 

[Kidege]

Well, for retro sci-fi try Soviet Sci-Fi.

Edit:

I liked Ivan Yefremov's short stories. He was a paleontologist, so the science is there, kinda. What I read isn't in the link.

 

[ElderToadstool]

I've read some of Asimov's stuff (The Gods Themselves, certain short stories) and enjoyed it. Retro sci-fi is fine with me; I love Edgar Rice Burroughs. But as far as the heavyweights go I'm looking for stuff in more of an Arthur C. Clarke vein than an Asimov or Heinlein one, although any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Kidege]

Ah. Then I suppose you could handle this one:

http://lib.udm.ru/lib/EFREMOW/tuman_engl.txt

 

[Anthile]

Stanislaw Lem. The Futurological Congress. That is all.

 

[Sapphire Harp]

I didn't think I had one, but I just came up with a suggestion for you. Take a look into reading 'Yellow Blue Tibia' by Adam Roberts. It's hard to tell it's science fiction at first, but it definitely is... And it's a funny, puzzling read to boot.

Russia, 1946. With the Nazis recently defeated, Stalin gathers half a dozen of the top Soviet science fiction authors in a dacha in the countryside. Convinced that the defeat of America is only a few years away—and equally convinced that the Soviet Union needs a massive external threat to hold it together—Stalin orders the writers to compose a massively detailed and highly believable story about an alien race poised to invade the earth. The little group of writers gets down to the task and spends months working until new orders come from Moscow to immediately halt the project. The scientists obey and live their lives until, in the aftermath of Chernobyl, the survivors gather again, because something strange has happened: the story they invented in 1946 is starting to come true.
​

Personally, I liked the protagonist Svorecky a lot... he has a talent of incidentally pissing off anyone he encounters who takes things seriously. That and every character encountered is super strange / surreal.

(Not enough time for a proper recommendation. Check it on amazon. )
​

 

[cuterebra]

You could try J. G. Ballard, who recently died. He is probably most famous for Crash and Empire of the Sun, which were both were adapted into films, but he also wrote a substantial amount of science fiction of the dystopian, post-apocalyptic variety.

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

Alistair Reynolds - As far out there as you'll get but his treatment of transhumanism is great.

C.J. Cherryh is pretty good but not action packed. She develops and brings to life alien cultures better than anyone I've read.

I've always like Peter Hamilton. If you don't mind marathon reads, his stuff is great with hugely scaled plotlines. One of few I get whenever something new comes out.

 

[asdfasdfasdfsdf]

ever read the illustrated man by bradbury?
while your at it, you might as well read the martian chronicles as well..

 

[Aiss]

^ Speaking of Bradbury, don't forget "Fahrenheit 451" if you haven't read it already.

Greg Egan writes what could be described as mind-bending science fiction (there's a lot about nature of consciousness, AI, etc. there).

 

[Anthile]

Out of three great dystopian books (1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451) the latter is certainly the worst since not even the author himself is sure what it is about.


Also: Michael Moorcock's INRI

 

[Jill BioSkop]

Whoever wrote "Solaris". And Stanislas Lem, definitely. His collection of short stories "The Mask" has some crazy believable ideas. He's a must-read. The Strugatsky brothers' "Roadside Picnic" (renamed "Stalker") is also very good.

 

[Anthile]

Whoever wrote "Solaris". And Stanislas Lem, definitely.

 

[wires]

As far as short stories go, the Last Question by Isaac Asimov is great.

http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html

 

[Thaklaar]

Lem, completely and unequivocally. 'Though I've never read Solaris as I've heard the English translation is crap.