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No, I have never read any programming book neither.
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theoldfool wrote: he admits to never reading SF?
No, but it does beg the question:
What's wrong with you?
Software Zen: delete this;
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Dropped on my head when I was little. Why else would I try to write code?
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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That makes sense. In my case, I climbed to the top of my mother's upright piano when I was four and fell off, whacking my head on the way down. The scar is still visible on my scalp.
Software Zen: delete this;
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The classics are classics for a reason and most of them hold up very well today.
Dune (the first one) - builds an entire galactic civilization and an incredible story in one book. Loved it. The next few - not as much.
Off the beaten path though:
One book I read that I really enjoyed was 'The Excalibur Alternative' - David Weber. Good stand-alone story in the age of 10 book series.
James Hogan had some great takes on robotic evolution in Code of the Lifemaker, and on AI in The Two Faces of Tomorrow. I don't know how well these have aged in 40 years though.
David Brin 'The Practice Effect' has a great twist on fundamental physics in an parallel universe.
My two cents.
If you can't laugh at yourself - ask me and I will do it for you.
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Was it you who talked about Rene Barjavel's The Ice People several years back here?
I ended up convincing a friend to buy a second hand copy off some foreign Amazon site (they were not active in India then and still don't sell second hand books) and bring it to me the next time they came. I rather enjoyed it, although the ending was sad. So thanks a lot for the (much) earlier recommendation.
I also liked:
Clifford Simak - City.
Arthur C Clarke - Rendezvous with Rama.
Hal Clement - Mission of Gravity.
Cheers,
Vikram.
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Vikram A Punathambekar wrote: Was it you who talked about Rene Barjavel's The Ice People several years back here?
Either me or KaRL, who was the only other person that I know (also IRL) who also knew Barajavel. But wow, good memories ! And what an effort you got into to buy the book 
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Ah yes, might have been Karl with the backwards R, but probably you.
Yes, I went to a lot of effort to buy some secondhand books ~10 years back. The aforementioned Mission of Gravity and City were also bought on Amazon US/UK secondhand.
Cheers,
Vikram.
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The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress and Time Enough For Love by Robert A. Heinlein
The Chanur Saga and The Foreigner Sequence by C. J. Cherryh; oh hell, all of her science fiction is good
The Bolo books by Keith Laumer and his successors
The Old Man's War series by John Scalzi
Oath of Fealty by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
Roadmarks by Roger Zelazny
Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
...
These are all books that I re-read time and again. I have had to ration myself how often I go back to them so that they don't get stale.
Software Zen: delete this;
modified 6-Mar-21 11:59am.
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In no particular order:
The Foundation series (Isaac Asimov)
The Robot books (Isaac Asimov)
Dragon's Egg & its sequel Starquake (Robert L. Forward)
Rocheworld & its sequels (Robert L. Forward)
Camelot 30K (Robert L. Forward)
The Dune series (Frank Herbert)
Ringworld and its sequels (Larry Niven)
Rama (but not the sequels) (Arthur C. Clarke)
Some of Harry Turtledove's alternate history books
The Mesklin series (Hal Clement)
The Riverworld series (Philip Jose Farmer)
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Interesting. For me, everything you cited is classified as fantasy rather than science fiction. I'm not judging (I say toe-may-toe, you say toe-mah-toe), but I'm curious that you group them together.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Gary R. Wheeler wrote: For me, everything you cited is classified as fantasy rather than science fiction
Tis, more elves and dwarfs, but still spanning multiple planets. Sometimes they overlap, and while I prefer SciFi over fantasy, I loved those books.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks Tolkien is Fantasy rather than Science Fiction  And it's not a pejorative comment, I really liked LotR.
Cheers,
Vikram.
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I like some fantasy, LotR included. I no longer have the patience though to read the 1,000 page paperbacks with countless subplots, author-created pseudo-languages, and the quests that take 15 or 20 books to resolve. My preference nowadays is for urban fantasy from authors like A. Lee Martinez[^], N. K. Jemisin[^], and Jim Butcher[^].
Software Zen: delete this;
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tooo many to count. I read them like they are water.
I agree on i-robot and Asimov. Fantastic author, book and series.
Lately I have been enjoying a series by Christopher Nuttall Empires Corps. Interesting political angle he has.
I really loved alot of Jack Vance books. Ports of Call standing out right now in my memory.
Timothy Zahn's Cobra soldier series is kind of an interesting premise
Jack McDevitt's books are a fun current read.
To err is human to really elephant it up you need a computer
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Shouldn't there be a spoiler alert here ?
There should not.
modified 5-Mar-21 7:55am.
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Not really a spoiler the first sentance of the book is: "The moon blew up with out warning and for no apparent reason"
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I cannot believe you just spoiled me a whole line of the story. 
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Are you sure it exploded, not just left the solar system[^] in a hurry?
As any fule kno, Green Cheese is not in the habit of exploding.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Read it a few years back, and enjoyed it. 
IIRC, there was some sort of "magic bullet" particle from outside of the solar system which caused the initial fracture, and the fragments then collided with each other repeatedly, producing ever smaller fragments.
I don't think the original cause was ever explained.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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I liked it.
But I felt the end was rushed; I wanted to know more about the other survivors.
I'd rather be phishing!
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