I have read a few S-Tier fantasy books but never came across an S-Tier science fiction book.

I start to believe there's no such thing as an S-Tier book in that genre.

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Inb4 
Foundation is max 8/10, 
Dune is 7-8/10 depending on the episode but starts being 6/10 when it starts reading like some galactic Qur'an
Player of Games is 8.5/10 but is too predictable

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Gibson is like sci-fi’s Tolkien. Many memes came from them. Especially cypherpunk and ai tropes.

Started reading Snow Crash and it's poorly written imo, couldn't get through first 50 pages

Hitchhikers is good, but it's still max 8/10 imo

Will try others, thanks :)

Snow Crash, Neuromancer, Androids dream of electric sheep, hitchhikers guide, ancillary justice

those are all very different, and different from the ones you mention, maybe you’ll like one of them more than 8/10?!

I think it’s very personal, I hate Hyperion but a ton of people love it etc

Joe Abercrombie's First Law saga (6 out of 9 books are S-Tier imo)
Sapkowski's Witcher
Rothfuss Name of the Wind (it has boring parts but overall is a very fresh approach to the genre and has great characters)

Lord of The Rings and Hobbit sadly didn't stand the test of time - re-read them a few years ago, and they're like old Star Wars series: I like them because they're OG, but if they were published today they wouldn't become my favorites.

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What are S-Tier fantasy books for you? So I can gauge what you like for sci fi recs

I need to finish my sci-fi novel it seems

Yeah, can't become an S-Tier book if you don't ask big questions about the nature of life

Enders Game
more philosophical but all good books should be

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Currently: WhatsABI

+1 for The Martian

Project Hail Mary is even better imo

Some contemporary ones I haven't seen mentioned: 

If you like action-y hard scifi, The Martian is good.

If you prefer post-apocalyptic, there's the Wool Omnibus, Station Eleven.

I loved The Expanse books (especially the 2nd onward), even better than the show.

All of Ted Chiang's stuff is excellent.

what fantasy do you put in the s-tier? have to disagree with you on the first dune book, that was incredible. i think ender’s game was amazing. snow crash as well was so good it ended a very popular genre at the time. but if not, cryptonomicon is as close as he gets to a completely consistently great novel.

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What percent of all sci fi do you figger you’ve read or know about?

A simple model for an S-Tier book:

1) Great storytelling: right characters, tensions, action, plot twists, and so on.

2) Amazingly written: goes so smoothly that you feel almost a physical pleasure from reading.

3) Philosophical: makes you (re)consider some parts of your life or at least some critical viewpoints.

"Tai Pan", "Noble House", "Shogun" saga
"First Law" saga (6 out of 9 books)
"Witcher" & "Narrenturm" series
"Name of the Wind" (very uneven but great overall)
"Catch-22"
"Shadows on the Hudson"
"I, Claudius"
"Hopscotch"
"Harry Potter" series (ofc targeted at young audience but still a work of art)
"Who is Michael Ovitz?"
"Masters of Doom"

+ some obvious classics like "Crime and Punishment" etc. and some Polish books that I don't even think have been ever translated to English

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@gnosischain validator

anything that's S-Tier tbh :) I just love great books

excellent bait! sci is a broad term , what types of speculative things are you Interested in ? near future, technology, space, genetics, etc? lots of good recs already.

Complexity explorer. Residing in the liminal.

Loved all the Culture series, but Feersum Endjinn stood out for me as the most original and challenging.

The Player of Games is my #1 scifi book so far, but felt too predictable to become an S-Tier title. Which other books of him would you recommend?

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Scanner darkly is really good if you like those, they actually made it into one of my favorite sci fi movies too 

https://youtu.be/hkjDUERgCQw?si=WkMnD5lJxr8jmkH0

Read first 3, haven't considered them scifi, but I think you're right by putting them in that category. 

So 1984 and Brave New World would make it to S-Tier!

Fahrenheit 451
1984
Brave new world 
A scanner darkly

yeah, my theory is that's different types of authors work on sci-fi books. 

they have great knowledge but lack writing skills that are necessary to get from 8/10 to 10/10.

life is good, been exploring different ideas lately

S-Tier doesn’t live in sci fi books

how’s life after kiwi going btw?

S-tier: 
- Children of Time or Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky 
- Diamond age, Cryptonomicon, Anathem by Neal Stephenson.
- Daemon by Daniel Suarez
- The Expanse

I thought Hyperion was amazing, check it out

Strong recommend for the Nexus series (Ramez Nam)