Sci fi novels and factorio?

[Presentist]

There is no way around Stanislav Lem. Want philosophical hardcore? Start with Golem XIV. Want to laugh the shit out of yourself, read The Futurological Congress. Seriously, do yourself a favor and read all of it. And do NOT watch the Solaris movie (the book is OK, though).

Okay.... I know Stanislaw Lem didn't like any of the adaptations of Solaris, likely largely because they changed the focus from the

issue of unlikelihood of successful communication with an alien intelligence and discussions on sociology of science that tries to penetrate the impenetrable

to at best anthropocentric psychological studies on the characters involved, but I think he was too harsh on that. And I think people are hating too much on them too.

Each medium has its strengths and weaknesses. Not every topic is easily translatable from one to the other, or digestible for that matter, especially if it's to grip the attention of the viewer. You know, maybe if someone made Solaris into a longer tv series, enough philosophical discussions could be sneaked in - few minutes at a time - to do the book real justice. Though even here I have my doubts.

I was honestly fine with all three of the adaptations (though it' been a while since I've seen those; I can't be sure how I'd react to them today). And they just may give someone a reason to read the book.

[aka13]

My all time favourite is the Dune cycle by Franck Herbert.
The trilogy of Ā by A. E. Van Vogt is also in my top tier SF books, along with the Foundation cycle by Isaac Asimov.
Ender's game by Orson Scott Card is also very high on my list (the first book of a whole cycle, but imho way above the following books, can be read in standalone).

Yeah I'm an old guy with old school tastes .

Technically, The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy by Douglas Adams is sci fi, though heavily tilted towards the comedy side. If I was asked to describe the British humour, I would tell to read these books and watch the Monty Pythons.

Dune was promising, but felt similar to Steven Kings Tower - to the end it simply degraded and fell apart, I barely managed to force myself to read the last couple of books. Don't want to know how bad the ones published after his death are.


On the recommendation side:
I would recommend Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, can't vouch for the quality of their translations, but almost all their works are good. I suggest starting with "The Land of Crimson Clouds", "Hard to Be a God", or "Prisoners of Power (published in English as The Inhabited Island)".

[disentius]

Contemporary writer update, or what recent-ish SF books I found worth reading:

Arkadi Martine (A Memory of Empire)
Yoon Ha Lee (Ninefox Gambit)