What is your favorite SF story that is not Star Trek or Star Wars?

[BazBear]

I must have read my fave five or ten times by now. Five replies and I fess up ....

[Tanalia]

Hard to single out just one, but I'll go with Memory Blank by John E. Stith.

[Allan F]

Anne McCaffrey's "Dragonriders of Pern"

[gwiz]

"Lord of Light" by Roger Zelazny

[Peter B]

For a series, Michael Kube-McDowell's "The Trigon Disunity" - "Emprise", "Enigma" and "Empery". If nothing else it has two of the more unusual aliens (not just actors in rubber suits), and essentially predicted the internet back in the mid-1980s.

For a standalone novel, John Brunner's "The Crucible of Time". A story of survival against the odds with very realistically and sympathetically drawn aliens.

For a short story, either "They're Made Out Of Meat" by Terry Bisson (http://www.terrybisson.com/page6/page6.html), or "A Pail Of Air" by Fritz Leiber (http://www.baenebooks.com/chapters/0743498747/0743498747___6.htm)

[Al Johnston]

My favourite short story would probably be Arthur Clarke's Reunion

Not sure if I could pick a standalone novel - if only because they keep acquiring sequels.

For a series, a toss-up between The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan stories

[Morgul]

Starship Troopers by Heinlein.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein

Pretty much anything by Heinlein.  I've got about half a dozen of his books that have literally fallen apart because I've read them so many times.

[gillianren]

For a series, a toss-up between The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan stories

I'm rereading Borders of Infinity for the umpteenth time when there's a reason I want to be reading a paperback, not one of the hardcovers I'm currently reading from the library.  I met her once, too; nice lady.

[darren r]

Fugue For A Darkening Island by Christopher Priest. It's a 'future history' novel so I'm not sure if it counts, though Priest is classed as an SF author. It was written in the '70's but has gained a special resonance in these increasingly less tolerant times.

If not, then The Time Ships or Voyage by Stephen Baxter.

[Andromeda]

The Caves of Steel/The Naked Sun/The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov.

[BazBear]

Robert Heinlein's The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.

[smartcooky]

Robert Heinlein's The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.

Excellent book. It has one of my favourite quotes

Mike, you want to discuss nature of humor. There are two types
of jokes. One sort goes on being funny forever. Other sort is funny once.
Second time it's dull. This joke is second sort. Use it once, you're a
wit. Use twice, you're a halfwit."
"Geometrical progression?"

[smartcooky]

I'm old enough to be a keen follower of the Clarke/Asimov axis so Foundation, Rama, 2001/2010/2063/3000 and the Robots series of short stories are always near the top of my list.

However for sheer "hard sci-fi" my single favourite book (not part of a series or trilogy) is "The Two Faces of Tomorrow" by James Patrick Hogan. In 1979, he foresaw fully automated computer control, the prospect of AI and the internet, in a way much closer to the actuality of today that most other sci-fi authors.

For humour, I cannot pass up the quirky, sometimes brilliant Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" series

[Allan F]

How about the Ringworld series?

[cjameshuff]

"A Pail Of Air" by Fritz Leiber (http://www.baenebooks.com/chapters/0743498747/0743498747___6.htm)

"Rescue Party" by Arthur C. Clarke from the same collection is another good one:

http://www.baenebooks.com/chapters/0743498747/0743498747___1.htm