Dan Simmons is a bit hit and miss, but his Hyperion might be a pretty good choice to read if you’re going to read exactly one SF novel. It’s basically a Canterbury Tales style framing story, with the protagonists’ stories being pastiches that span the history of written SF from pulp-era planetary romance to post-cyberpunk. There are three sequels that are ok, but don’t measure up to the first book.
Simmons’ more recent Ilium/Olympos duology drives a mountain of literary references that threaten to drown any internal coherence in the rest of the story into post-9/11 crazy right-winger bat country. Still pretty entertaining on the account of Simmons really knowing how to write stuff, but more just weird than good weird.
Dan Simmons is a bit hit and miss, but his Hyperion might be a pretty good choice to read if you’re going to read exactly one SF novel. It’s basically a Canterbury Tales style framing story, with the protagonists’ stories being pastiches that span the history of written SF from pulp-era planetary romance to post-cyberpunk. There are three sequels that are ok, but don’t measure up to the first book.
Simmons’ more recent Ilium/Olympos duology drives a mountain of literary references that threaten to drown any internal coherence in the rest of the story into post-9/11 crazy right-winger bat country. Still pretty entertaining on the account of Simmons really knowing how to write stuff, but more just weird than good weird.