The Mote in God’s Eye may be the best first contact novel ever written. And any of the Niven & Pournelle collaborations are worth reading.
“The Mote in God’s Eye may be the best first contact novel ever written”
My other 2 would be Dune (just the first book)
and Ringworld
Honorable Mention to Lucifer’s Hammer and Dragon’s Egg (possibly the best scifi from a real hard science perspective)
The Mote in God’s Eye may be the best first contact novel ever written. And any of the Niven & Pournelle collaborations are worth reading.
I completely agree.
It’s hard to compare them to more modern authors, but Jules Verne and H.G. Wells started my love of science fiction. Summers in junior high - my best friend and I would go to the library every week and I’d bring home a pile of books to read. I think 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea really reeled me in. Verne, Wells, then Arthur C. Clarke and then on and on.