Favorites from the Questionnaires for Across the Sea of Stars

Favorites from the Questionnaires

We've gotten a lot of interesting answers to the questionnaires. Here are the lists of favorite choices:

Favorite SF Books

Hitchhiker's Guide... series, Douglas Adams
The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
Foundation series, Isaac Asimov
The Gods Themselves, Isaac Asimov
The Company novels, Kage Baker
Sky Coyote, Kage Baker
Use of Weapons, Iain M. Banks
Actually, just read all of the Culture novels by Iain Banks.
Farenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
Glory Season, David Brin
River of Time, David Brin
Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
A Civil Campaign, Lois McMaster Bujold
Barrayar, Lois McMaster Bujold
Memory, Lois McMaster Bujold
Young Miles, Lois McMaster Bujold
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
Pastwatch, Orson Scott Card
Speaker for the Dead, Orson Scott Card
2001 A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke
Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
Diaspora, Greg Egan
Neuromancer, William Gibson
A Door Into Summer, Robert Heinlein
Number of the Beast, Robert Heinlein (I still don't know why...)
Starship Troopers, Robert Heinlein
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Robert Heinlein
Time Enough for Love, Robert Heinlein
Dune, Frank Herbert
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
Crystal Singer, Anne McCaffrey
The Mote in God's Eye, Larry Niven
Gateway, Frederick Pohl
Paradise/Purgatory/Inferno, Mike Resnick
Stardance, Spider and Jeanne Robinson
Contact, Carl Sagan
The Ganymede Club, Charles Sheffield
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
Hyperion, Dan Simmons
Fall of Hyperion, Dan Simmons
Anything by Cordwainer Smith. I love the wondrous fantasy feel of his SF.
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, series by Michael Stackpole, et al.
The Diamond Age, Neal Stephenson
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
Accelerando, Charles Stross (follow link to online text of book)
Iron Sunrise, Charles Stross
More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
Ruled Brittania, Harry Turtledove
Aristoi, Walter Jon Williams
Doorways in the Sand, Roger Zelazny
Fools' War, Sarah Zettel
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume 1, anthology

Favorite SF Movies

2001: A Space Odyssey
2010
A Clockwork Orange
Alien
Aliens (Science Fiction as action movie. Ripley Rules!)
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
Bladerunner
Brainstorm
Contact
Cowboy Bebop
Dark City
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Dr. Strangelove - it explores the societal ramifications of a particular nonexistant technology, it is too science fiction!
The Dunwich Horror! One of those good/bad movies; and sadly, probably one of the most faithful Lovecraft adaptations
Dune (the 2001 David Lynch version)
The Empire Strikes Back
The Fifth Element
Flash Gordon (1980) So bad. So good.
GalaxyQuest
Gattaca
The Incredibles
The Matrix
Minority Report
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds
Planet of the Apes
Return of the Jedi
Serenity
Star Wars
Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
Strange Days - it's really noir, and the hero really is "a man who is not himself mean"
Terminator II
Twelve Monkeys
Waterworld
X-Men

Favorite SF Television

Babylon 5 - Where do I begin? Fairly hard SF/space opera. Complex, interesting characters that grow and change over time. Cool CGI. Great music. The Arc.
Babylon 5 - I like the continuous plot, character interactions, and cultural/political intrigue. It feels like a world with real depth.
Babylon 5 - Despite its flaws and the shows that came after, it raised the bar on characterization and plotting and plot arcs, and it's one of the few shows, SF or otherwise, that tries to understand how religious people actually think.
Babylon 5 - Arc, character growth, Angst and sacrifice that is painful but worth paying. Good acting. Treating the viewers as smart people.
Babylon 5 - well-written characters, a great arc, and 'easter eggs' hidden in the scripts that paid off months, even years later.
Babylon 5. No other series even comes close (and if I hold some disdain for sci-fi movies, I generally hold a great deal more for sci-fi TV shows). It is excellent because it has a beginning, a middle, and an END (by design!), and set out from the beginning to tell A STORY... as opposed to the loosely-related, ill-defined, open-ended episodic crap that is most television (sci-fi and otherwise). (Mind you, several episodes of Star Trek really aren't bad at all, on an episode-by-episode basis, but overall they did fall into all the classic traps of TV that really bother me.)
Dr. Who
Firefly, because of the powerful tension between the ensemble characters
Firefly. I love the characters. I love how they interact together/play off each other. I love the complexity of the universe, the messy, multiculturalism of it. I love the juxtiposition of Space and Western genres I also love the humor, and how at exactly the right moment, Joss Wheedon will break the expectations of the genre on you.
The Prisoner. Interesting writing where I couldn't say what would happen next.
Quantum Leap was fun. I'm a sucker for alternate universes. Exploring the range of possibilities inherent in the common as well as uncommon parts of life is fun.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - great stories and characterizations, story arcs that mattered, war, peace, love, religon... all great topics.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Interesting characters that are well developed. Less didactic than TNG but with the same fun stories and shiny space battles. DS9 had everything: drama, comedy, romance, action, pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo, hot chicks in skintight outfits, brooding tortured heroes, and Ferengi. Who could ask for anything more?
Star Trek: The Next Generation - plots, actors, special effects
Star Trek: The Next Generation

Favorite "Really Awful" SF

Anything with "natural disasters" in it. They make my geologist soul weep in pain.
Battle Beyond the Stars, reused ships, hackneyed acting, crazy characters... Seven Samurai in Space obviously.
Dr. Who - the effects were awful due to the time frame, but it was still fun.
Electrawoman & Dynagirl - really, any of the Sid & Marty Kroft TV shows (Dr. Shrinker!), but E & D was just so strange... what was their relationship? Who was that man who seemed to be trapped in the cave below their house? And I can't ignore the fact that the episode where Dynagirl was hypnotized into turning evil, even to my confused six-year-old brain, Evil Dynagirl was hot.
Anything by Lionel Fanthorpe. Just read some, if you're not sure why.
Philip Jose Farmer's Day World and River World books. They were both using scifi as excuses to mess with modern dynamics, and pretend to take a look at how the world would develep in different situations, which is cool. What wasn't cool was the cliched stories that came out of it, and the extremes that the worlds would shift to. So neat concept, poor execution. But I liked it as a kid.
The 1980 Flash Gordon movie, with the soundtrack by Queen. It's silly shallow pulp where football skills and ernest honesty are the keys to success in the Universe. (and Shakespeare is the best thing Earth had produced)
Forbidden Planet - with its horrid acting and vague sexual innuendoes, it definitely takes this honor.
Hmm... probably Independence Day, because it somehow managed to convince so many people that it was actually a good movie.
Lexx - cheese + sex.
She. It seems to be postapocalyptic, but there is magic represented by green light. The character with the most total words is on screen for about five minutes.
The absolute worst is a type of science fiction I think of as 70's Sleaze. Think Logan's Run, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and the Original Battlestar Galactica television series. It is the worst because it is does exactly what Science Fiction is supposed to do: expose the cultural struggle of the time period it was written in. But the cultural struggle that was going on during the 70s was so self indulgent and so shallow that the works have not aged well. Yet, there is something so very compelling about it. You know it's bad, but it's so sincere in it's shallowness it's almost touching. You have to watch it, you can't look away. I loved that 70's cheese. I loved the campy women's lib lite. I loved the pseudo mysticysm/quasi religious space dreck, the egregious sexuality, and yet the unashamed Utopian leanings, the quest for the perfect society. Bad, and sooo good.
Space 1999 - because of the awful science.
Star Wars Episode 1. Innumerable crimes against Drama. The protagonist saves the day by making a stupid mistake, among many others.
Any Ed Wood movie.

Favorite SF Character to Play

Ellie Arroway, from Contact. She was passionate about the discovery and the possibilities.
Beenay, from Isaac Asimov's Nightfall.
Horace Bury from The Mote In God's Eye.
The Consul, from Hyperion.
Delenn, from Babylon 5. She was deep and focused.
Ender, from Ender's Game. He is the soul of compassion, and his trials are pure. He looks at things from different directions, and he wins the game against the creator of the game. And that brilliant victory is the right one, not just feeble rebellion.
Galactus - from Silver Surfer. I want to know what a planet tastes like. So many planets, so little time.
Honor Harrington, from the David Weber books.
John Percival Hackworth, from The Diamond Age (or, again for contrast, Carl Hollywood, the puppet master...)
Donald Hogan, from Stand On Zanzibar, for the pure glorious tragedy of it (Shalmaneser would also be fun...)
Mycroft Holmes, from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
Susan Ivanova from Babylon 5. Why? Because Ivanova is God. That is all.
Mara Jade, from the Star Wars books by Timothy Zahn.
Jayne from Firefly. He wants to fit in so bad, and has no means to express it.
Chris Kelvin from Solaris. I'd love to explore his sense of loss.
James Kidder, from Microcosmic God (Mad Science!!!)
Kosh, from Babylon 5
Odeen, from The Gods Themselves (Dua would be even more cool and tragic, but I might not have the range to pull that off.)
Q, from Star Trek: the Next Generation, definitely. There've been other omnipotent characters; there've been other snotty ones. But snotty AND omnipotent? How fun!
I think Killashandra Ree from Anne McCaffrey's Crystal Singer. She has everything about her that is fun to play. A dark personal tragedy in her past, ambition, an interesting skillset that she uses to her full advantage, the occasional bout of madness, communion with an alien consciousness, a touch of "damn I am good" arrogance, angst and a sometimes disastrous choice in bed partners. Perfection would be to add a combat skill, but I am willing to settle.
Retief, from the Keith Laumer books and stories.
The Savage, from Brave New World (Mustapha Mond would be fun, too, for totally different reasons...)
Valentine Michael Smith, from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
Dr. Strangelove, from Dr. Strangelove, because he has dramatic tension, great scenes, and an accent.
Dr. Who! Who needs linearity? Who needs sense?
The character from All You Zombies. I like the idea of the amazingly complicated situation that you have to figure out all sides of while at the same time figuring out who you are.
The first officer, not the action hero, but the guy who gets it done. The Engineer maybe.

Favorite SF Hero

Elijah Bailey, from Asimov's Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun
Bean from Ender's Shadow, because Bean understood the world and people much better than anyone else and yet wanted to be a part of it all.
James Bond. James Bond is scifi.
Arthur Dent, from Hitchhiker's Guide... He likes tea.
Arthur Dent, from Hitchhiker's Guide... He isn't a hero. He's just bewildered and there, and a very strongly developed character.
Ender, from Ender's Game. Beautifully tragic, irony everywhere.
Emperor Gregor, from Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan books. He's relatively enlightened and laid back, and when he's ticked off, he seems exactly the same. This is what makes him so dangerous.
Mycroft Holmes, from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. He's an AI hero with more character than many humans.
Agent K from Men In Black. Cool, calm, collected, and ridiculous.
Lazarus Long, from several of Robert Heinlein's novels.
Tam Olin, from Gordon Dickson's Soldier Ask Not, because he changes in interesting ways as he uses and abuses his power as a newsman.
Hiro Protagonist, from Neil Stephenson's Snow Crash. Cyberspace's greatest swordfighter, partially because he's good, partually because he wrote the system.
Valentine Michael Smith, from Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, because he groks.
Han Solo, from Star Wars. Fast ship and cool sidekick.
Han Solo, from Star Wars. Who does not love a rogue?
Spock, from Star Trek. A classic character able to do what's right based on principle.
Harry Tuttle, Vigilante Air Conditioner Repairman, from Brazil, because he is an everyday worker turned hero.
Miles Vorkosigan from Lois McMaster Bujold's series of books; watching someone physically incapable use his wits to survive and triumph in a martial culture is really satisfying.
Yoda, from the Star Wars series. Yoda kicks ass.

Favorite SF Heroine

Susan Calvin, from several of Asimov's robot short stories
Major Samantha Carter, from Stargate: SG1.
Delenn, from Babylon 5.
Jadzia Dax from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, because she could kick a Klingon's ass and still act the mysterious temptress.
Honor Harrington, from the Honor Harrington series of books by David Weber. She kicks ass, she cares, she has a real personality.
Mara Jade, from the Star Wars books by Timothy Zahn.
Leela, from Dr. Who. Independent lass who saves The Doctor.
Maia, from David Brin's Glory Season, because it was a believable, alien culture she came from and it showed.
Molly, Razorgirl, from Neuromancer, cold, cool, deadly
Ellie Quinn, from Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan books. She does the space mercenary thing, she's smart, and she's a woman. Favorite quote of hers, when the bad guys are planning to kill her and make it look as if she fell asleep after having sex in a flush tube: "Good grief, my admiral will think I was stupid enough to do it in a flush tube!"
Dr. Lillian Reynolds from the movie Brainstorm (1983). A cheezy movie but her portrail of her character was dead on.
Ripley from Aliens. Badass but not silly, benevolent but not soft. Kicks butt and looks good doing it.
Siri, from the The Consul's Tale in Hyperion, or perhaps Meina Gladstone, from Fall of Hyperion; both strong characters, one tragic, and both able to play subtly and deep. Or Dua, from The Gods Themselves (again, for the tragedy and irony).
Aeryn Sun from Farscape. Competent, tough, with a very dry wit; one of the best female role models on TV, ever.
Zahra, from Terrorists of Irustan, by Louise Marley. A very believable normal woman who winds up becoming stuck as a hero because she needs to do something. The way that she is trapped shows both the dark and light sides of the character.
Zoe from Firefly. A strong woman, a warrior willing to fight for what she believed in, scarred and still able to love. And since the movie... the ANGST! Oh the ANGST!

Favorite SF Sidekick

Bean, from Ender's Game. (Especially after Ender's Shadow came out...) Again, considerable and prevalent irony.
C3PO, from Star Wars. Clever dialogue.
Chewbacca, from Star Wars. Makes funny noises and keeps your bucket of bolts running.
Arthur Dent, from Hitchhiker's Guide... He is the protagonist, but he's really Ford's sidekick, and he just wants his tea.
Edger, from Sharon Lee and Steve Miller's Liaden books. He's a somewhat-larger-than-human sized sentient turtle who makes great knives, seems utterly naive about normal human society, and is actually, in his own alien way, quite sharp, and not someone one should cross.
Ivan from Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan books, because of his hilarious ability to get things done by playing an idiot.
Ambassador Kosh, from Babylon 5.
Vir Kotto from Babylon 5; his innocence and kind heart made the darkness and corruption around him that much worse. Besides, with all the universe-threatening events taking place each week, it was gratifying to have one character going around in a constant state of panic.
Vir Kotto and Lennier, from Babylon 5. Poor guys, no one ever listens to them.
Leela, from Dr. Who. Again.
Albert Morris's detectives, from David Brin's Kiln People, because ya gotta love clones of yourself as sidekicks
Nimitz, Honor's treecat, from the Honor Harrington series by David Weber. Nimitz is a six-limbed empathic feline.
R. Daneel Olivaw, from Isaac Asimov's Robot novels
R2D2, from Star Wars. The most useful and effective sidekick in the universe.
Starbuck from the original Battlestar Galactica. Like I asked, who does not love a rogue? Perfect foil for the uptight Apollo.

Favorite SF Villain

Leto II Atreides, from God Emperor of Dune, by Frank Herbert. Thousands of years of total rule of humanity, working all the while to make sure he is the last great evil overlord.
Bester, from Babylon 5.
Mr. Cladwell, from Urinetown. He has a good character song.
Cthulhu, from the Lovecraft mythos. I know its technically horror/fantasy but His reach stretches across all genres.
Doctor Doom from Marvel comics (NOT the movie version). Gotta love the obsessive, vain megalomaniacal mad scientists!
Baron Harkonnen, from Dune. A vile man wallowing in his own perversions.
Khan from Star Trek II. Talk about charisma!
Lady Kushana, from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds, because she has motives and is sympathetic all while being evil.
Emperor Ming from Flash Gordon (1980). Best over the top outrageous villian ever.
Evil! Londo Mollari from Babylon 5 is pretty cool.
Morden, from Babylon 5. After a while you just kinda like the guy.
The Moties, from The Mote In God's Eye. Not very obviously "villainous", certainly, but I like my villains sympathetic... and hiding a big and interesting secret.
The Mule, from Asimov's Foundation trilogy. A fascinating combination of contradictions, quite dangerous.
Nyarlathotep, from H.P. Lovecraft, 'cause anything called The Crawling Chaos is fun to be around.
The Snow Queen, from Joan Vinge's The Snow Queen. She's in a difficult political position, but is definitely a villain. She's very intelligent, but simply doesn't understand why her master plan is doomed to fail. And the relationship between her and the man who dies with her is nicely twisted.
The scientists from Twelve Monkeys. Coldly letting the plague get spread in the past to preserve the future they came from...
Darth Vader, from Star Wars. Not Anakin.
John Worfin, from Buckaroo Banzai. He's played by John Lithgow and poses a lot.

Favorite SF "Eye Candy"

Kirstie Alley in Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan. She fills out the uniform real nice.
Barbarella, from Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy; the orgasmatron.
Ben Browder from Farscape. John Crichton. Why? Cause he's yummy.
Jennifer Connelly as Emma in Dark City, 'cause most of 'em look the same so I went with the first one I thought of.
Sean Connery as James Bond.
Episode II or III of Star Wars.
Have I mentioned "Evil Dynagirl"?
Leela, from Dr. Who. Again.
Lelu, from The 5th Element. Flashy. 'Nuff said.
Duncan Regehr, from the old Wizards and Warriors TV show.
Denise Richards' character in the Starship Troopers movie.
Uma Thurman in Gattacca. Woof!
Deanna Troi, from Star Trek: The Next Generation, because she is hot and empathic.
Rachel Welch from Fantastic Voyage.

Favorite SF Bug-Eyed Monster

The Alien from Alien and Aliens. Scary as hell. Beyond creepy, and no eyes.
The Aliens from Aliens. I think it's the snot. The long trails of snot creep me out.
Does Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars I count?
The Daleks, from Dr. Who. They are menacing giant salt shakers, Giant Salt Shakers!
Those tiny dinos from Jurassic Park. Can you say 'hail of acorns'?
Godzilla!
Monsters of the Id, from Forbidden Planet. It gives new meaning to "you're your own worst enemy."
Mothra, the only critter (that I know of) to take Godzilla down!
The Pierson's Puppeteers from Larry Niven's Known Space stories and books. They play a deep game. (The Moties aren't quite as "bug-eyed".) If you want real "bug-eyed" monsters, the Ki from Chess With A Dragon, by David Gerrold. (though their games aren't nearly so deep).
The Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal, from Hitchhiker's Guide.... Sooo ravenous, and yet so stupid - proves the existence of God.
Yog-sothoth, from the Lovecraft mythos. See explanation of Cthulhu in villain...

Favorite SF Technology

We have transparent aluminum now! Huzzah!
The Ansible, from Ursula K Le Guin's SF universe. Communication is critical, and, as Weyland Smith said in the comic Fables, more than one revolution has failed because its proponents supported Cool Weapons over a working communications system.
Clinical Immortality. I want it. (Farcasters would be nice, too, and realistic hologram generators are always fun...)
Form-change tank, from the book Sight of Proteus et al. Be anyone you want to be...
FTL, from multitudinous sources. Unfortunately it's what allows a lot of very enjoyable SF to work.
Giant Robots from GUNDAM anime.
The Infinite Improbability drive, from Hitchhiker's Guide.... "We have restored normality. Anything you still can't deal with is your own problem"
Jump Gate Technology, from Babylon 5.
Lightsabers, from Star Wars.
Psychohistory, from Isaac Asimov's Foundation novels. (I guess it's not really a technology.)
Ringworld, from Larry Niven's books. Okay, it wouldn't work, but a cool idea nonetheless.
Singularity, from lots of sources; it encompasses all other technology
The Stargate, from Stargate: SG-1 is kinda neat and time saving.
The Tardis, from Dr Who. Powerful but unreliable enough to make things interesting.
The Tardis, from Dr Who. What is cooler than a box that is bigger on this inside than it is on the outside, and translates for you at the same time. Awesome. Addedendum: The Tardis must include a sonic screwdriver.
Warp Drive from Star Trek.
Warp drive/hyperspace/FTL tech (all over the place)... without it, SF as we know it wouldn't exist.
Roger Zelazney's Doorways in the Sand had a device that would reverse anything that entered it, even on a molecular level. This changed how amino acids and such worked (as they are left or right handed) and led to some interesting logic.

Favorite SF Spaceship

Dahak, from the Mutineer's Moon series by David Weber. It's an artificially intelligent spaceship the size of the Moon.
The Red Dwarf, from Red Dwarf. It's not a cool ship, but it has more personality then any other ship, and a toaster.
Enterprise, from Star Trek
The Millennium Falcon, from Star Wars
Grey Area from Iain Banks' Excession, 'cause mind-reading ships are great fun.
The Heart of Gold, from Hitchhiker's Guide..., because its the coolest inconvenient spaceship ever.
Few ships have caught my fancy... perhaps the one from the movie Flight of the Navigator. It's just slick.
The Nostromo, from Alien. Represents the ass-end of space.
Rama, from the Rama novels by Arthur C. Clarke.
Serenity, from Firefly. It has the right lived-in look and feel.
Serenity. Because she is a better bucket of bolts than the Millennium Falcon; she is more like a home in space. You do not need to have a ship that talks to you or has it's own sentience to feel close to it. I also prefer my heroes to fly the ship themselves rather than have the very smart ship do it for them.
The Sphere in Contact. Visit outer space without ever leaving home.
That first Imperial Star Destroyer, at the beginning of Star Wars. Before that ship, that big-ass honking ship, every spaceship in SF had looked and subconsciously felt like the tiny model it in real life actually was.
Star Destroyers from Star Wars, cause they look cool.
The Tardis, from Dr Who. Powerful enough to go anywhere or anytime.
TIE-fighter, from Star Wars. A one man fighter, set for space combat.
The Vorlon ship from Babylon 5.
The White Stars from Babylon 5 are pretty nifty, what with being somewhat organic.
The Zog ships from Babylon 5.

Favorite SF Planet to Visit

Any planet, any time, anywhere...
Arrakis, from Frank Herbert's Dune. The Fremen culture intrigues me.
Beta, from Lois McMaster Bujold's Barrayar books. I would not want to live there, but a visit might be fun.
Discworld, from Terry Pratchett. I want to meet the elephants.
Dragon's Egg (loosely defining planet), from Dragon's Egg by Robert Forward, with the Cheela, intelligent life based on neutron reactions.
Earth. It may be a cop-out answer, but I'd like to see what the tectonic plates do in about 1,000,000 years...
For vacation? The City in Logan's Run, on Earth. All that sex and drugs and beautiful people and no annoying sense of guilt the next day.
Endor, from Return of the Jedi. Ewoks are adorable.
Epsilon 3, from Babylon 5. It seems like a quick visit would be interesting, educational, and relatively safe.
The planet of the Jockaira in Robert Heinlein's Methuselah's Children, 'cause a benevolent, god-like race with lesser sentient folks on the same planet is fun.
Magrathea, from Hitchhiker's Guide...
Minbar, from Babylon 5.
The oldest one in the universe that is still intact.
Orthe, from Mary Gentle's Golden Witchbreed, is a cool planet to read about, but not a place I'd want to visit.
Larry Niven's Ringworld, both for sheer looks and for the gigantic custom-designed playground nature of it.
Larry Niven's Ringworld. (Well, not really a planet... but there'd sure be enough to see, there!!)
Terminus, from Isaac Asimov's Foundation series.

Favorite SF Universe

Amber, from Roger Zelazny's books.
The Babylon 5 universe.
The Buckaroo Banzai-verse. Fighting aliens with your rock & roll band while dressed up like a cowboy!
The Culture, from Iain M. Banks's Culture novels; they have the Singularity and are nifty and reasonably friendly to outsiders.
Lois McMaster Bujold's Barrayar universe, which has several civilized planets in it.
Frank Herbert's Dune universe. Only because of the writing, I wouldn't want to live there.
Robert Heinlein's from The Number of the Beast, cause it touches on all of them.
Robert Heinlein's universe. I particularly like the being able to grow body parts and being able to live for several hundred years. And the guilt free sex. Hmmm... I am sensing a theme...
Cordwainer Smith's Instrumentality universe, which is full of wonder.
The Star Trek Universe, because its the best balance of humanity and the rest of the galaxy.
The setting of the Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross. It's the last thing I read where the background made me go "whoa, thats a neat setting." It's Lovecraftian modern day plus secret tech post cyberpunk.
The universe of David Brin's Uplift series. Sufficiently complex.
What is beyond the edge of ours? Nothingness? Does it loop around to the other side? The wall of the petri dish?

Favorite SF Quote

"A religion is a source of happiness and I would not deprive anyone of happiness. But it is a comfort appropriate for the weak, not for the strong--and you are strong. The great trouble with religion--any religion--is that the religionist, having accepted certain propositions by faith, cannot thereafter judge these propositions by evidence. One may bask at the warm fire of faith or choose to live in the bleak uncertainty of reason--but one cannot have both." From Robert Heinlein's Friday.
"Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced." Gregory Benford
[SPOILER - written in ROT1] "Disjtu, yibu bo jnbhjobujpo J'wf hpu." -- Shalmaneser, Stand on Zanzibar. In my opinion, perhaps the funniest line with the longest set-up in all of sci-fi (though you may have to be an AI aficionado to appreciate it to its fullest).
"Don't Panic!", from Hitchhiker's Guide...
"Here's to our friends, the good guys, and our enemies the bad guys, and here's to the hope that someday we may be able to tell the difference." From the Retief stories by Keith Laumer.
"I am not stupid, I am not expendable, and I am not going." Kerr Avon, Blake's 7.
"I am so amazingly cool that you could keep a side of meat in me for a month. I am so hip I have difficulty seeing over my pelvis." - Zaphod Beeblebrox, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All... those... moments lost in time like tears in the rain. Time.. to... die." Roy Batty, Bladerunner.
"Let me control a planet's oxygen supply, and I don't care who makes the laws." Source unknown.
"Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be safe." Ripley, from Aliens.
"TANSTAAFL", from Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, which is an acronym for "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch."
"Wherever you go, there you are..." Buckaroo Banzai
"Who am I? I am Susan Ivanova, commander, daughter of Andrei and Sophie Ivanov. I am the right hand of vengeance, and the boot that is going to kick your sorry ass all the way back to Earth, sweetheart. I am Death Incarnate, and the last living thing that you will ever see. God sent me!" Susan Ivanova, from Babylon 5.
"Why, you stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf-herder." Leia, from The Empire Strikes Back
Zoe: "You paid money for this, sir? On purpose?"
Mal: "What? Come on, seriously, Zoe. Whaddya think?"
Zoe: "Honestly, sir? I think you got robbed."
Mal: "Robbed? What? No. What do you mean?"
Zoe: "It's a piece of fei-oo."
Mal: "Fei-oo? Okay, she won't be winning any beauty contests anytime soon. But she's solid. Ship like this, be with ya 'til the day you die."
Zoe: "Cause it's a deathtrap."
Firefly, from the Out of Gas episode
"Zog? What do you mean, Zog? Zog what? Zog yes? Zog no?" Susan Ivanova, Babylon 5.