Recommended Science Fiction Reading

[Flatlander]

Working my way through the posts and entering details into a spreadsheet for ordering

Originally Posted by em99010pepe

I read all books from Jules Verne.
Anyone here reads Daniel Silva, Christian Jacq, Heinz Konsalik, Collen McCullought, Clive Cussler?

Originally Posted by xilman

I can'rt speak for "anyone" but I've read none of those you name. Perhaps I should do so.

My recommendations include almost anything by Iain M Banks ...

There are many other authors I could recommend but the ones above are about 30cm of shelf space...

Paul

I have lots of shelves. Any specific gems from these authors?

[bsquared]

Originally Posted by enderak

Hey, I like that one too. :P
Speaker for the Dead has always been my favorite of the series, though.

Yes, that's a close second for me in the series. Seems like every year I get out one of those two books for a re-read.

[bsquared]

Originally Posted by Flatlander

I have lots of shelves. Any specific gems from these authors?

I've only read a couple from Clive Cussler, but I remember them being entertaining. Inca Gold and Sahara.

[cheesehead]

Tau Zero, by Poul Anderson, "is regarded as a quintessential example of 'hard sci-fi', as its plot is guided by technology until the dramatic conclusion." (from the Wikipedia article ... but the Wikipedia article contains extensive spoilers)

[only_human]

Today TCM showed Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days.

My girlfriend and I landed on TCM while channel surfing and watched this movie from the intermission point onward. I wanted to pull up the text at the same time but I didn't want to unsnuggle so reaching for a keyboard didn't suit me. My current system was on and I did have the monitor and a mouse within reach so I had a browser, the internet and my recent web history within reach.

Surprisingly, the SF bookshelf by Project Gutenberg didn't list that particular Verne story. http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Scienc...ion_(Bookshelf)

I had downloaded via torrent the 8 gigabyte dual layer DVD 2010 Gutenberg disk in the past couple days. That is found by following the link CD and DVD project from Project Gutenberg's home page. I'd used a freeware driver called Virtual CloneDrive to mount the ISO file as a lettered drive on this Windows 7 system. This Guttenberg DVD ISO has the book (as certainly also does the current web site) and my browser had looked at this, drive G on my system, so I was able to pull up the book and had the richer experience of watching the movie and following the book at the same time to see what differences existed.

The Web is very friendly for finding public domain and some other licenced books to read and later I read and enjoyed Ye of Little Faith by Roger Phillips Graham, found via http://www.e-booksdirectory.com/. Prior to mentioning it here I wanted to know if the author is considered good so I checked Wikipedia's entry on the Hugo Award list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Aw...Best_Novelette and that led me to the nominee list http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/HugoNomList.html. Roger Phillips Graham is a nominee so I don't feel very trepidatious about mentioning him here (my browser spellcheck doesn't like either trepidatious or trepidacious -- neither does the internet that much).

The modern web is so friendly to reading and acquiring books that I must find some way to make it an nice reading experience. I'm considering buying either a Kindle or a Nook device. I think e-Ink might be nice for my eyes. Modern ebooks that I have read are Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold (using a Kindle desktop app) and Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher (using a Nook desktop app).

[kladner]

I see that this thread is long dormant, but what the heck.

Some of the more current favorites around this household are:

Almost anything by Cherryh. She's written a couple of dogs, but is so prolific that you could read dozens of hers without running across one. Her Union-Alliance series, with peripheral (literally) stories, is immense and remarkably internally consistent. Cherryh is notable to us for complex characters and conflicts. Her specialty is "a single outsider dropped into an unfamiliar society."

Rudy Rucker is in a class by himself. Any of his series with "...ware" in the title are very entertaining. They all involve human/computer/robot interactions, with some interesting hypothetical recreational drugs thrown in. (Rudy really likes his drugs!)

I read Heinlein starting when I was very young (like 9, maybe.) Over the years I've come to recognize and allow for some of his hangups, while still enjoying the stories. "Stranger in a Strange Land" was quite remarkable for its time. Get the unedited version if you're interested. RAH got totally sex-crazed in his old age, once he realized he could get away with it.

Gibson and Stephenson are considered real masters in these parts. We like all their stuff. Stephenson's "Baroque Cycle" is an entertaining sort-of prequel to "Crytonomicon", though it stretches credulity even more.

Then there's Larry Niven, with sometimes collaborator, Jerry Pournelle. We mostly consider Niven the better of the two, and mostly better off in his solo works. The entire Man/Kzin series, including spin-offs by other authors is worthwhile, as is the Ringworld/Protector series.

This list is not complete without mentioning Fred Pohl. The Heechee series is very good, but he is very wide-ranging. "Merchants War" stands out.

Reaching way back, James Blish is worth taking note of. The "Cities in Flight" series, and the "Black Easter" trilogy are both good. The Cities set is far more SciFi. The trilogy involves magic, and uses it to try to deal with problems of ethics and religion. "Cities" stands out for being from the early fifties. There are some amusing technological anachronisms, but the story line holds together well all the same.

Dan Simmons: Written a good bit. The Hyperion tetralogy is my favorite.

Stephen R Donaldson's less well known "Chaos and Order" series is pretty good.

Rebecca Orr's "Alien" series is highly recommended.

LeGuin's "The Left Hand of Darkness" is outstanding. One of my top ten.

Roger Zelazny: "Lord of Light" is a masterpiece. "Creatures of Light and Darkness" not so much so.

There are many others, but these come easily to mind. I've read a LOT of scifi since I started 50 years ago.

[rogue]

Originally Posted by kladner

I read Heinlein starting when I was very young (like 9, maybe.) Over the years I've come to recognize and allow for some of his hangups, while still enjoying the stories. "Stranger in a Strange Land" was quite remarkable for its time. Get the unedited version if you're interested. RAH got totally sex-crazed in his old age, once he realized he could get away with it.

He wrote different works for different audiences. Some are written for teens and pre-teens, but others are written for adults. I got turned off of Heinlein by two things, the first was his "father-daughter" and "mother-son" sexual relationships. Second, I felt that some books he wrote a homage to himself. One such example is "Number of the Beast", which I put down after about 100 pages. In that book he creates four uber-characters, almost ridiculous in their abilities and those ability complemented one another. I had this feeling that he was thinking "I can write absolute crap and people will buy it, read it, and love it" when he wrote it. I read someone's review on-line and it stated much the same of what I felt when I read it.

[kladner]

Originally Posted by rogue

He wrote different works for different audiences. Some are written for teens and pre-teens, but others are written for adults. I got turned off of Heinlein by two things, the first was his "father-daughter" and "mother-son" sexual relationships. Second, I felt that some books he wrote a homage to himself.

I really liked his juvenile stuff when I was a juvenile myself. I agree that he found ways to really blow his own horn. After all, the characters Jubal Harshaw (Stranger), and Lazarus Long (multiple books) are pretty clearly (to me) Heinlein's personae in the stories, through which he can, and does pontificate at length.

EDIT: As to incestuous sexual relations, I think I remember one story into which he put the "I'm my own Grandpa" theme. More recently, this idea got worked into an episode of Futurama.

[xilman]

I discovered Stephen Baxter a couple of years ago when I came across his The Time Ships, an authorized sequel to HG Wells' The Time Machine. Since then I read a few others, most recently Evolution which IMO, is rather good (but not really a masterpiece) and overwhelmingly depressing. Before that, Origin, technically the 3rd of a tetralogy but each can be read in any order --- or so I'm led to believe. A collaboration with AC Clarke produced three books in a Time Odyssey series, of which I have only read the first.

There are many other authors I could recommend and which I have in my library, but that will do for now.

Actually, it won't. I second the recommendation of Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon and very strongly recommend Anathem --- a truly superb story IMAO.

Paul

[Dubslow]

Originally Posted by kladner

Roger Zelazny: "Lord of Light" is a masterpiece.

Besides Asimov, this is the first title/name I recognize thanks to that SpecFic class I took in high school. In that class we compared LoL to "A Canticle for Leibowitz", and I found the latter to be much more interesting. Awesome book.

[kladner]

Originally Posted by xilman

I discovered Stephen Baxter a couple of years ago when I came across his The Time Ships, an authorized sequel to HG Wells' The Time Machine. Since then I read a few others, most recently Evolution which IMO, is rather good (but not really a masterpiece) and overwhelmingly depressing. Before that, Origin, technically the 3rd of a tetralogy but each can be read in any order --- or so I'm led to believe. A collaboration with AC Clarke produced three books in a Time Odyssey series, of which I have only read the first.

There are many other authors I could recommend and which I have in my library, but that will do for now.

Actually, it won't. I second the recommendation of Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon and very strongly recommend Anathem --- a truly superb story IMAO.

Paul

I'll have to take a look at Baxter.

Anathem is indeed remarkable. It took a lot of concentration to get a grip on things like terminology, but it is well worth it.

I have Stephenson's Reamde (sic), but have not gotten far enough to say more than that it's intriguing.

@Dubslow: "Canticle" is a wonderful book, and deeper than "Lord of Light". I must admit that LoL one has a strong humorous current through it, not that humor is a disqualifier. Still, perhaps I should have said that it is a book which I have enjoyed immensely and repeatedly, rather than call it a masterpiece.