OT: Some Good Sci-fi Suggestions?
 

Well, I have always really enjoyed reading, however for the last several years I haven't had the time to really read a lot.

Several times in the last few years I have considered reading some more, but I always run into the following problem. Any time I go to the bookstore I look through the available sci-fi books and nothing really jumps out at me.

It has occurred to me on several occasions that judging a book by its cover isn't the best idea in the world, but what can you do? It isnt like you actually get to read the book before you buy it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Anyway, This brings me to the point of this post. I was wondering if the SE community could make any suggestions for me. Go ahead and let me know the Sci-fi novels that you most enjoyed. I am sure that many will be ones I have already read, but that is ok. Just lay it on me.

Anyway, thanks for any suggestions you can offer.

Joshua Fisher

Re: OT: Some Good Sci-fi Suggestions?
 

I enjoy Peter F Hamilton. Nights dawn trilogy and the Commonwealth saga. Bit of a warning though the books tend to be about 1000 pages long each, which is ok for me since I read very quickly, although the Nights Dawn trilogy books were broken into half book novels. Now if only I could figure out where I put the latest one which I was about 2/3rds through. I enjoy Alternate history, which is classified as Sci-Fi. Harry Turtledove is considered the master although I find he goes on a bit. SM Stirling is also good occasionally, particularly Island in the sea of time.

Re: OT: Some Good Sci-fi Suggestions?
 

David Weber is good for big explosions and intricate plots. You have to have a lot of patience, though.

The 1632 series by Eric Flint (Alternate History) is fun.

Pretty near any sci-fi by Alan Dean Foster. Warning: *Big* Meta-Plot of DOOM!

The Bolo books is just plain cool. Giant sentient battle tanks that can survive multiple nukes. I hate to say it, but they are cooler than giant robots.

The World Turned Upside Down is a collection of old short stories; unlike many collections, nearly all of them are very good.

Re: OT: Some Good Sci-fi Suggestions?
 

For the space-opera theme books.

I'd recommened "In Conquest Born" by CS Friedman. As I recall there are some good fleet battles in that one, some diplomatic intrigue, etc.

Old Classic of course is Starship Troopers by Heinlien..though that is more a commentary on society than than a good old space fight... But hey... Its humans versus bugs.. How much better can it get?

A new author I like is Peter F. Hamilton. He wrote a series of 6 books: Reality Disfunction (2 books), The Neucronium Alchemist (2 books), and the Naked God (2 books). The whole series is pretty good, and he did a few single books (The Nano Flower for one) I'd also recommend.

David Drake is a Sci-Fi author that writes in a Near future setting and he also gets deep into the guts of fighting. A solid "must read" if you like the space combat theme of SF.

The "Mote in God's Eye" series by Niven and Pournelle is another Very good read, actually. You have Mote, and then the gripping hand more recently, both of which are good. Both have lots of diplomacy and then fighting.

Nivin also did the Man-Kzin war series, too. They are another good old fashioned space scrum of man against Space Kitties (who kick human butt on more than one occasion as I recall).

Ringworld series (Niven again) is more of an exploratory type of read on, well, a ringworld. Interesting and it has some generic space fights.

Of course I could not make a recommended reading list without the Foundation series by Azimov. Gotta read that one in your lifetime if you are a serious SF reader.

Re: OT: Some Good Sci-fi Suggestions?
 

Well, of course there's Enders Game http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif But I assume you've already read it.

Neal Stephenson is a good writer, sci-fi as well as (semi-alternate) history (the Baroque Cycle trilogy) but you've gotta stomach roughly three hundred pages per book, in small print. And you've got multiple simultaneous storylines intertwining with each other, and sometimes stuff may seem chaotic and nonsensical, but in the end everything falls into place. You've got to like open endings, though.

Re: OT: Some Good Sci-fi Suggestions?
 

"Stomach" 300 pages? That's hardly even a book! 500-600 pages seems more like average.

Re: OT: Some Good Sci-fi Suggestions?
 

300 pages. In fine print. Too small even for a business contract. If you look at the Baroque Cycle as a whole, that's over 1000 pages, in that fine print.

Re: OT: Some Good Sci-fi Suggestions?
 

Actually, at the risk of sounding like too much of a booster, but I think my friends’ books are pretty good: Check out In the Time of the Sixth Sun, Wasteland of Flint, and Land of the Dead by Thomas Harlan…

Alarik

Re: OT: Some Good Sci-fi Suggestions?
 

300 pages is not long at all for a novel... I suppose it is too long for people that can only "stomach" instant gratification (ie: MTV generation), but how many of those types will you find playing SE4 in the first place?

Re: OT: Some Good Sci-fi Suggestions?
 

Ok, I wrote up a post in the wee hours of the night, but it seems to have been lost in the nether regions of the internet, so a summary:

"My Favorite Science Fiction Story", is an anthology of short stories, selected by current successful SF writers. Basically each was asked what story is their favorite, or influenced them the most, and they write a short introduction explaining the choice. I liked all of the stories included, so I think it would be worth picking up.

Work by Roger Zelazny. "Lord of Light" is a novel where technologically advanced humans take on the roles of gods in Eastern religions. You have to be patient for this one, though, since it isn't really apparent what exactly is going on until you're about 1/3rd to half way through, and it is pretty easy to get confused about what is a flashback and what is happening 'now'. Much better, though, is his Amber novels. These are closer to fantasy, but not in the typical fantasy sense; the books are set in a universe where the city of Amber is "reality", and everything else is a shadow of Amber (including Earth).

I also recommended the Neuromancer trilogy by William Gibson (Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive). If you haven't read them, it's basically like the Matrix, without machines enslaving humanity for power. The beginning of cyberpunk.

Re: OT: Some Good Sci-fi Suggestions?
 

Might not be considered quite Sci-Fi, but I just finished "The DaVinci Code". Presents some VERY intriguing ideas in a nicely done manner.

Re: OT: Some Good Sci-fi Suggestions?
 

From what I gather the "Da Vinci code" could be described more as fantasy.

Re: OT: Some Good Sci-fi Suggestions?
 

If you like Star Wars, Timothy Zahn writes good books.

Re: OT: Some Good Sci-fi Suggestions?
 

Spolier(ish): The DaVinci Code
On the ideas some are true but some are made up. On the one hand the divinity of christ was decided on by a Roman committee, on the other hand the secret society that is supposed to protect the Holy Grail was made up by two Frenchmen for a joke. Unfortunately people took it seriously and the more they claimed it had been a joke, the more that 'proved' it was a conspiracy to hide the truth!

A good book that I recommend, but don't take it too seriously.

Re: OT: Some Good Sci-fi Suggestions?
 

OK, this is just my opinion but, I think "the Da Vinci Code" sucks. That's my opinion.

Re: OT: Some Good Sci-fi Suggestions?
 

Ok, just to help narrow the range of suggestions, I am mostly interested in far future sci-fi. Space ships and stuff. Gritty near future stuff is ok, e.g. William Gibson style stuff.

I am really not interested in alternate history, and I do not consider that to be sci-fi. I have already read all of the Timothy Zahn Star Wars books, which I must say were pretty good considering that I don't really like SW that much. Niven is one of my childhood heroes and I have read most of his books, most of them several times. I like some of David Webber's books, but I really don't like the Honor Harrington books.

Anyway, I think I will try out some of the suggestions here. Of course feel free to keep them coming. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: OT: Some Good Sci-fi Suggestions?
 

Check out David Brin's Uplift Saga.

http://www.davidbrin.com/

Re: OT: Some Good Sci-fi Suggestions?
 

The first trilogy of the uplift war was good.

Never got into the second group.

I would recommend "Hyperion" by Dan Simmons (which is chased by 3 other books). It is the Canterbury Tales of sci-fi in my opinion.

Re: OT: Some Good Sci-fi Suggestions?
 

It wasn't so much the storyline as the premise that grabbed my attention. Kinda like that song by Alanis Morrisette....

Re: OT: Some Good Sci-fi Suggestions?
 

A quote and a link to/from Amazon.com:

A legend among sci-fi readers, C.J. Cherryh's Union-Alliance novels, while separate and complete in themselves, are part of a much larger tapestry-a future history spanning 5,000 years of human civilization.

Downbelow Station is the book that won Cherryh a Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1982. A blockbuster space opera of the rebellion between Earth and its far-flung colonies, it is a classic science fiction masterwork.