OT: Some Good Sci-fi Suggestions?

[JAFisher44]

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

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

[Randallw]

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.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

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.

[Emperor's Child]

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.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Well, of course there's Enders Game 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.

[Renegade 13]

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

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

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.

[AMF]

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

[Fyron]

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?

[Will]

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.