Good SF Books

POSTED BY: ecgordon
UPDATED: Sunday, May 2, 2004 02:10
VIEWED: 8151
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ECGORDON

Friday, April 30, 2004 11:00 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by MistressOfUselessKnowledge, in another thread:
Anyone think we should start a thread for great sci-fi books? My reading pile is getting a little low, which sucks since there is such a dearth of good sci-fi on tv right now.

I read almost nothing but SF, and a smattering of Fantasy, and have for almost 40 years. This list might seem definitive, but believe me it is not by a long shot, and I'm sure I'll think of more later, but this is what sprang to mind first. The first five titles are from my favorite author, Robert A. Heinlein...

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (which Tim Minear is currently adapting for film, woohoo!)
Starship Troopers
Friday
Citizen of the Galaxy
Tunnel in the Sky

I could go on and on with Heinlein alone, but I won't for now, so here's stuff from other authors (most of which are classic rather than contemporary)...

Brian W. Aldiss - Earthworks, Greybeard, The Helliconia Trilogy
Roger MacBride Allen - Allies and Aliens, Orphan of Creation
Poul Anderson - Tau Zero, The Day of Their Return
Isaac Asimov - The Foundation Trilogy, I Robot, The Naked Sun, The End of Eternity
Alfred Bester - The Demolished Man, The Stars My Destination
Michael Bishop - Ancient of Days, No Enemy But Time
James Blish - A Case of Conscience, Cities in Flight
Ray Bradbury - The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451
David Brin - the first Uplift trilogy, Kiln People
Algis Budrys - Rogue Moon, Michaelmas
Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead
Arthur C. Clarke - Childhood's End, Rendezvous With Rama, The Fountains of Paradise
Hal Clement - Mission of Gravity, Star Light, Needle
Samuel R. Delany - The Einstein Intersection, Nova, Triton
Lester Del Rey - Nerves, Police Your Planet
Philip K. Dick - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Ubik, The Man in the High Castle
Philip Jose Farmer - The Riverworld series
David Gerrold - When Harlie Was One, The Dingilliad Trilogy (Jumping Off the Planet, Bouncing Off the Moon, Leaping to the Stars), The War Against the Chtorr (A Matter for Men, A Day for Damnation, A Rage for Revenge, A Season for Slaughter)
Joe Haldeman - The Forever War, Mindbridge
Harry Harrison - The Deathworld Trilogy, Make Room! Make Room! (Soylent Green was based on it)
Frank Herbert - Dune, Hellstrom's Hive, Under Pressure
Ursula K. LeGuin - The Lathe of Heaven, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed
Stanislaw Lem - Solaris, The Cyberiad
Michael P. Kube-McDowell - Exile, The Quiet Pools
Walter M. Miller Jr. - A Canticle for Leibowitz
Ward Moore - Bring the Jubilee (the grandaddy of alternate history novels)
Larry Niven - Ringworld, Neutron Star, Tales of Known Space
Niven and Jerry Pournelle - The Mote in God's Eye, The Gripping Hand
Frederik Pohl - Gateway, Man Plus, Jem
Kim Stanley Robinson - The Mars Trilogy
Robert Silverberg - Dying Inside, The Man in the Maze, The World Inside
Clifford D. Simak - Way Station, Time is the Simplest Thing, A Choice of Gods
Cordwainer Smith - Norstrilia, The Rediscovery of Man
Norman Spinrad - Little Heroes, The Iron Dream, The Men in the Jungle
Olaf Stapledon - Star Maker, Last and First Men
John Varley - Steel Beach, The Golden Globe, The Ophiuchi Hotline
A. E. van Vogt - Slan, The Weapon Shops of Isher, Rogue Ship
Gene Wolfe - The Book of the New Sun, The Fifth Head of Cerberus

Sorry to go on so long, but I love books!

Now somebody else list some newer stuff that I haven't read yet.

wo men ren ran zai fei xing.

JADEHAND

Friday, April 30, 2004 11:21 PM

Very few books that I've read stand out and make my Favourites, which typically means that I have or would happily read them again. The winners are:

The More Than Complete Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy
Good Omens: The Nice And Accurate Prophecies Of Agnus Nutter, Witch
Mission Earth (series of 10 by L. Ron Hubbard, not related in any way to Battlefield Earth and that complete waste of film)

The truest test of courage is the last one.

DAVCO92

Friday, April 30, 2004 11:37 PM

Here are some of my favorite science fiction and fantasy authors:

Sci-Fi
David Gerrold (Chtorr!!! Chtorr!!! Chtorr!!!)
Julian May (Pliocene Exile)
Simon R. Green (Deathstalker, Nightside)
James P. Hogan (Giants trilogy)
Dan Simmons (Hyperion)
Peter F. Hamilton (Reality Dysfunction)
Timothy Zahn (Black Collar)
Michael A. Stackpole (Where to start...)
W. Michael Gear (Spider)
Patricia Kennealy (Keltiad)
Peter David (B5 Centauri trilogy)
Jeanne Cavelos (B5 Technomage trilogy)
Robert Doherty (Area 51)
Greg Donegan (Atlantis)

Fantasy/Dark
Glen Cook (The Black Company)
Steven Brust (Vlad Taltos)
Mercedes Lackey (Hmm..where to start?)
Laurel K. Hamilton (Anita Blake)
Jim Butcher (Dresden Files - TV miniseries is in the works!)
Harry Turtledove (Darkness...)
P.N. Elrod (The Vampire Files)
Brian Lumley (Necroscope)

Just let me know if any of you would like specific suggestions or have questions, such as the names of certain novels.

Burn the land, boil the sea...

ECGORDON

Friday, April 30, 2004 11:48 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Jadehand:
Very few books that I've read stand out and make my Favourites, which typically means that I have or would happily read them again.

Every book on my list I have read more than once, and in the case of Heinlein, I doubt there is any of his books I haven't read at least 10 times.

wo men ren ran zai fei xing.

LINDLEY

Friday, April 30, 2004 11:58 PM

I highly recomment John Ringo's Posleen series, which begins with A Hymn Before Battle, to anyone who like military SF.

Also, anything by Timothy Zhan. Aside from his great Star Wars books, I very much enjoyed The Conquerer's Trilogy and The Icarus Hunt.

HARDWARE

Saturday, May 1, 2004 12:41 AM

Heinlein! Heinlein! Heinlein! I've been enjoying his books for 30 years.

For military sci fi also David Drake, almost anything, Redliners gets a big thumbs up from me. Hammers Slammers is a popcorn read most of the time, until it drops in the pot.

Keith Laumer's Bolo books are excellent as well.

The more I get to know people the more I like my dogs.

SOUTHERNMERC

Saturday, May 1, 2004 1:21 AM

Though they are mostly horror, H.P. Lovecraft's stories have many SF themes running through them. Very interesting stories.

Also, there is one novel by Lawrence Watt-Evans that, while not great SF and is mostly a detective story, is none-the-less quite enjoyable. The protagonist takes a direction not expected at the end of the story, which some may call a cop out in some way, but is different from the many cliched endings in other mystery novels. The book is "Nightside City". Fun read.

Jayne: "See, Vera? You get dressed up, you get taken someplace fun!"

EMBERS

Saturday, May 1, 2004 1:30 AM

I've been reading some interesting cross genre books lately, and in Sci-fi they have been Mystery/Sci-fi:

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Kiln People by David Brin

in fact your thread reminded me that I needed to order some more books by David Brin, because that was an interesting, challenging, and funny book with some very compelling characters...

I have to admit that I don't read much Sci-fi, but I do love a good mystery

MISTRESSOFUSELESSKNOWLEDGE

Saturday, May 1, 2004 2:42 AM

Wow! What an awesome response to my little query! It is great to see some hardcore readers out there! Now, I will just have to pull out some particularly sci-fi and fantasy (just can't leave out fantasy!) good stories to add to the mix.

My most recent favorite author is Lois McMaster Bujold. This multiple Nebula award winner is the author of the Miles Vorkosigan series, which is an interesting mix of James Bond, Ender's Game and Indiana Jones-type action. This series, which is best initiated by reading the omnibus edition "Cordelia's Honor," is hard to put down, except when you fall over laughing, or cringe in sympathy pain with the main character of Miles.

Other recent favorites include Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series, and the well-written (IMHO)Harry Potter series.

Older favorites of mine include:
Anne McCaffrey's Pern books
C.S. Lewis' "The Chronicles of Narnia"
Lloyd Alexander's "The Prydain Chronicles"
Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles"
Edgar Rice Burroughs' "John Carter of Mars" series
Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea books
Isaac Asimov's Foundation books
And most books by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

And, saving the best for last, of course, Tolkien's LOTR books

I also like mystery, and conspiracy novels as well, especially cross genre books.

Mistress of Useless Knowledge

"If it weren't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college"

ANNIK

Saturday, May 1, 2004 2:46 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by ecgordon:
Quote:
Originally posted by MistressOfUselessKnowledge, in another thread:
Anyone think we should start a thread for great sci-fi books? My reading pile is getting a little low, which sucks since there is such a dearth of good sci-fi on tv right now.

I read almost nothing but SF, and a smattering of Fantasy, and have for almost 40 years.

Sorry to go on so long, but I love books!

Now somebody else list some newer stuff that I haven't read yet.

An excellent list. I read extensively from all over the place, but in fiction my favourite home is *always* SF. I think you've covered all my favourite books, although if I had to narrow the list I'd say the first four Dune books and the entire Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy have to be the two series I'd try to save from the total annihilation of the planet.

My biggest addiction, though, are the short stories. Every author mentioned on your extensive list has written some fabulous gems over the years ... stories that still shape my imagination.

My husband jokes that I should be an SF short-story expert right now, and I expect that if there's anywhere out there that can confer a PhD on SF stories and literature history (short-story), then I would be a decent candidate. (grin) But I digress ...

Some *recent* authors I came across in one of David G. Hartwell's "Year's Best SF" series include:
- M. Shayne Bell, "The Thing About Benny" (I dare you not to hum 'Dancing Queen' by ABBA throughout, LOL!)
- Joan Slonczewski, "Tuberculosis Bacteria Join UN" (written like a lengthy news release and terribly funny, especially the part about the e.coli getting miffed)
- David Langford, "Different Kinds of Darkness"
- Stephen Baxter, "Sheena 5" (I'm struck by the occasional highly-scientific sounding stories involving SF and squid over the years ... this one seems the best of the lot and is very compelling).

This seems to be an excellent series for those of you who enjoy short SF.

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