Good SF Books
POSTED BY: ecgordon
UPDATED: Sunday, May 2, 2004 02:10
VIEWED: 8151
PAGE 3 of 4
Hey Lindley, I'm currently reading the Posleen series by Ringo now. I really enjoy reading military scifi books (though it isn't the only scifi I read) with power armor in it. I really liked A Hymn Before Battle, but right now Gust Front is dragging along a bit, though it does look to be picking up steam.
If anyone is interested in this particular type of military scifi, I recommend reading Starship Troopers by Heinlein and Armor by John Steakley. And even if you don't like this type of book, I *highly* recommend Forever War by Joe Haldeman (as previously mentioned). That is one of my favorite books and I reread it about once a year.
As far as my favorite scifi books go though, I can't even begin to recall what all I've read. However, looking at other people's lists (and ransacking my brain as much as I can this late at night ;)...The Stars are My Destination (excellent book), Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Rendezvous with Rama, Eon, The Mote in God's Eye, Starhammer (out of print book by Christopher Rowley, but really good if you can find it), Lucifer's Hammer (not really scifi), Meg, Area 51 (the first was good but my interest fell off after the second), and Hyperion. There are countless others I enjoyed but like I said, I'm drawing blanks on the rest for the time being. (=
Reading some of the replies so far makes me want to compile a list of all the books I've read. I may do just that now that I think about it. (=
As far as books I'm interested in reading in the future (aside from some of the suggestions so far), I've recently added the following to my Amazon wishlist:
Caves of Steel (Asimov)
The Book of the New Sun (Wolfe)
A Wizard of Earthsea (Le Guin)
Children of the Atom (Shiras)
Cities in Flight (Blish)
Dangerous Visions (Ellison)
Deathbird Stories (Ellison)
The Demolished Man (Bester)
Dhalgren (Delany)
Getaway (Pohl)
I Am Legend (Matheson)
Mission of Gravity (Clement)
The Rediscovery of Man (Smith)
A for Andromeda (Hoyle)
The Black Cloud (Hoyle)
Alas, Babylon (Frank)
A Canticle for Leibowitz (Miller)
Earth Abides (Steward)
On the Beach (Shute)
Breakfast of Champions (Vonnegut)
Timescape (Benford)
Slaughterhouse 5 (Vonnegut)
Stormbringer (Moorcock)
Rogue Moon (Budrys)
Mercenary (Anthony)
Politician (Anthony) (Mercenary and Politician are part of Anthony's Bio of a Space Tyrant series. I've read the first in the series, Refugee, and I really enjoyed it. However, I didn't mention it above b/c of its graphic nature. Some people may find some of the material in the book pretty objectionable.)
Lord of Light (Zelazny)
More Than Human (Sturgeon)
To Your Scattered Bodies Go (Farmer)
Lord Foul's Bane (Donaldson)
Childhood's End (Clarke)
I probably won't get through even a 1/8 of the books listed above in the near future (since I'm starting grad school in the fall), but hopefully I'll have many years ahead to pick them off. (=
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David Weber tops my list. Not only because of the excellent military sf Honor Harrington 'verse, but also because of his shorter series and stand-alone books. One of 'em has a spaceship disguising as our moon...
Lois McMaster Bujold was advertised in the Weber books, and her characterisation and dialogue is downright witty with sympathy cringes underneath.
Also the X-wing series by both Micheal Stackpole and Aaron Allston were great.
I'm halfway through the Deathstalker series bij Simon R. Green, but I really love his fantasy characters, Hawk and Fisher and Rupert and Julia.
I read more fantasy than sci-fi, including but not limited to Robin Hobb, Weiss and Hickman, Robert Jordan, Brian Lumley, Terry Pratchett, the Eddingses, and G.R.R. Martins. The last of which appears to have trouble finishing books four and five in the current series. Publication dates are being pushed back by years instead of months. Argh argh...
And on the topic of fantasy, how could I forget J.K. Rowling? Love the Harry Potter series!
As for historical military, I read Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series. It's also a series of tv movies starring Sean Bean, there's something very Sharpe about Shindig, esp. when compared to the episode Sharpe's Honour... Sharpe is forced to accept a duel over a woman, and his opponent is an excellent swordsman. Sharpe's on the losing side of the duel until he manages to turn it into a brawl... And then Mal's line: "Watch it Ath, these things are Sharpe."
After watching the movie Master and Commander I converted to Patrick O'Brien as well.
And I got action-adventure and suspense and horror and detectives on my shelves as well.
Not to mention a shitload of comic books. Someone mentioned Red Star, it's excellent. It has an ongoing series now as well as a terrific tpb out on the first series. It's published quite irregularly but every issue is worth the wait. During the tpb, I cried at least three times. If not more. I had never cried over a comic book before.
I quit the spandex superhero comics several months back and now try to find interesting sci/fi, horror and fantasy stories. One of my favourite comic authors is Warren Ellis.
"The beard! Oh, you shaved off your soupcatcher!"
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Off the top of my head, here's my (probably incomplete) recommendations list.
NB: I've read much more fantasy than SF, but thanks mainly to the Gollancz masterworks series, which is re-releasing loads of classic SF & fantasy here in the UK, I'm slowly becoming more well-rounded. 
Fantasy
Guy Gavriel Kay - especially The Lions of Al-Rassan (lyrical, intelligent, poignant)
Melanie Rawn
Jacqueline Carey - Kushiel's Dart
George RR Martin (leaves Jordan standing, frankly)
Robin Hobb
Mary Gentle - Ash (also really enjoyed her Ursula Le Guin-esque SF Golden Witchbreed I think is the title)
Virginia Woolf - Orlando
Orson Scott Card - Alvin Maker series
Sarah Zettel - A Sorceror's Treason
Terry Pratchett
Stephen Donaldson (for SF & F)
Gabriel Garcia Marquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude
Italo Calvino - The Castle of Crossed Destinies (genius: a bunch of travellers meet, lose their voices and have to tell their stories through tarot cards)
SF
Mary Doria Russell - The Sparrow (incredible book)
Iain M Banks - especially The Use of Weapons
Sheri S Tepper - especially Grass (classic) and The Fresco (hilarious)
Ursula Le Guin - The Left Hand of Darkness et al
Keith Roberts - Pavane
Roger Zelazny - Lord of Light
JG Ballard - The Drowned World
Philip K Dick - The Man in the High Castle
John Wyndham - Day of the Triffids
Walter M Miller - A Canticle for Leibowitz
George Orwell - 1984 (one of my all-time faves, I've read it numerous times)
...there are probably many more...
/ pure intentions, juxtaposed /
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A 'bus buddy' clued me into David Webber's, "Honor Harrington" series.
Honor kicks too much ass. I adore her and if I ever leave my husband for a fictional woman, it will be Honor.
"Just keep walkin, preacher man."
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I tried to come up with some books that havent already been mentioned and couldnt think of many so heres a few of my favorites instead:
Peter F Hamiltons' Reality Dysfunction,Neutroniom Alchemist,The Naked God
Orson Scott Card, Enders Game and Enders Shadow
Niven and Pournelle, Footfall, The mote in Gods Eye,The mote around Gods eye
Starship Troopers
Any Honor Harrington book by David Weber, gotta love those treecats! Mutineers moon and Armageddon Inheritance by the same author
David Drakes Hammers Slammers novels are a fun read
Lois Mcmasters Bujold Vorkosigan saga
For fantasy have you tried The Sword of truth series by Terry Goodkind?
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Although I love scifi movies and TV, I don't read much Sci-fi, so those I do read I stand by completely.
Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester is amazing.
Dune Messiah, although you have to read the first book to get it, which is also good.
She by H. Ryder Haggard is colonial literature and considered a classic, but managed to slip its sci-finess in under the radar. They made a movie starring Ursula Andress. It's where the phrase "She who must be obeyed" comes from.
"Dear diary, today I was pompous and my sister was crazy."
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I quite enjoyed the first couple of Phule Books by Robert Asprin too. (They're SF comedy)
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Experience has taught me that interest begets expectation, and expectation begets disappointment, so the key to avoiding disappointment is to avoid interest. A=B=C=A, or whatever
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I've seen many good suggestions, but unless I missed it,
The Coldfire Trilogy by C. S. Friedman
needs to get a vote. Most of the others that top my favorites list have already been mentioned...
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Yeah, I've read the first two Phule books and they were pretty alright. (=
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Another series that noone has mentioned is the Matador series by Steve Perry.
The first in the series is either The Man Who Never Missed or The 97th Step depending
on whether you go by publishing date or story arc respectivly.
I'm also going to mention the Dark Tower series by Steven King. Some people love him, some people
consider him a hack (I like him alot), but you'll be cheating yourself if you don't give these books a
try.
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If history is remarkably clear on one point,
it's that people don't learn from history.
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