Sci-Fi Book Recommendations
POSTED BY: JuniperJayne
UPDATED: Tuesday, August 11, 2026 16:20
VIEWED: 8276
PAGE 3 of 6
Quote:
Originally posted by Grounded:Quote:
Originally posted by nanite1018:
I'd suggest anything pretty much by Stephen Baxter. He's one of my favorite SF authors, although they are pretty hard-SF (as in they try to be at least relatively accurate scientifically and have absolutely NO fantasy elements at all, ever.) One of my favorite's by him is the "Manifold" series: Manifold: Time, Manifold: Space, and Manifold: Origin. Those are awesome.
Seconded :) The Xeelee sequence (Raft, Timelike Infinity, Flux, Ring) is excellent too.
Yeah, but they are pretty hard to find, except for Ring. Are Raft, Timelike Infinity, and Flux still in print? Can't remember.
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Since no one has mentioned it David Eddings has the Mallorean and Belgariad series and they are both good:)
I choose to rise instead of fall- U2
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Quote:
Originally posted by Grounded:Quote:
Originally posted by nanite1018:
I'd suggest anything pretty much by Stephen Baxter. He's one of my favorite SF authors, although they are pretty hard-SF (as in they try to be at least relatively accurate scientifically and have absolutely NO fantasy elements at all, ever.) One of my favorite's by him is the "Manifold" series: Manifold: Time, Manifold: Space, and Manifold: Origin. Those are awesome.
Seconded :) The Xeelee sequence (Raft, Timelike Infinity, Flux, Ring) is excellent too.
The colossal scope of Ring left me unable to read any SF for a while... didn't think anything would impress me after that.
The Qax in the XS stories must be my favourite aliens in SF, they exist as complex patterns of turbulence in a fluid, closely followed by the Spline, giant spaceborne whale-like cyborgs. No Trekkie-style aliens-as-humans-with-funny-shaped-eyebrows-and-exaggerated-personality-trait here!
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Quote:
Originally posted by daveshayne:
Well if you want to dive into the classics you should read Asimov's Foundation trilogy. That's the original 3: Foundation, Foundation and Empire and, Second Foundation. Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
I'm surprised it took so long for Asimov and Heinlein to be mentioned O_o
Also, my two favorite books are Heroes Die and Blade of Tyshalle by Matthew Stover (you've read him if you've read all the Star Wars books...he wrote NJO: Traitor, Shatterpoint, and the novelization of RotS). I've also recently been steered in the direction of Gene Wolfe...I'll be reading some works by that author shortly.
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Quote:
Originally posted by LightMeDark:
I'm surprised it took so long for Asimov and Heinlein to be mentioned O_o
I'm astounded no one's mentioned Bradbury at all yet. Any of it you can find and read...do. Personal fav's of his are Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Martian Chronicles, and Fron the Dust Returned.
Also, Terry Pratchett's Discworld series is a hoot if you like some grins and chuckles with your fantasy.
Sunshine by Robin McKinley is an excellent vampire novel.
Charles de Lint writes some of the most wonderful and frightening fantasy. His "Newford" books are among the best.
Hard SF, I'm quite fond of James P. Hogan (Thrice Upon a Time, The Gentle Giants of Ganymede and Genesis Machine.
There's more, but my brain refuses to cooperate...and I'm feeling a bit too lazy to get up and pull out half my books from the shelves.
[edit] heck where are our brains? J.R.R. Tolkien, if you haven't already!
******
RMMC
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It's science not sci-fi, Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything"...wickedly funny.
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The Dragonlance Trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman: Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Spring Dawning, and Dragons of Winter Night. They're also fellow Browncoats. Margaret Weis coauthored the Serenity RPG, and Tracy Hickman designed the ship, Aces and Eights, which appears in the RPG. Also, anything by Douglas Adams or Isaac Asimov. William Shatner's Tekwar series is pretty good too, as long as your just looking for light reading.
Morbid and creepifying I got no problem with, so long as you do it quiet like.
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Hey Cruithne3753, your name is the same as the asteroid that has a really weird orbit right, very much like Earth's? It was in Baxter's "Manifold: Time" right? Did you get it from the book or from just reading about the asteroid itself?
That was all questions. lol
And Ring was an awesome book. Although that didn't stop me from reading SF, i just read a more, every book i could get my hands on by Stephen Baxter.
And i liked the Xeelee more than the Qax, although i haven't actually read much about them, just a couple short stories from Vacuum Diagrams and then references from all of the books that come after Timelike Infinity in the Xeelee Chronicles 'verse. But i haven't read Timelike Infinity so i really haven't gotten much about them.
And from what i've read they aren't that cool. I mean yes the do exist without a cellular structure, which is weird. But other than that, not so much. The Silver Ghosts are really cool too, living machines. And so are the Gaijin from "Manifold: Space". Baxter isn't one for human-like aliens. That's what i like about him, he is realistic in that if there were alien civilisations, we'd be way behind them in technology and they'd be totally different than us.
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Almost anything by Peter F. Hamilton.
passoniatetly indifferent
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