What Are Your Favorite Science Fiction Books?
Author John Ringo and me
I went to a book party for Liberty Con, a science fiction convention, last night and met a bunch of science fiction writers and their fans who really seemed to be having a blast. I talked with John Ringo, who handed Glenn and me a copy of his new book Queen of Wands that looked like a great read for those of you who like science fiction. I discussed with Ringo why I rarely read science fiction, except for some Robert Heinlein – mainly because I prefer non-fiction — and he suggested I try his book The Last Centurion, which is written in “blog-style” and might be more to my liking. I think I’ll try it.
There were other popular writers there — Sarah Hoyt, Jerry Pournelle, and Larry Nivens, to name a few.
If you read science fiction, what books and authors do you suggest?
Also read: Is Science Fiction Getting More Conservative?
My favorite science fiction is the autobiography that I am writing. There is more produndity in my assertion than meets the eye, alas.
Most anything by Larry Niven (with and without Jerry Pournelle)
Dune
Most anything by RAH (whose “Crazy Years” scenario USED to be science fiction)
The weird part is that history proved “the man who sold the moon” wrong, and now it’s taking place anyway! Reality rebooted.
I do note the remark he had one of his characters make in “six million”, regarding his own “stranger”, that some people will do anything for money. Don’t know if he meant it.
I like his old “Saturday Evening Post” stuff, not as much the stuff he wrote when he started to write what he liked.
David Weber/Steve White have written some great space opera together
1: Anything by David Weber, especially the very-extensive Honorverse. Start with “On Basilisk Station” and work your way through the entire (very lengthy) series. Most recently, the Nimue Alban series (3 novels, with a 4th on the way by September) – excellent. To get a feel for his writing style in a single book, “The Apocalypse Troll.”
2. John Ringo’s excellent military-SF series.
3. On the lighter side, John Scalzi’s “Redshirts.” I’m about halfway through it, and it’s the funniest sendup of the Star Trek universe I’ve ever read. In a more serious vein, his “Old Man’s War” series – very good.
4. Eric Flint’s alternative history series from the Ring of Fire, beginning with “1632.”
5. No SF library can possibly be considered complete without the works of The Master, Isaac Asimov – especially the original robot series. Classics that still hold up reasonably well today.
The only female author I like, and the only one I know of who has a male protaganist (even if he is physically weaker than his female colleagues) is Lois McMaster Bujold. The others all seem to feature macho women, which I like no more than the “exploration of machismo” stuff from the golden age.
The early Heinlein, i.e. the collections “the man who sold the moon”, and the “green hills of earth”, sort of future nostalgia. Asimov’s Robot and orginal Foundation series are good, but the writing might be a bit too unpolished for you.
I like Turtledove’e Alternative History, especially the original idea of how the World Wars might end up fought on American soil, but they tend to run to many books and have weaknesses.
I like joke fantasy, especially a lot of Terry Pratchett, especially if you ignore the supposed lessons, whichh are often silly. Similarly Robert Asprin’s Myth series, particularly the early ones.
Andre Norton was writing male protagonists long before Lois, and doing it at least as well, if not better.
I’m reading “Star Soldiers” right now.
I first found her with the juvenile “Star Ka’at” novels
Honestly, I didn’t know “andre Norton” was female. I don’t think I read any of her stuff, though.
Well, I seem to have started something. Thanks for all of the comments.
Andre Norton’s excellent “Time Trader” series is now available at gutenberg.org
The first of four, “Time Traders”, can be found here: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19145
Nancy Kress is a very good SF author, the Probability Moon, Probability Sun, Probability Space series is very good.
Also try her “Beggars” novels. The politics in them remind me of recent utterances of Elizabeth Warren and Barack Obama.
I’m shocked and surprised that no one has brought up Connie Willis and her excellent Oxford Time Travel series, as well as her wonderful short stories.
Hmm – I like Elizabeth Moon too – although she does stick to female protagonists (write what you know?).
C.J. Cherryh writes good male leads. She did the Downbelow Station series a while back, with male and female leads … in one sub-series the leads are a male human and a female from a lion-like species. Currently she is writing one with a male lead (Foreigner series). None of her characters are god-like beings, but all are very human, even the aliens.
Try anything by Sarah A. Hoyt, in particular the Darkship universe (you’d think it was a logical progression of Friday.) Her shifter series is also top notch.
You might look for some lesser known lights as well. In particular Kate Paulk and Amanda Green over at http://www.nakedreaderpress.com
Another great midlister who should be a best seller is Dave Freer. His “Dragon’s Ring” is another take on dragons, similar to, but not quite entirely unlike “The Dragon and the George” by Gordy Dixon, who is another whose work should not be ignored.
Sorry, didn’t mean to put that as a comment on your comment.
What I meant to reply was that Redshirts sounds worth getting.
I do again want to recommend Bujold’s Miles Vorkosigan series.
To your list. I’d. Orsin Scott Card especially the Ended Series. Dan Simmonds Hyperion series. Andersons’ Saga of the Seven Suns. Roger Zelaznys books are fun. I can’t remember the author right now but I enjoyed The Gray Mouser series. Finally anything by Stanislaw Lem
Fritz Leiber. Science fiction and fantasy.
Philip K Dick for his many examinations of identity.
Robert Sheckley for his mastery of the short story form.
Phillip Jose Farmer. Riverworld.
Brian Aldiss.
AE Van Vogt. The Weapon Shops of Isher. Second amendment sci-fi!
You mean Fritz Lieber (although I found “follow that Zeppelin” a bit disturbing) with Fahrfad and the Grey Mouser.
Having read the original (great) Ender’s Game story in Analog, I never really tried the franchise he made out of it.
Actually the books you called the Nimue Alban series is better known as the Safehold series and there is 5 books already in print with the 6th this September:
1. Off Armageddon Reef
2. By Schism Rent Asunder
3. By Heresies Distressed
4. A Mighty Fortress
5. How Firm a Foundation
The sixth one that comes out this September is Midst Toil and Tribulation.
With all that said anything by David Weber is a good read!
My favorites are the works by William Gibson: “Count Zero”, “Neuromancer”, “Mona Lisa Overdrive”, “Idoru”, “Pattern Recognition”, “Zero History”, and others. The overarching theme of his books from his early “cyberpunk” days to the present is the fight for information control among large entities such as rival governments, corporations, and crime syndicates, and individuals such as the cyberspace cowboys who seek certain information within the 4-dimensional information “matrix” for personal gain. I particularly liked “The Difference Engine”, a collaboration with Bruce Stirling. The book details an “alternate history” of the 19th century where Great Britain uses Charles Babbage’s “difference engine” to establish industrial and political world dominance through an early mechanical analog information network.
The first four Dune novels by Frank Herbert are not only great reading, they are also a crash-course on how human society works.
Wasn’t the first a bit of crazy-ecologist? I note that Herbert actually liked the movie. And I think Amazing/Analog actually rejected the second, although he accepted the third. Agree, though that at least the first is fascinating in his concepts, even if the end was weak.
I am not an eco-freak by any means, but I also think it is valuable to explore the interconnectedness of man and nature. Societies are shaped by the environment they are in, though technology has helped us overcome.
No, in the early Dune books, Herbert was one of the first SF writers to really _use_ ecological awareness in an interesting and relevant way, he’s by no means a greenie kook. The politics, culture, religion, ecology, etc of the Dune books is carefully thought out.
I second the recommendation of Weber’s Honor Harrington series, although I’ll add the caveat that the more recent books are nowhere near the quality of the first 8.
Jack Campbell’s “Lost Fleet” series is McDonalds to Weber’s steak of space fleet warfare, but still fun. It’s pulp, but fun pulp. About 8-10 books now.(http://www.amazon.com/Dauntless-Lost-Fleet-Book-1/dp/0441014186/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342965451&sr=1-2&keywords=lost+fleet)
Older, but worth finding is Weber and Steve White’s “On Death Ground” and “The Shiva Option”.
Not-quite sci-fi, not quite alternate history is Taylor Anderson’s “Destroyermen” series of a WW1 destroyer transported from WW2 to another earth. 8 books in, all I want is MORE.
Not a novel, but a webcomic is the steampunk “Girl Genius”. (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20021104) Excellent, fantastically told.
Last, avoid the Star Wars novels like the plague. EXCEPT- the “Legacy” series of graphic novels. This one actually works, as they broke Star Wars down into its components and built a new saga from scratch 150 years after the movies. New characters, a new hero’s journey. The series finished a while back and for my money was the best SW story since the originals. (http://www.amazon.com/Broken-Star-Wars-Legacy-Vol/dp/1593077165/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1342965351&sr=8-2&keywords=star+wars+legacy)
Disagree – Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy was excellent
Spooky… how are you reading my mind? Oh. SF thread. Ok.
First and always, The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. Felt by many to be the finest classic SF novel ever written it keys off The Count of Monte Cristo.
Charlie Stross, L. Neil Smith (the graphic novel of Probability Breach is online), Daniel Keys Moran, and while more fantasy than sci-fi (although it does involve time travel) Tim Powers. Start with “Anubis Gates”. Or “Declare” if you’re a fan of cold war thrillers with a twist.
And, for an early appearance of the Net in a supporting role, the oddly satisfying Fire Upon the Deep by Vinge.
And the prequel A Deepness in the Sky.
I like the New York Times, the Washington Post, Huffington, and the LA Times.
CNN is also pretty good as is the BBC.
All present a very bizarre picture of an alternate reality, like a parallel universe or a different dimension loosely based on the real world.
I don’t like MSNBC because it has no connexion whatsoever to reality, it’s pure fanatasy.
Excellent! Best comment of the thread.
Nice, but our own press here in Israel isn’t bad in the SF/fantasy department, either. And they basically run the country.
C.J. Cherryh, her Foreigner and Chanur series offer a unique look at how language shapes the options available to people and the perils of translation where there is no direct equivalence in the concepts behind the words.
I will second the John Ringo books. He is a good writer and a quick read. Has very few holes in his story lines. Although I will say that my mental picture of him was very different than his real image.
I would recommend Joe Haldeman’s books. Start with the Forever War.
I recall the series started by referring to the Viet Nam was “having fizzled out”. Of course, it did nothing of the sort, which says a lot about Haldman’s muddled politics. Makes a preety good read, though; I read a lot of it in the original magazine articles.
I tried The Forever War after hearing how great it was. I forced myself to read it to the end, figuring it HAD to get good sometime. It never did, still one of the worst books I have ever read.
Dune is over rated also. The movie was quite faithful to the book, so it isn’t surprising that Herbert liked it. What has never made much sense to me is why Dune fans don’t!
Trying for a few recommendations for books over the last ~50 years (rather than pans) that no one else has mentioned:
Lord of Light by Zelazny is fantastic.
Gravity Fails (first of a trilogy) by Effinger
Polesotechnic League series by Anderson
The Host by Meyers. Yes, yes, she wrote about the sparkly vampires (at about a 6th grade reading level), but telling a “Puppet Masters”/”Body Snatchers” story from the perspective of the aliens took a lot of guts, and on top of that she somehow managed to pull it off. Surprisingly good.
Thank you for reminding me of some of those. I want to see if “Paleosotechnic” is on Gutenburg.
If you want to try some stuff, Bean Books has a lot of the older books in their series online for free at their site. You can read some older Bujold, and you might find Keith Laumer’s James Bond Diplomat Retief amusing – strangely, Laumer actually did work for the Foreign Service).
There’s also some really early free SF at Gutenberg. The early Doc Smith is nice (my rule is to read anything of his there where the girl doesn’t start out scantily dressed, but tastes differ), for example a male-female Robinson Crusoe where the heroic couple does nothing more than kiss, and that only after they get to know each other a bit. The women are definitely not helpless in these, even if they often let the men take charge. The 20′s fashions in the illustrations of Skylark are cute, given the context.
Baen is the place to start http://www.baenebooks.com/c-4-science-fiction.aspx
Lots of series where the first one or two are free. Download to your favorite e-reader or read in html online. Awesome service.
A few 10s that come to mind
Ender’s Game
Starship Troopers (the movie was silly, read the book)
Parafaith War
Redliners
Belisarius Series (starts with An Oblique Approach)
March Up Country (Prince Roger series)
Armor by John Steakley
Most anything by John Ringo (Kildar is fun if you can handle the sexuality else skip it)
Older David Weber (His new books are sucking…)
Elizabeth Moon is worth trying
John Scazi has a bunch of good reads
Peter Hamilton if you like deep complex universes
Niven/Pournelle when they are together – Footfall, Oath of Fealty
If you want a side of fantasy you can’t go wrong with Jim Butcher
“strangely, Laumer actually did work for the Foreign Service”
I don’t think that’s strange at all…write what you KNOW. The “Foreign Service” is stranger than you think. And a few I know who have been there say he got it right…(albeit with a bit of hyberbole).
As for E.E. Smith, I’d highly recommend the Skylark series – he managed to include some pretty liberated women – even if he had to make them green-skinned with copper-based blood (I suspect Star-Trek stole that one for the Vulcans…).
Well, the point being that the stories are farcial, and the character improbable. I seem to recall reading an original version of one of his stories that was so cunical that it was almost impossible to understand, but I suspect not if you were in the Service.
Similar to the fact that Ian Fleming (that’s SF, isn’t it?) actually worked for British Intelligence. Actually, James Bond is SF, isn’t it? The only story of his I read was a mild combination of hard SF and fantasy for children called – yes – Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (nothign like the Disney version).
Back to Laumer, I really liked the original Bolo story, the one strating with a retropective history. Also reminds you of what things were like back then in the Cold War days, with a lonely bunch of Conservatives and neo-Conservatives still trying to remind people what we were fighting (like today, come to think of it).
cynical
Interesting – I thought that Skylark – one of the first space operas – usually gets knocked for the humand female characters. It should be pointed out that he had a female co-author for a number of the early stories, probably helped him with the romance parts.
One interesting early story of his has the older female character, just along for the ride, it would appear, at the end take out the big heavy thug. But when he does that, it makes sense, not like a lot of the modern stuff (my own prejudice). I think it was Heinlein who said that Smith convinced him that some improbable scene could have happened – because he convinced him that Smith himself could have done it.
Huh? What E.E. Smith story ever started out with the heroine scantily clad? A couple of them had the heroines end up that way, in situations or cultures where nudity was the norm, but I don’t recall any starting out that way.
Basically anything by the authors you mentioned, plus Frank Herbert and you should be good.
Pretty much anything by Jack Vance, although there’s a strong cross over to fantasy; same goes for Gene Wolfe. Jack Vance also did a similar character to Laumer’s “Retief”, Miro Hetzel in his “Galactic Effectuator” novelettes, who is a re-do of an even earlier character, “Ridolph”. And along those lines, there’s Harry Harrison’s “Stainless Steel Rat” series, which are a whole lot of fun. I’m also a fan of Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, and Bruce Sterling.
If you like puns and humor, Spider Robinson, especially anything in the Callahan stories.
Lois McMaster Bujold. The Vorskoigan books hold ones interest.
As someone else said, anything by Niven, with or without Pournelle. Along with that, anything by Pournelle, with or without Niven.
Any collection that features Laumer’s Bolos (Bolo’s have been used by other authors), and anything by Laumer. The Retief stories contains very recognizable sterotypes of bureaucrats.
I love the spider robinson books with callahan. great puns
I loved Robinson until I read one of the last Calahan books where he appeared to justify child molestation. (Read it yourself if you don’t believe me. But don’t buy it.)
My Lord, but we are so jealous of who you get to hang with! For a free taste of many, the Baen Free Library is a Godsend (http://www.baen.com/library/series.asp). Highly recommend Weber’s Honor Harrington series.
Larry Niven is so prescient it’s scary. In his books, transplant tech leads to people being convicted of minor charges and then taken apart for their organs. Welcome to modern-day China–need a kidney? $47,000. Also, one could get grabbed by “organleggers” who sell your parts on the black market. It’s coming….
With Niven, other examples are the UN ARM’s, who get tasked with both restricting dangerous advanced technologies, and with “Mother Hunts”, for those who have children without the requisite permits (China, again).
For my recommendations:
James White’s Sector General series.
Jack Chalker’s Midnight at the Well of Souls series. First book seems like it starts a little slow, keep slogging.
David Drake, David Webber, John Ringo – all good stuff. For something different by Drake, try Old Nathan
Anne McCaffery’s Dragon books, if you’d like Fantasy.
Elizabeth Moon’s Deed of Paksenarrion
Alan Dean Foster, especially the Flinx novels, Into the Out of
Vernor Vinge
Peter F Hamilton
Favorite Vintage SF: Asimov Robot Novels, James Blish – Cities in Flight
Enjoy as many as you can…
I’d be jealous too! The authors that were there were all great conversationalists and fascinating to talk with.
Fred Pohl, Poul Anderson, Alfred Bester, Theodore Sturgeon, Robert Sheckley, Frederic Brown. I could go on and on–I’m a huge fan of the early Hard Science authors–writers who posited technological change and how the human race would adapt and thrive. More moder authors I love are Spider Robinson (truly the only bar I’d ever want to hang out in is Callahans), John Varley (Titan, Wizard, Demon, and his short stories). I survived high school by hiding in the library reading every Heinlein on the shelf…and found my tribe of geeky guys there. We started going to SF conventions and meeting the authors who wrote about such compelling worlds and discovered a family. SF conventions are a wonderful place.
Yes, The Last Centurion is great. I get frustrated with the situations the characters find themselves in (due to a president that is basically a female version of Obama) and find myself laughing out loud at both the country-boy wit of the narrator and the way he handles situation; mostly I laugh at his observations (mostly about liberals). I know – it’s supposed to be an action book, but I love it for its commentary. The whole thing is written more like an essay than a novel – albeit an essay by someone who experienced events in a future, apocalyptic setting and blogged about the events he experienced (and a lot about farming).
Also, if you like Heinlein, you’ll like Niven and Pournelle.
“Possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read.” – Robert Heinlein, about The Mote in God’s Eye.
I would be inclined to agree with him, except I would remove the “possibly” at the beginning.
Actually I believe RIngo has confessed that the President in Last Centurion was based on Hilary Clinton….
Hard to see how anyone missed it as he refers in the book to the rotating bush-McMillan(or whatever her name was)-bush-McMillan presidencies. I DO find Obama’s accusing Romney of a felony to be a disturbing parallel to the book though…
Keith Laumer’s Bolo series of Artificial Intelligent Armored Fighting Vehicles is facinating and precient given the advent of Drone warfare. The Bolo universe is shared by many authors including David Weber who made excellent contributions. Regards
Especially the original short story. Clearly the man is no Leftist.
If you can read French, then Serge Brussolo might be worth your time. He has a very fast pace and unique unusual style (none of his novels have a happy ending).
“Le carnaval de fer” and “Territoire de fièvre” are some of my favorite books, but also “Ira melanox” or “Portrait du diable en chapeau melon”.
If you want to have fun, I would recommend Rats, Bats and Vats by Eric Flint and Dave Freer as well as the sequel. It is available on the Baen free library. I don’t usually re-read books, but these books are truly funny gems that I have read several times.
I second the Dave Freer recommendation. And if you happen to be thinking about books the Instadaughter might like then I recommend Freer’s new YA book “Coal fired Cuttlefish”. Mind you adults can/will enjoy it too.
In fact I think Dave Freer’s Baen books (mostly in collaboration with Eric Flint) are generally YA suitable – particularly the extensions to James H. Schmitz’s Witches of Karres.
I’ll third on Freer. He has a delightfully twisted sensibility. I’d love to see him take a crack at the backstory of Cobra Bubbles from Lilo and Stitch
(“Grand Councilwoman: You look familiar.
Mr. Cobra Bubbles: CIA. Roswell. 1973.
Grand Councilwoman: Ah, yes. You had hair then”)
The series starts with ‘Genie Out of the Bottle’ which is also available as a freeby from Baen.
Ender’s Game by Scott Orson Card, and on to the entire series.
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman.
Armour by I don’t know
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlien
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
Centurion by John Ringo. Easily one of the best books about society
Yes, I like military sci-fi. It really harkens to this retired Army guy.
Armor was written by John Steakley. One of the few books i re-read every year
No love for Cole and Bunch? The Sten series is a must have.
Sorry; hadn’t heard of them. I’ll look into them. Thanks for the recommendation, and the new series.
James Alan Gardner – Expendable
Michael Crichton – Timeline
Stephen King – Tommyknockers
Pol Anderson’s Tau Zero is a classic of hard SF. All of Anderson’s work is insightful and interesting. A most underrated author IMHO. David Drake’s Hammers Slammers series is one of the earliest and best of Military SF. Gorden Dickinson’s Tactics of Mistake is a classic of Military SF; the best of the Dorsai series IMHO. S.M. Stirling’s Draka alternate history series is superb as are his other series. Regards
The Hyperion / Endymion books from Dan Simmons. Eon by Greg Bear is also a great read.
You can’t beat Azimov’s Foundation series. While not sci-fi, for fans of the Arthurian story, Jack Whyte’s Camulod series is some of the best fiction I have ever read, even better than Mary Stewart, a tough act to follow.
The “Altered Carbon” trilogy by Richard Morgan is fantastic and would make a fantastic series on a network like HBO as the actors could be rotated around since a “person” is now transferable between “sleeves”. A taste of Bladerunner but wickedly violent and sexual.
Altered Carbon has been optioned, IIRC by Warner. No casting or other movement that I know of,though.
“Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card, and “Memory” by Lois McMaster Bujold. Actually almost anything by Lois is great. I also like the classic SF by Asimov, Niven, and others.
No such list could be complete without the great ‘pulp’ scifi writers of the 1930′s who gave substance to the brainchild of HG Wells:
– E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith, author of the Lensmen series, greatest of the early ‘spaceships and ray guns’ genre
– Robert E. Howard, author of the Conan series, greatest of the early ‘swords and sorcery’ genre
George R. Stewart – Earth Abides
Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Red Planet
Methuselah’s Children
The Door into Summer
The Road Must Roll
The Man who sold the Moon
And he built a crooked House
The Weapon Shops of Isher – van Vogt.
I, Robot
Foundation – The good Doctor
Caves of Steel
John Grimes’ series – A. B. Chandler
Childhood’s End – Sir Arthur
Lucifer’s Hammer – Pournelle and Niven
The Skylark of Space – Doc Smith
Dorsai, et. al. – Gordon R. Dickson
Read the short story We See Things Differently by Bruce Sterling. This is the most prescient Sci Fi story I have ever read and it shows what Sci Fi can do. It is available to read for free at http://www.revolutionsf.com/fiction/weseethings/02.html
One writer I often re-read is CM Kornbluth – most of his writings are satirical in nature; “The Space Merchants” (collaboration with Frederick Pohl) is one the best. But my favorite is a more serious vein: “That Share of Glory” is a short story about a seemingly pacifist organization of space-faring scholars who nevertheless keep a certain Florentine political sage on the syllabus. This is a story that does Machiavelli proud!
Anything by:
John Campbell
EE Doc Smith
James Hogan
Heinlein
George O Smith
L Sprague De Camp
Ted Sturgeon
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Dune by Frank Herbert
Starship Troopers by Heinlein
Gateway by Fred Pohl
Ringworld by Larry Niven
Pretty much in that order, too.
Mission Earth. This rollicking, blockbuster of a tale will enthrall readers of all ages while, at the very same time, blowing the lid off of the EVIL psychologists who seek to enslave mankind with their vile nouveau-science and insidious attempts to plumb our souls with seemingly innocuous on-line questions.
The should-never-be-forgotten B. Traven of SF writers, Walter M. Miller, Jr., for his must read “A Canticle for Leibowitz.”
I was waiting to see if someone would bring up “Canticle.” It is, by far, one of my favorite books (not just SciFi). I appreciate how willing he is wrestle with the ethics of knowledge. The Poet in the book’s second act is great when he tells the scholar that he wants to take all the credit and glory for these discoveries (and rediscoveries), but doesn’t want to be held responsible for how they are used by the government he works for. Though not SciFi, Friedrich Durrenmatt addressed similar themes in his play, “The Physicists,” about three crazy physicists (one thinks he is Einstein, another that he’s Newton, and the third that he sees King Solomon).
I don’t know if we helped Helen, but I appreciate the pointers to some authors that look interesting.
BTW, there are a couple of interesting short-short stories from Harry Turtledove, on specific contemporary issues. One is “Nuclear Autumn”, with a famle president advised by someone who appears to be Carl Sagan, and one as to how long Ghandi would have held up against the Nazis (think the short-short movie Bambi vs. Godzilla).
I love Science Fiction which works peculiarities of real science and history into the story
“Inherit the Stars” by James Hogan which grew into three novels called either “The Giants Trilogy” or “The Minervan Experiment” The story explains:
The sudden appearance of Neanderthals 50k yrs ago, where the moon came from, why the farside surface is over a mile higher in elevation, why there is an asteroid belt, Pluto’s eccentric orbit and other stuff. Great story and really good sequels.
Another favorite is “Eon” by Greg Bear. This one has tons of deep theoretical physics and every time I read it (four so far) I get more out of it. The general premise is that a huge asteroid appears at the edge of the solar system and moves into Earth orbit as if controlled. Exploration finds it is hollow and there are remains of cities inside. There are 6 chambers, and the last one extends into infinity.
Hope someone else will enjoy these on my recommendation
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Hogan’s Giants Series is FIVE novels.
1. Inherit the Stars
2. The Gentle Giants of Ganymede
3. Giants’ Star
4. Entoverse
5. Mission to Minerva
“The Minervan Experiment” is an omnibus volume containing the first three novels.
Sundog, Thanks for the addition. As Carson would say ‘I did not know that’.
I read Inherit The Stars one summer during College (in the ’70s) and I still have that copy. Must say that when I finished it, that was the first time I had ever thought “that is the best sci-fi story I’ve ever read”.
Found the other two many years later. And i did mis-type about The Giants Trilogy, it’s actually under the title The Giants Novels – http://www.amazon.com/Giants-Novels-Inherit-Gentle-Ganymede/dp/0345388852, but is just the three mentioned.
I must have remembered it as Trilogy from this http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2BGph9kYZL._SL500_AA300_.jpg (Inherit The Stars, 1 The Giants Trilogy)
Last year I obtained a hardcover of The Minervan Experiment (first time I’d seen that title) in excellent condition for my library.
I appreciate hearing that there is more and will be on the lookout
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Just about anything by Vernor Vinge (except his latest novel Children of the Sky, which was strangely awful, almost as if it had been ghost-written). Don’t miss Fast Times at Fairmont High, which was the precursor to Rainbows End, both of which are amazing. I’m an educator and Vinge’s vision for education in the upcoming future is incredibly prescient — and compelling.
Too early to tell if it’s a “favorite” but I’m halfway through The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi and I am really liking it. Scalzi has a knack for crisp dialogue that is real pleasure to read.
Since I’m currently the president of the Libertarian Futurist Society, I’m going to start with a bit of special interest: take a look at our lists of Prometheus Award and Hall of Fame winners. I’m not going to claim that all of them are equally good choices, but over the years I think we’ve had a high percentage of hits. And they’re all “of interest to libertarians” (our actual criterion—we don’t have an ideological litmus test).
Other than that, currently active writers whose books I watch closely include Lois McMaster Bujold, Michael Flynn, Ken MacLeod, Elizabeth Moon, Terry Pratchett, Neal Stephenson, S. M. Stirling, Charles Stross, Vernor Vinge, Jo Walton, and Connie Willis.
For some older books that have stood up for me: C. J. Cherryh’s The Pride of Chanur (space opera from the PoV of alien interstellar merchants), Michael Flynn’s The Wreck of The River of Stars (high tragedy in the form of a case study of industrial failure in a near future hard sf world), Donald Kingsbury’s Courtship Rite (my favorite “alien human culture” novel, set on a desert world that makes Dune look like a summer picnic), Tim Powers’s Declare (cold war spy thriller with supernatural horror elements; very tightly plotted), Terry Pratchett’s Thief of Time (the most mythic of Pratchett’s fantasies, and his best treatment yet of Death’s granddaughter), Neal Stephenson’s The Baroque Cycle (90% swashbuckling historical adventure, but with a subtext of the birth of modernity and how it happened, and with a brilliant lead woman character—and if you look closely you may spot the sf/fantasy scenes), and Vernor Vinge’s A Deepness in the Sky (one of the best first contact novels I’ve read, with a really good alien civilization, and an intense conflict between the two rival human civilizations involved in the contact—one of which is one of the nastiest dystopias I’ve ever seen).
This is a long list, I know. I hope it helps without overwhelming.
Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress — 1st winner of the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award – has to be my favorite.
Anyone have good recommendations for libertarian novels published this year?
We are presently collecting nominees for the Prometheus Award.
I concur. For this question, I told myself to only pick one book. “Moon is a Harsh Mistress” is my number 1.
Jackk McDevitt has two series; the one that starts with ‘A Talent for War’ consists of interstellar murder mysteries,all his books are very good,
Murray Leinster’s Med Ship stories. Also, might I put in a plug for ‘The Reefs of Time’ by, ahem, yours truly, all of $0.99 on Kindle.
Limiting strictly to science fiction and only to positive recommendations:
Most favorite- Heinlein’s “Glory Road”. I reread it every year, and every year I get a little something different back out of it.
Frezza’s “Small Colonial War”. Great small-unit, irregular war stuff from an author who understands that war is the provenance of human beings. Robert Frezza is one of a small cadre of SF/F authors who never got the respect he deserved.
Bujold’s Vorkosigan series, but especially “Civil Campaign” and “Memory”. I’m wondering when people will figure out that she’s actually writing romance, mystery, action/adventure, and in fact almost every other genre- but in SF terms, so nobody catches on.
Drake’s “With The Lightnings” and most of the rest of the Leary/Mundy series. There’s a lot of authors who TRY to do ‘Aubrey-Maturin/Royal Navy In Space’, but he’s one of the few who succeed. On that note, Drake’s Hammer’s Slammers series changed the face of science fiction… if you don’t know how, you should look and find out.
Keith Laumer’s early Retief stories. I USED to think they were just fiction…
Glen Cook’s “The Dragon Never Sleeps”. Science Fiction from an author who changed military fantasy the way Drake changed military SF.
Cordwainer Bird, his shorts “Game of Cat and Dragon” and many others. Truly wonderful and totally beyond cliche’.
Charles Stross’s “Laundry” series (starting with ‘Jennifer Morgue’ and ‘Atrocity Archive’): Lovecraftian spy stories, or stories about spies fighting eldrich horrors; but definitely different and very well thought-out. Also goes a long way towards explaining all those surveillance cameras the English put everywhere.
“The HitchHiker’s Guide To The Galaxy”. ‘Nuff said.
That should be “Cordwainer SMITH”. For the benefit of those who do not know, “Cordwainer Bird” is the pseudonym Harlan Ellison puts on his work “to alert members of the public to situations in which he feels his creative contribution to a project has been mangled beyond repair by others, typically Hollywood producers or studios (see also Alan Smithee).” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_Ellison#Pseudonyms
Ah- caught me. You are of course correct. Thanks for catching that.
My favorite is Lois McMaster Bujold’s series on Miles Vorkosigan. My son and his wife loved the character of Miles so much that they named our grandson after him!
As to Miles being less strong than female characters – no, I would not say that at all. He overcomes with incredible strength of character some physical limitations.
Ok, I’m gonna so my age.
Paul O Williams: The Pelbar Cycle books. Retells some very old stories in a new setting.
Nathan Lowell: The Share (Quarter, Half, Full, Double….) A peaceful “every man” series.
Sterling Lanier: the Hiero books. Just some fun (and weird) adventure
Robert Buettner: Orphan series
And not SF but worthy of mention:
David Eddings: The Belgariad series, The Malloreon series, The Elenium series, The Tamuli series. A few pouns of books with enough high adventure and fun to keep you reading for a month.
Greg Bear: Eon, Moving Mars, Songs of Earth and Power (the infinity concerto and the serpent mage)
Kim Stanley Robinson all 3 of the mars books (red, green and blue)
Since you like Heinlein, read:
– John Scalzi’s “Old Man’s War” and the sequels. In fact, I’ve liked all his books.
– Joe Haldeman’s “The Forever War” is Vietnam vet’s take on “Starship Troopers”
– Weber’s “Honor Harrington” series is pretty good, however a few of the middle books are way too long. He’s gotten back to form in the last few.
Some others I like:
– Charles Stross’ Laundry series – Lovecraft meets modern spy novel. Starts with “The Atrocity Archives”. His Merchant Princes series is a modern take on the alternate worlds novel, starts with “The Family Trade”. “Halting State” is the first in a series of police procedurals set in a near future – it’s about a robbery in an online world.
– If you want some challenging reading, try Neal Stephenson. “Snow Crash” is the easiest read, but his books are packed with great detail. The Baroque Cycle novels are sf (of a sort) set in the late 1600s England.
– Iain Banks writes both sf and literary fiction. His “Culture” series is very good – it’s set in a world with AIs, matter conversion, ftl travel and huge civilizations. I recommend starting with “Consider Phlebas”. Most of the stories are independent.
(Note: Scalzi, Banks, and Stross are pretty left of center, but their politics is not that apparent in their books.)
_Little Fuzzy_, by H. Beam Piper. Probably available at the local library, or amazon; it’s also on gutenberg.org. No rayguns. No flashy special effects. On one side, genuinely nice people; on the other, genuinely honest and hard-working corporate types; in the middle, innocents, all in a frontier setting. Story conflict revolves around what it means to think.
oh damn, COMPLETLY forgot Piper, ANYthing by Beam Piper is worth reading at least 16 times.
Loved Heinlein and Clarke as a kid. Most of their stuff is dated but fondly remembered, and re-read.
Heinlein’s “Time for the Stars”, “Citizen of the Galaxy” “Starship Troopers” Couldn’t stand his later sex obsession books.
Love SF but can’t find much that I like, even those recommended here.
Niven’s “Mote in Gods Eye” and his earlier work. Don’t like his latter works much.
Dan Simmons Illium novels and his Hyperion Cantos and Endymion novels are superb.
Alistair Reynolds Revelation Space novels, rare quality “hard” SF (no FTL)
Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon… the latter inspired me back in ’99 to lead a team of engineers in joining a Silicon Valley high-tech startup, and my daughter’s (not yet published) second novel, Last Vision. (Her third, Beast from the Sea, just went up on Kindle and Nook, but it’s really more what I’d call a noir metaphysical thriller than sci-fi, per se.)
Can’t believe nobody has mentioned Roger Zelazny yet! Enjoy his sci-fi short stories, as well as the original Amber series.
Second the motion on Hyperion series. Stephenson’s Snow Crash is also a lot of fun.
Let’s not forget Harlan Ellison, though best taken in small doses.
Ray Bradbury is always classic.
I enjoyed Andre Norton as a boy – Star Rangers, Star Guard, Star Gate, Star Man’s Son, X-factor, Judgement on Janus
John Ringo’s Posleen Series.
John Scalzi’s “The Android’s Dream” and “Agent to the Stars”
Starship Troopers
Thomas Covenant series by Donaldson. Well of Souls series by Chalker. Eon and it’s follow up by Bear, also the Forge of God and Anvil of the Stars by Bear.
The Robot Series and the Foundation by Asimov. Ben Bova is another of my favorite sci fi authors. Hmmmm, I am on my second operating system made for gaming and the other has the ebook software, I could give you a list of my 4 star selections otherwise. Might come back and comment tomorrow with a more detailed list of authors. I am a sci fi junky. I concur with others on the Enders Game series.
Asimov, Heinlein – my all time favorite and I don’t care early, mid, or late, Card – Ender’s Game is still the scariest book I’ve ever read, Niven, Pournelle, et al, they are all great – though Gibson just never did it for me. The one name no one has mentioned is Stanislaw Lem. Try The Futurelogical Congress or Memoirs Found in a Bathtub. He was an absolute gem.
“Armour” is by the late John Steakley. Superb.
Iain M. Banks, both The Culture series (starts with “Consider Phelbas”, but most of them are not in a sequence); and The Algebraist (which has one of the very best sentences in science fiction — Picking a fight with a species as widespread, long-lived, irascible and – when it suited them – single-minded as the Dwellers too often meant that just when – or even geological ages after when – you thought that the dust had long since settled, bygones were bygones and any unfortunate disputes were all ancient history, a small planet appeared without warning in your home system, accompanied by a fleet of moons, themselves surrounded with multitudes of asteroid-sized chunks, each of those riding cocooned in a fuzzy shell made up of untold numbers of decently hefty rocks, every one of them travelling surrounded by a large landslide’s worth of still smaller rocks and pebbles, the whole ghastly collection travelling at so close to the speed of light that the amount of warning even an especially wary and observant species would have generally amounted to just about sufficient time to gasp the local equivalent of ‘What the fu—?’ before they disappeared in an impressive if wasteful blaze of radiation. )
Connie Willis. Mikchael Z. Williamson (“Freehold” first and then “Weapon”) Stanly Schmidt. Bradbury. Barry Hugeart.
Look at the list of Hugo and Nebula nominees each year. All of them are good.
Besides almost anything written by Arthur C. Clark and Heinlen, I do love Halderman’s Forever War, and Harry Turtledove’s alternative histories: The Great War Series (after the CSA won the Civil War the USA and CSA fight on opposite sides of WWI), The American Empire Series (WWII with USA and CSA on opposite sides), and his World War series where earth is invaded by an alien race in the middle of WWII.
In terms of more modern writers, anything by Peter Hamilton (spacd operas) or by Iain Banks (a brilliant writer).
The Honor Harrington series.
The Vorcosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold.
“World War Z”
“The Last Centurion”
“Ingathering: The Complete People Stories” by Zenna Henderson
I also recommend Asimov, the original Dune, and the Hyperion/Endymion series by Dan Simmons. I’ve also always been a fan of Arthur C Clarke.
Unmentioned so far:
John Varley’s “Gaea” trilogy (Titan, Wizard, Demon), as well as his “Nine Worlds” series (short stories (e.g. Picnic on Nearside collection) and novels (e.g. The Ophiuchi Hotline, Steel Beach and The Golden Globe).
David Brin’s (Uplift series, especially Startide Rising (Hugo, Nebula & Locus winner) and The Uplist War (Huge and Locus winner, Nebula nominee) and Glory Season.
Alfred Bester’s “The Stars My Destination” (aka Tyger, Tyger)
Poul Anderson’s future history (Polesotechnic League, Terran Empire/Flandry) and any number of standalone books (Tau Zero)
Peter F Hamilton’s “Night’s Dawn” trilogy and “Pandora’s Star”/”Judas Unchained” duology.
Neal Stephenson all. Cryptonomicon, Diamond Age, Snow Crash, The Baroque Cycle, Anathem, Reamde. A brilliant writer, tons of ideas, characters I like, and themes that will warm the hearts of classical liberals.
Top Ten Science Fiction
1) Startide Rising – David Brin
2) A Fire Upon the Deep – Vernor Vinge
3) The Moon is a Harsh Mistress – Heinlein
4) Diamond Age – Stephenson
5) Foundation + Foundation & Empire + Second Foundation : Asimov
6) Dune – Herbert
7) Anvil of the Stars – Greg Bear
8) Hyperion + Fall of Hyperion – Dan Simmons
9) Nova – Sam Delany
10) House of Suns – Alastair Reynolds
Others: Rendezvous with Rama – Clark
Lord of Light – Zelazny (SciFi? or Fantesy?)
Ringworld – Larry Niven
Star Maker – Olaf Stapeldon
Rainbows End – Vinge
I have been buying books from Baen Publishing as long as they have been on-line, and I see many of my favorite authors already mentioned here (John Ringo, David Weber, Robert Heinlein).
I recommend Larry Correia as a new author you may not have considered, also Jim Butcher who’s “Dresden Files” is in the hard boiled tradition of detective novels with a magical twist.
I’ll second both Larry Correia and Jim Butcher.
Heck Monster Hunter International is outright awesome fun.
Well, start with Niven and Pournelle, obvously, since they have written some of the best collaborations in SF history: “The Mote In God’s Eye”, “Footfall”, “Lucifer’s Hammer”, to name a few.
H.P. Lovecraft is the only author who ever actually SCARED me.
Roger Zelazny started out winning awards when he started writing and never stopped. If you like fantasy, the “Amber” series is absolutely incredible. The first 50 pages of the first book are a tour de force.
Heinlein of course, as you can tell by my username.
Jack Finney’s “Time and Again”
Ursula K. LeGuin’s Hainish series is by far my favorite after a lifetime of SF/Fantasy consumption. Although better known for the Earthsea series, which is also worth a look, the Hainish books better illustrate how SF can reveal the inner workings of culture and society. Start with my particular favorite, “The Left Hand of Darkness”.
Weber’s “Path of the Fury”, Drake’s RCN series:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_11?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=david+drake+rcn+series+in+order&sprefix=David+Drake%2Cstripbooks%2C342
The Path of the Fury is interesting because myth meets technology, or does it? Maybe there is something Jung’s theories? The Madness of revenge or a form of PTSD came up when I read it.
Drake raids history and mixes and matches in a most entertaining style. There is something about the characters in the RCN series that really attracts and tickles me, the Librarian who is a dead shot, a communications wizard, but otherwise a klutz. The ship captain who is a deadly tactician but who is fascinated by flora and fauna, and all the rest of the characters. The seem very real to me for some reason.
Also “The Paladin” A good stand alone book.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Paladin-C-J-Cherryh/dp/0671318373/ref=la_B000APR80U_1_35?ie=UTF8&qid=1342979973&sr=1-35
If you like the RCN Series, you’ll probably like the originals better. The RCN series is little more than Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey & Maturin in space. Daniel Leary is a lesser Jack Aubrey, while Adele Muny is a more interesting Stephen Maturin. The only real difference is the situations, with no need to stick to historical events Drake has dropped his pair into situations mined from across history (Drake typically does this, very few of his stories are not based on actual historical events).
“Dune” The first book. Forget the ones published later.
And, yes, one of my guilty pleasures is E. E. “Doc” Smith’s “Lensman” series. Spaceships, and ray guns and BEMS, oh my!
I recently got into reading some horus heresy books and I like them very much.
Surely not for everyone, its very dark and grim. My favorite so far was a thousand sons by Graham Mcneill.
Card’s “Alvin Maker” series and David Drake’s “Hammer’s Slammers”. Don’t miss Herbert’s “Dosadi” and “Whipping Star”. ;->=
Can’t believe Childhood’s End has not been mentioned–always first on my list, by the great Arthur C. Clarke.
I want to like Heinlein, and enjoy greatly The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, but he wrote women so horribly that I can’t read his stuff. I like (and generally require in any book I enjoy) strong female protagonists, not hyper-sexualized one-dimensional bits of fluff.
Most men write women so poorly that I have to select books first by the gender of their author, and sadly there are not that many good female sci-fi authors.
Wow, your comments really make me curious. Did you read “Podkayne of Mars”? What did you think? How about the female lead “Betty Sorenson” in “The Star Beast”? Female Heinlein fans- did he really have it all wrong?
Haven’t run across those two of Heinlein’s books. His Girl Friday, Stranger in a Strange Land, Time Enough for Love, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, To Sail Beyond the Sunset, and some shorts may be all that I’ve read. They left me wanting to avoid any more.
I think you have overdosed on late Heinlein. Try some more early Heinlein.
I can somewhat see what you mean about Heinlein’s female characters, but I’m not sure I’d go to one-dimensional. His books were pretty patriarchal, and his women were maybe somewhat idealized from a male perspective.
Gorgeous and willing, but they had other aspects. And I’m mostly considering Stranger in a Strange land since that’s the most recent book that I’ve (re)read.
As mentioned by others books by Larry Niven. Asimov and Clarke feel dated, same with most of Heinlen.
I love Ringo’s books. His Posleen series was an excellent story told over generations and from varying viewpoints. Also, it was an homage to RAH (who happens to be my favorite sci-fi author). I’ve just finished Ringo’s first book in the Troy Rising series. I look forward to reading the rest.
“Engine Summer” by John Crowley
I first read this book in junior high, nigh on 40 years ago, and I still think about the story from time to time even today.
In addition to several others already noted, “The Diamond Age” by Neal Stephenson and “Random Acts of Senseless Violence” by Jack Womack. Also, Gene Wolfe’s “Book of the New Sun” series (Shadow and Claw, Sword and Citadel). And finally, Brian Aldiss’s Helliconia series.
My reading of SF began in the 1950s, and many of my favorite novels were written then. The non-profit Library of America is publishing in September a two-volume set containing 9 of my favorites from that time:
The Space Merchants, Frederik Pohl & C. M. Kornbluth
More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
The Long Tomorrow, Leigh Brackett
The Shrinking Man, Richard Matheson
Double Star, Robert A. Heinlein
The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
A Case of Conscience, James Blish
Who?, Algis Budrys
The Big Time, Fritz Leiber
It’s especially nice to see Robert Heinlein’s Double Star in the set. Note that they already have published sets of Kurt Vonnegut and Philip K. Dick that start in the 1950s. Amazon carries them, as well as http://www.loa.org.
Of more recent novels, the Ender series is my favorite.
Top Sci-Fi Books that I read again and again:
Have Space Suit, Will Travel, Starship Troopers, Citizen of the Galaxy, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Friday – Heinlein
The Last Centurion, A Hymn Before Battle – John Ringo
The Black Star Passes, Islands of Space, John Campbell
Footfall and Lucifer’s Hammer – Niven and Pournelle
Little Fuzzy – H. Beam Piper
Earth Abides – Stewart
Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card
Tactics of Mistake – Dickson
Dune, The White Plague – Frank Herbert
Bolo – Laumer
The Time Traders, Galactic Derelict, The Defiant Agents, Daybreak: 2025 AD – Andre Norton
Recent new-favorites (all thanks to Instapundit):
Redshirts – John Scalzi
Temporary Duty – Ric Locke
Hegemony – Mark Kalina
Orion
Finally…someone posted a book that has eluded me for 35 years. It’s Andre Norton’s 2250 AD. Glad I am not the only one who loved reading Alice Mary Norton’s novels!
If I were compiling a “Top 100 SF Books” list, then Niven, Pournelle and Heinlein would make up the bulk of it. The other suggestions that folks have already added would probably fill up the rest.
But my #1, TOP science fiction book is Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers”. No contest.
It’s interesting that Nobel laureate and Enron adviser Paul Krugman has written that he was always fascinated by Asimov’s Foundation novels, and that he went into economics wanting to become Hari Seldon; to be able to predict and control the broad outlines of future history. Either Krugman is an idiot (likely) or he only read the first 3 novels (also likely), because we learn in the last book of the series that Seldon was a mind-controlled puppet of the ancient Robot Daneel Olivaw, who had been manipulating all of history for the last 50,000 years. When Asimov went off on his “mankind needs to be controlled for our own good by some higher intelligence, except NOT GOD”, he lost me.
Agree with you on the ending of the Foundation series. Disappointing and taints the whole series for me now.
The Conrad Stargard series by Leo A. Frankowski about an engineer accidently transported back in time to Poland shortly before the Mongols invade, is mostly pretty good but has the same problem – a crappy series wrap up.
I recommend Dragon’s Egg by Robert L. Forward for a good read. Not fantasy despite the impression you get from the title.
Krugman wanted to be Hari Seldon? Very interesting, in that the Foundation stories were modeled on Gibbons “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, and Seldon fills the role of Christ (VERY approximately). Of course, in the later stories, Seldon’s recordings of his predictions for the Plan diverge from reality for various reasons. Krugman arrived there long ago.
Ha!
Apparently I’m glad I didn’t get to the end of that series, ’cause I think I would have been angry. I really enjoyed the first three books.
Just go to Baen Books already! You will not be disappointed.
The Saga of Pliocene Exile and subsequent books (9 in total) by Julian May. I don’t think I will ever find a more entertaining, inspiring, or just plain awesome series.
I agree with many of the previous recs, but an excellent series is The Retrieval Artist by Kristine Kathryn Rusch – first book is the disappeared. The basic concept is very interesting (to participate in interstellar trade, Earth has to agree that humans who break laws of other species in their territory must submit to the “justice” of the aliens – and Earth/Lunar police forces have to enforce the alien laws under treaty.) The individual books are well written.
Interesting concept, there. I recall a short story by Miven, “Cruel and Unusual” where the Chirpsithra smothered kidnappers to death using pillows over a several day period, broadcast live on human TV to Earth, as punishment for humans who had caused the slow, tortuous death of one of their diplomats they had kidnapped, and couldn’t provide proper medical care for…
(Paraphrased from memory) “After all,Rick, shouldn’t the punishment fit the crime?”
CJ Cherryh: everything. Alliance Space (Cyteen, Downbelow Station, and many more), The Faded Sun Trilogy starts slow but is fantastic, the whole Foreigner Series.
Larry Niven: again, everything. Too numerous to itemize but start with the Known Space short stories and go from there. The Niven edited Man Kzin wars are good too.
Heinlein is excellent but it hasn’t aged well for me.
Enders Game is a classic but for me Card ends there.
I’m glad someone else said it about Enders Game. The rest of Cards stuff, blech!
I’m a huge fan of Lee & Millers Liad books; “Agent of Change” is the 1st one. CJ Cherryh has some great stuff, her & Joan Vinge were some of the 1st writers I met and showed a voice I hadn’t heard till then. Octavia Butler (RIP) writes with style & elegance. The Deed of Paksenarrion Novels by Elizabeth Moon are IMO the best heirs to Tolken yet done. Though I don’t read much fantasy “The War for the Oaks” by Emma Bull captures both the fantastic & mundane in Minneapolis to a tee. These are just a few of the wonderful women in SF, enjoy.
Some choices from the road less traveled
“City” Clifford Simak
“Way Station” Clifford Simak
For shorts, “Hugo Award Winners Vol I” is outstanding, and greatly enhanced by prefaces written by Asimov. Includes “Flowers for Algernon”. [and another Simak gem, "The Big Front Yard"]
“Darwin’s Radio” Greg Bear
Here is the whole bookshelf at goodreads….
http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/2882532-kazmo?format=html&shelf=psi-phi&sort=author
I pretty much had my fill of sci-fi (as well as all fiction) in my early twenties. Almost exclusively non-fiction since.
Way Station was one of the very few that I still think about. It’s so good.
Also:
PRESS ENTER [] – John Varley (short enough to also make a great film)
Whipping Star – Herbert
Starship Troopers – Heinlein
Bill The Galactic Hero and The Stainless Steel Rat – H Harrison
The Enemy Stars – Anderson
A while back someone heavily recommended The Gap series by Donaldson and I enjoyed the first three.
I can’t believe I forgot the original Dune series. I am rereading them for at least the 5th time
I know it barely qualifies, if at all, as science fiction, but I love “Cryptonomicon” by Neal Stephenson. His “Snow Crash” definitely IS science fiction and it is wonderful fun.
I love Heinlein and I think I have read everything he published, but “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” is my favorite.
Totally off the subject, and I don’t like most of Irving’s novels all that much, but “A Prayer for Owen Meany” may be my favorite novel, ever.
The Worldwar series by Harry Turtledove is great. Most anything by Turtledove is good.
Tim Zahn is the only one, IMO, who can competently write in the Star Wars universe.
Just finished William Forstchen’s The Lost Regiment series, which was also a gripping read.
And of course, Orson Scott Card has proven wonderful time and time again.
RD,
Would you agree that the quality of Zahn’s Star Wars work has decreased over time? I enjoed his original Thrawn Trilogy most of all, and his Hand of Thrawn Duology second, of all the Star Wars books I read in high school. The ones he’s done in the last ten years just don’t seem to have the same magic as before.
I’d like to say a good word for physicist-turned-novelist Alastair Reynolds, whose Revelation Space books are suberb.
H. Beam Piper
If he is not on your list, if you do not know him, then your sci-fi experience is fatally lacking.
If you do not also have Alfred Bester’s “The Stars My Destination” and “The Demolished Man” as points of reference then we are simply not talking about sci-fi at all, but some other genre.
It’s interesting to see how many of your readers advocate SF that deals with war and conflict as the background scenario. I wonder how many of your readers are active or retired military? As for great reads, here’s my list of the best:
‘Starship Troopers’ – Robert Heinlein. Another reader has already mentioned Heinlein’s ‘Crazy Years’, but his warnings about the societal issues that lead to the downfall of the 20th Century democracies and the definitions of what it takes to be a ‘Citizen’ are almost eerie in their prescience.
‘The Foundation Trilogy’ – Isaac Asimov. A Sci-Fi book about Psychologists that predict the impending downfall of society and the path to shorten the coming Dark Age. Who couldn’t resist that?
‘Bug Park’ – James P. Hogan. The son of a nanotechnology scientist saving his dad from a murder plot by using tiny robots. How cool is that?
‘Last Centurion’ – John Ringo, and of course, his ‘Troy Rising’ series and ‘Looking Glass’ series.
1632 by Eric Flint. There’s a series attached. Eric calls himself a Lefty historian, but this series rams home -why- practically the entire Bill of Rights is necessary. Small town in modern America uprooted at dropped in 1632 “Germany”.
Live Free of Die by John Ringo. Fast, light space opera. But one of the few recent works having anything to do with getting humans moving again in the space frontier in any vaguely plausible way.
Cordelia’s Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold. She’s written a lengthy series that are fun, funny, and quick. (And have many “starting spots”. The true ‘first book’ isn’t as well written as this one. And they do stand alone well enough.) But she touches on a variety of serious issues – cloning, medicine, and abortion for starters. Not by pounding your face in them, but by basing worlds upon different choices. She never states it, but has an interesting take on abortion that passes muster on -both- the “It’s -alive- dammit!” front -and- the “Women’s choice” front. Adopting her solution -today- would focus attention on medical research leading to the very science fiction devices predicted – a uterine replicator.
I still love to reread the Heinlein juveniles I read as a juvenile. “Citizen of the Galaxy,” “Tunnel in the Sky,” “Have Spacesuit, Will Travel,” “Double Star,” and “The Puppet Masters.” Also “The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag.” Also, I believe unmentioned so far, the sainted Arthur C. Clarke, “The City and the Stars,” “Childhood’s End,” many great short stories. Andre Norton’s “Galactic Derelict.” Some of Jack Finney’s time stories. Niven’s “Ringworld” (no sequels), “World of Ptaavs,” and “Protector.” Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Starship Troopers – Heinlein
Forever War – Haldeman
Ender’s Game – Card
A Talent For War – McDevitt
The Dispossessed – LeGuin
The Caves of Steel – Asimov
Any short story collection – Harlen Ellison
Tales of Prix the Pilot – Lem
Stand on Zanzibar – Brunner
Hammer of the Gods – Niven
Tales from the White Hart – Clarke
The Man in the High Castle – Turtledove
Fahrenheit 451 – Bradbury
In many ways it is more the author than a specific title that grabs. Each one of the above titles induced me to read several other books by the same author.
The Man in the High Castle – Philip K Dick
Just a minor nitpick, but “The Man in the High Tower” was by Philip K Dick, not Harry Turtledove.
Tanith Lee – Death’s Master
Dante’s Inferno
Stephen King’s Gunslinger series
Iain M. Banks, the Culture novels. Hugely imaginative, beautifully crafted, a joy to read.
Lois McMaster Bujold’s “Barrayar” (really any of the Vorkosigan books, but definitely that one).
Valerie Freireich’s “Becoming Human” / “Testament” / “Imposter”
Anything by David Brin, my favorite is probably “Kiln People”
C.S. Friedman’s “This Alien Shore”
Arthur C. Clark – try his short stories to get a taste (“Nine Billion Names of God” is one collection), then try The Sentinel, Rendezvous with Rama, and others.
Azimov – the original Foundation trilogy, The Gods Themselves, “I, Robot,” and other short stories (especially “Nightfall”). His non-fiction is a touch dated but still great science writing.
David Weber
Anne McCaffrey’s Ship books (The Ship who Sang, et cetera). And her dragonriders books if you like a dash of fantasy flavor with your science.
C.J. Cherryh- Downbelow Station is one of my favorites.
Frank Herbert – the first Dune book. The second was OK, but God Emperor of Dune and the prequals just don’t have the same tightness and power of the first one.
Andre Norton – Witchworld for fantasy, Beastmaster and some of the others for science fiction. Please do not judge Beastmaster by the movie, I beg you!
Larry Niven – for something fun, try the collected Draco Tavern stories, then sample his novels, solo and in collaboration.
Pournelle and Niven – The Mote in God’s Eye, Ringworld, too many others to count
Orson Scott Card – Ender’s Game
Isaac Asimov – The robot novels
Robert L. Forward – Dragon’s Egg
Arthur C. Clarke – Childhood’s End, Rendezvous with Rama
If time travel through cyrogenics counts as science fiction, then “The Far Arena” by Richard Sapir will stick in your mind. A Roman gladiator is found in a glacier and revived into the modern world. A related series, “Casca,” by Barry Sadler, on a Roman Centurian tagged by Jesus on Golgotha, and condemned to live until Jesus’s second coming. Through the centuries Casca lives, always fighting, either a soldier, or a sailor, in war after war, all around the world. Never an officer, he is the eternal sergeant. He can get grievously wounded, but he never dies. Casca is out there today, always where the war is hottest. Now, probably in Syria, a place he has visited countless times down through the centuries.
Another classic is Alfred Bester’s “The Demolished Man,” a science fiction take of “Crime and Punishment.”
Also good is David Niven’s early stories, loosely collected as “Tales of Known Space,” which, when taken together provides a sketchy galactic history with alien races, and relics that humans stumble upon as they spread out through the Milky Way.
Also is Jack Vance’s “Dying Earth” stories, and “The Dragon Masters” and “The Last Castle.” Not hard science, perhaps, but mythic and evocative.
Let’s face it, there are just too many great works to list. It’s too bad that “Star Trek,” and “Star Wars” knockoffs have virtually killed off the genre.
Sorry. I meant Larry Niven. David Niven was an actor.
Most of these have been mentioned above, but bear repeating :
Neal Stephenson (any of his work, just pick one and start
Neal Asher – the Agent Cormac books, best to start with Gridlinked
Charlie Stross, the Laundry books
Iain M. Banks, the Culture books
Samuel Delaney, Dhalgren
David Weber, the Safehold series
China Mieville, pick pretty much any one
Richard K. Morgan, ditto
1. Anything by Larry Niven. He’s quite simply in a league of his own. Exception – the Barsoom stuff is crap. He can be difficult to read, because as with all very science/engineering/oriented folks, his thoughts are a bit…….condensed. Nevertheless – he makes Asimov and Clarke look like clowns, idiots and impostors.
Of special note – the entire Man/Kzin War series. A monumental achievement. And, of course, the Ringworld series. The stuff is so awesome that it is likely beyond the silver screen to capture.
2. John Ringo is good. But he’
s his own worst enemy. The man seems to have no concept how EPIC his stories can be.
3. John Scalzi. All around great writer. Weak on the science bit.
4. Jack Campbell – author of the Lost Fleet series. He starts out a bit shaky – some idiot editor probably tried to convince him he needed to emphasize the ‘human interest’ and ‘current social issue agenda’ aspect of his stories, with the result that the early volumes have too much soap opera garbage. But as the stories continue, he gains his own stride. It’s an impressive achievement. In fact, he reaches full maturity in the last volume, where his work is as good as the absolute best of the old 1960′s Star Trek.
Many of the above, but I don’t see Kage Baker’s “Garden of Iden.”. Not sur I would recommend the entire Company series, but the first two (Sky Coyote is the second) are excellent. Premise is that the Company has discovered time travel, but the expense is horrendous. To tin a profit, the Company sends agents back into time to create practically immortal cyborgs, who pay for their immortality by collecting lost items from history – works of art or literature, for example. Iden’s protagonist, Mendoza, is rescued as a young girl from the Inquisition.she is o e of te better- drawn characters of recent science fiction. And don’t be put off by the Company; this is not an early Occupy manifesto. In fact, any of Ms. Baker’s observations about the politically-correct citizens of the near-future will appeal to conservatives and libertarians.
I see no mention here of 2 of my favorites: Dragon’s Egg and Starquake, by Robert L Forward. They could be described as hard science fiction with the epic sweep of The Lord of the Rings.
I also read Forward’s Rocheworld but it left me indifferent.
Just to be contrarian, here are a couple of popular novels that disappointed me:
Robots of Dawn: I felt that Asimov was trying too hard to spice the story with unnecessary, annoying plot twists.
Mote in God’s Eye: the concept was interesting, but I took a strong dislike of some of the main characters, and the other characters left me indifferent.
Books I’ve read so many times I could probably chant them out loud:
THE MERCENARY, Jerry Pournelle
THE STAND, Steven King (yeah yeah, fantasy…so sue me)
THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS, Robert Heinlein
And speaking of science fantasy, I’ve ready the whole Robert Jordan WHEEL OF TIME series twice…self-abuse, I guess…
Michael B
I have boycotted that series. I started the WOT when the 2nd book came out. Yeah, the guy is now dead and the series is still not done. Pffft! Yeah, yeah, I know he wrote out an outline for the final books, but come on! Ups and dies! It is not fair………………..LOL
If you haven’t read SF and want to get a taste it’s gotta be Dune. An amazing feat of imagination. I enjoy it’s parallels with the Middle East (birthplace of religions, spice=oil). Another one I liked but never hear mentioned is End of Eternity by Asimov. I don’t think I’ve read an Asimov I didn’t like. As I’ve gotten older, the focus on futurism rather than character has kind of turned me off but I’ll still crack open Dune from time to time.
There is no one superior to David Weber or his Honor Harrington series. Like the stories of Horatio Hornblower they are to be read time and again.
My Top 5 SciFi books:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Not my favorite genre…
So why are you even reading this thread?
Kim, I hope you’re doing well. Miss your blogging, and hope you’ll take it up again some day. To quote a favorite line from a Stephen Coonts novel, “Don’t let the @**holes of the world grind you down!” Have a good day, mate.
Science fiction for people who hate science fiction. Don’t know if it would be my list.
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2007/09/science_fiction_for_people_who_hate_science_fiction/
Then there is Amazons list
http://www.amazon.com/Science-Fiction-People-Who-Hate/lm/2GOROJCF7VPDE?tag=sfsi0c-20
Me? I’d recommend any of the Callahan’s Bar stories by Spider Robinson. The Draco Tavern stories by Niven. The Black Widowers stories by Asomov, told in a pub setting. Hmm- seems to be a theme here.
I’m with Alan – Miss your writings tremendously. Hope all is well with you!
Orion
Agreed, Kim. You left a large hole in the internet. Hope all is well with you, and yours.
Not yet mentioned Edmond Hamilton; The Haunted Stars a short poignant novel of an ancient intersteller war and the origin of man. Advanced concepts for when it was written. Truly haunting!
Also the collaboration of Jerry Pournelle and David Drake in the Falkenburg’s Legion series is exceptional.
Regards
Almost forgotten these days is Olaf Stapledon, whose future history “Last and First Men,” was published as far back as 1930. Also “Odd John” about the next genetic step beyond Homo Sapiens, and “Sirius,” about a dog with human level intelligence. He’s still in print. Look him up.
I’m surprised not to see H. Beam Piper mentioned. He died tragically, but happy for us, he left some great stories: space viking, paratime, and little fuzzies
Orion
1. Dune
2. Left Hand of Darkness
3. Footfall
4. In Death Ground
5. Use of Weapons
6. Obligatory Heinlein novel: Starship Troopers tie with The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
ALTERED CARBON by Richard K. Morgan
BROKEN ANGELS by Richard K. Morgan
THIRTEEN by Richard K. Morgan
THE DIAMOND AGE by Neal Stephenson
PANDORA’S STAR by Peter F. Hamilton
JUDAS UNCHAINED by Peter F. Hamilton
HYPERION by Dan Simmons
THE FALL OF HYPERION by Dan Simmons
In no particular order:
– Poul Anderson, Tau Zero, Harvest of Stars, and The Stars Are Also Fire
– Greg Bear, Anvil of Stars
– Gregory Benford, Timescape
– Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination
– David Brin, Startide Rising
– Glen Cook, Passage At Arms
– Philip K. Dick, Ubik and Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said
– Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress
– James Hogan, Endgame Enigma
– Larry Niven, Ringworld
– Alastair Reynolds, The Prefect and Pushing Ice
– Robert Sheckley, Mindswap and Dimension of Miracles
– Robert Silverberg, Thorns and The Masks of Time
– Clifford Simak, Way Station
– Thomas T. Thomas, First Citizen
– Jack Vance, the Alastor and Planet of Adventure series
…and many others that just haven’t yet come to mind.
(I note that a few commenters have included fantasy titles. I thought them disallowed, or the list would have been twice as long.)
Alastair Reynolds’ Revelation Space and its sequels are very good too, I think the Prefect is considered within that series.
Reading this list I find I forgot how much of SF has to do with wars. I’ve been racking my brains to come up with good non-war books.
So, “Inherit the Stars” by James P. Hogan is somewhat like a detective book that has you thinking several times “AHA! This is what’s going on.” only to have some character mention it and get shot down. May only be available as part of a three-books-in-one set “Giants Star” trilogy.
Same author “Thrice Upon a Time.” A love story. And “Voyage from Yesteryear” – More of a war avoidance story. Really, any of his books.
Douglas Adams – “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.” Really, read the book, don’t go by the movie(s). “Yellow” . If you feel compulsively anal about 42 go ahead and read the other 4 or 5 books in the trilogy.
“Crystal Singer” by Anne McCaffery. Hmmm… There is some violence, but not really “war” per se.
Same author “The Ship Who Sings”.
And I’ll throw my vote in on Weber’s “Apocolypse Troll” and Harrington series (but not really his latest series) and Ringo’s “The Last Centurion” not for the battles but for the commentary.
And, as a wild card that’s not SF but more fantasy (grin) Ringo’s “GHOST” series. Completely politically incorrect but you tend to cheer while you cringe.
Good Reading.
Ooohh, I almost forgot.
Leo Frankowski’s “Cross Time Engineer” series. A modern engineer dropped in Poland a bit before the mongols are to invade. How can he advance technology quickly enough to stop them.
Most of human history is the history of warfare! The future will be much the same as the past as regards human nature and conflict. Evolution may alter human nature; however the last evolutionary change in man was about 40,000 years ago!
“Dimension of Miracles” by Robert Sheckley
A must if you love “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.” ( I’m not certain but I think Adams acknowleges been influenced by Sheckley -I think he did a dedication to Sheckley somewhere)
I think “Dimension of Miracles” is my favourite by Sheckley. I was so delighted to come across Terry Prachett – such similar turn of prase/comedic touch.
I introduced the book to a person who loved it so much she renamed her cat Carmody. (L.O.L. I was afraid to ask why)
what about “utopias” that you might wish you can live in because it seems pausable and appealing as it can be ethically right for you.
“Beyond This Horizon” by Heinlein
John Varley’s body changable universe seen in ‘The Ophiuchi Hotline’, ‘Steel Beach’ ,etc.
One of the worlds envisioned by James P. Hogan. ( I do not remember the title)
It seems so few but it is hard to find worlds that give everyone opptunity. ” Dalgran” by Samuel Delany for example does not allow a means for eveyone to succeed. One cannot help but think “Dalgren” is what those afflicted by Down’s syndrome might suffer if they were not blessed with such a forgiving/accepting nature.
The classics have already gotten their mention, so here is a new one: “The Windup Girl” by Paolo Baglia-something-or-rather (go google it, you lazies!). The coming world of biotech, in the same way Neuromancer was about computers. Rich prose and a believable, complex world.
And yeah, “The Last Centurion” by that Ringo guy ain’t bad. Sometimes he lays it on a bit thick, but the man has a point to make. A good read.
Paolo Bacigalupi.
Unless I missed it, I can’t believe that nobody mentioned “A Canticle for Liebowitz” by Walter M. Miller.
Many, many of the afore-mentioned works… also -
C. J. Cherryh – the Union/Alliance universe
Timothy Zahn – “Cobra” series
Steven E. MacDonald – “The Janus Syndrome”
Robert Forward – “Dragon’s Egg” and “Starquake”
Philip Wylie & Edwin Balmer – “When Worlds Collide” and “After Worlds Collide”
“A Canticle for Liebowitz” Absolutely not to be missed. I don’t like the ending, but the concept is wonderful and it is extremely well written.
I missed it; up there at #37. Sorry, Bill W.
I owned an online bookstore for years, Chuck’s Rare Sci Fi. I have a large collection. Tau Zero is poul Anderson’s best novel. Any Niven fan would love. Nivens best IMO is Ringworld but I like all his stuff. My favorite author is Philip K Dick my favorite of his changes, I love all his loss of reality novels like Unteleported Man and Maze of Death but really like Valis. Like everyone else I like the Heinlein juveniles, his early stuff. Clifford Simak’s Project Pope is a masterpiece. Simak does really good shorts as does PKD and Sheckley. PKD’s best short is Upon this Dull Earth very haunting. One that will surprise you is Weaveworld by Clive Barker. Not horror but fantasy and extremely well written.
So many good writers it is hard to limit. So I will base choices on style. You know like how you categorise food. That is “Thai ,not chinese nor other south east asian (Malaysian or Indonesian)” ; ” Has to be classic French, not generalized European” ; ” Got to be northen Indian, not south Indian “or “Hmm Burmese food -you can really see the Indian (to the west of Burma) and Chinese (to the east of Burma) influences that are so different from Thai even though both Burmese and Thai share the same climate and terrain ( both cultures heavily influenced by by the ecology of similar river systems”.
For style I would say the best is Cordwainer Smith – I defy you to ever think of words like North Australia or Cat woman the same after reading stories of the Instrumentality of Mankind.
Murray Linter and Andre Norton -very distinct “flavour” to their writing. (Georgette Hayer was similar with her regency romances but so many have written in her style that it is no longer unique. Not that I have been reading SF that extensively of late but so far I have not come across anyone that I could say picks up their style. All collaborations with Andre Norton are so obvious – you do not need to check the cover to know it was written only by Andre Norton.)
C J Cherryh and L E Modessitt also have distinct styles. Some clam they are is too repetitious but to me the similarity just makes the reading subtly better. After all how can beer be beer with the slight bitterness or liquors be liquors without sweetness.
Well, pretty much anything by John Ringo is gold. Except “The Hot Gate.” That one wasn’t good at all.
Other than that, stick to the letter “B.”
Stephen Baxter
Greg Bear
William Barton
Iain Banks
Barton’s novels are out of print now, and he’s a hardcore liberal, but you’d never know it from his writing.
Huh, there’s something irritating about Dr. Helen’s pose with the science fiction guy, not sure what it is. Maybe “pay attention to me – while my husband is off somewhere else” or something. Or maybe not. I’m probably the only person – at least according to her fan comments – who wouldn’t want to deal with her.
Anyway, my impression of “Stranger in a Strange Land” by Heinlein was that I couldn’t get through it. The stuff he writes about law in the beginning is just far removed from what the law is or was, but he writes it as an expert. Otherwise, I didn’t see anything impressive in the first half of the book (and I really wanted to – I had heard the book is good – maybe someone can clue me in).
judging from your comment, you are a mentally deficient, so that probably explains your inability to enjoy the photo and the book.
I’m “a mentally deficient” because Helen bugs me personally? Everything is really that standardized?
OK, I’ll at least try to conform and act the part in the future.
I think, though, that the high class insult of calling someone “a mentally deficient” (youse a mentally deficient) is not required here, a simple “yur stoopid” would have sufficed.
interestingly enough, i was going to just flat out call you a dumba&& with assorted other witticisms denigrating your intelligence, which would have made H.L. Mencken proud, but figured that was too harsh for the forum and diluted it to what you read…. guess i will fire my self-editor and give the job to adolph coors.
Mote in God’s Eye — Niven/Pournelle
Cryptonomicon and Anathem — Stephenson
Moon is a Harsh Mistress — Heinlein
Dune — Herbert
Mote is just good solid SciFi. Stephenson is uneven but hits the nail on the head every now and then. Moon is a great primer on libertarian thinking and Dune is great blend of pulp SciFi and human history.
Don’t generally care for fantasy but Tim Powers’ Drawing of the Dark is a great read and it is about beer! Dan Simmons is doing some good stuff these days.
Reality, you live in a different universe than I.
Yeah, I know, we’re all supposed to like Dr. Helen. I guess I’ll get with the program.
Gosh, you are free to dislike anyone or their opinions, but:
1. I can’t see anything wrong with a woman standing next to a man and smiling. I don’t understand what you are reading into this.
2. I am a lawyer. I don’t vouch for Jubal Harshaw’s (and maybe Heinlein’s) legal opinions. However, I don’t remember finding those opinions offensive or ridiculous.
I admit Heinlein really liked to play the amateur lawyer, and sometimes his legal opinions amuse me, but they generally are far more palatable than how TV presents fictional legal proceedings.
I’m a lawyer too, but only for intellectual property.
I’m too lazy to look up the exact quotes, and it’s only the Internet here, but I have a vague memory of some Big Cheese – who is a lawyer and doctor and something else simultaneously – doing some huge legal evaluation about this human guy who was raised on Mars. It was completely laughable. At that point, I lost interest.
Hmm, there are a couple of things about which the character (Jubal Harshaw) pontificates:
1. The “Larkin decision”, which had to do with the ownership of non-earthly real estate. An imaginary decision created for the book, in the long run not really important to the story, but a driver of early conflict.
2. A long discussion of the inheritance of Valentine Michael Smith which I did not find unrealistic, but may have been that which you found offensive.
I like “Stranger in a Strange Land” but liking or not liking it does not tell one much about Heinlein I love so many of his novels, including “Starship Troopers”, “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”, “Double Star”, and “Citizen of the Galaxy”….. all of which are great. Earlier this year someone on the net posted that Heinlein would have been perfectly happy with slavery. Whatever one thinks is revealed about an author from his writing, no one could read “Citizen” without concluding Heinlein hated slavery.
When I was originally giving you a hard time it was primarily concerning your interpretation of the photo. I just can’t follow you there.
“When I was originally giving you a hard time it was primarily concerning your interpretation of the photo. I just can’t follow you there.”
—
After thinking about it, Helen reminds me of an ex-girlfriend whose sometimes extreme attention-seeking really irritating me. So I superimposed that bad trait of an ex-girlfriend onto Helen, who may not have that trait at all.
So, in summary, it’s all Helen’s fault that I had an ex-girlfriend with a bad trait (just kidding).
I’m surprised nobody mentioned Kornbluth (Game of Cat and Drgaon, Alpha Ralpha Bulevard, etc.)
Those are short stories by Cordwainer Smith, not Cyril Kornbluth. They are part of his “Instumentality of Mankind” universe.
Since someone else mentioned his science fiction, I’d like to throw in two non-fiction books by Robert Forward.
“Future Magic”
“Indistinguishable From Maagic”
Consideering that NASA has said they couldn’t return to the moon in 20 years, though it was done in 10 the first time around, these two books might as well be science fiction. Maybe if some politician really wanted to stimulate things, he (or she) could open the way to one of his mega-projects.
I like his idea of a dynamically supported building to geo-synchonous orbit. Take an elevator up the side to space. The idea is all worked out, just requires the funding to build…
As those who precede me have done the heavy lifting, I’d like to add a few grace notes:
C.J. Cherryh is possibly my favorite currently-active writer. My favorite works of hers include:
A Wave Without A Shore. Which must be one of her favorites, as it’s the name of her blog. An interesting look at the inner workings of creativity with quirky aliens thrown in.
Serpent’s Reach. One of the best human-alien relations I can remember.
Cyteen. Absorbing. Involving. Rich. Multi-layered. Textured.
Merovingen Nights. A shared-universe series of ten or so volumes, mostly written by Cherryh, but with wonderful guest appearances by other authors, set in a kind of a Venice-in-the-Stars.
I can also second the recommendation of Emma Bull’s War for the Oaks. She has also written a good many other worthwhile works, including a large part of another shared-universe series, Liavek.
Finally two gems rarely mentioned, but frequently recognized when brought up in company: M.A. Foster, whose works are lyrical and absorbing and always tickle the mind — Waves, The Morphodite, and The Gameplayers of Zahn; and Ansen Dibble’s King of Kantmorie saga, which — sadly — is inclomplete in English, one volume being only available in a Dutch translation. (There’s a project for some enterprising publisher — find who holds the rights and re-publish the series.)
M
122. Skeptic
Kornbluth is good but as far as I know “The Game of Rat and Dragon,” and “Alpha Ralpha Boulevard” was written by Paul M. A. Linebarger under the name Cordwainer Smith.
http://www.amazon.com/Rediscovery-Man-Complete-Science-Cordwainer/dp/0915368560
Your last name must be Garrett because you beat me to the draw, Pat. Also, I did in fact mention Cordwainer: look at my list at # 42.
This is such a fun thread David P.
Wonderful reminders of those I have not read for years. (Got to reread them! Some people think it is strange to reread. Since I do not have a photographic memory, my answer to them is – would you only eat a tasty dish once or listen to a song once?).
And
Hints as to best works of authors unknown to me to look into! BLISS!!!
Almost like a monstrously big shopping list, no?
“got that… got that… want that… oooh, what’s this?”
Yes!
I’m so glad I live in this time as I cannot see such an art form existing in previous eras. S-F has been a center of my life. I started deliberately reading S-F (actually looking for that gene) in the early 60′s after reading “Catseye” by Andre Norton when I was 12. In hindsight the book’s power was likely identification since I was a refugee child slowly realizing I would never go “home”. People have a need to “belong”. SF can give a world view not tied to any ethnic, religious nor regional identity. As result it gives some of those who love SF a measure that religion/ideology fulfills in others.
One of the joys of SF is how just when you think there are no new good writers (new views or twists) you get proven wrong. I suppose someday nothing new under the sun will happen. But lucky me – this thread mentioning writers unknown to me to explore shows how lucky I am. Hip Hip Hurray!!!
PS – I do realize there is the other side of “living too long”. Lovecraft wrote stuff that gave me such horror that the first time I was in New Hampshire (driving through heading south) I could not help but examine the landscape to see how it could become so scary in Lovecraft’s writing. I could not eliminate a sense of dread while doing so. I cannot forgive the writer that turned those evil gods of Lovecraft into sweetness and light. Aagh! Is nothing sacred!
You mentioned “Cordwainer BIRD”, which is a pseudonm of Harlan Ellison.
Which if I recall correctly is the name he used when the producers and directors thoroughly fouled up what he wrote.
By time stamp you both beat me to a correction but I didn’t read farther down the thread and see your posts before I replied to #122. So he is thrice corrected.
But to up my nitpicker score, in #42 the commenter is undoubtedly referring to Cordwainer Smith when he mentions ‘Cordwainer Bird’ (a pseudonym used by Harlan Ellison).
Galactic center series by Bedford.
Dahak trilogy by weber
Heinlein
most of Ringo’s stuff
The metaconcert books by Julian may.
Surprised nobody mentioned the childe cycle series by Gordon Dickson.
Gibson’s stuff was pretty good.
Tanya huff’s valor series (although the last one was awful).
sentenced to prism by Alan Dean Foster
stainless steel Rat series, deathworld series, and Eden series by Harry Harrison.
In conquest born by C.S. Friedman.
Not Sci-Fi by the black company books by Glen Cook have a gritty modern edge to them IMO
Greg Bear had a lot of good stuff.
Retief books are funny as heck.
Doctor Who books are hit or miss, but they usually do a pretty good job.
The Childe Cycle was mentioned; before but as the Dorsai Series. Tactics of Mistake being considered the best of the series by several comments. Sad that the series was never completed. The series became repetitive in the later books.
These may be a bit difficult to find, but Half Past Human and The Godwhale by T. J. Bass take the ‘population explosion’ and cyberperson memes in interesting and surprisingly upbeat directions.
And, if John Ringo’s ‘Ghost’ series is science fiction, so is The Late, Great Creature by Brock Brower. Much naughty fun…
“Temporary Duty” by Ric Locke, and the Joshua Dann “Timeshare” trilogy fit right in with everything above.
I’ve been reading Science Fiction since the mid-1950′s, from John Campbell and EE ‘Doc’ Smith to some of the latest writers. I subscribed to Analog magazine for more than 20 years.
It all depends on what kind of Science Fiction you want. I’m not much of a fan of the dystopian sci-fi, and can’t recommend much of that. James White’s series about Galactic Medical are pretty good. I loved most of the Heinlein books, and re-read them occasionally. I enjoy just about anything that Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven have written, together or separately. I just discovered John Ringo’s work, and look forward to finding more of it. Both Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clark have written great books. Most of Anne MacCaffrey’s books are a fun read, especially the “Pern” books. George R. R. Martin has written a couple of good science fiction books, as well as his current fantasy series. Clifford Simak is an acquired taste, but I enjoyed several of his books. Some other authors to look up would be Alan Dean Foster, Orson Scott Card, Poul Anderson — the list is long. I just discovered Sarah Hoyt, and have read only one of her books. Of course, I write the stuff myself, and you can always check out MY books if you’re interested. They’re available on Amazon (as Mike Weatherford, or as James Michael Ford).
Desert Isle List:
Single book: Inferno by Niven, Pournelle
Series 1: Pride of Chanur, by C J Cherryh
Series 2: Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
Hard SF: Mote in God’s Eye, by Niven, Pournelle
Not-so-SF, but necessary: LOTR by JRR Tolkein
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula LeGuinn. The best be careful what you wished for story ever. Even when other people are doing the wishing for you. It was a very good PBS movie, too. But read the book.
Many, many great choices here which I heartily agree with (Bujold, Heinlein, Ringo, etc, etc.)
Would like to add:
Walter Knight’s America’s Galactic Foreign Legion series quality-wise it’s more like fanfic but his own universe but fun and witty.
Stross’s Clan Corporate novels which are every bit as good as the Laundry books.
AE van Vogt -Slan
Andre Norton -Forerunner series
Alan Dean Foster’s Taken Trilogy (what would you do if you were lost in the Galaxy not knowing how to get to human civilization?)
Sarah Hoyt’s The George Diner series (ok more fantasy)
Ian Tregillis Milkweed Tryptich (now up to Book 2 The Coldest War great if you are a Lovecraft/Laundry fan)
John D MacDonald The Girl the Gold Watch and Everything (dated but fun)
Terry Pratchett -Dark Side of the Sun (microrobots and sentient planets what Fun!) Also all Disk World books especially Making Money and Going Postal
Ric Locke’s Temporary Duty -buy it he needs the money AND its a great book.
and a non-fiction lagniappe Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond you may not agree with him 100% but it is an excellent exploration of the non-cultural factors that enabled western civilization to prevail (in addition the cultural factors which are not much discussed)
Agree with the shout out for Stross’ Clan Corporate series, and also Iron Sunrise + Singularity Sky. Much harder SF than the fantasy-filled CC and Laundry series.
While some may argue including it on this list, I’ll mention my favorite book of the last decade, David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas. If The Diamond Age counts, Cloud Atlas should be good, as it has more sci-fi elements.
Haven’t seen mentioned yet, so I highly recommend Heart of the Comet by David Brin and Gregory Benford. I wanted to go with them.
Roger Zelazny – “Lord of Light”.
I agree with a lot of the list so far, but need to add a classic; “Battlefield Earth”, by L Ron Hubbard. The movie was a sucking black hole, but the book is great.
And for fun, the movie treatment of “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” is a fun read: http://socalbrowncoats.com/images/moonfriday.pdf
Heinlein uber alles. Especially the juveniles. Especially “Citizen of the Galaxy” and “Tunnel in the Sky” and “Red Planet.” Of the adult novels, “Door into Summer”, “Double Star,” “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.”
Ursula Le Guin. “Left Hand of Darkness” and the “Earthsea Trilogy.”
ANYTHING by Avram Davidson, Theodore Sturgeon, Henry Kuttner, William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Connie Willis.
Early Samuel R Delany.
“Pavane” by Keith Roberts.
“Little Big” by John Crowley
Short stories by Ted Chiang and Michael Blumlein, Cordwainer Smith, and Howard Waldrop.
“The Iron Dragon’s Daughter,” Michael Swanwick, also his short stories.
That’s what comes to mind right now…..
Many excellent recommendations above. Allow me to add a few names that I have not seen mentioned:
Walter Jon Williams, a very strong writer. Among my favorites are his novels “Hardwired”, “Voice of the Whirlwind”, the recent “The Fourth Wall”, “Metropolitan” and its sequel “City on Fire”. For his short stories “Frankensteins and Foreign Devils” and “The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories”.
Avram Davidson, an author to whom the much abused word “unique” can be justly applied. “The Avram Davidson Treasury” an outstanding collection of his work was published after his death in 1993. It is available on Kindle for a mere $6.99. Also “The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy”, “The Phoenix and the Mirror” and his comic fantasies “Peregrine: Primus” and “Peregrine: Secundus”. Take care reading the latter two as the outbreaks of uncontrolled laughter they tend to produce when you read them will make people give you funny looks.
R. A. Lafferty, a genuine American original. I find him most enjoyable as a short story writer. Try his collections “Nine Hundred Grandmothers” and “Strange Doings”. For longer work, don’t miss his retelling of The Odyssey: “Space Chantey”.
Leigh Brackett, if you ever find yourself in the mood for some vintage space opera, she is the one to start with. Favorite titles include: “The Lorilei of the Red Mist”, “The People of the Talisman”, “The Secret of Sinharat”. Also the Book of Skaith trilogy that starts with “The Ginger Star”.
James Schmitz, his “The Witches of Karres” and “The Demon Breed” are not to be missed.
He crosses many genres,but i admire Umberto Eco’s work of this type the best.Especially Foucault’s Pendulum.
Lots of great ones up there, but add Ursula K. LeGuin – The Left Hand of Darkness – Hugo and Nebula winner and truly great. Lone human on a planet with aliens who can change their gender.
Wow! About 100 years of sci-fi to scan. Instead of giving my own list of favorites, I would like to ask your indulgence of a brief auto-biographical moment. Years (actually decades) ago, I was working a summer job on a road surveying crew, and one of my colleagues was cleaning out his junk, and asked me if I’d be interested in a few old books he was tossing. I said OK, and I acquired the first two SF books I’d ever read. The titles: “The Green Hills of Earth”, and “Who Goes There?”. I don’t think I have to tell anybody on this thread who the authors were. How’s that for an introduction to the field?!
Benford, Against Infinity is a sleeper. Profound story about some working stiffs on a moon of Saturn. Give it a tumble.
One additional comment on Dune.
In both Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune, Herbert develops a compelling theme about how bureaucracy turns into autocracy. This is very relevant to our current situation with a growing state. Bureaucrats answer to no one. And don’t favor either truth or innovation.
The “Mad Scientists’ Club” stories by Bertrand R. Brinley, good for teens and tweens. They’re not intergalactic science fiction, but stories of a group of Boy Scouts having fun and playing pranks using relatively sound science and engineering. They date from the mid ’60s, and they’re a bit dated, but I know kids who love them.
Has nobody mentioned Allan Steele yet?
I’ll put in my two cents with some not mentioned that often.
Lord of Light
Witches of Karres
Starship Troopers
Glen Cooks Passage at Arms, Starfisher, Dragon Never Sleeps
Andre Norton’s Forerunner books
Lost Fleet series
Anderson’s Tau Zero and Time Traders
Dune
Honor Harrington series
Modesit’s Hammer of Darkness
Pandora’s World (very funny but can’t remember author)
Hard to find, but wonderful: A Canticle for Leibowitz and Engine Summer
Pretty much any Niven, but I am amazed that Lucifer’s Hammer hasn’t been made into a movie.
I can add my recommendation for John Ringo’s Centurion as well. Also,I would add all the Jerry Pournelle/Larry Niven collaborations Footfall, Lucifer’s Hammer, The Mote in God’s Eye, and The Legacy of Heorot. (Some fellow sci-fi author said (paraphrased) Those two have a bad habit of writing definitive novels i.e., The definitive first oontact novel, the definitive alien invasion novel, the definitive end of the world novel, the definitive first settlement novel.
Also, strongly recommend the David Weber/John Ringo collaboration Prince Roger (Empire of Man) series.
And one final strong recommendation. Miller/Lee have a universe called Korval. There are multiple novels and short stories, and ALL of them are great. They are available electronically over at Baenebooks, and are yet another reason to thank Baen books (read my first 20 years ago, and only recently found them when their boutique publisher went out of business and Toni picked them up and man on man are they great!
If you enjoy Eric Flint’s 1632 series, you are losing out if you don’t join the Ring of Fire Club and read the online editions of ‘The Grantville Gazette.’ 42 editions so far. Each has about a dozen stories/technical essays written by various authors and vetted by Flint for quality and consistency with the parent novels.
Another vote here for anything by Harry Turtledove. Start with the World War series and you will be hooked. Anyone else notice that all his characters use syntax that sounds like they were raised Yiddish in Brooklyn? Even alien lizards!
Given Glenn’s occasional blogging on the Singularity I thought I’d suggest a couple of relevant SciFi examples:
Holy Fire by Bruce Sterling is really a fun read and has a great discussion on what it means to be on the right side of the curve headed to the singularity.
Gateway by Frederik Pohl (mentioned by others above) is the first book in the Heechee Saga. In the 3rd book of the series (Heechee Rendezvous) he explores immortality through download, which is a concept he first looked at back in 1955 in his short story “the Tunnel Under the World.”
No one has mentioned Kage Baker, author of the Company Series. Unfortunately deceased.
http://www.amazon.com/wiki/Kage_Baker/ref=ntt_at_bio_wiki
WOOL from Hugh Howey. I’ve read it 4 times.
I don’t read as much SciFi as I used to, and even less fantasy, but there are a few authors I look for. I am enjoying the Alex Benedict series by Jack McDevitt. The 3rd book in the series, Seeker, was particularly well done. The series is an interesting mix of detective novel and futuristic SciFi.
The Harry Dresden novels by Jim Butcher are (is?) one fantasy series I’ll strongly recommend. Lots of great action, serious suspense, and a some ROTFLMAO funny lines and situations. I also strongly recommend ‘Stardust’ and ‘Neverwhere’ by Neil Gaiman, though I haven’t cared much for his other books.
If you’ve never read anything by the late James P Hogan, try ‘Thrice Upon a Time’ and the first few novels of his ‘Giants’ series. In some of his later novels he became infatuated with the science heresies of Velikovsky and the preachiness gets in the way of good storytelling.
“A Matter for Men” by David Gerrold and the three follow on books. (warning, this is a seven book series that has not been finished and if you start you will regret it. but it is enjoyable while it lasts).
Northworld Trilogy, David Drake
The Reaches series, David Drake ( I quit reading drake, after he began writing the RCN series to the neglect, imo, of this series).
Into the looking glass series by john ringo is a fun series as well.
I’ve loved Dune since junior high, but my soft spot is for C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy. The premise is similar to his Narnia series (an extension of the Christian worldview with fantasy/sci-fi elements). The series serves as a critique of modernism and post-modernism. The final book in the trilogy especially focuses on post-modernism and the double-sides coin of absolute objectivity/subjectivity. His antagonists present great personifications of cultural forces. However, there is a lot of ret-conning throughout the series. He also has some quite creative exposition of the Christian worldview.
Read “Little Fuzzy” by H. Beam Piper.
One of the best ever written and available for ePub:
http://www.feedbooks.com/book/313/little-fuzzy
Everything Piper wrote was pure gold.
Here’s an addendum to my previous comments. These are all ‘classic’ SciFi stories and some may be hard to locate, but all are excellent.
‘And then There Were None’ by Eric Frank Russell – One of the greatest libertarian short stories of all time.
‘Farewell to the Master’ by Harry Bates – The short story that was the basis for the classic 50′s movie ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’.
‘The Third Level’ by Jack Finney – A short story that is perhaps the best of Finney’s time travel adventures.
‘Nerves’ by Lester Del Ray – A great short story about problems at a nuclear reactor facility written in 1942, long before anyone in the general public knew anything about nuclear power.
‘The Twonky’ by Lewis Padgett – A delightfully funny story about a (let’s say insane) robot.
‘The Charwoman’s Shadow’ by Lord Dunsany – One of the greatest classic fantasy novels, which ought to be as well known as Tolkein’s ‘The Hobbit’.
‘The Lurker at the Threshold’ by H P Lovecraft – Perhaps the best short story of his Cthulhu Mythos series.
‘The Canterville Ghost’ by Oscar Wilde – A classic of literature not usually included in the fantasy genre, but that’s where it belongs.
And – need it be mentioned? – ‘Atlas Shrugged’ by Ayn Rand – Which is really a SciFi novel which, because it is ‘literature’ is rarely found in the SciFi section.
Definitely second the recommendation for A Canticle for Leibowitz and the work of Connie Willis, especially the short stories.
I read a short story years ago whose name & author I can’t rememer…wonder if anyone can help on this. It was written sometime in the 1950s, and was set in the then-distant future, I believe the early 2000s. A time traveler for the 50s found himself there, and discovered that although the people had the technology to explore space easily, they had not bothered…they were too obsessively focused on their own “psychologies.”
Strike any chords?
A.E. van Vogt’s “The Weapon Shops of Isher” . Its recurrent mantra is, “The right to own weapons is the right to be free.”
Yup, way too much ‘Baen Free’ cheap stuff and boyo or military stuff here.
Godwhale
Windup Girl
River of Gods
Kage Baker’s Company- The Life of the World to Come
Reynolds
Banks
Baxter
Le Guin – Left Hand of Darkness or Four Paths to Forgiveness
Wolfe
Stephenson
jablakov
asimovs sf mag
r garcia y hernandez
Off the top of my fever ridden brow, before the NyQuil hits.
1) Doorways in the Sand, Zelazny
2) The Rolling Stone, Heinlein (it is what started me. Well, other than Jules Verne)
3) Mote in God’s Eye, Niven/Pournell
4) Gun with Occasional Music, ?
5) Retief Unbound, Retief goes Forth, Retief Milks the Cash Cow (poke). Laumer
6) Bioshock 1. 2K games Australia, Boston
Dr. Helen, dear, we haven’t solved your problem.
All of this is way too much, so let’s start off easy:
Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine- a ‘pulp’ at about $4 or less.
Lite reading, short stories, and the source that introduced me to the great, underappreciated authors above. Plus, very cutting edge.
Its stories are more socially oriented.
Analog, a sister publication, is more technically oriented.
Another truly excellent choice is the venerable
F&SF- Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy.
Mostly near mainstream (real world) stories that are delightfully off-kilter.
Not nearly as wrenching or inpenetrable. Probably best for you.
Keep it lite, and enjoy!
Oh, and thanks people, for mentioning the lesser known John Crowley, TJ Bass, Kage Baker, and the Moderns. I can’t believe only one or two mentions of the greatest writer since Rudyard Kipling: Gene Wolfe)
I hope you’ll find these….
In the Face of my Enemy by Joseph H. Delaney
Anvil of the Heart by Bruce T. Holmes
Infinity Hold by Barry B. Longyear
White Wing by Gordon Kendall
Warbirds by R.M. Meluch
An obscure title that I absolutely love is “Saturnalia” by Grant Callin. It’s essentially a treasure hunt in the Saturn system. Nice hard science fiction with good writing, although the “bon homme” cameraderie is layed on a little thick. Callin also wrote a sequel “A Lion on Tharthee” which is good but not as good imho.
YES! My copies of both are thread-bare from re-reading them at least once a year for the last 20 years
Sirens of Titan
I recently discovered Hugh Howey on Amazon – He’s written a couple of good series – Wool, and the Molly Fyde books – both have female protagonists and were terrific reads.
Otherwise I’ll add another vote for Ursula Leguin – Her story ‘The Ones who Walk Away from Omelas’ has haunted me since I read it 20-some years ago.
And another vote for Frank Herbert as one who (I think) writes interesting, strong women – though not necessarily in lead roles …
Anything by Asimov. The robot and foundation series are good.
I’m with James K; for the record, the three novels in the trilogy are, in order, Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength.
Jack Vance, the greatest SF author still living. Start with ‘Wyst’ and ‘Emphyrio’, then the Demon Princes series, the Tschai series. Too many to list, but: don’t miss ‘To Live Forever’–the first SF novel for adults that I read at age 16 back in 1956.
166 comments and no one seems to have mentioned Jack Campbell’s (John G. Henry) Lost Fleet series.
I know it’s been said before, but “The Last Centurion” by John Ringo is really good.
As many have already noted, anything by Heinlein.
This Perfect Day by Ira Levin -one of the best dystopian novels I’ve ever read.
H. Beam Piper – Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, and the Fuzzy Sapiens stories.
And while I’m thinking of alternate reality themes: A Greater Infinity by Michael McCollum; the Worlds of the Imperium novels of Keith Laumer; and the North American Confederacy series by L. Neil Smith.
Weil, I was going to pop in and drop you my 4 star sci fi choices from my calibre library, but I see there are over a 150 comments. That should keep you busy for awhile.
One sci fi story just clicked in my head though, Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. If you get a chance to read that one, it is awesome. I would describe it, but I could ruin the storyline accidentally.
Niven’s “Known Space” series
Pournelle’s “Codominium” stories, & collab. w/ Niven
Heinlein, “Moon is a Harsh Mistress”, “Door into Summer”, etc.
(Yes, he got kinda confusing later on. Deal with it.)
Iain M. Banks – “Culture” series
Anderson – Flandry series
Zelazny – “Doors of His Face, Lamps of His Mouth” & anything else
Laumer – all of it
Peter F. Hamilton – “Night’s Dawn” series
Walter Jon Williams
Oops – mustn’t forget Harlan – he gets noisy when ignored.
Harlan Ellison – “Demon With A Glass Hand”
Harlen’s commentary is much more fun than his fiction, sad to say. He is acerbic and fun writing about what he has seen and read but makes basically sad and excellently written stories.
Forever War – Joe Haldeman
Old Mans War – john Scalzi
Enders Game Series – Orson Scott Card
The Martian Chronicles – Ray Bradbury
Obviously anything by Henlien, Asimov and Niven/Pornelle
The Book of Jhereg – Steven Brust
Heck I would say anything by Brust. The man does not write a bad book in my opinion.
I don’t think anyone has mentioned SM Stirling and the “Emberverse” (and related “Nantucket” series. They’re SCI-FI to the extent that they postulate a change in the in the basic “science” of the world, then fill out the ramifications of that in some rousing adventure stories.
Fun to read what other die-hard SF readers enjoy reading. Recently I have been re-reading books that left an impression on me the first time I read them. Books like Dan Simmon’s Hyperion series, Clarke’s Childhood’s End and his Rama series, Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light, Niven’s Ringworld and Ringwood Engineers, Delany’s Einstein Intersection and John Varley’s Titan. I think a person can’t go wrong if they pick up a book that won both the Nebula and Hugo awards-books like Enders’ Game, Pohl’s Gateway, Halderman’s The Forever War and Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. Like others, I have enjoyed some the more recent offerings as well, Eon, Spin and Probablity Moon come to mind.
I’m feeling very fond of the ‘Isher/Weapon Shops’ novels by AE van Vogt today
Several classic authors not yet mentioned; John Wyndom: Day of the Triffids and Out of the Deeps among many other titles. John Blackburn: A Scent of New Mown Hay
utterly chilling scenario of revenge. How is it possible that H. G. Wells has not yet been mentioned? The War of the Worlds, The Time Machine and Things to Come all three made into credible movies in several versions. No author is more seminal other than Verne of which 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is IMHO his best of many great stories.
Finally to Dr. Helen; thank you for initiating a wonderful thread that has inspired so many entertaining and perceptive comments. Fond Regards
Correction; John Wyndham; who also wrote Village of the Damned, which with Day of the Triffids was also made into a Film. Certainly Out of the Deeps (The Kraken Awakes)would also make a great film given modern CGI.
My all time favorite is short story master Robert Sheckely. His stories are brilliant. He is largely forgotten today but recently a new collection of his best short fiction was released.
hmmm, reading the comments and dredging my memory reminds me of one author and a couple of books that are very fond memories.
Jack L. Chalker
“Midnight at the well of souls”
and
“The devil will drag you under”
definitely going to reread these and see if they stand the test of time and maturity.
Lord of Light – Roger Zelazny
Helen, looking over the comments, there are suggestions all over the board.
Even recommendations for dystopian SF, which I avoid like the plague. No accounting for taste.
So, where are you going to start?
Libertarian
Heinleins Mooning is a harsh mistress
L. Neil Smith Probability Broach – lots of fun
J. Neal Schulman Alongside night
F. Paul Wilson An enemy of the state
Others
Card,’s Enders Game, topped by sequel Speaker for the Dead
Niven n Pournelle
Brins Startide Rising
Bears Eon
Nobody has mentioned H Beam Piper:
Little Fuzzy
Cosmic computer
Space Viking
Lord Kalvan of Otherwhere
Barry B Longyear:
Enemy Mine. Vastly better than Dennis Quake movie
Brin’s Postma. also much much better than movie
Another series… Sherlock Holmes meets Merlin the Magician, otherwise known as “Lord Darcy” by Randall Garrett. An “alternate Earth” series where Magic has gained ascendancy over technology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Darcy_(character)
Agrred. I especially like the one with the twist on the old “noble gentleman fall for a commoner” story.
Adding to the praise of James P. Hogan:
Code Of The Lifemaker and its’ sequel The Immortality Option
also an absolute have to read:
Flying Dutch by Tom Holt – hilarious, and it explains so much!
Some “one-offs” I have on my shelf:
Domain by Steve Alten
Bears Discover Fire by Terry Bisson
Cowboy Feng’s Space Bar and Grille by Steven Brust
Twistor by John Cramer
Cage A Man by F.M. Busby
The Lifehouse Trilogy, & Very Bad Deaths, & Very Bad Choices by Spider Robinson
When Harley Was One by David Gerrold
The Adolescence of P-1 by Thomas J. Ryan
Instellar Pig by William Sleator
To The Magic Born by Christopher Stasheff
Second Contact & Adventures by Mike Resnick
The Getaway Special, Anywhere But Here, and Abandon I Place by Jerry Oltion
correction; that should read Interstellar Pig.
John Ringo – Posleen War, Looking Glass series, Last Centurion
Robert Heinlein – His juvenile series are actually quite good (Starship Troopers, Between Planets, etc), The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress
Andre Norton – Storm Over Warlock, The Last Planet
Jerry Pournelle – John Christian Falkenburg series, Jannissaries series
David Drake – Hammer’s Slammers series
H. Beam Piper – Uller Uprising, Lord Kalvan Of Otherwhen, The Cosmic Computer
A. Bertram Chandler – John Grimes series
Alan Cole and Chris Bunch – Sten series
“On My Way To Paradise” by Dave Wolverton. Available electronically under the name David Farland.. I may have the first names backwards. Absolutely the best SF I have ever read. I grew up reading all the great SF but haven’t had time to read the last 20 years or so. I still manage to re-read that book every 5 years or so and, as I get older, get something new from it every time.
To make dipping your toe in the water really, really easy-
get the Kindle or online version- about $2 to $3- in under a second
amazon.com, fictionwise.com, or ebooks.com
(I’d appreciate any other good sources, readers)
I’ll recommend F&SF (Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction) first, of course,
as it is more readily accessible (and less of a guilt trip for a Type A personality)
Asimove’s if F&SF isn’t electronically available.
Either one’s paper version for its small, convenient portability.
And just ‘cuz I can’t help it:
The astonishing, magnificent literacy of Gene Wolfe: as profound, humane, and haunting as Ursela LeGuin
The sweep and sweet sadness of John Crowley’s ‘Little, Big’- modern fantasism
And the late, great Kage Baker: her depiction of the inexorable culmination of PC culture is just a scream in ‘The Life of The World to Come’.
You mean THESE are the geniuses who have guided history?
Her stories of the Company: doomed human orphans, seized and made immortal cyborgs, that they may wait through the ages to steal and hide away treasures that would be lost to war or disaster… until the 26th century, when history, for some unknown reason, will cease…
Hey, Dr. Helen, idea for a new thread:
favorite endings or scenes from ones favorite SF-
for instance, the end of Cherryh’s Chanur Saga made me laugh and cheer with delight.
(the first young male, ever, allowed into a space dock sees a grizzled spacer staring at him without a trace of expression. She has more voyage rings in her ears than he’s ever seen. She pats the space next to her as if to invite him to speak.
He begins, clumsily, to explain to this spacer that he wants to find the great Captain who fought to allow males into space, that he might thank her and praise her. He probably would have been dying alone of wounds in a desert somewhere, the traditional fate.
She harrumphs and rolls her eyes.
He doesn’t realize, yet, who he is talking too…)
Rendezvous with Rama
Childhood’s End
The Foundation Trilogy
Dune
Lucifer’s Hammer
Ringworld
The Left Hand of Darkness
Skylark Series by E.E. “Doc” Smith
Mission of Gravity
I too, prefer non-fiction. Modern fiction just blows. Science fiction, suffers from weak characterization, having to devote so much verbiage to “explaining” things. Still, it is interesting at times.
Books I remember: (I like books that have an emotional impact, or are very interesting)
Aristio, Walter Williams. Just a good book. The villian is really villanous!
Hello, Summer, Goodbye, by Coney. Due to orbital dynamics, a planet goes into deep freeze every 6000 years. It’s happening again, how to survive it? A very good coming of age story.
Cold Allies, by Anthony. This book is a bit of a slog, didn’t enjoy it much…until the last sentence, which will just floor you.
Consider Phlebas, Banks best. Look to Windward, is good too.
The Conscience of the Beagle, by Anthony. A detective and team (Beagle is an android) is sent to a planet beset by terrorist bombings…or is it? Were they sent to find the bombers, or to fail? Why are terrorists killing scientists, working on some kind of space travel theory? The ending will leave you speechless. Anthony is good at that!
Dark Knight Legion, by Barton. Story of an Enforcer, sent from Earth, to keep the outer planets in line. This book generates an emotion, and that emotion is FURY.
Lastly, A Voyage to Arcturus, by David Lindsay. An old book. A man goes to Arcturus, and begins to explore. But, not geography, but different religious and philosophical systems, ways of seeing the world. New senses, new organs, new ways of violence and murder. Very worthwhile.
Since you already have the RAH masterpieces:
Clarke’s Childhood’s End.
Ringo A Hymn before battle.
I cam to love science fiction reading my mom’s old amazing stories (remember the ones the same height as comic books?) and analog science fiction magazines. How I wish I could recommend some of those short stories if I could find them again.
It just struck me that Connie Willis has many great and amusing short stories. She has one about a certain future biological adjustment that is very funny and which no man could have ever written.
Because I have a SciFi addiction, I was compelled to distill all the suggestions into a spreadsheet, and create a crowdsourced Intro to SciFi Library. 17 authors were mentioned by at least ten different commenters, here is the list with the most commonly suggested title. Where series were suggested over an individual work, I listed the first book of the series. I put Nevin and Pournelle together as most suggestions were for the co-authored works. Presented in order of most suggested author:
Robert Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle,
John Ringo, The Last Centurion
Isaac Asimov, Foundation
Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game
Frank Hebert, Dune
David Weber, On Basilisk Station
Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age
Arthur C Clarke, Childhood’s End
C.J. Cherryh, The Pride of Chanur
Lois Bujold, The Warrior’s Apprentice
Greg Bear, Eon
Poul Anderson, Tau Zero
Roger Zelzany, Lord of Light
Iain M. Banks, Consider Phelbas
Ursula K LeGuin, The Left Hand of Darkness
The Niven/Pournelle book should be The Mote in God’s Eye…sorry about that.
Thanks, lockestep, I’ll pick up Greg Bear’s Eon next trip to the store. Only author I don’t have several or all of their work. Any chance your spreadsheet could cough up the next score of authors?
I’ve got Eon on my list too. The three books from the first group I have not read are Eon, Pride of Chanur and Warrior’s Apprentice.
Here is the next dozen (7-9 citations per author):
Keith Laumer, Retief; Envoy to New Worlds
John Scalzi, Old Man’s War
Dan Simmons, Hyperion
David Drake, Hammer’s Slammers
Andre Norton, Forerunner
EE “Doc” Smith, Galactic Patrol
H Beam Piper, Little Fuzzy
Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination
John Hemry (Jack Campbell), The Lost Fleet: Dauntless
James hogan, Inherit The Stars
Joe Haldeman, Forever War
Verner Vigne, Fire Upon the Deep
Dr. Helen,
If you like Robert Heinlein, you might want to check out the works of Jerry Pournelle, especially the ones he co-wrote with Larry Niven.
IMHO, Lucifer’s Hammer, Footfall, Oath of Fealty, The Mote in God’s Eye and the sequel The Gripping Hand are particularly Heinlein-like.
Mention should be made of Baen authors Tom Kratman, Michael Z. Williamson and Travis S. Taylor.
What? No Hal Clement? WTF is wrong with you people? His was the hardest of hard SF.
I notice nobody mentioned the Liaden series by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.
I loved their first book, “Agent Of Change”, when it came out in 1988, then had to wait Years for the sequel.
I am soon going to buy a used Toyota Corolla and I live in North Carolina. I am just starting to get my driver’s license and I was wondering what auto insurance is cheaper? Would it be cheaper if I was on my parents auto insurance?.
I strongly recommend Edgar Swamp’s latest science fiction, “The Gyre Mission: Journey to the *sshole of the World.” A book about mutants; genetically altered animals and humans who’ve lost all trace of their former selves.
http://www.edgarswamp.com/