[OT] SciFi/Fantasy reading material suggestions?

Since we all obviously have an interest in these genres, I'd like some suggestions from y'all of new or lesser known books/series that you think everyone should read.

Here are my suggestions:

Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
The Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton
Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer
The Black Company series by Glen Cook
American Gods by Neil Gaiman (okay, that may not have been overlooked )
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
The Sonja Blue series by Nancy A. Collins
Plutonium Blonde by John Zakour & Lawrence Ganem
The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson
A King of Infinite Space by Allen Steele

I have many other favorites, but they are much more mainstream

Chronoliths, American Gods and Perdido Street Station are all nominated for the Hugo this year and are all strong books in their own different ways. I'd recommend them; though, like apples and oranges, I still havent decided which is the best.

Perdido Street Station features a reference to D&D which lasts a chapter or two and its a wild and fantastic world to steal campaign ideas from; its almost [on topic] to discuss it here. ;-)

Chronoliths is, on one level, a straightforward sci-thriller with another layer of musings about time travel, free will and the ability to manipulate destiny. Very well done; it works well as either a quick read or a thought provoker.

American Gods is fantasy by Neil Gaiman; his strange and fabulous imagination. Not heroic fantasy, but instead a little bit noir with a central character making his way in a world of old gods dangerously powerful and inscrutable.

As for the rest of Undead Petes list, I generally oppose Robert Sawyer; his characters are so flat and robotic that I must puke. He's like an idea shotgun though; all sorts of weird ideas jumbled up into a big stew. Most of them unsubtle and unbelievable (ex-Nazi prison camp guards running modern HMOs that start killing patients to cut costs while meanwhile telepathic Neanderthals are being born. I'm not kidding. And thats only half the scattershot ideas in that book) and they always seem to involve the wife of the main character having an affair for no particular reason. I read two of his books and several of his short stories and vowed to never read him again.

Steele is not my style, he's a little on the space opera side of things, but his technique is decent. He has a good sized following (of course so does Sawyer, so I suppose that doesnt prove anything) and I wouldnt un-recommend giving him a spin. One of his short stories is posted on www.asimovs.com as are several other good shorts. ("The Dog Said Bow-Wow" by Swanwick (?) is probably my favorite this year; make sure to check that one out. Or "Old McDonald had a Farm" if you are a vegetarian.)

The rest of the novels I am not familiar with, except, of course, the Black Company, which has a loyal following as well.

Your Summer Reading List...

I'll chime in with some books and authors I think are under-appreciated...

Gun With Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem (actually, I'd recommend any of his books, but that one's my favorite).

The Book of Ash by Mary Gentle

Brain cramping, list of authors only... Samuel R. Delany, Sean Russell, Paula Volstock.

Oh, heck, there's just too many.

Perdido Street Station is excellent, and if you have not yet done so, check out China Mievilles new book, The Scar, set in the same world as Perdido.

One of my favorite sections of the original DMG was the recommended reading. This was before TSR and latter WoTC tried to whore out every product they made. "Yes, you need to read this new series to keep up with the background of the game!"

My favorites include the original Conan by Robert Howard, Elric, Hawkmoon, Corum, Erekose from the Eternal Champion series, the Sword Dancers series by Jennifer Roberson (or is that Robertson), the goold old Dying Earth series, the Morgainne series by C.J. Cherryh, the Book of Swords by Fred Saberheigin, some of Mecrede Lacky's original Valdermar series, C.L. Moor'e Jirel of Jorrel, the original Magician series by Raymond E. Feist. I could rant for a while, but I just want to note that most of these are older books not necessarily because their better but because I don't htink enough readers today have any history on what has already been done and see something that strikes me as obvious and are all starry eyed. Typical conversations go like this:

"It was better than Cats!"

"Yeah, but it follows the same plotline as all these books which came out twenty years or more ago."

"I'm only 19 man. Get a life old bastard!"

I'll also second the recommendation for Gun with Occassional Music . It's full-on noir, complete with a private investigator as the central character; but its set in a strange near-future world where animals and people are enhanced by technology. Theres a lot of deadly sharp character-study in the book; I still laugh out loud thinking about the sequence where the PI interviews an enhanced sheep; it takes an old noir cliche and plays it back for a very different effect.

For anyone interested in near-future settings and who wants to be spared the ubiquitous apocalypse scenario, I recommend these. I also recommend them if you're just looking for some quality SF.

O-Zone by Paul Theroux
Distress, Permutation City by Greg Egan

Theroux's characterisation is masterful while Egan is, imho, the best ideas man to have emerged in the last decade.

Er, that's it.

Cheers,

Ranes

Everything by Lois McMaster Bujold.

Two unconnected fanatsies:
The Sprit Ring
The Curse of Chalion

And One SF series printed in a variety of differently mixed anthologies.

Falling Free is the first book in the nexus and takes place 200 years before and far away from the rest of the books which mostly concern the misadventures of Miles Vorkisigan.

Shards of Honor is the first book of that series and centers around his parents.

The warriors apprentice is the first book with Miles in it.

-Andor

Well, since they haven't been said yet, here are some authors that are REALLY good:

Isaac Asimov
Larry Niven
Jerry Pournelle (sp?)
Anne McCafferey
Kim Stanely Robinson (sp?)
Ray Bradbury

. . .

Ender's Game - and all sequals - Orson Scott Card - SciFi
Hyperion - and all sequels - Dan Simmons - SciFi
Game of Thrones - and all sequels - George Martin - Fantasy
Magician - and the next 2 books - (not in sight) - Fantasy.
Player of Games - - Iain Banks

"Those are phenominal books" - The London Tim
"Unbelievably origional" - New Tim Times
"Brilliant" - Tim

The above books are good.

-Tim