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Science Fiction Reading Suggestions
- Thread starter Captain Tagon
- Start date
Captain Tagon
First Post
Awesome stuff, thanks guys. Some of the things you mentioned are things I've read but plenty of new stuff there that interests me. And the reason I wanted to stay away from military sci-fi this time around is because that's pretty much all of the sci-fi I've been reading lately from the Starfist books to the Honor series by Weber to some sporadic Warhammer 40k. Just wanted to kind of get away from that military mentality for a bit.
More to read!
The folks above contributed must-reads, so get to it. A second for Mote in God's Eye and practically anything by Heinlein, especially the ones named already.
Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. (If you haven't read this, stop and go read it now.)
John Steakley's Armor. (Holy crap this is good among very good recommendations!)
Vernor Vinge's Fire Upon the Deep.
Joe Haldeman's Forever War.
Niven and Pournelle's Lucifer's Hammer.
Mike Resnick's Santiago. (Enthralling to the end!)
David Brin's Kiln People.
Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon
Larry Niven's Ringworld (I hated it, but it's well done hard sci-fi.)
Sheri S. Tepper's Gate to Women's Country (fiancee's personal favorite)
Neal Stephenson's Snowcrash and The Diamond Age (Must-read.)
Nicola Griffith's Slow River (Another fiancee favorite.)
Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun, all four books. (This will blow your mind.)
Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog; Lincoln's Dreams; Doomsday Book; Bellweather. (My fiancee, again - she has good taste!)
Frank Herbert's The Jesus Incident (Fiancee again! She stresses that Jesus doesn't appear in the book at any point.)
Octavia Butler - anything (Thank you, my love!)
George R.R. Martin's Wild Card series (for the supers fan in all of us) and Armageddon Rag
Any of these will keep you very, very happy. In fact, I kind of wish I were you so I could read them again myself for the first time.
Captain Tagon said:
The folks above contributed must-reads, so get to it. A second for Mote in God's Eye and practically anything by Heinlein, especially the ones named already.
Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. (If you haven't read this, stop and go read it now.)
John Steakley's Armor. (Holy crap this is good among very good recommendations!)
Vernor Vinge's Fire Upon the Deep.
Joe Haldeman's Forever War.
Niven and Pournelle's Lucifer's Hammer.
Mike Resnick's Santiago. (Enthralling to the end!)
David Brin's Kiln People.
Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon
Larry Niven's Ringworld (I hated it, but it's well done hard sci-fi.)
Sheri S. Tepper's Gate to Women's Country (fiancee's personal favorite)
Neal Stephenson's Snowcrash and The Diamond Age (Must-read.)
Nicola Griffith's Slow River (Another fiancee favorite.)
Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun, all four books. (This will blow your mind.)
Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog; Lincoln's Dreams; Doomsday Book; Bellweather. (My fiancee, again - she has good taste!)
Frank Herbert's The Jesus Incident (Fiancee again! She stresses that Jesus doesn't appear in the book at any point.)
Octavia Butler - anything (Thank you, my love!)
George R.R. Martin's Wild Card series (for the supers fan in all of us) and Armageddon Rag
Any of these will keep you very, very happy. In fact, I kind of wish I were you so I could read them again myself for the first time.
A reader after my own heart! I have read lots of fantasy and military sci-fi in my time, but have a hard time finding "regular" sci-fi that I can really get into. Some of the stuff suggested here I have read and liked. I just wanted to put a good word in for a couple:
The Engines of God, by Jack McDevitt
The Faded Sun Trilogy, by C.J. Cherryh (there is fighting, but mostly it is about alien cultures and the terrible horror that is humanity)
Some military sci-fi which are often overlook but extra cool -- both out of print, I believe:
A Small Colonial War, by Robert Frezza
The Mountain Walks, by Roland Green (I read some of his other Peace Company books and thought they sucked, but this one, relatively short, was great!)
The Engines of God, by Jack McDevitt
The Faded Sun Trilogy, by C.J. Cherryh (there is fighting, but mostly it is about alien cultures and the terrible horror that is humanity)
Some military sci-fi which are often overlook but extra cool -- both out of print, I believe:
A Small Colonial War, by Robert Frezza
The Mountain Walks, by Roland Green (I read some of his other Peace Company books and thought they sucked, but this one, relatively short, was great!)
Cthulhu's Librarian
First Post
I'll have to second the recommendations for Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and Ringworld by Larry Niven.
Someone
Adventurer
From what I´ve read, I recommend Lem´s "tales of Pirx the pilot" and... well, I don´t remember now, but I´ll come with more.
Captain Tagon said:
I've been reading a fair amount of Greg Bear recently. Eon, Darwin's Radio and The Forge of God are all pretty good. The latter two are near future/present day sci fi, Eon gets more into the far future stuff.
Also good are the Culture novels by Iain M. Banks. The Culture is kind of a socialist-anarchist take on the traditional space opera-style galactic empire.
You've probably read the classics, but just in case: Asimov's Foundation books (really just the first trilogy, IMHO the more recent ones aren't so good) and/or Robot books are well worth reading, as is much of his other sci fi. Just about anything by Heinlein is good, IMHO. Ray Bradbury is also worth checking out.
Felonious Ntent
Explorer
Donaldson's Gap series.
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