Science Fiction Reading Suggestions

[Andre]

Foundation's Friends, an anthology edited by Martin Greenberg, is a good collection of stories by various authors based on Asimov's works.

Psychohistorical Crisis by Donald Kingsbury is a very interesting take on Asimov's Foundation idea.

Code of the Lifemaker by James P. Hogan

Pretty much anything by Timothy Zahn:
Manta's Gift
Anglemass
Icarus Hunt
Triplet (kind of a mix of fantasy and sci-fi)
Warhorse
Deadman Switch
Cascade Point (anthology)
Distant Friends (anthology)
Time Bomb (anthology)

I especially recommend the anthologies. If you like those, you'll like his full-length novels.

 

[Harold as a Verb]

Stephen Baxter's Manifold series (Time, Space, Origin).

This is some of the hardest of "hard sci-fi" grounded in speculative advances in quantum theory and what-not. They have minimal personal characterisations, plots weighed down with vast tangetial explanations of current theories in physics and future speculative notions, and - as many of Baxter's books are underpinned by a disturbing reality: the eventual energy-death of the physical universe - are also unavoidably bleak reading in many respects. They are also some of the most refreshing and mind-blowing science fiction books I've read in a long, long time.

 

[CCamfield]

Alison Sinclair - three books of hers:

Legacies - Colonists returning to a devastated homeworld
Blueheart - Political struggle about terraforming and physical (genetic) human adaptation on a waterworld
Cavalcade - Humans on a 1-way space journey in an alien vessel, struggling amongst themselves in a strange environment.

I didn't like Cavalcade as much as the other two, quite, but they are all very good and remarkable in my opinion for being gripping books without needing to resort even (as I recall) to action sequences. Blueheart's central issue, for instance, is that later stages of terraforming a waterworld will destroy the way of life of those who have had themselves adapted to live underwater, and it's sort of a political murder mystery as well.

 

[DMH]

David Brin's Earth. I don't like most of his work, but Earth is my most favorite novel.

Second (or third, or whatever) the Foundation series by Asimov

Earth Abides by George R. Stewart is a rather old post apocolyptic novel that looks at a small community of survivors. The cataclysm is a disease so there is no mass destruction.

The Rama series by Clarke.

 

[Fast Learner]

I strongly recommend Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep, one of my top 5 favorite sci-fi books of all time. Truly amazing. His followup in the same universe (but otherwise in no way a sequel) is A Deepness in the Sky, also good, and again with some mind-bending but scientifically-possible ideas. Really great stuff, especially the former.

 

[noretoc]

I'm a hard sci-fi fan so most of what I read is in that genre.

Robet Forward - Rochewolrd. (about explorers to the closest extra-system planet, great story with some ok sequels)
Greg Bear - Eon. (Huge asteroid drop into the past from an alternate earth. Great story dealing with many elements, including technological evolution)
Niven - n-space - A collection of his best short stories. Very thought provoking.

There is more, but these are the ones I will reread over and over.

 

[Mallus]

Let me echo some of the former posts:

Santiago by Mike Resnick is SF only in its trappings, but its one of the most entertaining books I've ever read.

The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe is pure, unadulterated genius.

The Culture books by Iain M. Banks are, collectively, quite good. Use of Weapons is exceptional.

Titan, Wizard and Demon by Varley are fantastic. Serious SF is rarely written with so light a touch.

The Golden Age, and its sequels, by John C. Wright are a marvelous updating of Golden Age SF (think Cordwainer Smith).

Also...

Charles Stross is very good. Try Singularity Sky. Best opening sentence in a novel since "A screaming came across the sky..."

Charles Baxter has neat ideas. But can't write characters worth a damn.

And Samuel R. Delany is one of the best SF writers of all time. If you want a short book, try Nova. If you want a workout, try Dahlgren, which can be decribed as a 900+ page prose poem about the experience of living inside a novel (well, that's one possible interpretation...)

 

[Stormrunner]

Lois McMaster Bujold. I know you said "no military", but her Miles Vorkosigan books are "military" the way MASH or JAG are "military" rather than the way "Platoon" is military - that is, they're character-driven plots in a military background rather than a series of battles. Also check out Falling Free (same universe but not a Miles book), about the "quaddies" - humans gengineered for free-fall, with a second set of arms replacing the legs.

Robert L. Forward. Dragon's Egg and Starquake, tiny squashed-flat critters living on the surface of a neutron star. Rocheworld, amoeba-like critters living in the oceans of a double planet. Good, reasonably hard SF (Forward is a scientist).

Pretty much anything by CJ Cherryh or Cordwainer Smith. Or Poul Anderson.

Ken MacLeod, Ian M. Banks, and Eleanor Arneson all have some good stuff.

Julie Czerneda: Beholder's Eye, Changing Vision, and Hidden in Sight - the last survivor of a family of shapeshifters tries to survive in a universe of humans who want to kill her on sight.

George Alec Effinger. When Gravity Fails, A Fire in the Sun, and I think there's a third book but I don't recall the title off-hand. Cyberpunk from an Arabic perspective.

Kate Elliott, the Jaran series. Mongolian-style horse-nomads trying to survive in a futuristic, alien-dominated society. Warning: I found to my dismay that some of the paperback editions had printer's errors: whole 16- or 32-page sections missing entirely or replaced with duplicates of earlier sections.

DAW 30th Anniversary Science Fiction (and it's companion volume, DAW 30th Anniversary Fantasy) - excellent anthologies with a wide range of authors.

 

[Jdvn1]

Yeah, everybody mentions Ender's Game. It's one of those, 'duh' books. Everyone reads it because everyone knows it's good. Some people don't even realize that it's a four book series, though. Ender's Game is a great book, but kind of military. The last three are excellent books and non-military. My advice? Burn through the first book, soak in the last three.

And, no, the series doesn't technically involve Bean or Ender's Shadow. That's a separate parellel series. The last three books are: Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind.

 

[ddvmor]

No-one ever mentions Wil McCarthy. Try Murder in the Solid State or Flies from the Amber. You get solid sci fi novels with a bit of superscience education mixed in for good measure.