The Sci-Fi Book Thread

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khorum

khorum

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I certainly thought so, but we also had to read The Hobbit, A Canticle for Leibowitz, Stranger in A Strange Land mixed in with the canon. It was a smart move to "sweeten up" the reading assignments that were full of fucking DH Lawrence and Mill on The Floss-type shit.

As for CURRENT book lists it's even stranger. My youngest went to my alma mater and he had Pynchon and David Foster Wallace on his summer reading assignment a few years ago. That's a Jesuit Catholic high school!
 
Hutch

Hutch

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I pillaged the Sci-Fi thread on the RR site over the past few months, and came away with a couple new reads, including Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. Which I would recommend to Stephenson fans. One-line synopsis: What would happen to our species if some unknown force shattered the Moon?

I also read Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. Which barely qualifies as sci-fi, in my opinion; it comes across as almost purely a swords-and-sorcery novel. But it's very engaging, so I recommend it also.
 
khorum

khorum

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Joe Abercrombie's Half A King series is very similar to Prince of Thorns actually. If you liked that trilogy I'd give it a shot. I'd prolly notch Half A King series slightly ahead personally.
 
spronk

spronk

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Recently started reading Big Sigma series by Joseph R Lallo. Its not bad, basically fast paced scifi in the vein of fast and furious or basic video game. No real big ideas, but characters that are fun to read. first book is totally free on amazon
Amazon product ASIN B004Z99U3K

if you haven't read em yet i'd highly recommend commonwealth saga by Peter Hamilton, culture novels by iain m banks (RIP), Wool/Sand by Hugh Howey, The Expanse by Corey (GREAT tv show), Broken Empire trilogy by Mark Lawrence (fantasy with some scifi), Echopraxia by Peter Watts, and the 3 Long Earth/Mars books by Pratchett and Baxter
 
khorum

khorum

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As much as I love the Culture books, Banks' best SF novel was The Algebraist. The themes and ideas in that book precede just about all the modern expression of that post-singularity AI thing that it does.

Also Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End remains a favorite. Kinda wish he'd knock out a sequel.
 
khalid

khalid

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A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge are by far my favorite sci fi books.

I like Rainbow's End also. A sequel would be sweet, but it kinda ties up the story at the end.
 
Ukerric

Ukerric

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Yea, the third book (The Children of the Sky) didn't work as well (Deepness is a prequel, but Children is a straight up sequel and... not that good).

I had the annotated CDRom version of a Fire Upon the Deep; some of the notes made you wonder a bit (Twirlip of the Mists, where are you? who are you? I want more!)
 
khorum

khorum

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I guess that's the thing isn't it? Rainbows End was self-contained, but then so was Fire Upon The Deep. I think he has A LOT of room to grow with those ideas and certainly his notions about augmented reality, closed systems and memetic warfare were prophetic.

Pretty sure Rainbows End won the Hugo too.
 
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wilkxus

wilkxus

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Single Recommendations by category....I do not have anything new to surprise anyone, just my take on older stuff.

Serious Essential Classics! Great Reads, strong philosophical relevance for readers regardless of interest in Sci-Fi

[1] Farenheit 451, Ray Bradbury, 1953
[2] Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell, 1948
[3] Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, 1932
[4] A Canticle of Leibowitz, Walter M Miller Jr, 1960

Foreign Original
[1] Solaris, Stanislaw Lem 1961
For western Sci-Fi readers brought up on Asimov, Niven, Pournelle this is definately a nice departure from stereotypical "aliens" in most novels

Computer Age/AI/Singularity
[1] Neuromancer, William Gibson 1984
[2] Count Zero, William Gibson 1986
...See also Dan Simmons Hyperion series
[3] Verner Vinge: have not read but feels like great fit here.

Essential Authors

Authors.....where series or complete works are worth dipping into and exploring
[1] Dan Simmons: Hyperion Series
[2] Issac Assimov: Robot Series, Foundation Series
[3] Frank Herbert: Dune series
[4] Arthur C Clarke: All Series

Classic
[1] Dune, Frank Herbert, 1960
[2] Phillip K Dick: All, dark and visionary
[3] Ray Bradbury: lots more
[4] Richard Matheson; lots

Lighter *fun* Reading
[8] Larry Niven: Excellent reads most stories/novels. Great fun and Interesting Ideas, Worlds, creatures and Universe
[9] Kim Stanley Robinson: (Mars Trilogy) Excellent, political ecological intrigue
[10] Jules Verne: Classics, just make sure to find good translations or read French Originals

Fantasy
J.R.R Tolkien Masterpieces for all ages, a world, a history, lore and creation woven into reality
David Eddings Creative, fun and lightweight
George R R Martin A Song of Fire and Ice series (Game of Thrones) , forget the show, books are superb
 
Ferris

Ferris

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Peter F Hamilton's Commonwealth saga is well worth a read I think, I have no idea how many British sci-fi authors end up over in the US, but if you get the chance it's really good space opera.

Also, I'm a big fan of Alastair Reynolds. His stuff is a lot more hard sci-fi. I think he used to work at the ESA, so he should know his shit.

Slightly off topic, my favourite books are still Zelazny's Amber series. It's well worth the read although it's more fantasy than sci-fi.
 
Palum

Palum

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Still slogging through Safehold, onto book 2. It's OK. My suspicions about where this was heading (as in massive battles right off the bad since it felt like it started near the middle of Honor Harrington style wise) were correct. It's still just too damn wordy.
 
TJT

TJT

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Just finished the Takeshi Kovacs books (Altered Carbon). God damn that was some A++ shit. I highly recommend it to all of you.

Netflix series should be awesome too.
 
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khorum

khorum

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TJT said:
Just finished the Takeshi Kovacs books (Altered Carbon). God damn that was some A++ shit. I highly recommend it to all of you.

Netflix series should be awesome too.
Click to expand...

Black Man (Published as "Th1rt3en" in the US) is his best book imo. He also wrote a fantasy series but that wasn't as good (The Steel Remains).

If you like his mix of near-future gritty political thriller stuff, Black Man will prolly end up being more favorable too.

Kinda predicted the rise of butthurt SJWs too.
 
Captain Suave

Captain Suave

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wilkxus said:
[9] Kim Stanley Robinson: (Mars Trilogy) Excellent, political ecological intrigue
Click to expand...

Gotta disagree on this one. The first book was engaging, but the last two were a godawful slog through a poli-sci graduate's masturbatory fantasies. There were easily a hundred pages detailing the procedural structures of Martian constitutional conventions. No thanks. I finished the trillogy because the premise was great and I wanted resolution on the story, but by the end I just wanted my time back.
 
Ukerric

Ukerric

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Time to bump this back to first page.

So, another author which I recommended heartily (I think) on the old site is Charles Stross.

Main series is the Laundry Files which is the "computer geek is recruited by civil service to deal with lovecraftian stuff for her Majesty's Govt". Math is the pathway for magic, and the Stars are Aligning for the coming of the Old Gods. Must read for geek humor, probably less enjoyable if you're not into that.

Other series is the Merchant Princes, a SF series disguised as fantasy in which an economy/tech industry blogger gets involved in her Family's affairs, since she's displaced heiress to one of the six major inter-dimensional Mafia families. Things get complicated very very fast, and no one's plan survive contact with the ennemy (which is everyone else when you're the Parrain. Or anyone else in the Family).

Plus a bunch of good novels, stand-alones or in pairs. (don't get fooled by the "Singularity 3" on Accelerando, it's completely stand-alone and not even in the same universe as 1 & 2)
 
Brikker

Brikker

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Currently reading Dan Simmon's Illium and Olympos duology. I like it, pretty light and easy reading. I'm about 25% into Olympos now. I will be upset if a few things mentioned are no explained/resolved well. Not as good as Hyperion Cantos though.
 
Decado

Decado

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Read and enjoyed many of those included in this thread, Dan Simmons, Expanse etc but i also found Dan Worth's Progenitor trilogy good space opera fare.

They are a little bit rough in spots being the authors first books and use a fair few standard scifi tropes but I'd recommend checking them out for a cheap read that's better than most box standard scifi.
 
khorum

khorum

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Dan Simmons' near future/ cyberpunk novel Flashback is particularly excellent and is proving to be earily prescient.
 
khalid

khalid

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I love much of Dan Simmon's previous stuff but have not read Flashback. Just checked the reviews and all kinds of crying about his anti-muslim agenda.
 
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