SciFi and Fantasy Book Recommendations
Friday, May 26th, 2006 - 10:06am
I recently read Ender's Game and loved it. It got me back into science fiction and fantasy in a big way. I picked up Starship Troopers (all right, not great) and Harry Turtledove's In the Balance which I am really enjoying.
Anyway, I bought a bunch of books that Amazon recommended for me, but they are more miss than hit. People seem to love the Wheel of Time seriess, but Eye of the World bored me to tears. Same with Illium . Though I loved the first Dune book, they get pretty tedious later on.
I'm crazy about Neal Stephenson--Cryptnomicon and The Baroque Cycle are in my Top Ten. I really, really enjoyed Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. I gobbled up Asimov from the age of 14 to 17.
There is a lot of fantastical fiction out there, but there is so much crap! Help me wade through it. I would love to hear some recommendations.
I think it's great that people want to read these books and I am the same way and I think I've even started a similar thread but we should just start naming the book threads *Cough*. Look through the forums a little bit, there are literally about 5 threads just like this and they have an excellent selection to choose from and are already formatted into neat lists.
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This is a big GWJ-contributed list that may be exactly what you're looking for:
http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/22414
Fedaykin98 wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
Reading 500+ pages of annoying dialog to have one interesting thing happen at the conclusion of each book isn't your cup of tea?
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And now for something completely different: I recommend the recently-published series by Naomi Novik, beginning with "His Majesty's Dragon", "Throne of Jade" and the just-published "Black Powder War". I was pleasantly- and enthusiastically- surprised at the books.
Alternate Earth/Napoleonic setting, w/Dragons as an air force. She does it quite well- and the characters are strong and well-written; almost Jane Austen-esque in parts.
With beach season nigh upon us, I'd say go for them.
As an aside, she worked on "NWN: Shadows of Undrentide"....
"Eat Keel, Hellbug!"
I read John Scalzi's Old Man's War a couple of weeks ago. Great book, probably one of the best sci-fi books I have ever read.
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Neil Gaiman's Neverland, I read it every couple of years. It's a really great book. Which reminds me, I'm about due to read it again.
Also, Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. A little trippy, but well worth it.
Edit - spelling is good
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So we are going to run with this on a new thread? Ok, I'm game. Read the Forever War by Joe Haldeman. If you didn't like Starship Troopers you might like that one better. Also read The Gunslinger by Stephen King and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. The former is barely in the fantasy genre and the latter is barely in the sci-fi genre but they are both staples in each.
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Maybe we should try and keep it *new* or recently-published books, to differentiate it from the main thread noted at the top?
Funny about Scalzi's book- I just read a good review of it
"Eat Keel, Hellbug!"
Sean McMullen's Greatwinter Trilogy for SciFi and his Moonworld's Saga for Fantasy.
That big list we had before didn't ever get Jules Verne or H.G. Wells.
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Verne is implied. Like how you don't list "wheels" when describing a car's features.
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I've been meaning to pick up a copy of A Game of Thrones by George Martin because several people here had given it a glowing recommendation.
That's book one in a series of I don't know how many. Can anyone say if they're remained consistantly good?
All this science I don't understand. It's just my job five days a week.
They get better as they go along, actually. Well, A feast for Crows is a bit of a step back from the sheer brilliance of A Storm of Swords, but then it got split in two, so it's sort of understandable.
More recommendations. Do read: A Scanner Darkly by Phillip K Dick and I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. Don't read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
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Second the recommendation on Scalzi. Not sure you'd like it if you're into the Old Crusties from Amazing Stories. Oh, and if Card's your [edited], you might like [edited] Robert Sawyer.
I recently read and enjoyed Liz Williams' The Poison Master, so you might keep that off your list. It was recommended by Charles Stross--ditto.
We illuminati may actually find common ground with [edited] in the sword-and-sorcery fiction published by Black Gate magazine and collected in the Lord of Swords anthology.
HPL
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Yes, they have.
"THE HELL ASS BALLS." - Prederick, expressing frustration in the time-honored way.
This series is just plain great. High fantasy but very light on magic. It's fantasy for grownups. Martin's been around for awhile. He wrote some of the best anthology tv ever for the 80's Twilight Zone. I haven't read the last book, waiting for the paperback due out in the fall.
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I for one am of the opinion that we're not harming the environment or anything if we keep re-hashing good book threads. If anyone's tired of participating, they can opt out.
I recently started the Song of Fire and Ice series by George RR Martin that y'all are discussing, and it indeed remains good. I probably started A Game of Thrones in mid-April, and I'm towards the end of book 3 (A Storm of Swords) right now. Just awesome. And when I thought things were slowing down, they started to pick up all of the sudden. Having a hard time putting it down in time to get good sleep at night.
5ive, we're off to a bad start with you saying that the Dune books get tedious after the first. The entire original six are distilled brilliance! Seriously, one of my all-time favorite series.
I also love Heinlein. Stranger in a Strange Land is great, as is Starship Troopers (yet they are so very different), but the best, and I believe we built some consensus around this in one of the earlier threads, is The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
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Speaking of the Baroque Cycle, will I ever not get the feeling that I am just rereading parts of Cryptonomicon all over again? I bought the first book and was sorely dissapointed in that I had read the book before when I read Cryptonomicon.
I would highly recommend anything David Brin has written, but the uplift series (completed BTW) is really good. Oh and Asimov, excellent writer, and most of the stuff plays out well even today (OK there was a reference to punch cards in one of the books, but come on man this was written 50 years ago)
"Also, I have four legs and am covered in wool. Baa!" *Legion* reveals his inner furry.
Also, check out any of the discworld novels by Terry Pratchett. Fantasy with a heaping handfull of satire mixed in for good measure. His prose style is really entertaining. Kind of hard to explain. Some authors just sort of state their ideas on paper which is all well and good if the ideas are interesting. Pratchett puts more flavor into his writing to flesh out the world he's made. The only other sf/fantasy author I've read who has this immersive style is Neal Stephenson.
"Now witness the awesome lethality of the Alan Parsons Project!"
-Dr. Evil
Heinlein's stuff is cool but he had some pretty weird notions about human relationships that sort of creeped me out. It's just a damn shame that Paul Verhoven turned his futuristic warfare novel into Showgirls versus Aliens.
"Now witness the awesome lethality of the Alan Parsons Project!"
-Dr. Evil
Stanislaw Lem is my favorite. In fact I have a very hard time reading anything else in the sci-fi genre after Lem.
"Fiasco" is wonderful.
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I would like to take a second to say that Indignant's avatar is awesome.
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Decipher by Stel Pavlou
Best book I've read in a long time.
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I just finished Peter F. Hamiliton's Judas Unchained, which is the conclusion to the book Pandora's Star. I thought I was a very good series, tons of subplots and interesting characters.
Good suggestions so far. I've got a Game of Throne's waiting on my bookshelf. I definitely plan on checking that out. I also bought Clan of the Cave Bear because that was big when I was a kid. I have Drawing of the Dark by Powers also.
I read the first 100 pages of Boat of a Million years this week. I will probably pick it up again, it hasn't gripped me yet. I definitely plan on reading more of the Ender's series too.
As for the Baroque Cycle, I think you do always feel like you are reading Cryptnomicon. That's why I was so tickled with the series, I suppose.
I really enjoyed Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel. It was like Harry Potter for adults.
Maybe I was to harsh to say that after the first book Dune got boring, but I know that after three I didn't feel like reading it anymore. I think in a lot of series, the author spends the first book helping you explore a new world and sharing ideas with you. Once he's done that, it's all story and character driven. Sometime the stories don't hold up. This is a big advantage Science fiction writers have over Philip Roth, for example. Science Fiction really engages your imagination and makes it easier to become immersed in.
You all are very forgiving of Dune I think. I love the movie and maybe that's the reason I just couldn't finish that book. There is almost nothing in that book that isn't in the movie and I just couldn't make myself put the time into something I could own on DVD. I got about half way through and then saw Jurrasic Park in an old box and realized I had never finished it after starting it 10 years ago.
The dinosaurs win. I don't really see that there's anything wrong with that.
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"THE HELL ASS BALLS." - Prederick, expressing frustration in the time-honored way.
Dune was one of the first Sci-Fi movies I ever saw. It's great. I'd probably love the book if I had read it first but you've got to admin they are slightly different versions of the exact same thing.
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I enjoyed the movie but I had a huge issue with the screenplay writers turning the Weirding Way into those voice activated laser thingies. In the books it's this sick form of martial arts.
"Now witness the awesome lethality of the Alan Parsons Project!"
-Dr. Evil
I actually loved the movie, which led me to the books, which I loved even more. SO. AWESOME. I don't know what book you're reading if you don't see more in the book than the movie, because it's so much deeper. Also, to 5ive, let me say that I just re-read books 1-4 fairly recently, and 4 was totally awesome. There are lots of interesting concepts all over the place, and commentaries on human nature, and what it is to be human. If you're not into the philosophical aspect of the series, I could see not digging it, but if it clicks for you it's like nothing else. I feel like I'm getting smarter every time I read one of those books.
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I read THE POSTMAN a few months ago, and thought it was pretty enjoyable (try and forget about the movie, if possible). It's a little episodic in structure because it was sort of written as 3 separate novellas, but it's still worth a look.
I loved...seriously loved... the first 2 books of the WHEEL OF TIME. They were better than anything I had ever read fantasy-wise up to that point, but as they went on... as Jordan kept trying to drag things out, they got worse and worse. Sort of the same thing with GAME OF THRONES. I loved the first 2 books, the third was pretty good, and I have to admit I started reading the newest one and just didn't have the gusto to finish. I'll probably go back to it once sumemr vacation starts, but I really hope Martin tells the story he has to tell, and doesn't pad the plots just to sell more sequels.
Also agree on I AM LEGEND. A short little novella, but a great read with a shocking twist. If you like modern zombie stories, or something like the WALKING DEAD comic series, I think you'll dig this. Matheson was way ahead of his time.
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