Good Sci Fi Books

[Bazael]

So I recently got back into reading.... And while I used to read fantasy way back in the day, I've found myself craving a bit more sci-fi related material. Even borderline future experimentation type stuff if I can find it.

Off the top of my head, Here is what I started with (Hit a bunch of top seller sci fi lists etc)


Enders Game Series by Orsen Scott Card

Foundation series by Issac Asimov

Snow Crash
Necronomicon (Havn't read this yet, need to find a weekend to plow through its 1000+ pages)

Neuromancer
Count Zero
Mona-Lisa Over drive
I forget who does the 3 listed above, I've found them extremely difficult to read though. He doesn't jump around a lot, but it seems like he does. I feel like there are some big plot holes here and there that just seem intentially left blank, but would actually be good filler. The books are only 300ish pages as is, no reason not to fill in some more info. Also, it seems like he intentionally uses large words that don't need to be used, and really winds around the story. He'll describe stuff in great detail that is just completely worthless. "A man walks down a street and sees a pebble that contains more colors than his mind can comprehend, and he wonders where it's been, and why its there, blah blah blah" . Just wierd tangent shit that has no place.


I still want to pickup the Enders Shadow series, I'd like to find a copy of 1984, and maybe clockwork orange. Some of this stuff may get off the sci fi trend, but whatever.


Anyway, was wondering if anyone else had any good suggestions for "Sci-fi-ish" books. Alternate futures, etc. I know there is a book that plays out what would of happened if Hitler won the war etc. Stuff like that I'd be interested in too.

[Khorum]

Ugh... read Cryptonomicon first, in fact, read it now.

It's historical fiction--arguably one of the best historical fiction in the last decade--but if you're a geek (or even the least bit PC/Mac-inclined) this is YOUR novel.

[James]

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman(sp?) is fucking great.

The Draka Series (I started with The Stone Dogs) by uhh, I think SM Sterling? I think. I could be totally off the mark with that one. Pretty decent, a bit weird near the end. Definitely some sort of sexual fetish going on in that, but if you choose to ignore it there's a pretty neat story behind it. If you don't choose to ignore it, you could prolly beat off to it.

Starship Troopers -- excellent book. Much better than the movie.

[Grimmlokk]

Hyperion series by Dan Simmons.

Only halfway through the first Dune book, but I'm enjoying it and every other nerd likes it.

The Hitler thing is probably some Harry Turtledove book or other.

Armor by John Steakly was pretty good. And The Madness Season by C.S. Friedman. Single books, good reads though.

[Kato Danzo]

How in the heck is Dune not on that list. I love that book quite a lot, and think you will too.

[Havelock]

As far as new stuff goes, Scalzi's Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades are instant classics. Jeff Duntemann's Cunning Blood and Tobias Buckell's Crystal Rain are also pretty damn interesting for new books, though the latter has some annoying flaws. Charles Stross's stuff is must-read as well.

[Vorph]

Originally Posted by Bazael

Neuromancer
Count Zero
Mona-Lisa Over drive
I forget who does the 3 listed above, I've found them extremely difficult to read though. He doesn't jump around a lot, but it seems like he does. I feel like there are some big plot holes here and there that just seem intentially left blank, but would actually be good filler. The books are only 300ish pages as is, no reason not to fill in some more info. Also, it seems like he intentionally uses large words that don't need to be used, and really winds around the story. He'll describe stuff in great detail that is just completely worthless. "A man walks down a street and sees a pebble that contains more colors than his mind can comprehend, and he wonders where it's been, and why its there, blah blah blah" . Just wierd tangent shit that has no place.

William Gibson. He created cyberpunk, but others have done it better (like Neal Stephenson). His stuff is basically all downhill after Neuromancer imo. I read Pattern Recognition not too long ago and it was boring to the point where I almost didn't even finish it.


As for suggestions, I'd give my highest possible recommendation for Richard K. Morgan and his Takeshi Kovacs series. He writes of a future in which humans have colonized many new worlds and now possess technology which makes it possible to transfer one's consciousness across space and into a new body. The first book, Altered Carbon, is part sci-fi and part noir/detective story that takes place on Earth. The second one, Broken Angels, is more pure sci-fi (with a little horror on the side) and takes place in the middle of a war out on a distant colonized planet. The third one, Woken Furies, is another genre shift, but I'm still waiting on it to get here for me to read.

Anyone who liked Snow Crash should pick up Morgan's stuff asap.

[Khorum]

Originally Posted by Vorph

William Gibson. He created cyberpunk, but others have done it better (like Neal Stephenson). His stuff is basically all downhill after Neuromancer imo. I read Pattern Recognition not too long ago and it was boring to the point where I almost didn't even finish it.


As for suggestions, I'd give my highest possible recommendation for Richard K. Morgan and his Takeshi Kovacs series. He writes of a future in which humans have colonized many new worlds and now possess technology which makes it possible to transfer one's consciousness across space and into a new body. The first book, Altered Carbon, is part sci-fi and part noir/detective story that takes place on Earth. The second one, Broken Angels, is more pure sci-fi (with a little horror on the side) and takes place in the middle of a war out on a distant colonized planet. The third one, Woken Furies, is another genre shift, but I'm still waiting on it to get here for me to read.

Anyone who liked Snow Crash should pick up Morgan's stuff asap.

Morgan is great. Bruce Sterling deserves a major nod too for Holy Fire, which IMO is fucking prophetic about the biomedical revolution we're just creeping up on, also for Difference Engine which he co-wrote with William Gibson in 1989---which dates it as one of the earliest examples of steampunk, which is the rave nowadays.

But I'm a giant Neal Stephenson fanboi and I really can't emphasize reading Cryptonomicon enough to anyone who's even vaguely into the history of technology, computing and information theory. It's this sweeping multi-generational epic about the birth of information theory, the titanic historical forces that forced the birth of computing, psychotic meme-freak luddites and the care and feeding of Capn Crunch cereal.

It's obvious Stephenson cares about his subject (he was an early mac engineer) and his meticulous historical research pays off in the Baroque Cycle, also recommended.

[Lenardo]

Depends on what you want for sci-fi/alternate history

i personally like

all books by david weber-he has sci-fi "hornblower" style series(honor harrington), another potential series that has "2" books in it (2nd book is a prequel "origin" of the main char(path of the fury), one fantasy series(bazel), and has cowritten alot of other stuff.

all books by john ringo- he is mostly military sci-fi- has 4 really really good series 1 potential series(first book written) he also co-writes with others..he also writes like a freaking Fiend in the winter.


david drake
wen spencer-tinker and wolf who rules- another weird fantasy i just read by him was "brothers price" -basically all men are good for is sex...

"mageworlds" series- forget the authors was good as well.


if you don't mind reading books online, webscription.net has THE complete MOTE IN GOD’S EYE series(9 books)
By Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle for 21 dollars

[Bazael]

Interesting suggestions so far.

I'm finishing up Mona Lisa Overdrive now, but I'll bump up Necronomicon to be the next on the list.

I enjoyed snowcrash a lot, so I'll have to follow some of the suggestions you guys gave on that.

I have read Dune btw (just the first/orginal). It was interesting to read after seeing the movie so many times. To see all the stuff that got left out of the movie, or how things were different.

[Kato Danzo]

Well, my suggestion is that you read up to God Emperor at the least. Leto II is one my favorite characters in literature.

[Teleyn]

Peter F. Hamilton's 'Night's Dawn' series is really good and is a long series, so it should keep you occupied for a bit.

There are six books:

- "The Reality Dysfunction - Part 1: Emergence,"
- "The Reality Dysfunction - Part 2: Expansion,"
- "The Neutronium Alchemist - Part 1: Consolidation,"
- "The Neutronium Alchemist - Part 2: Conflict,"
- "The Naked God - Part 1: Flight," and
- "The Naked God - Part 2: Faith."

It's a space opera with a dash of horror in it, seriously entertaining and has some memorable characters in it as well. It really is my favorite scifi 'series' of all time.

Also, if you can get by the pulp-comic style, the Deathstalker series by Simon R. Green is entertaining. All the heroes and enemies are way overpowered in the series, but they balance each other out and it reads like a comic book action-wise. They are huge books and as long as you can accept it for what it is (a fun read) you won't be disappointed by it.

Edit: PS Baz, *Whoosh* *Whoosh* *Wham* np np.

[Arbuste]

-Dune, by Frank Herbert. It needs to be #1 in any list. The whole thing is great. It slows down a bit in the middle (Children of Dune and Emperor-God of Dune), but the last books are very much worth reading everything.

-Ender, by Orson Scott Card. Very good, especially the first books.

-Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion, by Dan Simmons. Great and pretty original.

-Foundation, by Isaac Asimov. I read some of the Robot serie too. It's all good, but he writes too many short novels and not enough real novels. Or he used to.

-Star Wars? The trilogy by Timothy Zahn that takes place right after Episode 6 is very good. It starts with "The Heir of the Empire" and follows the path of our jolly band of heroes and of the very interesting Admiral Thrawn. I really liked it. I read 2 other SW trilogies after that and it's just not as good.

[Kato Danzo]

Originally Posted by Arbuste

-Dune, by Frank Herbert. It needs to be #1 in any list. The whole thing is great. It slows down a bit in the middle (Children of Dune and Emperor-God of Dune), but the last books are very much worth reading everything.

Odd, I found Leto II to be the most entertaining character in the entire series. Did you not like him much?

[Ilex]

I'm surpised no one's mentioned Roger Zelazny or Harlan Ellison.

Also, for Gibson, you should really read "Virtual Light". It's probably his best stuff after Neuromancer.