Is the OP after Sci Fi or Fantasy. Elfs an Orcs or Robots an Aliens. I waded through the Thomas Covenant series, hard going and quite depressing. For fantasy David Eddings or Terry Brooks.
samuri - Member
I think we were saying Snow Crash was his best sci-fi related book. Cryptonomicon is superb, I'd struggle to pick which one I preferred.
His latest (reamde) is pretty average, a generic thriller for large parts. Striking how weak it is when you compare it to something like Snow Crash, one of his earliest books. It's still NS at the end of the day, so good fun, but defo not one to rush to the top of the reading list.
Larry Niven - "the mote in gods eye" - if you can find a copy -
Another vote for Snow Crash
I vote for Larry Niven too, his 'Known Space' series is consistent and imaginative, and stretches your mind for you. It might help to read them in some sort of order.
I quite liked reamde. I've actually run out of stuff to read now after spending two weeks oln holiday so I'm checking up on this thread to catch some new stuff.
I wish I could help, but I am more a "skinnyboyinthevillagegetsaswordfromastrangerandanotefromhisunknownmumandthengotogetotshredthegnarandcutadragontopieces" type of book.
Jack Vance has written some great stuff - The Demon Princes is one of his best.
The Shadow of the Torturer (and subsequent books) by Gene Wolfe is one of my favourites
If you are going to read some Stephenson then I'd suggest The Baroque Cycle. Sci Fi set in the 17th century.
Don't read Cryptonomicon first as it has a large spoiler for the later trilogy.
Went with this pile.
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Book tokens rule.
That's an ace selection - I mentioned Gaunt's Ghost and Eisenhorn but remissly neglected to highlight Ravenor. Altered Carbon really is a must.
I would demand a science-fiction library, featuring an ABC of the genre. Asimov, Bester, Clarke.
Z1ppy, if you're going to read Gibson, then start with Burning Chrome. It's a collection of short stories, one of which Johnny Mnemonic, sets up for Neuromancer, and introduces a crucial character. The other stories are really good as well, certainly well worth reading in their own right. He tends to write trilogies, so it's Neuromancer, Count Zero, :D, and Mona Lisa Overdrive, followed by Virtual Light, Idoru and All Tomorrow's Parties, and the most recent, Pattern Recognition, Spook Country and Zero History.
I'm amazed nobody has mentioned Roger Zelazney! He was a master of prose, a writer who could turn out brilliant phrases and descriptions. He wrote fantasy and SF with equal aplomb, Damnation Alley was one of his better known novels, turned into a truly crappy film. He co-wrote a very good book with Alfred Bester, often considered the father of cyberpunk, so look for The Stars My Destination, also called Tiger!Tiger! and The Demolished Man.
He also wrote lots of tv and film scripts for stuff that many will recognise. (the Psi Ops character in Babylon 5 was called Alfred Bester...)
Very good selection, needs a Neal Asher adding to it and you'll be addicted to some very good authors.
Tiger!Tiger! forgot about that one, think I'm going to have to dig it out of my collection and pay it a re-visit.
Would Chris Wooding's series involving Capt. Frey and The Ketty Jay be considered 'proper' sci-fi..?
(Mark; happy to lend if you like the sound of 'em.)
+1 for Ketty Jay series. But some excellent black humour then Joe Abercrombie is worth a look The First Law series is excellent.
Was going to suggest The First Law series, too, but would suppose that's more fantasy fiction than science fiction..?
Recommend Peter f Hamilton epic books and series
You might want to try the Night's Dawn series by Peter F Hamilton. But they're a bit iffy tbh, man needs an editor in the same way as I need a girlfriend
lol, and a perfect description - fun light reading, the ending was a slight let down, same thing happened in the Void trilogy. Worth reading, but don't expect great literature.
And my favourite Stephenson book is The Diamond Age. Although the Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon come close.
Finally got round to reading Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion which were pretty good.
Also recently read "Sliding Void" by Stephen Hunt, entertaining but once again, hardly literature. Good enough I bought the second book in the trilogy, the 3rd has yet to come out.
Now reading Cloud Atlas. So far so good.
Julian May - Non born king or any of his later polity series.
Ready player one - ernest cline - great if you love 80's retro non alien sci fi.
Peter F Hamilton - Void trilogy
CZ, noted the Gibson comment, want to read the Richard Morgan book 1st though...
Dragon's Egg by Robert L Forward. Drags a bit at first, but the aliens are completely different to anything we can understand and not intent on destroying/eating us
Asimov's Robot series - nothing like that awful I, Robot film. No aliens apart from 1 short story IIRC, but all sorts of interesting takes on the famous 3 Laws of Robotics.
(the Psi Ops character in Babylon 5 was called Alfred Bester...)
Ensign Chekov?
Not got much in the way of aliens, but Micheal Marshall Smith's 'Only Forward' and 'Spares' are two of my most fav sci-fi novels.
Probably more steampunk than scifi but China Mieville's Perdido St Station is an amazing read
I've plugged that one a few times on here! Nearly finished it and waiting for Un Lun Don to hit the door mat.
+1 for the Asimov "Robots" series of novels and short stories, some very thought-inspiring stuff (my favourite would be the short story "That thou art mindful of him")
A bit left field, but have you considered Ursula Le Guin's Hainish series of novels? I'm currently working my way through them, and have really enjoyed the whole setup. Start with "The Dispossessed", which has the added bonus of being set (partly) on an Anarcho-Syndicalist planet (as in Monty Python's annoying peasant from "Holy Grail")
BigButSlimmerBloke - Member
(the Psi Ops character in Babylon 5 was called Alfred Bester...)Ensign Chekov?
*Sigh* 🙄
Really enjoyed the final two Kovac's triology books, again cheers for the heads up on these. I'm off to locate the 1st two books in his next trilogy.
How's TBC doing with those book, or is he a slow reader?
Enjoying the Ravenor one. Book 1 complete.
cool 😀
Erm - Julian May was / is a 'she'...
+1 for Rendezvous With Rama (and the sequels) and Childhood's End: excellent (as is most of Arthur C Clarke's writing).
Sorry for the hijack, but do any of these authors have series which have the same characters throughout?
Stainless Steel Rat and Deathworld series by Harry Harrison are good fun.
Oh my word, that's a blast from the past! Haven't even heard of those since I was in school. Loved them at the time; wonder if they'd still be a good read...
Stainless steel rat........brilliant witty charming well worth a read.
I would recommend. H G Wells..... The time machine or war of the world's. Still good read.
10 - MemberSorry for the hijack, but do any of these authors have series which have the same characters throughout?
There's a few I know of:
Neal Asher's 'Cormac' series
Peter F Hamilton - Greg Mandel, Night's Dawn and Void Trilogies
Alastair Reynold's - Revelation Space series
Of these I'd particularly recommend Peter F Hamilton's Night's Dawn and Void trilogies.
Thanks, I like to have some continuation in books.
For anybody into Iain M Banks, The tenth volume of the Culture series 'The Hydrogen Sonata' will be out soon 
ohhhhhhhhhhhhh!
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@ WWJesusrides
@ 10 add the Morgan's Kovac's series to your list ...and just finish the 2nd book of his A land fit for Heros series (again has continuation), as with the Kovac's series I throughly enjoyed it but more fantasy than sci-fi (has sci-fi elements)
3 pages and no mention of Hyperion yet? Can't remember what the sequel/conclusion was called, but consider them 1 book and dive in.
Anathem is my current fave. It's made Reamde a bit of a disappointment tbh.
Only one mention of Michael Marshall Smith,. tsk,tsk,tsk....
Only Forward, Spares and One of Us are all utter classics. Sadly he appears to have burnt out his sci-Fi abilities with these three books, his recent crime stuff is lacking IMHO.
C J Cherryh (pronounced "Cherryh").
Her merchanter/belter/thingy stuff is great; gritty, political, kinda 'procedural', believable.
Includes Heavy Time, Hell Burner, Cyteen, Downbelow Station, Tripoint.
So, I just bought Cryptonimicon, and a factual book about how belief shape our view of the world SOLELY so I could talk about it in STW arguments 🙂
I also thought Only Forward was one of the best books I'd ever read. Truly fantastic, although the first half of the book is where it's at. Just magic.
Seconded - She's put out some great SF books over the years, and for a prolific writer always maintains a decent quality threshold. V character-driven, kitchen-sink drama in many ways, just on space-ships.klumpy - MemberC J Cherryh (pronounced "Cherryh").
Her merchanter/belter/thingy stuff is great; gritty, political, kinda 'procedural', believable.
Includes Heavy Time, Hell Burner, Cyteen, Downbelow Station, Tripoint.
Her fantasy is pretty good but I don't think she's ever written anything really amazing there. Not like Cyteen or DBStation are seen in SF. The Russian-themed ones are good (Rusalka etc) and the Morgaine books also.
For anybody into Iain M Banks, The tenth volume of the Culture series 'The Hydrogen Sonata' will be out soon
Faptastic
I guess this is Sci Fi, [url= https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ready-Player-One-Ernest-Cline/dp/1846059372 ]Ready Player One by Ernest Cline[/url]. Poorly written but a proper Nerdfest for any child of the eighties, although with obvious American bias. A clunky, but enjoyable page turner.
Don't really get the hullabaloo surrounding Michael Marshall Smith, I enjoyed "Only Forward" but didn't find it particularly well written or compelling, maybe I'll have to re-re-read it.
MMS can get a bit samey... Which is weird, because his settings and ideas are definately not samey, but somehow they all end up feeling the same. The Gap vs Jeamland, hard-boiled protagonist and his psycho mates... But they're very good.
I enjoyed "Only Forward" but didn't find it particularly well written
It depends what you take from books. To me, the portrayal of the places and the technology in the first part are just brilliant. The plot I thought was decent enough but standard fare really.
