MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Working my way through the Baroque Cycle at the moment. Taken me two months to get to the third book.Yes, it's hard to say if Cryptonomicon is SF or not - and the sort-of sequels, the Baroque Cycle.
He's more or less unique, definitely not mainstream SciFi. Historical Science Fiction (HiSciFi?), or Alchemical Fiction. Absolutely fascinating none the less.
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline was superb and hopefully will be made into a film before too long. Set in the near future but with loads of eighties references.
+1 for the first two Hyperion books. Books 3 and 4 went off the boil.
Northwind - Member
Reynolds ...... less endless dreary nothing.
😆 As I said up there, I gave up when he started describing a hand-rail in detail. Basically, wtf?
z1ppy - Member
Have you tried Brin's Uplift books? Sundiver is maybe a bit simple (space detective) but I enjoyed the uplift trilogy a lot
I've looked at them but never read them. Maybe I'll try.
just finished 'consider phlebas'- the first (?) culture novel.
It probably takes a 2nd read to get the most from it but I think his other Culture novels are all much better. Player of games & Excession are both great for showing the vast power (when pushed) of such a "benign" race..
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline was superb and hopefully will be made into a film before too long. Set in the near future but with loads of eighties references.
A load? The whole book is basically a worship of the eighties (thoughly enjoyable for a 70's child)... I have little doubt that the film will generate a lot of royalties for some long retired artists. Though do wonder if the author has time for any interests outside the eighties, to be able to write anything else (new book due next year)
IdleJon - MemberAs I said up there, I gave up when he started describing a hand-rail in detail. Basically, wtf?
I quite liked Blue Remembered Earth (an Iain (no M) Banks novel set in a Kim Stanley Robinson sideplot, doesn't really go anywhere but does it interestingly) and Terminal World (so China Mielvelley that you can ignore the tedious Reynoldsy bits)
Northwind - Member
I quite liked Blue Remembered Earth (an Iain (no M) Banks novel set in a Kim Stanley Robinson sideplot, doesn't really go anywhere but does it interestingly) and Terminal World (so China Mielvelley that you can ignore the tedious Reynoldsy bits)
My only experience of Mieville was Perdido St Station, another mess of a book. It hasn't put me off him in the way that Revelation Space put me off Reynolds though!
Northwind - Member
I quite liked Blue Remembered Earth (an Iain (no M) Banks novel set in a Kim Stanley Robinson sideplot, doesn't really go anywhere but does it interestingly) and Terminal World (so China Mielvelley that you can ignore the tedious Reynoldsy bits)
umm, both 'blue remembered earth' and 'terminal world' are by reynolds.
any of Iain Banks' books, 'm' or no, are good IME. 'state of the art', which is a collection of shorts, might be a good way in, but i haven't read that in some time. excession is awesome but i wouldn't recommend anyone to start there.
reynolds' stuff i enjoyed.
peter hamilton's stuff i waded through and begrudged every minute of the last two books of a trilogy i read, desperately hoping it was going to get better. it didn't, and his writing style i found completely un-engaging. i had no interest in his characters at all really. shame.
neil asher - the agent cormac books are good, his current 'owner' series is building nicely too.
I think he means it was written in a Mievilley style?
umm, both 'blue remembered earth' and 'terminal world' are by reynolds.
Saw on an Ian M Banks interview, he loved Consider Phlebas and really wanted to see it made into a big budget movie....As lots of people have said Phillip K Dick (especially Ubik), Ursula Le Guin, Alfred Bester, and lets not forget Arthur C Clarke..
Del - Memberumm, both 'blue remembered earth' and 'terminal world' are by reynolds.
Yep, but they don't feel like it. Blue Remembered Earth is Steep Approach to Garbadale with spaceships.
My only experience of Mieville was Perdido St Station, another mess of a book
Really? I found it was brilliantly paced from start to finish. Probably Mieville's best work, followed closely by The Scar.
Century Rain is probably the best example of Alistair Reynolds writing. Pushing Ice is ok.
Asimov's Foundation series is great for the first 3 books then tails off. Haven't gotten around to the prequels yet.
Phillip K Dick's best efforts were the short stories imo. The guy took too waaaay many drugs and couldn't manage to hold it together for a full novel.
Can any of these books be got cheaply as an audio book, i do some long journey on the road and audiobooks would be great. I already listen to altered carbon which was good.
Childhood's End by Arthur C Clarke is one of the best sci-fi books I've ever read. Loved the Rama series too.
I wouldn't call anything by Nevil Shute 'science fiction', but On The Beach is brilliant (good film, too) as is everything else he wrote.
No mention of Michael Moorcock yet? I used to like the Jerry Cornelius books, and the Eternal Champion series was very good. Also maybe not science fiction, but the line between fantasy and sci-fi can be a bit blurred at times...
Can't recall who wrote 'Chocky' but both the book and the TV series were good.
JulianA - Member
No mention of Michael Moorcock yet? I used to like the Jerry Cornelius books, and the Eternal Champion series was very good. Also maybe not science fiction, but the line between fantasy and sci-fi can be a bit blurred at times...
I used to love Moorcock back in the 80s but I read Elric: The Moonbeam Roads earlier in the year and wasn't too impressed. It was ok, nothing more. I probably prefer the Pyat series these days.
Again, not SF (but definitely Speculative Fiction), I've recently read a couple of Graham Joyce novels. (Year of the Ladybird and Some Kind of Fairytale) and thought they were excellent in a Robert Holdstock/Alan Garner sort of genre. I loved Holdstock's Mythago Wood years ago and am afraid to re-read it in case I think it's awful!
With the popularity of George R R Martin's fantasy books these days have many people read his SF stuff? I find he's great at building a world and place for the characters but then tends to stuff a rather boring story on top, at least for the ones I've read so far.
Can't recall who wrote 'Chocky' but both the book and the TV series were good.
That was John Wyndham again.
Didn't get on with Revelation Space but thought I'd give Alistair Reynolds another go - just read the excellent Chasm City - great space opera thriller - about identity I guess.
Also, Leviathan Wakes by James Corey - fast moving and doesn't require a degree in orbital dynamics to understand like some of the high Sci-Fi out there.
- happy memories of reading the Elric saga when I were a lad.No mention of Michael Moorcock yet? I used to like the Jerry Cornelius books, and the Eternal Champion series was very good. Also maybe not science fiction, but the line between fantasy and sci-fi can be a bit blurred at times...
Gateway by Frederick Pohl.
Also The Space Merchants and his other short stories.
I'm currently re-reading, (again), all of Iain M Banks' novels in order from first to last, on [i]Excession[/i] at the mo'.
I love those books, with the exception of [i]Player of Games[/i], which I just cannot read now, the lead character is just so bloody awful a person, without a single redeeming feature. Most of the Culture characters can be morally ambiguous, some very dubious indeed, but none are so completely rotten to the core as Gurgeh.
Pretty much everyone I could have mentioned has already been covered; Gibson, Stephenson, Brin, Bester, Stross, Asimov, Niven, Anderson, ([i]Tau Zero[/i] is an excellent book), but there are so many others, and one of the greatest, for the sheer lyricism of his writing is Roger Zelazney. I can't express just how much I love his books, and I can't begin to count how many times I've read most of his books!
He had such a great way with words, and he wrote great characters, too. There's even a book he co-wrote with Alfred Bester.
If you can find them, and few of Zelazney's books are in print currently, and even fewer as ebooks, try to track down some of these:
[i]Roadmarks
Damnation Alley
Lord of Light
Jack of Shadows
This Immortal
Creatures of Light and Darkness
Today We Choose Faces*
Doorways in the Sand
Eye of Cat
A Night in the Lonesome October
Psychoshop**
The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth, and Other Stories
The Last Defender of Camelot[/i]
* One of my all-time favourite books, re-read countless times; my paperback is forty-two years old, and still going!
**Bester collaboration: Zelazney finished the unfinished book.
There's also the Amber series, which is well-worth reading all on it's own, I went through the entire ten books in one run a while back, which I'd never done before, and really enjoyed it, I'd never previously bothered with the five later books.
Ursula K LeGuin, Fritz Leiber, Keith Laumer, Barbara Hambley, Gary Gibson, Cory Doctorow, Samuel R Delaney, C J Cherryh, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Ray Bradbury, and Paolo Bacigalupi are all superb writers who have books that are really worth hunting down.
Lord of Light is fab... Love Amber as well, it's one of those that's sort of classic fantasy, but can be considered SF too- swords and sufficiently advanced magic to be confused with science.
Hang on, did we get to page 3 and I didn't recommend The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress? Or, Door into Summer for that matter despite its ever so slightly paedo plot. But mostly The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, it's awesome.
I read a lot of Moorcock back in the day - a true original but pretty much the definition of a hack writer, so it's inevitable his stuff hasn't aged well. Think it would have been amazing to read at the time they were coming out, there was very little like that around.IdleJon - MemberJulianA - Member
No mention of Michael Moorcock yet? I used to like the Jerry Cornelius books, and the Eternal Champion series was very good. Also maybe not science fiction, but the line between fantasy and sci-fi can be a bit blurred at times...I used to love Moorcock back in the 80s but I read Elric: The Moonbeam Roads earlier in the year and wasn't too impressed. It was ok, nothing more. I probably prefer the Pyat series these days.
Again, not SF (but definitely Speculative Fiction), I've recently read a couple of Graham Joyce novels. (Year of the Ladybird and Some Kind of Fairytale) and thought they were excellent in a Robert Holdstock/Alan Garner sort of genre. I loved Holdstock's Mythago Wood years ago and am afraid to re-read it in case I think it's awful!
Love Robert Holdstock's work - beautiful books in a very English tradition. Not just the myths and stories he drew from, but he was very evocative of the English countryside. Not re-read them either but suspect they would stand up, although they got a bit samey as he was content with just exploring the Mythago wood world he had created. Surprised to read that he had passed away at 60.
I've read [i]dying of the light[/i] and was impressed - wouldn't recommend it as a must-read or anything but it definitely shows he's a serious writer. Think he's a natural with character and story and could write in any genre - although it's interesting to hear him talk about [i]the Armegeddon rag [/i]- how its failure absolutely walloped his confidence as a novelist.
With the popularity of George R R Martin's fantasy books these days have many people read his SF stuff? I find he's great at building a world and place for the characters but then tends to stuff a rather boring story on top, at least for the ones I've read so far.
Have purchased Consider Phlebas & Dune as next on my list. Was going to go with Asimov but the kindle versions seem a bit here and there so will need to find paper versions of the foundation triology, which I fancy.
Didn't have time to read the entire thread, but if it hasn't been mentioned, 'A Canticle for Leibowitz' by Walter Miller is good post-apocalyptic/science fiction work
Some newer author's I like :-
Patrick Lee - The Breach trilogy
Warren Fahy - Fragment/Pandemonium
John Scalzi - Old man's war
Alex Scarrow - Last light and Afterlight
Simon Toyne - Sanctus trilogy
CountZero - Member
I'm currently re-reading, (again), all of Iain M Banks' novels in order from first to last, on Excession at the mo'.
Me too. On Look to Windward now. I first read a lot of sci-fi when I was a lot younger and I'm finding that I'm getting a lot more from it the second (or third or fourth) time around. Feersum Endjinn & Against a Dark Background I enjoyed much more this time around, for example.
Think I'll try re-reading a few authors mentioned above inc David Brin and Kim Stanley Robinson, so thanks for the reminders.
Without belittling his work too much, I found Alastair Reynolds to be a bit sub-Iain M Banks. Since re-reading Banks I thought maybe Reynolds had lifted a few ideas, such as the twist in Chasm City [SPOILER ALERT] with Tanner's identity being very similar to the Zakalwe twist in Use of Weapons. There's others I'm sure, but its all getting a bit blurry (beer maybe a contributing factor 🙂 ).
Edit: and I hated The Forever War 😀
I'll chuck in Roadside Picnic (1971) by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.
This short story heavily influenced the '79 Andrei Tarkovsky film 'Stalker'
... which in turn was a heavy influence on the PC game 'Stalker'
No time for for pages of detail tonight but:
Citizen of the Galaxy (forgot the author). Hitchhikers Guide to.the Galaxy
Dune by Frank Herbert (as noted above film is bobbins in comparison)
I might try a few of the other above suggestions as looking for something new and mostly been reading other stuff lately.
So started reading the Kraken Wakes the other day, got about a 3rd of the way through and gave up. It's dry as hell imo, more a commentary on official reports and propaganda than an actual sci fi novel, it's very slow. So I gave up on that.
Then I turned to Consider Phlebas last night, fan-bloody-tastic! four chapters in and I already feel like i'm in a different world. Think I've found a new author to get caught up in! 🙂
Think I've found a new author to get caught up in!
You are so very lucky, I wish I could forget all his stuff then start over again fresh.
Make sure you give his non sci-fi stuff a read, it's just plain old "Iain Banks" rather than "Iain M Banks" when he wrote them.
I realy enjoyed (well, enjoyed isn't the word for Donaldson books) the Gap Cycle set of books by Steven Donaldson. Brutal in some places though.
WackoAK - Member
Think I've found a new author to get caught up in!
You are so very lucky, I wish I could forget all his stuff then start over again fresh.Make sure you give his non sci-fi stuff a read, it's just plain old "Iain Banks" rather than "Iain M Banks" when he wrote them.
Ye think I've got it in mind to switch between the sci and the iain banks stuff. 🙂
Not seen it mentioned, but I'll throw in Adrian Dawson's Sequence. Read most of the big SF hitters on here, and this lad's book absolutely blew me away! A young designer from Sheffield, his 2nd or 3rd book, and made it onto the Times Bestseller list! Utterly suberbly written, time tavel meets Da Vinci code, with a twist that will have you finishing the book, turning it over and reading it again! Can't recommend it enough! You can harangue him on twitter & facebook too! Go check it out, you won't be disappointed!
citizen of the galaxy - robert heinlein.
roadside picnic - +1 0ne of my favorites.
as an aside, I met iain banks and did some work for him - he could have had my company over a barrel for a lot of money due to a stupid but genuine paperwork mistake by one of our subcontractors, but didn't. He was a complete gentleman!
Just finished Ubik, wow, what a story! Highly recommended.