Science Fiction Recommendations

TheBritishInvasion · Joined: 23 Mar 2008 Posts: 1846 Location: The couch

Oo. Didn't expect to spark a discussion. (Or to log on and find I've started another thread I don't recall)

Thanks for all the recomendations guys, now I'm spoilt for choice.
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Merlenyn · Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 11:16 am Post subject:

Foundation and Left Hand Of Darkness were ALSO on my Sci-Fi classes' lists... I think those were in the first year I took it. Second year, they'd been replaced. I liked them alot... Also, going onto LeGuin and LHoD... I also read The Dissposessed (loved this book!) back in a Novel class, which was not all Sci-fi or Fantasy... We read Crime and Punishment, The Castle of Otroanto, Northanger Abbey and some other novels I can't remember right now... they're all in boxes, I should pull them out soon.
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Feaelen · Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 11:37 am Post subject:

Britland with respect to the David Brin book that Tinman suggested i'd just like to say that the book rocked. However i'd recommend starting at the beginning of the series rather then the middle.

David Brin has written a few "Uplift Trilogies":

First Uplift Trilogy:
Sundiver, Startide Rising, The Uplift War

2nd Trilogy
Brightness Reef, Infinity's Shore, Heaven's Reach

These are all great books, but starting at the beginning really helps with the understanding. I'd even recommend reading the first uplift trilogy first as the 2nd one ties into the first... in a way....

more book titles later, when i'm actually near my books XP
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RoseBlood · Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 12:11 pm Post subject:

Off the top of my head- I recommend "The Host", by Stephenie Meyer. It's watered down Sci-fi, all in all (not to mention a fairly female novel, what with the bits of romance, and all).

And though this one's a J fiction novel, it's good all the same- try "The Supernaturalist".
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Tinalles · Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 7:25 pm Post subject:

Oh, Sundiver stunk. It was nowhere near as good as any of the later books in the Brin series, and you don't need to have read it in order to read the others. They stand alone pretty well. I didn't read Sundiver until after I'd read Startide Rising and the Uplift War, and missed nothing.
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Nem · Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Posts: 2111 Location: England

Anything by Dan Abnett but specifically his Gaunt's Ghosts books. I know I know, Warhammer is emblazoned on the front, I was reluctant to read it too. It's actually suprisingly good though, reminds me of some of Sven Hassel's books. Not quite your typical space opera fair mind.

For the more traditional line of stuff there The Dreaming Void by Peter F Hamilton. His Night's Dawn Trillogy is also alright if you don't mind some adult themes.
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Merlenyn · Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 4:24 am Post subject:

Reminiscing, I think some of the first Sci-Fi I ever read was Andrea Norton's Star Ka'ats and the Plant People though I think alot of her older stuff might be out of print now... my grandfather has a fairly decent selection...
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thespaceinvader · Joined: 23 Mar 2008 Posts: 650 Location: Cardiff, UK

Mm, Abnett's good, and while Gaunt's Ghosts are really just trashy war novels IN SPACE, Abnett writes them very well. The Eisenhorn trilogy is also very good.

And I seem to have gotten bottom-paged, so I'll repeat my post for people to actually see =P

E. E. 'Doc' Smith
Isaac Asimov
Hal Clement (the only book of his I've managed to find is Heavy Planet, but that is excellent)
Arthur C. Clarke

There's an old (I think) Gollancz publishing series called something like masters of Science Fiction (all with distinctive yellow covers as seen here which covers a number of excellent single-novel hard-sci-fi authors, too.

Classics like Dune never hurt, but sadly, really REALLY good sci fi is very hard to come by nowadays.
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unimportant · Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Posts: 566 Location: Right behind you.

XD may I just say it is no surprise that the demographic of this forum has easily risen to the call for good sci-fi? I've been wanting some sci-fi book recommendations too, so thanks from me also!

My only two cents is to re-inforce the recommendation from awhile ago fro Orson Scott Card, and say that i personally prefer the Bean series, which starts with "Ender's Shadow", but in order to apprectiate said series fully you really do need to read "Ender's Game" first Smile

Other than that, alls I gots is short stories for the genre.
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CBB · Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 1:15 pm Post subject:

I like a lot of the authors already mentioned, plus David Weber's Honor Harrington series (there's about...two billion books to choose from there) as well as his Dahak/Empire from the Ashes series (only three). They're heavy in detail when it comes to futuristic technology and military strategy, though, so sometimes it can get a bit confusing.
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TheBritishInvasion · Joined: 23 Mar 2008 Posts: 1846 Location: The couch

I finally managed to pick one, today I bought Ender's Game but there's plenty more that I plan to read. Thaks a lot guys.
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Tenshi · Joined: 18 Apr 2008 Posts: 2594 Location: Star Stuff

Ender's Game is one of the Sci-Fi classics, and it's a good read to boot. The ending surprised me, actually, I didn't see it coming. Enjoy!
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Violabelle · Joined: 23 Mar 2008 Posts: 181 Location: Springtime

Tin... how could you have not read Brave New World? That kind of blows my mind. Question

It just seems like your kind of book.
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