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  • twinkychops
    twinkychops Posts: 228 Member
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    Also I can't recommend Ready Player One enough.

    LOOOOOOOOVED that book.

    I just googled for it.

    "Ready Player One is Ernie Cline’s genre-busting debut—part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are inspired by Blade Runner, and flying DeLoreans achieve light speed. "

    Alright, I'm sold. Giant robots. :heart:

    I JUST bought that one off Amazon, really looking forward to reading it, heard great things!
  • eriktice
    eriktice Posts: 42 Member
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    Anything by Allen Steele. I also have read and am still reading Asimov, Heinlein, John Twelve Hawks' Traveler Series and similar authors. Also your Star Trek and Star Wars books.
  • amylahminute
    amylahminute Posts: 613 Member
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    I read Ringworld by Larry Niven after my friend was on a jury with him. Wasn't sorry I did. My favorite (paraphrased) line: "The gods do not protect fools. Fools are protected only by even greater fools."

    I love Orson Scott Card's Ender series too, though I feel strongly enough to add that I disagree wholeheartedly with the man's politics. His book, Pastwatch, is also one of my faves.
  • petstorekitty
    petstorekitty Posts: 592 Member
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    I read a ton of sci-fi growing up, Heinleien (The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is GREAT!), Herbert, Gibson, Sterling, Bear, Clarke but drifted away due to having to read literally millions of words for the degrees I earned, but now I'm back at it. I'll second the Joe Ledger stuff (Patient Zero is the best of the bunch), like Tom Clancy meets George Romero, Richard Morgan (Altered Carbon here) has some fun stuff in a similar vein.

    Lately though I've been burning through some older "pulpy" style stuff that I've found for free or cheap on Kindle for fun, but the one I'm inthe middle of is A Mote in God's Eye and it's very good so far. But if you want a couple of classics to read, try Neuromancer or Snow Crash, I would label both seminal works of cyberpunk by far 2 of my favorite books ever (and favorite authors too!)

    And as for the Starship Troopers movie being better than the book...the movie glosses over all the stuff that Heinlein was trying to say about the "current" conflict and the social/political commentary therein. At least they kept the best line, "C'mon you apes, do you want to live forever!"

    I just got a copy of Starship Troopers audio book. I'm excited about it. (Yes I know real books are better, blah blah. I drive two hours a day :P)
  • petstorekitty
    petstorekitty Posts: 592 Member
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    Does Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy count as sci-fi? It's my fav!

    I honestly have not read a lot of other sci-fi. A couple random novels here and there and a load of Doctor Who New Adventures (the ones from the 90s)
  • petstorekitty
    petstorekitty Posts: 592 Member
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    Hi all,

    does anyone here read sci fi? I've noticed I just keep buying whatever's new from my favourite author and don't experiment so much anymore. Or if I do, I usually wind up with entertaining yet fluffy pulp.

    Authors I like are:
    Iain M. Banks
    Charles Stross
    Peter F. Hamilton
    Octavia Butler
    Alistair Reynolds
    Cory Doctorow
    Greg Egan
    Neal Asher

    Does anyone have recommendations for what else to try?
    Oh, and of course if anyone wants recommendations, I'd be happy to rant about the merits of some of the stuff I've read. :)

    Oh wait, yes. please rant! I am always looking for new and interesting stories to read.
  • wholelottarosa
    wholelottarosa Posts: 74
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    Oh wait, yes. please rant! I am always looking for new and interesting stories to read.

    Alright, you asked for it. Muhahahahahahha. *Ahem.*

    So. Stuff I'd recommend.

    Kiln People by David Brin. It's got everything: it's a detective story, there's clay cloned versions of you to do your daily chores, there's a bit of philosophical meandering about the self (not so much it will get in the way of the plotline though) and there's lots of action. Better than the Uplift series, better than anything I've ever read. (I wasn't too impressed with most of the other stuff.)

    Iain M. Banks - read everything. Just don't start at the first one (consider Phlebas), that one didn't do much for me. Start with Player of Games. If that one strikes your fancy, whip out your credit card and buy everything else. It is one of the best developend sci fi universes I've stumbled into, mostly about the Culture - a group of human and robot factions that don't know disease, poverty or war. Not having anything better to do, they tend to meddle in other people's affairs, not always with the best results. Sometimes extremely funny, other times extremely bleak, always well written.

    If you like your basic space opera with lots of explosions, cool gadgets and gratuitous sex and violence, try Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter Hamilton. It's a 3000 page romp of undead mayhem, hivemind technology and bloody big spaceships. I finished the whole series within the week, though I admit that was before I had a job and more importantly before I had internet. ;)

    I could go on. Should I?
  • Joanitude
    Joanitude Posts: 171 Member
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    I usually read more fantasy than sci-fi, but thanks to a science fiction focused English class I took in college I discovered most of the classic authors already listed.
    I'm re-reading Christopher Stasheff's Warlock series - managed to have elements of both Sci-fi & fantasy at the same time. Caution - he has a full blown pun addiction.

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