Help!

[pepper]

I was trying to think of good sci-fi books to rec to abyssinia4077on her recent post, and took a look at my bookshelves, and realised that I needed some help there myself. My sci-fi collection consists of William Gibson, more William Gibson, Doctor Who, Stargate, Dune (unread), Spider Robinson, a wonderfully trashy book called Pzyche that no one but me has read, as far as I know, and that’s about it. It’s a travesty! I do have more sci-fi books, I’m sure, but they’re at my dad’s and I can’t remember titles. I should be getting them soon, though, along with the enormous bookshelf they're in. *rubs hands gleefully*

So, knowing that there are people out there (*looks hopefully at secretrebel*) who like to recommend books and love sci-fi, and have in fact recommended sci-fi books to me which I’ve stupidly not taken note of (I really need to be holding a pen and paper rather than alcohol when people tell me these things – oh, my lamentable memory) – what’s good? 
 
ETA: Just for clarity, I have read Orson Scott Card, Anne McCaffrey, some Harry Harrison, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and a ton of Star Trek novels (How Much For Just The Planet rools) - and yes, I'm an ungrateful cow to ask for recs and then say, "But I've read that!" :-)  (But this is making me think I should re-read Orson Scott Card, because I remember very little about those books.)

Comments

[secretrebel.livejournal.com]

You share my Spider Robinson shame then. I have far too many books by him. My excuse is that I am watching his personality disintegration as he becomes possessed by the spirit of Heinlein.

An insto-list of good SF follows. I'm limiting myself to ten titles or I'll be here all day. In no particular order then:
- A Deepness in the Sky, Vernor Vinge
- The Dispossessed, Ursula Le Guin
- Her Smoke Rose Up Forever (short stories), James Tiptree Jr/Alice Sheldon
- Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
- Steel Beach, John Varley
- Permutation City, Greg Egan
- Snow Queen, Joan D. Vinge
- Xenogenesis trilogy a.k.a. Lilith's Brood, Octavia Butler
- Drinking Sapphire Wine, Tanith Lee
- Palace, Katherine Kerr and Mark Kreighbaum

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

I knew you'd come through for me. :) Actually, I only have the one Spider Robinson collection - none of his recent stuff.

I have The Dispossessed somewhere, come to think of it (probably with the books I've got coming). I've never read it - the cover puts me off. But everyone recommends it, so I have to get past the ugly cover.

And yeah, I read Ender's Game yonks ago (due to you, of course), and loved it. Don't remember much about it, now...

(Yikes - thunder!)

[secretrebel.livejournal.com]

The rain it raineth quite considerably.

There's a bunch of sequels to Ender's Game as well.

I also think you'd like Steven Brust's Dragaera novels, they're fantasy on the outside but SF is you scratch them hard enough.

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

To the boats!

*adds to list*

[jewelsdelphina.livejournal.com]

When I was a teenager(and I haven't read much sci-fi since then), I really liked Robert Heinlein, the whole Enders saga and Orson Scott Card's other saga as well. Also Anne McCaffrey did some interesting sci-fi as well. Her focus was tele-powers.

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, I should probably add that I've read a lot more than I currently possess. I forget that people don't know exactly what I've read. ;) I loved Anne McCaffrey's Damia series, and the Ender's series (although I think there are more of those that I haven't read...). I'm like you - I read this stuff when I was a teenager, and haven't really read much sci-fi since.

I ought to tackle the classics sometime, though, 'cause I never did get around to most of them - Heinlein I've not read, nor Asimov.

I need more time to read!

[secretrebel.livejournal.com]

I loved Anne McCaffrey's Damia series

Even The Rowan's Great Grand Childrens' Second Cousins' Wives a.k.a More Stuff That Happened To People Tangentially Related To The Plot?

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

Okay, maybe not to the nth degree. *g*

[jewelsdelphina.livejournal.com]

I liked Heinlein b/c there was kind of an absurd 60's edge to them.

[jewelsdelphina.livejournal.com]

ps. Damia was my favorite, though I didn't read all of the ones about her children.

[dhae_knight_1]

The Ender-saga by Orson Scott Card. And Songmaster if you've never read it.

Dune 1-6 are the books I keep coming back to read about once a decade.

And... pretty much everything by Arthur C. Clarke. Rama in particular and Childhood's end have left lasting impressions on my impressionable mind.

Ringworld is also interesting - although I'll readily admit that the Ringworld in itself is the most interesting bit.

Oh, and the Foundation-trilogy is worth a look as well - although it's aged kinda badly.

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

I really, really should read Arthur C. Clarke and Asimov - I feel like I can't call myself a proper sci-fi fan until I do. :)

Ringworld - *wikis* - yes, must give that a go. Ta!

[dhae_knight_1]

Childhood's end is a good place to start out with Clarke. A single book - and pretty short at that. Plus, it's got some of the greatest scenes. The aliens making sure all the spectators at a bull-fight feels the bulls pain? Brilliant!

Asimov's short stories are probably his best work. Nightfall (the short story - not the novel) is unmissable.

Oh, and on the subject of short stories - you should read Clarke's Nine billion names of God. If you never read anything else by Clarke, read this. The ending... *shudders*

And... while we're on the short stories - Ray Bradbury is the king of short stories. Dark they were and golden-eyed is brilliant - but his best IMHO, is really 'A sound of thunder'.

And just to finish it... I picked up Larry Niven's Neutron Star at a sale, and it has two unmissable short stories, too. Flatlander and The ethics of madness. Both brilliant, hard-core Sci-fi.

[tejas.livejournal.com]

The Vorkosigan books by Lois Bujold. Start with Warrior's Apprentice and go back to Cordelia's Honor at some later date. CH just isn't a great lead in for the series. IIRC, it was originally two novellas that later got married and had a book. :-)

Kristine Smith's Jani books... starts with Code of Conduct, I believe. *Excellent*! She's got some damn fine aliens and knows how not to pull her emotional punches. (She won the Campbell award a few years back, btw.)

Check out just about anything by Elizabeth Moon. If you like near future SF that could almost be read as straight fiction, her Speed of Dark is well worthy of the Nebula it won.

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

*wikis Vorkosigan* "a physically-impaired interstellar spy and mercenary admiral from the planet Barrayar..." - I love sci-fi! :D Ooh and a shout-out to Georgette Heyer - I definitely have to read Bujold.

Thank you! I'll take a look at those.

[tejas.livejournal.com]

Miles Vorkosigan is a delight! But it's a good thing he's fictional since I think I'd have to throttle him if I spent ten minutes in the same room with him. :-)

[secretrebel.livejournal.com]

I've just finished Cordelia's Honour (having not read any Bujold previously) and was very favourably impressed.

[tejas.livejournal.com]

Wait til you read the rest of them. ;-)

The others *must* be read in order, btw.

[kalquessa.livejournal.com]

A second on the Vorkosigan books, and on reading WA first. I read Cordelia first and almost didn't read the rest of the books. Cordelia's not dreadful, or anything, just not as engaging or fun to read (imho) as her son.

[tejas.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I found it much more interesting after I'd already met everyone in WA.

[vickyocean.livejournal.com]

I enjoy Space Opera type of scifi much more than hard scifi. I haven't actually read a lot of scifi in the last couple of years, it's mostly been historical fiction or nonfiction lately. Most of my scifi paperbacks are packed up at my parents house until I aquire more shelving. So I may not have much for you at the moment, but here's what I got off the top of my head.

One of my favorites is the Star of the Guardian Series by Margaret Weis. You may know her as being one of the co-writers of of the Dragonlance Chronicles. It started out as a trilogy and then there was a sequel. I don't really care for the fourth book as much as the original trilogy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_the_Guardians

Also, I don't know how interested you are in reading Star Wars novels but the Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn is particularly good and really captures the feel of the Original Trilogy. I also really like the X-Wing series by Michael Stackpole and Aaron Alliston which focuses on Wedge Antilles and Rogue Squadron. It's fun and exciting and has all the things I enjoy about wat buddy movies. Sorta like Band of Brother in the SW universe.

I should have way more recs. Perhaps they'll come to me later. : )

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, Margaret Weis - I liked the Dragonlance stuff, although I stopped reading it after a while, because it never seemed to stop. *adds that to list*

And... I've never been sure about starting into the SW books. I was kind of a fan some years ago, although never to a great extent - I read one or two of the Han Solo adventures (and, having just wiki'd them - there's an android called Bollux! *is twelve*), but never really wanted to get deeper.

Then again, if they're good sci-fi books, and I know the universe enough to get by... You and Kalquessa rec them, and I trust both of you. ;)

[kalquessa.livejournal.com]

If you like the Star Wars universe, I very much enjoyed Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy.

I must know of some more good sci-fi, but I can't think of anything else, at the moment. *wracks brains* I see a lot more sci-fi movies than I read sci-fi books, it seems.

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

I see a lot more sci-fi movies than I read sci-fi books, it seems.

Me too. My familiarity with the genre is definitely more TV- and movie-based. What can I say - I like sfx, and laser blasters are hard to write. :)

[caladria.livejournal.com]

Isaac Asimov. Seriously. Start with an anthology of short stories, because he's best at them. Especially the ones where he writes an author's note between stories because he's funny. Arthur C. Clark is.. not as good as Asimov, imho, but still worth a look (Childhood's End is brilliant). (Not so keen on Heinlein, for the record. Brian Aldiss is okay.) And you must have read the Hitchhiker's trilogy (of five).

Elizabeth Moon, with her Serrano series (the first one is Hunting Party). I quite like Ben Bova, even if he is more drama-in-space than actual hardcore sci fi.

I find it easier to think of Anne McCaffrey as fantasy rather than science fiction.

[triskellian]

You can't borrow secretrebel's best Hainish Cycle books by Ursula Le Guin, cos I've got 'em all, but I'm loving them, so I recommend putting your name down to borrow them next :-) (The Dispossessed is one of them, although AFAICT it doesn't have much overlap with any of the others. It's wonderful, though.)

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Philip K. Dick! I always say no good SF collection should be Dickless! (I suppose that's wearing a bit thin by now, but I haven't used it on you before, right?) Dick does write pulp. There's a lot of sexism and, I fear, if not racism, than certainly white man's privilege at the very least. But among his shorter works, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and "Minority Report" are both fascinating--and different from the movies made of them, the latter very different. I really enjoyed Time Out of Joint, and The Man in the High Castle is a great AU. I also thought A Scanner Darkly was really good.

Dick's reach always seems to exceed his grasp, but he has written some classics.

[crazedturkey.livejournal.com]

Peter F Hamilton (http://www.peterfhamilton.co.uk/) writes awesome space opera stuff that spans whole empires. Also he is awesome...and your countryman.

I love his stuff anyways. When I grow up I wanna be able to write like that.

[rydra_wong]

*points*