Sci-fi novel recommendation thread

[Adrian Hon]

I thought that PFH's Night's Dawn trilogy started off extremely well and then went steadily downhill. I found large sections of The Naked God to be either totally boring or completely predictable, plus the ending was totally ridiculous; I wouldn't have been so disappointed if the Reality Dysfunction hadn't been so much fun.

I general I think he's a decent but uneven author. His short story collection, A Second Chance at Eden, was very good, but I've heard that another of his novels, Misspent Youth, was complete trash.

[JohnT]

He does have the problem of writing himself into unresolvable predicaments... which, I think, he has done in this new series. I just hope that he doesn't go the route as in The Naked God, with the

Spoiler:

Deus Ex Machina

resolution.

[Adrian Hon]

With regards to the ending, when I read it

Spoiler:

I could just see Hamilton chuckling to himself in glee saying, 'Haha, deus ex machina! Get it? God in the machine? I'm allowed to do this because it really is a god in a machine!' I was not impressed.

[Gatekeeper]

Dan Simmons' "Ilium" is pretty good, and the duology will be complete in July.

Gatekeeper

[GePap]

Another for the Brin Uplift series, speically the last 3 novels.

Oh, and Stanislaw Lem's the Neurological Congress, Tales of Prix the Pilot, Solaris, Memoirs in a Bath tub- great writer, just superior.

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by Ming


Peter F. Hamilton
(The Reality Dysfunction. 1996)
(The Neutronium Alchemist. 1997)
(The Naked God. 1999)

A great trilogy! One of the best SF authors out there right now.

ummm

no

JM

[molly bloom]

Thomas Disch: 334

A dystopia (heh heh) of sorts, set in a future badly broken down America.


Ursula K Le Guin: The Left Hand of Darkness

Her first novel to address sexual politics and what it means to be completely different from the society you're living in. Also exhibits her interest in Taoist philosophy.

Jack McDevitt: The Engines of God

Mostly hard(ish) s.f. novel looking at a future earth facing creeping ecological disaster and deep space exploration of enigmatic alien artefacts and ruins that seem to point at cyclical catastrophes on a galactic scale.


J. G. Ballard: High Rise

The occupants of a new ultra modern building development gradually revert to being territorial savages. Could be read in conjunction with his 'Crash' and 'Concrete Jungle' as his wry look at possible sociological developments.


Keith Roberts: Pavane

An alternate history of Elizabeth I assassinated, the Spanish Armada and Church militant triumphant, and what this would have meant for the development of science in Western Europe.

[Zoid]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara

I recommend Kevin McLeod's Stone Canal series, though others don't liie him so much. He's a commie, though, and I think his work's pretty good.

I assume you mean Ken McLeod, and it should be the "The Fall Revolution" series. The Stone Canal is the second book in the series I´ve heard good thing about him, but haven´t read anything he´s written. I have the second book in the "Engines of Light" series, I´m just waiting for the first one to appear in used hardback...

And I absolutely loathed the "Nights Dawn"(Reality Dysfunction...) trilogy by Peter F Hamilton. It started quite good, but then it gradually got more and more annoying. I started to dislike the main characters to such an extent that I couldn´t finish the first book.

Another commie space opera writer is Iain Banks. I´ve read the first book in "The Culture" series, but I was not that impressed. But if you´re a fan of space opera it should go down quite easily I suppose

[Adrian Hon]

While Banks' quality has declined in recent years, I'd happily call some of his Culture novels as among the best space opera ever written. The Player of Games and The Use of Weapons in particular are absolutely stunning and very intelligent. Consider Phlebas is a reasonable book but not quite on the same level as the other two, IMO.

Incidentally, Banks is a huge Civilization fan. He never mentions it by name in any of his books, but in Complicity the main characters plays a game identical to it, and I think it's mentioned in The Bridge. Azad, the game in The Player of Games is very much based on Civ. Finally, I seem to recall reading an interview with him where he said he had to physically destroy the Civ CD so he wouldn't play any more. Truly a dedicated player

[MikeH]

There was a hell of a lot of discussion of the Mars Books on the Alpha Centauri forums before it was published.

And yeah, all that Banks stuff is true. Any Civ fan should read The Player of Games.

[Lord_Icewind]

I love most of Asimov's novels and stories, so that's why I screamed with rage when I saw "I, Robot"...believe me, if you havent seen it and you like Asimov...don't do it!
BTW, altough it is true that the "Night's Dawn" trilogy does get a bit, well, complicated, he's still a quite good writer, inventing that whole universe with explanations about its societies, cultures, technology, etc.
It is also true that "A second chance at Eden" is very good, and if im not mistaken, there's a story about the father of the main character of the trilogy, Joshua Calvert (can't remember the fathers name).
Another quite good sf writer out there is John Meaney ("Paradox", "To Hold Infinity")...They're both good, altough I prefer Paradox, which has some very interesting ideas..

[MikeH]

I thought I, Robot was a really cool action movie.

When did anyone start expecting Hollywood adaptations to be faithful to the book?

[St Leo]

When did anyone start expecting Hollywood adaptations to be faithful to the book?

When they learned of the adaptation after having read the book.

Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings are rather faithful.