Recommend me sci-fi/fantasy books

[Kuciwalker]

[Qilue]

Not so Kuci, registered Nov 2003.

[Jaguar]

This is clearly an impostor.

[boann]

Originally posted by Bird Jaguar
Tad Williams: Otherland (4 vols)
Heinlein: Time Enough for Love
Piers Anthony: Kirilian Quest Series (4+ books)

thank you... i was reading the posts and was surprised no one had mentioned HEINLEIN yet.

you should read Methuselah's Children first before
reading time enough for love.. ... its the short story
that sets up the beginning of Lazarus Long's epic

Methuselah's Children
Time Enough For Love
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
To Sail Beyond The Sunset
The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
Stranger In A Strange Land
Farnham's Freehold

those are some of my favorites of his


i just finished reading the
Symphony of Ages series by elizabeth haydon
its more fantasy than science fiction though.

[quantum_mechani]

Elizabeth Moon: Looks fairly good, might try it.

Kate Elliot: Fairly mixed reviews, probably pass.

Heinlein: I read quite a few of his and liked them (Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Citizen of the Galaxy), however, of the ones you mentioned the only one I read is The Cat Who Walked Through Walls, and I didn't like it much.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Qilue
Not so Kuci, registered Nov 2003.

That matters not.

[Flip McWho]

Peter F Hamilton - anything really though the Night's Dawn trilogy stands out as my fav.

[boann]

Originally posted by quantum_mechani
Elizabeth Moon: Looks fairly good, might try it.

Kate Elliot: Fairly mixed reviews, probably pass.

Heinlein: I read quite a few of his and liked them (Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Citizen of the Galaxy), however, of the ones you mentioned the only one I read is The Cat Who Walked Through Walls, and I didn't like it much.

probably of all those in the list that one is on the bottom of the list...
try ... time enough for love
or at least the classic.. stranger in a strange land.

[Impaler[WrG]]

I read a lot of short stories myself

Issac Asimov short robot story colections
I Robot (not to be confused with the bastardized movie)
Robot Dreams
Asimov Gold
Robot Visions

Also check out the Caves of Steel series by Asimov, definatly the best Sci-Fi decective novels ever concived (think Blade Runner but several orders of magnitude more intelectual).

Also check out the "Years Best SF #" series Edited by David G. Heartwell. Its a yearly colection of the "best" Sci-Fi published in the year, their up to the 9th one so far and its a great way to aquaint yourself with a diverse group of newer and less well known writers.

[Sikander]

For Zelazny definitely read Lord of Light. It's certainly his most accessible novel, and probably his best. A very interesting mixture of SF and Fantasy and all of it in service to a very interesting story. If you like this book, check out Creatures of Light and Darkness which has some similar ideas but is a lot less structured and a good deal more amusing. If you like this one too, then you probably like Zelazny. Check out the Amber series next. It's fascinating and maddeningly uneven in quality. The first two books are fantastic (there are 10 total iirc) and after that they vary a lot in quality. Though some of the later books are good, none are as good as the first couple and the series mainly exists in order to flesh out / explore the interesing universe he's created. Better than that series are a couple of shorter ones. Dilvish the Damned / The Changing Land which are almost everything that the Amber Series is not. The first book is a collection of short stories about Dilvish that Zelazny wrote for magazines. The second book is a brilliant and focused novel which takes Dilvish through to the conclusion. Likewise, Changeling / Wizard World are much more focused efforts by Zelazny while they still have the sorts of interesting ideas and thrills typical of his best work. Originally meant to be at least a trilogy, unfortunately only two were written.

[Zoid]

I´m currently reading Ken MacLeods "The Light Engine" series. Pretty good sf.

Also worth mentioning is Robin Hobbs "The Liveship Traders", it isn´t many fantasy books that manages to blow my socks off these days, but this series did. Impressively multi faceted plot, excellent delivery and closure. Even though you figure some sub plots out pretty early on, it´s still a really marvelous read. I can´t really praise this series enough. I think it´s a good sign when you´ve read 2000+ pages (hardback edition) and still want more. And not one single bit of it is fluff or filling

Other posters mentioned favourites of mine, like Feist, Asimov and LeGuin, so I won´t. But Wraith mentioned the "Daughter of the Empire" series, and I must say that they are without doubt one of the very best fantasy/sf series I´ve ever read.

And I don´t think anyone else mentioned the "Rama" books by Arthur C Clarke. A bit stiff, but still worth reading...

[Patroklos]

David Brin.

Not quite sure how you got to The Uplife War without at least reading Startide Rising, which is by far the best of the Uplift Series. There is also Sundier, Brightness Reef, Infinity's Shores , and one other I can't remember off the top of my head.

Glory Season and Earth and also excellent. His latest, Kiln People is also great.

[ajbera]

I'd like to second the person who suggested Alfred Bester. The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination are 2 of the best sf books I've ever read.

Also, do read some Heinlein. You won't regret it. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is particularly excellent, but it's hard to go wrong with most of his work. Also read Starship Troopers (regardless of how you felt about the movie).

If you liked A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge, try the prequel (30,000 years beforehand - one hell of a prequel) called A Deepness in the Sky. I haven't read Fire yet, but I just read Deepness, and it was great.

For fantasy, I second Jack Vance. Tales of the Dying Earth, the Lyonesse trilogy, and his science fiction is very adventurous and fun - Planet of Adventure series (4 books) and the Demon Princes (5 books). Some people dislike Vance, so try before you buy.

If you like "superheroes" (and who doesn't?), the first 3 books of George R. Martin's Wild Cards series are wonderful.

Theodore Sturgeon did more than stories, he produced some fine sf novels. Try More Than Human and To Marry Medusa.

More fantasy - the Gormenghast series by Mervyn Peake. Many consider this to be the finest fantasy series ever. Very, very different from your standard Tolkienesque fare. No magic, just a strange collection of characters doing their deeds in an enormous and ancient city.

I'll post more as I think of them.

[ajbera]

Oh, for hard sf, Dragon's Egg by Robert Forward.

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
I should check out Elliot, I read her first in the series..

Jon Miller

They're very good, but obviously not for everyone. They have a 'gritty' feel to the writing. The 4th book is kinda 'all over the place' but the fifth brings it all back into focus. I'm looking forward to the sixth.

Another author that I pick up virtually 'sight unseen' is Barbara Hambley. The walls of air trilogy is a good intro to her unusual work.

Michael Moorcock was one of the first fantasy writers whose work I couldnt get enough of when I started reading the genre. I havent read anything for a 20-30 years though so I dont know if it stands "the test of time".