Concerning Fine Literature

[Tuberski]

Again, Naked Came the Sasquatch by John Boston.

I will not rest until somebody here has read it.

ACK!

[Tuberski]

Also, The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Particularly Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erickson.

ACK!

[loinburger]

Again, Naked Came the Sasquatch by John Boston.

I will not rest until somebody here has read it.

ACK!

Just bought it via Amazon

[Tuberski]

Just bought it via Amazon

We'll talk after you finish it. My name and my sig both come from the book.

Can you believe $36 for a new copy?

ACK!

[loinburger]

$8 used - I'm not picky

[self biased]

Asimov's Foundation series is a nice read, if somewhat dated.

[loinburger]

David Drake writes gritty hard science fiction (with the occasional lighthearted fantasy short story thrown in). In particular, check out his "Hammer's Slammers" series of short stories and novellas, about a futuristic mercenary tank corps. He also co-authored the "Warlord" series with S.M. Sterling, about the remnants of a galactic empire that has fallen into barbarism and one man's attempt to reunify/reconquer it (to give you an idea of the series' scope, it's a seven book series, and in the first book the protagonist is on a politically divided planet with a mix of 21st century and 19th century technology, that has had no contact with any other planet for several centuries). The "Hammer's Slammers" series is fairly dark insofar as the mercenary company considers civilians' well-being to be mostly irrelevant (except as stipulated by their contract, but often the government entity that they're contracting with also considers civilians' well-being to be mostly irrelevant). The "Warlord" series is extremely dark insofar as atrocities are commonplace on all sides of the war - the protagonist sanctions rape and torture, and his opponents are even worse.

Try Orson Scott Card's "Worthing Saga." It takes place thousands of years in the future, and tells the story of the collapse of a galactic empire, in the wake of which a society of powerful psychics arose on the planet Worthing. The book seeks to answer the problem of evil: if an omnipotent being can take away all pain, then why shouldn't he?

Alastair Reynolds wrote the Revelation Space trilogy as well as other novels and short stories set in the Revelation Space universe. The Revelation Space trilogy is usually classified as space opera - the first book is good hard science fiction, but be warned that by the third book it gets a bit silly and hand-wavy (I have nothing against soft science fiction, but I don't like hard science fiction that degenerates into soft science fiction when e.g. the author finds that everybody needs to travel faster than the speed of light in order for the story to work, so the protagonist has a magical faster-than-light widget fall into his lap - Card's original Ender's Game series is guilty of this to a much greater extent than the Revelation Space series) - still, all in all it's a good series. In a nutshell, there are ancient machines roaming our galaxy that are charged with destroying any species that develops space-faring technology, and this means that humans are SOL.

[loinburger]

Timothy Zahn wrote the "Thrawn Trilogy," the semi-official trilogy that follows "Return of the Jedi." Most of the Star Wars expended universe stuff is crap, but this series is actually pretty good - it follows Grand Admiral Thrawn, who leads the remnants of the Imperial fleet against the Republic.

JG Ballard writes/wrote (I can't remember if he's alive or not) a lot of dystopian sci-fi, e.g. "Concentration City" about a world-spanning city that has been in existence for so long that nobody remembers that there is a place outside of the city - the protagonist travels through the city in search of "free space."

Camp Concentration by Thomas Disch is about an interment camp for political dissidents where they're subjected to medical experiments aimed at developing an intelligence-enhancement drug.

On the subject of intelligence enhancement, Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes is about a mentally retarded man given intelligence enhancement surgery, and how this alienates him from pretty much everybody else in the world.

The Rediscovery of Man by Cordwainer Smith is a collection of short stories about a post-apocalyptic Earth and its eventual revival of a galactic republic/empire/confederation/instrumentality/etc (it varies from story to story). A sample story is "Scanners Live in Vain," which takes place at the time that Earth has ships that can travel within the solar system but out outside of it - humans who are conscious during space travel are afflicted by Great Pain of Space, so the passengers are rendered unconscious while the pilots, the Scanners, undergo a surgery that severs their brain from their nerve endings, which makes them immune to the Pain. A scientist discovers a means of safely shielding humans from the Pain which would make the Scanners obsolete, so the Scanners attempt to assassinate the scientist in order to maintain a purpose to their lives. In another story, "Game of Rat and Dragon," which takes place after mankind has developed the means of traveling between star systems, creatures dubbed Dragons are capable of wiping out the humans in star ships with psychic assaults. Star ships are protected by humans who are psychically linked to genetically engineered cats, because cats have the reflexes necessary to combat the Dragons while humans are needed to direct them in battle. The cats think of the Dragons as Rats, hence the title of the story.

[loinburger]

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis is about a history student who travels back in time to medieval England and lands a bit off-target (chronologically, not geographically), making it difficult to return home.

Forever War by Joe Halderman is about a man who is conscripted to fight an unknown alien threat. Due to the effects of relativity, a year passes by for the man while hundreds of years pass by at home, resulting in tremendous cultural and language changes to the point that he can't even communicate with new recruits.

[notyoueither]

Every time I see this thread I wonder if it is about good books, or if Elok has some moral concerns with the classics.

[Guynemer]

Jennifer Government by Max Barry. Near-future semi-dystopia where the world is run--officially--by corporate interests.

[Guynemer]

While not "fine literature" by most definitions, there is a quite entertaining series of novels about a doctor in the Roman army in Britain who gets stuck with investigating crimes, written by a woman named Ruth Downie. The first is Medicus. It is set during Hadrian's reign.

For further mystery/detective novels in the Roman Empire, you could do worse than Steven Saylor's Sub Rosa series; I think the first one is Roman Blood. Unlike the above series, this one features many historical figures, taking place over the decades of Caesar's rise.

[Tuberski]

Speaking of Romans, anyone read Harry Turtledoves, Videssos Cycle?

I read them 25 years ago and really liked them. Far better than the "World at War" books.

ACK!

[molly bloom]

Speaking of Romans, anyone read Harry Turtledoves, Videssos Cycle?

I read them 25 years ago and really liked them. Far better than the "World at War" books.

ACK!

I reread 'Agent Of Byzantium' last year, which is really three short stories rather than one novel, but as they all have the same protagonist... it's also better than the Civil War/World War books of his, being shorter, but you can see some of the faults of his longer books. I liked his alternative history short story with the Germans in India during WWII. Gandhi gets it.

I'd also recommend Ursula K. Le Guin's 'Earthsea Trilogy' especially as Elok has offspring- it's great for reading to children. Also her 'Left Hand Of Darkness' and 'The Dispossessed' and her short story collections 'The Compass Rose' and/or 'The Wind's Twelve Quarters' are worth picking up too.

Samuel R. Delany gets two thumbs up from me for 'Einstein Intersection' 'Babel-17' and either 'Triton' or 'Nova' . I think there are several of his short stories in the Nebula Award Winners' collections which are usually worth a browse too.

And individually 'China Mountain Zhang', 'Schismatrix', 'Stand On Zanzibar', 'Bug Jack Barron', Disch's '334', and then J. G. Ballard's (alas R.I.P) collections 'Vermilion Sands' and 'The Atrocity Exhibition' and at least one of 'High Rise', 'Crash' or 'Concrete Island', which are his 70s' urban alienation trilogy.

[Spaced Cowboy]

I just finished Altered Carbon, by Richard K Morgan. Seems there are two sequels and was good enough that I am almost done with the 2nd sequel.

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