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Any Science Fiction readers here?

Among the many other good books I remember, I would add Clifford Simak's City and Way Station, Philip K Dick's The Man in the High Castle, AE Van Vogt's The World of Null-A and The Voyage of the Space Beagle, Sprague de Camp's Lest Darkness Fall and The Hand of Zei, Roger Zelazni's Lord of Light, Walter M. Miller's a Canticle for Leibowitz.
Herbert's Dune first three books are indeed epic (the sequels boring) but he wrote two other less known but texcellent books The Whipping Star and the Dosadi Experiment.

You cannot be wrong with these books :).

As for Stephen King's The Regulators, one needs to read also its twin horror novel Desperation.


 
Jagdflieger said:
HG Wells, David Drake, Jules Verne and Robert Heinlein are some of my favorites.

Starship Troopers by Heinlein is probably my favorite SF book. It's a shame Hollywood didn't do a better job of interpreting it.
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Required reading...crappy movie though....and it is one of those stories that could actually make a very good film, if people wouldn't mess with the storyline and the whole point of the book.

Ray Bradbury, "Martian Chronicles" -- one of my favorites.
Any of the "Dune" series (Frank Herbert's, not his son's).
Just about anything by Heinlein.
Asimov, "I Robot" being one of my particular favorites....

Oh, a movie that was actually BETTER in my opinion than the original story -- "Bladerunner", taken from Phillip K. Dicks "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep". The book was good, but the movie created an entire world (director's cut....I'm less fond of the original release).

 
PRB said:
and anything by Arthur C Clarke, especially his Rama series. Good stuff. And I like Frank Herbert books too.
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i agree. i love the rama series (the ones i have read) and the dune series, up until it gets to be a political thing. my attention span starts to drop off at that point.

hey, how about michael chricton? is that considered science fiction?


HouseHobbit said:
SF, I do read but more of a fanasty buff...

More into Of course Tolkien, but also
C.S. Lewis for both His fanasty, But also His Theology Books are great..
I like to read, but not limited to one type of books...
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i like some fantasy stuff too, i used to like terry brooks alot, until he got into the habbit of not finishing his books. he would make the end of the story , the beginning of the next book and i would have to wait 2 years to find out what happened. that's what made me stop reading his stuff. and i have all of lewis' books. i thought "the problem of pain" was one of the coolest yet most complicated books i have ever read.

also, i don't know what category it belongs in, but i love to read dean koontz. i have read 80% of his books
 
The best of Heinlein...

... was a chronological anthology called "The Past Through Tomorrow".....

And yes, I never understood why Rendezvous wirh Rama was never made into a major movie.
 
My #1 is Ray Bradbury, started reading as a kid with 'The Silver Locusts' and now own all his writings.
Of course, Philip K. Dick and K. W. Jeter sit high on my list, along with a few Asimov titles and the lone Karl Sagan effort.

:ernae:
 
My list would be several hundred pages long!

My entire worldview was irrevocably changed at the age of seven with (as it has been with many fans of the genre) Heinlein's youth series. Several years ago I donated my entire first edition collection of Heinlein, Clarke and Asimov to the Hammond Public Library. I'd lugged it around for the past (mumble-mumble) decades, but thought they should find a good, permanent home.

Over the past few years I've become quite enchanted with David Weber (Honor Harrington, et al), David Drake (Cross the Stars, et al), and a neigbor of mine, Eric Flint (1632, et al).

There are also quite a number of relatively new authors I've been following, but they include, Robert Jordan (now deceased) and Brandon Sanderson ("The Wheel of Time" series, 15 volumes!).

Last year I (finally) discovered Anne McCaffrey's most excellent series of novels "<TD class=bibInfoLabel width="20%" valign="top"></TD><TD class=bibInfoData>The Dragonriders of Pern</TD> ." It is a series based on the (several thousand year) history of a group of colonists who lost contact with the rest of the human universe, and slowly lost most of their technology, and had to revert to a much simpler, existence. There was a "rogue planet" that the system had captured with such an eccentric orbit that it only came close to Pern on a roughly five-hundred year cycle. Unfortunately, during the fifty year period when it was close to Pern, a strange form of life that destroyed all other life would attempt to "migrate" to Pern. The only way to fight this "Thread" was to burn it out of existence.

Before they lost most of their science, the geneticists among them bred huge flying "Dragons" from a native lifeform they had named "Fire Lizards." Hence the title of the series. One of the unique abilities of the fire lizards was the ability to travel "between," instantly moving from one location to another, provided they knew (or someone could "visualize" for them) where it was they were going.

I'm also a far of "alternate history" stories such as Harry Turtledove's "American Empire" (Americal Civil War) and "Great War" (WWI and WWII) series, and his "alternate universe/history" series "Colonization," where an alien civilization attempts to assimilate humanity into their "empire" in order help fight some really nasty aliens who're bent on destroying all life in the universe save their own.

Good thread! While looking up some of this, I've noted no less that three "New Arrivals" at HPL...

Farland, David "The Wrymling Horde"
Eddings, David "Younger Gods"
Turtledove, Harry "disUnited States of America"

I'm off to the library! See ya! "N4GIX, three, six five!"
 
Cybr, I've been reading McDevitt since he first started being published. Discovered him by accident. McDevitt has also done a series based on the character Alex Benedict in A Talent for War (just re-read it for the first time in a few years a couple of days ago).

The Alex Benedict series: A Talent for War (1989), Polaris (2004), Seeker (2005/Nebula Award), The Devil's Eye (2008) & Echo (2010)

I'm re-reading his Eternity Road now.
 
Willy said:
Cybr, I've been reading McDevitt since he first started being published. Discovered him by accident. McDevitt has also done a series based on the character Alex Benedict in A Talent for War (just re-read it for the first time in a few years a couple of days ago).

The Alex Benedict series: A Talent for War (1989), Polaris (2004), Seeker (2005/Nebula Award), The Devil's Eye (2008) & Echo (2010)

I'm re-reading his Eternity Road now.
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I knew I liked you for a reason, Willy. :D

I've read Talent, Polaris and Seeker, but haven't read Devil's Eye or Echo.

Eternity Road was not my favorite of his - decent read, but didn't hold me like his others.
 
So far, A Talent for War is my favorite of his. But I haven't read everything he's done either. With no bookstore nearby, my book buying is usually hit and miss, so I've missed a bunch of his work since I've moved up here.

Have to make an order to Amazon in the next few days, so I'll be picking up some more.
 
Iv'e read most of McDevitts novels and like them all. I think the Hutch series is best. They are interconnected to a small extent so it would make sense to read them in order.
 
CybrSlydr said:
Good Lord...

Not a one of you posts someone who's written anything in the last 40 years... ;)


</SUP>
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That is because there is not too much quality in SF nowadays. Much of SF was a reflection of the cold war (substitute the fear of Russia with space aliens). Fantasy fiction is not SF but seems to have supplanted it probably because all that can be said has been said. About the only modern writer I can think of is Ben Bova who consistently writes well in the genre. Even he retreads old themes. Since the passing of Clarke, Asimov and Dick the golden age seems to have passed.
 
Heinlien is an absolute favorite of mine, not as much a fan of Stranger in a strange land, but Friday, The cat who walks thru walls, and JOB are my favorites. Ben Bova, Robert Silverberg, and Willian Gibson are also must read authors, never could get into Asimov, Clarke, or Bradbury.

Greg Bear's 'Anvil of stars', 'The Forge of god', and 'Quantico' are ones I re-read every couple of years. I read 'Forge' was optioned by WB a few years ago and I hope one day to see them made into films.
 
Naismith said:
That is because there is not too much quality in SF nowadays. Much of SF was a reflection of the cold war (substitute the fear of Russia with space aliens). Fantasy fiction is not SF but seems to have supplanted it probably because all that can be said has been said. About the only modern writer I can think of is Ben Bova who consistently writes well in the genre. Even he retreads old themes. Since the passing of Clarke, Asimov and Dick the golden age seems to have passed.
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Please re-read my first post for some quality modern sci-fi.
 
BIG Honor Harrington (David Weber) fan although I haven't read the latest. Also David Drakes "With the Lightings" series and don't forget keith lamier's Bolos and Retief!

A GREAT book and a dismal movie - Battlefield Earth. Shame on you John Travolta!
 
Jagdflieger said:
HG Wells, David Drake, Jules Verne and Robert Heinlein are some of my favorites.

Starship Troopers by Heinlein is probably my favorite SF book. It's a shame Hollywood didn't do a better job of interpreting it.
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I'm not sure, but I think the screenwriters read a different book than I did...
 
Don't forget Vernor Vinge. Quality SF there from a Star Trek writer (original series)
Also can't leave out Spider Robinson's Callahan stories. Kind of a stretch calling it SF, but there's nothing funnier out there in the genre.
 
I see a lot of Heinlein fans, and +1 for me, too. Brilliant man in real life, and has been given at least a nod (if not credit) for coming up with the idea of a Combat Information Center (CIC) during WW II, which is now the center of any fighting ship. He also has been given credit for coming up with the idea for a DRT (dead reckoning table), although I don't know how many here would be familiar with that term. Heinlein was also USNA Class of '32, I think.

My favorite series has always been 'Hitchikers' Guide.' Douglas Adams is a rare person. i've re-read that series at least once every three years since 1986, and I bust a gut every time.

I also read C.J. Cherryh's "Faded Sun" trilogy regularly. Very inspirational.

Edit: I've also been a fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs' "John Carter of Mars" since I first picked up a book.
 
Reading these various lists is like a trip through memory lane, specifically the period in my teen years.

The comment about the differences in writers before and after roughly the 70's was interesting. Most of the sci-fi from newer writers that I have read has been aimed at teenagers or is comedy. I enjoy these occasionally as a bit of escapism.

Someone mentioned Robert Aspirin. His "Phule" series is a nice, light hearted set. I have read all but the last (need time to get to it). Alan Dean Foster's Flinx series has long been a favorite. I have the last book in that one, but so far this summer has been too busy to read it.
 
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