Alastair Reynolds, Iain M Banks, and Peter F Hamilton have been my top picks lately.
I also finished up Gene Wolfe's, "The Book Of The New Sun". Very fucked up story set millions of years in Earths future after the sun has finally reached its end life and is cooling down. It's set in a world where todays technology is no longer existent.
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Anonymous2009-07-06 5:39
I just read a bunch of C.J. Cherryh. Highly recommended. Read some David Marusek too, since you probably haven't.
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Anonymous2009-07-06 8:02
I love Iain M. Banks, but prefer his non sci-fi work (published under the name "Iain Banks")
Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon" is, for me, one of those few books that compelled me to read on.
His novels that followed didn't grip me with as much fervor, I have to admit, but I would highly recommend reading Altered Carbon, even if it is the only Morgan novel you read.
I fucking loved that book. In fact, I loved it so much that I read all of his other novels as well. Like you said, they weren't as good as Altered Carbon, but still good reads.
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Anonymous2009-07-10 9:34
I hope that no one has mentioned Clarke and Asimov because they are a given.
I like everything Gibson has done, but I can't defend that opinion if you want to challenge me on it.
I have lethem's Gun, With Occasional Music and stross' Accelrando on my stack at the moment.
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Anonymous2009-07-10 11:29
>>10
I challenge you on all your opinions, sir. Oh dear, it seems you are screwed.
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Anonymous2009-07-13 20:28
>>10
I just read Stross' Saturn's Children, which is my first encounter with Stross.
I do not know if it could be called good sci-fi, but I enjoyed reading it nevertheless, especially after plowing through more serious fiction for these past months. How are Stross' other novels? Any good reading?
I just finished Neuromancer not an hour ago and I'd highly recommend it.
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Anonymous2009-07-14 14:54
i read bloodtide by melvin burgess nearly a decade ago, some what fantasy. some what sci-fi as it's set in a futuristic setting. it's an enjoyable retelling of the old icelandic volsunga saga. quite memorable.
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Anonymous2009-07-15 4:25
Ender's Saga - Orson Scott Card
Homecoming Saga - Orson Scott Card
The Warlock Saga - Christopher Stasheff
1984 - H G Wells
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Anonymous2009-07-15 6:49
>i read bloodtide by melvin burgess nearly a decade ago, some what fantasy. some what sci-fi as it's set in a futuristic setting. it's an enjoyable retelling of the old icelandic volsunga saga. quite memorable.
I'm almost done with Revelation Space right now by Reynolds. The first 100 pages or so were pretty boring, but it really picked up and the novel is fantastic. How are the other novels in the series?
While I'm at it, I'm going to spew out some more questions related to the sci-fi genre:
1) Asimov...where do I start? How is his writing?
2) How's Hyperion? I hear nothing but praise!
3) Are there any novels/stories specifically about rogue AI? I suppose I Robot would be an example, but I've only seen the movie. The best example I have though is I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison. That short story screams "Fuck yeah"
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Anonymous2009-07-20 0:27
>>23 3)
As a System Shock nerd, I'd be interested to hear about this as well. I don't think I've read a single story along these lines (aside from IHNMaIMS).
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Anonymous2009-07-20 0:36
>>24
Hmm, now that I think about it, the Rifters books kind of have rogue AI, and so does at least one David Marusek short story.
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Anonymous2009-07-21 18:02
Just finished Revelation Space. fuck yeah it was great.
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Anonymous2009-07-23 8:26
Just finished Tau Zero by Poul Anderson, best scifi I have read in a long time! It's an oldy now but I highly recommend it if you haven't read it before.
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Anonymous2009-07-23 8:33
Asimov writes in a pretty dry style imo, but you should definitely read the original Foundation trilogy (Foundation, Foundation & Empire, Second Foundation) as the sheer scope of them is amazing.
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Anonymous2009-07-23 10:09
I know a good sci-fi author, João barreiros. The guy's a portuguese author that made the best short stories ever. They are usually a riot, about stuff like education, foreigners in portugal, its allways criticizing something. Here's a link to his story the test.
Slaughterhouse-Five by Vonnegut is pretty epic but it's not strictly sci-fi.
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Anonymous2009-07-30 19:26
No mention of Larry Niven? I just finished The Ringworld Engineers and it was almost as good as the original Ringworld. I've yet to read anything else by him though.
People say his following Revelation Space novels aren't as good as the first. Chasm City is often regarded to be one of/the best novels he wrote. Personally I loved them all. His dark, unforgiving universe feels cold but full of entertainment.
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Anonymous2009-08-05 19:09
House of Suns is fucking amazing. I wish it was a series, I got attached to the characters and settings like a little bitch.
Hyperion's pretty good. I personally didn't see much of anything wrong with it and I'm not exactly sure what the criticism tends to be about.
The action, story, and concepts were all very interesting. One of the better sci-fi novels I've read (though, admittedly, I haven't read many).
Another you may want to check out, OP, is Dreamsongs by George R.R. Martin. It's a short story collection of his stuff and the majority of it (at least in the first book) is sci-fi. All of it is excellent.
Read the Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. They teamed up a few times but that was the best book they did together. It's about humanity's first encounter with a very bizarre intelligent species and the hidden danger they pose.
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Anonymous2009-09-14 21:01
Check out the 'Thousand Cultures' series from John Barnes.
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Anonymous2009-09-14 21:09
Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor
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Anonymous2009-09-15 7:52
Another recommendation for C.J.Cherryh. Few authors write convincing alien species as good as she does. Be sure to give the Invader series and the Chanur series a try.
David Brin's uplift novels are also a good read and have convincing depictions of alien species, though I find his writing style a bit on the dry side, compared to Cherryh.
Be sure to give Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light a read. It's a classic IMO and manages to depict an epic and complete story, mixing Indian mythology with science fiction, within the confines of ~300 pages.
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Anonymous2009-09-15 20:33
Stanislaw Lem's Return From the Stars-
An astronaut returns to earth after about 150 years, it's only been about 10 years for him. He finds earth culture to alien for him to adapt to.