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I want to get into SF fiction. I was just wondering if anybody had any good books to advise.

My turn: The Lovecraftian Mythos, John Wyndham.

One author that I got reminded of in another thread literally just now - Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. Very interesting series of books.

For those who like a double-dosage of science in their science fiction.

H.g Wells. Loved War of the worlds and The time machine.
I remember lecturing my English teacher my senior year about it when he got it wrong.
I also love Lovecraft. Mountain of madness, Call of cthulu and dunwich horror are my favs.

Armor by John Steakley
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
Haze by LE Modesitt Jr
Any of the Bolo books by Keith Laumer; I believe a collection is still printed by Baen.
On Basilisk Station by David Weber
A Hymn Before Battle by John Ringo
Hammers Slammers by David Drake
Enders Game and Shadow of Ender by Orson Scott Card
Anderson Pohl's Terran Empire series is now gathered into anthologies.
Frederick Pohl's Heechee series is also wonderful (they are not to my knowledge related.
And you can't go wrong with Issac Asimov; unless you buy a text book and then I have no sympathy for you.

Officer-Cadet by Rick Shelley

AustonT wrote:
Armor by John Steakley
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
Haze by LE Modesitt Jr
Any of the Bolo books by Keith Laumer; I believe a collection is still printed by Baen.
On Basilisk Station by David Weber
A Hymn Before Battle by John Ringo
Hammers Slammers by David Drake
Enders Game and Shadow of Ender by Orson Scott Card
Anderson Pohl's Terran Empire series is now gathered into anthologies.
Frederick Pohl's Heechee series is also wonderful (they are not to my knowledge related.
And you can't go wrong with Issac Asimov; unless you buy a text book and then I have no sympathy for you.

Officer-Cadet by Rick Shelley

Agree with the bolded ones.

I don't know if I would call Lovecraft's works science fiction, but there are certainly elements of SF in some of his stories. Pretty much everything by him is awesome.

HG Wells - The Island of Dr. Moreau and the Invisible Man are my two favorites by him
Dune and the Butlerian Jihad trilogy

I really don't read enough good scifi, need to pick up the Forever War this summer.

I'll second Armor by John Steakly - awesome novel.

For the more "near future" SF inclined, I'm a fan of William Gibson's Sprawl Trilogy (Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive).

Also, Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash is pretty fantastic. Actually, most of Stephenson's work is pretty fantastic.

I would avoid Heinlein and go straight for Alfred Bester - 'The demolished man,' and 'The stars my destination (also called Tiger Tiger).

It's an old argument about who is better, but IMO it's Bester any day of the week.

I would avoid Dune as well. Great film, terrible book.

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:I would avoid Heinlein and go straight for Alfred Bester - 'The demolished man,' and 'The stars my destination (also called Tiger Tiger).

It's an old argument about who is better, but IMO it's Bester any day of the week.

I would avoid Dune as well. Great film, terrible book.

I think you meant decent film, incredible book.

Did you know Alfred Bester from Babylon 5 was named after the writer?

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:I would avoid Heinlein and go straight for Alfred Bester - 'The demolished man,' and 'The stars my destination (also called Tiger Tiger).

It's an old argument about who is better, but IMO it's Bester any day of the week.

I would avoid Dune as well. Great film, terrible book.

Come again?

I'll agree to almost anything written by:

David Weber (mans a genius for large scale SF and amazing character development)

John Ringo (amazing military SF writer)

David Drake (good, almost as good as Ringo)

Eric Flint (great author, does SF/F and has great characters and writes excellently with others)

Simon R. Green (his deathstalker series was weird but fun)

Those are the more traditional sci-fi oriented guys that I like but there are a lot of guys who write stuff that is combo sci-fi/fantasy or who write stuff that is alternate history or less space sci-fi which are excellent.

Orson Scott Card and Robert Heinlein by miles. Enders Game is one of my favorite books, and Starship Troopers is one of the first real books I ever read.

I'd also throw a hat to Eric Nylund. He's mostly known for the Halo books, but the guy isn't half bad as a writer and I enjoy his style.

AustonT wrote:

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:I would avoid Heinlein and go straight for Alfred Bester - 'The demolished man,' and 'The stars my destination (also called Tiger Tiger).

It's an old argument about who is better, but IMO it's Bester any day of the week.

I would avoid Dune as well. Great film, terrible book.

Come again?

Indeed.

I would avoid Heinlein even if I were paid to read his work. Starship Stormtroopers can be basically summed up as this: only the military can be trusted.

As for Dune, it makes a great doorstop

Amaya, I haven't seen Babylon deep space 5 yet

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:I would avoid Heinlein even if I were paid to read his work. Starship Stormtroopers can be basically summed up as this: only the military can be trusted.

Starship Troopers is his most well known work, but no one takes its politcal mouthpiece set of characters as seriously as its cultural impact on the genre. I like the book simply because of nostalgia, but you can't judge an author by one book. Heinlein has many good novels and numerous short stories (You don't get to be 1 of the Big Three for one book). That's also not the point of Starship Troopers XD

His most important work is Stranger in a Strange Land, which is oddly ideologically at odds with Starship Troopers in many ways, and only written a decade later.

You should look up Red Planet, Methusela's Children, Orphans of the Sky, and the Cat Who Walks Through Walls. Orphans of the Sky is probably my second favorite Heinlein novel.

AustonT wrote:

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:I would avoid Heinlein and go straight for Alfred Bester - 'The demolished man,' and 'The stars my destination (also called Tiger Tiger).

It's an old argument about who is better, but IMO it's Bester any day of the week.

I would avoid Dune as well. Great film, terrible book.

Come again?

I am speechless at this comment.

Probably the first person I've ever heard say that Dune is a terrible book. I literally mean that, I love the book and have heard nothing but the highest of praises for it.

Wow...just, wow.

If you get to say The Lovecraftian Mythos i get to say Frankenstein
Though if you haven't read it Frankenstein really is worth a read...
As for more modern Sci-Fi...
The Legion series by Marshall S. Thomas.
I enjoyed it a lot myself.

Some good reads up above for sure. I am partial to Kurt Vonnegut his "Cats Cradle" got me to read his other stuff which is much less sci fi. I think he felt he was not a sci fi writer, at least not intentionally. With Cats Cradle and Slaughterhouse 5 under his belt I guess that seals the deal.

As for Dune, I thought the books were great, the movies were decent.

LordofHats wrote:

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:I would avoid Heinlein even if I were paid to read his work. Starship Stormtroopers can be basically summed up as this: only the military can be trusted.

Starship Troopers is his most well known work, but no one takes its politcal mouthpiece set of characters as seriously as its cultural impact on the genre. I like the book simply because of nostalgia, but you can't judge an author by one book. Heinlein has many good novels and numerous short stories (You don't get to be 1 of the Big Three for one book). That's also not the point of Starship Troopers XD

His most important work is Stranger in a Strange Land, which is oddly ideologically at odds with Starship Troopers in many ways, and only written a decade later.

You should look up Red Planet, Methusela's Children, Orphans of the Sky, and the Cat Who Walks Through Walls. Orphans of the Sky is probably my second favorite Heinlein novel.

Starship Troopers should be remembered for introducing the concept of power armor and orbital assault. Space Marines are essential Mobile Infantry.

The politics in ST are juvenile, but his description of the military is excellent if idealistic.

I don't know if it still is, but at one point Starship Troopers was on the USMC's Commandant's reading list along with Ender's Game.

HG Wells, the master!-War of the Worlds, Food of the Gods, the Island of Dr. Moreau
EDITE: Jules Verne (senility kicking in again) - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Larry Niven and Gerry Pournelle (more hard sci fi)
- Lucifer's Hammer (comet hits the earth and society after)
- Footfall (aliens try to take over the earth)
Julian May - Golden Torc (humans find a way back to 6mm BC and discover we are not alone.
EDIT: Herbert-Dune. How could I forget.

I would go with:

Slaughter House Five
Dune
The Foundation Trilogy
The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy
Fahrenheit 451
Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep
And anything by William Gibson, but most likely 'Neuromancer' as its absolute quality!

Edited for my own fail

Oh, I forgot the Hitchiker's Guide. Probably one of my fav series of all times.

Anything by Matt Ward and C.S. Goto.

[/sarcasm]

Dune, Ender's Game, War of the Worlds.

Yeah, I have the Hitch Hikers Guide original radio series on tape. Still makes me laugh, even after 20+ years!

OT but help me out. Why do people like Ender's Game? I find

interesting, but figured out it relatively midway through. I didn't think the writing was particularly good, with limited character development. That and everything seemed pretty effortless to the protagonist, like he never seemed to break a sweat.

Anything by Iain M Banks, although Surface Detail and Look to Windward are my favorites.

Scratch Monkey, by Charles Stross is excellent as well, although I'd probably go with The Atrocity Archive first.

The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson is probably one of my favorite books of all time.

Frazzled wrote:
Orson Welles - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

I think you mean Jules Verne there, Frazzled

Dune, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune by Frank Herbert.
Anything by HG Wells but special mention to The Sleeper Awakes.
Rendezvous with Rama, 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke. The best hard science fiction writer ever, in my opinion.
Anything by Philip K. Dick.
The Hitchhikers "Trilogy in Five Parts" by Douglas Adams (and also the Dirk Gently books as they also include some sci-fi elements).



Automatically Appended Next Post:

sarpedons-right-hand wrote:Yeah, I have the Hitch Hikers Guide original radio series on tape. Still makes me laugh, even after 20+ years!

I got them on CD for christmas. So awesome...

Douglas Adams.

I'm currently working on the 4 part Trilogy.

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:I would avoid Heinlein even if I were paid to read his work. Starship Stormtroopers can be basically summed up as this: only the military can be trusted.

Really because that's not even close to the message I (or wikipedia for that matter) got out of it.
Wiki: The overall theme of the book is that social responsibility requires being prepared to make individual sacrifice.
Your synopsis lead me to the conclusion you never read the book, but did watch the movie; you know kind of like what you did with Dune.

As for Dune, it makes a great doorstop

Ah yes the inaugural winner of the Nebula Award and quite possibly the best selling science fiction novel of all time; must be garbage. In the way that Shakespeare is absolute garbage. /rollseyes. Not an easy read and yet still MUST be mentioned in any discussion of the "best" of Sci Fi.

Frazzled wrote:OT but help me out. Why do people like Ender's Game? I find

Spoiler:

The hook that they were actually piloting the fleet

interesting, but figured out it relatively midway through. I didn't think the writing was particularly good, with limited character development. That and everything seemed pretty effortless to the protagonist, like he never seemed to break a sweat.

Much like Carlyle's the French Revolution and Mark Twain it's a little different for me every time I read it. I think right now I'm focused on the brutality of children attuned for combat at a young age. Battle School was always the best part of the book to me, Once he meets Mazar you have to know he's killing the Buggers.
The first time I read it what captured me was the way society needs, even demands the services of those it casts out. When I first became a leader in the military I was focused on Ender's managerial style of demanding hard work, initiative and giving fair praise and rewards.
Neh?

Cool. Other opinions from those who like Ender's Game?

LordofHats wrote:His most important work is Stranger in a Strange Land, which is oddly ideologically at odds with Starship Troopers in many ways, and only written a decade later.

And Stranger in a Strange Land is, frankly, gak. It's a terrible book. You keep waiting for something to happen and end up disappointed.

Feth you Michael Valentine Smith.

Frazzled wrote:Cool. Other opinions from those who like Ender's Game?

I loved Ender's Game, likely because I was exactly the target demographic when I first read it. But in hindsight, I've found that the Shadow books are much better, both in writing and in story. Bean is simply a better character. Plus, Speaker for the Dead was very meh.

The Lovecraftian Mythos

I hate the Lovecraftian Mythos.

I'd consider Asimov to be one of the essential reads. The Foundation series is excellent and most of his short stories (Do Robots Dream of Electric Sheep? and I Robot are good anthologies) are brilliant and (were) groundbreaking.