Sci-Fi Books

Member 96

I agree on the Hamilton and the Simmons, not just the Olympus stuff, all of Simmons is excellent, Bear though is clearly *not* a sci fi writer in the traditional sense whatever the book jacket says, kinda the McDonals cheeseburger of the sci fi realm in my clearly unhumble opinion :) and the rest well, maybe fun reads but not exactly the deeper end of the pool are they? ;)

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peterchen

Stanislaw Lem[^] He's as much a philosopher as a science fictionaire.

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blackjack2150

My favorites are: Arthur C Clarke - [Childhood's End](http://Childhood's End)[^] : an absolute classic William Gibson - Neuromancer[^] : cyberpunk at it's best (a bit more difficult though)

Lost User

I find Peter Hamilton has good stories but weak endings but liked the Event Horizon series.

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Lost User

Ah, an old favourite :cool:

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Stuart Dootson

I'll second Jerry Hammond's suggestion of Neal Stephenson. Iain M Banks[^] - I especially enjoyed his earlier stuff, like Consider Phlebas and The Player of Games. And then you might read his non-SF stuff, published under his real name...which is Iain (M) Banks! The Crow Road and Complicity are good. I enjoyed The Wasp Factory, but that's an acquired taste. I've always been partial to a bit of Bruce Sterling[^] as well.

Mustafa Ismail Mustafa

Have you guys ruled out Isaac Asimov? I mean, its not new but I've read and read the robot series books and the foundations series books again and again to the point where my books are in tatters. Another older series by Piers Anthony is the "Apprentice Adept" series though his Xanth series are cool too. yes yes I KNOW they're older but they make good reads! :p

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originSH

I liked the ending of the Commonwealth Saga, it's ending was nowhere near as weak as a Stephen King ending hehe, I'm not sure any ending could be though :P I've only just gotten hold of some of his other books so I'll see how they are :)

hairy_hats

Stephen Baxter, especially Titan and Evolution. Very good indeed.

hairy_hats

The Cyberiad is great.

originSH

As others have said, Peter F. Hamilton[^] and Iain M Banks[^] are great. A name I haven't spotted yet (although I might have missed it) is Larry Niven[^] who is the author of the ringworld books. They aren't quite as deep as some of the others mentioned here but I found them enjoyable.

destynova

Iain M. Banks's Culture novels are among the best books I've read... accompanied by (non sci-fi) the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson (amazing stuff) and some of Andy McNab's fiction (Remote Control, Crisis Four being good examples). Check out "Consider Phlebas" by Banks, it's a great read.

DumpsterJuice

You MUST read "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson. Its a classic from the Mid 90's that has quite a lot of predictions that came true.

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stevepqr

Not new but perhaps one you may have missed - Bob Shaw, particularly The Palace of Eternity, Vertigo, Who Goes Here and Orbitville. Also I found Keith Laumer good too with a lot of humor in the stories particularly the Lafayette O'Leary series.

Apathy Rules - I suppose...

Jim Crafton

I like most of Greg Bear. I thought Eon, The Forge of God, Anvil of Stars were all great reads with some really interesting ideas in them. Ditto for the Ian Douglas stuff. The way he gradually introduces technology (the 6 books take place over roughly 300 years), speculating on advances, how he describes space travel, all of these were pretty interesting and seemed to more firmly rooted in "science" than plain fiction. As for the deeper end of the pool? I have no idea. I just know I enjoyed reading them and considering some of the tech ideas he postulated :)

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MajorTom123

The Mote in God's Eye Sequel: The Gripping Hand Robot Novels by Asimov (Foundation Series: Foundation and Earth, Foundation and empire, etc...) Sphere - The book, not the movie. by Crichton The Tek novels are very trite. Very easy to guess where they're going and of course, the hero is really superman. Non-Sci-fi Executive Powers - by Tom Clancy. There is a prequel to this but can't remember it. Skeleton Coast - can't remember author. It is ok, maybe its me, but by the end of the first third I could predict most of the rest of the novel.

Alan Balkany

"The Man Who Folded Himself" is the ultimate time-travel novel. The author, David Gerold, also wrote The Trouble With Tribbles in the original Star Trek.

Blake Miller

I liked Code of the LifeMaker http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_the_Lifemaker[^] I have not read Inherit the Stars yet, to my recollection.

Blake Miller

Steve_pqr wrote:

Also I found Keith Laumer good too with a lot of humor in the stories particularly the Lafayette O'Leary series.

Okay, then I offer up Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat series! Quite fun!

stevepqr

Blake Miller wrote:

Stainless Steel Rat

Never quite got into the SSR but while we're on the subject of series I also enjoyed Fred Pohls Gateway and the already mentioned Larry Nivens Ringworld Series. I always thought that the Ringworld scenario would make a great adventure game as would the Riverworld scenario by Philip José Farmer where everyone whoever lived is ressurrected and a planet with a single river which starts and ends at the poles and circles the planet forming one thousands of miles long river valley.

Apathy Rules - I suppose...