Sci-Fi Books
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Stanislaw Lem[^] He's as much a philosopher as a science fictionaire.
We are a big screwed up dysfunctional psychotic happy family - some more screwed up, others more happy, but everybody's psychotic joint venture definition of CP
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I'm looking for some good sci-fi books. Any good new authors? Any suggestions?
ed ~"Watch your thoughts; they become your words. Watch your words they become your actions. Watch your actions; they become your habits. Watch your habits; they become your character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." -Frank Outlaw.
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.
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I'm looking for some good sci-fi books. Any good new authors? Any suggestions?
ed ~"Watch your thoughts; they become your words. Watch your words they become your actions. Watch your actions; they become your habits. Watch your habits; they become your character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." -Frank Outlaw.
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.
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I'm looking for some good sci-fi books. Any good new authors? Any suggestions?
ed ~"Watch your thoughts; they become your words. Watch your words they become your actions. Watch your actions; they become your habits. Watch your habits; they become your character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." -Frank Outlaw.
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.
Where there's smoke, there's a Blue Screen of death.
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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.
Where there's smoke, there's a Blue Screen of death.
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...
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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? ;)
"I don't want more choice. I just want better things!" - Edina Monsoon
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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I'm looking for some good sci-fi books. Any good new authors? Any suggestions?
ed ~"Watch your thoughts; they become your words. Watch your words they become your actions. Watch your actions; they become your habits. Watch your habits; they become your character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." -Frank Outlaw.
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.
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I'm looking for some good sci-fi books. Any good new authors? Any suggestions?
ed ~"Watch your thoughts; they become your words. Watch your words they become your actions. Watch your actions; they become your habits. Watch your habits; they become your character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." -Frank Outlaw.
"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.
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Baen books has several of James P. Hogan's for free... including my favorite: Inherit the Stars
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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.
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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...
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!
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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!
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...
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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...
Another series I liked was The High Tech Knight series by Leo Frankowski. Basically, a Polish engineer gets stuck in a time machine and transported back to Poland about 10-12 years before the Mongol invasion. He builds up a technological society in time to thwart the Mongol invasion. There are about 5-6 books in the series, and it gets a little thin towards the end, but the first three or four books are definitely worth reading. I also favored the Dorsai novels by Gordon R. Dickson for a time. Another one is _The Man Who Never Missed_the first book in the Matador series, by Steve Perry. It was first published in August 1985. I read most of the books in the series.
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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 wrote:
I have not read Inherit the Stars yet, to my recollection.
defintely read Inherit the Stars then. Inherit the Stars is the lighter touch to hard-sci-fi so I will recommend it first unless I find another Hogan fan. I love his books, so I am particularly bias. I started with Inherit the Stars. Did you read both books in the Code of the lifemaker story? there are three in the series starting with inherit the stars (well four technically speaking, though everyone would like to forget entoverse exists). My personal favorites are Inherit the Stars, Gentile Giants of Ganymede (the first two in that series), Code of the Lifemaker, Thrice upon a time, and especially Real-time Interrupt (especially fun given I am in the VR programming business). http://www.baen.com/library/[^] has lots of free books now. Including Inherit the stars, so you can read it for free. http://www.webscription.net/s-60-james-p-hogan.aspx?[^]
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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"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.
What about "The Forever War" by Joe Haldeman ... ;)
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I'm looking for some good sci-fi books. Any good new authors? Any suggestions?
ed ~"Watch your thoughts; they become your words. Watch your words they become your actions. Watch your actions; they become your habits. Watch your habits; they become your character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." -Frank Outlaw.
Ed K wrote:
some good sci-fi books.
It saddens me that this thread has no evangelists complaining about the use of the term 'sci-fi' in reference to some very good SF authors. Sigh. Has the media corruption of proper terms taken over even THIS bastion of clueful people? Tis a debate of epic proportions, but I'd direct the interested reader to http://www.sfwa.org/misc/skiffy.htm[^] and http://www.sfwa.org/misc/skiffy2.htm[^].
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Blake Miller wrote:
I have not read Inherit the Stars yet, to my recollection.
defintely read Inherit the Stars then. Inherit the Stars is the lighter touch to hard-sci-fi so I will recommend it first unless I find another Hogan fan. I love his books, so I am particularly bias. I started with Inherit the Stars. Did you read both books in the Code of the lifemaker story? there are three in the series starting with inherit the stars (well four technically speaking, though everyone would like to forget entoverse exists). My personal favorites are Inherit the Stars, Gentile Giants of Ganymede (the first two in that series), Code of the Lifemaker, Thrice upon a time, and especially Real-time Interrupt (especially fun given I am in the VR programming business). http://www.baen.com/library/[^] has lots of free books now. Including Inherit the stars, so you can read it for free. http://www.webscription.net/s-60-james-p-hogan.aspx?[^]
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
Not all, just COTL. You might like the book The Reality Matrix by John Dalmas. I suspect the people who wrote The Matrix might have read this book. But then, I thought The Thirteenth Floor (a movie) was much beter, philosophically, then The Matrix was.
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Ed K wrote:
some good sci-fi books.
It saddens me that this thread has no evangelists complaining about the use of the term 'sci-fi' in reference to some very good SF authors. Sigh. Has the media corruption of proper terms taken over even THIS bastion of clueful people? Tis a debate of epic proportions, but I'd direct the interested reader to http://www.sfwa.org/misc/skiffy.htm[^] and http://www.sfwa.org/misc/skiffy2.htm[^].
If not 'complaining' encourages some poeple to read, then I won't complain :)
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Another series I liked was The High Tech Knight series by Leo Frankowski. Basically, a Polish engineer gets stuck in a time machine and transported back to Poland about 10-12 years before the Mongol invasion. He builds up a technological society in time to thwart the Mongol invasion. There are about 5-6 books in the series, and it gets a little thin towards the end, but the first three or four books are definitely worth reading. I also favored the Dorsai novels by Gordon R. Dickson for a time. Another one is _The Man Who Never Missed_the first book in the Matador series, by Steve Perry. It was first published in August 1985. I read most of the books in the series.
I loved the HighTech Knight series.
"Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit..." "There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain..."
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Not all, just COTL. You might like the book The Reality Matrix by John Dalmas. I suspect the people who wrote The Matrix might have read this book. But then, I thought The Thirteenth Floor (a movie) was much beter, philosophically, then The Matrix was.
Blake Miller wrote:
But then, I thought The Thirteenth Floor (a movie) was much beter, philosophically, then The Matrix was.
It was. :)
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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Stanislaw Lem[^] He's as much a philosopher as a science fictionaire.
We are a big screwed up dysfunctional psychotic happy family - some more screwed up, others more happy, but everybody's psychotic joint venture definition of CP
My first real C# project | Linkify!|FoldWithUs! | sighist