I'm looking for SF books that I should read. Some fantasy books might be alright too. A suggestion of an Arther C. Clarke book might be good.

Books I've read and liked:
-Dune
-Ender's Game series. I didn't like Xenocide though, it was horrible.
-Wheel of Time series before it started to drag on. Knife of Dreams was a little better.
-Black Tower Series
-I,Robot
-Foundation series
-Earthsea series
-Pretty much everything by Heinlein
-Rama series

Try and see if you can find some Jerry Pournelle or Larry Niven. Not quite as intelligent as Asimov or Herbert, but still entertaining.

quote:

---

Wheel of Time series before it started to drag on. Knife of Dreams was a little better

---

If you like Fantasy at all, then you need to try the "A Song of Fire and Ice" series by George R. R. Martin. The first book is called "A Game of Thrones."

Be forwarned, though, it's not your typical Fantasy series. Main character die left and right and chivalry is rarely seen. In fact, the books are over-the-top in the cruelty department, but they are the best thing to happen to the fantasy genre in a long time, in my opinion.

Peter Hamilton's trilogy is pretty good. It's the Night's Dawn trilogy, and it's actually 6 books.

Reality Dysfunction, Nuetronium Alchemist, and The Naked God, each one with a part 1 and a part 2. The technology he describes would be pretty awesome.

second song of ice and fire

or fire and ice, always get it mixed up

I recently read Gregory Bear's Eon and Eternity books. I enjoyed them.

Anything by Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash is one of my faves) or William Gibson (Mona Lisa Overdrive, Neuromancer, etc...)

It's not on your list, and obviously might not be what you're looking for, but Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy is science fiction comedy at it's finest.

"Lucifer's Hammer" is a great book!

Any Ray Bradbury...old stuff so it's a bit different, but definitely very creative and entertaining

Some of Ben Bova's stuff is good.

My opinion on this is very limited because I don't read a whole lot.

However, my favorite piece of science fiction is "The Martian Chronicles" by Bradbury.

Recently, I read "I Am Legend" and was blown away. Outstanding.

If you like Sci-Fi books with great storylines and characters that end with mindblowing cliffhangers, I read a great one recently.

Its called "

Childhood's End is Clarke's best novel IMO.

quote:

---

Anything by Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash is one of my faves) or William Gibson (Mona Lisa Overdrive, Neuromancer, etc...)

---

Agree 100%. Cryptonomicon, while not really SciFi, is one of my favorite books.

I'm also a Philip Dick fan.
http://www.philipkdick.com/

Wood

"Perdido Street Station" by China Mieville

I'll second "Lucifer's Hammer"

The Ender's Shadow series is much better than the Ender's Game Series.

I highly suggest any book by Jack McDevitt. I also recommend picking up short story anthologies from the Golden Age (asimov, Heinlein, Sturgeon, Simak, Clarke, Kornbluth, et al.).

If you can find the Lloyd Biggle short story "The Tunesmith", its awesome.

quote:

---

Anything by Neal Stephenson

---

Ditto. Cryptonomicon is just plain excellent. Snow Crash. The Diamond Age. The Baroque Cycle takes a little bit of growing into, but I had a lot of fun separating fact from fiction with these, and I loved the way it all turned out.

quote:

---

Ender's Game series. I didn't like Xenocide though, it was horrible.

---

You're not alone. I was disappointed in the characterization of Ender in Xenocide. He seemed like he was growing senile. Novinha should have been a much more sympathetic character; too much bitterness. And the ending was too "deus ex machina" for my tastes.

Your list at the beginning of the thread includes several different types of SF (hard, soft, fantasy) so it's hard to tell what you might like. Here's a similar variety.

A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter Miller
The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K. Le Guin
Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke
The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
A Game of Thrones (plus the rest of the Song of Ice and Fire series) - George R. R. Martin
The West of Eden series - Harry Harrison
anything by Douglas Adams
Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny

If you liked Dune, you might also like Herbert's other non-Dune works, such as "Destination Void" and "The Eyes of Heisenberg".

A really good book to get to try several different styles and classic authors is Robert Silverberg's "Science Fiction 101: Where to Start". And if you like short stories, look for some classic anthologies (those edited by Silverberg or Gardner Dozois are safe bets.)

G-Mart,

I've always been a big fan of Haldeman.

All My Sins Remembered, Dealings in Futures, and Hemingway Hoax are my favorites. Forever War is what he will be remembered for, though.

Im not to big on the fantasy but I love "song of ice and fire" by George Martin. Its not the typical stuff like sombody else said, and he is very brutal with his characters. It makes it interesting though since you dont know whos going to get horribly maimed raped and murdered in any given chapter.

Bought Lucifer's Hammer, and the first books in the Fire and Ice and Baroque cycles.

Thanks for the input, I'll come back to this thread again. Keep posting books, its fun to see what everybody likes. I might go pick up that SF 101 book, that'd probably be helpful.

Oh yeah, HHGTTG was great as are the Ender's Shadow series.

I love collections of Sci-Fi short stories. You can find ones that have all the best authors in them.
The Midnight at the Well of Souls books is a good series too.
I don't think anyone has mentioned the Foundation Series yet.
My fav would have to be Dune though. I've read all of Frank Herbert's Dune books. Are his son's Dune books good too?

Whipping Star and Dosaiai Experiment by Frank Herbert

Lightening by Dean Koontz

Twilight Eyes by Koontz

Cold Fire by Koontz

Watchers by Koontz

Fear Nothing and Seize the Night by Koontz

Jumper by Stephen Gould

Ringworld by Larry Niven

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

Anything by Frank Frakowsky

I picked up The Best of C.M. Kornbluth at Half Priced Books. He wrote mainly short stories in the 50s for sci-fi magazines.

Interesting stories, Little Black Bag and The Marching Morons being two of his most famous.

quote:

---

I might go pick up that SF 101 book, that'd probably be helpful.

---

Besides the stories, Silverberg includes an analysis of each story that explains how and why it works. For either aspiring SF writers or those who simply want to learn how to better appreciate well-written SF, this is invaluable. The authors represent a cross-section of the great classic authors. Here is a list of the stories in the book:

Four in One - Damon Knight
Fondly Farenheit - Alfred Bester (this is a deliciously creepy story - Silverberg's comments really help)
No Woman Born - C. L. Moore
Home is the Hunter - Henry Kuttner
The Monsters - Robert Sheckley
Common Time - James Blish
Scanners Live in Vain - Cordwainer Smith
Hothouse - Brian Aldiss
The New Prime - Jack Vance
Colony - Philip K. Dick
The Little Black Bag - C. M. Kornbluth (here you go, Jay)
Light of Other Days - Bob Shaw
Day Million - Frederick Pohl

I really enjoyed "A Fire Upon the Deep" by Vernor Vinge. He also wrote a prequel of sorts (set in the same universe, but little overlap in characters) called "A Deepness in the Sky" that I enjoyed as well. He has a new book out called "Rainbows End", but I haven't picked it up yet.

American Gods - Neil Gaiman

Don't think I saw this one mentioned.

Try Harlan Ellison.

I would like to second

Whipping Star and Dosaiai Experiment by Frank Herbert

Third the George Martin series - middle of book 2 right now.

I also really enjoyed the entire Wheel of Time series, although yes it does seem to be dragging on a bit.

Also suggest Raymond Feist - Start with "Magician: Apprentice" and go from there.

I'm also a huge fan of the Pern books by Anne McCaffrey. Start with "Dragonflight."

quote:

---

Third the George Martin series - middle of book 2 right now.

---

No spoilers, but boy are you in for a treat the rest of the way and all through book 3. I hope Martin (no relation BTW) has some great things in store for Tyrion in book 5.