[RAILhead]

I'm looking for some new Science Fiction/Fantasy books, preferably a series. I browsed the local book store, but nothing popped out at me, so I thought I'd gather opinions.

As to what I like, here are a few of the books I've read recently:

Harry Potter series
Asimov's Foundation series and Robot series
All of Tolkein's stuff
All of Anne Rice
All of Stephen King
All of Bradbury
All of the Dune series
All of HG Wells

I'm not against trying some of the major fantasy books, like the books that resemble dungeons and dragons, as long as they're good. I also like space-related, future-related books. I'd also like to try some really good crime-related mystery books.

I've just been out of the current author loop for so long, I don't know where to start -- so I'm hoping you guys can help me out.

TIA,
Maury

[paul w]

If you're into fantasy but are willing to try something a bit different, check out The Stolen Child . I thought it was one of the most original and different takes on fantasy I've read in a while.

[Salty]

I heard good things about Ender's Game. Haven't read it though.

Dang I should really grab a good book that isn't theology.

[olePigeon]

My top 5 suggestions:

Steven Brust (Jhereg)
Keith Laumer (Retief)
Orson Card (Ender's Game)
Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman (Dragonlance)
Frank Herbert (Dune)

[Doofy]

Michael Moorcock's "Elric" series?

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by Salty

I heard good things about Ender's Game. Haven't read it though.

Dang I should really grab a good book that isn't theology.

Ender's Game is awesome. The sequel, Speaker for the Dead, is even more awesome. I recommend them to everyone.

[Teronzhul]

Originally Posted by Chuckit

Ender's Game is awesome. The sequel, Speaker for the Dead, is even more awesome. I recommend them to everyone.

Check and double check. I have all 8 books in the series sitting on my bookshelf.

[RAILhead]

I just ordered the first 4.

Keep 'em coming, please!

[DeathToWindows]

My general keeping-people-out-of-trouble-list

Neil Stephenson (SciFi/Tech) : Baroque Cycle / Cryptonomicon / Diamond Age / Snow Crash / Zodiac / Interface / The Cobweb
Neil Gaiman : American Gods
Sean McMullen : The Greatwinter Cycle (Souls in the Great Machine / The Miocene Arrow / Eyes of the Calculor)

a second vote for Frank Herbert's Dune series

...should keep you busy

[Chuckit]

I'm thinking go for Cryptonomicon before you go for Baroque Cycle. It's more than 1000 pages itself, and Baroque Cycle is like three Cryptonomicons. (I'm currently reading Cryptonomicon, by the way. Had to stop halfway through to catch up on a bunch of other stuff, though.)

[Ulrich Kinbote]

Have you read H. G. Wells? Jules Verne? Jorges Luis Borges? Edgar Allan Poe?

*Last two not exactly sci-fi, but you'll love them if you don't already. Especially Borges. Reading him for the first time is like seeing your first sphere after a life-time of looking at circles.

[Fixed]

[davesimondotcom]

My wife (the sci-fi fan in the house) is a big Anne McCafferty fan. She also likes Terry Goodkind.

Personally, I am more into thrillers and crime novels. My favorite authors include Greg Iles and Harlan Coben. Coben's Myron Bolitar series is very entertaining.

[Rev-O]

Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, and Endymion Rising by Dan Simmons. Good sweeping space opera stuff. Very nice refernces to Chaucer, Keats, etc, make it feel like you aren't reading a pulp. This is really just two really long novels, Fall of Hyperion is really part 2 of Hyperion and Endymion Rising is really part 2 of Endymion.

Dunno why, but I love love love these books. The rest of Simmons stuff is meh to feh, but this is great reading. Prolly about 2000 pages all put together.

[SpaceMonkey]

Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis.

[James L]

If you want fantasy, the original Riftwar Saga by Raymond Feist are quite good. There are 4 books:

Magician: Apprentice
Magician: Master
Silverthorn
A Darkness at Sethanon

You can almost always find these books in used book stores for a couple of bucks each. They are also on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/055...lance&n=283155

Cheers,

James L

Edit: The nice thing about this series is that there are about 10 - 20 books after this series that take place on the same world, with many of the same characters. You can read the "series" for a long time!

[James L]

For crime books, I have always been a Jack Higgins fan.

Lately, however, I have been reading books by a newer author name Alex Kava. Her books are in the vein of Silence of the Lambs. 4 out of her 5 current books are based around the same character, so it is pretty important to read them in order.

I think her first book was A Perfect Evil:

http://www.alexkava.com/library/excerpt.asp?excerptID=8

http://www.alexkava.com/library/book.asp?ID=15

Cheers,

James L

[SpaceMonkey]

I wanted to recommend two others but I can't remember their names or authors. I'm hoping someone else can jump in and help me out.

1. The author has a number of novels in the same universe. Earth-based (as opposed to random 'space opera' galactic empires). It centers on characters in a small fleet of FTL ships that each have a minimal crew complement, but are assisted by onboard AIs. The AIs are cloned, and I believe named "Bill," or "Bob," or something like that, but they have independent personalities.

Anyway, the particular novel I read was about a first-contact situation. Some sort of deadly space phenomena threatens a planet that human observers discover is inhabited by a small pre-industrial civilization. They try to convince the aliens to trek to a different part of the planet that will be safe from the phenomena.

2. The first novel of a series that I'm not sure has been completed yet. Distant-future humanity has a complex transporation and energy network of physical tethers between the planets in the solar system. There is a power struggle between the "inner" planets and the "outer" planets. The first novel that I read focuses on a group of people who are fleeing from (I think) one of the inner planets to one of the outer planets just as war is breaking out.

Man, I wish I could remember their names.

[RAILhead]

Yes, I forgot to mention I've read all of HG Wells' books.

I've ordered some more books, so keep 'em coming!

[Hash]

Robert Heinlein - he has some great, great stories, especially about the space ship which was initially flying to Alpha Centaura, but after few hundreds years and some mutations there were some internal fights between members of the crew.. and descendants of the crew lost all knowledge about the ship, the flight.. and only some pieces of information were left intact as tales and legends.. and a young pilot discovers that his world is actually a spaceship, step by step..

Stanislav Lem - all of his works. Great, great science fiction. Stories about the pilot Pyrx, the time travel, Solaris and so on..

[Nicko]

or anything else by him

[SirCastor]

I can recommend "The Once and Future Kind" by T.H. White. I'm only a quarter through it, but it's a great read.
I'm a huge Michael Crichton Fan... I recommend almost everything I've read by him. The ones that stand out are: Prey, Jurassic Park (Only cause I'm a dinosaur fan really), and Sphere...

[Paco500]

Originally Posted by SirCastor

I can recommend "The Once and Future Kind" by T.H. White. I'm only a quarter through it, but it's a great read.

I don't say this lightly. This is the best book ever written.

If you are looking for some fantasy mixed with humor (as Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is for Sc-Fi, which, if you haven't read, you should), look at Terry Pratchet's Disk-World series.

EDIT:

Just to be clear, SirCastor had a bit of a typo. It is the Once and Future King.

And it is still the best book ever written.

[nonhuman]

I highly recommend Kevin J. Anderson's Saga of the Seven Suns series. I'm also a big fan of anything by Alastair Reynolds.

[- - e r i k - -]

Another vote for American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth was promising, but became increasingly dull and repetitive as the series went on. Not to mention political as the main hero went on to fight communism and the like. n:

[RAILhead]

RE: The Once and FUture King, I'm seeing it on Amazon for like $8, and the description talks about a "quartet" of books -- but I don't see getting 4 books for $8, or is the OAFK all 4 "short" stories or something?

[Monique]

Lovercraft.

[bigbird]

Peter F. Hamilton

[finboy]

Originally Posted by Monique

Lovercraft.

Yes, get some Lovecraft. Really dark.

Stephen King has a good book list at the end of his book on writing.

Also, "A Canticle for Leibowitz" is a good one to dig up. Definitely read Enders Game and the followups. "The Stainless Steel Rat" series is also pretty good. Anything by Phillip K. Dick.

[Stradlater]

Not a huge fan of those genres, though some books are good within their own right.

George R.R. Martin (Song of Ice & Fire Series, start: A Game of Thrones) is worth checking out for a slightly more realistic and character-driven fantasy series. Haven't read the latest book, though the first few were fun.

[Rev-O]

Originally Posted by Monique

Lovercraft.

Absolutely Lovecraft, and other associated mythos stories.

[- - e r i k - -]

Originally Posted by Monique

Lovercraft.

My Lovercraft is full of eels.

[red rocket]

I've just finished "Iron Sunrise" by Charles Stross. Very entertaining, at least as good as its sort-of prequel, "Singularity Sky."

His short stories are also excellent. He's reworked nine of them into a novel, "Accelerando," plus there's a bunch of free stuff on his website, http://www.antipope.org/charlie/

[lurkalot]

Originally Posted by RAILhead

I'm looking for some new Science Fiction/Fantasy books, preferably a series.

Are you familiar with Iain M Banks?

[kaze0]

Hey guys, any suggestion for non fiction books? Was thinking about Blink: the art of thinking without thinking, but reviews by people seemed to indicate nothing amaznig really comes out of it.

[lurkalot]

Originally Posted by kaze0

Hey guys, any suggestion for non fiction books? Was thinking about Blink: the art of thinking without thinking, but reviews by people seemed to indicate nothing amaznig really comes out of it.

Read it and decide for yourself what you think. (with or whithout actually erhm ... well you know)

Non Fiction recommendation. Richard Dawkins.

[Rev-O]

Originally Posted by lurkalot

Are you familiar with Iain M Banks?

Fav Banks book is Use of Weapons. Amazingly good. Consider Phlebas was entertaing as well, but Player of games was meh at best. Never got into Against a Dark Background, and kinda stopped picking his stuff up after that. But Use of Weapons is one of my all time favorite sf books.

[RAILhead]

Just an update that I got the first 4 Ender books and I'm about 60% through book one. So far, it's great, you pinprick fartmouths!

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by RAILhead

Just an update that I got the first 4 Ender books and I'm about 60% through book one. So far, it's great, you pinprick fartmouths!

Check out Steven Brust, I think you'll really like his books if you like Card's.

[Mastrap]

You might enjoy Iain M Banks books. They aren't really a series, but they play in the same universe and there are nods to other story lines from each book.

Highly amusing, very unusual science fiction. Banks is a great storyteller.

[Hash]

Did you look at Stanislaw Lem, as I recommended? you will be amazed at quality of reading, I promise you

http://www.lem.pl/cyberiadinfo/english/main.htm

Times article
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...106311,00.html

More info
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/slem.htm

However, these reviews cannot deliver the brilliant ideas of Lem in SF and how they always have some social context - its not a fantasy about monsters, not SF about some innovation, but its always how these things affect people.. there is humor, comedy, tragedy. Tales of Pirx the Pilot; More Tales of Pirx the Pilot 1968 - are still one of most amazing and touching SF stories that I ever read. For example, I still remember one story - a lorry spaceship to Mars with a shipment of minerals (this is in distant future) with a beautiful medieval name of Coriolan crossed a meteor stream on its way back home to Earth. The ship was almost destroyed and crew was separated in various parts of the ship, unable to move to each other. Some died instantly during the meteor crash and some survived for weeks in their locked cabins (by design - if some parts of ship losing their oxygen, doors are automatically locked to prevent full leak of air) until their death. The radar systems of the time and their warning were too slow to prevent the tragedy or or locate the ship after its communication systems were destroyed. Almost all systems of the ship were destroyed by meteor shower but the crew could still use ancient SOS codes to communicate between the cabins. Robots were also detroyed, except one called Terminus, which was buried deep inside the engine room - it was responsible for nuclear reactor fuel and maintenance and was unable to move, but still functioned and recorded everything that happened in his black box computer memory. Everything including the noises - and the SOS code sounds transmitted through metal pipes. He recorded them for many days until they disappeared.

The ship was found in deep space only after years, repaired and then again put on commercial flights. The new crew led by pilot Pirx knew nothing about the tragedy that once happened on the ship. Once checking the engine cabin, he finds the robot (also repaired working on reactor wall - he is doing his routine of reactor wall strenghthening, putting special clay on walls to prevent radiation leak.

And only then Pirx realises the sounds which the robot emanates during his work unconsciously are same as SOS codes. The robot memorized the messages perfectly. Moreover, the pilot can read SOS codes and suddenly he understands that he is listening to dialogs of dying crew members: they are asking each other what happened to other members, to captain; some plead for help; some give advice on where food was stored and how to get there.. some are saying last words as walls in their cabins are damaged by meteors so they are losing oxygen and its very very cold.. gradually Pirx reconstructs everything which happened at the ship that tragic night and then the ending..

The story's ending is still literally imprinted in my memory, cause its so unsettling, it had such a strong impact on my imagination and I am still questioning the rationale behind the story's ending.

"The best story of this collection was Terminus, where Pirx meets the sole survivor of a gruesome spaceship accident — a robot who, it seems, remembers the last words of the doomed human crew. Here, Lem forces us to ponder: Do robots have memories, and does the shock of catastrophe (such as the deaths of an entire crew and the ship’s drifting in space for many years) affect the artificial brain as much as it can the human mind? This story has unsettling implications. I urge any SF reader out there who enjoys reading about A.I., to read Terminus. It will make you think" from http://review.aovandire.net/2006/05/...law-lem-novels

[Dr.Michael]

Perry Rhodan.

I just re-read the voyage to andromeda again (30 years after I read it first) and I am astonished how readable, absolutely thrilling and full of fantasy this is.

Edit
####
sorry, only partly translated into english.

[starman]