book recommendations

[clarker]

Hi, I'm new here, but joined because I'm having trouble finding stuff I really enjoy reading.... <br />Was reading throgh the posts and you all seem to have vast reservoires of knowledge on sci fi literature so I thought you could help<br />Was a little put out by the assertation somewhere that women wouldn't like hard sci fi...As I'm a 24 yr old female, and from my reading so far I'd say hard SF i where it's at for me!<br />ok...so...I LOVE Alastair Reynolds...well, I love Revelation Space and Redemption Ark, the rest are so so...I really enjoyed "Marrow" and "The Well of Stars" by Robert Reed but thought his others were pretty crap...in terms of more classic stuff I like Arthur C Clarke and H G Wells ...<br />Oh and before anyone suggests Iain M Banks...I have only read "The Use of Weapons" but I hated it!...Well, I liked parts of it...the bits with Sma and the ship mostly...<br />I read "Pandora's Star" and "Judas Unchained" and enjoyed them but thought they were just too vast...with too many characters to really care about...<br />I think generally I'd say I'm in the space opera loving camp...spaceships please, and hi tech futures, not planetry society stuff...<br />So...please, I'm getting fed up with spending my money on books I don't enjoy! Any suggestions?!<br />

 

[SpeedFreek]

Hi there and welcome!<br /><br />I also love Alistair Reynolds' works. And I agree with you about Peter Hamiltons vast epics, although I did read and enjoy (with a bit of skipping) those 2 you mentioned.<br /><br />I have a few suggestions for authors you may like to check out on amazon. Read the synopses and reviews and see what you think!<br /><br />You should check out:<br />Neil Asher (Gridlinked, the Polity novels, Brass Man)<br />Richard Morgan (Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, Woken Furies)<br />Stephen Baxter (The Xeelee sequence and the Manifold series)<br /><br />Baxter's early novels are some of my favorites, but his later stuff is more about alternate histories (yawn). He did a couple of great series called the Xeelee sequence and the Manifold series - his novel called Titan is good too. A good Baxter starter book is a collection of linked short stories called "Vacuum Diagrams".<br /><br />All three authors are hard sci-fi, but Baxter has moved into different areas too. The Xeelee Sequence of books and Vacuum Diagrams basically encompasses the whole history of the universe within it - his ideas are huge. Some of his stuff may be a little too way out there for you (humans in the distant future living inside stars, human consciousness converted into quantum wave-functions). Check out the reviews.<br /><br />I don't like the society stuff either, which is why I too am not a big fan of Iain M Banks <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000">_______________________________________________<br /></font><font size="2"><em>SpeedFreek</em></font> </p> </div>

 

[summoner]

If you like space opera, try David Weber's Honor Harrington series. It's best if you start with book 1 but not absolutely needed. He's probably one of the smoothest writers that you'll run across, it's tough to put the books down once you start because they flow so well. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> <br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width:271px;background-color:#FFF;border:1pxsolid#999"><tr><td colspan="2"><div style="height:35px"><img src="http://banners.wunderground.com/weathersticker/htmlSticker1/language/www/US/MT/Three_Forks.gif" alt="" height="35" width="271" style="border:0px" /></div>

 

[clarker]

THanks for the replies and the recommendations I've ordered a couple of the books from amazon...everything you've mentioned seems like stuff i will probably like- i checked out the reviews on amazon. although the xeelee books...could someone explain to me the order they should be read in?<br /><br />Thanks!

 

[SpeedFreek]

The Xeelee Sequence, in order of publication.<br /><br />Raft - Stephen Baxter's first novel, Raft is set in a universe where the force of gravity is ten million times stronger than in our own. Hundreds of years ago a human crew blundered into this realm, where their bodies have perceptible gravity and stars last only a year. But their improvised home - the Raft - is in danger...<br /><br />Timelike Infinity - Humanity had reached the stars... and been thrown back to Earth by the alien Qax. Then an artefact from before the Qax occupation returns to the solar system - an artefact that may offer a doorway through time itself.<br /><br />Flux - Dura is ten microns tall, made of nucleonic matter, sees sound, smells photons and swims against magnetic fields. For Dura lives inside a neutron star. But her incredible world is torn apart as she learns of the true role of her engineered race in Humanity's millennia-long war against the godlike Xeelee.<br /><br />Ring - Bolder's Ring: the greatest engineering marvel of the Xeelee, the enigmatic race that dominated the span and history of the Universe. Now, facing a plague that is destroying the stars, a group of humans voyage to the heart of the Xeelee's greatest mystery.<br /><br />Vacuum Diagrams - Much of Stephen Baxter's short fiction, and four of his novels (Timelike Infinity, Flux, Ring and, tangentially, Raft) have been set within the Universe-spanning Xeelee Sequence. Vacuum Diagrams collects the Xeelee short fiction, much of it in print for the first time since its intial appearance in small press magazines.<br /><br />I actually read Vacuum Diagrams first, and recommend it. The stories are diverse in their ideas, from semi-standard hard sci-fi to way out "end of the universe, unrecognisable humanity" styles. You will get a good flavour of the ideas in the novels from this anthology.<br /><br />The Manifold series is a <i> little </i> more conventional! <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br />Manifold: Time<br />Reid Malenfant i <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000">_______________________________________________<br /></font><font size="2"><em>SpeedFreek</em></font> </p> </div>

 

[malfunkshun]

Damn and I was going to recommend the Night's Dawn trilogy by Peter Hamilton, but if you thought Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained were too cumbersome, you probably wouldn't like Night's Dawn.<br /><br />Here are some of my recommendations. If it's contained in quotes that means it is part of a series, trilogy, or sequel.<br /><br />"Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion" by Dan Simmons<br />"Sundiver, Startide Rising and The Uplift War" by David Brin<br />"Eon and Eternity", Legacy (prequel to Eon), "The Forge of God and Anvil of Stars" by Greg Bear<br />"The Mote In God's Eye and The Gripping Hand" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle<br />Jerusalem Fire, Warbirds by Rebecca M. Meluch<br />White Light, Alpha Centauri by William Barton and Michael Capobianco<br />Neuromancer by William Gibson<br />The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling<br />The Terminal Man by Michael Crichton<br />Mission Earth (10 book series) by L. Ron Hubbard<br />The Martian Race by Gregory Benford<br />"Red Mars, Blue Mars and Green Mars" by Kim Stanley Robinson<br />"A Fire Upon The Deep and A Deepness In The Sky" by Vernor Vinge<br /><br />And for a different pace, more of a mystery/thriller style but usually with a liberal dose of hard science:<br /><br />Anything by the Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child duo. To start with, Riptide and Thunderhead. The Pendergast trilogy is great too which consists of "Brimstone, Dance of Death, and Book of the Dead".<br /><br />There I hope that helped. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />

 

[flynn]

If you like your classic Sci Fi (Wells and Clarke) try Wyndam its not hard Sci Fi but it is frightfully good. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#800080">"All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring" - <strong>Chuck Palahniuk</strong>.</font> </div>

 

[jmilsom]

Hi Clarker, <br /><br />There have been quite a few similar threads, which are brimming with book recommendations. A good start is this one:<br /><br />Your recommended "Essential" Sci-Fi classics<br /><br />in which a lot of us have listed our top five books. <br /><br />Another user asked the same question as you not long ago and you can find the responses here:<br /><br />What would you recommend to a starter in SciFi literature?<br /><br />There is a long running thread in which we post our thoughts or even reviews of SciFi books just after we have read them. Here:<br /><br />Sci Fi Books You’ve Just Read Thread<br /><br />One word of caution, there could be the odd spoiler in that thread that gives away too much about a particular book.<br /><br />There were also some themed recommendations. One on space exploration:<br /><br />Do you know a good SFbook about space exploration?<br /><br />And one for 'obscure' books / stories that we've enjoyed:<br /><br />SciFi reading recommendations <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[clarker]

Thanks everyone! You've given me plenty to be getting on with! <br />JOhn Wyndham was my childhood God lol...The Chrysalids particularly...I stopped reading sci fi in my teens and just recently got back into it, so thanks for letting me know about all these great authors!

 

[yevaud]

Several of my choices already taken, I see. <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" /><br /><br />The Medusa Series by Jack Chalker (4 books).<br />The entire "Codominium" series by Jerry Pournelle.<br />Ringworld by Larry Niven<br />Ensign Flandry by Poul Anderson<br />Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement<br />Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein<br />Lord Valentine's Castle by Robert Silverburg<br />The entire "Amber" series by Roger Zelazny<br />The Belisarius series by David Drake and Eric Flint<br />Daybreak 2050 AD by Andre Norton<br />Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner<br />Earth by David Brin<br />The entire "Barryar" series by Lois McMaster Bujold<br />Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny<br />A Boy and His Dog by Harlan Ellison<br />(Edit to add this) Tau Zero by Poul Anderson<br /><br />I better stop here. Next up! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[djtt]

i wonder what the book starship troopers has over the movie<br />the message, although widely misunderstood, is quite clear

 

[yevaud]

There is absolutely zero relation between the book and the moral lessons Heinlein was trying to impart, and that abomination of Hollywwood Splooge. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[spacefire]

in the book, wasn't Heinlein serious about all that militaristic bullcrap?<br /><br />I found the book lacking, whereas the movie, with all its realism flaws , is very entertaining and conveys its anti-militaristic message quite cleverly. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>http://asteroid-invasion.blogspot.com</p><p>http://www.solvengineer.com/asteroid-invasion.html </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[yevaud]

That is precisely what I meant. Heinlein's book was about one's responsibility and duty to one's nation and people.<br /><br />The movie was an utter joke. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[hracctsold]

Hey Yevard,<br /><br />Don't hold back now, tell us what you really think!!!<br /><br />But actually, that was done to one of my favorite reads though, Sphere, by Criton. I have it both on tape and in book form, and have read and listened to it several times. I had high hopes for the movie from the cast selection, but that was not to be.<br /><br />Darker, (or Clarker, as others have labeled it),<br />If you have not looked at that one, it is a few years old, I would highly recomend it. It may not stand up to your "hard sci-fi" statis, but it will hold you to the end. And I can even imagine a continuation after that, even though every one was supposed to wipe their minds clear of the events that occured there.<br /><br />Short synopsis of book- A shrink is offered $50,000 to write a first response team for alien contact. He wants to buy a house and complies. Later he is called to a crash site to offer survivors there grief councilling, but finds it is in the middle of a ocean. Aboard ship he finds his dream team from that report and is sent to the ocean floor to explore the ship. There at the site he finds the hatch is labled PanAm, and the date of 2050 stamped on it. But it has been there on the ocean bottom for at least 300 years.<br /><br />If you did see the movie, you can imagine the ending, but it is how the book plays out that is intriguing.

 

[hracctsold]

Another interesting book the people of this forum have clued me in on is Harry Turtledove and his books. The one I have recently finished was, "Guns of the South." What if someone went back in time and supplied Rob't. E. Lee and his Southern army with AK47's, how would that affect the outcome. He has put much historical thought in it, and comes up with a believable answer. I have found that he has made a complete series out of this thought.<br /><br />But a down side is that I found a Turtledove book at a used bookstore and captured it, only to find it was a teenage view of life on a alternate world with all the trials and tribulations that go with growing up there.

 

[yevaud]

I actually did read "Sphere" a few years back. Interesting read at first. Chrichton is not the master of the genre, and I found some of his ideas and concepts in the book to be more than a bit, umm, "Speculative" to say the least.<br /><br />But, of course, it's only a book.<br /><br />As to the Heinlein thing, I usually have a real bone to pick with Hollywood's continual complete re-writing of great novels into something that's idiotic and bears little relation to the original. Which is my opinion of the movie "Starship Troopers." <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[spacefire]

while I don't fancy myself a Heinlein expert (read only Stranger in a strange land and Starship Troopers), the latter was really lacking in ideation and character development.<br />I still don't understand why it is a recommended read. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>http://asteroid-invasion.blogspot.com</p><p>http://www.solvengineer.com/asteroid-invasion.html </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[yevaud]

It's one of the more Seminal books from the genre. I suppose I could have easily have said, "the Moon is a Harsh Mistress." <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[djtt]

a joke?<br />i thought it was pretty decent, bit over the top and obvious but watchable though<br />seems as i will have to give the book a miss though as your description sounds like the stuff that makes me itch in a bad way

 

[lampblack]

I think the only decent thing about that movie was the coed shower scene.<br /><br />I mean, really -- the premise of the movie involves huge insects hurling giant mountain-sized boulders at the earth from another star system.<br /><br />Like, there's no better way to destroy the earth? And we wouldn't be able to see these big rocks floating in? And the only weapon that the earth's military is able to provide its troops is some sort of firecracker machine gun?<br /><br />All through the movie, I kept thinking that the Big Bad Insects really needed to hire some Vogon consultants -- and do the job right. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#0000ff"><strong>Just tell the truth and let the chips fall...</strong></font> </div>

 

[yevaud]

*Bingo*<br /><br />I mean come'on - giant bugs shooting energy bolts from their behinds? The ships can't get out of the way, and didn't even act as if they expected the response?<br /><br />The final straw for me was the Drill Sergeant putting the knife through the trainee's hand, and then laughing about it. <br /><br />I would have terminated his sorry carcass on the spot. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[yevaud]

Yeah, I've heard it was really bad. <br /><br />On the other hand, an example of a good rendition of a Heinlein novel is "Puppet Masters" with Donald Sutherland. A few things were altered slightly, but on the whole the movie was faithfull to the story. And it was very good. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>