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Posted: 10/15/2013 9:14:42 PM EDT
[#1]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Jack Chalker; more specifically The Well of Souls series. One of my absolute favorites, and I'm always willing to sit down and read through it again just for fun. A close second would be anything by William Gibson, if cyberpunk is still considered sci-fi. I think an honorable mention should also go to Piers Anthony's Bio of a Space Tyrant series. I'm a big fan of the classics, such as Asimov, Bradbury, & Heinlein. There are a lot of classics I have yet to read though, such as Niven or Clark. I still have a huge stack of David Brin novels to dig through one of these days, but I really enjoyed the book version of The Postman. If you think black rifle disease is bad, I have a severe case of paperback book disease. I can't help but pick up a good paperback when I find one, and I'm always running out of room on the bookshelves. Most of them are stacked two high and two deep on each shelf. Perhaps it's time to expand the library... On the bright side, my kids share my love of reading, and my taste in books for the most part. The main reason I collect books is for them, so it's always a pleasure to see them finish a book and go searching for what to read next. Their enjoyment is what makes it all worthwhile! Don't know if y'all have Half Price Books stores up there. We do. Impossible for me to walk out of there without three or four books... lo |
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Posted: 10/15/2013 9:15:34 PM EDT
[#2]
Douglas Adams, Kilgore Trout, Rudy Rucker.
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Posted: 10/15/2013 9:19:07 PM EDT
[#3]
don't read much sci-fi--gibson would be my favorite contemporary author, but i don't know if anyone can top asimov.
i do read a lot of fantasy though, and that's a tough call. my hands-down favorite is GG kay--his books read like literature, not genre fiction. martin is great, but i think a lot of the impact comes from shock value--he just writes in ways that you don't normally read. for sheer inventiveness and a stronger literary voice (IMO), steven erikson is the guy. his books push the boundaries way beyond martin, and his prose is better. i'm probably going to catch heat for this, but jacqueline carey is incredibly talented. 'the sundering' is a wonderful retelling of the tolkien myth...from sauron's point of view. and the kushiel series blew me away. she's still a young writer, so her prose hasn't picked up the lean elegance that kay has mastered. but she's a whole lot of writer. ETA: ursula le guin. if you haven't read one of her books, RUN to the bookstore. |
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Posted: 10/15/2013 9:20:42 PM EDT
[#4]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Robert A. Heinlein and his Future History. We are clearly living in The Crazy Years. If only he hadn't turned into a creepy old pervert in his later books. 
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Posted: 10/15/2013 9:23:20 PM EDT
[#5]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
C.S. Lewis for The Space Trilogy Tolkien or George MacDonald kinda started all that. |
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Posted: 10/15/2013 9:23:45 PM EDT
[#6]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
If only he hadn't turned into a creepy old pervert in his later books. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Robert A. Heinlein and his Future History. We are clearly living in The Crazy Years. If only he hadn't turned into a creepy old pervert in his later books. If I hadn't read all of his earlier works "Time Enough For Love" would have turned me off to him completely. As much as I dig Lazarus Long that is one fucked up novel. |
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Posted: 10/15/2013 9:23:51 PM EDT
[#7]
I thought it was almost Universally held that it was Azimov?
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Posted: 10/15/2013 9:25:46 PM EDT
[#8]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I thought it was almost Universally held that it was Azimov? |
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Posted: 10/15/2013 9:26:33 PM EDT
[#9]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I thought it was almost Universally held that it was Azimov? That was my impression too, for sci fi. Interesting. |
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Posted: 10/15/2013 9:29:34 PM EDT
[#10]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
That was my impression too, for sci fi. Interesting. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
I thought it was almost Universally held that it was Azimov? That was my impression too, for sci fi. Interesting. Foundation trilogy, the I, Robot series... All classics. And it's funny that up until recently the designers of robotic things seemed to voluntarily adhere to his Three Laws. |
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Posted: 10/15/2013 9:30:29 PM EDT
[#11]
I like Heinlein's writing style the best but I like PKD's stories better.
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Posted: 10/15/2013 9:32:27 PM EDT
[#12]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Foundation trilogy, the I, Robot series... All classics. And it's funny that up until recently the designers of robotic things seemed to voluntarily adhere to his Three Laws. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
I thought it was almost Universally held that it was Azimov? That was my impression too, for sci fi. Interesting. Foundation trilogy, the I, Robot series... All classics. And it's funny that up until recently the designers of robotic things seemed to voluntarily adhere to his Three Laws. SCI-Fi can make a pretty good predictor, AI is likely something we should have a healthy embedded fear of. |
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Posted: 10/15/2013 9:34:54 PM EDT
[#13]
Great thread, but fantasy shouldn't be lumped in with science fiction.
You can't debate whether Dune or LOTR is better. They each contain an entire world within their pages. There is room enough for both. For sci-fi, EE doc Smith, Bitches! 
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Posted: 10/15/2013 9:35:01 PM EDT
[#14]
I'm developing a healthy fear of the proposed armed autonomous drones.
There goes the first law right there. |
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Posted: 10/15/2013 9:35:54 PM EDT
[#15]
Also, if you like Card's earlier work, do NOT try to read "Empire".
 I don't know whether someone else wrote it or he just should have put away the pen, so to speak, and retired, but...it's...really awful.
It does seem like some authors need to know when to retire, especially when they go for the "with..." ghostwriter who ruins their reputation. That happened to Clarke, who let someone ruin Rama with the awful sequels, and Niven, with the awful and unreadable more-recent continuations of Ringworld. 
As for favorite author? Alfred Bester. The Stars My Destination is my favorite novel of all time. He had every part of cyberpunk down in a revenge plot spanning decades and entire careers, from corporations more powerful than nations, to forbidden religions and dangerous drugs, asteroid miners living in filth to disturbing cults, even a prison kept in total darkness but for guards with IR goggles. He had commandos with cybernetically enhanced nervous systems they'd trigger by pressing a tooth with a tongue. And a "computer" in the future to him was as small as a wristwatch with a holographic AI head that appeared to remind someone of appointments. He wrote it in 1956. |
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Posted: 10/15/2013 9:36:41 PM EDT
[#16]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Tolkien or George MacDonald kinda started all that. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: C.S. Lewis for The Space Trilogy Tolkien or George MacDonald kinda started all that. tolkein and lewis were contemporaries. lewis acknowledged macdonald as his primary influence, but the two have very different flavors of writing.
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Posted: 10/15/2013 9:38:51 PM EDT
[#17]
Brian Lumley
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Posted: 10/15/2013 9:40:15 PM EDT
[#18]
i'd have to vote for either Heinlein, Bradbury, maybe Asimov.
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Posted: 10/15/2013 9:40:55 PM EDT
[#19]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Also, if you like Card's earlier work, do NOT try to read "Empire". I don't know whether someone else wrote it or he just should have put away the pen, so to speak, and retired, but...it's...really awful.
It does seem like some authors need to know when to retire, especially when they go for the "with..." ghostwriter who ruins their reputation. That happened to Clarke, who let someone ruin Rama I started Empire. Then I stopped. Then I forgot Card ever wrote it. 
I enjoyed the first Rama book, but couldn't get into the rest. |
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Posted: 10/15/2013 9:41:47 PM EDT
[#20]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
tolkein and lewis were contemporaries. lewis acknowledged macdonald as his primary influence, but the two have very different flavors of writing. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
C.S. Lewis for The Space Trilogy Tolkien or George MacDonald kinda started all that. tolkein and lewis were contemporaries. lewis acknowledged macdonald as his primary influence, but the two have very different flavors of writing. Sort of. The relationship seems apparent. |
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Posted: 10/15/2013 9:43:28 PM EDT
[#21]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I thought it was almost Universally held that it was Azimov? LOL NO Good luck finding anything vaguely resembling a universal consensus. Heinlein, Niven, Pournelle, and Bradbury beat him by a mile in everything except sideburns and self-promotion. For more modern stuff look to Gibson, Stephenson, and Vinge. |
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Posted: 10/15/2013 9:43:43 PM EDT
[#22]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Don't know if y'all have Half Price Books stores up there. We do. Impossible for me to walk out of there without three or four books... lo Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Jack Chalker; more specifically The Well of Souls series. One of my absolute favorites, and I'm always willing to sit down and read through it again just for fun. A close second would be anything by William Gibson, if cyberpunk is still considered sci-fi. I think an honorable mention should also go to Piers Anthony's Bio of a Space Tyrant series. I'm a big fan of the classics, such as Asimov, Bradbury, & Heinlein. There are a lot of classics I have yet to read though, such as Niven or Clark. I still have a huge stack of David Brin novels to dig through one of these days, but I really enjoyed the book version of The Postman. If you think black rifle disease is bad, I have a severe case of paperback book disease. I can't help but pick up a good paperback when I find one, and I'm always running out of room on the bookshelves. Most of them are stacked two high and two deep on each shelf. Perhaps it's time to expand the library... On the bright side, my kids share my love of reading, and my taste in books for the most part. The main reason I collect books is for them, so it's always a pleasure to see them finish a book and go searching for what to read next. Their enjoyment is what makes it all worthwhile! Don't know if y'all have Half Price Books stores up there. We do. Impossible for me to walk out of there without three or four books... lo It looks like we don't have any Half Price Books locally, but there are a few in Washington. I'll have to put them on the destination list for next summer. Thankfully I have a couple of local independent book stores that are always well stocked and reasonably priced. Another good place to look is Goodwill. Their selection is quite random, but the pricing is very reasonable. As for the fantasy genre, I also enjoyed Robert Jordan, but stopped around book 5, and haven't had the courage to pick it back up again. One of my personal favorites, even though I'd consider it geared more towards children or young adults, was Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain series. I believe that this was the series that originally got me hooked at a young age. I haven't read it in decades, but still remember it vividly. Another good fantasy book (from an unlikely fantasy author) is The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King, which I remember reading around the same time period. It really is amazing how a good story stays with you, long after the fact. Just recollecting and typing out these books has been almost like reading them all over again. It's funny how just the name of a good book can provoke a trip down memory lane... |
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Posted: 10/15/2013 9:45:06 PM EDT
[#23]
Barry Obama. Audacity of Hope. An excellent read not based in reality.
Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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Posted: 10/15/2013 9:45:08 PM EDT
[#24]
And quit conflating science fiction with fantasy.
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Posted: 10/15/2013 10:17:56 PM EDT
[#25]
Quote HistoryQuoted: And quit conflating science fiction with fantasy. in a pure sense, it's an apt connection. as genres, both sci-fi and fantasy explore everyday human themes by putting the reader in a completely alien environment, so that normal cultural reference points aren't available. in general, sci-fi accomplishes this with technology (essentially the same physical rules as our world), while fantasy does it with some form of magic (different physical rules).
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Posted: 10/15/2013 10:30:59 PM EDT
[#26]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Saddened no one has mentions Piers Anothony. Glenn Cook. Robert Bloch. Glen Cook is my favorite. RAH is the greatest. |
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Posted: 10/15/2013 10:33:42 PM EDT
[#27]
The funny thing for a GD thread is that "get both!" (or really all of 'em) is entirely appropriate here..
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Posted: 10/15/2013 10:34:28 PM EDT
[#28]
Also Terry Pratchett... |
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Posted: 10/15/2013 11:08:55 PM EDT
[#29]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
William Gibson And I can't recall the author's name... dammit.. The novel is, "Last And First Men". Olaf Stapledon |
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Posted: 10/15/2013 11:13:09 PM EDT
[#30]
Heinlein
Friday Starship Troopers Stranger in a Strange Land he has a ton of great books. |
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Posted: 10/15/2013 11:28:30 PM EDT
[#31]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Robert A. Heinlein and his Future History. We are clearly living in The Crazy Years. Heinlein. Prophetic. |
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Posted: 10/15/2013 11:30:07 PM EDT
[#32]
For SciFi Heinlein is my favorite.
For Fantasy, Tolkien. Have not read Martin yet, heard good things. No time for leisure reading at the moment. |
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Posted: 10/15/2013 11:37:50 PM EDT
[#33]
This past weekend I tore through Michael McCloskey's 'Synchronicity' trilogy. All three for $5.99 on kindle.
The first one is a fine standalone story, and the other two are about the same large even from different viewpoints. It reminds me of a Neuromancer-lite, fast paced and well written, but without Gibson's density of prose and ideas. I will definitely be reading more from McCloskey in the near future. |
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Posted: 10/15/2013 11:39:06 PM EDT
[#34]
Heinlein
Niven Pournelle
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Posted: 10/15/2013 11:40:02 PM EDT
[#35]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
R.A Salvatore I like the "Drizzt" Books, but the New Jedi Order was horrible. He needs to stay FAR away from sci-fi. |
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Posted: 10/15/2013 11:43:06 PM EDT
[#36]
Quote HistoryQuoted: All must bow down: http://elibros.net/book/covers/dune-frank-herbert.jpg ...though his son is proof that talent isn't genetic. horrible
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Posted: 10/16/2013 2:00:18 AM EDT
[#37]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
LOL NO Good luck finding anything vaguely resembling a universal consensus. Heinlein, Niven, Pournelle, and Bradbury beat him by a mile in everything except sideburns and self-promotion. For more modern stuff look to Gibson, Stephenson, and Vinge. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
I thought it was almost Universally held that it was Azimov? LOL NO Good luck finding anything vaguely resembling a universal consensus. Heinlein, Niven, Pournelle, and Bradbury beat him by a mile in everything except sideburns and self-promotion. For more modern stuff look to Gibson, Stephenson, and Vinge. This. I'd put Pournelle ahead of Niven on that list. |
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Posted: 10/16/2013 2:15:46 AM EDT
[#38]
SciFi
Heinlein Purnelle Niven Clarke Walter Jon Williams Gibson Neal Stephenson Fantasy Robert E. Howard Edgar Rice Burroughs |
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Posted: 10/16/2013 2:18:23 AM EDT
[#39]
Jerry Pournelle
David Drake Larry Nievin Terry Brooks John Ringo Tom Kratman and many, many more. |
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Posted: 10/16/2013 2:39:52 AM EDT
[#40]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I sorta liked the first couple of the series, but I can only take so much adolescent sexual angst, braid-tugging and endless descriptions before I give up...which I did, around the 5th book. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Robert Jordan - wheel of time series Greatest fantasy series I have ever read, the depth of the story and characters is amazing I sorta liked the first couple of the series, but I can only take so much adolescent sexual angst, braid-tugging and endless descriptions before I give up...which I did, around the 5th book. The first 5 or 6 in the WoT were awsome. After that I think Jordan allowed the world and story to actually become too big. After Jordan passed and Brandon Sanderson took over the series it picked back up with book 12 and 13 being compareable to the first couple. The last book, A Memory of Light, was kind of disapointing and ended witohut really tieing up all the loose ends. |
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Posted: 10/16/2013 2:44:04 AM EDT
[#41]
I used to be a big Heinlein fan, but he just got too freaky in his later years. Now all I read are Glenn Cook or Terry Pratchett. |
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Posted: 10/16/2013 2:44:25 AM EDT
[#42]
King: Heinlein. And yes, we are in the Crazy Years and he had Mommy issues.
Queen: Marion Zimmer Bradley. Loved Darkover Joker: Piers Anthony. Xanth was good, but the puns wore out before The Immortals series started. Honorable mention: Asimov, Bradbury, Tolkien (great plot and characters but laborious, like reading KJV bible). |
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Posted: 10/16/2013 2:50:29 AM EDT
[#43]
Terry Goodkind with his "Sword of Truth" series.
The first few books were crap, but they really start to shine after that. |
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Posted: 10/16/2013 2:56:39 AM EDT
[#44]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Harry Turtledove, alternative history. Came to post this, he is an excellent writer. Also for a darkhorse, John Ringo writes some good stuff. |
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Posted: 10/16/2013 3:36:07 AM EDT
[#45]
Heinlein
Niven H. Beam Piper And, if you haven't read Piper, free downloads here. There are also 3 audiobooks on page 2. None of the Fuzzy novels, just short stories. Here is Piper's short story where America loses the Revolutionary War http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18807/18807-h/18807-h.htm |
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Posted: 10/16/2013 3:49:55 AM EDT
[#46]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Robert Jordan - wheel of time series Greatest fantasy series I have ever read, the depth of the story and characters is amazing No. Every. Single. Female. Character. Exactly the same. You know how sometimes when you masturbate, it starts to hurt a little bit because you're slightly chafed from going on so long, but you're sure the payoff is just right around the corner? You keep going, and you finally finish...and as you're tucking away your extremely tender, stinging penis, you realize that the pain wasn't worth the payoff, and begin to suspect that the whole thing was just sort of a waste of time and a big mistake? Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series is kind of like that. |
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Posted: 10/16/2013 3:58:32 AM EDT
[#47]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Jack Chalker; more specifically The Well of Souls series. One of my absolute favorites, and I'm always willing to sit down and read through it again just for fun. A close second would be anything by William Gibson, if cyberpunk is still considered sci-fi. I think an honorable mention should also go to Piers Anthony's Bio of a Space Tyrant series. I'm a big fan of the classics, such as Asimov, Bradbury, & Heinlein. There are a lot of classics I have yet to read though, such as Niven or Clarke. I still have a huge stack of David Brin novels to dig through one of these days, but I really enjoyed the book version of The Postman. If you think black rifle disease is bad, I have a severe case of paperback book disease. I can't help but pick up a good paperback when I find one, and I'm always running out of room on the bookshelves. Most of them are stacked two high and two deep on each shelf. Perhaps it's time to expand the library... On the bright side, my kids share my love of reading, and my taste in books for the most part. The main reason I collect books is for them, so it's always a pleasure to see them finish a book and go searching for what to read next. Their enjoyment is what makes it all worthwhile! Quote HistoryQuoted:
Jack Chalker; more specifically The Well of Souls series. One of my absolute favorites, and I'm always willing to sit down and read through it again just for fun. A close second would be anything by William Gibson, if cyberpunk is still considered sci-fi. I think an honorable mention should also go to Piers Anthony's Bio of a Space Tyrant series. I'm a big fan of the classics, such as Asimov, Bradbury, & Heinlein. There are a lot of classics I have yet to read though, such as Niven or Clarke. I still have a huge stack of David Brin novels to dig through one of these days, but I really enjoyed the book version of The Postman. If you think black rifle disease is bad, I have a severe case of paperback book disease. I can't help but pick up a good paperback when I find one, and I'm always running out of room on the bookshelves. Most of them are stacked two high and two deep on each shelf. Perhaps it's time to expand the library... On the bright side, my kids share my love of reading, and my taste in books for the most part. The main reason I collect books is for them, so it's always a pleasure to see them finish a book and go searching for what to read next. Their enjoyment is what makes it all worthwhile! A man who reads! I recognize my own kind. I didn't get laid in high school, either. Piers Anthony is great when you're 12, and just starting out with fantasy (Xanth novels). Bio series was great for a bit older teens (well--the first two books were)...and his oldest stuff was actually sort of fresh (Chthon stuff, Sos/Var/Neq, Cluster series)...but the Phaze stuff, Incarnations series, and Tarot series were all essentially just Xanth novels...and then you read some of his "newer" stuff...and overall I come away with the distinct impression that if he isn't already a kiddy-diddler...he wants to be, in his heart of hearts. Quoted:
Robert Jordan -Wheel of Time series Hands down best. Takes anything Tolkien ever thought of to the next level. D' ye ken so? You have forgotten the face of your father. |
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Posted: 10/16/2013 4:04:52 AM EDT
[#48]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Also, if you like Card's earlier work, do NOT try to read "Empire". I don't know whether someone else wrote it or he just should have put away the pen, so to speak, and retired, but...it's...really awful.
O. S. Card is funny that way. The series that everybody always quotes for him when they think Card is "Ender's"...and personally, I saw the end coming from a mile off, and by the time I read it in the mid-80's, I'd already read similar novels by lesser authors that used the same idea, so it was sort of ruined for me. Where Orscon Scott Card shined for me was a little read series he did..."The Tales of Alvin Journeyman". It was wonderfully whimsical, and a really refreshing breath of magical air into colonial American times. |
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Posted: 10/16/2013 4:09:43 AM EDT
[#49]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Terry Goodkind with his "Sword of Truth" series. The first few books were crap, but they really start to shine after that. Or, as he is commonly referred to as: Robert Jordan Lite. |
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Posted: 10/16/2013 4:11:13 AM EDT
[#50]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
For fantasy, it's really hard to beat Tolkien. And for science fiction, the same goes for Peter F Hamilton. I came in here to post both of those as my picks! |
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