Quoted: Starship Troopers.

What he said.


Plus, a great nod to Hammer's Slammers.

Give John Scalzi a look:  "Old Man's War" and it's sequel "The Ghost Brigades".  Basic premise, the universe is crowded with sentient life.  Habitable worlds are scarce.  Humanity is fighting for survival.  Definitely hints of Heinlein.

Enders Game by Orson Scott Card

Asimov's Foundation series

Any of the Starfist series by David Sherman and Dan Cragg! What's not to like about Marines kicking ass and taking names in the 25th century??!?

Old book but the scariest I ever read; House On the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson.

Forge Of the Elders by L. Neil Smith

Ringworld series by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

The Flying Scorcerers by David Gerrold & Larry Niven (hilarious sci-fi with a lot of twists and references to the world we know)

Also by Douglas Adams; Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency & The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul (he also wrote the Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy series!)

Fourth on the Ringo Books, Hymn and Gust Front. All about donning power armor and kicking absurd amounts of ass at once. With aliens, and survivalist wet dreams (Oneal Sr. house). Loved them.

ETA post 500!!!

EAT LEAD POSLEEN BOY!!!

Quoted: Dies the Fire.    S. M. Stirling Suddenly modern energy sources no longer work.  People pick up the pieces. Read some sample chapters here. www.smstirling.com

I just finished this book last week.  Wouldn't recommend it.

Suddenly the laws of physics change and gunpowder doesn't work anymore?

Best i've ever read. It's about the life of a Raptor. Very clever and intelligently written. I DARE you to read this. There will eventually be a movie based on this book, it's that good.



i actually started to fall in love with Red..

Quoted: Ender's Game is the greatest Scifi novel ever. If you haven't read it you need to; it is one of the few books that is so good that it can bring tears to my eyes.

got this one last night.
it's a great book.  i tried to get a few of the others.  esp.  raptor red. but they are on back order.
are the other books in this series half as good as this one?
if so i will go back and buy the whole set.

I hated Ender's game-blech!

Footfall by Niven and Pournelle is good as is the Mote in God's Eye by the same authors

Big +1 for John Ringo's books.  Especially A Hymn Before Battle and Gust Front.  In fact, Gust Front is probably the finest modern combat novel I have ever read.  There is such a sense of tension and urgency in that book, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time I was reading it.  That's a very overused phrase, but I mean it literally in this case.

Quoted: Quoted: Dies the Fire.    S. M. Stirling Suddenly modern energy sources no longer work.  People pick up the pieces. Read some sample chapters here. www.smstirling.com I just finished this book last week.  Wouldn't recommend it. Suddenly the laws of physics change and gunpowder doesn't work anymore?

 

Obviously the plot device was kind of lame, but no worse than his "Nantucket gets sent back to the bronze age for no apparent reason" but those were okay books once you get past the goofy premise.

Hyperion is an excellent book by Dan Simmons. It's different, but very good.

Two books I've read that were just pure enjoyment are The Doomfarers of Coromonde and The Starfollowers of Coromonde by Brian Daly. It's been awhile, but some guy get's into an alternative universe and brings his Browning Hi-Power and M1 Carbine along. Sounds cheesy, but well written, and very entertaining.

Quoted: Best i've ever read. It's about the life of a Raptor. Very clever and intelligently written. I DARE you to read this. There will eventually be a movie based on this book, it's that good. i35.imagethrust.com/i/394986/1raptorred.gif +1 Bakkers a great paleontologist too.... i actually started to fall in love with Red..

Not me..

I'll bring my copy of Hammer's Slammer to the next SE Texas meet.  It's a really good read.

Huge +1 for War in 2020.  I didn't think anyone else had read that one.  VTOLs with railguns, it doesn't get much cooler than that.

Ian Douglas: The Heritage Trilogy, and the follow-up Legacy trillogy.

David Drake/SM Stirling in the General series (VERY GOOD). Hard to find, and pricey series.

Peter Hamilton: The Reality Dysfunction and followup books (6 in total). Kinda wordy at times, but excellent.
His new series Pandora's Box is also pretty good.

David Drake: The Northworld trilogy, and many of his other works.

Niven/Pournelle have been mentioned.

Jack McDevitt: a loosely tied together bunch of books. Various titles.

Forge of God - Greg Bear
Also Darwins radio and to a lesser degree darwins children, though not strictly scifi.

The John Ringo books are all excellent...I especially liked 'Watch on the Rhine'  "Anna, am I a member of this crew?"  Hell, I think someone ought to make and sell the nuke pin.

You guys that liked the berserker stuff need to try Saberhagens other series.  I actually found him via the 'Dracula' series, Dracula tape, Thorn (which ruined lost boys for me), a matter of taste, etc.
Also check out 'Empire of the east', not specifically sci-fi, but a wonderful story.

A really old book I liked was 'Nova' be Samuel Delaney.  

The Dune stuff is excellent, Herberts habit of quoting from non-existant texts as if they are real is amazing and adds great depth to his vision.  (the blind prophet neo from matrix was stolen directly from Dune Messiah, IMHO).

One of the best sci-fi books I have is a compilation of short stories called 'The ascent of wonder: the evolution of hard SF".  I have it in hardback and it has wear points from where I hold it I have read it so many times.

Two others I forgot to mention...

John Steakley's Vampire$.  Almost as good as Armor.
And Red Dwarf by Grant Naylor.

Quoted: Two others I forgot to mention... John Steakley's Vampire$.  Almost as good as Armor. And Red Dwarf by Grant Naylor.

Loved the TV series.