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[crispybacon]

I'm going to post just such a list. Those of you who wish to add to this by all means do so, but seperate more or less by genre for my convenience if not anyone elses.

Here we go:

Awesome sci-fi of kickassitude:
Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold
Honor Harrington series by David Weber
Dahak series by David Weber
March Upcountry series by John Ringo and David Weber
Rats, Bats, and Vats series by Eric Flint and Dave Freer
Phule's Company by Robert Asprin.
Strong-arm tactics by Jody Lynn Nye
ANYTHING by Harry Turtledove, especially his various WWII and American Civil War alternate history. He also has some fantasy, the Videssos Cycle

Freakin awesome fantasy:
A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin
Heirs of Alexandria series by Mercedes Lackey
Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey
Dragonlance series by Weiss and Hickman
Circle of Magic series by Tamora Pierce
Thraxas series by Martin Scott
Dark Tower series by Steven King (his ULTIMATE work)
The Dragon and the George (and the accompanying series) by Gordan R. Dickson
Discworld series by Terry Pratchett
Myth series by Robert Asprin
His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman
Forgotten Realms by R.A. Salvatore
Wheel Of Time By Robert Jordan
ANYTHING by Orson Scott Card, specifically Ender's Game and the tales of Alvin Maker to be specific
The Lord of the Rings: JRR Tolkien

and some others I can't think of
________
SUZUKI BANDIT SERIES SPECIFICATIONS

[JuntaJoe]

Ok, I can't say much about those fantasy series because I'm one of those weird individuals who detest the idea of fantasy and scifi sharing the same aisles in the bookstore.

I'm just not a fantasy fan. You can read around on this board as to why if it interests you.

I love the John Ringo stuff, but I've never been much of a David Weber fan. Space opera is fine, but you need a bit more to keep me around. Ground military action, big physics ideas, or a grand intellectual premise.

You can get that kind of "extra" from an author named Peter F. Hamilton.

A new author that I'm trying to get more from is Michael Z. Williamson. His few sf offerings are awesome, but he seems to keep falling back on his modern day sniper series.

Now if you want someone with a fat legacy then I firmly recommend David Drake. He's been filling the bookshelves for decades.

[TriBeCa]

JJ, it's seriously time for you to pick up some Iain M. Banks. And I agree with you about sci-fi and fantasy sharing the same racks at the bookstore...but Iain is capable of convincing you that both space opera and fantasy are exceptable genres. If you read Inversions with at least the information I posted in the Banks thread on this board, you will discover a prime example of how fantasy can meet sci-fi in what is both a superb story line, fascinating characters and plot development, with a 'hidden' commentary on first-world interfence in third-world development, which the undiscerning reader will fail to notice entirely.

Not that I recomment Inversions as a first read from Banks, though it is definately among his best. I would start with something like Excession or, if I read you correctly JJ, you would almost certainly enjoy The Player of Games, Use of Weapons, and Against a Dark Background. Actually, thinking about it carefully, Use of Weapons may be my personal recommendation for you.

Seriously though, someone on this board has to pick up a Banks book so they can talk about it with me and get more people reading him. He's fantastic. I've read close to 3/4 of his books now and the only one I wouldn't recommend is A Song of Stone. He does justice to his protagonist in his writing style in that book, but his protagonist is unsufferable prat, and it would give entirely the wrong impression as to how he writes. Espedair Street was probably the second worst of his I've read, so don't start there either. Not that it was bad, just that it wasn't nearly as riveting as the rest of his work. Anything of his that doesn't compel me to finish it within two or three days is less than his best.

So. Iain Banks. Read, I promise you will enjoy. So what if you can't find him at your local bookstore, find him on Amazon. So what if his books are $17.99 (Canadian, I haven't bought anything of his in the states yet, so I'm not sure what they cost here) because they're imported from the UK, he's well worth it.

[TriBeCa]

Ooooh, and I see crispybacon included Orson Scott Card...especially Ender's Game etc.

How the hell did that end up in fantasy?

Ender's Game is one of the best sci-fi books out there, a book I thoroughly enjoyed at the ages of 13, 17, and 22, respectively. And I understood more of it each time, too. The sequel is well worth the read too, though I found the ending a bit lame. The third in the series was worth the first half...but I didn't even both reading the last 40 or so pages, because it had become so thoroughly predictable there was no need.

Can I add to the list...the entire Dune series by Frank Herbert. The first (Dune) is a hands-down masterpiece of fiction of any genre. Only Salmon Rushdie and Emberto Eco (in my experience) write books that operate on so many levels at once. If you seen one of the movies but haven't read the book, forget about it, and read the book. What's happened with this book is that it's such a fantastic story that several attempts have been made to put it on screen, but none of them are any good because the meat of what makes it a good book is the thought processes of the characters; without them, the story is lost. Herbert spend 2 or 3 years working on the series (he wrote the first 3 books effectively at once) before he actually started writing, just mapping out the political and personal plotlines that push the whole thing forward. Anyway, once you've read the first book, the next two, while not nearly as good, are short and worth reading simply because they set the stage for the fourth book. The fourth book is a masterpiece on the level of the first, which I will reread someday because I know I didn't catch everything that went on on the first path. The fifth and sixth are enjoyable reads that conclude the series nicely. Once you get to the fourth you'll want to read them, I promise.

Moving on with my list...and I'll shorten the reviews...I would say anything by William Gibson (Neuromancer effectively created the cyber-punk genre), and I really enjoyed Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver (I haven't read the next two in the series, but I did read Cryptonomicon--Quicksilver takes places mostly in the seventeenth century, Cryptonomicon is both late 90's and WWII).

Anyway, I'm done for now.

[JuntaJoe]

Just some minor observations on the above posts.

William Gibson. His cyberpunk genesis actually started with a collection of short stories called Burning Chrome. I enjoyed his books for a while, but found him leaving the gritty technopunk parts I liked so well as second fiddle to his "inside the webscape" sections. The storyline of those sections seemed like weak fantasy reading to me. I've dropped him as a regular author.

I liked Ender's Game and got many other people to read and enjoy it. But it got repetitive so fast that I didn't even finish a second book by him.

Frank Herbert's Dune series is awesome. Just skip the other authors who tried to extend the anthology further. Frank Herberts writing was a real high wire act that only he could keep together and interesting. The later authors simply can't operate at his level.

Cryptonomicon was real interesting, but his later books didn't interest me. When I want to read about historical settings before the Industrial Age, I'd rather just read a real history book.


As for Iain Banks, I'll try to find something of his that is non-fantasy and available in mass market paperback.

I'm exercisizing my capitalist rights by refusing to buy hardback or those gawd-awful trade paperbacks. Those platform are fine for non-fiction so you can use them as reference later, but fiction is just entertainment to me. I'm already pissed about the price of mass market paperbacks going up to $7 and that's maximum grudging limit of my spending tolerance.


Anyway, when I grab a copy then you need to buy the first of six books in Hamilton's epic Night's Dawn series. People have compared it to the Dune and Foundation sagas. It has even won one of the few Hugo All Time Greatest SciFi Series Awards. But you can't find any actual book by that title. It's actually three large books by him that are each cut into 2 hefty sections in paperback versions. The first two books are under The Reality Dysfunction title. The second duo are The Neutronium Alchemist title. The final pair are named The Naked God. This series operates on so many levels, carefully promotes dozens of great characters, sweeps the galaxy with so many profundities, that you will simply become totally absorbed in the series for weeks. Eat, sleep, read. Anything else will be annoying. Want the greatest vacation ever? Buy a tropical vacation and park yourself under a parasol at the beach with these books for two weeks. You won't even notice all those bronzed bodies wandering past. :wink:

[TriBeCa]

moYes, I read Burning Chrome. Pity about the Johnny Mnemonic movie, the short story was so great. As long as Keanu Reeves burns in hell I don't much care, though (can you believe they put that guy in a shakespeare movie?? he can barely speak modern english...). I can see why you might set down Gibson after Neuromancer...but Pattern Recognition was an excellent work of fiction. Not really cyber punk, or even SF, but just good fiction. The writing was much more mature and masterful than anything else he's done. I mean, Neuromancer is a classic, but the writing was a bit raw.

As for not finishing the second book in the Ender's Game series (Xenocide, was it?), I can understand. As I alluded too, I wasn't thrilled with the way it ended, and the third book just got worse....

I never bothered trying to read the other authors who extended the series (one was his son, or something, right? same last name) because I assumed that exactly what you describe is what happened.... Something in me just knew it wouldn't work.

On that note, I would also recommend Herbert's Destination: Void, which is another masterpiece of intracharacter monologue and intercharacter politics and manipulation. It's been many, many years since I read it, but it is truly amazing. It's been out of print for a decade or two now, but if you can find it on at used bookseller (online or otherwise) it is well worth it. It's an exploration of the potential consequences of true artificial intelligence, while also a comment on the ethics of cloning. Remarkably relevant today considering it was written 20 or so years ago. The sequal is called The Jesus Incident which I also read, but I remember not enjoying it as much, and not much else about it. I didn't dislike it, but it certainly didn't stick out in my mind. I also read The White Plague by Herbert, and *quite* enjoyed that. Post-apocalyptic, and the architect of said apocalypse is the protagonist. Very well done.

As for Stephensen, if historical fiction isn't your thing, then ya, skip Quicksilver and it's sequals. I loved it though. One of the few 900+ pages books I've picked that I wanted to keep on going when it ended. I also read, but didn't mention, Snowcrash. It was fun, but it didn't really grab me the way some other SF and cyberpunk has done. Parly I found it....well, too outright geeky. Frankly it's the only book I've had that problem, and I have no trouble confessing I'm an out-and-out geek, but it was just too much sometimes.

You'll be hard pressed to find banks for under $10. I have only paperbacks of his, and that's what I meant by $17 canadian. I went through my collection closely, and the ones that have USD prices on them on $13 and $14 respectively. I got both of those at Powell's books in Portland for $5 and $7 respectively, though...but Powell's is the largest used bookstore in the Western US (if not north america...I can't rightly remember...it's huge though). Basically, Banks hasn't been marketed in the US at all, and just doesn't have a large enough distribution for the prices to be reasonable. As far as I can tell most of his books here are actually published in the UK and imported. Given your proclivity to SF, make sure you pick up one by Iain M. Banks (not Iain Banks), as that will ensure you're getting science fiction. Avoid Inversions and Consider Phlebas (the former is set on another world whose technology is ~17th century earth and the latter is his first book, which while still quite good was clearly not as well written as his later stuff). I haven't read The State of the Art, Feersum Endjinn, or his latest, The Algebraist, so I can't vouch for those. Look To Windward was great, but I wouldn't recommend it as an entry to his work...it just helps if you're already familiar with his setting to appreciate that one. Everything else is fantastic.

One last note about Banks...he's not one for the happy ending (or even the happy middle...come to think of it). At least not necessarily. He writes his books the way he wants, and doesn't pander to anyone else's notions of how things 'should' turn out. Also, if you get a chance, do pick up Complicity (this Banks without the M., and hence not SF)...it's about a speed and video game addicted reporter who's covering a series of vigalante killings (but not your batman-style vigilante...this guy is going after britain's corrupt elite...), and is probably the best book I've read since I read it...about 3 years ago...305 pages, 2 days.

And ok, when you pick up a Banks I'll get the first of the Night's Dawn. I'm in the last hundred pages or so of something right now, and have its successor lined up, but that can be the next on my list. Though I haven't been reading as much as I should be lately, and I'll have less time to read come September (I'm a graduate student, so when taking classes I have very little time to read for pleasure), I'll be sure to pick it up.

One last note...I would also recommend anything by Russel Hoban (except for his children's books, of course...). He's not typically a sci-fi writer, but is excellent nonetheless. His one real excursion into sci-fi, Riddley Walker, is post-apocalyptic sort of in the style of John Wyndham's The Chrysalids, though I think it's much more mature and it doesn't really do it justice to say that. The one caveat is that you have to read the first couple pages out loud, because it's written phonetically in an English dialect. Nothing is spelled correctly, and it has it's own accent to it, but if you read it aloud a bit it starts to make sense and you quickly internalize the whole thing. Part of the amazing thing about the book is that you really do learn a new dialect while reading it.

I would also highly recommend Pilgerman (though this takes place in the 11th century and gets somewhat metaphysical...so don't touch it if that's not up your ally...rich in allegory and pretty tough to derive literal meaning from), Klienzeit (I'm not sure how to charactize this...he anthropamorphizes everything from the hospital to the london underground in this book, which is both a love story and a story about his process as a writer), and The Medusa Frequency, whose underly plot is actually highly similar to Klienziet, but is written completely differently. A modern retelling of the Orpheus and Euridice myth. His latest, The Bat Tattoo, is more accessible than his other work, and was critically acclaimed, but it was rather mundane compared to his other stuff.

Ok, enough from me for a while...this might be my longest forum post anywhere, ever.

[Idril Alcarin]

I go for all Anne Rice books, all Darren Shan books, Terry Pratchett's Discworld and Stephen King books (I just bought Cujo and Misery). :D There are very much books I like to read but these above are some of my favorite authors.

[Brf]

crispybacon wrote: Phule's Company by Robert Asprin.

Myth series by Robert Asprin

I am mostly a Piers Anthony fan:
Apprentice Adept series
Incarnations of Immortality series
Xanth series

but I have to agree that like Asprin's humorous series' too. I didnt care for Myth Inc in Action though.... I liked the way Myth Inc Link kept switching viewpoints, but MIiA was all from Guido's viewpoint, and I didnt care for it....

[Idril Alcarin]

Oh! I almost forgot HP Lovecraft. I love his books!

[NibbyCat]

I must be the only person on this planet who can't finish Stephen King's Dark Tower series. I got through 2 or 3, but they were rough, and I started the next and just couldn't get into it.

For my list, and please remember that I'm a woman:

Military and Action/Adventure:
Richard Marcinko's Rogue Warrior series.
David Poyer's Dan Lenson series... OOhh, there's a few I've missed. And his Tiller Galloway books.
Clive Cussler

Mystery:
Marcia Muller and William Pronzini
Marion Babson
Lillian Jackson Braun (The Cat Who...)
Joan Hess
Carol Higgins Clark (Mary's daughter)
Carol Nelson Douglas
Richard Hoyt (y'all might like his Blood of Patriots)
Sharon McCrumb

Sci-fi/fantasy:
Anne McCaffrey
Terry Pratchett

Romance (I warned you I'm a woman):
Jude Devereaux
Carola Dunn
Marion Chesney

[Morticcia]

I just can't get my teeth around any sci-fi or fantasy. I lack the imagination. And being a faux feminista I lack the interest in male dominated stories. The little I was exposed to was very masculine. Bleh for me. Though I do love the Harry Potter series which I don't see anyone cares a whit for here.

In the past year I've gone through several of Jane Austen's novels several times. Most recently I reread Persuasion and Sense & Sensibility. And I love listening to them on CD. My library has free audio downloads which is fantabulous.

A year ago I spent a lot of time reading biographies of Sylvia Plath, which I think I'll take up again shortly. There are as many opinions on her as their are biographies. I find that intriguing. I just read the bio (last night!) on the woman her feckless poet husband left her for.

Her poetry is piercing, and only half comprehensible to me. But over time and many readings I hope to master some.

I love to look into the lives of literary people. I'm a natural born rubbernecker. The stories and poems I love are so much more meaningful when you know the mind and heart of the author, or at least the biographer's interpretation of it.

:-)

[Elvengirl]

I mainly agree with crispys list, tho i would add to it Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind - its a must read stuff, and in few days the last book of the series should be published.. cant wait for it.

and another one no matter how funny it will sound but Harry Potter series are also really sweet one :D