Today MJ and I were downtown visiting the Shanghai exhibit at the Asian Art Museum. The museum closed at 5PM but the San Francisco Public Library right next door is open until 6PM! So after the museum we hopped over there and signed up for library cards and headed straight to the scifi section and quickly realized I had no idea what I wanted to read. With so many amazing books in the world I really don’t want to waste my time with something I picked up because it had a pretty cover.
I’ve read most of the classics (Foundation, Dune, Lord or the Rings), pretty much everything ever written by Orson Scott Card, Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams, read plenty of Bradbury, Clarke, Asimov, Gibson and Neal Stephenson, have a bunch of Neil Gaiman, Anne McCaffrey and Harry Turtledove books.
So, what are your favorite scifi and fantasy books and authors? What book do I absolutely need to pick up on my next trip to the library?
Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 at 21:18
Laurell K. Hamilton, Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Series, now up to Volume No. 20
Kim Harrison, Rachel Morgan Series up to Volume No. 8.
Patricia Briggs, Mercy Thompson Series up to Volume No. 5.
Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 at 21:41
Some of my favourites are:
John Wyndham – great for some classic british sci fi
Gene Wolfe – for a strange sci fi/fantasy blend
Peter Hamilton – is fantastic after you make it through the first 50 pages :)
Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 at 21:45
The original six books of The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock.
These are absolutely requisite for fans of sci-fi and fantasy.
If you like them, read his other books whose subject is the Eternal Champion.
Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 at 21:53
The Merro Tree by Katie Waitman.
Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 at 22:07
Ted Chaing wrote a collection of short stories called “Stories of Your Life and Others” that is fantastic. Easily some of the best sci-fi I’ve read in years. Starship Troopers by Heinlein is pretty fantastic.
If you haven’t hit Neverwhere from Gaiman, that’s a must.
Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 at 22:09
I’d go with Calculating God by Robert J. Sawyer and The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart
Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 at 22:10
try
Simak, Cliford – The way station, or any others
Haldeman – The forever war
Gibson, William (anything)
Have you read any Heinlen? Glory road, starship troopers, time enough for love, door into summer and many others
Great blog
Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 at 22:20
Iaim M. Banks – Epic SF
Neal Stephenson – Writes for geeks
Dan Simmons – I read his Hyperion books years ago and they left an impression
Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 at 22:48
Yeay! Libraries! And lots of good recommendations here, but I’ll add a few no one else seems to have said:
James Alan Gardner – the wikipedia doesn’t tell you how darned *funny* his books are as well as thought-provoking. I recommend reading the League of Peoples novels in order, but if you have to miss one because the library doesn’t have it (Commitment Hour seems to be nigh impossible to find in some places), many of them are pretty self-contained anyhow.
Lois McMaster Bujold – her Miles Vorkosigan books are fun scifi/romance (I didn’t love her fantasy as much, but it’s worth reading too.)
Julie Czerneda – the Species Imperative series (her others are likely good too, but that one really grabbed me)
If you don’t mind throwing some graphic novels in there, I’m currently partway through Ex Machina, and can at least recommend the first few volumes.
Also a graphic novel I got from the library: The Surrogates. Don’t know if you saw the movie, but the graphic novel is a fairly different story with a similar feel.
And one bonus one just ’cause of where you are:
You might enjoy Corey Doctorow’s Little Brother, esp. because it’s set in SF. He rambles a bit to explain the tech involved, so I had to skip a bunch, but the story between the essays is good and not as farfetched as one might wish it was.
Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 at 22:53
1. Peter F. Hamilton- Night’s Dawn Trilogy. Get through page 50 and you will be utterly enthralled. -favorite author of all time at this point.
2. Carrie Vaughn for her Kitty series. Wicked good stuff. A werewolf DJ talk show host in Denver — ya cannot go wrong there. :-D
3. Jim Butcher for the Dresden stuff.
Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 at 23:01
Metro 2033 – Great book!
Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 at 23:14
None. The vast majority of SciFi bores me.
Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 at 23:22
Seconding the Chiang recommendation. You can find some of his stuff online to start.
Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Left Hand of Darkness” and “Dispossessed” are classics of political and sociological scifi with compelling characters and plots.
Graphic novels: “Ex Machina,” “Y: The Last Man,” “DMZ,” the first 5 paperbacks or so of “Runaways,” the first 4 paperbacks or so of “She-Hulk.”
Vernor Vinge’s “A Fire Upon the Deep.” Award-winning, classic.
Octavia Butler’s Parable series and Xenogenesis trilogy — personal, political, ideas great and small.
Salman Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children” — if you’ve read that, you might be ready for Shashi Tharoor’s “The Great Indian Novel.”
Connie Willis’s “Doomsday Book.” Time travel, the gritty details of the plague years, utterly gripping. More lighthearted time travel: L. Sprague de Camp’s “Lest Darkness Fall.”
Recent classics: Jo Walton’s “Small Change” series, starting with “Farthing.” Alt-history mystery. Robert Charles Wilson’s Hugo-winning “Spin” – family drama next to global, then interplanetary science mystery. And, arguably, NK Jemisin’s “The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms,” polytheistic multicultural court intrigue fantasy.
If you liked McCaffrey, try Marion Zimmer Bradley’s “The Mists of Avalon” and Naomi Novik’s Temeraire novels (Europe, wars, and dragons).
Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 at 23:23
Sheri S. Tepper: Grass (and possibly the other Marjorie Westriding books), Port to Womens Country
David Brin: Uplift trilogy (Sundiver, especially Startide rising, one of my all time favourites, and Uplift War)
Octavia Butler: Xenogenesis trilogy (Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago)
Will continue my list once I check what titles I’ve got on my eReader…
Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 at 23:27
Try this one: Imagica by Clive Barker
Usually he writes horror, but this is different. Its a fantasy novel, in which he creates a whole new universe like Tolkien and Pratchett did (with a little bit more of “adult content”, but even if you don’t like that, the book is worth reading).
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 0:32
Philip K. Dick: A Scanner Darkly
Kurt Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse-Five
Robert A. Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 0:45
“Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell” by Susanna Clarke, definitely. It’s witty and haunting in equal measure.
That, and “Titus Groan” and “Gormenghast” by Mervyn Peake. I’d call them fantasy even though they have no magic or anything unnatural, except the impossible Gormenghast castle and the little village clinging to its walls.
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 0:49
Her smoke rose up forever by James Tiptree Jr.
You might be interested in the story behind this writer. James Tiptree was one of the most respected award-winning writers of SF in the late 60s early 70s. Imagine his fan’s surprise when it became known – long after he had become popular – that his name was a pseudonym for Alice Sheldon, a female soldier and CIA agent who’s is one of the genuine interesting people of the last few decades. Google her if you’re interested in her story, and read the book. It’s not a novel but a book of very short, bleak, thought-provoking and very beautiful stories. Which are more interesting when you know the story of the writer.
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 1:11
I don’t know if you absolutely need to pick these up, but these are the books (scifi/fantasy ish) that I’ve enjoyed in the past few months (all of them free to download with a CC license).
Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
A good fantasy novel (can’t say that I’ve been exposed to much fantasy, my leisure reading had previously been of mostly the Orson Scott Card persuasion)
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
(Not really scifi, but definitely worth the read. Explains security and current security technology and theory whilst being an entertaining, engaging read)
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow
(A very interesting read about living in a post-necessity society. Blew my mind on several occasions)
Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town by Cory Doctorow
(This book is both mind-blowing, and mind-blowingly awesome)
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 1:31
Two authors I haven’t seen anyone recommend yet…
C.J.Cherryh – I enjoy most of the Alliance-Union books, but would recommend the Chanur books as an accessible start. Gotta love Lions piloting spaceships!
Also love the Rosemary Kirstein Steerswoman books – they are like a love poem to science. The setting is pseudo “fantasy world that is really based on old tech”, but instead of having everyone being all medieval yokel, she has characters actively applying the scientific principles to figure out the Magic!
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 1:35
Philip K. Dick – Do Android Dream Of Electric Sheep, We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, A Scanner Darkly and more,
Frank Herbert for the Dune novels,
Robert Heinlien for Friday, Time Enough For Love, Stranger In A Strange Land,
Brian Aldiss for the Heliconia trilogy,
Arthur C. Clarke for Rama Novels and 2001, 2010 and 3001.
Finally John Wyndham for his collection of British sci-fi.
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 1:44
Damnation Alley – Roger Zelany
And some Harry Harrison. Always hits the spot for me
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 1:50
In the fantasy genre I can recommend Eric Stevenson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen series.
I don’t as such read much sci-fi, mostly because with the exception of the old masters, today sci-fi has all to little real science in them and all to much inane fiction.
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 1:56
“The Sword of Truth” series, by Terry Goodkind are a must read and my favorite fantasy story by far.
If you like long series, there’s Robin Hobb’s “Farseer Trilogy” and sequels, Roger Zelazny’s “Chronicles of Amber”, “The Death Gate Cycle” by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman, and Robert Jordan’s “Wheel of Time” which is not yet finished.
About scifi, you’ve read Asimov and Orson Scott Card, so I can only recommend Lois McMaster Bujold’s Miles Vorkosigan which has already been mentioned.
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 3:08
In terms of fantasy,
George R.R. Martin – A Song of Ice and Fire
series. Might be a good idea to read it before the premiere of the series on HBO.
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 3:11
Anything by Charlie Stross, and I second the recommendation of Vernor Vinge’s “A Fire Upon The Deep”.
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 3:46
Heh, Colin stole my thunder – Charles Stross s definately the way to go – see him at antipope.org . I would recommend starting with ‘Accelerando’ – he released that book under Creative Commons licence, so you can get a free ebook of it and start reading. He is an old time programmer, so we know where his ideas come from. And he has books in different genres – hard scifi, fantasy, mistery and even a bit of romance.
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 4:06
Larry Nivens Ringworld is immense, and Ben Jeapes “His Majesties Starship” though I think that was called “Ark” in America…
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 6:54
Three to add to your list:
* Roger Zelazny (he’s been mentioned a couple times by other posters). I loved Chronicles of Amber, mentioned above, when I was in high school, but I’m not sure that series would be as good as an adult.
* Piers Anthony: Xanth is unique. There’s not much fantasy/comedy. An entire world of magic created around bad puns makes for an interesting read. His “Incarnations of Immortality” series is also quite interesting, focusing on the four horsemen and other characters.
* Joe Haldeman’s “The Forever War” was written at teh end of the Vietnam War and is an obvious allegory of Haldeman’s service their. I think it would equally fit the Afghanistan / Iraq wars and its comments on war generally are, of course, timeless. It’s easily my favorite SF book ever. You have to read it if you haven’t yet.
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 7:32
I’ll third the suggestion of Vernor Vinge’s work, especially A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky (a subsequently-written loose prequel).
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 7:52
Asimov’s short story Nightfall is still one of my all time favorites. It literally left me afraid of the dark.
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 10:42
Pleia2,
Everything by Jack Williamson!
We live in Portales, NM where
Jack Williamson lived and taught
at Eastern New Mexico University.
In fact my dear wife has her office
and teaches in The Jack Williamson
Liberal Arts Building.
All of Professor Williamson’s work
and science fiction collection, plus
most of his papers and private
correspondence are held in the
Golden Library’s Special Collection
at ENMU.
http://www.enmu.edu/academics/library/collections/jwsf.shtml
Every April there is the Jack Williamson Lectureship held at the school. Please plan
to attend. It is great stuff.
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 11:12
I second “The Death Gate Cycle†by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman. Fist fantasy ever read, still one of the best.
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 11:43
Lyz;
Hmmm Quite a number of good ones have been mentioned; I’ve got a few:
Stephen R. Donaldson–Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever series.
Philip K. Dick–virtually anything is good
Philip Jose Farmer–Riverworld, of course
If you want to read short stories that reveal the futility of War, then I would recommend any of the ‘Hammers Slammers’ anthologies by David Drake. Very nice, very intelligent man; spent about 4 hours in deep conversation with him at a Science Fiction convention back in the 1990’s.
Now, let’s go back in time a bit..
E. E. ‘Doc’ Smith–the Lensman Saga (note the parallels to Star Wars)–read 2,3,4,5,6, then read book 1; which is how they were published. Book 1 has spoilers.
Edgar Rice Burroughs–John Carter, Warlord of Mars. ah, Barsoom.
That should keep you busy for a while. Just one thing…avoid the ‘Gor’ books, the ‘cheese factor’ gets old quickly.
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 14:21
I am a fan of Ben Bova. I think my favorite book by him is “Mars”, although there are plenty of others.
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 14:35
Arrived here via OU Linux course forum (T155 if anyone’s interested…), and Planet Ubuntu – I finally get to do some serious study of this OS I’ve been tinkering with on and off since 1998….
I see no-one has mentioned Julian May yet.
You could do far worse than reading her four-book series (tetralogy – is that a word?) The Saga of the Pliocene Exile, beginning with The Many Coloured Land. It’s more fantasy than sci-fi, and mixes time travel, exotic races, metapsychic powers and a fair bit of interesting geography of Pliocene earth. It’s also very well written.
Then there’s the bridging novel ‘Intervention’ which returns to future time where the Many Coloured Land left off, and the following trilogy, the name of which currently escapes my fevered mind, and which are predictably more sci-fi than fantasy. Happy reading :-)
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 15:03
I’d reccomend anything by Elizabeth Moon. She writes Sci-Fi and fantasy. Also one amazing book, fiction, about an autistic guy and his life (her son is Autistic), called ‘The Speed of Dark’.
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 15:15
Anything by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. Especially the “Saga of Recluse” series.
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 15:48
“The War of the Worlds”, “The Invisible Man” and “The Time Machine” by H.G Wells,
Sci-Fi Genre pioneering classics.
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 17:43
Ursula K. LeGuin – “The Left Hand of Darkness†and “Dispossessed†as somebody mentioned, but also her other books–I’ve never read a bad story or book from her.
Paul Van Herck – “Where were you last Pluterday†(secret tip from Belgium ;) )
David Gerrold – “When Harlie was Oneâ€
James H. Schmitz – “The Witches of Karresâ€
Lloyd Biggle, Jr. – “The Still, Small Voice of Trumpetsâ€
Also, during the 40s/50s/60s/70s a lot of bundles of SF short stories have been published, and there are some real gems in those.
Several other stuff I’d have to check out again to remember exact titles & names… ;)
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 17:47
For some good old hard sci-fi I would suggest Mote in God’s Eye by Larry Novem and Pornelle or Forever War by Joe Halderman.
From the last decade I like “Old Man’s War” by John Scazi and the Zombie Apocalypse novel “World War Z” by Max Brooks.
I have started “The Name of the Wind” and it is good fantasy from the Tolkien vein.
Monday, May 24th, 2010 at 1:03
Anything (but especially the Discworld books) by Terry Pratchett.
Monday, May 24th, 2010 at 6:09
Not seen any mention of Clarke’s The Fountains of Paradise. Not his most widely known book, as it’s not part of any series, but to my mind his best, and the one I would most like to see made into a movie (though it may share that last honour with the Rama series).
Monday, May 24th, 2010 at 7:04
Jeffrey A. Carver’s The Chaos Chronicles series:
Neptune Crossing
Strange Attractors
The Infinite Sea
They are a fun read with a few nice ideas thrown in to boot. They are also free of charge from Bean Books free library. Lots of other goodies in there too. (/www.baen.com/library/)
Monday, May 24th, 2010 at 8:59
James P. Hogan — puts the science back in science fiction. I’d recommend starting perhaps with Inherit the Stars or The Genesis Machine
Enjoi!
Monday, May 24th, 2010 at 16:18
Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan series is awesome scifi.
I loved the Laundry series by Charlie Stross (computer geek spy thriller with bits of Lovecraftian horror).
Steven Brust’s Vlad Taltos series is fantasy with some hints of sci-fi underneath (in a way that reminds me of MacCaffrey’s Pern stories).
Robin McKinley’s Sunshine is the best urban fantasy I’ve ever read, I think. She also does regular fantasy very well.
Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series contains excellent humour.
Monday, May 24th, 2010 at 18:10
Found my latest favorite missing here.
Kylie Chan’s Dark Heaven Trilogy as well as her latest Journey to Wudang Trilogy (first book has just arrived).
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 at 0:54
Oh well… too many to mention, I guess…
everything William Gibson, of course…
early Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash and Diamond Age were phenomenal)…
Jeff Noon (Vurt and Pollen – totally and absolutely and forever underrated…)…
P.K. Dick (again, virtually anything…)…
Charles Stross (Halting State was rather good…)…
Enjoy. :)
KR, Dresden,Germany
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 at 6:24
SciFi – something Eastern European…
Lem: Futurological Congress
The Cyberiad
and many more
Strugatsky Brothers: Roadside Picnic
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 at 8:28
See – Handy because you can link thru to reviews and other comments from there.
Basically, Heinlein, Brin and Vinge are great places to start!