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General Discussion => The Speakeasy: OOG/Off-topic Discussion => Topic started by: Ken on 11 Jul 2010, 17:36
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I mentioned in another thread that I have a long business trip coming up shortly. It's always good to bring a few books along for things like that, and I have a small number of them saved away for the occasion. Still, it wouldn't hurt to stock up a bit more, and I'm curious what each of you would consider to be truly essential sci-fi reading. To that end, if you had to recommend only one science fiction novel or series (think desert island reading), what would you pick? And for a second recommendation, what was the best book (in any genre) that you've read recently (within the last few years)?
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The Ender Series.
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Sci-fi Essentials? Dune series. Or the Hive and the Tower series. MCaffreys Freedom series are good too.
As for best book I've read recently... hrm... maybe the Mercy Thompson books by Patricia Briggs?
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the Mortal Engines quartet is an excellent, excellent series, and I will recommend it to anyone who likes eve, as it features an equally awesome, equally dark and cruel universe.
Dresden Files were also very good.
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Charles Stross, Accelerando, for speculative fiction with just enough utter bizarreness to seem true to life (uploaded, spacefaring lobsters FTW).
Also, by the same author, Singularity Sky, for the most bad-ass party, er, Festival, in science fiction. I think the author kind of cooled on the setting; he's a hard sci-fi sort, and I suspect he decided it was too unlikely to ever actually happen.
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If your tastes run more toward the thick chewy flavors of fantasy, check out China Miéville's New Crobuzon series. I haven't read Iron Council yet, but I enjoyed Perdido Street Station and The Scar a great deal.
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Charles Stross, Accelerando, for speculative fiction with just enough utter bizarreness to seem true to life (uploaded, spacefaring lobsters FTW).
Also, by the same author, Singularity Sky, for the most bad-ass party, er, Festival, in science fiction. I think the author kind of cooled on the setting; he's a hard sci-fi sort, and I suspect he decided it was too unlikely to ever actually happen.
you read his recent stuff Aria? His new one, Halting State, was weird, good, and seems like a fairly possible place for the internet to be in 7 years when the book is set, also, and there is a sequel to it coming out called Rule 34. The fact that is called that is just...its....I can't even...
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For me, some of my favorites have been a blend of science fiction and politics, so The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Starship Troopers, and having read every Dune book imaginable, I still say the first book is the only one really worth reading. Ian Banks stuff I just couldn't get into personally. >_<
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having read every Dune book imaginable, I still say the first book is the only one really worth reading.
I would like to second this notion.
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having read every Dune book imaginable, I still say the first book is the only one really worth reading.
I would like to second this notion.
the prequals were good, it just got weirder, harder to understand, and less true to the universe with every book after God-Emperor
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Hey Ken
I finished reading the Jump 225 trilogy by David Louis Edelman. Great trilogy for people who like sci-fi stuff. Also Iain M. Banks Culture novels are also great sci-fi books.
Cain Jacobi
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In case it was forgotten I would like to reiterate the Ender's Series by Orson Scott Card. Although you only really need the first three. Once you hit Children of the Mind it goes a little nuts.
In order:
Ender's Game.
Speaker for the Dead.
Xenophobia.
(Then the other two that are a little nuts).
The Ender's Shadow series (about Bean!) is also pretty good, but I've only read the first one (Ender's Shadow) in that series.
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Also, depending on your tastes, you might find some classic Heinlein to your liking. Starship Troopers (the original novel, not the 1990s movie), Revolt in 2100, and maybe even Stranger in a Strange Land.
Have you left out Arthur C. Clarke? IMO he mastered the SF short story, but Childhood's End qualifies as essential (in addition to the more popular 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2010: Odyssey Two).
Echoing what Aria said about Charles Stross; if you like that, you might also like Cory Doctorow, some of Nancy Kress's work. Probably John Scalzi and Ian MacDonald fit right into that as well. In some ways, Philip K. Dick foreshadowed a lot of this, and I keep discovering new depths to his work, to my fortunate surprise.
For the original question, though: if you have a deficient education in SF :P and need a series to get started, Asimov's Foundation series certainly qualifies in the same breath as Dune.
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Thanks for the great recommendations from all of you. I did some searching to see what fits with my personal tastes. The reading list is shaping up as follows:
Asimov's Foundation (http://www.amazon.com/Foundation-Novels-Isaac-Asimov/dp/0553382578/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279062739&sr=8-1) series (a true favorite for re-reading; also, I've never read past Second Foundation but plan to now with Prelude to Foundation, Foundation and Earth, and Forward the Foundation)
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress (http://www.amazon.com/Moon-Harsh-Mistress-Robert-Heinlein/dp/0312863551/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279062715&sr=8-1) (another of my favorite novels, will be re-reading)
Julian Comstock (http://www.amazon.com/Julian-Comstock-Story-22nd-Century-America/dp/0765359235/ref=pd_sim_b_3) by Robert Charles Wilson (halfway through this at the moment)
WWW: Wake (http://www.amazon.com/WWW-Trilogy-Robert-J-Sawyer/dp/044101853X/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3BAV6R2TUS9YW&colid=C77OX5GYG49A) by Robert J. Sawyer
Palimsest (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553385763/ref=oss_product) by Catherynne Valente
A Canticle for Leibowitz (http://www.amazon.com/Canticle-Leibowitz-Walter-Miller-Jr/dp/0060892994/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3D84FFMEXEB8X&colid=C77OX5GYG49A) by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Atlas Shrugged (http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Shrugged-Ayn-Rand/dp/0452011876/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279062656&sr=8-1) by Ayn Rand (still have never read it)
The Windup Girl (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1597801585/ref=oss_product) by Paolo Bacigalupi
The Risen Empire (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0765319985/ref=oss_product) and The Killing of Worlds (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0765320525/ref=oss_product) by Scott Westerfield (I've read the first several years ago, going back to have both in one sitting)
Accelerando (http://www.amazon.com/Accelerando-Singularity-Charles-Stross/dp/0441014151/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=ICJYXTADZO3G1&colid=C77OX5GYG49A) by Charles Stross
Perdido Street Station (http://www.amazon.com/Perdido-Street-Station-China-Mieville/dp/0345459407/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1SZAWSPHR8JIU&colid=C77OX5GYG49A) by China Mieville
Infoquake (http://www.amazon.com/Infoquake-Trilogy-David-Louis-Edelman/dp/1844166457/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279063402&sr=8-4) by David Lewis Edelman (now that sounds like EVE)
Consider Phlebas (http://www.amazon.com/Consider-Phlebas-Iain-M-Banks/dp/031600538X/ref=pd_cp_b_1) by Iain M. Banks
A History of Venice (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679721975/ref=oss_product) by John Julius Norwich (non-fiction, but that would make an interesting title for an alt history/sci-fi book...)
As for other Heinlein stuff, I've only read Starship Troopers, so I might have to pick up Stranger. Kind of wary of him, having had a friend recount all the strange/incestuous sexual oddities in some of Heinlein's later work. I re-read Dune in a completely different desert not two months ago. I've never gone past the original novel in that series and I'm a little hesitant to make the leap. Read Ender's Game twice, but never gone past it either.
Casiella, what of Philip K. Dick's would you recommend?
Edit: Forgot to include Anathem (http://www.amazon.com/Anathem-Neal-Stephenson/dp/B003B3NW7G/ref=pd_sim_b_6) by Neal Stephenson and Wastelands (http://www.amazon.com/Wastelands-Apocalypse-John-Joseph-Adams/dp/1597801054/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279065904&sr=1-1) in the list.
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I've found myself wanting to re-reread Snow Crash, recently. Think it is usually (along with Neuromancer) given some of the credit for establishing the whole 'Cyberpunk' thing.
For a series to keep me occupied on a desert island, I would probably go into fantasy instead and pick the 'Malazan Book of the Fallen' - If you don't mind the occasional digressions into pages of philosophical stuff, the rendering and depth of the setting really impresses me. It's also very - maybe excessively - complex as far as multiple interwoven plots. Reading that series is one of the things that inspired me to look at Eve and think of all the possibilities as far as culture and history that it would be neat to explore. Also it's like 10k pages long, atm, so there would be plenty to read on that desert island :P
For a book that I found the most striking recently, Perdido Street Station, as I think others have said, and the book after set in the same world, The Scar. Iron Council was also good, Though I think I liked the first two maybe a little more.
Altered Carbon (and the other Takeshi Kovacs novels) for an entertaining read and an Eve-like feel (kinda have to read it to see what I mean). Also The Windup Girl, which I was impressed enough with after reading a bit at the bookstore, I bought it in hardcover. (I'm usually much too cheap to do that.)
Other Sci-Fi authors I've enjoyed (some of whom have already been mentioned): Iain Banks, Alastair Reynolds, Charles Stross, William Gibson, John Scalzi, Peter Hamilton, Ian McDonald
These are all more recent, rather than the older big names, ofc (Many of which have also already been mentioned. Asimov, Clarke, etc.)
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Casiella, what of Philip K. Dick's would you recommend?
I'd like to know too. I've only read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and feel like I'm missing out, but I don't know where to go next. :P
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Do Androids. . . was really good though.
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Heinlein did get weird in late life. Time Enough For Love was, um, about the oddest damn thing he ever wrote.
As for Dick: A Scanner Darkly and The Man in the High Castle. If you like alt-history, the latter of those two generally makes most people's "essentials" list.
Finally, for steampunk + zombies + kick-ass realistic females, be sure to pick up Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. It was nominated for just about all the recent SF novel awards, though The Windup Girl (already cited) won, and deservedly so.
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Heinlein did get weird in late life. Time Enough For Love was, um, about the oddest damn thing he ever wrote.
As for Dick: A Scanner Darkly and The Man in the High Castle. If you like alt-history, the latter of those two generally makes most people's "essentials" list.
Finally, for steampunk + zombies + kick-ass realistic females, be sure to pick up Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. It was nominated for just about all the recent SF novel awards, though The Windup Girl (already cited) won, and deservedly so.
Yeah, Boneshaker was really good. More steampunk, does that fall into SciFi too?
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I think it does, and I think I'm not alone in that. Some purists might not approve, just like not everybody likes alt-history. I figure the borders are fuzzy. :)
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I haven't read The Windup Girl yet, but I started following Paolo Bacigalupi around
like a puppy on Twitter after reading his "Small Offerings (http://www.tor.com/stories/2010/06/small-offerings)" on Tor.com. From my perspective, it was a heartwrenching near-future piece, and I'd almost pay money to figure out how he figured out how to write like a woman who's flooded with hormone-smothered panic.
Jude's player has been recommending Altered Carbon and the associated novels to me for almost two years now, with the same suggestion that they're Eve-like. One of these days, I'll get around to reading them.
Ken, if you're looking to kick more Old School Sci-Fi/Fantasy, may I recommend Cordwainer Smith? If you liked Perdido Street Station, you may like his work (I found it a more accessible flavor of weird, especially if you're familiar with 1940's-1950's American cultural tropes). He wrote only one novel (Norstrilia), but his short fiction was crammed together in a compendium by NESFA (The Rediscovery of Man) some years ago.
I'd recommend Alfred Bester's short stories (they're compiled in a book called Virtual Unrealities), too, but I've taken some of my Gallente crayons from that box. Heck, I'll recommend them anyway. His novels, too.
Annnnd ... if you decide your brain's melting out of your ears and you need some old-fashioned tasty mind candy, try Leigh Brackett's Skaith series (The Ginger Star, The Hounds of Skaith and The Reavers of Skaith).
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My own humble suggestions...
Anything by Dan Simmons...Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Illium, etc
And The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
Edit: Oh The Berserker series, by Fred Saberhagen
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OMG! The Forever War and Berserker! YES!
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Brave New World.
Brave New World is a novel by Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Set in London of AD 2540 (632 A.F. in the book), the novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology and sleep-learning that combine to change society.
Exelent Iron Maiden song too.
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Anything by Gene Wolfe is awesome and makes everyone else's fiction look like chump change in comparison. Even his weak stuff (An Evil Guest) is pretty good. He has been called by more than one critic the best living American author in any genre and is acknowledged by many great speculative fiction authors as the best living sci-fi writer alive.
My specific recommendation is his Solar Cycle, a series of books that are all awesome and filled with unreliable first person narrators and a crazy blend of sci-fi and fantasy that is very much unlike anything else. The Book of the New Sun (a tetralogy of four books, though it can be bought in one omnibus edition) about a disgraced torturer named Severian who is outcast from his order after giving one of his charges a painless death and his journey across a decaying planet with a dying sun. It also has a sequel called The Urth of the New Sun.
Loosely connected to the Book of the New Sun is the Book of the Long Sun (another tetralogy), about an augur named Silk who receives enlightenment from a god and attempts to save his church from being sold to a criminal named Blood. That is followed by the Book of the Short Sun (a trilogy this time), which is a direct sequel to the Book of the Long Sun and also serves as a very very tangential sequel to the Book of the New Sun, about a man named Horn, one of the former students of Silk, who goes on a journey to find Silk and bring him back.
Less science fictiony, but what I feel are Gene Wolfe's best work, are the Wizard Knight books. It's two books (the Wizard and the Knight) about a boy named Abel who is transported to a fantasy world, given the body of an adult, and his quest to earn the love of a nature spirit. In a similar vein is Pirate Freedom, about a boy living in a near-future Cuba who is transported back in time to the Golden Age of Piracy and ends up becoming a pirate himself.
And then there's the Soldier series, consisting of Solder of the Mist, Soldier of Arete, and Soldier of Sidon, about a Greek mercenary called Latro fighting in Rome who suffers a head wound in battle, suffers amnesia, and can no longer form long term memories. However, he becomes able to see the various gods of the ancient world. The novels are presented as scrolls that Latro records almost daily so that he has some record of his life as he tries to recover his memory and return home.
Then there's a dozen other great pieces from Wolfe, such as the Fifth Head of Cerberus (essentially three novellas about a planet being colonized in the far future), There Are Doors (about a man who travels between two dimensions to track down a woman he's in love with), and a bunch of collections of short stories.
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Gonna break out left field here.
The Lieutenant Leary series by David Drake
The Vatta's War series by Elizabeth Moon
Warning. These novels are know to the State of Kalifornistan to be somewhat cheesy space operas. Read at your own risk (I however, adore them).
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Another big thank you to everyone for the recommendations. I've got a nice collection of twenty novels (plus six more from the Foundation series for re-reading), most from said recommendations, to keep my imagination alive in the wasteland. I may even take the time to write out some thoughts on them, situation permitting. o7
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For a series to keep me occupied on a desert island, I would probably go into fantasy instead and pick the 'Malazan Book of the Fallen'
You were not kidding about this one.
For some reason, I've started my reading with Gardens of the Moon. I know... I asked everyone for sci-fi recommendations and then started with the only fantasy novel on my list...
Halfway through it at this point and I'm struck by the depth and grit of the setting. I also appreciate being dropped right into the story with what seems like much less of the hand-holding introductory exposition that IMO typifies the opening segments of so many fantasy series. By that I mean the scope of the story is immediately broad and the action quickly ramped up. No lingering in the Shire before things get rolling, so to speak. I'm also enjoying how each new narrative thread and the characters involved (it has a truly ensemble cast) has something engaging about it. None of them have yet been flatly uninteresting.
Erikson's world also seems profoundly appealing as a potential setting for gaming.
How far have you read into the series, Silver?
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You were not kidding about this one.
For some reason, I've started my reading with Gardens of the Moon. I know... I asked everyone for sci-fi recommendations and then started with the only fantasy novel on my list...
Halfway through it at this point and I'm struck by the depth and grit of the setting. I also appreciate being dropped right into the story with what seems like much less of the hand-holding introductory exposition that IMO typifies the opening segments of so many fantasy series. By that I mean the scope of the story is immediately broad and the action quickly ramped up. No lingering in the Shire before things get rolling, so to speak. I'm also enjoying how each new narrative thread and the characters involved (it has a truly ensemble cast) has something engaging about it. None of them have yet been flatly uninteresting.
And he just keeps on introducing characters, too, later. It gets bigger and more complex. The lack of exposition was nice, I thought, too. Even if I spent some time at first wondering, for example, wtf a warren was, exactly.
Erikson's world also seems profoundly appealing as a potential setting for gaming.
I think that is actually how it started. I seem to recall reading somewhere - a foreword or something - that mentioned it started out as a gaming universe that he ended up creating the books from. I think the universe was created by him and another guy who has published a couple of books in the same universe - Ian Esslemont. You get hints of that when you see casual mention of stuff that sounds like it is well developed in its own right (which all adds the the feel of a 'real' world). Like there's already this big history that backs up the whole thing.
How far have you read into the series, Silver?
I've read all of them, so far, I believe. Through the ninth book, Dust of Dreams. They stay complex, gritty, unpleasant, and often funny.
I was really pleasantly surprised by the series. I grabbed Gardens of the Moon one day cause I was bored, looked at the cover, and figured, 'Oh, more generic fantasy.'
Not so much.
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This thread needs moar animu/manga.
Manga:
Anything made by Nihei Tsutomu (http://www.mangafox.com/search/author/NIHEI+Tsutomu/), specifically Blame!, NOiSE, and Biomega.
Manga/Anime:
Battle Angel Alita
Ghost in the Shell
Appleseed
You can get all of this translated to english, the Blame/NOiSE series might be hard to find tho (in bookstores).
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Harry Turtledove - *Not sci-fi really, but good reads in anycase*
World at War series (WWII but with dragons, magic, etc).
Guns of The South.
Atlantis (think there are a few to this one can't remember).
Dan Abnett -
Gaunt's Ghosts; 12 books long now that he released Blood Pact, but the previous 11 are in 3 omnibus/trilogy books which make for cheap buying and easier collecting.
Eisenhorn and Ravenor Omnibus's are also great reads (Currently half-way through Ravenor); Ravenor is a continuation of Eisenhonr basically.
William King -
Gotrek and Felix Omnibus's - 3 omnibus's for a total of like 10 books; although the last couple are written by Nathan Long. Essentially a stark, dark, scary, and comedic accounting of a Slayer Dwarf and a Human Bard (more warrior, but it works). Also just dumps you straight into it without any precursor as to what's going on. *I know it's fantasy but it's really good stuff!*
Space Wolves Omnibus's - 2 omnibus's total for 6 books until more are released on the side. Follows Ragnar Blackmane, a space marine through trials and tribulations. Very visceral and gritty stuff.
Orson Scott Card -
Ender's Game - I've read all of this storyline as far as I know which is something like 8 books.
Ender's Shadow - The side story for one of the characters Bean, I've got all of these up to Shadow of The Giant, not sure if he's released anymore.
Fiona Patton - *Again not sci-fi but great reads*
Granite Shield, Golden Sword, Stone Prince, Painter Knight. All taken place in medieval England and Wales but with a slight metaphysical spice to it all. They all take place during different periods of time, but are really good reads; I've read all of them at least 5 or 6 times each if not more.
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Sci-fi Essentials? Dune series ...
Bought the book "Dune" to read on my week holiday away from home. I am only two thirds done, but I have to recommend this book everyone.
A simply amazing setting. I wont go into any depth, because that would merit its very own thread, but the book details a Noble Houses move to a desert planet on request from the Emperor. The depth of culture that exists on this planet, Arakis, has made me rethink just how different the culture on each planet within New Eden would be totally different to other planets, even within even the same solar system.
Different customs, different interpretations of the same religious systems. I had always just painted planetary culture with one broad brush depending on where it was situated. Makes me think of the less frequented low sec planets a lot differently now.
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Sci-fi Essentials? Dune series ...
Bought the book "Dune" to read on my week holiday away from home. I am only two thirds done, but I have to recommend this book everyone.
A simply amazing setting. I wont go into any depth, because that would merit its very own thread, but the book details a Noble Houses move to a desert planet on request from the Emperor. The depth of culture that exists on this planet, Arakis, has made me rethink just how different the culture on each planet within New Eden would be totally different to other planets, even within even the same solar system.
Different customs, different interpretations of the same religious systems. I had always just painted planetary culture with one broad brush depending on where it was situated. Makes me think of the less frequented low sec planets a lot differently now.
That's why I love the WarHammer 40000 books, especially the Imperial Guard and Inquisition books as it shows how different every world is from one another even within same solar systems across the galaxy.
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Have to agree with some of these recomendations, especially Charlie Stross and of course the Ender series.
Also, anyone who likes Stross will love Ken Mcleod (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_MacLeod).
There is one glaring omission here however, especially given the posthumanist angle in EVE...
Greg Egan (http://www.gregegan.net/), probably one of the best hard SF writers ever. Also great characterisation with some rich moral implications of advanced technology angles.....
Anyway, [rant]everyone must read his stuff!!![/rant]
:roll: