Sci-Fi book dicussions

[Fairchild]

To keep from Hi-jacking another thread I thought I would start this thread and see if it continues. A couple of quotes from the source to help get it started.

What sci-fi authors top your list, Scorp?





Mike Resnick for consistency. His "Widowmaker" series was superb.

Orson Scott Card until he found religion, which tainted all his novels.

Jack L. Chalker for variety.

Then there's the old stalwarts..... especially Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren ... such a head trip. I read that as a teen and never needed to go experience recreational drugs after reading this book.....

Another vote for Dhalgren, I read it several years ago and still remember going back and forth between pages keeping up with all that was going on.

I wondered what happened to Card, Enders Game and Speaker for the Dead where both good books, then it got pretty strange and I lost interest after Xenocide.

Have you read any of Anne McAfferty's novels? The Dragon Riders of Pern is a good series as is The Ship Who Sings.

Asimov and the Foundation Trilogy, which is still being expanded, other writers are carrying on the series. Finishing tieing in the Robot novels all the way back to the Caves of Steel.

Jim

Jim

[gamve]

Any Love for Jack Vance?, Piers Anthony, Stephen Donaldson, Michael Moorcock, Orson Scott Card. Some of My Favs.

[Fairchild]

Piers Anthony was good, Orsen Scott Card in the beginning, I haven't read any of the other three, what type stories do they write?

Jim

[gamve]

Donaldson is more fantasy than science fiction. Try and find the "White Gold Wielder series 2 x trilogy sets. They are old now but a great read.
The other guys are hardcore SF especially Moorcock.
I used to read this stuff all the time years ago but I find some of it a bit heavy duty. WTF am I saying I'm reading Michener Chesapeake at the moment !! Hard going but interesting.
If you can find it anything by Tim Powers is a great read.
Did you read Piers Anthony's series with characters Death, Time, War, fate, Nature etc?

[Scorpion8]

Any Love for Jack Vance?, Piers Anthony, Stephen Donaldson, Michael Moorcock, Orson Scott Card. Some of My Favs.

Jack Vance is good. Now Steve Vance (The Asgard Run) is quite nice in the space -opera genre. Card as stated, his early stuff like Ender's Game and many of his other books up to I think Folk of the Fringe was when religion really started to overdominate his writings.

Of course Heinlein, Herbert ~ Dune-saga, Philip Jose Farmer's ~ Dayworld series, Riverworld series.

Some of my vintage favorites are Gordon R. Dickson, Timestorm and the very very first SciFi (which I still have) that I ever read was Harris Moore Slater's Planet. And another goodie is Jack McDevitt The Engines of God

[Fairchild]

Seeing Riverworld reminds me of Larry Niven and the Ringworld, Ringworld Engineers.

Have they ever done anymore with Rendezvous with Rama? I heard they were going to make a movie then stopped.

Most books made into movies have not proven good, the exception that most shows that they can do a good job was the Bicentenial Man, I thought they did a good job with that one. Satrship Troopers to me was one that they really missed what the book was even about.

Jim

[Scorpion8]

Starship Troopers was a good (read: fun) flick, but took about 3 pages of the entire book and wrote a story around them. I Robot I never even saw since it was a will Smith action movie. Enemy Mine w/Dennis Quaid was truer to the original book than most of the sorts, as was the original Andromeda Strain.... I haven't seen the latest attempt at this one as a movie.

I particularly like the intros to most SciFi books where they set the scene ....


He will come who treads the dawn,
Tramples the sun beneath his feet,
And judges the souls of men.
He will stride across the rooftops,
And he will fire the engines of God.

[Scorpion8]

Just pawed thru the collection. Anyone read the books by William Barton & Michael Capobianco? Fellow Traveler, Iris and a few others as a team?

[Fairchild]

Starship Troopers was a good (read: fun) flick, but took about 3 pages of the entire book and wrote a story around them. I Robot I never even saw since it was a will Smith action movie. Enemy Mine w/Dennis Quaid was truer to the original book than most of the sorts, as was the original Andromeda Strain.... I haven't seen the latest attempt at this one as a movie.

I particularly like the intros to most SciFi books where they set the scene ....


He will come who treads the dawn,
Tramples the sun beneath his feet,
And judges the souls of men.
He will stride across the rooftops,
And he will fire the engines of God.

Granted, Starship Troopers was a potboiler, but as stated fun, the movie completely missed.

You didn't miss anything by not seeing I Robot, another miss.

Jim

[Scorpion8]

Granted, Starship Troopers was a potboiler, but as stated fun, the movie completely missed.

Troopers was good only for Dina Meyer teaser shots. It was a fun flick, but we agree that reading the book is a whole different experience

You didn't miss anything by not seeing I Robot, another miss.

Looked like an action flick, and nothing more. Too much computer CGI animation and too little real substance.

[dingus]

.... Larry Niven and the Ringworld, Ringworld Engineers.


imo some of the best sci-fi ever written is by Niven solo and also with Pournelle and Barnes - "Legacy of Heorot" for example. another fave of mine is Frederick Pohl, not just for the "Gateway" series but for his entire body of work. Asimov is another favorite and wrote lots of good stuff besides " I Robot" and the "Foundation" series. one of the "harder" writers who is very good is Gregory Benford who wrote "Timescape" and the amazing "Galactic Center Series". my pick for the most overlooked great sci-fi writer is Kurt Vonnegut Jr. who wrote "Sirens of Titan", "Player Piano", "Cats Cradle", "Timequake", "Galápagos", "Breakfast of Champions" and of course "Slaughter-house Five". are all great reads that deal with time travel, alternate realities and the fate of the world - yet for some reason he isnt considered to be a prominent writer of science fiction.

[Scorpion8]

Gregory Benford, Ben Bova, Jerry Pournelle.... all excellent! Anybody recall Thomas F. Monteleone's Time Swept City?

How about Les Aspin Phule, A Phule and His Money, Phule's Gambit and others?

[Fairchild]

imo some of the best sci-fi ever written is by Niven solo and also with Pournelle and Barnes - "Legacy of Heorot" for example. another fave of mine is Frederick Pohl, not just for the "Gateway" series but for his entire body of work. Asimov is another favorite and wrote lots of good stuff besides " I Robot" and the "Foundation" series. one of the "harder" writers who is very good is Gregory Benford who wrote "Timescape" and the amazing "Galactic Center Series". my pick for the most overlooked great sci-fi writer is Kurt Vonnegut Jr. who wrote "Sirens of Titan", "Player Piano", "Cats Cradle", "Timequake", "Galápagos", "Breakfast of Champions" and of course "Slaughter-house Five". are all great reads that deal with time travel, alternate realities and the fate of the world - yet for some reason he isnt considered to be a prominent writer of science fiction.

Some more by Niven and Pournelle that I enjoyed, The Mote in Gods Eye and The Gripping Hand.

I also enjoyed Nivens Known Space series. A spin on the Known Space was the Man-Kzin Wars stories, took place in Nivens Known Space but he actually only wrote a few, other authors came to write in his worlds.

Any one else read much of A. E. Van Vogt?

Jim

[Rex Everything]

I'd say Moorcock is more to the fantasy side of things but the Elric saga is one of my alltime favorite series of books. For Moorcock I'd suggest The Elric saga but also check out "The Cornelius Chronicles". Very trippy stuff.

How about Phillip K. Dick? His "Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch" is very telling of the times we live in today.

[Scorpion8]

How about Phillip K. Dick? His "Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch" is very telling of the times we live in today.

Along with the classic "Do Androids Dreams of Electric Sheep", the book behind the bestest SciFi movie ever which was Blade Runner.

[Naknut]

Someone new to me is Spider Robinson. Callahan's Con was the book and evidently a whole series of books with the main character/s throughout. I enjoyed this one, thought it was funny too. Also the idea of a gorgeous nude woman popping in and out of the storyline had my attention. Waiting for the movie.

[Rat44]

Ray Bradbury and Harlen Ellison were the two that got me interested in Sci-Fi.
I still go back to them on occasion.

[dingus]

i cut my teeth on Bradbury, Heinlein and A.C. Clarke are other notables. though i didnt read much from Gene Wolfe he did produce one of the coolest and best reads with "The Fifth Head of Cerberus", definitely a must if you missed it.

[Scorpion8]

I got on a Heinlein kick once and proceeded to purchase and devour his entire library up to that point. All the books: big, small and in between. He had some varied stuff like Friday and some of the smaller books.

[Fairchild]

Thought I would bring this back into the light.

Anyone read any Fred Saberhagen? The Berserker stories are entertaining.

jim

[Scorpion8]

Anyone read any Fred Saberhagen? The Berserker stories are entertaining.

I have a few, but they were too simplistic in the space opera format and almost just like modern-day cowboy series. I didn't think they were that in-depth for SciFi.

[Fairchild]

Agreed, but so is as lot of Sci-fi, unfortunately it is the type that Hollywood makes movies from, not the more indepth thoughtful Sci-Fi which in turn gives Sci-Fi a bad name.

Jim

[Scorpion8]

Way true, which is why I was always more into Heinlein than Saberhagen. Some of the best books are the one-offs by a writer with a great idea but then can't follow it or wasn't savvy enough to plan it as a trilogy (seems to be the rage these days). Heinlein was all over the place, but each story was different. It seems like some authors come thru with a boatload of books (e.g. Mike Resnick) and then disappear. I haven't seen much new from him in awhile.

[Scorpion8]

Marsbound ~ Joe Haldeman; about 50% into this one and it's a little unusual for the life-on-Mars scene, but Haldeman is always a good read. He has an easy writing style compared to say, Samuel R. Delany.

[draftingmonkey]

A lot of good authors have been mentioned here, but how about the one that got me started...Edgar Rice Burroughs... and his John Carter of Mars series. First read them 35+ years ago.

[Scorpion8]

A lot of good authors have been mentioned here, but how about the one that got me started...Edgar Rice Burroughs... and his John Carter of Mars series. First read them 35+ years ago.

I've never read any of those. Not a single one. *no* Can ya believe that?

[edgooding]

My favorite authors are Ben Bova and Harry Turrtledove.

[Scorpion8]

Who's read the whole Ender Wiggin saga in Orson Scott Card's Ender-series? I've read the first three, and I know there's been more sequels and prequels, and I just picked up Ender in Exile, a new book in the series that fit's "in between" and takes place right after Ender's Game. Anyone read it? Opinions?

[Warped Bezel]

Troopers was good only for Dina Meyer teaser shots. It was a fun flick, but we agree that reading the book is a whole different experience



Looked like an action flick, and nothing more. Too much computer CGI animation and too little real substance.

Asimov was a surprising character via his writing, having some interesting themes such as eradication and easy treatment of sexually transmitted disease and easy and noncontroversial bisexuality(!) in some of his stories.

Douglas Adams wrote the funniest and some of the easiest Sci-fi I have ever read and it made for the best BBC fare since Doctor Who.

I miss both badly.

[Fairchild]

Who's read the whole Ender Wiggin saga in Orson Scott Card's Ender-series? I've read the first three, and I know there's been more sequels and prequels, and I just picked up Ender in Exile, a new book in the series that fit's "in between" and takes place right after Ender's Game. Anyone read it? Opinions?

I read the original Ender series but have not read Ender in Exile, let us know what you think of it.

Jim

[RedGrant]

Along with the classic "Do Androids Dreams of Electric Sheep", the book behind the bestest SciFi movie ever which was Blade Runner.

I've read the book, quite a bit different from the movie version, but one would still get that "Kafkasque" ambience.




I still have a place for "Logan's run" in my heart. Personally it is my all time favorite, a lot better than the book.



http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=4WUUnc1M0TA&feature=related

[RedGrant]

Asimov was a surprising character via his writing, having some interesting themes such as eradication and easy treatment of sexually transmitted disease and easy and noncontroversial bisexuality(!) in some of his stories.


I've read Asimov's "Robot" series way back. I'm not impressed. I expected better than gimmicks like using one liner from dead Roman to make the story more "profound" than it really turned out to be.