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[Duane Cunningham]

Here's a latter day Heinlein book that I enjoyed a lot:

It's especially good to read the short story Gulf first, which is a bit of a prologue to Friday.

 

[marrec]

Also Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Murakami. Best Cyberpunk novel ever.

 

[Salvor.Hardin]

Possibly the greatest science fiction trilogy ever written. It has everything, from a fantastic adventure tale, and good religious and political discourse to awesome characters and sound pseudo science. And surprisingly it's a very light read.

 

[Attackthebase]

Card is a homophobic retard, but he never inserted those views into his books. It's like Card the author is a completely different person from Card the man. One inspires me to be a better person whilst the other makes me want to punch him in the face for being so goddamn stupid.

This novella says otherwise.

 

[fanboi]

I know it's against the OP, but this forum has too deep of an infatuation with sci-fi/fantasy. Give something written by Dumas or Dostoevsky a chance, if you haven't already.

For me they are to heavy to read imo... I also want to read of something out of this world

 

[phisheep]

The Name of the Wind

See what happens? You post a great book without a pic and everyone ignores you. I'll say it louder so they can hear:

Gormenghast Trilogy.

Yeah, that too. Creepy.

 

[Cyan]

If you're looking for a dense pile of doorstop fantasy to keep you occupied, check out Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy, starting with Assassin's Apprentice. If I wasn't about to run and catch a bus I'd explain how awesome the series is in detail, but this time I've got to let Amazon do the work for me.

FnordChan

Hobb is a stone cold killer.

I can't even read any of her recent stuff, I'm too worried what horrible shit she's going to do to her characters.

 

[Grakl]

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert E. Heinlein.

One of the best sci-fi books you'll ever read.

 

[Greg]

See what happens? You post a great book without a pic and everyone ignores you. I'll say it louder so they can hear:

I'm sold (again)!

 

[SoulPlaya]

For me they are to heavy to read imo... I also want to read of something out of this world

A lot of people say that they're "too heavy", but I think that may be giving yourself too little credit. When was the last time you tried to read one of them? Give them a chance like I did years ago, and discover just how great they can be. Try the Three Musketeers series, or something by W. Somerset Maugham. Besides, I think some of the fantasy and sci fi books posted in here are more dense than most classic novels, lol.

If not, then I recommend Anno Dracula or The Name of the Wind.

 

[kruis]

A few SF classics:

Frank Herbert - Dune
Alfred Bester - The Stars My Destination, The Demolished Man
Greg Bear - Eon
Ursula K Le Guin - The Left Hand of Darkness
Frederik Pohl - Gateway
David Brin - Startide Rising

 

[DieH@rd]

CODEX ALERA series by Jim Butcher is very epic. I has 6 books, finished storyline [no cliffhangers] and very epic fantasy story, setting and characters.

 

[Kamek]

The Golden Compass - Philip Pullman

Best book ever.

 

[Deified Data]

Have you checked out anything by Joe Abercrombie? His "First Law" books are sort of Martin-lite, with a dark comedy edge. Writes battle scenes better than anyone in the business - very good. Give them a try.

 

[Slayven]

I know it's against the OP, but this forum has too deep of an infatuation with sci-fi/fantasy. Give something written by Dumas or Dostoevsky a chance, if you haven't already.

I noticed if you ask for suggestions on this board you are going to get the same recommendaations like there is a list.

CODEX ALERA series by Jim Butcher is very epic. I has 6 books, finished storyline [no cliffhangers] and very epic fantasy story, setting and characters.

I read the first book and loved it, got a thread into the 2nd book and couldn't stand the political circle jerk.

 

[snacknuts]

It's not science fiction in the Asimovian sense, but Slaughterhouse-Five has some sci-fi elements to it and is widely regarded as one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. It is also an easy read and my favorite book.

 

[Chesh]

 

[chiQ]

So, I have a hard time finding a book to read.

Waiting for the next installment of Game of Thrones... which I prolly read on the retirement home has left a bit of... vaccum.

So, fantasy or SciFi is the genre Im in dire need of.

What I like:

* Game of thrones
* Illium and Oddysen
* Nick Perumov "Keeper of the Swords"
* Yes I liked Dragon Reborn series.

Give it to me.

Word War Z? (allthough not Scifi or fantasy, I have heard great things about it).

It's not high-brow, top shelf literature, but I keep going back to The Deed of Paksenarrion, by Elizabeth Moon. Also, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, and the His Dark Materials series are great.

 

[Ceebs]

Try The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern on the weekend. Absolutely adore this novel and it's landed amongst my favourite novels of all time. From my review:



Full review here.

This. I sorta devoured this in 2 days over the holidays. Was a fantastic read.

 

[Deleted member 81567]

ctrl + f'd The Pale King

0 results.

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

Nuklear Age by Brian Clevinger

It's a tale of incompetence in the face of adversity.

Or is it a story of adversity in the face of incompetence?

Well, anyway, there's a robot, a giant monster, a line of evil toys, a mind control plot, sub-orbital death beams, kidnappers, bad movies, a super powered gang, an usurper, and a maniacal villain hell-bent on world domination.

Not all at once, though. I mean, really, could you imagine coordinating the fight scene? Or reading it? You'd have to take notes just to keep track of who hit what and why.

 

[luxarific]

House of Leaves. I still get chills thinking about it.

 

[Biggest-Geek-Ever]

ctrl + f'd The Pale King

0 results.

Infinite Jest is better... and complete!

Spoiler

Not to slight Pale King, but anyone who's never read Wallace should start with Jest

 

[AlimNassor]

The Chanur Saga by C. J. Cherryh is a several book series that is told from the point of view of a lion-like race of aliens known as the Hani and their journey's. It's a really good hard scifi book, if you can get past the mostly humanoid aliens you'll enjoy it.

The Foreigner series-C. J. Cherryh. A human colony ship lands on a planet inhabited by ivory skinned humans who are mentally different then us in virtually every possible way. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreigner_universe

War Against the Cthorr-David Gerrold. In the near future most of the human race is wiped out by a deadly virus. As humanity tries to rebuild alien plants and animals begin appearing worldwide destroying our ecosystem and replacing it with their own. Most the story has us fighting a hopeless battle against giant carnivorous worms and the new alien ecosystem itself as we're rapidly overwhelmed. I guess it's starship troopers meets starcraft.

 

[Blackace]

See what happens? You post a great book without a pic and everyone ignores you. I'll say it louder so they can hear:

Great first book.. second book... not so great

 

[Blackace]

The Lies of Locke Lamora

By Scott Lynch

Think Ocean's 11 in a fantasy setting!

The follow up book was good too, awaiting the 3rd!

 

[suzu]

Perhaps you should try "The First Law" trilogy, by Joe Abercrombie.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_First_Law

The First Law trilogy

The Blade Itself (May 2006)
Before They Are Hanged (March 2007)
Last Argument of Kings (March 2008)

Standalone works

Best Served Cold (June 2009)
The Heroes (January 2011)

 

[Blackace]

Perhaps you should try "The First Law" trilogy, by Joe Abercrombie.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_First_Law

The First Law trilogy

The Blade Itself (May 2006)
Before They Are Hanged (March 2007)
Last Argument of Kings (March 2008)

Standalone works

Best Served Cold (June 2009)
The Heroes (January 2011)

I might be one of the few who thinks Joe Abercrombie is one of the brightest new writers to the fantasy genre.. I really think BS is a boarderline hack, and Patrick is slightly overrated..

 

[DeSo]

Endymion, and The Rise of Endymion.

Are these two as good as the first two? Currently reading FOH, wondering whether I should check these out too.

 

[braves01]

Cloud Atlas, while only partially sci-fi, is a terrific book, and you ought to read it now before the movie hits.

 

[Arment]

I might be one of the few who thinks Joe Abercrombie is one of the brightest new writers to the fantasy genre.. I really think BS is a boarderline hack, and Patrick is slightly overrated..

The First Law Trilogy was so good that I'm starting to think this myself (sans the Brandon Sanderson stuff). One of the first books where I had to take a few days to just get over having finished it.

I cant bring myself to read Best Served Cold yet because I'm afraid it won't be as good.


Anyways I'll add my support for the recommendation of The Farseer Trilogy and the sequels as well. The First Law Trilogy is my new favorite series next to A Song of Ice and Fire though so I recommend you read that too.

 

[Count Dookkake]

The Riverworld series is tops and doesn't get nearly enough love.

Its a step above pulpy stuff like Enders Game though.

I recommend it as often as this subject comes up.

I wish more people would read it. I also wish they'd stop turning it into shitty SyFy shows.

 

[Blackace]

First Law Trilogy was so good that I'm starting to think this myself (sans the Brandon Sanderson stuff). One of the first books I had to take a few days to just get over having finished it.

I cant bring myself to read Best Served Cold yet because I'm afraid it won't be as good.

All the writers I talked about are fairly young for best selling fantasy writers... but to me JA has the best character interactions... his prose is simple but being simple isnt bad as long as it isnt barebones.

Best Served Cold isn't as good, but for a stand alone offshoot it is great.. also get to see some of the cast from the First Law Trilogy sprinkled through it...

I have been writing, finished my first novel, and JA did exactly what I wanted to do when I started my writing. He created a world and keeps writing in it. I love his style

 

[calder]

Perhaps you should try "The First Law" trilogy, by Joe Abercrombie.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_First_Law

The First Law trilogy

The Blade Itself (May 2006)
Before They Are Hanged (March 2007)
Last Argument of Kings (March 2008)

Standalone works

Best Served Cold (June 2009)
The Heroes (January 2011)

Great picks. It's a shame that The Heroes is so freaking brilliant, truly my favourite by far, because while it's technically stand alone many characters and events from the First Law pop up so if you've read the other books it has added impact.


For my picks:

Daniel Polansky - Low Town

Polansky transplants his love of crime noir into a magic-steeped, secondary-world fantasy setting. It’s an inherently troublesome mash-up that could only work in the hands of a silly satirist or a deft, sensitive dramatist with the blackest sense of humor. Polansky is wholeheartedly the latter—and Low Town is brilliant proof.

Ben Aaronovitch - Rivers of London

The novel centres around the adventures of Peter Grant, a young officer in the Metropolitan Police; who, following an unexpected encounter with a ghost, is recruited into the small branch of the Met that deals with magic and the supernatural.

Peter Grant, having become the first English apprentice wizard in sixty years, must immediately deal with two different, but ultimately inter-related cases. In one he must find what is possessing ordinary people and turning them into vicious killers and in the second he must broker a peace between the two warring gods of the River Thames.[5]

 

[suzu]

I might be one of the few who thinks Joe Abercrombie is one of the brightest new writers to the fantasy genre.. I really think BS is a boarderline hack, and Patrick is slightly overrated..

I enjoyed all of his First Law books (I haven't read The Heroes yet), so I agree with you there.

I just went through Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy recently, and I liked it well enough. Not as much as I liked JA's stuff though. Haha.

I don't know what to think of Patrick Rothfuss. First book was nice, I guess.

I cant bring myself to read Best Served Cold yet because I'm afraid it won't be as good.

Best Served Cold was all right. I miss the characters from the first book (okay, mainly Ninefingers haha).

 

[Blackace]

I enjoyed all of his First Law books (I haven't read The Heroes yet), so I agree with you there.

I just went through Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy recently, and I liked it well enough. Not as much as I liked JA's stuff though. Haha.

I don't know what to think of Patrick Rothfuss. First book was nice, I guess.



Best Served Cold was all right. I miss the characters from the first book (okay, mainly Ninefingers haha).

PR's first book was great. The way it was delivered was a great twist to the genre and the characters were ok enough.. while the main character

Spoiler

was a little twat

you feel that was by design...

He lost a lot of pacing with the 2nd book... and characters became a little odd, for lack of a better word.

 

[Krappadizzle]

House of Leaves. I still get chills thinking about it.

I was going to say this as well. House of Leaves is one of the scariest if not THE scariest/ best horror books of all time. Not really sci-fi/fantasy but really not too far from that genre. It is a strange ride that everyone should experience at least once. It will make you question your sanity.

 

[Cyan]

Great picks. It's a shame that The Heroes is so freaking brilliant, truly my favourite by far, because while it's technically stand alone many characters and events from the First Law pop up so if you've read the other books it has added impact.

Is it a lot different from Best Served Cold? I enjoyed the First Law trilogy, but got bored halfway through BSC.

 

[Blackace]

Is it a lot different from Best Served Cold? I enjoyed the First Law trilogy, but got bored halfway through BSC.

BSC was a little bland in the middle, picked up at the end.. middle felt like filler

 

[lacinius]

Assassin's Apprentice has me interested... The Terror has me interested... and I just might give The Night Circus a go... damn these book threads!!

 

[Citizen_Insane]

I see you mentioned Illium and Olympos, have you read Dan Simmons previous book series The Hyperion Cantos?

Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, and The Rise of Endymion.

4 of the best sci-fi books ever written by an author you're already familiar with.

I really want to read this, but can anyone tell me which edition of the book has that cover? Looks so awesome, and I really don't care for the generic sci-fi cover of the original. Yes, covers matter to me.

 

[cousins]

Do books by Vonnegut count? They should.

 

[MilesWebber]

One of the best novels I've ever read. Really gripping, scary, and makes you feel as cold as the setting. It's really good. Not sure if it would count as science fiction, but it definitely has some monster stuff to it, so it might count?

Yes. Yes. Yes.

 

[PhoncipleBone]

A few SF classics:

Frank Herbert - Dune
Alfred Bester - The Stars My Destination, The Demolished Man
Greg Bear - Eon
Ursula K Le Guin - The Left Hand of Darkness
Frederik Pohl - Gateway
David Brin - Startide Rising

It took 62 posts to get to Dune. For shame.

But op, read Dune.

 

[AnathemicOne]

This is considered a classic in the Sci-Fi genre. This is before Orson Scott Card inserted his homophobic views into his work.

In the Ender series I've only read up to Speaker for the Dead, when does Homophobia come into play?

 

[Grakl]

In the Ender series I've only read up to Speaker for the Dead, when does Homophobia come into play?

It doesn't in the Ender series. I wouldn't recommend reading them all, anyways. Just read Ender's Shadow, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind. Remember to treat the last two as one book. They are frequently disliked, and don't have much acclaim, but I enjoyed them. Stop there.

 

[Face it Tiger..]

The Big Butt Book

I guess you guys know why I classify it as fiction.

 

[Ceebs]

One of the best novels I've ever read. Really gripping, scary, and makes you feel as cold as the setting. It's really good. Not sure if it would count as science fiction, but it definitely has some monster stuff to it, so it might count?

The idea behind this one is fantastic, but the pacing is just dreadful.

 

[cousins]

It's not science fiction in the Asimovian sense, but Slaughterhouse-Five has some sci-fi elements to it and is widely regarded as one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. It is also an easy read and my favorite book.

Looks like someone beat me to the punch. Slaughterhouse-Five is backed hard though.

 

[Brawndo Addict]

So many people have recommended good books to foster the love of reading I'd thought put in a counterpoint.

You should pick up the The Silmarillion. By the time you're done with it you'll never want to read again....Joke was funnier in my head.