Stefan's comments (member since Mar 29, 2009)

Stefan's comments from the SciFi and Fantasy Book Club group.

I've been stuck in Dawnthief by James Barclay for a couple of days now. It's not too bad, in a mind candy no-brains-required sort of way, but I'm already looking forward to something with a bit more depth and originality.

I was a member for several years. I finally let my membership lapse when I forgot to send in their return form, which made them send me their monthly selection automatically. Nowadays I understand you don't have to send that form in anymore, or you can complete it online, so that makes it more attractive again, and if they have some good books in their next "Get 1000 books for 1 penny" flyer, I may actually take advantage of it.

Then again, with a teetering pile of TBR books already, I really don't need more books right now... Hm.

I just finished The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction Sixtieth Anniversary Anthology - an excellent collection of short stories.

Next up is Warhost of Vastmark by Janny Wurts.

Infinity Plus had, IMO, the best collection of free short SF&F. Sadly, the site is no longer being updated, but all the material is still online.

If you don't mind paying, I can only second the above poster's recommendation, especially the annual Gardner Dozois collections.

Pandora's Star has such a great beginning, I think. The first scene on the trains is just such an eye-opener.

I do like his Naked God series (starting with The Reality Dysfunction better.

If you can really only use one book, I'd go with this one:

Masterpieces The Best Science Fiction of the 20th Century

For the golden age and older types, it's hard to find a better collection than The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume 1, but the cut-off date is 1964 so that obviously won't do it for you. The classic cyberpunk collection is Mirrorshades The Cyberpunk Anthology. For PKD, I'd go with any of a number of his "best of" collections. But if you want them all under one cover, Masterpieces The Best Science Fiction of the 20th Century may be your best bet.

I just finished A Grey Moon over China by Thomas A. Day, which I really enjoyed despite some flaws. I posted a short review on the book's page.

Next up: Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson.

I really want to get back into this series. I read up to book 6, but it's been a long time and I don't remember many of the details... and I don't know if re-reading those first 6 books is realistic at this point.

Just finished reading Haze, the new standalone SF novel by L.E. Modesitt Jr.. It's excellent --- recommended both for fans of the author and people who aren't familiar with him (yet). I posted a review on the book's page.

I graduated from the kids' library to the adult library at age 11 or 12 (when I'd literally read every single book in the small-town kids' library). The cover of one of Jack Vance's books (Planet of Adventure) looked so interesting that I picked it up despite having no idea what it was about.

That library put little stickers on the spines of the books to indicate the genre --- a little pistol for a detective/crime novel, a little spaceship for SF, and so on. After that Jack Vance novel, I read every single book with a spaceship on it - I've been hooked ever since!

By the way, here's the cover of the Vance book --- you can imagine how it would pique a 12 year old's interest... http://www.goodreads.com/book/photo/3301...

I have about 1000 books right now. I had many more, but I've recently donated and sold a lot of them. Right now I'm only keeping those books that I may want to re-read in the future. I basically decided to go for quality over quantity. Very liberating! Right now, any book I buy and don't absolutely love gets sold or donated to the library.

I just finished Julian Comstock A Story of 22nd-Century America by Robert Charles Wilson. I had very high expectations for the book, based on some of the author's other works. I'm pleased to say that the new novel completely blew me away - it's stunningly good. Expect this one on the short lists for the major SF awards. I wrote a brief review on the book's page.

Since no one has mentioned it yet in this thread, I'll put a good word in for the amazing Company series by Kage Baker. The first book is In the Garden of Iden and focuses on Mendoza, a young girl rescued from the Spanish Inquisition in the 16th century, turned into an immortal cyborg by a 24th century company called Dr. Zeus Incorporated, trained as a botanist, and sent on missions throughout the ages to rescue rare plants from extinction. The series goes on to focus on various historical missions by Mendoza and other Company operatives, and features a large plot arc about the origin and eventual fate of the Company. It's an excellent series and highly recommended.

My favorite is SF Signal (http://www.sfsignal.com). I also regularly read Tor's blog (http://www.tor.com - and it doesn't only deal with Tor books). While not technically a blog, I often check SF Site's reviews (http://www.sfsite.com). I have a handful of other SF&F blogs on my Google Reader, but most of them are of specific authors or publicists, not general SF&F news.

Tangents by Greg Bear is one of my favorite short stories ever.

I recently read The Best of Gene Wolfe A Definitive Retrospective of His Finest Short Fiction and consider it the single best collection of short stories I've read.

I haven't seen the Naked God trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton recommended yet. The first book is The Reality Dysfunction. It's an excellent space adventure/space opera that includes sentient space ships. I like almost everything else this author has written, but I think that series is the closest to what you're looking for.

Another series you might like is the Dream Empire's Fall trilogy by Walter Jon Williams. The first book is The Praxis.

I'd second the recommendation for the Gap series by Stephen R. Donaldson, but one word of warning: IMO the first book is by far the weakest in the series. If you don't like it, make sure to at least try book 2.

Oh, one more: since someone already recommended C. J. Cherryh (one of my favorite authors ever), make sure to also try her Chanur series, which is one of her most fun, pure space adventure series. The first 3 books are available in one paperback.

Kelly wrote: "I just finished Consider Phlebas and boy did it turn out to be depressing. It's the third of his books I've read and the first sf. The first, Whit, is one of my favorite books of all time. The Crow..."

Hi Kelly,

I really recommend forging on and trying the next books, The Player of Games and Use of Weapons. Most people I know (note: not everyone) agree that Consider Phlebas is the weakest part of the Culture series. I always hesitate suggesting it --- on the one hand it's the first book in the series and it contains good introductory information, but on the other hand it can really turn people off from what turns out to be one of the best SF series around. Please at least check out The Player of Games before giving up on the series!

Hi everyone,

I just joined the group today so thought I'd post a quick hello. I'm Stefan, 36, live in San Diego CA. 95% of what I read is equal parts science fiction and fantasy, with the remaining 5% made up of the occasional non-fiction or non-genre fiction book. Favorite authors include Steven Brust, George RR Martin and Guy Gavriel Kay for fantasy, Iain M. Banks, Peter F. Familton and Neal Stephenson for SF (to name just a few).
I just joined GoodReads this weekend and love it so far. I manage a 500 member SF&F discussion group on Yahoo Groups and am considering trying to move it over to GoodReads, because it's so much more book-friendly here.