Jamie's comments (member since Nov 08, 2007)

Jamie's comments from the Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library group.

You might try Tanya Huff's Valor series, beginning with Valor's Choice. The protagonist is a marine sergeant who leads a team composed of humans and aliens of both sexes on various galactic missions. Lots of exploring and fighting involving teamwork.

Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series is very good. It's way more than three books, but she's pretty good about making them each of them work as a standalone novel.

Jana, I liked her fantasy books The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls, but the Sharing Knife series doesn't sound like something I would like.

For sci-fi action/adventure, I'd recommend Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series. I'm also enjoying David Weber's Honor Harrington series - it's pretty much Horatio Hornblower in space, if you think you would like that sort of thing.

For time travel, Connie Willis is great: To Say Nothing of the Dog and The Doomsday Book. I'd also recommend the novel Replay by Ken Grimwood.

I only discovered Bujold last year, and I read straight through the entire Vorkosigan series over a couple of months.

The Warrior's Apprentice is the first Vorkosigan book that features Miles himself. It's a pretty good place to start the series, although it's not the very best book. The next book after this one, The Vor Game, is a Hugo winner.

There are two books that come chronologically earlier, Shards of Honor and Barrayar (also a Hugo winner) but they are about Miles' parents.

All of these books are now available in omnibus volumes, which should save you some money if you're buying them new. You usually get two novels and a short story in each volume.

I'll second Bujold and Octavia Butler. I also like Connie Willis and Nancy Kress.

Hi Nick. Since you like Hamilton, my first suggestion would be Hyperion, the first of a series by Dan Simmons.

Also:
The Mars trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Forever War, Joe Haldeman.
The Wreck of the River of Stars, Michael Flynn

Pern is one of those series that I loved as a kid and now enjoy for reasons of nostalgia, so I'm unable to tell if it's actually any good or not. I do enjoy the early books, up through Moreta, very much.

If you like small, quiet movies, Dinklage is great in The Station Agent.

I think Dan Simmons (the Hyperion series) and Peter F. Hamilton (the Night's Dawn Trilogy) do far future pretty well.

Some from my list that haven't already been mentioned:

Beggars in Spain, Nancy Kress
Ringworld, Larry Niven
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Robert Heinlein
Hyperion, Dan Simmons
Shards of Honor and Barrayar, Lois McMaster Bujold

I want Peter Dinklage to play Tyrion Lannister.

I hadn't read any traditional fantasy in a long time, but Martin's novel Fevre Dream convinced me to start the Ice & Fire series last year, and it's great.