Jeffrey's comments (member since Jan 23, 2008)

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

I read this six book set and I did like the whole series. I thought the books were consistently good. Let me know if you like the other books in the series

Tor books, the big fantasy novel publisher has a new website design and in honor of same is allowing the download of various novels of both science fiction and fantasy. I believe 7-26 is the last day. So go to www.tor.com to get free novels

I would second Dan's picks as they are all good authors.

In addition, I would suggest C.S.Friedman's Cold Fire trilogy which is really great and very dark.

The books are Black Sun Rising, When True Night Falls, and Crown of Shadows

You might want to check out Laurell Hamilton's Anita Blake novels which are urban fantasy novels about a vampire hunter. Besides Anne Rice, Hamilton's success with her Anita Blake books really are why so many people are now writing urban fantasies with vampires and other supernatural critters. The first 5-8 books are really good. I leave it up to you whether you want to read any more.

With Mary Gentle, I would look at Rats and Gargoyles and skip Architecture of Desire.

Bujold has two outstanding fantasises -- Curse of Chalion is the first and Pallidin of Souls is the author. They are not what I would call dark fantasy but they are really good books.

If you have any interest in science fiction you might check out her sf and I would start with Shards of Honor and the Warrior's Apprentice.

If you want to get into other great fantasy trilogies you can look to Robin Hobb's Assassin trilogy, Patricia McKillip's Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy and expecially Terry Brook's Sword for Shannara which is in many ways a retelling of the Lord of the Rings

I also recommend the following books:

A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony
The Source of Magic by Piers Anthony
Her Majesty's Wizard by Christopher Stasheff
The Dragon and the George by Gordon Dickson

The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick comes to mind as a solo book. although I think the author is in the process of publishing a sequel.

Dragondoom by McKieran

Dilvish the Damned by Zelazny

Legend of Nightfall by Reichert (which the author many years later did a sequel)


There are also books that are in a shared universe although not precisely sequels to the first, for instance

Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells (although it was a kind of sequel to Element of Fire)

A College of Magiccs by Caroline Stevermer and its sort of sequel A Scholar of Magics, which doesnt really have the same characters at all.

jennifer

I have read all of Smith's books up to the last one and I like her a lot.

If you want to look into fantasy works by woman, I would recommend the Sharon Shinn books in her Mystic and Rider series.

Pamela Briggs
Carol Berg
Martha Wells
Emma Bull
Wen Spencer
CJ Cherryh
Rosemary Kirstein are all good authors as well

I would check a library or book store for the following:
The below books are some of my favorites, and I think would appeal to you:


Her Majesty's Wizard by Christopher Stasheff
The Dragon and the George by Gordon Dickson Azure Bonds
In the Eye of Heaven by David Keck
Magic Kingdom Sold by Terry Brooks
Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony
The Source of Magic by Piers Anthony (this is not a plug for the other books but the first two are very inventive fantasy

If you want to go a little dark you can try

Black Sun Rising by C.S. Friedman

If you hunt old book stores you can locate three books by Brian Daley called A Tapestry of Magics
, The Starfollowers of Coramonde and the Doomfarers of Coramonde. All three are epic sword and sorcery novels

Tom

I also started to hate the Otherland Series --really way too long and involved and too many books.

If you want to read cyberpunk, you should read:

Neuromancer by Gibson (which is still the archetype)
Snow Crash (which Monk recommended) IMHO the best book
I didnt really like Diamond Age also by Stephenson but that is another one to look at.

Trouble and Her Friends by Melissa Scott is decent

Hardwired by Walter Williams

Queen City Jazz by Kathleen Goonan was about nano technology

Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan is a good jumping off point for his works

Queen of Angels by Greg Bear

Two Faces of Tomorrow by James Hogan (more computers less oppressive state)

Tron by Brian Daley (the movie is good too)

There are two sf books which are about gender which you might want to look at:

The Left Hand of Darkness which Carl recommended and a simlar book by Mary Gentle called Golden Witchbreed.

It depends on what you like.

If you want to read her fantasy novels, the best place to start is Witch World. Other really good titles include Year of the Unicorn, The Crystal Gryphon, Jargoon Pard, Sorceress of the Witch World

If you like science fiction, she has a few nice little series:

Solar Queen books -- Sargasso of Space, Plague Ship, Voodoo Planet, Postmarked the Stars

Time Travel: Key out of Time, the Time Traders, Galactic Derelict, the Defiant Agent

Central Control -- Star Guard, Star Rangers

Some of my favorites are:

Star man's Son
Witch World
Beastmaster
Star Gate
The Zero Stone
Catseye
Moon of Three Rings and Exiles of the Stars

there is another book called Dreamfall which is also about Cat. However, I think that the Vinge that is worth reading right now is Joan's ex husband Vernon Vinge.

You should note that Iain M. Banks writes as Iain Banks as well. Iain M. Banks is used for sf and the other name is used for his other works.

I agree with Rindis, hard sf is not space opera. I got this definition from an article by David Hartwell in SFRevu (www.sfrevu.com):

space opera meant, and still generally means, colorful, dramatic, large scale science fiction adventure, competently and sometimes beautifully written, usually focussed on a sympathetic, heroic central character, and plot action [this bit is what separates it from other literary postmodernisms] and usually set in the relatively distant future and in space or on other worlds, characteristically optimistic in tone. What is centrally important is that this permits a writer to embark on a science fiction project that is ambitious in both commercial and literary terms.

Recent hits in Space Opera include Deepness in the Sky by Vernon Vinge, Consider Phlebes by Ian Banks,

Hard SF, however, is defined in the following manner:

Hard SF is that branch of literature which is written with science or technology as the main focus of the story

It has been my experience that hard sf authors tend to emphasize the science first and character second

It depends of course on how you characterize hard sf. My definition is books of mostly scientific ideas especially involving physics or hard science where characters take second place to the concept or plot.

Robert Forward wrote some hard SF that was well received.

and Larry Niven's books especially Ringworld, Integral Trees and Smoke Ring were hard sf.

Take a look at Queen City Jazz which is about nanotechnology if memory serves

Seeker by Jack McDevitt had some good science

I have not read them as much but Greg Bear , Alistair Reynolds, and Stephen Baxter are all included in mosts lists of hard sf authors

Don't forget Andre Norton

I also like Anne McCaffrey, Elizabeth Moon, CJ Cherryh, and LeGuin

maybe The Iron Dragon's Daughter which is a fantasy complete with dragons, elves, dwarfs set however in an industrialized city

I too have always been a big re-reader, and some of these series require it just to keep track of all of the characters, but I re read favorite books a lot and many times I go to the shelves and pick something out and read it. I like to read favorite scenes. Sometimes in new sf or fantasy its hard to start a book =-- books are so big, often there are sequels, rereading is easy, its a different experience

Neal Stephenson is really good as well.

Fallen Dragon ws very good and I also liked the Reality Dysfunction Series and his quantum murder books. But you really have to be committed to his works. The Naked God, the last book in the Reality Dysfunction trilogy was 975 pp in hardcover.

I read Neverwhere by Gaiman and I thought the horror/urban fantasy was a fine mesh, adn the ending made sense to me

However, I also read American Gods by Gaiman and I agree that the ending seemed forced, weird not sure what the word should be. However the sheer audacity, imagination and inventiveness of the story really overshadowed the ending IMO.

In SF published in the last decade, I would take a look at the following authors and books:

Karl Schroeder ( Sun of Suns, Queen of Candesce, Permanance)
Elizabeth Bear (Hammered)
Richard Morgan (Altered Carbon, Woken Furies)
Chris Moriarty (Spin State)
Julie Czerneda (A thousand Words for Stranger)
Tobias Bucknell ( Crystal Rain ,Ragamuffins)
Elizabeth Moon (Vatta novels)
David Weber (Off Armageddon Reef)
Kage Baker (Company Novels)
Peter Hamilton (Judas Unchained, {Pandora's Star)