Sci-fi not SyFy

[Nick]

Hello all! Let's chat about our favorite science fiction and recommend some good titles to one another.

Go!

[Kivrin]

I've turned more to fantasy as I've gotten older, but some of my all-time fave sci-fi reads are:

The original Dune trilogy by Frank Herbert. The first book is still the best.

Ringworld by Larry Niven has one of the most creative worlds ever! I haven't read it in years. Might be time to revisit.

I like apocalyptic books. Lucifer's Hammer by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven was one of the first I ever read and still one of the best. A Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter Miller, Jr. is also excellent. Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank was written in the 50's so it's a little dated but I enjoyed it. And that's a few of my faves.

I love Jack McDevitt's Alex Benedict books. A Talent for War is one of my favorites. He makes you THINK to figure out where the story is going.

I liked the first set of Jack Campbell's "Lost Fleet" books (six of them, I think). Dauntless was the first one and it was the first hard sci-fi I'd read in years when I discovered it. Haven't picked up the newest ones.

Anathem by Neal Stephenson is a great (huge) book that is one of the more recent ones I've read. Reminded me of Canticle for Leibowitz a little.

Okay, that's enough for now. Not nearly all on my list, of course.

[Amberle]

I have a huge soft spot for Jules Verne, and I think that Paris in the Twentieth Century might be the 'purest' sci-fi I've ever read. It seemed like every page imagined something else that would have been the heaviest of science fiction, in the author's time, but is now as commonplace as sliced bread. I also remembered being hugely amused by the blurb on the back-cover of the book that said: "Jules Verne is the Michael Crichton of the nineteenth century"... Should you say Michael Crichton is the Jules Verne of... ah, never mind.

I also really got into Far Rainbow / The Second Invasion from Mars, but haven't got around to reading anything else by the Strugatsky brothers. One day, maybe, I'll crawl out of my laziness-funk.

And finally, I'm never sure whether to consider Gravity's Rainbow science fiction or not... But it's a book that has always been one of my favorites. It frustrates the heck out of me, but also blows my mind with the richness and complexity of the plot. It's always kind of reminded me of epic-100K-word-fantasy-fiction plopped down in a slightly dystopian view of the world post-WW2... I think this is what you'd get if J.R.R Tolkien and Kurt Vonnegut had been drinking buddies.
Those are the three that come to mind right now, anyway, when I try to think of sci-fi that got stuck in my mind and festered there a while.

[S H A R O N]

I haven't read much sci-fi...I tend to lean more to fantasy. I did, however, find David Feintuch's Seafort Saga to be quite engrossing. It's a retelling of sorts of C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower series...but set in space. I need to read the last few books in the series...but I really enjoyed what I've read.

[Kivrin]

I'm adding the Seafort Saga books to my wish list. Thanks.

Along those same lines, you might like the "Lost Fleet" books by Jack Campbell that I mentioned.

Sharon wrote: "I haven't read much sci-fi...I tend to lean more to fantasy. I did, however, find David Feintuch's Seafort Saga to be quite engrossing. It's a retelling of sorts of C.S. Forester'..."

[S H A R O N]

...and added the first Lost Fleet book to my TBR list. Thanks for the suggestion! Looks pretty interesting...

[S H A R O N]

I just finished this one - highly recommend it for anyone wanting some light science fiction to read!



Fortune's Pawn by Rachel Bach