Anyone have an SF book suggestion?

mrblanche

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I haven't bought a new SF book in quite a while, and I need to get a few to carry with me to read when I have to stay overnight. Any suggestions for some recent books?
 

gailc

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Have you ever read anything by Alastair Reynolds. He has several books available. I found him out by accident from asking a person who was reading one of his books at a seminar I was attending. I think he has 5-6 books and I enjoyed them.
 

carolpetunia

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Do you like straight SF, or are you open to what I call speculative fiction? If the latter, have you ever read Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child? There's a lot of science, real and theoretical, in most of their books, and it's all wound through the most wonderful adventures! Great books for thinkers.

I've drifted away from straight SF too, but I don't miss it yet.
 

strange_wings

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^Usually short for sci fi, unless he did mean speculative fiction.



The best way to get recommendations you like is to list a few authors you like.


Carol - what books/authors have you read already? Most people don't even know what speculative fiction is.
I actually prefer it over regular sci fi, too. I just hate how a lot of books are out of print!
 
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mrblanche

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The bad news is that a number of the authors I like have died. Asimov, for example. H. Beam Piper.

I like Keith Laumer, etc. I have a little bit of all kinds of authors. I may just re-read some of them.

What I need is another Chanur book!
 

monaxlisa

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Patricia McKillip is excellent. She's won the world fantasy award twice and I would recommend her to anyone (and often do). Her last few books havent been quite as good (4 stars instead of 6). Ombria in Shadow is great, I would suggest that one. Though that might not be what you had in mind, I always considered sci fi and fantasy different but book stores these days seem to have them all clumped together so that might be too fantasy and not enough sci fi for ya.
 

carolpetunia

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Originally Posted by strange_wings

Carol - what books/authors have you read already?
The sad thing is -- offhand, I can only think of a couple of authors doing speculative fiction, which I trust is just ignorance on my part. Maybe you can enlighten me on some other people to read!

I've read all of Preston & Child, both as a team and solo (including Preston's very early nonfiction about NYC's natural history museum, which is riveting)... also Douglas Preston's brother Richard Preston, who wrote the nonfiction "The Hot Zone" (about the Ebola virus), then followed it up with an excellent novel along similar lines.

I've also read all of John Case, which is a pseudonym for a husband-and-wife team. They started out with "The Genesis Code," an irresistible concept (which I think might have originated with them, though it's been done by others too), well-executed... but they've begun to lose steam over the years since that one. Still good, though.

I recently read "The Miracle Strain" by Michael Cordy, which branches off from the same basic idea as the Case book above... it's not the most smoothly-written book ever, but it tells a heck of a good story.

Nelson DeMille ventured into this area a bit with "Wild Fire," which I enjoyed... and while I'm mentioning him, let me note "Night Fall," which does not fall into this category at all, but is one of the best books I've ever read. It's about that passenger jet that crashed into Long Island Sound a decade or so back. Though in the form of a novel, it purports to be the truth about it, and I tend to believe. It's just excellent.

I can't think of anything else that fits this category! And that's part of why I'm such a frustrated reader, eagerly watching the Preston/Child site for word of new releases. Surely there are more authors of this kind! I just haven't found them.

(While we're talking about books, though, I can't resist mentioning this name: Brad Meltzer. Not science fiction, not even speculative fiction -- just straightforward thriller, but oh WOW can this guy write! Best of the Meltzers is "The Zero Game." Absolutely brilliant!)
 

gailc

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I have to agree on the Lincoln Child/Douglas Preston novels-they are terrific!!

With a different genre I really enjoyed Ken Folletts Pillars of the Earth and the follow up World without End. You wouldn't think building a cathedral in the 12th-13th century would be interesting but the books were great!!
 

carolpetunia

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Oooh! I haven't read Follett since Triple and Eye Of The Needle -- maybe it's time to check in with him again. Thanks!
 

strange_wings

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Originally Posted by CarolPetunia

The sad thing is -- offhand, I can only think of a couple of authors doing speculative fiction, which I trust is just ignorance on my part. Maybe you can enlighten me on some other people to read!
Some of my favorites are Phillip K. Dick, J.G. Ballard, Harlan Ellison, and others that slide between the typical "what if" of speculative fiction and more sci fi type stories like - James Tiptree, Jr (real name Alice Bradley Sheldon - also wrote a couple of stories under Raccoona Sheldon), Robert Silverberg, Philip JosÃ[emoji]169[/emoji] Farmer, Roger Zelazny, Larry Niven, Frederik Pohl, Robert Heinlein, Robert F. Young, Aldous Huxley... and so on.

Some of Robert Matheson's stories would be considered speculative, too.

http://208.100.59.10/cgi-bin/index.cgi may be helpful for you in looking things up.


The genre was much more popular in the past - and most of the authors I listed are older or even dead... Some wrote mostly or only short stories, the collections may be harder to find now so you'll have to check used bookstores. If anyone is wanting some nice speculative fiction anthologies I suggest looking for Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions and Dangerous Visions Again - they'll introduce you to some other writers, too. Dangerous Visions even has some very funny forewords between Ellison and Asimov - not to be missed if one considers themselves a fan of either writer.



I also tend to prefer dystopia future type stories. Always fun!
 

laureen227

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Originally Posted by goonie

try neil gaiman's 'GOOD OMENS' co-written with terry pratchett. you won't put it down.
i found it quite amusing... altho the theology is all wrong. i don't have difficulty w/that type of thing, tho - after all, it's FICTION!
i love pretty much everything Heinlein's written. The Door Into Summer & The Cat Who Walks Through Walls are both good for cat lovers - altho he was a cat lover, himself. almost all of his adult novels have a cat or two in them. i also really like The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.
if you like fantasy, try The Catswold Portal, by Shirley Rousseau Murphy.
 

strange_wings

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^One of Heinlein's books even has a cat named Pixel... I had wondered if that had influenced you.
 

laureen227

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Originally Posted by strange_wings

^One of Heinlein's books even has a cat named Pixel... I had wondered if that had influenced you.
yes - that was The Cat Who Walks Through Walls... i loved the name! since i got a pair, it took me a while to find a name that went w/Pixel - ended up w/Mouse!
 

essayons89

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Have you read Dune by Frank Herbert?

If you like Tolkien at all The Children of Hurin is good. The Silmarillion is excellent but it doesn't read straight through like a novel. It's broken down into different stories. The book tells of the creation of Middle-earth and a good part of it is about the Elves. I know neither is Sci Fi but I thought I would recommend them anyway.
 

patriciapj

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Can't do recent - but if by some oversight you haven't read Kurt Vonnegut - do so - wonderful! 'Sirens of Titan' especially good. Heinline wrote a wonderful novella about a cat called 'The door into Summer' - once read never forgotton. have just asked chap who loves SF and he has suggested you try J.G.Ballard. Happy reading
 

strange_wings

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Just a bit of warning on Ballard, and Philip K. Dick too... They wrote some very messed up stuff. I couldn't get into Ballard's Crash.
 
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