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Posted on 02/09/2013 4:41:00 PM PST by narses
TechRepublic member lcallander asked me for some suggested reading material, with a rather intriguing sci-fi stipulation:
“I was rereading an old post, where guys were reminiscing about reading ‘Heinlein, Asimov, and Clark,’ my personal favorites. I got out of reading SF in the ’80s and am bewildered by the variety today. What do guys who liked H, A, and C read today?”
Well, that’s a really interesting question. I’m really only able to answer the Heinlein part of it, since I’ve read very, very little Clarke or Asimov (blasphemy, I know). John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War, The Ghost Brigades, and The Last Colony are openly admitted Heinlein pastiches, the first of which won the Campbell Award and was nominated for the Hugo.
Scalzi’s style is breezy and easy to pick up, so I’d start there. I’m also told (though haven’t read) that John Varley’s Red Thunder and Red Lightning ably pick up the Rocket Ship Galileo torch. That’s about the extent of my advice.
Thankfully, Amazon.com can actually help some here. (Shocking, I know.) See, Amazon has a nice bit of collaborative filtering that lets you view items that Amazon customers bought before and after buying a product that you’re interested in. That’s a fancy way of saying: These people bought X and also bought Y, so if you like X, odds are you’ll also like Y.
So, let’s take Stranger in a Strange Land (my favorite Heinlein novel) and check out its extended list of Customers Also Bought items, scrolling until we find some modern stuff not written by Uncle Bob himself. Filtering out the usual suspects of Hugo winners who get bought out of sheer notoriety, we find: Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Now, let’s do the same thing with Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama, and we get: Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. For Asimov’s Foundation we get: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.
Do this for a number of books by Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein, and you’ll begin to get a picture of where adherents of the Old Masters go to sate their sci-fi thirst today. Do the same for Hyperion, Red Mars, and Ender’s Game, and you’ll link into a web of recommendations that open whole new doors of possibility.
Of course, for all of Amazon’s tech, there’s nothing like a good old-fashioned reader recommendation. So, how about it Geekenders — what modern writer (published since 1990) would most satisfy a fan of Asimov, Clarke, and/or Heinlein? Post your recommendations in the comments sections. With any luck, we can help a fellow member out (and maybe even attract some SFSignal attention).
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the United States of Dystopia
BUMP to other fiction writers... although I dunno if EnglishCon is still around
30 books... oh my
I like Michael Z. Willimason’s novels of future war, executive protection company, libertarian planets. He is a blade maker and editor at large for Survivalblog.com, also.
http://www.michaelzwilliamson.com/bibliography.php
Steven Baxter writes universe-sweeping books. He tends to be very rough, almost sadistic, to his characters but the stories are good. he has several “theme” series of novels.
Hey, that’s not fiction! If we include non-fiction we have to include more Freepers I bet.. like LS and..uh... whatshishandle who wrote the childrens book about the Clinton admin....
I’ll try to remember to look for that next time I go to the library
You are so right, no one would believe it if it were a movie or a book... and those who won’t believe it are living through it....
About. It went on for years, spawned board/video games and entire genres of Anime. There are many.
It’s the source of the Mechwarrior games.
I got them over time at used book places. Some of the early ones are not common but can be found with a bit of searching/Ebay. Cheap too.
Another side note, while Stephen King may be a libidiot, his books “On Writing” and Danse Macabe are must reads as well.
I read a great book, recently written by old Sci-Fi great Frederick Pohl, titled “All the Lives He Led.” It was written in 2011. I was surprised Pohl was still alive.
BTW, Amazon reviewers really panned the book, but what do they know?
Well, since gearheads/racers ‘embelish’ things alot of what they ‘did back then’, I’s say half that book probably is PURE fiction ;)
I see to remember a BattleTech game or something some kids in school were doing.. I didn’t know that was part of something bigger. That was a long long time ago too
but not your half?
lol
The author doesn’t really define what he’s looking for, does he?
No, my half was probably the WORST offenders!!! ;)
Yup, that was probably Battletech. Now that I think about it though, the GAMES may have spawned the books, not the other way around.
Either way, the books are great. They are in groups/arcs dealing with different areas/clans/aspects etc. You can read a group ‘stand alone’ with minimal overall knowledge of the series and be OK, but together, it makes Star Wars look like a Saturday morning Cartoon.
from my memory it seemed they were looking at spec’s of the Mech warriors or something
I wonder if FR would let us do a round-robin fiction thread about CW2 or just a space opera?
lol
Yup. You built your mech, joined a clan/merc group and went into battle.
Dungeons and Dragons with Robot/powered armor.
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