Hee... hee...
When I was a kid, this was my first book.
-PJ
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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I’m a big fan of Stephen Lawhead and (the deceased) Robert Jordan whose final Wheel of Time book just hit the shelves.
Lawhead’s Byzantium and his Patrick are, in my humble opinion, among the best books written in the last 3 decades with Byzantium the greater of the two.
Robert Jordan’s world is captivating.
I don’t need every story to describe how everything works, unless its something pretty different from the rest of them. No need to reinvent the wheel. :p
I have not read either Lawhead or Jordan (although I listened to a CD version of the first volume of Wheel of Time series and thought it was pretty good). I’ll have to check them out.
Thanks. Bookmark
For those of you who are gamers, there was a series originating on the Playstation that I wish I was rich enough to buy the story rights for.
It was called Xanogears/Xenosaga.
Written in Japan, it was an epic story spanning 10000 years and including every bit of hard sci fi/space opers you can imagine. A lot of the background materials are out there on the net and are a story in themselves.
You had everything you can imagine built around a core of political/religious intrigue that the word ‘epic’ does no justice to whatsoever.
What was supposed to be a six game series ended at 4 (three Xenosaga, which was a re imagining of Xenogears) and the original....
Because gamers bitched it was too much like reading a book. Sales tanked and they pulled the plug. Had they marketed it to adult/older gamers, rather than teens, the outcome would likely been different.
How many kids can grasp Nietzsche wrapped in a background of Catholic lore?
Hee... hee...
When I was a kid, this was my first book.
-PJ
BUMP!
...
Now I remember... Doug wrote a book too I think!
In my opinion Jack Vance beats pretty much any combo of ‘big three.’ He’s still kicking too, he’s 96. Last novel was 2004.
Here’s a fairly recent article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/magazine/19Vance-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Freegards
these guys are probably getting kicked out of elementary schools all across America for having a dangerous imagination.
I think David Brin should be way up on the list - tied with OSC. The “Uplift Wars” series was marvelous. It had a complete eco-system and multiple alien societies completely described.
bump
Soon, ‘Firemen’ will cleanse all schools/homes of such material.
Ray had it right. He was just a little early.
I really dug the Brin I have read. The ‘uplift scenario’ is a really great idea. John C Wright and Brin are fans of each other’s writing to my understanding, but they have locked horns on the interwebz over politics and philosophy.
Brin is much harder than Wolfe or Vance, also harder than Wright but not by as much. Did you catch him doing commentary for science channels’s Masters of Sci-fi?
Freegards
Woo, new authors for reading list thread.
I love David Weber, but I will admit that I am tired of the Harrington series, but Apocolypse Troll and the Excaliber Alternative are two of my favorites.
Ryk E. Spoor and his Grand Central Arena is a wild read, too.
I am not sure if I like Kristine Rusch’s Wreck Divers series yet, I’ve read two of them, and I just don’t know yet. :)
For a good old fashion space opera series, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller have their Liadan Universe set. That will keep you up until 5am reading. LOL
I just bought A Soldier’s Duty by Jean Johnson, but I haven’t started that one. The blurb and cover look interesting though.
Have you read any Dan Simmons? The first Hyperion book is basically the Cantebury Tales in space. He’s a huge Jack Vance fan as well, and contributed to the recent tribute anthology to Vance set in his “Dying Earth” setting, ‘Tales of the Dying Earth.’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Simmons
Back in the day he wrote a time travel story warning of radical islam that made the rounds on FR (871 posts), it is pretty tremendous and can be read here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1610142/posts
Freegards
As a warning about Islam, you can still download ‘Caliphate’ for free at Baen...
http://www.baen.com/library/books.asp
Give it time and we’ll all be living in a Ferhenheigt world and my collection of books will be starting the bonfire! Ray Bradbury was prophetic in his writing. Talk about a classic!
I’ve got to admit to loving Spider Robinson, his books are always littered with puns and references to other writers. I would love to find a Callahan’s type bar here in Houston. Yah, I know, he’s a little out there, but could you just imagine he conversations? :)
Beat ya to it ;)
Also Poul Anderson “The Time Patrol” is a good, in the ‘dumb fun’ sense.
Another one you will love and one of my all time faves is “Replay” by Ken Grimwood. Time travel with a Goundhog day twist.
Supposed to be a movie but keeps getting postponed. I hope they leave it alone because they will kill it.
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