Posted on 05/23/2008 10:02:34 AM PDT by GSWarrior
There must be a lot of SF fans here. Who are you favorite authors or books? What are you currently reading?
I enjoy SF books that focus on character development over hard scifi themes. Robert Silverberg, IMO, is about the best there is. I also enjoy Gardner Duzois' short stories--some gut-wrenching stuff. Jack Vance's are also very entertaining. Orson Scott Card is pretty good too.
I am currently reading Altered Carbon, by Richard Morgan...it's kind of slow and hard to follow. Not likely to read his other novels.
I have enjoyed some, but not all, of Niven and Pournelle's works.
Hah. I saw the title of this thread earlier and thought of Piers Anthony. While there are many great authors and novels, my first thought was of his Incarnations series.
Gordan Dickson and his Dorsai series, to name just one!
Roger Zelazny to name another!
Bear’s Forge of God was great.
Here’s some of my favorites
Fantasy:
JRR Tolkien
Neil Gaiman
CS Lewis
Robert Jordan
Terry Brooks (easy reading, more aimed at teenagers)
Sci-fi:
Robert Heinlein
Orson Scott Card
Ray Bradbury
Arthur C. Clarke
HG Wells
Douglas Adams
Terry Pratchett
Isaac Asimov
HP Lovecraft (can’t believe nobody’s mentioned him yet)
Jules Verne
Cyberpunk:
Neil Stephenson
Cory Doctorow
Charles Stross
(The last two publish under some variation of Creative Commons licensing, so you can download their works in ebook format for free in all kinds of places)
On my to-read list:
Neuromancer
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Stardust
...and re-read:
Princess Bride
Flatland
Flatterland (heavy on the thoeretical and modern physics and cosmology. I HIGHLY recommend it for anyone interested in those topics, however)
This series contains some of the bet science fiction I have ever read, bar none. I can't recomend it enough.
Ditto.
After Heinlein, Niven and Pournelle are the best of the best.
To your (very good) list I would add Dr. Robert L. Forward, Jack Vance and Fritz Lieber (last two more fantasy than science).
bump for later
I remember it as an excellent book, although I can't recall anything about it. I read it in my senior year in high school, which is some 28 years ago. Another terrific distopian book is Ira Levin's "This Perfect Day." Levin is best known for Rosemary's Baby. I believe that This Perfect Day has been out of print for some time now.
Mark
The best part of that movie was at the very beginning, where you see text on a black screen. I can't remember it verbatim but it was something like: "In the late 20th century, politicians finally found a cure to urban blight." The next thing you see is a mushroom cloud. As I recall, it went downhill from there.
Ellison's short story was great, and the movie was OK, but it didn't compare to his story.
For a long time, I was something of a fan of his writing, but I've since decided that I really like his editing better. I'm eternally thankful to Harlan Ellison for his "Dangerous Visions" anthologies, for introducing me to many authors I probably would never have read otherwise, including Piers Anthony, Theodore Sturgeon, and Fritz Leiber.
Mark
Short and twisted, but a damn good writer.
In one of my favorite bits from a book, the end of Heinlein's "Number of the Beast" has a gathering of writers, both historical and fictional, as well has Heinlein's contemporaries. And he's even invited critics to this gathering as well. Harlan Ellison's been put in charge of their accommodations! LOL
Mark
I believe that he also wrote a (fantasy) book titled "The Dragon and the George." It's been at least 20 years since I read that book, but I recall it was terrific.
DAMN!!!! "The Dragon and the George" was by Gordon Dickson, not Zelazny!
Thanks for reminding me, GBS!
Mark
I hope this thread gives me some reading ideas, because I haven’t read a NEW science fiction novel in, literally, decades.
While I admire Gene Wolfe, Harlan Ellison, Delaney, Zelany, some Herbert, Silverberg, Bester and Clarke, I have to say I’ve been disappointed with so much science fiction...and I WANT to love it.
I think the bloom came off the rose with me when, first, I grew up and tired of the cynicism of the Ellison crowd, and second, Cyberpunk came into being. That youthful unearned cynicism I just grew out of, but I’ve never gotten tired of the “sense of wonder” SF—some Clarke and Andre Norton, especially.
But while I’m a more sophisticated reader now, “sophisticated” too often means “cynical” to these writers. I can’t tell you how many “new classics” I’ve picked up and then bailed on after a hundred pages. I just don’t give a DAMN about “cybercowboys” and their silly posing ways—characters who look cool as their killing people, tough-talking characters who haven’t a shred of humanity to interest me and, especially, boring plots which don’t activate my imagination.
Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination is a favorite, as is Clarke’s Songs of Distant Earth. I love Bradbury’s non-sf stuff, too. But these days when I want some good SF, I have to reread something, or write something.
I LOVED Ligotti until I read that long, bizarre essay of his about how the universe is meaningless and there is no god. Even if you are an atheist, you’ll be put to sleep by his endless rehashing of high school-level cliches about meaninglessness.
Hey MarkL, Pellucidar is by ERB, if I recall. But you win the thread by mentioning Fritz Leiber. Have you ever read Gene Wolfe?
Freegards
Wow... You're right. I haven't read them since high school, which is roughly 3 decades, so it's a miracle that I can remember it at all. But didn't Doyle also have a "primitive world" book or series?
I don't recall ever having read Gene Wolfe.
Mark
Do think the new author will pull of Book 12? Maybe the editing will be a little tighter, but than I think RJ’s wife is still the editor.
I run into the same problem. I reckon the “newest” author I can get into is Dan Simmons’ Hyperion/Fall of Hyperion. And that was written in the late 80s-early 90s if I recall. He’s also the cat who wrote the essay “Message from a Time Traveler” that shows up on FR now and then. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1610142/posts
Freegards
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