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.
An extra Donaldson book?! WooT!! :-)
Life’s been busy here so I haven’t kept up with his website or the news on the current series, this is great to hear!
Book Club Ping
As soon as I start querying and get accepted, you can add my name to that list! Heh. Book is done... now I just need to get serious about querying. Been sitting on this manuscript way too long.
Pick up some E.E. Knight.
About 11 years ago when my wife worked for Bantam Doubleday Dell as an executive editor, I was visiting so we could do lunch in the cafeteria(Great setup they had!). This was when they were on like 7th and 45th or something(Bertlesman building if I recall properly). Anyway, this fat dude, all sweaty comes rolling by and opens the office next to hers. A real “mess” of a person. I said to my wife “who’s that tub o lard? She said “Oh, that’s Gardner Dozois.”. OOOOH, OOOPS.
I agree. Any modern list has to include Neal Stephenson.
I still love his history books and I'm happy I picked up the Chronology of the World. I just didn't know he was so loony left. Just crap!
Next I'll find out that Mortimer J Adler was a leftist too.
Another vote for Philip Jose Farmer
World of Tiers
Riverworld
Jesus Christ on Mars
Moorecock and the Enternal Champion series, eventually we’ll get the Elric movie...
I have been hitting used book stores as I travel to get cheap science fiction.
In Texas Half Price Books has taken a lot of money from me in the last few years.
I'll go check my collections and see what I keep when we move. That will give a great list for your perusal.
I agree with most or all of those posted. Asimov, Heinlein, Herbert, Clark, Niven and Pournelle (collaboratively), Poul Anderson, and so on.
Missing is David Brin who hasn’t yet written a bad book.
The Uplift series is great, The Practice Effect is unique and The Postman is a modern-day classic.
Very, very worthwhile. Start with Guards! Guards!
If he IS anti-religious, it's too subtle for me.
BOOK LIST, I mean, not Club.
I enjoyed Heart of the Comet, written by Brin and Gregory Benford.
You mean after Al Gore?
"What about Ray Bradbury?"
"I'm aware of his work."
The sequel to Ender’s Game—Speaker for the Dead—is very good.
Glad people mentioned Farmer and Dick. Don’t forget Vernor Vinge...one of the fathers of cyberpunk.
Thanks for the ping.
I stopped reading sci fi quite a while ago. I now read history books, almost exclusively. I’m currently reading Gordon Rhea’s series on the Overland Campaign of 1864.
As for my favorite sci fi authors, I really liked Asimov. The Foundation Trilogy was a favorite. When watching the last 3 Star Wars movies, the scenes of the capital planet of the Empire were right out of my imagination of what Trantor must have looked like to Asimov’s. I’m sure that’s where Lucas got the inspiration for the imagery.
I also enjoyed Arthur C. Clarke, particularly Childhood’s End.
I read many of the Pournelle and Hogan books. They were pretty good. But not on Asimov or Clarke’s level.
An obscure favorite was Norman Spinrad’s “The Iron Dream.” Bizarre; purports to be sci fi written in the 1950’s by a poor German immigrant to the United States named Adolph Hitler.
I can’t believe no-one has mentioned Frederik Pohl yet. I loved the Gateway novels.
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