Recommend some scifi/fantasy books

[Iasius]

I've decided that I've been reading too few (science fiction/fantasy) books lately. To that end, I've just ordered:
Hyperion - Dan Simmons
On Basilisk Station - David Weber
A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge
A Deepness in the Sky - Vernor Vinge
The Light Fantastic - Terry Pratchett
The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett
The Silmarillion - JRR Tolkien

But I think I'd like a few more recommendations (since I expect to get through these in a week or two).


I especially like long books. The longer, the better. Preferably long books in a series.
To help you with what might be my taste and also to serve as pointers if you'd like to try some of these out yourself:
Among those I've read so far are (no particular order):
David Brin's Uplift universe
A.C. Clarke's Rama and the sequels, plus a few assorted others
Greg Bear's The Way trilogy, The Forge of God, Anvil of Stars
Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy, Greg Mandel trilogy, Commonwealth Saga and the first two parts of the Void trilogy
Larry Niven: Everything I can get my hands on from Known Space and a few more
Isaac Asimov: Mainly the Foundation series so far
Kim Stanley Robinson: Mars trilogy
I've also read countless Battletech and Shadowrun books years ago, but I've lost interest in the newer ones at some point.

Oh and no need to recommend the DS9 relaunch novels to me.


I've read dozens more, but that should be a good overview of many of my favorites.


Edit: I think I should mention Alastair Reynold's Revelation Space. Mainly because it was recommended to me a while back and it was a bit too bleak a future for me. I also could never empathize with any characters in there (funny how that is, considering how much I liked BSG for example). I guess this is an example of the kind of scifi (books) I don't like.

Edit2: I ask you guys know not to post spoilers in the open here, aside from basic descriptions of course.

 

[coolghoul]

I especially like long books. The longer, the better. Preferably long books in a series.

Author Tad Williams.

He has an Otherland series which is sci-fi. Is nice and long. I really really liked his fantasy trilogy (quadrology since the third part is 2 books) Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy.

Both of the above are complete sagas and looooong.

He's currently working on the fantasy Shadowmarch trilogy (2 books out, final book is still awaited).

Another trilogy (fantasy) that I'd recommend is The Bartimaeus Trilogy from Jonathan Stroud tho' these aren't very long - 3 decent sized books.

 

[Lieut. Arex]

George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, starting with A Game of Thrones. Four books in the series so far of seven.

 

[T'Baio]

I highly recommend The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell.

 

[stonester1]

Peter F Hamilton's "Reality Dysfunction" and "Dreaming Void" sagas. Nice big universes, nice thick well written books.

 

[Shurik]

George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, starting with A Game of Thrones. Four books in the series so far of seven.

Agree on that. It's probably the best fantasy series ever, soon-to-be HBO series (if everything goes well) and the fifth book will hopefully come out sometime in autumn.

 

[Pilot Ace]

I think John Scalzi's Old Man's War series is really fun, I'm on the third book (The Last Colony) now.

Definitely recommended, especially if you want something like the Starship Troopers book mixed together with the film--I think that describes the tone pretty well. They're quicker reads though, very easy to get through.

 

[Jono]

Obvious one to suggest is the Star Wars EU. There is a large selection and it does vary but there are some fantastic novels in the lot. It also helps if you like Star Wars to begin with.

The Evergence Trilogy by Sean Williams and Shane Dix. It's a sci-fi series set in the distant future 500,000+CE. Loved it and found the characters and themes very interesting.

Warhammer 40,000 - Never got into the tabletop and only really looked into it after playing Dawn of War but it is a nice mix of sci-fi and fantasy. The universe is a dark and depressing one and the books really push out that dark gothic feel. They are very violent and gory though. Bodies exploding and blood showering everywhere kind of stuff.

 

[SalvorHardin]

I've decided that I've been reading too few (science fiction/fantasy) books lately. To that end, I've just ordered:
Hyperion - Dan Simmons

Well, I would say that if you ordered Hyperion you really must order and read the rest of the books in the series.
The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion and The Rise of Endymion.

Other than that, I believe that you can't go wrong with pretty much any book from Peter F. Hamilton (for example the Night's Dawn trilogy, the Commonwealth Saga or the new and not yet finished Void trilogy) and Alastair Reynolds with his Revelation Space universe and other books

 

[Othello]

Terry Brooks Shnarra series. The 1st book The Sword of Shanarra is like 950 pages in paperback form. I still have a 1st printing paperback copy I read every now and then.

 

[jadcox@mindspring.com]

George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, starting with A Game of Thrones. Four books in the series so far of seven.

I'll go along with that, and add The Name of the Wind.

 

[jadcox@mindspring.com]

I highly recommend The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell.

I love and hate that book. It is ripe with complex and lovely writing and interesting characters. It is rich with ideas and thematic twists. Sadly, it depends upon characters that we are told are the best and the brightest doing monumentally stupid things for no real reason.

 

[Mistral]

1632 and its sequels will keep you busy. Eric Flint.
Island In the Sea of Time by SM Stirling-3 book saga
If you liked Brin try Robert Sawyer and Allen Steele-pretty much anything they wrote is good.

Ken McCleod has an amazing series of books loosely (or not so loosely) strung together by a common setting.

BOLO by Keith Laumer

Santiago by Mike Resnick

The John Birmingham trilogy (Weapons Of Choice, et al)

Vernor Vinge The Peace War

Fred Saberhagen's Beserker books

Brin -The Postman

David Palmer - Emergence

Pat Frank- Alas, Babylon

Miller- A Canticle for Liebowitz

Mary Gentle- Grunts!(you gotta try this-one of the funniest fantasys I've found)

Heinlein- The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, also, The Past Through Tomorrow

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom- Cory Doctorow

Over the Rainbow- Vernor Vinge

Starman's Son - Andre Norton

Planet of the Apes- Pierre Boulle

Logan's Run- William F. Nolan

(neither of the last two are anything like the movies)

For the Love of Mother-Not by Alan Dean Foster

Spellsinger -Alan Dean Foster

To Ride Pegasus- Anne McCaffrey(I hate her stuff but this is great)

The Mote In God's Eye-Niven/Pournelle

H. Beam Piper- Paratime!, Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, Federation, Empire, and all of the Fuzzy books

I, Robot- Asimov

anything you can find by Daniel Keyes Moran(used-he isn't in print anymore)

ok, here's a few to keep you busy.

 

[Iasius]

Thanks everyone. So far I've also ordered the Memory, Sorrow & Thorn series and the first novel in the Otherland series.

To comment on a few recommendations:

I've decided that I've been reading too few (science fiction/fantasy) books lately. To that end, I've just ordered:
Hyperion - Dan Simmons

Well, I would say that if you ordered Hyperion you really must order and read the rest of the books in the series.
The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion and The Rise of Endymion.

I do intent to order the other novels if I like the first one. This also goes for any of the other series mentioned so far, unless someone here insists that the series got much better later on, in that case, please say so.

Other than that, I believe that you can't go wrong with pretty much any book from Peter F. Hamilton (for example the Night's Dawn trilogy, the Commonwealth Saga or the new and not yet finished Void trilogy) and Alastair Reynolds with his Revelation Space universe and other books

Peter F Hamilton's "Reality Dysfunction" and "Dreaming Void" sagas. Nice big universes, nice thick well written books.

I've already read pretty much every book Peter F Hamilton's ever written (aside from Fallen Dragon). So there's no need to recommend them to me ... but I really recommend them to anyone who likes epic/grand space opera novels.
(aside from the Greg Mandel novels which have a much smaller scope, but are pretty good if a slightly different "genre" within scifi I suppose)

As for Alastair Reynolds: I've read Revelation Space and I didn't like it very much. I could never relate to any of the characters and it was a bit too bleak for me. I suppose I like the books I read to be more uplifting than that, even though I liked nuBSG very much. Maybe some of you could tell me a bit more how Revelation Space compares to his other novels?


I think I'll stick with the ten books or so I've ordered at the moment so far, but please keep the suggestions coming. I'll check them out and likely order some of them later on.



Also, I think these recommendations are helpful for anyone else reading this thread.


Edit:

The Mote In God's Eye-Niven/Pournelle

I can definitely recommend this one as well.

Oh and another favorite Niven of mine "Fallen Angels" can be read for free here:
http://www.baen.com/library/067172052X/067172052X.htm

 

[Mistral]

Iasius, you can read 1632 and 1633 at Baens Bar also.

 

[Hyperspace05]

You can't go wrong with anything by Dan Simmons and John Scalzi, IMO... Good stuff all around.

If you like Simmon's Hyperion saga (and I can pretty much guarantee you will if you have a pulse) , he also wrote another Sci-Fi two-book series more recently: Ilium and Olympos - Long books with great mix of Sci-Fi and classic greek mythology. Also very much recommended.

 

[Shurik]

I do intent to order the other novels if I like the first one.

You'll have to read at least The Fall Of Hyperion, because Hyperion kinda ends mid-scene. Simmons does the same in the end of Endymion and Ilium.

 

[Venardhi]

George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, starting with A Game of Thrones. Four books in the series so far of seven.

I fourth or fifth or whatever this one.

But then I'm an unabashed ASOIAF fanboy.

 

[Iasius]

A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge

I've been reading this one and so far I absolutely love this book. It's a bit hard to get into during the first couple dozen pages, but it's really imaginative.

Spoiler: about that ...

One of the alien species is a sort of hive mind of various dog/wolf packs (ie each pack is a single mind/person). It's interesting to read about their reactions to finding humans (hands! fingers! non-communal intelligence!)

 

[Admiral_Young]

Walter H. Hunt's The Dark Wing Saga...four books combining military science fiction with a strong mythlogical take for the aliens in that series, the bird like warrior race called zor.