Sci-Fi Book Recommendations Please

[label]

I read through Firstborn: A Tor.Com Original to see if I liked Brandon Sanderson's style and the very short story (less than an hour to read) really whetted my appetite for a Sci-Fi story. (By the way, for Kindle owners, it's .99 cents and totally worth it)

I'm Not looking for Fantasy.....I've already got The Game of Thrones and The Mistborn Trilogy lined up to read once I get the itch read a fantasy again.

Some of the Sci-Fi I've read (and enjoyed) :
Ender's Game (through Children of the Mind)
Foundation Series
Mission:Earth
SnowCrash
Lots of Star Trek novels (I liked the Peter David ones best usually)

You get the picture. Hit me some suggestions please.

 

[RoJoHen]

I just started reading "The Maze Runner" by James Dashner, and I'm loving it so far. It's about a group of boys who wake up with their memories wiped in a strange setting surround by a giant labyrinth. Apparently there is rumor that it's being made into a movie. It has a sequel out right now called "The Scorch Trials," and I believe another one is on the way.

 

[Starbreaker]

Please read The Dark Beyond the Stars by Frank M. Robinson.

 

[Owain Taggart]

If you like a little comedy with your sci-fi, I recommend The Last House in the Galaxy by Andy Secombe. This is a little gem I found while looking around in a bookstore about a year ago and it turned out to be a ripping good read, in the vein of Douglas Adams. What happens when allied aliens choose a house in England as their meeting place when they feel threatened by war? Oh, the fun! Even better is the fact that the leader of the rebels is lead by a talking mouse with quite a personality. It's almost as if Fawlty Towers were to suddenly host some aliens without their knowledge.

Across the aching wastes of space a terrible war is raging. The Gologons, long relegated to being the garbage disposers of the Galaxy, have finally rebelled, and now rampage across the universe, led by the pitiless Gulgus Filch. The only thing standing between them and universal domination is a small breakaway faction of the United Planets Federation.
Meanwhile, in rural Devon, Sir Mortimer and Lady Trenchard are trying desperately to prevent their beloved, crumbling Hambledon Hall from falling into the hands of a City whizz-kid who plans to turn it into a weekend conference centre. If the Universe is to have any kind of hope, the UPF needs to find a safe place where they can gather and plan a counter-attack. And because of its handy location at the terminus of a wormhole (opening beside an azalea just beyond the ha-ha), Hambledon Hall is ideally situated to provide just such a haven …

 

[Davros]

Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat or Deathworld series are both good or you might consider dusting off a classic like War Of The Worlds.

 

[label]

I just started reading "The Maze Runner" by James Dashner, and I'm loving it so far. It's about a group of boys who wake up with their memories wiped in a strange setting surround by a giant labyrinth. Apparently there is rumor that it's being made into a movie. It has a sequel out right now called "The Scorch Trials," and I believe another one is on the way.

Let me know what you think when you're finished......given how similar our tastes are I'm guessing I'll like it if you do.

 

[label]

Please read The Dark Beyond the Stars by Frank M. Robinson.

This looks like a good choice for me (based on the aggregate review on Amazon), however, it's not available on the Kindle or mass market paperback so I'd either have to hit the library I don't usually get there as often as I'd like.

 

[Mistral]

I love these threads.

Time Travel/Alt History

Lest Darkness Fall-L Sprague DeCamp
1632-Eric Flint(part of a grand series, in fact)
Weapons of Choice-John Birmingham
Island in the Sea of Time-S M Stirling
Time and Again-Jack Finney(classic!)
Marching Through Georgia- S M Stirling
the Lord Darcy stories by Randall Garrett
Replay-Ken Grimwood(fantastic!)
The Ship That Sailed the Time Stream-GC Edmundson
Paratime! - H Beam Piper
Up the Line- Robert Silverberg
The Douglas Convolution-Edward LLewellyn
All These Earths-FM Busby
The Coming of the Quantum Cats-Fredrick Pohl
Guns of the South-Harry Turtledove
Time Patrolman-Poul Anderson
And Having Writ-Bensen
The Armageddon Blues-Daniel Keyes Moran
any Kage Baker "The Company" novels

Rayguns and Rockets

Earthblood-Keith Laumer
The Stainless Steel Rat is Born-Harry Harrison
The Retief series by Laumer, too
Antares Passage & Antares Dawn-michael McCollum
New America-Poul Anderson
Uller Uprising-H Beam Piper
Space Viking-H Beam Piper
Starborn-Andre Norton


Cosmic Wow

Cosmonaut Keep-Ken McCleod
Rendezvous with Rama-Arthur Clarke
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress-Robert Heinlein
The Mote In Gods Eye-Niven/Pournelle
The Past Through Tomorrow-Robert Heinlein
The Martian Chronicles-Ray Bradbury
God Game-Andrew Greeley
Chindi-Jack McDevitt
To Your Scattered Bodies Go-Phillip Jose Farmer

War Stories

Old Man's War-John Scalzi
BOLO! - Keith Laumer (excellent)Freehold-Michael Z Williamson
The Shiva Option -David Weber
The Forever War- Joe Haldeman
The Eternity Brigade-Stephen Goldin
Go, Tell the Spartans-Pournelle/Stirling
David's Sling-Marc Steigler


Post-Apocalypse

Alas, Babylon- Pat Frank
A Canticle For Leibowitz-Miller
Farnham's Freehold-Heinlein
Warday-Whitley Streiber
Logan's Run-William F Nolan
Eternity Road- Jack McDevitt
Pluribus- Michael Kurland
Emergence-David Palmer
The Postman- David Brin
Footfall-Niven/Pournelle
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang-Kate Wilhelm

Fun Ones I personally Love

Little Fuzzy-H Beam Piper
Santiago, A Myth of the Far Future- Mike Resnick
Callahan's Crosstime Saloon- Spider Robinson
Grunts!-Mary Gentle
Podkayne of Mars- Heinlein
I, Robot- Isaac Asimov
The Warlock In Spite of Himself-Christopher Stasheff
The Stars Are Ours!- Andre Norton
The Compleat Enchanter-L Sprague DeCamp
Ogre, Ogre-Piers Anthony
Orbital Decay-Allen Steele
The Cross-time Engineer-Leo Frankowski
Circus World- Barry B Longyear
Earthman's Burden-Anderson/Dickson
Mauri & Kith-Poul Anderson
At the Narrow Passage-Meredith


I'll try to add more to each category as the thread stays alive-it's late now and I'm crashing. Hope this helps!

 

[barnaclelapse]

Some good picks in there.

I don't think you can go wrong with Kurt Vonnegut's under-appreciated "Sirens of Titan" either.

 

[RandyS]

I'd suggest LIFELINE by Kevin J Anderson.

 

[Lindley]

1632-Eric Flint(part of a grand series, in fact)

I have this on my shelf but haven't read it yet. What other books are in the series, and do they come earlier or later?

 

[label]

Based on more than one Vote for Henry Harrison, I'm thinking of trying this out:

http://www.amazon.com/A-Stainless-S...ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1291911951&sr=1-2

Some of the other Henry Harrison stuff isn't available on the Kindle or Mass Market Paperback and this is a nice (but short) three book set for less than $10.

It doesn't look overly sci-fi but it does look fun and an easy read. I was kind of hoping for some involved Sci-Fi battle/strategy/war kind of like the end of Wrath of Kahn or in the same vein as the Sanderson book from my first post but the Harrison stuff looks interesting as well.

 

[Mistral]

1632-Eric Flint(part of a grand series, in fact)

I have this on my shelf but haven't read it yet. What other books are in the series, and do they come earlier or later?

That's the first book. Here's an interesting link:

http://www.crucis.net/ericflint/

Shhh, I didn't give that to you.... (the pictures are really links to the text)

Based on more than one Vote for Henry Harrison, I'm thinking of trying this out:

http://www.amazon.com/A-Stainless-S...ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1291911951&sr=1-2

Some of the other Harry Harrison stuff isn't available on the Kindle or Mass Market Paperback and this is a nice (but short) three book set for less than $10.

It doesn't look overly sci-fi but it does look fun and an easy read. I was kind of hoping for some involved Sci-Fi battle/strategy/war kind of like the end of Wrath of Kahn or in the same vein as the Sanderson book from my first post but the Harrison stuff looks interesting as well.

I categorized my list. One section is War Stories.
You might also look at Piper's Lord Kalvan Of Otherwhen.
It's alt hist and war, but medieval settings.
Or the Weber books for what you mention here- ala TWOK. (Best bet for what you seem to be talking about)

Turtledove has a lot of fighting in The Great War series and his alt hist "The Balance" WWII series, although that's contemporary stuff. Birmingham's trilogy is like post-modern weapons in WWII.

The two Antares novels deal with strategy on a grand scale.


You might try a used bookstore for the series:

There Will Be War ed. by Jerry Pournelle

Its a mixed bag of types but all about conflict in a scifi setting. And they are short stories/novelettes.

 

[Kirkman1987]

Dune - Frank Herbert
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut

The suggestions upthread are excellent as well.

 

[Myasishchev]

The Possibility of an Island, Michel Houllebecq.

 

[barnaclelapse]

Dune - Frank Herbert
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut

The suggestions upthread are excellent as well.

Just about any Vonnegut is good, really.

 

[Mistral]

The Possibility of an Island, Michel Houllebecq.

Never heard of it-what is the synopsis?

 

[Kegg]

Recent (fine, this year) sci-fi books I've read and really liked would be:

The Yiddish Policeman's Union
The Lathe of Heaven
The Left Hand of Darkness

All of these are well worth checking out maybe.

Vonnegut is always awesome but let's hear it for:
The Sirens of Titan

And of course Phil K. Dick's
Valis

Because that's a mindblowing read for me, and always has been.

 

[Myasishchev]

The Possibility of an Island, Michel Houllebecq.

Never heard of it-what is the synopsis?

Much of the book is the exploration of the sex life of a nihilistic comedian goes through a profoundly depressing midlife crisis and eventually commits suicide, however the story of "Daniel1" is intercut with the listless adventures of his twenty-third and twenty-fourth clones in the far, apocalyptic future. The ultimate message is that desire brings misery, but a life without desire is pointless, so there's no real way to win, and we're all going to die, or, even if we don't, we'd be better off if we did. It is, in a word, French.

Houellebecq became huge in literary circles after his book, Elementary Particles. Often compared to Camus. Possibility got mixed reviews--some say he started repeating himself--but personally I consider it his strongest work. It's definitely the most SFnal of them, although Particles had some pretty heavy sci-fi in the eleventh hour.

 

[Greg Cox]

It doesn't look overly sci-fi but it does look fun and an easy read. I was kind of hoping for some involved Sci-Fi battle/strategy/war kind of like the end of Wrath of Kahn or in the same vein as the Sanderson book from my first post but the Harrison stuff looks interesting as well.

Check out Peter Hamilton's stuff, starting with The Reality Dysfunction. Sounds like it might be right up your alley.