Books

[T-hawk]

Star Wars is sci-fi junk food.

I'm actually just currently reading Amber. It's inventive, but IMO doesn't quite hold up to modern eyes as truly exceptional. Although lots of other SF classics have this problem of now feeling dated against real technology. Stranger in a Strange Land has flying taxicabs using magnetic tape for computer storage.

The best modern SF I've read is The Golden Age. It projects to the far future starting from full knowledge of the internet and modern computers, with some serious and speculative philosophical expoundings embedded into a satisfying space opera. For anyone who liked the philosophy in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, this book will hit right in that sweet spot.

[Jowy]

The Chronicles of Amber series by Roger Zelazny is worth checking out if you're looking for a Sci-Fi series to sink your teeth into. Other than that, I think it's been a while since I recommended the Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson on this forum, so there you go.

Just started Malazan this week! It's proving to be a bit hard to get into, but I've heard so much good about it that I've just gotta stick it out.

[DaveV]

Although lots of other SF classics have this problem of now feeling dated against real technology. Stranger in a Strange Land has flying taxicabs using magnetic tape for computer storage.

I read a lot of Heinlein in my youth, and I think it was in some of his books where starships were navigated by a guy on the bridge with a slide rule. Link for those of you too young to know what that is.

[kjn]

The problem of much old sf isn't so much that their technological vision is dated (that's easy to forgive), it's that their entire societal outlook is dated. The more futuristic the technology, the more society looks like the suburban USA of the 1950s. (Extremely simplified, I know.) And once the technological vision is removed, there really isn't that much in lots of older, even classic sf. In a similar way, lots of the books that were inventive and fresh and new when published are old treaded ground today.

But there are authors who hold up well. Robert A Heinlein was a marvellous storyteller in his best moments (mainly his YA books). Clifford D Simak also holds up well, with his down-to-earth stories about people dealing with change. Isaac Asimov's Nightfall is also a classic worth reading, even if many of his books can feel dated now. CL Moore and Henry Kuttner also holds up well from the era of 40s sf.

Once you get to the 60s, you get a lot more sf authors worth reading today, mainly because feminism and the New Wave managed to other stuff into sf than the big idea (though it did start in the 50s already with Galaxy and Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction).

[Twinkletoes89]

Can't believe we've had this many replies and noone has mentioned Game of Thrones!

I was lent the first one by a friend to try out and within a couple of months I had owned and read all of the books in the series. It is just bloody awesome!

Also, if you are interested at all in roman history or just like some historical actiony books - then Simon Scarrow's Eagle series is also top-notch.

Add to that Conn Iggulden's series on Julius Caesar and his series on Genghis Khan and you can't really go wrong!

[Jowy]

Can't believe we've had this many replies and noone has mentioned Game of Thrones!

I was lent the first one by a friend to try out and within a couple of months I had owned and read all of the books in the series. It is just bloody awesome!

A Song of Ice and Fire series is indeed amazing, but if you read it now, it'll be a grueling 10 years wait for the last two books

[Qgqqqqq]

Agree with Timothy Zahn for SW, (the only other decent SW fiction IMO is Mathew Stover and Karen Traviss), agree on iggulden books and would recommend the Troy series (the one with shield of thunder) for historical.
Would also recommend the Le carre books.
I've only read the first but I really enjoyed Zahns dragon back series.
GoT I would also recommend, I started reading after WW17 (mainly due to uberfishs excellent write ups - thanks ).

[Sian]

kjn ... Brave New World ...

otherwise ... i mainly read historical fiction, such as McCulloughs "Masters of Rome" or Christian Jacq's "Ramses" or maybe even prehistorical such as Auel's "Earths Children" and Mary Mackey's Earthsong trilogy.

If not that i primarily read fantasy such as L.E. Modesitt's Spellsong Cycle or stuff out of Forgotten Realms (specially fond of Ed Greenwood), ... Richard Adams "Maia" probably counts as Fantasy as well, not that there is any kind of magic through

[Brian Shanahan]

Well my recommendations will lean precipitously towards Terry Pratchett (though I will strongly recommend UK covers over US ones. Seriously, what is the problem with the US publishers when the UK ones have already gone to the trouble of sourcing some brilliant artwork, by Paul Kidby, and previously Josh Kirby), obviously.

In hard Sci-fi, I have more a tendency for older works, I especially loved Alfred Bester's Tiger, Tiger (US and paperback title The Stars My Destination) and W. Olaf Stapledon's two works Last and First Men and Star Maker.

To bridge Sci-fi and Fantasy, I'll read anything by Ursula Le Guin.

In Fantasy you can't go past the obvious, you know what I mean. When I was young I read all of Raymond Feist's Midkemia novels, and sometimes go back to the earlier ones (I felt his later writings got a bit stale). David Gemmell is another author I love, simple stories, often painted with broad brush-strokes, but utterly compelling. Jack Vance's The Dying Earth was a good collection of short stories too. For Mythology you can't go past the Uladh (Cúchulainn) or Na Fianna (Fionn) cycles for pure epicness. For example look up the battle between Ferdia and Cúchulainn in the Táin bó Cuailigne, or Cúchulainn's own death.

In History I'll read near anything, ranging from Charles C. Mann's 1491 to Richard Evans' Third Reich... trilogy.

This is a far from exhaustive list of books I like.

[kjn]

Huxley (of Brave New World) was outside the sf magazines, and wrote in another tradition, the one that also spawned Fahrenheit 451, Boye's Kallocain, 1984, and We by Zamyatin. That tradition was distinct from the sf magazines, but drew on the same roots, like Wells. Bradbury pretty much bridged the two traditions.