What Science Fiction are you reading?

[rushgoober]

Ken Grimwood - Replay

 

Great call - Replay is one of my all-time favourites.

 

I'm also just re-reading another favourite, A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge.

 

I actually have A Fire Upon the Deep (for some reason, probably picked it up because it was a Hugo winner), and your comment got me to start reading it. Mind you, it's a bathroom book, so it's going to take me awhile to get through it (unless I really get into it and move it to another room than the bathroom), but I am reading it. Looks good so far, though. Thanks for the suggest!

 

:cheers:

Edited May 27, 2013 by rushgoober

[willowroolz]

Ken Grimwood - Replay

 

Great call - Replay is one of my all-time favourites.

 

I'm also just re-reading another favourite, A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge.

 

I actually have A Fire Upon the Deep (for some reason, probably picked it up because it was a Hugo winner), and your comment got me to start reading it. Mind you, it's a bathroom book, so it's going to take me awhile to get through it (unless I really get into it and move it to another room than the bathroom), but I am reading it. Looks good so far, though. Thanks for the suggest!

 

:cheers:

Hope you enjoy it! I'm reading the sequel at the moment and enjoying it, but it's nowhere near as good. In other news, I was sad to read of Jack Vance's death. R.I.P. Jack.

[rushgoober]

Ken Grimwood - Replay

 

Great call - Replay is one of my all-time favourites.

 

I'm also just re-reading another favourite, A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge.

 

I actually have A Fire Upon the Deep (for some reason, probably picked it up because it was a Hugo winner), and your comment got me to start reading it. Mind you, it's a bathroom book, so it's going to take me awhile to get through it (unless I really get into it and move it to another room than the bathroom), but I am reading it. Looks good so far, though. Thanks for the suggest!

 

:cheers:

Hope you enjoy it! I'm reading the sequel at the moment and enjoying it, but it's nowhere near as good. In other news, I was sad to read of Jack Vance's death. R.I.P. Jack.

 

I hate when sequels can't live up to the originals - makes me wish the author wouldn't have bothered.

[willowroolz]

Ken Grimwood - Replay

 

Great call - Replay is one of my all-time favourites.

 

I'm also just re-reading another favourite, A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge.

 

I actually have A Fire Upon the Deep (for some reason, probably picked it up because it was a Hugo winner), and your comment got me to start reading it. Mind you, it's a bathroom book, so it's going to take me awhile to get through it (unless I really get into it and move it to another room than the bathroom), but I am reading it. Looks good so far, though. Thanks for the suggest!

 

:cheers:

Hope you enjoy it! I'm reading the sequel at the moment and enjoying it, but it's nowhere near as good. In other news, I was sad to read of Jack Vance's death. R.I.P. Jack.

 

I hate when sequels can't live up to the originals - makes me wish the author wouldn't have bothered.

The fact that it came out 19 years later tells it all, I think. It's a enjoyable enough, but a sequel really wasn't needed.

[rushgoober]

Ken Grimwood - Replay

 

Great call - Replay is one of my all-time favourites.

 

I'm also just re-reading another favourite, A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge.

 

I actually have A Fire Upon the Deep (for some reason, probably picked it up because it was a Hugo winner), and your comment got me to start reading it. Mind you, it's a bathroom book, so it's going to take me awhile to get through it (unless I really get into it and move it to another room than the bathroom), but I am reading it. Looks good so far, though. Thanks for the suggest!

 

:cheers:

Hope you enjoy it! I'm reading the sequel at the moment and enjoying it, but it's nowhere near as good. In other news, I was sad to read of Jack Vance's death. R.I.P. Jack.

 

I hate when sequels can't live up to the originals - makes me wish the author wouldn't have bothered.

The fact that it came out 19 years later tells it all, I think. It's a enjoyable enough, but a sequel really wasn't needed.

 

I'm reading it SLOWLY, but enjoying it thus far!

[hunter]

I have a couple of recent entries that I would like to present, the first one is a kindle offering but it is available in paperback. Wool: The Omnibus Edition. I picked this up because it was super cheap, $5.99 and highly recommended.

 

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51cga9q7zFL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-69,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg

 

from Amazon...

This Omnibus Edition collects the five Wool books into a single volume. It is for those who arrived late to the party and who wish to save a dollar or two while picking up the same stories in a single package.

 

The first Wool story was released as a standalone short in July of 2011. Due to reviewer demand, the rest of the story was released over the next six months. My thanks go out to those reviewers who clamored for more. Without you, none of this would exist. Your demand created this as much as I did.

 

This is the story of mankind clawing for survival, of mankind on the edge. The world outside has grown unkind, the view of it limited, talk of it forbidden. But there are always those who hope, who dream. These are the dangerous people, the residents who infect others with their optimism. Their punishment is simple. They are given the very thing they profess to want: They are allowed outside.

 

Good mid-level SF.

 

It is a neat book to start this thread because to me it has a faint echo of 2112. The Priests of Syrinx are not in robes but they are present in their coveralls. It is a gritty post apocalyptic tale set in the near future with believable characters. People survive in underground silos. Wool is simply written. Pacing was a little off in the beginning, this work started out as three short stories, the last 2 episodes are more novelettes. By the middle and end that quibble of pacing dissipated and it became a real page turner, so much that I purchased part 6, First Shift - Legacy another $3.99 and read it in a couple of sittings.

 

First shift from Amazon:

 

In 2007, the Center for Automation in Nanobiotech (CAN) outlined the hardware and software platform that would one day allow robots smaller than human cells to make medical diagnoses, conduct repairs, and even self-propagate. In the same year, the CBS network re-aired a program about the effects of propranolol on sufferers of extreme trauma. A simple pill, it had been discovered, could wipe out the memory of any traumatic event. At almost the same moment in humanity’s broad history, mankind had discovered the means for bringing about its utter downfall. And the ability to forget it ever happened.

 

To my buddies and buddettes in SOCN. The dem/libs are the bad guys!

 

 

No this book does not dwell on politics and the bad party could be easily interchangeable so do not let this little factoid misrepresent the fun of this little SF adventure.

 

Next up, I think, because it is a tough one to think about "reviewing"... Hegemony by Mark Kalina. It is another cheap kindle buy $.99

 

Currently reading: A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge

Just finished Wool and Am starting Shift. Quite liked it. .

[barney_rebel]

Ken Grimwood - Replay

 

Great call - Replay is one of my all-time favourites.

 

I'm also just re-reading another favourite, A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge.

 

Some of my other favourites:

 

Practically anything by Neal Asher or Alastair Reynolds

Dune - Frank Herbert

Hyperion - Dan Simmons

The Forever War - Joe Haldeman

The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester

The Anubis Gates - Tim Powers

I Am Legend - Richard Matheson

The Kraken Wakes/The Day of the Triffids/The Midwich Cuckoos - John Wyndham

The Time Machine/The Island of Doctor Moreau/The War of the Worlds - H. G. Wells

The Night's Dawn Trilogy - Peter F. Hamilton

Feersum Endjinn/The Player of Games/The Algebraist/Against A Dark Background/Use of Weapons - Iain M. Banks

Voyage - Stephen Baxter

The Milkweed Tryptich - Ian Tregillis

Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny

 

I'm sure I'll come up with loads more after I post this . . .

 

Finished Replay a couple books ago. Loved... one of my all-time favorites.

[barney_rebel]

I have a couple of recent entries that I would like to present, the first one is a kindle offering but it is available in paperback. Wool: The Omnibus Edition. I picked this up because it was super cheap, $5.99 and highly recommended.

 

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51cga9q7zFL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-69,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg

 

from Amazon...

This Omnibus Edition collects the five Wool books into a single volume. It is for those who arrived late to the party and who wish to save a dollar or two while picking up the same stories in a single package.

 

The first Wool story was released as a standalone short in July of 2011. Due to reviewer demand, the rest of the story was released over the next six months. My thanks go out to those reviewers who clamored for more. Without you, none of this would exist. Your demand created this as much as I did.

 

This is the story of mankind clawing for survival, of mankind on the edge. The world outside has grown unkind, the view of it limited, talk of it forbidden. But there are always those who hope, who dream. These are the dangerous people, the residents who infect others with their optimism. Their punishment is simple. They are given the very thing they profess to want: They are allowed outside.

 

Good mid-level SF.

 

It is a neat book to start this thread because to me it has a faint echo of 2112. The Priests of Syrinx are not in robes but they are present in their coveralls. It is a gritty post apocalyptic tale set in the near future with believable characters. People survive in underground silos. Wool is simply written. Pacing was a little off in the beginning, this work started out as three short stories, the last 2 episodes are more novelettes. By the middle and end that quibble of pacing dissipated and it became a real page turner, so much that I purchased part 6, First Shift - Legacy another $3.99 and read it in a couple of sittings.

 

First shift from Amazon:

 

In 2007, the Center for Automation in Nanobiotech (CAN) outlined the hardware and software platform that would one day allow robots smaller than human cells to make medical diagnoses, conduct repairs, and even self-propagate. In the same year, the CBS network re-aired a program about the effects of propranolol on sufferers of extreme trauma. A simple pill, it had been discovered, could wipe out the memory of any traumatic event. At almost the same moment in humanity’s broad history, mankind had discovered the means for bringing about its utter downfall. And the ability to forget it ever happened.

 

To my buddies and buddettes in SOCN. The dem/libs are the bad guys!

 

 

No this book does not dwell on politics and the bad party could be easily interchangeable so do not let this little factoid misrepresent the fun of this little SF adventure.

 

Next up, I think, because it is a tough one to think about "reviewing"... Hegemony by Mark Kalina. It is another cheap kindle buy $.99

 

Currently reading: A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge

Just finished Wool and Am starting Shift. Quite liked it. .

 

..and I just started Wool yesterday. Got the Omnibus on sale for $4 at Kobo.

[anima]

My favourites:

Everything by Ursula le Guin. Her most recent (Birthday of the World, a collection of short stories) is the best yet - different planets where society's structures are totally different, and a great story at the end about a search for a habitable planet that involves several generations of travellers.

 

H G Wells. Again, the short stories (out of print but you can get used copies on Amazon) are as good as the full length novels.

 

C S Lewis's space travel trilogy, which draws heavily on H G Wells and Charles Williams.

 

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley.

(Random fact: both Huxley and Lewis died the same day as JFK)

 

The mote in God's eye - Niven and Pournelle.

 

Timescape. (Can't remember the authors, will check tomorrow. It's about a future society heading for environmental disaster, where a couple of physicists are desperately trying to send messages back to researchers in the 1960s to prevent some of the damage and let an alternative version of the universe survive.)

 

There are probably loads more and it depends how broadly you define science fiction.

 

[barney_rebel]

Neuromancer - William Gibson

[barney_rebel]

Amped - Daniel H Wilson

[Rhyta]

Getting ready to start The Sunset Lands S.M. Stirling (#4 in Emberverse series). I also am looking at Foreigner by Cherryh, The Demolished Man A. Bester this year.

[barney_rebel]

Ken Grimwood - Replay

 

Great call - Replay is one of my all-time favourites.

 

It's a dangerous book to have around. Whenever I pass by it and decide to pick it up, you know, just to hold it or something, before I know it I'm on page 70...

 

Read that a couple months ago. Loved it... one of my favorites of all time.

 

I often think of it and how it pertains to life in general.

[barney_rebel]

[EagleMoon]

Ringworld Engineers - Larry Niven

[USB Connector]

Ready Player One. Finally finished my backlog of books and got around to it. My mind:

 

 

blown with every page.

[Rutlefan]

Was a huge sci-fi book guy growing up, like my fondness for Rush.

 

Got away from it in young adult years, like my fondness for Rush (though always really into smart sci-fi movies, of which there are not enough).

 

Like Rush, I've returned to sci-fi the last few years after reading SImmons' Hyperion books. Am currently re-reading the Giants series by James P. Hogan ("Inherit the Stars" and so on) and am reading more Allan Dean Foster after having gone through the Pip and Flinx books, which I really liked (the "Taken" trilogy as well). Foster, though very successful, seems to be an under-appreciated writer, IMO. I have a couple sci-fi encyclopedias which mention writers I've never heard of, yet don't mention Foster.

 

Going back further, my favorite sci-fi (incl fantasy and "speculative fiction") includes:

 

The Silmarillion by Tolkien (though I admit I like studying his writing -- or created mythological history -- more than reading it sometimes ).

R is for Rocket by Bradbury. Grew up a HUGE Ray Bradbury fan. RIP

The Left Hand of Darkness by Le Guinn. She's got an insight and understanding into the human condition that I think most sci-fi writers lack (why I got away from the genre for many years).

Sirens of Titan by Vonnegut. Not really sci-fi of course, but I cannot not mention it. My favorite ending ever.

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Miller. If I could only have one fiction book, it would probably be this (edging out the Silmarillion).

Dune (of course). I've always avoided reading the follow-ups as I figured they'd erode how I imagined the continuing narrative should play out (that is, everyone lives happily ever after with political autonomy and plenty of water, instead of all that galactic jihad stuff).

The Skaith books by Leigh Bracket. Ursula K. LeGuin meets Edgar Rice Burroughs. Great stuff. The best, IMO, "planetary romance" author, along with Bradbury, but they each had a different flavor.

 

Going way back to when I was really young, I loved Burroughs, Verne, Wells, and H. Rider Haggard. I occasionally return to some of it, but they are not as magical as they were to my young self.

 

"Brave New World" was perhaps the most life-changing book I've ever read, though because of its philosophical weight, not really because of its story-telling or style. Cured me of the "technological utopianism" (that is, the belief that increasingly better technology will inevitably result in increasingly better neighbors) I grew up with as a result of reading futuristic sci-fi, a la H.G. Wells.

Edited March 13, 2014 by Rutlefan

[Lady April]

HA!!! Well I am getting down with my Doctor Who comic novels. Just got done with Child of Time and in the midst of The Betrothal of Sontar.

[EagleMoon]

HA!!! Well I am getting down with my Doctor Who comic novels. Just got done with Child of Time and in the midst of The Betrothal of Sontar.

 

I've been reading the BBC America hardback Doctor Who books. Love them. They're very well done.

[Lady April]

HA!!! Well I am getting down with my Doctor Who comic novels. Just got done with Child of Time and in the midst of The Betrothal of Sontar.

 

I've been reading the BBC America hardback Doctor Who books. Love them. They're very well done.

 

I bought two Matt Smith/Karen Gillen hard backs both Dalek stories. I can give more details when I get home from work. I will read those right after Betrothal of Sontar.

[EagleMoon]

HA!!! Well I am getting down with my Doctor Who comic novels. Just got done with Child of Time and in the midst of The Betrothal of Sontar.

 

I've been reading the BBC America hardback Doctor Who books. Love them. They're very well done.

 

I bought two Matt Smith/Karen Gillen hard backs both Dalek stories. I can give more details when I get home from work. I will read those right after Betrothal of Sontar.

 

I haven't read any of those yet. David Tennant was my favorite doctor so I'm going through those first. Read a few Martha books and have started on the Rose books too. Picked up the first ones I got at Half Price Books if you have one of those nearby you might want to check it out. They also have some Torchwood books as well. I haven't read those yet but they do have them.

[Lady April]

HA!!! Well I am getting down with my Doctor Who comic novels. Just got done with Child of Time and in the midst of The Betrothal of Sontar.

 

I've been reading the BBC America hardback Doctor Who books. Love them. They're very well done.

 

I bought two Matt Smith/Karen Gillen hard backs both Dalek stories. I can give more details when I get home from work. I will read those right after Betrothal of Sontar.

 

I haven't read any of those yet. David Tennant was my favorite doctor so I'm going through those first. Read a few Martha books and have started on the Rose books too. Picked up the first ones I got at Half Price Books if you have one of those nearby you might want to check it out. They also have some Torchwood books as well. I haven't read those yet but they do have them.

 

Ok the two Matt/Karen books I have are The Only Good Dalek and The Dalek Project both are comic novels. Then I also have a chapter book with no pictures called The Wheel of Ice, no Doctor in particular is mentioned thus far in the book but I barely started. There are other books in line in front of this one that must be read first! ;)

[Your_Lion]

HA!!! Well I am getting down with my Doctor Who comic novels. Just got done with Child of Time and in the midst of The Betrothal of Sontar.

 

I've been reading the BBC America hardback Doctor Who books. Love them. They're very well done.

 

I bought two Matt Smith/Karen Gillen hard backs both Dalek stories. I can give more details when I get home from work. I will read those right after Betrothal of Sontar.

 

I haven't read any of those yet. David Tennant was my favorite doctor so I'm going through those first. Read a few Martha books and have started on the Rose books too. Picked up the first ones I got at Half Price Books if you have one of those nearby you might want to check it out. They also have some Torchwood books as well. I haven't read those yet but they do have them.

 

Ok the two Matt/Karen books I have are The Only Good Dalek and The Dalek Project both are comic novels. Then I also have a chapter book with no pictures called The Wheel of Ice, no Doctor in particular is mentioned thus far in the book but I barely started. There are other books in line in front of this one that must be read first! ;)

I think The Wheel of Ice is a 2nd Doctor, Jamie and Zoe story (one of my favourite TARDIS crews).

Bookwise, I've got a whole load of the Target novelisations. I originally started getting them so I could read the missing TV stories from the 60's, but I enjoyed them so much I started getting more. Still a lot more to get, though.

[Lady April]

I adore Troughton! Love the Chaplin type hobo in space with his hippie recorder. Always seemingly aloof though more on the ball than an unsuspecting being might think and ready to kick some ass when necessary. #2 -I love him!!!

[Your_Lion]

I adore Troughton! Love the Chaplin type hobo in space with his hippie recorder. Always seemingly aloof though more on the ball than an unsuspecting being might think and ready to kick some ass when necessary. #2 -I love him!!!

Exactly. I've loved Troughton's Doctor ever since I saw The Mind Robber as a child.

It wasn't until I started collecting the DVDs that I realised so few of his stories still existed. That was upsetting. So I read the Target novelisations and listened to the existing soundtracks. I was so overjoyed when the news came out last year about the rediscovered episodes.