The Deed Of Paksenarrion(sp?), by Elizabeth Moon. Very good series.
Armor. This is simply a great SF novel.
You say “cheesy” like that’s a BAD thing.
Currently on my A list:
Charles de Lint
Neil Gaiman
James Morrow
Pamela Dean
Midori Snyder
There’s no way I could pick just one book, though
Who wrote Armor? That’s on here more than once. I guess I’ll have to read it.
“It’s not death I fear so much as leaving something so beautiful as life.”
Venus on the Half Shell by Kilgore Trout, if you can find it. It was ghost written by Kurt Vonnegut. Kilgore Trout was a character of his. Great twist ending!
Always remember that you are unique, just like everybody else. MIPSIMS : where we put the fun back in dysfunctional.
Anything at all by Neil Gaiman.
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull
Last Call by Tim Powers
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Anything by Anne Rice.
Try not to have a good time…this is supposed to be educational.
-Charles Schulz
The * Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn * by Tad Williams. I couldn’t put them down til I was done with them all. The first book also happens to be the source of my sig line.
“There are more things you don’t know than there are things that I do know. I despair of the imbalance.” – Dr. Morgenes, The Dragonbone Chair
Best series I have ever read by far is Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. This is fantasy, and anyone who thinks that nothing has ever come along to rival LOTR needs to read this series. I just hope Jordan is alive long enough to finish it (knock on wood).
Also great was the riftwar/serpentwar sagas by Raymond Feist.
Another great series was The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever. A little older but it really is an imaginitive and unique series as far as I’m concerned. Very different from other fantasy series.
A good scifi series is the star wars books written by Timothy Zahn. I read almost all of the Star Wars books, and this is definately the best of them.
“Duty is heavier than a mountain, death lighter than a feather.” - Wheel of Time
smacks forehead I knew I’d forget something. Thanks Seale…love this series too.
Homepage: www.tiercel.com
Occupation: Culling slow moving vermin
Location: The wild blue yonder.
Interests: Thermals, updrafts, downdrafts, air currents in general.
(Profile by UncleBeer.)
Environment? Nah. Mood lighting and ambience is what counts.
- a genuine WallyM7 sig
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King Piers Anthony’s Xanth series
Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan
All of David Eddings’s series (Belgariad, Malloreon, Elenium, Tamuli)
Ender series by Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind).
Dune
The Death Gate Cycle series by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (6 books), Stephen R. Donaldson
The Riftwar Saga (4 books), Raymond E. Feist
The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkein.
Battlefield Earth
Anything by Fritz Leiber
Anything by Anne Rice.
The Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams
These are the ones I’ve read so far in this post…keep the memories coming please.
I agree with DSYoungEsq that the bar is high, but I think the REAL problem with contemporary sci-fi is that we are so immersed in and obssesed with technology today that the focus is on neet, new stuff rather than good writing and original concepts. Even our movies, like Sphere and the Matrix suffer from this malady.
We need to come down from our technology high.
My favorites:
- The Silmarillian (Tolkein)
- The Lord of The Rings (ibid)
- Dune (Herbert)
- We (Zamyatin)
I also completely am in awe of most anything written by Lord Dunsany & H.P. Lovecraft.
I also really liked The Vampire Lestat even though parts bit.
Ender’s Game, however was a GIANT disappointment to me.
Asimov’s Robots series was great.
I enjoyed the Handmaiden’s Tale, too.
Bunch more, but I’m thirsty right now.
Yet to be reconciled with the reality of the dark for a moment, I go on wandering from dream to dream.
concrete: Raymond Feist has written 12 or so books that all deal with the same place as the riftwar saga took place. I think I’ve read all but three of them, and they are all very good. If you’ve only read the riftwar saga and liked it, you should check out his other books, they continue the adventures (or misadventures) of midkemia and the tsunari world.
“This parrot is no more.”
note taken slaveone…I’ve read a few of the serpentmage/riftwar books…but not all
I’m hoping to see the new Game of Thrones book “Clash of Kings”…I hate waiting for books to come in paperback, its not fair.
Ayesha: If you like Harry Turtledove, try S.M Stirling’s “Drakon” series; good alternate-history science fiction.
My Picks:
S.M. Stirling and his Drakon series;
David Drake and his Hammer’s Slammers series;
Plus, Drake and Stirling collaborated on a five book series collectively called The General that was pretty kick ass;
David Weber’s Honor Harrington seies;
Charles DeLancie’s Castle Perilous series;
just about anything from Robert Heinlein.
ExTank
concrete: Waiting for books to come out in paperbacks is the biggest scam of all time. With Wheel of Time, I couldnt take it, I just bent over and paid $25 for the new ones. Damn, its hard enough waiting years just for the next one to be published!
Opinions are like assholes: everybody’s got one.
no, that book was not written by Kurt Vonnegut. it was written by Phillip José Farmer.
“And I asked my publisher, please, not to publish any more of his Trout books because the whole thing had become very upsetting to me.”
-Kurt Vonnegut
what is essential is invisible to the eye -the fox
Fantasy? The Song of Ice and Fire series that George R.R. Martin is working on.
A Game of Thrones
A Clash of Kings
A Storm of Swords (just finished and sent for editing – should be out by fall)
Sci fi? The Hyperion series by Dan Simmons, especially the first two.
Agree on the Gaia trilogy by John Varley
Did anyone mention the Foundation series?
The first couple of books in Farmer’s Riverworld series were quite good too.
Lets see: Too Many !
A Fall of Moondust Arthur C Clarke
Millennium John Varley
Stainless Steel Rat Harry Harrison
Rendezvous with Rama Arthur C Clarke
Contact Carl Sagan
Space Beagle A E Van Vogt
and of course:
Icerigger Alan Dean Foster
There are a few favorites that I could mention, and I’ll second the “anything by Fritz Leiber”, but I’ve got to bring up The Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake, since it hasn’t been mentioned yet.
The books (first two, anyway) are centered around a sprawling castle, Gormenghast, the young heir to the throne, Titus Groan, and the bizarre, ritualistic life there. The imagery is very surreal, and the characters are some of the most memorable, grotesque characters I’ve ever encountered in a book. It’s a shame these books aren’t as well known as, say, Lord of the Rings.
…ebius sig. This is a moebius sig. This is a mo…
(sig line courtesy of WallyM7)
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card has got to be my all-time-favorite Sci-Fi book.
If life gives you lemons, stuff them down your shirt to make your boobs look bigger.