Any sci-fi fans in the house? I need some recommendations

Cafe Society
1

See, my wife just landed a part-time job at our local Borders and she is allowed to borrow 2 books at any time. Of course, there is a catch: she can only borrow hardcovers .
While I do read other genres occasionally, I am strongly partial to sci-fi books (and ,to a lesser extent, fantasy).
Here is a link that allows you to search her store’s inventory (isn’t the Intarweb wonderful?)
If you want to recommend a book that is either paperback or not available at her store, you are welcome to do so but please, indicate it in your post :slight_smile:

PS: if I don’t like a book you recommend, I will crush you.

Thanks in advance

Gozu

2

I’ve been on a bit of an Alastair Reynolds kick lately. Revelation Space, Chasm City, Redemption Ark and Absolution Gap are all available in hardback at Borders. Should keep you busy for a while.

3

I’ve been in a Robert Heinlein and Philip K Dick mood lately so that’s what I would recommend. Although it seems like most of their books are only available in paperback. :slight_smile:

The Honor Harrington series by David Weber is worth checking out IMO.

4

Heinlein’s For Us the Living just came out in hardcover.

I’m partial to Jules Verne, and I know that some of his stuf has just come out in hardcover – a new translation of The Mysterious Island, a trtanslation of his play Journey to the Impossible (which I don’t recommend, but it’s a historical curiousity).

The latest volume of Larry Niven-edited The Man-Kzin Wars is in hardcover.

5

My suggestion - search the SDMB for one of the dozens of “recommend good sci-fi” threads, decide who’s taste you seem to like (CalMeacham, RealityChuck and a few others are the deans of the topic on this board, in my experience) then cross-check their recommendations with what your wife has.

But if you can, start with the basics - Dune, Heinlein, Bradbury, Asimov, etc…and read one or two of theirs (if you haven’t already obviously) and move out from there…

my $.02

6

Here are couple of threads I started in which I got some great recommendations.

7

If you’re limited to hardbacks those other threads will be of limited help: they’re too geared to classic sf.

Here’s some recent work of note:

Locus 2003 Recommended Reading List.

Richard Horton’s 2003 Novels Summary, with Hugo thoughts

SFWA’s 2003 Nebula Nominees

Recommended Reading 2003, by William Thompson

Lots of breadth and depth in these various lists, but you’re wife will have to narrow them down to her tastes.

8

:eek: :eek: :eek: Your wife… :eek: :eek: :eek:

9

Umm…I’m not quite what you were going for but if it was mystifying me, you succeeded :slight_smile:

10

Charles Sheffield. I’m not sure if his books are available hard bound, but I he’s my favorite sci fi writer.

Don’t pay attention to the cover art or the synopsis on the back. They invariably suck.

11

Phillip K. Dick’s Minority Report and Other Classic Stories. This is a great book.

12

Gozu, “you’re wife” is an idiot solecism, so when I saw it I changed it to the correct “your wife.”

And then I went back and reread the OP and saw that you were asking suggestions for your own reading, which made the whole sentence moot.

It’s been a bad week, posting-wise.

13

Oh. I didn’t pay attention to nicknames so I didn’t realize you were replying to yourself. I’m still not used to this new board format.

14

The Sparrow

15

Ummm…your wife is allowed to “borrow” books from the bookstore where she works? :confused:

16

Here’s a few more.

Ilium by Dan Simmons
Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
Cryptonomicon also by Neal Stephenson. (These two are huge. Worth it though.)
American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

17

NESFA Press has a number of excellent hardcovers, many of which are reprints of classic pulp SF.

18

Well, hopefully I won’t get crushed.

Some SciFi I’ve read recently that I liked and would recommend.

Honor Harrington series: David Weber
Hymn before Battle series: John Ringo
Requiem for the Conqueror series: W. Michael Gear
1632/1633/Ring of Fire: Eric Flint
Dark Tower series: Stephen King
In the Balance series: Harry Turtledove
The Great War series: Harry Turtledove

How about some fantasy also?

Eye of the World series: Robert Jordan
Wizards First Rule series: Terry Goodkind
The Fifth Sorceress: Robert Newcomb
Assassin series: Robin Hobb

Well, thats pretty much what I read last month anyway. That and some non fiction.

Cheers,
XT

19

How about the Thursday Next books (The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book and The Well of Lost Plots) by Jasper Fforde. They’re somewhat of a sci-fi/fantasy mixture.

I’m not sure if they’re available in hardcover, but I’d also recommend the Liaden Universe series by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.

20

NoClueBoy : The Sparrow wasn’t hard cover. Because of you, I spent a whole 10 bucks buying it. And now I have to spend more money buying the sequel…Because I really liked it. I will spare you from the crushing, but don’t push your luck :stuck_out_tongue:

Weird_AL_Einstein: Yes she is. Same thing at Barnes and Nobles. It reduces employee theft and since regular customers can return books, some books on the shelves are going to be “second-hand” anyways.

lao Tsu: I adored cryptonomicon, loved american gods, was disappointed by quicksilver and following your advice, I have borrowed ilium yesterday. I’ll start reading it as soon as I’m finished with “children of god”.

Thanks to everybody else. I can’t read everything at once but i’ll get around to it in time :slight_smile: