# Help me get back into sci-fi **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 10, 2010, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-back-into-sci-fi/538881 "2010-05-10T05:10:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-back-into-sci-fi/538881/41 "2010-05-11T00:38:41Z")
Most of her SF is off-planet. _The Lathe of Heaven_ is set in Portland, but veers more towards the Fantasy side of SF. Actually, a lot of her stuff does - she’s far more interested in people and societies than hard technology. Regarding **Ender** - I once heard a comment that the plot of ever OSC novel was “Boy Wonder saves the world”. This is _enough_ true that it rather ruined _Ender’s Shadow_ and _Shadow of the Hegemon_ for me. He’s trying to tell basically the same story from the points of view of the other kid soldiers with Ender, and his style of writing means that in each different book he’s trying to push the protagonist of that specific book up, and more or less trash the protagonists of the other books in comparison. I was particularly annoyed by the way he geniusified Bean ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-back-into-sci-fi/538881/42 "2010-05-11T00:45:17Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > Most of her SF is off-planet. _The Lathe of Heaven_ is set in Portland, but veers more towards the Fantasy side of SF. Actually, a lot of her stuff does - she’s far more interested in people and societies than hard technology. True in a sense; I prefer to think that the science she chooses to fictionalize is anthropology (her father was a world-famous anthropologist and her mother an author, so it makes sense). The spaceshippish tech in her books, however, has had some influential moments, especially things like the [ansible](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansible) introduced in _The Dispossessed_. (Actually it first appeared in a different book, but IIRC was invented in Dispossessed). ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-back-into-sci-fi/538881/43 "2010-05-11T00:49:37Z")
I remember reading a beautiful book of hers called _Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang_, or something close to that. And _Lathe of Heaven_ too, I like that a lot, that was about the guy whose dreams came true. Ahhhh, this thread is bringing back so many pleasant memories. ---
**Author:** ![Dancer\_Flight](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dancer_flight/32/7601_2.png) [@Dancer\_Flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancer_Flight)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-back-into-sci-fi/538881/44 "2010-05-11T01:08:26Z")
I like the _League of Peoples_ books by [James Alan Gardner[sup]\*[/sup]](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_at_ep_srch/179-1040149-4435147?ie=UTF8&search-alias=books&field-author=James+Alan+Gardner&sort=relevancerank). Humanity goes forth and meets new species and doesn’t shoot at them (for a change), because they aren’t allowed to. While most of his narrators are human, of various levels of reliability, they do tend to interact with alien creatures with their own motivations. -DF [sup]\*[/sup]Link is to amazon search results for the author. Here is a [Wiki link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Alan_Gardner). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-back-into-sci-fi/538881/45 "2010-05-11T01:33:53Z")
A few recommendations (some of which second earlier posts) _The Android’s Dream_ - John Scalzi _Conquistador_ - S.M. Stirling _A Fire Upon the Deep_ - Vernor Vinge The Nantucket trilogy: _Island in the Sea of Time_, _Against the Tide of Years_, and _On the Oceans of Eternity_ - S.M. Stirling _Pandora’s Star_ and _Judas Unchained_ - Peter F. Hamilton The Paratwa trilogy: _Liege Killer_, _Ash Ock_, and _The Paratwa_ - Christopher Hinz _Plague Year_ - Jeff Carlson _Saturn’s Children_ - Charles Stross _Singularity Sky_ and _Iron Sunrise_ - Charles Stross _Spin_ - Robert Charles Wilson _Steel Beach_ and _The Golden Globe_ - John Varley The Vorkosigan series - Lois McMaster Bujold (am I the first one to mention these?) ---
**Author:** ![vdgg81](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/3d9bf3/32.png) [@vdgg81](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vdgg81)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-back-into-sci-fi/538881/46 "2010-05-11T04:10:21Z")
I second both Peter F. Hamilton’s books and Vernor Vinge’s. John Scalzi I didn’t like that much when I read his _Old Man’s War_ (it felt like warmed-over Heinlein, though YMMV). Of John Varley I only read _The Ophiuci Hotline_. It was well-written and very original and I didn’t like it too much for no reason I can identify. David Brin can be hit and miss but I loved both _Startide Rising_ and _The Uplift War_ and both have a lot of properly strange aliens. Peter Watts is very good and his science is very accurate as far as I know. His last book is called _Blindsight_ and has great weird aliens and is one of the best SF novels I’ve ever read, as is _Ring of Swords_ by Eleanor Arnason, which is all about humanity coming into contact with an alien species and the inability of both to understand each other. The former can be tough reading and is a very philosophical work, with truly alien aliens (and some humans that are almost alien themselves), while the latter has much more human aliens and is more of an anthropological work. Both are very well-written but _Blindsight_ has more of a modernist thing going for it while _Ring of Swords_ is more classical in style; it references Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde a lot and I think that Jane Austen was a big influence as well. I read both books recently and I plug them here in _Café Society_ any chance I get. I’m afraid I’ll end up annoying some Doper. Greg Egan is great and his science is pretty hard. His short-story _Wang’s Carpets_ has one of the best concept for alien life-forms I’m familiar with and his novel _Permutation City_ features aliens as well. Right now I’m in the middle of _Appleseed_ by John Clute and loving it. Also has truly alien aliens. ---
**Author:** ![Kylede](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a6a055/32.png) [@Kylede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kylede)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-back-into-sci-fi/538881/47 "2010-05-11T04:54:48Z")
wow, a bunch of stuff no one has mentioned Frank Herbert (author of DUNE), he son took alot of his fathers notes and wrote a slew of DUNE novels in the last few years. Some were prequels and some continuation of the Dune series. He did a series of ancient history to the DUne universe called LEGENDS OF DUNE, and then the imediate prequels to DUNE, (the HOUSE books) and then the 2 sequels to CHAPTERHOUSE (Frank’s last book), and now are working on filling in the gaps in the original series Have you read all of David Brin’s work, including the new uplift trilogy. What about the other B’s of hard sci-fi…Bear, Benford and Baxter Greg Bear - “THE WAY” series, starts in EON, or try DARWINS RADIO Gregory Benford - TIMESCAPE or COSM Stephen Baxter - Try any of the stuff he has co-wrote with Clarke ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-back-into-sci-fi/538881/48 "2010-05-11T06:22:58Z")
I think I have more than enough suggestions, with lots of familiar names and lots of new names, to getme back into the game. Thank you all so much for the ideas! I’m unemplyed now, so I have more reading time than is probably good for me – if that is possible. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-back-into-sci-fi/538881/49 "2010-05-11T07:46:18Z")
If you’ve never tried him before, everybody loves Dick. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-back-into-sci-fi/538881/50 "2010-05-11T15:48:41Z")
Oh yeah, I’m big on Dick. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-get-back-into-sci-fi/538881.md?page=2)