If you’ve never read any of his books before, I would highly recommend Jack Vance. He’s an author known for brilliant use of language; cynical tone; and the ability to cram all kinds of bizarre planets, funny characters, and twisted societies into a single book. Best of all, he’s been writing constantly since the 1950’s, so he can keep you occupied for a while.
The Demon Princes series is probably his best and most famous work. It consists of five novels, recently reissued in two high-quality volumes from Tor Science Fiction and probably available at your local bookstore.
The Durdane Trilogy is a short and sweet adventure story, unfortunately out of print and difficult to find. The three novels are The Anome (also published as The Faceless Man), The Rogushkoi (also The Brave Free Men), and The Asutra.
The three books of The Cadwal Chronicles trilogy are longer than most of Vance’s other books. They lean towards humor, though there’s also plenty of mysteries to be unraveled and narrow escapes to be escaped. The three books are Araminta Station, Ecce and Old Earth, and Throy.
I broke down and bought it off Amazon UK. I hate waiting 6 months to a year for books to become available in the States. The exchange rate… not so good right now.
Make that “The Sten series by Alan Cole and Chris Bunch”.
Also, the Chanur books by C. J. Cherryh, and Legacy of Heorot by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes, and it’s sequel. Plus, The Mote in God’s Eye and The Gripping Hand by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
Oh, and King David’s Spaceship by Jerry Pournelle.
The author I always recommend in these threads is Octavia Butler.
Her Patternist series (Wildseed, Mind of My Mind and Patternmaster) are wonderful, but not exactly hard sci fi. Basically it’s a look at what people with super powers would really be like.
There’s two more books (Clay’s Ark and Survivor) which are in the same continuity, but honestly I don’t think they’re as good.
Her Xenogenesis series (Dawn, Childhood Rites and Imago) is good also. It’s about the Earth nearly being wiped out and the survivors being rescued by aliens who start interbreeding with humans.
She also wrote Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents which are excellent. They follow a young woman growing up in the near future when violence is everywhere, global warming has limited food supplies and things are basically falling apart. She creates her own religion and gains followers and enemies.
Of course you’ve read A Canticle for Leibowitz, right? Because if you haven’t, run, don’t walk.
I second the CJ Cherryh suggestion - her fantasy is crap, but her science fiction is consistently excellent. I personally prefer the Foreigner books, but anything of hers is assured to be excellent.
I would recommend almost anything by Iain M. Banks, especially his Culture novels.
Consider Phlebas The Player of Games Use of Weapons (which has one of the most chilling reveals I’ve ever read) Excession Look to Windward
There is also Inversions which is one of the Culture novels but it doesn’t look like one. Then there is Against a Dark Background which isn’t a Culture novel (though there are those who maintain that it is) but is still a good novel.
The Culture is probably the best-realized utopian society you will ever find in fiction. Plus, what can you say about a series containing artificial intelligences so advanced that one of them described themselves as being “close to gods… on the far side” yet give themselves names like “Unfortunate Conflict Of Evidence” or “No More Mister Nice Guy”.
Also, John Varley has written a lot of good stuff. You can’t go wrong with any of his stuff. I especially enjoyed Steel Beach and the Gaea trilogy (Titan, Demon, and Wizard).
To agree with you, Terry. I love the way Laumer changes syntax to reflect the alien languages. It’s kind of what Hemingway does in For Whom the Bell Tolls, writing English directly translated from the Spanish.
I have thousands of magazines, and you are right. Dune ran in Analog in the early '60s. Dune Messiah ran in Galaxy in the late '60s, early '70s (unless it was in If - they were pretty identical for a while.)
I wonder if the indices are still available. There are two magazine indices for that period - the Metcalfe index and the MITSFS index (actually done by NESFA.) I prefer the Metcalfe index myself. Very useful at times.
for military science fiction, I’d suggest William C. Deitz and his Legion of the Damned books. Also take a look at John Ringo’s books about the Posleen invasion of Earth. You’ve got to love a series where one of the main weapons in a 2 story tall cannon that fires nuclear warheads and is named Bun Rabbit. David Drake’s Hammers Slammers series is also good military science fiction.
I second the suggestion of the Vorkosigan books by Bujold. For my money, she is the best writer in the genre today. A Civil Campaign is both a political thriller and the funniest book I’ve read in a long time. You should read the series in order to know who these people are and then read A Civil Campaign to get the full effect.
I liked Mockingbird, In Conquest Born & Hyperion (but not the sequel).
I’d like to recommend Sheri S. Tepper’s “Raising the Stones”. I haven’t read it in years, but it used to be one of my favorites. I guess it’s time for me to dig it out & re-read it.
I would like to suggest Roger Zelazny’s Lord Of Light. I confess that I found it to be a hard read the first time through (not everyone will agree) but I also found it to be worth the (second) read. I really enjoyed it.
The new Honor Harrington book (At all Costs) is out. Webb also has some other good stuff.
John Ringo has some good books out as well if you like military SciFi…his Gust Front books (and the newest Watch on the Rhine), plus I think he started a new series I haven’t picked up yet.
How about Michael Gear’s Forbidden Borders series?
Now he’s written a lot of crap but he’s written some excellent stuff as well.
For humorous sci-fi you have Bill the Galactic Hero, Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers and the Stainless Steel Rat series.
For more serious, but still very good, you have Captive Universe; A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!; and the Eden series (West of Eden, Winter in Eden and Return to Eden).
The link for free electronic books I posted had Hammer’s Slammers and other Authors’ books set in the Hub Universe. Drake has many great books out there. John Ringo’s books are good too.
Fred Saberhagen’s Berserker series is great. It’s an universe where a dead race’s self replicating doomsday machines fight the humans stellar empire to eliminate all life. There’s some real clever plots in some of the short story collections.
I’ve recently read Elizabeth Moon’s Heris Serrano and Esmay Suiza series which were great fun. There are three Heris Serrano and then three or four Esmay Suiza books, set in the same system with the same characters, but the lead character changes.
The first novels are Hunting Party, Winning Colors and Sporting Chance.
They’re lots of fun, sort of space opera with horses, but the characterisation is strong, the plots complex enough to be engaging and the writing is pretty good. If deep and meaningful sci fi is your thing, or you’re hooked on Morgan’s noirish take on the genre, then you might not like them, but they are intelligent enjoyment for a spare moment.
Let’s not stop at recommending only one Sheri S. Tepper book, she’s a very underrated writer who needs a wider audience. Orson Scott Card I can recommend pretty much across the board, even when he has his Mormon hat on I still like his style. John Varley, check [hijack] Am I the only one who’d really love to see Peter Jackson tackle the Titan books and adapt them into movies?[/hijack]
Jumping on the general pile on endorsement of Zenna Henderson–read her People stories as a child and to this day reread them often, cursing my mundane Earth heritage, grumble. Another near forgotten and undeservedly so: Cordwainer Smith. Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore too, while we’re resurrecting.
I love the way Laumer changes syntax to reflect the alien languages. It’s kind of what Hemingway does in For Whom the Bell Tolls, writing English directly translated from the Spanish.