# I need some more Sci-fi reading! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 15, 2006, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-more-sci-fi-reading/344596 "2006-02-15T04:29:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-more-sci-fi-reading/344596/21 "2006-02-17T20:44:36Z")
Jack Vance is a very talented author who has been writing quality science fiction since the early 1950’s. He’s up to more than fifty novels and at least thriteen collections of short stories, and almost all of the mare absolutely top-notch. Most of his science fiction is far-future, about one thousand years down the road. It features new technology, but Vance doesn’t spend much time describing the mechanical gizmos. He’s more interested in how human beings change when they move out to other planets. His writing style is to cram everything into a single book: some adventure, some action, some comedy, some romance, and some pure weirdness. His best books, in my opinion: The Demon Princes series (_The Star King, The Killing Machine, The Palace of Love, The Face, The Book of Dreams_). An interstellar cop is deputized to hunt five galactic supercriminals, each one of whom has a secret identity and an entire criminal empire to contend with. The Durdane Trilogy (_The Faceless Man, The Brave Free Men, The Asutra_). Three excellent short novels about the planet Durdane where a single absolute dictator known as “The Faceless Man” rules over a system of Cantons. Everyone wears a collar with explosive devices around their neck, and the Faceless Man can detonate them at will. The Cadwal Chronicles (_Araminta Station, Ecce and Old Earth, Throy_). The planet Cadwal is a nature preserve, set aside to guard its great natural beauty. Now a conspiracy of developers and corrupt officials is attempting to steal the land. This series has a hugely complicated plot and a massive character list, unlike most of Vance’s other books. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-more-sci-fi-reading/344596/22 "2006-02-17T21:20:02Z")
> [@Elendil's Heir](#): > > My all-time favorite SF book, though, is George R.R. Martin’s _Tuf Voyaging_, a collection of interrelated short stories about a failed space trader who, through the greed and cutthroat mentality of others, ends up in sole possession of a ancient, massive and powerful starship. He sets out to earn a living with it, and has adventures ranging from the hilarious to the chilling. The book’s about absolute power, ecology, overpopulation, and the folly of war. I read it again every few years and find something new in it every time. _Highly_ recommended. > > Can you tell that I really like it…? And it has cats!! 😃 I second anything by Weber or Stirling. ---
**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:** [February 17, 2006, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-more-sci-fi-reading/344596/23 "2006-02-17T22:16:13Z")
If you like Robinson for his sociological stuff, you should check out Le Guin’s science fiction. _The Dispossessed_ is an anthropological look at a materialistic dictatorship next-door to an impoverished anarchy. _Four Ways to Forgiveness_ deals with a world dealing with the aftermath of racial slavery and sexual bondage. And then there was her famous book about genderbending aliens–name’s on the tip of my tongue… Daniel ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-more-sci-fi-reading/344596/24 "2006-02-17T23:27:09Z")
How about James Allen Gardiner’s _Expendable_ series? ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-more-sci-fi-reading/344596/25 "2006-02-18T01:14:37Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > And then there was her famous book about genderbending aliens–name’s on the tip of my tongue… _The Left Hand of Darkness_ ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-more-sci-fi-reading/344596/26 "2006-02-18T01:20:10Z")
_Wooooooooosh!_ ---
**Author:** ![DfrntBreign](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@DfrntBreign](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DfrntBreign)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-more-sci-fi-reading/344596/27 "2006-02-18T01:27:31Z")
From your favorites, I think you might like Allen Steele. It’s been a while since I read one of his books, but I remember them as being near-future and technologicaly oriented. Definitely not “fantasy” (except they are stories about a thriving space program). A lot like KSR’s Mars trilogy. While not as “nuts-and-bolts” you might like _The Rift_ or _Days of Atonement_, both by Walter Jon Williams and some of Bruce Sterling’s books. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-more-sci-fi-reading/344596/28 "2006-02-18T01:27:52Z")
:smack: ---
**Author:** ![Glassy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ea666f/32.png) [@Glassy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glassy)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-more-sci-fi-reading/344596/29 "2006-02-18T03:22:27Z")
> [@Elendil's Heir](#): > > My all-time favorite SF book, though, is George R.R. Martin’s _Tuf Voyaging_, a collection of interrelated short stories about a failed space trader who, through the greed and cutthroat mentality of others, ends up in sole possession of a ancient, massive and powerful starship. He sets out to earn a living with it, and has adventures ranging from the hilarious to the chilling. The book’s about absolute power, ecology, overpopulation, and the folly of war. I read it again every few years and find something new in it every time. _Highly_ recommended. > > Can you tell that I really like it…? I’m not the OP or anything, but thanks for this recommendation. That sounds terrific. I sort of somewhat liked Martin’s fantasy series; I thought the writing was excellent, but (in my opinion) the story is too scattered between the multiple points of view. Looks like this is more focused, which will put it right up my alley. I’ve already told the library to send it my way. Has anyone mentioned Frederick Pohl’s \*\*Gateway \*\* yet? **dalej42** , you’ve probably already read this, since it’s totally a classic, but in case you haven’t, I love it passionately. What a great read, right up until the last sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-more-sci-fi-reading/344596/30 "2006-02-18T04:27:38Z")
I love Bruce Sterling’s work. He’s famous for Cyberpunk, but that includes some wonderful Hard SF ideas. His Shaper/Mechanist stories are amazing. They turn a lot of standard SF conventions on their heads, but he’s such a good writer he pulls it off beautifully. I think his **Islands in the Net** is the best near-future extrapolation I’ve ever read, and I’ve read quite a few. Every major character in the novel has at least one _great_ speech justifying his or her actions. A speech I found myself pretty much agreeing with. Even the bad guys. Especially the bad guys. It’s really creepy to find yourself agreeing with the bad guys. It’s so easy and seamless … (shudder). The main character has real arguments with her mother, about stupid things that each of them just does NOT get. Like in real life. I loooove this book! Even if I have not found my optimal personna. I was not as fond of **The Difference Engine** , but it has one of the best alternate history ideas (computer revolution in the 1830’s). (In the early 1990’s a science museum in Britain constructed part of Babbage’s Difference Engine to historic tolerances. The darn thing worked! If Babbage hadn’t spent so much time slandering the head of his funding agency, he might have been able to buld it. The modern world would have been very different indeed. Cite: [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Babbage), which is better than my decade-old memories.) Sterling’s non-fiction work **The Hacker Crackdown** is also wonderful. I don’t like his “Former Soviet Cowboy” stories so much, but I’ll read them anyway. His short story “Our Neural Chernobyl” is a must read. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-more-sci-fi-reading/344596/31 "2006-02-18T04:52:37Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > And it [George R.R. Martin’s “Tuf Voyaging”] has cats!! :D… Oh, yes. Most definitely. And all cats have a touch of psi, you know! **Glassy** , you’re in for a treat. ---
**Author:** ![VanillaGorilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@VanillaGorilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VanillaGorilla)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-more-sci-fi-reading/344596/32 "2006-02-18T16:19:03Z")
I cant believe we have had this many replys and nobody had mentioned _Enders Game_ by Orson Scott Card. Easily among the best sci-fi books I’ve ever read, if not the best. Another good read is _Jennifer Government_ by… umm… I cant recall the name right now. Good book anyway. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-more-sci-fi-reading/344596/33 "2006-02-18T16:25:53Z")
Robert Charles Wilson: A Bridge of Years The Harvest Mysterium John Varley: The Gaea Trilogy - Wizard, Demon, Titan Steel Beach Red Thunder The aforementioned Hyperion/Endymion saga by Simmons. A lot of Alan Dean Foster is good for a chuckle. One novel that would be easy to film as CGI: _Sentenced to Prism_. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-more-sci-fi-reading/344596/34 "2006-02-18T17:02:16Z")
Another vote here for David Weber’s Honor Harrington series, which in addition to the 11 or so main novels, also includes a couple of series of spinoff novels (Saganami Island and Wages of Sin) and a series of spinoff short story anthologies (Worlds of Honor). Weber’s weakness seems to be a limited ability to craft characters outside of a limited range. That said, he does use some of the excellent characters created by other writers in the spinoff stuff (such as Victor Cachat, the Fist of the Revolution! :D) Other than that, I’d like to recommend Elizabeth Moon’s Vatta’s War series (so far it’s just Trading in Danger and Marque and Reprisal, with Engaging the Enemy coming out next month). It’s not really Hard Sci-fi, as it mostly centers around what turns out to be the very bloody business of trying to do business as the captain of a merchantship, but it is very good, with space battles, gunfights, puppydogs, and sexual innuendo involving citrus fruit. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-more-sci-fi-reading/344596/35 "2006-02-18T17:35:56Z")
I really like Banks’ Culture novels (_Player of Games_ is my favourite SF work), but I’d hate to see his non-culture stuff get short shrift. I’ve really enjoyed _Against a Dark Background_ and _Feersum Enjin_, and this last one, _The Algebraist_, is now my second-favourite M. Banks. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-more-sci-fi-reading/344596/36 "2006-02-18T23:36:53Z")
I’ll second Isaac Asimov’s _Foundation_ series. Great stuff. My favorite of Heinlein’s is _Time Enough for Love_. If you’re into the old-fashioned, geeky, guys-in-space-stations-still-using-sliderules science fiction where the engineer is always the hero, look for _The Complete Venus Equilateral_ by George O. Smith. Hard to find, but good stuff. And speaking of old-fashioned, if you like space opera, read E.E. “Doc” Smith’s _Lensman_ series (“Despite the unleashing of hitherto-unimaginable forces as the unstoppable beam of energy hit the evil force’s newly-constructed unpierceable shield, the beam from our hero’s ship was unable to breach the shield to destroy the invader’s ship. Clued in by the color of the unfathomable streamers of raw energy, however, Kinnison adjusted the frequency of the output using a handy paperclip, single-handedly muscled the 800-pound energy projector into it’s new position, shuttled the backup power to the weapon room using a strip of highly-conductive material ripped from the arm of his space suit, and blew the bad guy’s ship into a cloud of dust while composing a sonnet for his sweetheart, who was treating the wounded pilot by giving him a transfusion of her own blood using a pocketknife, a soda straw, and a gum wrapper.”) Okay, so I exaggerate. Slightly. Smith would have taken a whole chapter to describe that scene, and you would have been captivated by it. If you enjoy Smith’s _Lensman_ books, then you can continue the story with a trilogy written by David A. Kyle in the 1980’s. If you want something more modern, maybe some cyberpunk would do the trick. I’d recommend Neal Stephenson’s _Snow Crash_. It’s tongue-in-cheek (his main character is named “Hiro Protagonist,” for goodness’ sake), but really good stuff. Larry Niven’s _Ringworld_ series in mighty good, too, if you’re not offended by rishathra (sex outside of one’s species). Did I spell that right? And for a completely different twist on the post-apocalyptic novel, pick up Spider Robinson’s _Telempath_. Enjoy!!! ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2006, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-more-sci-fi-reading/344596/37 "2006-02-18T23:40:49Z")
Smith also wouldn’t have used “it’s” where he meant “its.” Or perhaps he would have previewed. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-more-sci-fi-reading/344596/38 "2006-02-19T19:53:57Z")
> [@Eleanor of Aquitaine](#): > > The **Hyperion Cantos** series, by Dan Simmons. Starts with **Hyperion**. > The **Night’s Dawn** series, by Peter F. Hamilton. Starts with **The Reality Dysfunction, Part 1: Emergence**. Also by Peter F Hamilton: - **Pandora’s Star** and **Judas Unchained** , one two-thousand page novel published in two volumes. It’s a human/alien culture clash story. ---
**Author:** ![catnoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@catnoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catnoe)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-more-sci-fi-reading/344596/39 "2006-02-20T02:15:41Z")
Julian May - (The series are connected and I’ll give them to you in my preferred order) Intervention - The Surveillance The Metaconcert The Galactic Milieu Trilogy - Jack the Bodiless Diamond Mask The Saga of Pliocene Exile - The Many-Colored Land The Golden Torc The Nonborn King The Adversary She also wrote, The Rampart Worlds - Perseus Spur Orion Arm Sagittarius Whorl A fantastic book that came out 3 or 4 years ago…Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan. There are two other books with the main character…Broken Angels and Woken Furies. Crap! Had another suggestion and went to find it but can’t. All the sci-fi is suppose to be in the other room! The Evergence series mentioned earlier gets a ‘second’ from me. Bruce Sterling, Neal Stephenson, Willaim Gibson and thaat group also get my vote. (Not into the fantasy thing but enjoy space opera, man’s evolutionary leap forward, and the cyberworld.) ---
**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-more-sci-fi-reading/344596/40 "2006-02-20T03:48:20Z")
> [@Etumretniw](#): > > Another good read is _Jennifer Government_ by… umm… I cant recall the name right now. Good book anyway. 😃 Max Barry. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-more-sci-fi-reading/344596.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-some-more-sci-fi-reading/344596.md?page=3)