SciFi books I haven't read?

Cafe Society
21

Since no one has mentioned him yet, I’ll recommend Iain Banks. Probably best to start with The Player of Games but other good ones are Consider, Phlebas and Use of Weapons. Excession is also good but you probably should read one or two of the others first since it will help to know some of the background.

Just wanted to point out an anecdote I heard from Niven and Pournelle about this one. What became Lucifer’s Hammer was the first version of Footfall. (Slight spoiler ahead.) Footfall involves an alien invasion. The aliens start the invasion by dropping a large asteroid (The “Foot”) on the Earth. When they presented the idea to their editor, the editor told them “Forget the aliens, go with the asteroid impact!”

22

Lucifer’s Hammer was excellent.

I also enjoyed Moonfall by Jack McDevitt.

I don’t read sci-fi that much (especially if they’re very technical), but I do like the “Doomsday Rock” scenarios.

Sheri

23

As opposed to Burroughs’ other main series, of which the third book, as everyone here can probably guess, is:

…Tarzan and the Jewels of Opal

:wink:

24

How did i miss this thread for so long? they already covered the Burroughs/Mars question, i actually have all 11 now, thanx to a used book store nearby that got the last 4 i needed. There is also a 5 book Venus series, that i got from the library a few years ago, which are pretty good, though not as good, as the Martian series. And Burroughs also wrote The Land that Time Forgot, The People that Time Forgot, and Out of Time’s Abyss (i think that’s the third book). He also wrote The Mad King, which i picked up this week and haven’t read yet, it is in line behind Heinlein’s Number of the Beast…

25

  1. Regarding the rest of your post: “Me too”

  2. I read the new Bujold fantasy (who’s name escapes me) and while it was better than The Spirit Ring, it still wasn’t as good as a Miles book. Characterization great. Plot, pacing and setting…good? Ok?

And Cal! Mi Compadre! I thought I was the only one alive who didn’t like (hated!) Childhood’s End. If you want a laugh, read Laumer’s The Monitors for a funny take on a similar theme.

Fenris

26

read a book called metrophage by richard kardey<sp?> it was printed under a ace sf line

Its even more politicially viable given todays climate than when it was written in 87

27

I haven’t read Laumer’s book, but I have seen the movie they based on it:

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0064684
The stars of the film are the as-yet-generally-unknown Second City troupe (longgg before John Belushi, John Candy, Eugene Levy, et al.) I’d only seen it once, and had no idea Laumer had written the book it was based on.

28

nightshadea - I remember Metrophage. Perhaps more helpfully, I remember an article which said Richard Kadrey (sic) had given up hope of getting it republished, and was putting the whole text online. And, indeed here it is.