Rings of Saturn I haven’t read, I’m afraid. If you’re hesitant to do the Giants series (It’s only four books.), he’s written a lot of standalone novels. Try Bug Park, it’s fun. Of course, I love the guy more for his hard science than his characters, though they usually hold up fine.
By comparison, the Ender series is very much SF, but doesn’t have too scientific a bent. I loved it, of course, but it’s a different type of writing. Hogan never gets too far from the possibilities of real science. He always seems to include a chapter with no action, just an explanation of the theory behind the story, making the science as important as any other feature of the story’s setting.
I read all of Guardians of the Flame, and enjoyed parts of it. Unfortunately, you get sort of drawn into the characters big goal, but too much of the stories are about day-to-day survival rather than the quest. I keep hoping Rosenberg will let the characters have their big win and retire.
Some science fiction authors can hide enough play on words in their books it’s amazing. I reread some books every few years, and find new hidden word play of minor obscure references each time. Like hey that’s a pun on a turn of the century irish song, or that’s a quote from so and so with the name changed. As I learn over the years, I get new perceptions for the same books. Some are not worth reading the first time through, and I threw it furr away…
My favorite Sci-Fi series that no one has mentioned yet:
C.J. Cherryh’s Chanur series: Chanur’s Venture
The Kif Strike Back
Chanur’s Homecoming
Other series worth a look:
Brian Stableford’s Grainger series: The Halcyon Drift [1972]
Rhapsody in Black [1973]
Promised Land [1974]
The Paradise Game [1974]
The Fenris Device [1974]
Swan Song [1975]
Fred Saberhagen’s ** Books of lost swords** series 1st BOOK OF LOST SWORDS: WOUNDHEALER’S STORY, Tor, 1988
2nd BOOK OF LOST SWORDS: SIGHTBLINDER’S STORY, Tor, 1988
3rd BOOK OF LOST SWORDS: STONECUTTER’S STORY, Tor, 1988
4th BOOK OF LOST SWORDS: FARSLAYER’S STORY, Tor, 1989
5th BOOK OF LOST SWORDS: COINSPINNER’S STORY, Tor, 1989
6th BOOK OF LOST SWORDS: MINDSWORD’S STORY, Tor, 1990
7th BOOK OF LOST SWORDS: WAYFINDER’S STORY, Tor, 1992
LAST BOOK OF LOST SWORDS: SHIELDBREAKER’S STORY,
Does anybody remember Fritz Leober’s Fafred and the Gray Mouser series?
I’m sure I could come up with more, but these will have to do for now.
Well, I finished book 1 of Guardian of the Flame this afternoon. Here’s my opinion: I hated it. The interesting thing is that I hated it not because of what was in it, but what was lacking from it.
Here’s a brief synopsis: gamers who play an RPG quite similar to D&D get transported to the world they’re playing in as the characters they’ve created. They must find the gate between worlds to transport themselves back to Earth.
OK, that seems like a great idea. In fact, it seems like a wonderful idea for a story. The problem is that it read like it was a D&D adventure and if that’s what I wanted, I would have bought an AD&D book!
Also, there were so many key scenes that were just put off or completely ignored in the book that had to be addressed.
The end of chapter 2 they are transported to the world. By chapter 3 they’re already making plans to leave. What? Huh? Did I miss something? I don’t care if you’re the most die hard gamer, you were just transported without your permission to another world and shoved into another body. How could you not be confused, upset, scared, paranoid, and psychotic as you now have to deal with two sets of memories. Plus, James Michael was a cripple. A miracle was just performed. He can walk again! He just takes it in stride as if he was expecting this rather than it being the single greatest thing of his entire life.
Olhmin was a thrown away opportunity. Rosenberg left the fight in the coloseum really short and when he came up on them at camp, the fight between Karl and him was ignored. Karl went off to kill him and we, the reader, was left at camp. You don’t do that! You can’t leave us out of key scenes and just fill us in later.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this was his first novel. I’ll be honest here. I was an idiot and picked up his eighth book, not knowing it was even part of a series. I wanted to see how it started, so I bought the first three books of the series last week. I think two and three are going unread.
Wow…that was a hell of a long review for people who have never read this book. Anyway, tonight I picked up Fortress in the Eye of Time by CJ Cherryh. Looks quite promissing.
Erm…gamers transported into the D&D-like world they’re playing…and you expect it to NOT feel like a D&D adventure?
The world is D&D-like. The NPCs and wild creatures will act like they would in the game - because if they didn’t, it wouldn’t be the game world. The characters would most likely respond to the world in the same way they would while playing - after all, their in-character reactions are likely to be the correct ones - or at least the ones that would seem correct to a player familiar with the world.
Exactly how could it NOT read like a D&D adventure, without utterly discarding what little realism a book like this could have?
The point is that if it’s so close to the game D&D that I can’t tell it apart from D&D, why bother going through the pretense of making it a Rosenberg world when it was clearly just a rip off of the D&D game? How many times can I say D&D in the same sentence anyway?
I bought the book because I wanted to travel to Rosenberg’s world. I didn’t buy a D&D book, I bought book 1 of Guardians of the Flame. If Rosenberg can’t show my why his world is different from the RPG I play every other week, why should I invest time in his “creation?”
Frankly, I’m in my 30s, am very well read, and I still think the Pern books are wonderful. I mean, the Harper Hall trilogy was written for kids, but the rest of them stand up to anything I’ve read.MHO, of course.
I just read The Heralds of Valdemar trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and enjoyed it immensely.
I recently finished the Tripods trilogy by John Christopher, and enjoyed it enormously. My favorite fantasy series is probably Narnia- but other than Narnia and Tolkein, I’ve never liked fantasy much.
Larry Niven: Known Space. Love his characters and the situations they get into.
Can’t believe nobody’s mentioned this yet, but:
Spider Robinson: Calahan’s Crosstime Saloon. Best use of a pun in SF!! Also the world I would most like to visit.
Anne Rice: vampire series and the Mayfaire witches series. Just bought her latest book which purports to link the 2. Began it last night but only the first few pages. ER came on.
John Christopher’s Tripod series. Really got me started reading SF when I was a kid.
Heinlein. Yeah, he got wierd in his later stuff but he has to be the one writer who has most affected my life.
First SF was Rite of Passage by Panshin. I still don’t understand the bad blood between him and Heinlein.
I’d better stop here or we could be here all day!!!
Yep. I read all 7. They’re on such a big scale that it’s hard to keep track of events in earlier books when you’re in the 6th and 7th.
They can be overwhelming if you try to read them quickly, but if you take them in relatively small doses, they’re interesting. Very interesting. The final book was rather weird though.
And one other thing- brutal is maybe a gentle way to describe the books. Some of the most shocking & twisted stuff I’ve ever read is in those books. (esp. Ben Shepherd). Wingrove & Stephen King must have grown up drinking the same water or something.
