Good fiction/fantasy/sci-fi books

[SlitheryDee]

Just wondering about some good fiction/fantasy/scifi that you might know about that I haven't read.

For reference I like Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Terry Pratchett, Stephen King, Robert Jordan, Terry Brooks, and Franz Kafka among others.

Ae there any novels by these authors or novels that you would think I'd like based on my preferences that anyone would like to suggest?

 

[Spydermag68]

Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card...If you like super children...What is a good read is to read Ender's Game and then Ender's Shadow. back to back.

 

[Deleted member 4644]

Star of the Guardians series by Margaret Weis.

 

[Whitecloak]

sharpe series -> not fantasy or sci-fi though.

 

[neutralizer]

Originally posted by: Spydermag68
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card...If you like super children...What is a good read is to read Ender's Game and then Ender's Shadow. back to back.

Seconded. The sequels to those two stories are pretty good too.

 

[DanTMWTMP]

Originally posted by: Spydermag68
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card...If you like super children...What is a good read is to read Ender's Game and then Ender's Shadow. back to back.

I WholeHeartedly Agree 100% All The Way.

Both books have spinoffs of their own.

I read it in the order of their release (Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant). When Ender's Shadow and its sequals came out, I got all of them on their release dates. There will be another novel based off of these series that finally melds the two timelines (Ender's quartet and Bean's quartet).

You should read other Orson Scott Card's books, like Enchantment and Pastwatch. I LOVED Enchantment. It's a fantasy/fairy tale, but Scott tells it in a way that, what if fairytales were real? How would people really react in fairy tales? The way he melded modern + past lifestyles in that book was friggin awesome.

OSC is a real character developer talent. I love his work. You should also catch his compilation of short stories.

I've been anxiously waiting for this to be released!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadows_in_Flight

 

[judasmachine]

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and Stranger in a Strange Land are great.

The Dune Cycle (all 6 Dune books) and Whipping Star by Frank Herbert

The Gods Themselves by Asimov

2001, 2010, 2061, and 3001 by Arthur C. Clarke

Have you read the Lord of the Rings by Tolkien yet? The movies were good, but of course the books are deeper.

 

[darkswordsman17]

George R. R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice series. Definitely check it out based on your other preferences.

Maybe Terry Goodkind.

If you're not really religious, you might check out His Dark Materials trilogy.

 

[TheStu]

Song of Ice and Fire by George R R Martin. Fantasy, with more of an emphasis put on the interplay between the countries and characters... not as much magicry as in Jordan's stuff (which, how can you stnad it by the way? I just got so tired of trying to keep track of the 300 characters while all i really cared about was how much ass Mat was going to kick and how many people Perrin would kill to get his wife back. I completely stopped caring about Rand and his problems... but that's just me)

I second the Dune Books, but only really, really liked Dune.

Lord of the Rings is of course good

Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow are fantastic

 

[Jinru]

Originally posted by: DanTMWTMP

Originally posted by: Spydermag68
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card...If you like super children...What is a good read is to read Ender's Game and then Ender's Shadow. back to back.

I WholeHeartedly Agree 100% All The Way.

Both books have spinoffs of their own.

I read it in the order of their release (Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant). When Ender's Shadow and its sequals came out, I got all of them on their release dates. There will be another novel based off of these series that finally melds the two timelines (Ender's quartet and Bean's quartet).

You should read other Orson Scott Card's books, like Enchantment and Pastwatch. I LOVED Enchantment. It's a fantasy/fairy tale, but Scott tells it in a way that, what if fairytales were real? How would people really react in fairy tales? The way he melded modern + past lifestyles in that book was friggin awesome.

OSC is a real character developer talent. I love his work. You should also catch his compilation of short stories.

I've been anxiously waiting for this to be released!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadows_in_Flight

Ender's series ftw!! Did you hear they are currently in the production of making a Ender's Game movie, lol

http://www.frescopictures.com/movies/ender/endersgame_update.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0400403/

I've also read all his other books. loved Pastwatch, was a slow start but really turned out great as the story unfolds.

Also, my current fravorite series is A Song of Ice and Fire, still waiting for next years installment of A Dance With Dragons 😀. can't wait to see what happens with Jon and Daenerys.

Edit: The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson is a wonderful scifi novel.

 

[DanTMWTMP]

Originally posted by: Jinru

Originally posted by: DanTMWTMP

Originally posted by: Spydermag68
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card...If you like super children...What is a good read is to read Ender's Game and then Ender's Shadow. back to back.

I WholeHeartedly Agree 100% All The Way.

Both books have spinoffs of their own.

I read it in the order of their release (Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant). When Ender's Shadow and its sequals came out, I got all of them on their release dates. There will be another novel based off of these series that finally melds the two timelines (Ender's quartet and Bean's quartet).

You should read other Orson Scott Card's books, like Enchantment and Pastwatch. I LOVED Enchantment. It's a fantasy/fairy tale, but Scott tells it in a way that, what if fairytales were real? How would people really react in fairy tales? The way he melded modern + past lifestyles in that book was friggin awesome.

OSC is a real character developer talent. I love his work. You should also catch his compilation of short stories.

I've been anxiously waiting for this to be released!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadows_in_Flight

Ender's series ftw!! Did you hear they are currently in the production of making a Ender's Game movie, lol

http://www.frescopictures.com/movies/ender/endersgame_update.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0400403/

I've also read all his other books. loved Pastwatch, was a slow start but really turned out great as the story unfolds.

Also, my current fravorite series is A Song for Ice and Fire, still waiting for next years installment of A Dance With Dragons 😀. can't wait to see what happens with Jon and Daenerys.

Hehe, I knew that the movie was in the works since 1997. I've been waiting all this time since then. I even got the privelidge to meet him in person (@ ComicCon 2005). I got Enchantment and Ender's Game signed. He said there's been a lot of arguments around the script. One of the arguments that he scoffed at was that WB said that there should be more caucasion character leads. lol.

 

[PowerEngineer]

Vernor Vinge: A Fire Upon The Deep and A Deepness In The Sky

Stanislaw Lem: Solaris and His Master's Voice

Tim Powers: The Anubis Gates and Expiration Date

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: TheStu
Song of Ice and Fire by George R R Martin. Fantasy, with more of an emphasis put on the interplay between the countries and characters... not as much magicry as in Jordan's stuff (which, how can you stnad it by the way? I just got so tired of trying to keep track of the 300 characters while all i really cared about was how much ass Mat was going to kick and how many people Perrin would kill to get his wife back. I completely stopped caring about Rand and his problems... but that's just me)

Yeah, I made the mistake of starting those...never read a series longer than 6 books, and never read an unfinished series whose author has a potentially fatal disease.

 

[maddogchen]

Yeah, Ender's game, my favorite SF book.

 

[Cabages]

Definitely the whole enders series. Currently on children of the mind. Xenocide and Enders Game FTW.

Anyone ever wonder how the hell card came up with all these ideas of space travel and such?

 

[darkswordsman17]

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: TheStu
Song of Ice and Fire by George R R Martin. Fantasy, with more of an emphasis put on the interplay between the countries and characters... not as much magicry as in Jordan's stuff (which, how can you stnad it by the way? I just got so tired of trying to keep track of the 300 characters while all i really cared about was how much ass Mat was going to kick and how many people Perrin would kill to get his wife back. I completely stopped caring about Rand and his problems... but that's just me)

Yeah, I made the mistake of starting those...never read a series longer than 6 books, and never read an unfinished series whose author has a potentially fatal disease.

Which series are you talking about?

 

[DanTMWTMP]

Originally posted by: Cabages
Definitely the whole enders series. Currently on children of the mind. Xenocide and Enders Game FTW.

Anyone ever wonder how the hell card came up with all these ideas of space travel and such?

man, I Was going to ask that when OSC had a panel at last year's comiccon. I totally forgot to ask him... Maybe next time, hehehe. I think he does make an appearance at his hatrack website. So check the forums over there.

Anyways, when I finished the Ender Quartet, I was soooo sad. I was sad that it ended. I did not want it to end. The characters grab you, and they stick w/ you. I was SOO THRILLED when I heard he was going to make a Bean series. Now that they're done, i was a bit sad when I finished the Bean Quartet.

Now I'm happy again because he's making yet another series to tie in the Bean and Ender series. woooo!

 

[OFFascist]

Stuff by John Ringo.

That one series of books. A Hymn Before Battle, Gust Front, When the Devil Dances, Hells Faire, Watch on the Rhine.

Also a good standalone one from him is Into the Looking Glass.

 

[Shadowknight]

George R.R. Martin's ASoIaF has already been recommended, but also check out his short story collections, as well as Tuf Voyaging and Fevre Dream
J.V. Jones stuff is alright
Hyperion by Dan Simmons is alright... but I wasn't really fond of the followups. He kept retconning everything from previous books in every sequel
The Wildcards series is reallllllllllllllllly dark, but is pretty good. They've only reprinted the first 6 books or so out of the approximately 20 put out.

 

[TWills2]

Eregon/Eldest books? It's about Dragons and crap. Not sci-fi, but they're ok.

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: darkswordsman17

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: TheStu
Song of Ice and Fire by George R R Martin. Fantasy, with more of an emphasis put on the interplay between the countries and characters... not as much magicry as in Jordan's stuff (which, how can you stnad it by the way? I just got so tired of trying to keep track of the 300 characters while all i really cared about was how much ass Mat was going to kick and how many people Perrin would kill to get his wife back. I completely stopped caring about Rand and his problems... but that's just me)

Yeah, I made the mistake of starting those...never read a series longer than 6 books, and never read an unfinished series whose author has a potentially fatal disease.

Which series are you talking about?

Wheel of time.

 

[uhohs]

foundation ftw, but you've most likely already read that. heh.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: darkswordsman17
George R. R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice series. Definitely check it out based on your other preferences.

Maybe Terry Goodkind.

Those are both very good series. They are currently tied for my favorite author position.

I can't stand the LOTR books though, JRR's writing style is horrible. I got sick of skipping several pages every chapter because some character was singing another fricking song that added nothing and disupted what little flow there was. :|

 

[wetech]

Originally posted by: judasmachine
American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and Stranger in a Strange Land are great.

The Dune Cycle (all 6 Dune books) and Whipping Star by Frank Herbert

The Gods Themselves by Asimov

2001, 2010, 2061, and 3001 by Arthur C. Clarke

Have you read the Lord of the Rings by Tolkien yet? The movies were good, but of course the books are deeper.

Go get Dune now. Start with the original 6 written by Frank Herbert. They're considered by many to be the greatest work of science fiction ever.

When you're done with those, you can get the prequels which were written by his son (his son used his father's notes to develop the prequels). That will give you 12 books to keep busy for a while. Even if you don't want to read THAT much, do yourself a favor and get the original Dune.

Whipping Star was pretty good. Its' sequel is called The Dosadai (sp) Experiment.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: darkswordsman17

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: TheStu
Song of Ice and Fire by George R R Martin. Fantasy, with more of an emphasis put on the interplay between the countries and characters... not as much magicry as in Jordan's stuff (which, how can you stnad it by the way? I just got so tired of trying to keep track of the 300 characters while all i really cared about was how much ass Mat was going to kick and how many people Perrin would kill to get his wife back. I completely stopped caring about Rand and his problems... but that's just me)

Yeah, I made the mistake of starting those...never read a series longer than 6 books, and never read an unfinished series whose author has a potentially fatal disease.

Which series are you talking about?

Wheel of time.

Ok, thats what I thought. Isn't the next one supposed to be the last?