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Good fiction/fantasy/sci-fi books

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Originally posted by: 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.
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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.
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Thats what I was trying to think of....

And BTW it's Dosadi.

 
Bolo!

Judas Unchained - Peter F. Hamilton

Software - Rudy Rucker

Under the Skin

Fledgling - Octavia Butler

Spin State - Chris Moriarty

Singularity Sky - Charles Stross

Thursday Next Novels - Jasper Fforde (Read them!)

Spaceland : A Novel of the Fourth Dimension - Rudy Rucker

Trashy Peter F. Hamilton space operas

Alistair Reynolds

David Weber

Kathleen Ann Goonan
 
Anything by Philip K. Dick is awesome. The short stories are good for a quick read. I'd recommend also:
Radio Free Albemuth
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

Dan Simmons Hyperion 2 book set is good. You will have to read both though and there are 2 more after.

James P. Hogan - Giants series. Entoverse was bad though, but the first 3 were excellent and pretty much end after the 3rd book.

Charles Sheffield is hard science fiction and very good. I'd recommend starting with the Heritage Universe.

For fantasy, David Eddings Belgariad and Malloreon series are pretty good. A lot of people rip on it, but I was more than satisfied after reading them.

I could list a lot more but most of my books are in boxes. I agree Orson Scott Card is good, but I would also recommend the often overlooked Worthing Saga. I couldn't make it through Xenocide and haven't read any of the newer Enders series books yet.
 
I don't know if they have already been mentioned, but Raymond Feist's Riftwar and Serpentwar series are very good, along with the associated other books that further flesh out the series. Here are some others to try:

Stephen R. Donaldson - The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

C. S. Friedman - The Coldfire Trilogy

Kevin J. Anderson - The Saga of Seven Suns

Arthur C. Clarke - The Rama series

 
Originally posted by: MajinWade
Anything by Philip K. Dick is awesome. The short stories are good for a quick read. I'd recommend also:
Radio Free Albemuth
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

Dan Simmons Hyperion 2 book set is good. You will have to read both though and there are 2 more after.

James P. Hogan - Giants series. Entoverse was bad though, but the first 3 were excellent and pretty much end after the 3rd book.

Charles Sheffield is hard science fiction and very good. I'd recommend starting with the Heritage Universe.

For fantasy, David Eddings Belgariad and Malloreon series are pretty good. A lot of people rip on it, but I was more than satisfied after reading them.

I could list a lot more but most of my books are in boxes. I agree Orson Scott Card is good, but I would also recommend the often overlooked Worthing Saga. I couldn't make it through Xenocide and haven't read any of the newer Enders series books yet.
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Completely forgot the Belgariad and Mallorean! I read that, Ender's Game, and LoTR all around the same time and that is what got me hooked into fantasy and SF in the first place... very good books. They sort of follow the stock fantasy storyline though...

1. Get farmboy away from ancient evil
2. Unite Farmboy with 'wizard' as his guide and mentor
3. Grab some cohorts... you will need them later
4. Develop latent magical powers
5. ???
6. Profit (read: Profit, or world saving... depends on if you are the author or the character)
 
If you are into dystopic science fiction (not-too-distant/post-apocalyptic future sort of thing) look into anything from William Gibson, Neuromancer in particular.

I just started his latest book Pattern Recognition which, although possibly not "science fiction" in the most strict of senses, has been an enjoyable read so far.
 
Anything written by Robert E. Howard

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series by Fritz Leiber

Lensman series and Skylark series by E.E. "Doc"Smith

Tad Williams has done some good sci-fi and fantasy books.

William Gibson for cyber-punk type stuff

someone already mentioned the Dune series by Frank Herbert.

You already like Terry Pratchett. Have you read all the Discworld books? What about Good Omens with Neil Gaiman? Also check out the Tiffany Aching books, the Johnny and the ... series, the Truckers, Diggers, and Wings books (even though they are more geared for young adults, they are still great books and its written by TP so you can't go wrong).
 
Tales of the Otori

It's a trilogy of books and very good (though short) read IMO.

Book 1: Across the Nightingale Floor
Book 2: Grass for His Pillow
Book 3: Brilliance of the Moon

They're harder to find now since they're not all in print still (but you can find it online)

Authors site is: http://www.lianhearn.com/
 
I say get some good comic books. If you go to a comic book store you can buy entire series of comic books in hardcover form. Personally I reccomend Age of Apocalypse (x-men), Hush (batman), The Long Haloween & Dark Victory (batman). Those are just three series I borrowed from a freind and just finished, pm me if you want more good titles. 😀
 
I can't believe nobody has suggested Robin Hobb or Gene Wolfe yet. Hobb's series (The Farseer Triology, and it's continuation in The Tawny Man Trilogy) are just fun books to read. Especially if you like assassins.

Gene Wolfe is spectacular. You may have to re-read the books, but when it all clicks, it's absolutely fvcking beautiful. The Book of the New Sun (which is the 4 books together) is a great work of literature.
 
"The Dying Earth", "The Eyes of the Overworld", "Cugel's Saga", "Rhialto the Marvellous" (these first four repackaged in a single volume called "The Dying Earth" IIRC), and the entire Demon Princes and Alastor series by Jack Vance. (Actually, all of his books are pretty interesting.)

"The Cyberiad", "The Star Diaries", "A Perfect Vacuum", "Memoirs Found in a Bathtub", "The Futurological Congress", and anything else by Stanislaw Lem.

"Bill the Galactic Hero", by Harry Harrison.

A second vote for the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series, for light entertainment.

These should get you started. "Ender's Game" is a good read, although the virtual-reality stuff drags it down slightly-- the story would have been much tighter without it. If you read the other books in the series, you will likely agree that they're not nearly as good. "Whipping Star" is okay, as others have said, but you will likely agree that "The Dosadi Experiment" is not nearly as good. The Jordan books are no better than a soap opera set to paper. The Dune books are okay, but full of a lot of filler, more so as the series winds on (and I don't think too many would literally agree that they're the greatest works of sci-fi ever).
 
Thanks for all the replies guys. I've read many of these but there are also quite a few I'm not familiar with. I'll be checking them out at the book store this evening.
 
C.S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy...

Vinge's Deepness in the Sky, and Fire Upon the Deep

Currently reading : C.S. Friendman's In Conquest Born

-Max
 
I used to read a lot of these types of books, can't remember the names of most of them though 🙁...maybe I'll get back into it though, go pickup a bunch of second hand books somewhere.
 
Originally posted by: Mloot
I don't know if they have already been mentioned, but Raymond Feist's Riftwar and Serpentwar series are very good, along with the associated other books that further flesh out the series. Here are some others to try:

Stephen R. Donaldson - The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

C. S. Friedman - The Coldfire Trilogy

Kevin J. Anderson - The Saga of Seven Suns

Arthur C. Clarke - The Rama series
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Another vote for Raymond E. Feist - brilliant writer.
 
some good writers

John Ringo - Hymm before battle

David Drake - Hammers slamers

Glen Cook - Black company series

steve white / steve weber


I like military sci-fi

although i just read goood omens by terry pratchett and neil gaiman
highly recommended read
 
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