Recommended: Fantasy/sci Fi


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The Sirens of Titan

~ by Kurt Vonnegut

This book, Kurt's first, was published in 1959 and unlike most of his other books, especially the later ones, it's science fiction through and through. But, like all of Kurt's books, it's filled to the brim with his humor and his unique perspective on humanity and society.

This book is rather visionary in that it contains a scathing, satirical commentary on the dangers of too much political correctness, 35 years before anyone else even began to view PC as a problem.

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Ray Bradbury always tells a good story......I still think of that poor house once in a while.

I reread Kate Wilhelms' Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang. When I first read it (1977) I wondered at what could bring about such circumstance, but now its all to disturbingly easy to see.

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Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth" series. Its got something like 7-8 books to it now, started as a trilogy, and I really like it.

Also, not necessarily in the same genre but has anyone read the Piers Anthony series "Incarnations of Immortality"?

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I loved everybody's recommendations except the Gor books. I didn't like those.

Re the Foundation Trilogy: I recommend that you also read the sequels and the prequels, and don't forget the connected Robot series.

My recommendation: The Valis Trilogy, by Philip K. Dick (and everything else by Dick)

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Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth" series. Its got something like 7-8 books to it now, started as a trilogy, and I really like it.

Also, not necessarily in the same genre but has anyone read the Piers Anthony series "Incarnations of Immortality"?

I LOVE Goodkinds stuff! He's WAY better that Jordan!

I read the first two books of the 'Immortality' series and that was hard enough. There wasn't really a difference between the first two books. It was like reading the same book over again. I'm hoping that the last few don't follow suit.

Otherwise I thought they were OK. I'm going to be reading the "Space Tyrant" (can't remember the full title) series next.

E.

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I loved everybody's recommendations except the Gor books. I didn't like those.

I've read most but not all of the Gor books. I like them.

Has anyone mentioned Burroughs? As in Tarzan?

Or the tales of Fafnir and the Grey Mouser? Classics, I tell you. Classics!

Edited by Nooncaster
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I am a huge SF fan - I have literally thousands of SF books, so picking out faves is difficult. I'll list a bunch of authors and a good book or 2 by them - other stuff by them is usually good too.

Brian Aldiss - The Canopy of Time.

Poul Anderson - The Rebel Worlds

Piers Anthony - Macroscope.

Isaac Asimov - The Gods Themselves

Alfred Bester - The Demolished Man.

LLoyd Biggle Jr - Monument

James Blish - Jack of Eagles. (Also check out "A Case of Conscience", a rare theologically based SF novel).

David Brin - Startide Rising series.

John Brunner - The Shockwave Rider.

Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game & sequels.

C J Cherryh - Serpents Reach, The Faded Sun trilogy

Richard Cowper - Twilight of Briarius, and the White Bird of Kinship series.

P K Dick - The Man in the High Castle

Gordon R Dickson - The Way of the Pilgrim, The Dorsai series.

Samuel R Delany - The Jewels of Aptor

Alan Dean Foster - Into the Out Of, and the Spellsinger series.

M.A. Foster - The Morphodite

Robert Forward - Starquake

Randall Garrett - Too Many Magicians (One of a kind - a locked room mystery in a world of magic.)

Harry Harrison - Deathworld

Robert Heinlein - Citizen of the Galaxy

Frank Herbert - The Dosadi Experiment

Robert Holdstock - Mythago Wood

Colin Kapp - The Wizard of Anharite + Short stories - the unorthodox engineers.

Stanislav Lem - The Star Diaries

C. S. Lewis - Out of the silent Planet/Perelandra/That Hideous Strength.

Anne McCaffrey - Crystal Singer

Ursula Le Guin - The Dispossessed, and the Earthsea series.

Larry Niven - Neutron Star

Niven & Pournelle - The Mote in God's Eye.

Andre Norton - Plague Ship, the Witchworld series.

George R.R. Martin - They Dying of the Light, A song for Lya.

Walter M. Miller Jr - A Canticle for Leibowitz.

Frederic Pohl & C.M Kornbluth - The Space Merchants

Jerry Pournelle - King David's Spaceship

Kim Stanley Robinson - Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy.

Bob Shaw - Orbitsville

Robert Silverberg - A time of Changes

Clifford Simak - City

Norman Spinrad - Songs from the Stars

Neal Stephenson - The Diamond Age (* - probably my favourite SF book).

Theodore Sturgeon - To Here and to the Easel

Bruce Sterling - Involution Ocean

Of Mena and Monsters - William Tenn

Jack Vance - The Languages of Pao.

Vernor Vinge - The Witling, A Fire on the Deep

Ian Watson - The Jonah Kit

Charles Williams - The Place of the Lion

John Wyndham - The Kraken Wakes, Jizzle.

Jane Yolen - The Cards of Grief

Timothy Zahn - Spinneret

Roger Zelazny - The Traveller in Black

I'm sure I've missed a bunch which I would put in there if I could think of them. Should be enough to get you going, though.

Happy reading!

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For anyone not afraid of mixing a little film noir detective with their sci-fi I would highly recommend S. Andrew Swann's "Moreau" series (in order):

Forests of the Night

Emperors of the Twilight

Specters of the Dawn

Fearful Symmetries

I haven't read much sci-fi in years, but these were recommended to me by a friend and I found them thoroughly enjoyable.

Imagine an anthropomorphic tiger as the detective in a Raymond Chandler type story with a plot that has more twists than a corkscrew. :thumbu:

WARNING: Some violence and adult situations.

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I have always enjoyed science fiction. There are three books that I have always treasured:

"The Word for World is Forest"

"The Left Hand of Darkness" (Winner of the HUGO and NEBULA AWARDS for best science fiction novel.)

"The Dispossessed"

All three books were written by Ursula K. Leguin.

Edited by emalpaiz
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I guess I'm the only D&D geek on here, or I missed someone mentioning R.A. Salvatore. The first Drizzt books were pretty good (I think there's about 16 of them now, but it might be 20). I suggest just the Dark Elf Trilogy and the Icewind Dale Trilogy (or the first six). They get pretty stale after that, as no one important ever dies, or at least ever STAYS dead.

If you like Tolkien, you should pick up his children's story Roverandom.

If you want fantasy with a bit of a steampunk feel, I'd recommend Wicked by Gregory Macguire.

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I have enjoyed most of what I have read by Frank Herbert, Larry Niven, Stephen Donaldson, Roger Zelazny, Isaac Asimov, J.R.R. Tolkien, Piers Anthony, Michael Moorcock, Ann McCaffery, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, Poul Anderson, Ray Bradbury, the list could go on and on really.

I enjoyed the "Gor" books by Norman also...granted I enjoyed reading "Hollywood Wives" around that same time. (I think I was around 13) :blush: So I am sure you can tell I have very high standards when it comes to literature. :jest:

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Praise be to the Old Ones and to H.P. Lovecraft, thier prophet!

Praise Cthulhu, Pazuzu and Him Who Is Not Named!

Yog-Sothoth is the key!

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!!

I recommend "The Mountains of Madness" and "The Dunwich Horror". Both excellent reads.

GM.

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