Science Fiction and Fantasy Books Only Thread

[Buck]

There is a great thread in the lounge about Books in general, but to be honest, all I really want to read is Sci-Fi (including post-apocalyptic), and Fantasy.

In this OP I will compile every poster's top 3 Fantasy/SciFi suggestions if they give me them. I will try to keep the posters in alphabetical order in case you want to find someone's suggestions easier.

CP POSTER SUGGESTIONS

Baby Lee
1. Fritz Lieber's Swords Against series.
2. George R.R. Martin's SoIaF series [no brainer that will probably make tons of other lists]
3. Umberto Eco, Foucalt's Pendulum [a little more obscure/forgotten to make up for GRRM]

Frosty
1.Raymond Feist - Riftwar Saga
2.Terry Brooks - Shannara series (starting with the Knight of the Word books)
3.Tad Williams - Memory, Sorrow and Thorn

Huffmeister
(1) Dune - Frank Herbert
(2) The Stand - Stephen King (1000+ page unabridged)
(3) Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein (checkout the song by Yes, too. lots of great bass)

Jawshco
1. "Book of the Long Sun" by Gene Wolfe
2. "Paradise War" by Stephen R Lawhead
3. "The Dragonbone Chair" by Tad Williams

listopencil
1. Edgar Rice Burroughs, any series
2. Robert Heinlein, everything he has written in chronological order (but read Starship Troopers first)
3. Doc Smith's Lensman series

vailpass
1. The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume 1, 2A & 2B books are a gold mine for sampling the evolution of sci-fi. (below)
2.The Nebula Awards and Hugo Awards (selected yearly, pick a year)
3. Years Best SF Annual publication, pick any volume from 1 to the current volume 17
See Post 142

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by Huffmeister

I tried reading it a few years ago, and just couldn't get into it.

"I Will Fear No Evil", which was about an old guy who gets his brain transplanted into a young woman's body, was another I tried reading around the same time and didn't care for. I guess I'm an "Early Heinlein" type of reader.

[QuikSsurfer]

I've been reading Ship of Fools the last few days -- WOW.. FANTASTIC BOOK!!

The Argonos is a space-faring Generation ship containing thousands of humans. The Argonos has presumably been traveling through space for centuries upon centuries. The original goal of the Argonos has been lost over time; no one on board can say for certain of their origins. A class-system has developed in which the commoners and poor serve in the lower levels and provide maintenance for the ship. By contrast, the upper-class maintain positions of power. A Bishop sits as the head of the Church which yields some influence over the people and the Bishop himself is a member of the Executive Council which governs the Argonos. When a signal is received, a team aboard the Argonos prepare to make a landing on the first alien planet which has been encountered in years.

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by Frosty

I'll have to read "Stranger in a Strange Land" again someday. I liked a lot of Heinlein but I thought that one was boring. However, I read it in high school so may be able to appreciate it differently now.

It goes into political intrigue, philosophy and is probably more "social fiction" than science fiction. It's the book that resulted (anecdotally) from his bet with L. Ron Hubbard as to who could create a religion first. Hubbard won the bet with Dianetics. Heinlein himself criticized the book.

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by Frosty

"I Will Fear No Evil", which was about an old guy who gets his brain transplanted into a young woman's body, was another I tried reading around the same time and didn't care for. I guess I'm an "Early Heinlein" type of reader.

It was a goofy, and clumsy, attempt at a story from a female's perspective. He did a much better job of it in Friday and To Sail Beyond The Sunset. As a warning, Sunset contains a lot of unusual and unconventional sexual situations. If you like his early stuff you'd probably prefer Friday.

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by Braincase

Decided to go old school on my listening the past couple of weeks. Came into the complete audio recordings of Heinlein. Started off with "Methuselah's Children" and am now almost through the original "Starship Troopers". 2 thoughts on Starship Troopers - it's little wonder that it's on the reading lists for all of the service academies, and is required reading at one (West Point?). I also now have so much more disdain for the crappy movie that bears the name. A featured element of the book is the powered armor, very novel at the time of it's writing in 1959, and that was completely absent... a well as butchering the story. I've got "Stranger in a Strange Land" ready next, then we dive a little deeper into the chronicles of Lazarus Long.

Yeah. Anyone who read and enjoyed that book should absolutely despise the movie. It's a ridiculous parody. I'd recommend Time Enough For Love if you haven't read it yet and you're interested in the Lazarus Long character.

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by listopencil

It was a goofy, and clumsy, attempt at a story from a female's perspective. He did a much better job of it in Friday and To Sail Beyond The Sunset. As a warning, Sunset contains a lot of unusual and unconventional sexual situations. If you like his early stuff you'd probably prefer Friday.

Good to know. It seemed like 90% of the book was the two "minds" in the body talking to each other.

[Braincase]

So I started reading (listening) to the second "Lost Fleet" series by Jack Campbell. I've ruined it for myself. I've been watching too much Futurama lately, so now when "Black Jack Geary" has dialogue, I hear Zapp Branigan. And the rest of the Futurama characters fall in ...

[Frosty]

I know a lot of people have read Stephen King's Dark Tower series so I wanted ask this here:

I got to the fourth book, Wizard and Glass about a year and a half ago. I had burned through books 2 and 3 and it all came to a crashing halt with this book. It is so boring that I am having a hard time time getting through it. I put it down after the first third or so and will occasionally pick it up an endure another chapter or two before turning to something else to read.

This Amazon reviewer says it better than I can:

Wholeheartedly agree with the above review, except I feel much more disdain for this part of the series. I literally RIPPED through books 1-3. One of them I think I even started and finished in a single weekend. Right from the beginning I found Wizard and Glass IV to be a snore and I found myself rereading sections because my mind kept wandering elsewhere. The interesting part is since the beginning of the series I've been dying to know more of Roland's past. This really didn't fit the bill.

Unfortunately, if you are like me, you will read every part of a series and will have no choice but to ENDURE this book. I am not sure how some people are giving this book 5 stars. They must really have an appreciation for all kinds of literature because I would give Books 1-3 five stars and this book...2 stars. While books 1-3 have a great sense of adventure, book IV is more of a love story with a lot of time devoted to characters you do not care about and have no reason to care about. It's incredibly long-winded with many pages spent on details that leave you wondering about the purpose of the last 50 pages was.

Maybe in the grand scheme of the series this interlude fits nicely, but damn is it tough to get through! I sincerely hope the rest of the series is not like this because I will likely not finish it. It seems each book gets longer and longer and I definitely cannot force myself through another chapter of this.

So, for those that have read the entire series, how critical is the uber-long flashback? I would like to get back to the present storyline. If I read a synopsis on wiki or something, could I accurately get the gist of things enough to skip the flashback and continue the current storyline or do I need to continue to force my way through it? I know this sounds bad but my reading time is extremely limited and I have a lot of books lined up. I have too many good books on tap to waste time having to force myself to slog through a book.


tl;dr : Wizard and Glass is boring

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Neuromancer.It's not always enjoyable, but it's an incredibly rich read

[keg in kc]

I did recently read (in print!) Bitter Seeds, the first novel in Ian Tregillis' Milkweed Triptych, and holy crap, I can't wait to read the next two. It's hard to describe, but it's a WW2 alternative history with what's basically a Nazi team of X-Men fighting against Warlocks from England. But that's an oversimplification. It's awesome.

[Buck]

Somewhere in this thread I mentioned that I was reading The Name of the Wind.

Well I stopped reading about a third of the way through the book. Well I finally started reading it again and I read the middle third of the book today. I really like it and can't wait to finish it and see where this story is going.

[QuikSsurfer]

Originally Posted by Buck

Somewhere in this thread I mentioned that I was reading The Name of the Wind.

Well I stopped reading about a third of the way through the book. Well I finally started reading it again and I read the middle third of the book today. I really like it and can't wait to finish it and see where this story is going.

You're welcome.

[Buck]

Well I should finish the book tomorrow night, and I'm getting to the point now that I'm not sure how big of a payoff there will be by the end of this story, but luckily there is a 2nd book already that I can pick up.

I know I'm probably wrong, but it seems like this book is "the college years" and that maybe the next one will be post-college?

[Buck]

Pretty sweet ending.

Can't wait to pick up book 2.

[keg in kc]

I just started reading Emperor of Thorns, third and I think final book in Mark Lawrence's 'Broken Empire'. I would recommend the series to anyone, first book is Prince of Thorns and second King of Thorns. Good mature fantasy.