test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Your favourite sci-fi/fantasy novels?
ambassadormolari
Member Posts: 709 Arc User
Hey all, I started this thread because (1) I thought it would be interesting to share our literary preferences, and (2) I'm always looking for new things to read. So, as the question above asks, what are some of your favourite sci-fi and fantay novels/novel series?
My faves include:
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville-- Really well-written steampunk/fantasy, with plentiful dashes of the gritty and the absurd.
A Song of Ice And Fire series by George R.R. Martin- I'll admit, I was introduced to the series by Game of Thrones, but that little introduction was enough to leave me hooked. It's a great fantasy setting where there are no heroes, where magic is rare and scary, and no one lives happily ever after.
Discworld series by Terry Pratchett-- I'll admit, Pratchett can't write endings well. Otherwise, though, it's hard not to like Discworld: Pratchett's narrative is almost always enticing and, more often than not, hilarious.
My faves include:
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville-- Really well-written steampunk/fantasy, with plentiful dashes of the gritty and the absurd.
A Song of Ice And Fire series by George R.R. Martin- I'll admit, I was introduced to the series by Game of Thrones, but that little introduction was enough to leave me hooked. It's a great fantasy setting where there are no heroes, where magic is rare and scary, and no one lives happily ever after.
Discworld series by Terry Pratchett-- I'll admit, Pratchett can't write endings well. Otherwise, though, it's hard not to like Discworld: Pratchett's narrative is almost always enticing and, more often than not, hilarious.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Post edited by ambassadormolari on
0
Comments
Anything and everything by Brandon Sanderson, but especially Mistborn: The Final Empire, The Way of Kings, and Steelheart.
Anything and everything by John Scalzi, but especially Redshirts and The Android's Dream.
The Wheel of Time series.
That's my list.
The Rama series by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee.
The Foundation novels by Isaac Asimov
Fantasy:
Wheel of Time
Sword of Truth series
Songs of Fire and Ice
Anything by R.A. Salvator
I recommend:
The Time Machine.
The War Of The Worlds.
The War in the Air. (The beginning is slow but it gets better later on).
The Island of Dr. Moroue.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
I also enjoyed the Last Legionary Series when I was younger :cool:
"Shakespeare's Planet" - Clifford D. Simak
"Battlefield Earth" - L. Ron Hubbard
"I, Robot" - Isaac Asimov
That's enough to keep you busy for a little while.
Hitchhikers Guide series (even 'And Another Thing').
Norway and Yeager dammit... I still want my Typhoon and Jupiter though.
JJ Trek The Kelvin Timeline is just Trek and it's fully canon... get over it. But I still prefer TAR.
#TASforSTO
'...I can tell you that we're not in the military and that we intend no harm to the whales.' Kirk: The Voyage Home
'Starfleet is not a military organisation. Its purpose is exploration.' Picard: Peak Performance
'This is clearly a military operation. Is that what we are now? Because I thought we were explorers!' Scotty: Into Darkness
'...The Federation. Starfleet. We're not a military agency.' Scotty: Beyond
'I'm not a soldier anymore. I'm an engineer.' Miles O'Brien: Empok Nor
'...Starfleet could use you... It's a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada...' Admiral Pike: Star Trek
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
Larry Niven, before the wheels fell off (sometime late in the Draco Tavern stories, as best I can tell - definitely between Ringworld Engineers and The Ringworld Throne, anyway). This includes his earlier collaborations with Jerry Pournelle (The Mote In God's Eye, Lucifer's Hammer, and even Footfall when I'm being generous), but not The Gripping Hand - the ending feels too contrived.
Spider Robinson, with the exception of his Heinlein pastiche Night of Power - he was still in mourning over the old man, and it showed. And of course there was a time after Jeanne died, when he wasn't producing anything of note. Very Bad Deaths, however - wow!
Oh, speaking of Heinlein, Heinlein. You have to account sometimes for societal norms when he was writing, and the state of scientific knowledge (for much of his career, the ancient Martians still seemed plausible, for instance). Also, the last two novels, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls and To Sail Beyond the Sunset, kind of suffer from preachiness syndrome - he knew he was dying, and was desperate to make his points again before going. (The postmortem collaboration with Spider, Variable Star, is just about up to the old standards, however.)
Dune trilogy.
Battlefield Earth, books a hell of a lot better than the joke of a film.
Deep Domain by Harve bennett, the original script to st4 before it was changed to voyage home and the tie in to the prob's of whaling in the 80's.
Anything from terry pratchetts discworld series ( only cause i love death/ the luggage/ and cohen the barbarian.
).
Ursula le Guin - The Dispossessed is probably her best (and most lauded) SF novel, but The Left Hand of Darkness is the one I actually like the most.
If you read H.G. Wells (and I do, in quantity), you may also be interested in his contemporary Olaf Stapledon. The textbook-dry style might not be to everyone's tastes, but books such as Last and First Men and Star Maker opened my eyes to some truly cosmic concepts at a comparatively tender age.
I can see one book by Polish master Stanislaw Lem, so let's throw him in the list. (The one I can see, Fiasco, is nowhere near his best. Try Solaris or His Master's Voice, or if in a lighter mood, The Cyberiad or The Star Diaries.)
Can see a Jack Vance... cannot think of a time when I've picked up a Jack Vance book and been seriously disappointed.
Can also see an omnibus of James White's "Sector General" hospital-in-space stories. Those are well worth a look.
And down just on the fringe of my vision is a pile of Lois McMaster Bujold's "Vorkosigan" books... these never fail to entertain, at least.
Can also see some that have already been recommended, so I'll stop now.
About your comment on Trek books. Agreed Mack is king, Man if he could have written the story for this game. I has seen several of his character's appear in this game. Namely D'Tan and a few others. Also the Vesta Class starship is his as is the Luna class. Just think how great this game would have been if it would have been based on the Destiny storyline. Or if Nemiisis would have never happened and they made the Destiny books into the last 3 movies. It would have saved the franchise and probibly spawned a new TV show based on the USSTitan
If we're going to include books tying in to existing franchises, then....
Star Wars:
The "Thrawn" trilogy by Timothy Zahn- As has already been mentioned by a previous poster, Timothy Zahn is a really good writer, and his Star Wars books demonstrate that quite well (my only gripe, though, is that he can't write space battles very well). Aside from the fact that Thrawn himself is one of the most intriguing characters in the Star Wars universe, this trilogy was also interesting for showing things from the Imperial perspective.
Star Trek:
New Frontier series by Peter David- I'll admit, I haven't read much of New Frontier, but what little I've read of it, I like. The crew of the Excalibur is wonderfully rag-tag and eclectic, and Mackenzie Calhoun is a wonderful departure from the more straight-laced captains like Picard and Sisko.
Other honourable mentions: Rogue Saucer by John Vornholt, A Stitch in Time by Andrew Robinson.
Warhammer 40:000:
Gaunt's Ghosts series by Dan Abnett- while I realize that WH40k isn't everyone's cup of tea, I must say that they have quite a few good writers on staff. Dan Abnett, in particular, is really good at writing battle scenes and creating likeable characters, and I'd have to say that the Gaunt's Ghosts series is some of the best military sci-fi I've read.
Other honourable mentions: the Horus Heresy series by various authors, Priests of Mars by Graham McNeill.
I also forgot Diane Duane, who is just a really good writer all around. I think her best Trek work was the Rihannsu novels; I found The Wounded Sky a bit over the top. In non-Trek work, the Wizard series is commendable - I know it's stuck in the Young Adult ghetto, but it's worth a read anyway.
I know I'm forgetting things here...
Anything at all by Robert A. Heinlein. Highly recommend anything with his name on it. Most people know about Starship Troopers from the films, but the novel was very different. Not surprised Hollywood would dumb the book down into a sci fi shoot 'em up with a little T&A thrown in.
Lester Del Ray is another overlooked author. His books are long out of print but a Google search should give a listing of this prolific and excellent writer. Right off the top of my head I cannot name anything he wrote because it has been years since I read his stuff.
Anything in the Honor Harrington series by David Weber.
Keith Laumer. For both the Retief series and the BOLO stories. David Drake has done a fine job of carrying on with the BOLOs.
Last but not least E.E. 'Doc' Smith. The Lensman series is pure space opera and a really fun rollercoaster of a read. The Skylark of Space ain't too bad either.
Ender's Game
God Emperor of Dune
Seventh Son
Dragons of Autum Twilight, Winter Night, and Spring Dawning
Dragonlance Twins Trilogy
Star Wars Heirs of the Empire Trilogy
Mobile Suit Gundam (Novelization)
Star Wars Legacy Graphic Novels.
1. The Narnia series
2. Dune (I still think this would make a great MMO)
3. The Elfstones of Shannara & The Elf Queen of Shannara. I think these were the best of the early Shannara books. Both were stories with more emotional impact, IMHO, than the other books.
4. A Wizard of Earthsea
5. In Trek it would have to be The Final Reflection and anything by Diane Duane, especially My Enemy, My Ally
This is not counting my likes from all those considered classics in scifi/fantasy: The Odyssey, Beowulf, The Faerie Queene, Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, The First Men In The Moon, A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court
Yes. She also wrote Pegasus in Space which was pretty interesting.
David Drake? You mean David Weber?
He also worked on the Starfire series with Steve White: Crusade, In Death Ground, The Shiva Option, Insurrection, etc.
Terry Brooks.
Some other stuff from my youth:
Charles Sheffield: Tomorrow and Tomorrow, The Web Between the Worlds, The Spheres of Heaven, Transvergence
Elizabeth Moon: Change of Command, Phases, Once a Hero
Stephen Baxter: Titan
Susan R. Matthews: Colony Fleet
Jeffery D. Kooistra: Dykstra's War
Chris Atack: Project Maldon
Frederik Pohl: Mining the Oort
The library from my high school modernized and added an online index a couple years ago and I had fun rummaging through it and writing down the titles of books I read back when I was in school.
I'm trying to track down a book whose title and author I cannot remember based on fragments of story that I remember and it's driving me nuts. The cover of the book may have had a half-cybernetic anthropomorphic cat person vaulting a wall, or that might be a second novel whose title and author I also cannot remember.. It was almost like a series of short stories, or involved jumping forward a few decades or a few hundred years a few times during its story. Rigelians used to be the galaxy's most powerful race that enslaved all other races with mind probes until they were overthrown and wiped out. Some poor sod finds one buried in a stasis pod and wakes it up. The thing unleashes a pure E=MC^2 direct matter to energy conversion weapon on a valley that obliterates the whole place in a fraction of a second.
And then there's another fragment I remember where a woman involved in a mountain defense finds a small piece of alien alloy and does a crude field test on it by firing at it with her gauss rifle at maximum setting without so much as scratching it. Some kid wants to play with the platinum slag from the bullet impact but it's razor sharp so she crumples it with her boot.
Not much to go on which is why the search drives me crazy.
Joined January 2009
Far superior to the movies in every conceivable way.
The Dresden Files books by Jim Butcher. You might consider them contemporary fantasy, but I can't say enough good things about them. And the writing makes it clear that he's one of us, too.
Fantasy-wise, the series i go back to most would be Jacqueline Carey's "Kushiel's Legacy" novels. I guess family and politics are rather significant in these as well.
IKS Korrasami (Fleet B'rel Bird of Prey Retrofit T5-U)
My character Tsin'xing
Dragonriders of Pern Trilogy - Anne McCathy
The Thrawn Trilogy (Star Wars) - Timothy Zahn
The Belgariad - David Eddings
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series - Steven R. Donaldson
The Dark Elf Trilogy - R.A. Salvatore
Split Infinity - Piers Anthony
I never read any Star Trek novels... fear of excessive techno babble...
Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Lost Fleet - Jack Campbell
The 'Culture' novels - Iain M. Banks
The Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson
'Wool' Trilogy - Hugh Howey
The 'Horus Heresy' series - various
'Odd Thomas' series - Dean Koontz
'Discworld' series - Terry Pratchett
Humanity's Fire - Michael Cobley
Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Mistborn series - Brandon Sanderson
The Kingkiller Chronicles - Patrick Rothfuss
The depiction of Death, the creative use of text formatting, the comical nature of Pratchett contrasting the serious topics brought up, the progression of Mort...
BEAUTIFUL
I know, its horror, in a fantasy/sci-fi setting, but those last lines will forever have be in my heart as Robert Neville comes to the horrible realization and thinks those immortal words. You really do not understand revolution and sacrifice until you have read this book. And no gosh darn sparkly vamps here!
LTS, here since...when did this game launch again?
Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius by Jorge Luis Borges; a strange and well-executed concept.
Witch World series, Andre Norton; fantasy from the golden era of that kind of material, prolific and fun.
The Culture novels by Iain M. Banks; hedonistic utopian humanity in a future dominated by social engineering.
Uplift series by David Brin; what happens in a galaxy in which humanity is a very small species and very technologically backward?
War Against the Chtorr series by David Gerrold; alien invasion by environmental proxy. Earth is being alien-formed by more aggressive life-forms seeded by unknown hostiles.
And many, many more!