just finished off the ender's game series and currently about to finish off the third book in the ender's shadow series. great reads btw Heard some pretty good things about the Dune Series that I was looking into for my next reading targets. If anyone here is a big science fiction fan, would love some ideas on any particular reads that you've enjoyed. Could always use something to occupy the endless freetime that a summer without a summer job entails, lol thanks for any help -isoman2kx
Well, if you enjoyed the Orson Scott Card stuff, I would recommend the Earth series by him. I think it is 5 or 6 books long. Some intriguing and fresh ideas he kind of throws around in it too. But definitely read the Dune series at some point...and bring a dictionary.
I recommend Red Dwarf for good science fiction/comedy. You may have seen the tv show on BBC. Great series.
I liked Caverns of Socrates (by Dennis L. McKeirnan), which is Sci-Fi with a fantasy flavor. The Star Wars books are an easy and enjoyable read, and there are an awful lot of them (technically, because of the presence of the Force, Star Wars should be classified as fantasy, but it certainly has a Sci-Fi feel. The Pegasus series by Anne McCaffery is decent (does not actually involve Pegasus). There are good entries in the worlds of BattleTech and Shadowrun. Robert Aspirin's Phule series is funny Sci-Fi, though far inferior to his Myth series which is funny Fantasy. Be warned before taking any of these recommendations though, that I despised Ender's Game. D'oh I completely left out Michael Crichton. I loved Jurassic Park, the Lost World, and Timeline and have heard good things about Congo and Sphere. If you haven't read Jurassic Park, that should be next on your list.
I reread 2001 & 2010 in the past couple of years. Those are always fun and you get better insght on the great movie (and 2010).
i recommend the DUNE series (highly) C.S. Lewis' trilogy "Perelandra" "Out of the Silent Planet" "That Hideous Strength" Herman Hesse's "The Glass Bead Game" (is not science fiction but futurism) BTW... type in the Glass Bead Game on your search engine & you'll find hundereds of them going on........
I loved the Myth series. It was very enjoyable. I would recommend the Sword trilogy by Fred Sabarhagen. It is a 3 book set with 12 additional books based in the same story line but they are the stories of the 12 special swords introduced in the original 3 books.
Step into my office... "Dune" is awesome. However, after the 2nd book, the series goes downhill. Just a fair warning. Also, the "prequel" books written by Brian Herbert is merely fluff schlock with half the intelligence of his father's books. You ABSOLUTELY must read the "Hyperion" series (by Dan Simmons). Fantastic. Some of the best books ever written. Definitely check out "Snow Crash" (by Neal Stephenson). Crazy and inventive. If you like Card (Ender's Game), check out "The Memory of Earth" (which starts the "Homecoming" series). Decent reading (although Ender's Game is far, far superior). Also, if you haven't already, pick up some Asimov. The "Foundation" series is quite good and definitely worth your time. Of course, the "Robot" series is a good read as well. As StupidMoniker pointed out, Chricton is pretty good. Go read "Sphere." Yes, the movie sucked ass, but the book is great. (That suggestion goes for you, too, StupidMoniker...)
Dune is a good series, but it's really, really long. It will likely take you several months to get through them all. The prequel books by Brian Herbert are lighter, but they are still very fun reads. I enjoyed them a lot, and they are a nice change of pace from the regular Dune books, which can get tedious after a while. The original Dune is a masterpiece, though, and should be read ASAP. Eon by Greg Bear is another good Sci-Fi book.
How has this thread gotten this long without somebody mentioning Philip K. Dick? I really don't read much science fiction, but I read Dick (unfortunate pun not intended ). My favorites are A Scanner Darkly and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, which was made into the movie Blade Runner.
Nobody has mentioned Isaac Asimov, the Robot and Foundation Series are really good. Easy to read and interesting. The weirdest thing about it is, very little action occurs in the 2 series together, but it keeps you enthralled. Read the Robot series first then the Foundation next. Don't read the Foundation books written by non-Asimov authors, they are tedious and kind of boring.
Give cyberpunk a try (if you havent already) ... this is the one that defined the genre ... http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/books/neuromancer.asp
Boooooooooooo Cyberpunk! Dune is definitely on the essential list. Don't bother with the sequels unless you want to have the mistique ruined. (like the Star-Wars prequels... it ruins everything) Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny! Excellent series, and a quick read, but just awesome. He has two five books series, I'd skip the second half unless you just can't get enough. If you want to sell your soul (and the next few months of your life) to mainstream fantasy and unfinished sideplots, read the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. Begins as the most promising series since Tolkien, and well... kind of sucks now. I'll leave it at that.
And if you want mainstream epic fantasy that doesn't kind of suck yet, then get George RR Martin's Song of Fire and Ice Series. "A Game of Thrones" is the first in the series. They're fantastic.
Larry Nivin's Ringworld trilogy is old school "hard science" science science fiction. The books are Ringworld Ringworld Engineers and Ringworld Throne Nivin's book Protector adds additonal background for the second & third books. also, Greg Bear wrote two books Eon and The Forge of God, which along with Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama do a good job of depecting very alien environments & situations.
you should watch sci fi channel best place for movies like that. the flintstones is a good one they show
If you want something a bit more modern, Snow Crash (a much better book cyberpunk book than any by the more famous authors) The Diamond Age (a very intresting utopian/distopian future) are tremendous. His other books are great as well, but deal with subjects like criptography and environmentalism, so don't quite qualify as SF, but are great reads.
