scifi book recommendations

[tangent23]

I thought a dedicated thread to sf would be a nice thing for us fans out here in never never land....

cyberpunk style:

William Gibson [neuromancer series],[idoru series], etc
Neal Stephenson: Snow Crash, Diamond age, Cryptonomicon
Richard Morgan: Altered Carbon
Pat Cadigan: Synners
Bruce Sterling: [Schismatrix series]

Hard Science:

Greg Egan: Permutation City, Diaspora, Axiomatic [shorts]
Greg Bear: Blood Music

Reality bending:

Philip K. Dick: Valis, A Scanner Darkly, Ubik

Epic:

Frank Herbert: [Dune series]
Dan Simmons: [Hyperion series]

Post Cyberpunk:

Jeff Noon: [Vurt series]


Humorous:

Jasper FForde: The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book
Douglas Adams: [Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series]

These are just some of my faves off the top of my head, i am constantly looking for more stuff, so post away!

[Liver_on_a_Stick]

You've probably read it but I really enjoyed Ender's Game (I can't recommend the sequels or the "shadow" series)

[tangent23]

cool, no, i haven't, only really heard it referenced on these boards.

Who is it by?

[Liver_on_a_Stick]

Orson Scott Card. Really, it's marketed as a childrens book. I have no doubt with your superior reading skillz, you can polish it off in a 2-3 days. It is a very interesting read.

[tangent23]

btw, does anyone have recommendations for a good sf book review site? The one i currently check in on every month or so is scifidimensions.com

[tangent23]

Originally posted by Liver_on_a_Stick
Orson Scott Card. Really, it's marketed as a childrens book

There's a series by Philip Pullman that's like that, starting with <Northern Lights> but i think in the US its called The Golden Compass, really good, a cross between sf and fantasy, eg explanations of multiple realities and Dark Matter. The other two books are , [The Subtle Knife], [The Amber Spyglass].

also, my technique is unorthodox

[captain beeheart]

I can back you up on Philip Pullman - it's kind of like the Narnia shit but rock fucking hard, with some deep philosophy and painfully real emotion. And the best bear in any book in history!

Pat Cadigan I just discovered... check out Tea From An Empty cup - really prophetic about people's addictions to online gaming.

For Douglas Adams, what you really want to get hold of is the Hitchhikers' Guide To The Galaxy radio series here (first series) and here (second series) - the story is quite different, and it beats the books hands down - the acting is brilliant and the sound effects and production values really take you into that mad world. For Adams' books, you really want to check out Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, which is even trippier than the Hitchhikers books, and better plotted.

[KING]

Perhaps not what you are looking for but if you have an interest in the genre you might find "future shock" by Alvin Toffler interesting.
Most sci fi writers owe him a lot of free beers.

[wonki wonki]

asimov

[Garlic]

Bruce Sterling and Jeff Noon are my all time favorite scifi writers, great list!

It's been a long time since I've read these authors, but you'd probably like the Foundation series by Issac Asimov or the Chung Kou series by David Wingrove.

The Belgariad series by David Eddings. Epic masterpiece.

[captain beeheart]

Originally posted by KING
Perhaps not what you are looking for but if you have an interest in the genre you might find "future shock" by Alvin Toffler interesting.
Most sci fi writers owe him a lot of free beers.

WORD. I wrote big piece for PURE magazine about the influence of Toffler and Sci Fi writers on electronic musicians... I'll see if I can dig out the text some time (I think it's on my broken computer sadly)

You should also check out http://www.afrofuturism.net/ and especially the work of Kodwo Eshun, whose 'More Brilliant Than The Sun' is a wicked roll through the funkiest and most futuristic music of the 20th & 21st century, and its relation to sci fi and technology.

[captain beeheart]

And sorry Garlic, but Jeff Noon is a piece of crap. 'Vurt' was pretty good, but it was down hill from then on... Pat Cadigan does what he THINKS he's doing but does it 100x better.

[Liver_on_a_Stick]

Originally posted by tangent23


There's a series by Philip Pullman that's like that, starting with <Northern Lights> but i think in the US its called The Golden Compass, really good, a cross between sf and fantasy, eg explanations of multiple realities and Dark Matter. The other two books are , [The Subtle Knife], [The Amber Spyglass].

also, my technique is unorthodox

I'll check that out. The kiddies at the library seem to like that series quite a bit. I check it out for them often. There's a guy who stops by the branch who loves SciFi. I'll pick his brain and get back to you.

[KING]

Originally posted by captain beeheart


WORD. I wrote big piece for PURE magazine about the influence of Toffler and Sci Fi writers on electronic musicians...

All those old detroit legends cant stop talking about him (mike banks etc). They often name "future shock" and "the third wave" when talking about what inspire their music.

Its funny that "future shock" actually was regarded as a very serious book when it first was released back in the 70s. I don't think thats comes to mind when reading it today. Its a good book but I'm still waiting for the day when we will wear practical clothes made out of paper.