Sci-Fi Recommendations - for the unenlightened

[GOLLUM]

Heh, are they recommendations for us unenlightened?
(I could make a bet that Socrates taught Aristotle... that they were NOT speaking or writing in English )

That's very true but I was referring to a translation of his text into English which used that word to describe what he was saying. Amittedly I stretched things a little with that call so I'll stick with Dickens and Austen.

So what SF can you recommend to one unelightended such as my self who tends to veer somewhat sharply towards the fantasy genre??...

 

[HieroGlyph]

So what SF can you recommend to one unelightended such as my self who tends to veer somewhat sharply towards the fantasy genre??...

Short answer? None, Im afraid. I know Im far less well read than yourself. I just pick up 'snippets' (like a crab combing the beach!) and remember what I can of what there is to know. Such as the fact that Socrates didnt teach Aristotle anything (even be it all Greek to us) since Plato was Socrates' student and Aristotle learnt from Plato. In other words: another trick question, since I was circumspect in thinking you were trying to trick us!

lol

I mean:
Dickens
(Some Greek)
Austin?

But I do wonder where Julian May's "Saga of the Exiles" fits in?
Sci-fi? Or fantasy? The "saga's" do lead to the "Millieu Trilogy"... ANd in all are May's magnum opus.

 

[murphy]

Must add C. J. Cherryh

Down Below Station
Cyteen
all the Chanur novels

In fact, anything she has written.

 

[Esioul]

Hmmm, I've tried some of CJ Cherryh's novels and disliked them, (not those mentioned above my murphy), but I reccommend 'The Faded Sun' trilogy.

 

[Brys]

Gollum, try and look out for some of the soft science fiction. There's some science fantasy which is pretty good, but not that much, and most of which you've probably already read. But authors like Philip K Dick, Daniel Keyes, Joe Haldeman, Ursula Le Guin etc tend to be popular amongst well read fantasy readers. Especially if you're looking for more character driven novels, very few can compete (even in fantasy) with the depth of characterisation shown by Daniel Keyes or PKD. They aren't as obviously similar to fantasy, but as they focus more on plot and character rather than on science, they work pretty well for fantasy fans IMO (I should know, considering I lean towards the fantasy side as well). And check out the Masterworks series as well - usually they make it pretty obvious whether its hard or soft science fiction.
In theory, the post-apocalyptic novels should probably appeal to you as they have a much closer setting to fantasy than most science fiction (eg A Canticle for Leibowitz, Earth Abides etc).

 

[Loki]

If you are looking for a fantastic character driven "soft SF" read, I just finished reading Imprint by Paul L. Bates. Very good stuff.

 

[GOLLUM]

Thanks for that update...

I'm familiar with Hard vs. Soft SF and as you guessed very much prefer the Soft SF series. Some of the authors that are constantly cited as good SF like PKD I've not read a single word of, so I think I shall expand my horizons a little on that front.

 

[orionsixwings]

GRANT NAYLOR'S

RED DWARF

Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers ​

 

[Robert M. Blevins]

'Dimensions' by Geoff Nelder

 

[hypocriticHarkonnen]

I've read the first books of the Dune series, can anyone tell me if the prequels are up to standards?

 

[Brys]

I haven't read them myself, but I've heard that the prequels are some of the worst science fiction novels ever written, and can't compare in any way to the originals. At least, this is what fans of Frank Herbert's original Dune series say. I'd advise you keep to the novels written by Frank Herbert himself, as the prequels are written more in the interest of making money than writing a decent book (whenever a novel/film etc turns into a franchise, the quality of the novels goes downhill very quickly - just look at most Star Wars novels, or Forgotten Realms novels).

 

[d4rkrav3n]

visit galactica.netfirms.com

 

[BookStop]

I'm only new to the genre of sci-fi, but my fav's are Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille by Steven Brust, and Electronic Echoes of the Mind by Wade Kimberlin. Oh, and I don't think anyone else has mentioned the superb book by Daniel Keys Moran, The Long Run.

 

[Carolyn Hill]

So what SF can you recommend to one unelightended such as my self who tends to veer somewhat sharply towards the fantasy genre??...

You might get a kick out of Pat Murphy's There and Back Again, which riffs on Tolkien--sort of The Hobbit in Outer Space. It's one of three books, all loosely connected, with recurring characters, but you don't need to read all three. (The first book is a take on Tarzan, with a woman protagonist and wolves in early California, and the third book is a SF mystery, where characters and pseudonyms from the previous books come alive on a modern-day cruise ship. The three-book set is something of a thought experiment combined with homage.)

Almost any of Sheri Tepper's novels spill pleasantly over into fantasy.

Michaela Roessner's Vanishing Point. (Roessner wrote the fantasy Walkabout Woman, which you may have read.)

Kage Baker's Sky Coyote

Mentioned before in this thread, but I'll point to them in response to your question:

Joan Slonczewski's A Door into Ocean

Joan D. Vinge's The Snow Queen

Not fantasylike, but the sort of soft-science fiction that others have mentioned and which I enjoy:

James Alan Gardner's Expendable series has characters one can care about deeply: people who are deformed or disfigured in some way, sent to explore new worlds because, if they die, no one will be discomfitted.

 

[Carolyn Hill]

Interesting. I’ve read most of the books mentioned by everyone so far in this thread, but there are thirteen authors’ names I’m unfamiliar with. (In the interest of full disclosure, those names are Asher, Boulle, Carsac, Cisco, MacLeod, Matheson, Rassel, Reynolds, Robson, Strutgatsky, Sullivan, Jeffrey Thomas, and Wright.)

A few of the authors named in this thread don’t fire my jets, but the vast majority of the authors and titles would appear on my own list of suggested reading. Here, I’ll try not to repeat titles mentioned by others, except for a few books that I truly love and the four books I’ve listed as essential reading.

The list below is organized into sections so that you can scan the bold-font headings for areas of personal interest. (OK, the headings are highly subjective, but what the heck.) The entire list is skewed toward soft rather than hard science fiction.

Four essentials
Frank Herbert, Dune
Ursula K. Le Guin, Left Hand of Darkness
Philip K. Dick, Man in the High Castle
Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles

Religion
Mary Doria Russell, The Sparrow
Robert Sawyer, Calculating God

Fantasy (SF with strong fantasy elements)
Pat Murphy, The City Not Long After
Michaela Roessner, Vanishing Point
Joan D. Vinge, The Snow Queen
Steven Gould, Helm

Tolkien
Pat Murphy, There and Back Again

World-building
Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Mars
John Varley, Steel Beach
Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky
Sheri Tepper, Grass

Philosophy
Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Gene Wolfe, The Fifth Head of Cerberus

Love and lust
Anne McCaffrey, Restoree
Catharine Asaro, the Skolian Empire books
S.L. Viehl, Stardoc
Karin Lowachee, Warchild
Tanith Lee, Silver Metal Lover
Lois McMaster Bujold, the Miles Vorkosigan books
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, the Liaden books
George Nader, Chrome

Plucky males coming of age
Charles Sheffield and Jerry Pournelle, Higher Education
Steven Gould, Jumper

Fans reviving a space program
John Varley, Red Thunder
Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Michael Flynn, Fallen Angels

Ecology
John Brunner, Stand on Zanzibar

Disabilities and mortality
Elizabeth Moon, The Speed of Dark
James Alan Gardner, Expendable
Connie Willis, Passages

Post-apocalyptic fiction
David Brin, The Postman
George R. Stewart, Earth Abides
Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower

African-American history
Octavia Butler, Kindred
Steven Barnes, Lion’s Blood

Native Americans
Kage Baker, Sky Coyote
Pamela Sargent, Climb the Wind

Humor and English history
Connie Willis, To Say Nothing of the Dog

Theater
John Varley, The Golden Globe

Experimental fiction
Samuel Delaney, Dhalgren

Quirky imagination
Cordwainer Smith, Norstrilia
Howard Waldrop, Howard Who? (collection)

Women with guns
Elizabeth Bear, Hammered

Aliens
Julie E. Czerneda, Thousand Words for Stranger and Survival
C.S. Friedman, The Madness Season
C.J. Cherryh, Cuckoo’s Egg
Octavia Butler, Dawn
Karen Traviss, City of Pearl

Shapeshifters
Julie E. Czerneda, Beholder’s Eye

Telepaths
Joan D. Vinge, Catspaw

Wolves
Wen Spencer, Alien Taste

Ambiguous gender punk
Emma Bull, Bone Dance

Feminism
Pamela Sargent, The Shore of Women
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

Torture
Elizabeth Lynn, The Sardonnyx Net
C.J. Cherryh, Cyteen

Distrubingly dark villains
M.J. Engh, Arslan

 

[GOLLUM]

You might get a kick out of Pat Murphy's There and Back Again, which riffs on Tolkien--sort of The Hobbit in Outer Space.
Almost any of Sheri Tepper's novels spill pleasantly over into fantasy.
Michaela Roessner's Vanishing Point. (Roessner wrote the fantasy Walkabout Woman, which you may have read.)
Kage Baker's Sky Coyote

Mentioned before in this thread, but I'll point to them in response to your question:

Joan Slonczewski's A Door into Ocean
Joan D. Vinge's The Snow Queen

Not fantasylike, but the sort of soft-science fiction that others have mentioned and which I enjoy:

James Alan Gardner's Expendable series has characters one can care about deeply: people who are deformed or disfigured in some way, sent to explore new worlds because, if they die, no one will be discomfitted.

Thanks for the heads up Brown Rat. I've read Snow Queen, Sky Coyote and most of Tepper's novels but the others I'm not familiar with, so looks like I've got some more reading to do....

 

[Parsimony]

Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian Series.

 

[sonofstan]

Kevin J Andeson's Saga of the seven suns or for a bit of lighter reading Simon R Green's Deathstalker series

 

[creslin_black]

Some of my favorite books include Dark As Day, The Mind Pool, The Spheres of Heaven, and the Heritage Universe by Charles Sheffield and Roma Eterna, The Alien Years by Robert Silverberg.

 

[zattere]

Hi all. I'd consider myself 'unenlightened'! Any particular recommendations for an experienced reader of literary fiction and crime but beginner with science fiction? I read Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow and couldn't put it down. Just started Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space which I'm kind of enjoying (only 60 pages in so far). Read Baxter/Clarke's Time's Eye and found it readable and interesting but boring, stylistically. I know a lot of names and titles (ex-bookseller) but not sure what I might like.