Where do I start? There are so many!

[chris@backyard.8m.ne]

Hi everyone!

First post, so I just thought I would say Hi.

I have started to get back into reading some of my sci-fi books and need some help, advice.

Being quite a slow reader, I can only finish a 350 page book in a week but love reading stuff by Jack McDevitt.

Just now I'm reading "Saucer" by Stephen Coonts and really enjoying it, but what else could I read? There are just so many books and I really love the ones about Space and discovery (being an armature astronomer helps, hehehe).

Any way my all time favorite book is "Decipher" by Stel Pavlou.

So any recommendations? Been on the net searching but just don't really know what authors I should try.

Anyone else like these ones?

 

[Quokka]

I'm not really familiar with the authors you've mentioned but it seems you like a good chunk of science with your fiction?

If you haven't read anything by Arthur C Clarke then that's not a bad place to start. Childhoods End and Rendezvous with Rama are both very good, plus Clarke's works tend to be shorter than alot of the more recent SF.

For more current writers, I've only read a little of Ben Bova but his series called The Grand Tour looks interesting. Each book is titled after the planet or moon where the story is based ie Mercury, Titan, Jupiter etc

I have read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy and thoroughly enjoyed it. If you like books heavy on the science then Greg Bear and Gregory Benford might also be worth looking into. Gregory Benford can be a bit hit and miss with people, he seems to be alot stronger with the science then the characters but I enjoyed Timescape and Cosm.

One last mention has to go to the SF Masterworks collection which has a great mix of very good SF.

... and welcome to Chronicles

 

[Addy]

If you're into hard SF, don't forget Stephen Baxter. Sir Arthur C. Clarke, of course, is mandatory.

 

[gully_foyle]

Looking up your favourite authors makes me think you like a bit of contemporary humanity meets aliens mix. Makes me think of Carl Sagan's Contact and Arthur C Clarke's Childhood's End and Rendezvous with Rama, the latter I think being superior. You could also try Frederik Pohl's Gateway, which I really enjoyed. And if you are an amateur astronomer, then I highly recommend The Black Cloud, by the late great Fred Hoyle. Only a short read, and a bit twee, but a fun read.

Welcome to the Chronics.

 

[chris@backyard.8m.ne]

Thanks for all the replies, that helps a lot!

Cheers

 

[Riselka]

I just finished reading "Decipher" by Stel Pavlou a week or so ago, and really enjoyed it. It was a long but satisfying read. Pretty heavy duty in spots - not exactly "light" summer reading.

If you like "Decipher", then I think you'd like Frank Schatzing's "The Swarm". It's - cross my fingers - going to be made into a motion picture.

 

[Connavar]

Old School: Heinlien(Starship Troopers),Asimov(Foundation),Clarke(Childhood's End),Philip K Dick(Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?),Fredrick Pohl(Man Plus,Gateway)



New school: Richard Morgan(Altered Corbon) This one is cyberpunk noir but the old school books i recommened are about space and discovery minus the Philip K Dick one of course.

 

[Pyan]

Have you worked your way through this yet, Chris?
Welcome, by the way - if you go over to the Introductions thread, and let us know a bit about you, you'll be amazed at the suggestions and welcome you'll get......

 

[chris@backyard.8m.ne]

Have you worked your way through this yet, Chris?
Welcome, by the way - if you go over to the Introductions thread, and let us know a bit about you, you'll be amazed at the suggestions and welcome you'll get......

Yup that was the first thread i looked at, there are just so many, i didnt know where to start.



Just finished Saucer btw, it was excellent