SF reccomendations
Sep. 16th, 2004 08:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kerravonsen
My first response would be to ask you what kind of things you like in novels in general... but you might not be able to pin that down, so I'll just ramble on about a number of my favourites and hopefully give a good enough description that you'd be able to figure out whether you'd enjoy it or not. Mind you, since I like the whole gamut, from Tolkien to Asimov, I'll probably end up only elimiating the "Tolkien" end of the spectrum from my list...
(alphabetically through my bookshelf...)
Douglas Adams: SF humour
You have to be in the right mood for Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy" series. Cynical, witty and absurd.
Isaac Asimov: hard SF
Invented the word "robotics". If you like mysteries and conundrums, you might want to dip into some of his robot (short) stories, especially the ones featuring Susan Calvin. I haven't seen the movie "I,Robot" but from what I saw of the shorts, it resembles Asimov's works the way that a pair of glasses resembles Groucho Marx.
Alfred Bester
If you liked Dumas's "The Count of Monte Cristo" then go read "The Stars My Destination".
Gillian Bradshaw
She actually mainly writes historical novels, but she wrote a lovely SF novel "Dangerous Notes" which is set in the near future in England, with a female protagonist; good character stuff.
David Brin
"The Postman" is a post-apocalyptic novel, if you like grim with hopeful ending. His "Uplift" novels are set in a future where there's lots of aliens and humanity's position is precarious. Might be a bit hard to get into. "The Practice Effect" is completely unlike his other novels, it's a romp! Based on the "what if": what if practice really did make perfect?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Her Vorkosigan series is fun! I suppose you'd call it military SF, it's set in a far future where humans have colonized the stars, but the chief attraction is the characters, and the blend of humour, cleverness, chuzpah and rather difficult situations.
Orson Scott Card
This guy is good at angst and protagonists who are extraordinarily bright, or extraordinary in other ways.
Arthur C. Clarke
"A Fall of Moondust" is a thriller in the same vein as the airport movies and things like that: a bunch of people trapped together in a small space who need rescuing. Only this is set on the Moon.
Samuel R. Delany
I adore "Babel 17" for its language, and its thoughts about language.
Silvia Engdahl
"Enchantress From The Stars" & "Far Side of Evil" is a duology, about Elana, who is an anthropologist (yes, really) from a very advanced galactic civilization where psi powers are the norm. Good, thoughtful characterisation. You might find this classified under "young adult". She also wrote a trilogy, "Children of the Star" which is also good.
Eric Flint
"1632" and "1633" -- a sort of alternate-history thing, where a US town gets zapped back to 1632 in Europe, and we see what happens from there.
James Alan Gardner
Wrote a series, starting with "Expendable", about a galactic civilization where humans are among many species, and by no means the most advanced. The twist here is that, a while back, someone in the brass decided that, since morale went down when people died, and that space exploration (that is, actually landing on alien planets) was very dangerous, that the Explorer Corps should be populated only by people who were physically unattractive. The format is basically action-adventure/thriller (with lots of wierd flora and fauna), and, unfortunately, after the first novel it turns a bit Mary-Sue-ish with the recurring character. But it's still interesting stuff.
Robert Heinlein
Wild mixture. Some of his stuff is totally wierd and unreadable, while others are quite cool, especially his "young adult" stuff. My favourites are "Citizen of the Galaxy" and "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" (though that one might be too wierd for a newbie).
Zenna Henderson
Lovely, lovely stories, especially her "People" stories, about a race of psi-gifted aliens (who look human) who crashed on Earth in the early part of the 20th century after their planet blew up. Very gentle, hopeful stories.
Tanith Lee
She wrote some SF as well as Fantasy. "Biting the Sun" is about a utopia where the protagonist finds her pampered life meaningless. "The Silver Metal Lover" is about a girl who falls in love with a robot -- but this being Tanith Lee, it transcends that trite description.
Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
The Liaden universe novels have been described as "a cross between Georgette Heyer, James Bond, and Star Wars" -- though this description best fits the "Agent of Change" sequence, which starts with "Agent of Change", but there are other novels which are set earlier than that.
Ursula LeGuin
Very literary, which may or may not appeal.
Barry B. Longyear & David Gerrold wrote a novel "Enemy Mine" based on the screenplay of the movie based on the story by Barry Longyear. It's basically a war story of enemies becoming friends because they have to rely on each other to survive.
Anne McCaffrey
Very readable, for the most part. Famous for her "Dragonriders of Pern" series, which I tend to label Science-Fantasy because, while it's set on an alien planet, you also have a feudal culture and telepathic dragons. The first six books are the best, after that forget it. I also liked the first two books of her "Crystal Singer" trilogy, set in a galactic civilization. Oh, and how could I forget "The Ship Who Sang"! Though my favourite in that series is "The Ship Who Searched", co-written with Mercedes Lackey.
Elizabeth Moon
Tends to write action-adventure with female soldier protagonists, whether she's writing Fantasy or SF. "Trading in Danger" is a slight departure from that, because the protagonist is a female trader (a member of a famous space-trading family). I like trading books better than military books as a rule, because the protagonist has to get out of trouble by using their wits.
Sally Odgers
Australian young adult and childrens writer, so her stuff may be hard to find anyway. But she's written a couple of good SF novels, very character-focused. "Aurora" is about a girl who's ... different "Trinity Street" is a time-travel novel with a twist.
Cordwainer Smith
If you love words, and love exotic picturesque places, then this guy is for you.
Neal Stephenson
"The Diamond Age" is the only one of his I've read. Cyberpunk, probably would be a bit overwhelming for a newbie.
S.M. Stirling
"Island in the Sea of Time" is another US town gets zapped back in time, though this one stays in the same place, but goes much further back. I actually liked the characters better in "1632".
Kathy Tyers
"Firebird" trilogy. Set in a galaxy far far away (or perhaps a parallel universe or something). The heroine is a high-ranking aristocrat (well, basically a Princess) in what turns out to be an oppressive space-going society, and she has to come to terms with the possibility that what she was brought up to believe may be wrong... And a nice romance in it too...
Joan D. Vinge
She is an angst queen, now that I think about it: her characters get put through the wringer, but the story always ends hopefully, if not happily. Her best novel is "The Snow Queen", but you might not feel like something that long.
Vernor Vinge
More hard-SF than his ex-wife. I like her stuff better.
David Weber
His "Honor Harrington" novels are what I read when I can't get Lois McMaster Bujold. Military SF with a female protagonist.
Connie Willis
Wild mixture, some of her stuff I really enjoyed, others I couldn't be bothered with. Tends to have appealing characters that aren't cliches, and the stories tend to be rather quirky. My favourites are "To Say Nothing Of The Dog" and "Bellwether".
Connie Willis & Cynthia Felice
A good collaboration. "Light Raid" is near future thriller. "Water Witch" is actually SF despite the title. And there's a third one whose title I forget.
Roger Zelazny
He actually wrote one or two SF novels, but I wouldn't reccommend him to newbies because the openings of his novels tend to be like being dropped blindfolded in a strange city without a map.
Of course I didn't actually put all the SF on my shelves in this list, just a large subset.
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no subject
Date: 2004-09-15 03:44 pm (UTC)I'm glad you posted it; I see one or two things that I'll have to put on my library list. I've always meant to read "The Stars My Destination", but I keep forgetting. And the Silvia Engdahl & Gillian Bradshaw sound interesting.
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Date: 2004-09-15 06:52 pm (UTC)I think the best two novels by Alfred Bester are "The Stars My Destination" (aka Tiger! Tiger!) and "The Demolished Man" -- good reading whether you're a Babylon 5 fan or not. I'd actually read them before B5 came out, but it's obvious that jms took some of his inspiration from them.
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Date: 2004-09-15 04:21 pm (UTC)I loved Gillian Bradshaw's 'Beacon at Alexandria', and I've just finished an SF novel of hers I found while looking for 'Dangerous Notes' at the library. It's called 'The Wrong Reflection' and though quite slow-moving is involving and fascinating.
David Brin's 'Uplift' series is a favourite, and I love his 'Glory Season', written from the POV of a teenaged girl on a world where cloned women are the rule.
Orson Scott Card did well with the Ender series, but his attempt at doing a take the Old Testament bored me silly very early on, and I couldn't handle his fantasy. It was far too occult for me. He wrote a fascinating book with a woman though about a sentient monkey on a colony ship. I wish I could find the sequel it needs.
Zenna Henderson! Oh, I loved those stories as a teenager and I'd forgotten who wrote them. They absolutely entranced me. Must look for her.
And Cordwainer Smith! I recently bought his entire works from Amazon. I don't often do that; I read too much to own everything I like. His stuff is amazing and utterly unique.
Thanks very much for this. You've given me some good names to search for in the library. Browsing is becoming an increasingly hard way to find something I like.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-15 04:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-15 07:14 pm (UTC)'Cryptonomicon' has prequels?
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Date: 2004-09-15 09:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-15 07:12 pm (UTC)I actually found "The Wrong Reflection" less than engaging, a sort of odd-one-out in her stuff.
Orson Scott Card... and I couldn't handle his fantasy. It was far too occult for me.
Me too, actually.
He wrote a fascinating book with a woman though about a sentient monkey on a colony ship.
Title?
Zenna Henderson... Must look for her
I believe that NESFA press has brought out a complete works or something like that. Hardback, though.
And Cordwainer Smith! I recently bought his entire works from Amazon. I don't often do that; I read too much to own everything I like. His stuff is amazing and utterly unique.
Oh yeah. I've seen one or two people compared with him (such as Terry Dowling) but they are but faded reflections...
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Date: 2004-09-15 09:36 pm (UTC)So did I at first, but it grew on me. I liked the characters.
Title?
I'd completely forgotten it so I had to look it up in the library system 'Lovelock'.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-15 05:39 pm (UTC)::looks up at his ramble of a bookshelf::
Best I can do is group them a bit by series =P
Oh, and Heinelein? "Time Enough for Love"
Anne McCaffery's "Freedom" series isn't too bad either
And you should also read Alan Dean Foster. His scifi books are very immersive and fun.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-15 07:26 pm (UTC)Well, I couldn't find 'em otherwise. Too many of 'em. Two 6x3 bookcases, three 3x3 bookcases, and that's just the novels. The fanfic, graphic novels and non-fiction have various mixed shelves in a couple of other bookcases.
Oh, and Heinelein? "Time Enough for Love"
I'd class that in the "too wierd/crappy" basket, actually.
Anne McCaffery's "Freedom" series isn't too bad either
"Freedom's Landing" and all that? Didn't appeal to me. I can't remember what put me off, I just vaguely remember that something put a bad taste in my mouth reading the first book, and didn't finish it.
And you should also read Alan Dean Foster. His scifi books are very immersive and fun.
Immersive? Alas, no. He has lots of nifty ideas, but I find his writing style to be very plodding. See my book reviews page for further details.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-15 08:54 pm (UTC)For amusing scifi, there's always Spider Robinson. He has a very very narrative style, but it suits his plotlines and ideas. The Callahan series being a prime example, but he's written a few other good standalones.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-15 11:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-15 11:53 pm (UTC)Although, one thing, the earlier ones were set more in the theme of short stories, while chronologically apparant, weren't one big story like the latest ones have been. I assume this change came about since he was writing for a novel rather than as a magazine entry. I still prefer the smaller short story format of his writings.
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Date: 2004-09-15 07:29 pm (UTC)I'm kinda working on "Demolished Man" right now, but am having a hard time getting into it. "Stars My Destination" OTOH was excellent. No problems there.
Connie Willis is one of my favorites. "Bellwether" is one of the two books on my infinite-reread list. It lives on my bedside bookshelf, to grab and reread whenever I'm just not in the mood for any of the other six or seven hundred books I have in progress :)
The other one is "Mockingbird" by Sean Stewart. I've not read anything else in his corpus, alas. If you haven't already, I do rec "Mockingbird." It's an urban semi-fantasy/fairy tale. There's slight magic and gods. Nothing more extreme than that.
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Date: 2004-09-15 08:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-15 09:08 pm (UTC)I've read it twice now, and am using it as one of the two novels in my Lit class. The students will start reading it in about 4 weeks. First we're covering Poe, Bierce, and Lovecraft.
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Date: 2004-09-16 03:18 pm (UTC)Hmmm. My experience of the "urban fantasy" genre has varied wildly. I really liked Emma Bull's "War for the Oaks", with a nice blend of ordinary folks and the Otherness of Faery. Unfortunately, Gael Baudino, while similar, spends too much time slanging off against Christianity for me to enjoy any of her works. And the "SERRAted Edge" stories by a bunch of authors including Mercedes Lackey, are just... flat. (IMHO, Mercedes Lackey, adored as she is by teenagers, for me, manages to drain all the "sense of wonder" out of magic...)
So, can you tell me more, so I can figure whether I'd like it or not?
no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 03:58 pm (UTC)Here's the blurb from inside the cover:
"There are some gifts which cannot be refused."
These were the words Elena Beauchamp had chosen for her epitaph. Words that were part cryptic message, part magical prank. Words that would prove to hold an inescapable power...
Toni Beauchamp never liked her mother's world of magic and visions and six strange gods that took over her body at will. So when her mother died, Toni and her sister Candy thought it meant a new beginning, a life free of magic. But Elena Beauchamp had one last give for her daughter--a sip from the Mockingbird Cordial. And from the moment Toni held the drink to her lips, her life would never be the same...
Like the sweet mimicking cry of a mockingbird, Elena's magic would live on--forever echoing through her daughter's life...
(all typos are mine)
And the opening paragraph:
"When you get down to the bottom of the bottle, as Momma used to say, this is the story of how I became a mother. I want that clear from the start. Now, it's true that mine was not a typical pregnancy. There was some magic mixed up in there, and a few million dollars in oil-field speculation, and some people who died, and some others who wouldn't stay quite dead. It would be lying to pretend there wasn't prophecy involved, and an exorcism, and a hurricane, and I scorn to lie. But if every story is a journey, then this is about the longest trip I ever took, from being a daughter to having one."
The magic is pretty low-key in the book. It's not background, as it's pretty cental to the plot, but it's not grandiose Faerie world, Mercedes Lackey magic. In fact, there's nothing Lackey about this book. (Another author who I liked as a teenager, but no longer.) There's no Christian bashing.
It's set in Texas. Houston, IIRC. Our world. Modern day.
Is this enough info, or do you want more? :)
Adding to one rec:
Date: 2004-09-16 01:44 pm (UTC)Very literary, which may or may not appeal.
Yes, she is, but that shouldn't stop anyone from reading her stuff; she's also just a good storyteller and really good at the essence of sci-fi writing: asking "what if?"
I would probably recommend "The Lathe of Heaven" for a first-timer. It's fairly short, mind-bending, and not a hard read. "The Left Hand of Darkness" is also a favorite of mine, though it's slower-paced.
Re: Adding to one rec:
Date: 2004-09-16 02:56 pm (UTC)Of her others, I'd also agree with "The Left Hand of Darkness", but if you want something shorter, "Rocannon's World" and "Planet of Exile" are good shorter reads. Though I think my favourite character would have to be the hero in "City of Illusions". That one also has a vague connection with "Planet of Exile", though set hundred(s) of years later.