SF reccomendations

[kerravonsen]

Since I went to all the trouble of compiling this list for someone on one of my mailing lists who was asking for reccommendations for Science Fiction for someone who was coming from Fantasy, I thought I might as well post it here. Apologies to those of you who've seen this already

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.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_finn_/]

Wow. You have your books in authorbetical order... I'm impressed =)

::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.

[kerravonsen]

Wow. You have your books in authorbetical order... I'm impressed =)

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.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_finn_/]

Ah, yes, I'd have to agree with you on his style. It does tend that way =) I didn't actually like The Damned series, but the Pip&Flinx series intrigued me, mostly for the characters.

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.

[kerravonsen]

Yeah, Spider Robinson is one that I've occassionally glanced at, but never read. I've also gathered that his earlier Callahan ones are better than the later ones.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_finn_/]

Definitely. Although stil interesting enough to read, the first ones had more of a sense of being there, and experiencing the 'trials and tribs' of all the characters. The later ones, while I can't precisely say were less believable, since they all cover weird and whacky subject matters seemed a bit too pat, perhaps.

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.