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don't forget Norstrilia http://www.amazon.com/Norstrilia-Cordwainer-Smith/dp/0915368617/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233709564&sr=8-2
also see http://www.cordwainer-smith.com/
IMHO some of the best ... ..-. stories ever written

What you say when you drop something heavy on your foot is mostly determined by your upbringing. I'm a militant agnostic and still say "God DAMMIT!" in situations like that.

If I'm more in control, I can sometimes redirect to "What in the name of the six healthy sheep is going on?"

You could just link to CS's daughter's website about him. She sells the book (and much more, too) there.

http://www.cordwainer-smith.com/

Sprinkled right through Cordwainer Smith's short stories written in the 1960s are altered animals and bio-computers. In particular one of his stories (I wish I could remember which one - "Think Blue, Count Two"?) mentions a computer made of "laminated mouse brain". Few things seem to happen today that weren't anticipated earlier by at least one sci-fi writer...

That was reworked in several versions. I read it as Norstrilia. See cordwainer-smith.com, a site by his daughter, which has a comprehensive bibliography.

That was reworked in several versions. I read it as Norstrilia. See cordwainer-smith.com, a site by his daughter, which has a comprehensive bibliography.

Being Australian, I start with, Cordwainer Smith's Instrumentality of Mankind series. (Particularly his planet Norstrilia, "Old North Australia", like Dune settled by outback Australians instead of Bedouins.) And then A Bertram Chandler's Rimworld series about tramp spaceships on the edge of the galaxy.

More classically, Edgar Rice Burroughs' worlds: Pellucidar [the hollow Earth], Barsoom [Mars], Amtor [Venus] and Tarzan's Africa [and all its lost cities].

One of the largest and most coherent universes must be Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic League/Terran Empire. Read some Dominic Flandry and forget about Star Wars.

Of course Heinlein's "Future History" (apparently he invented the term), and Niven's "Known Space" are up there, but suffiently well known not to need my endorsement.

The writer has his own agenda beyond bshing Lucas. Science fiction writers have been banished to the back of the bookstore for a long time, and worse one cannot break out of it once one is pigeon-holed there. He is really angry at the marketing of publishers, Star Wars just gives him a vehicle (although the point about Empire Strikes Back is telling).

As for Stanislaw Lem, he and Cordwainer Smith ARE the greatest science fiction writers ever (just ask him- he certainly told the SFWA about it). Here is his home page. Note that Soderbergh and James Cameron are in on the movie.

My suggestion is start out light with the Cyberiad, go to Pirx the Pilot, then move up to the Star Diaries, the Futurological Congress and Solaris.
Cordwainer Smith wasn't mentioned in the article, but he's the spiritual and emotional side to Lem's freewheeling tech and savage satire. His real name was Paul Linebarger, and he practically invented modern American Psychological Warfare. This is his daughter's website which like the Lem website will give you a taste of the writing.

Two novels came out in 1964 about heroes from a barren world that produced drugs humanity is dependent on- Dune and Norstrilia. I love Dune, but Norstrilia is better.

Finally, Legends of the Galactic Heroes shows Star Wars, Babylon 5 and Star Trek for the small little tripe they are. Space Opera has never been so big.

Check them out!!!!!

Actually, I though Solaris was boring. I found "Memoirs found in a Bathtub" much better. My hope is that the translation was poor. With some of the imagery he used, I wonder if he was influenced by Cordwainer Smith