Top 10 New Sci-Fi/SF Authors?

Dukebytes asks: "I am looking for the new RAH/Piers Anthony/Roger Zelazny/Weis & Hickman etc..., of the world. I have read just about everything I could find on King Aurthur, all of the Dragon Lance stuff, and all or most of the 'old school' hardcore. I don't know, I have maybe 4000 books at home, most of them Scifi/SF. I am looking for some new stuff. I haven't bought any kind of book other than techie for more than 2 years. I just keep reading the ones that I have over and over and over. What are you guys reading? If it is a series, please list ALL of the books in it!"

Comments

The new Piers Anthony?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would we need another Piers Anthony? He shits out more crap ion one year than any 8 other authors!

Re:The new Piers Anthony?

[yossie]

My favorite authors, in no particular order, of recent years:

Greg Egan - well, OK, he is my FAVORITE, by far, of the lot. Permutation City is incredible, Diaspora is fantastic too. Of the lot, Distress is the least well done (only relatively so).

Wil McCarthy - only read one of his, The Collapsium, but already bought two more - expect them to be equally fun.

David Brin

Greg Bear

Gregory Benford

Vernor Vinge - A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky are both great - incredible alians

Paul J. McAuley - the Confluence trillogy is wonderfully fun to read

Stephen Baxter - The Time Ships, Ring, etc.. All good

Enjoy - Yossie

good hard sci-fi stuff

[kbs]

I've found a rather good liking for some of Gregory Benford's work. If I'm not mistaken, he's a Physicist, so he approaches his work in the same sort of manner. The characters might not be all that great, and his main characters are almost always University professors who end up facing tenure issues, but it's an interesting read.

I've also found, for things that are sort of out there philosophically, that Greg Egan is pretty cool. I haven't seen any new books by him recently, but I'd suggest Permutation City, Diaspora, and Quarantine as some interesting things to check out.

Re:good hard sci-fi stuff

[Bondolo]

Benford's endings are horrible. Often it seems that things are moving along with the plot and then suddenly the writer hit a deadline so wrote 5 more pages to conclude the book.

In one case, after 3 books of a series he introduced a tie-in to his other series in the last 2 pages.

But then again, a good book with a bad ending is better than a bad book any day.

Re:good hard sci-fi stuff

[Ray Dassen]

I've also found, for things that are sort of out there philosophically, that Greg Egan is pretty cool

AOL on that. On the hard SF front, I also enjoy
Alastair Reynolds's work (e.g. Revelation space). Other writers I'd recommend are Peter F. Hamilton (in particular the Night's Dawn series - wide-vista space opera with a touch of horror), Allen Steele (Clarke-esque near-future SF), Robert Charles Wilson and on the more slipstreamy side, Michael Marshall Smith and Jeff Noon.

Re:good hard sci-fi stuff

[jovlinger]

> AOL on that

cute. Took me a while to get.

Anyways. Jeff Noon is one of those fantastic authors who resists classification into either fiction, SF, or just plain enjoyable. Highly recommended.

For a more litterate approach, I'd recommend some Borges. John Brunner can often be found in bargain bins. Get "Stand on Zanzibar" and "Squares of the City". Both good. I've read "The Infinitive of Go", but couldn't tell you what it was about. Forgettable.

I'd like to unrecommend Baxter, whose superb Xeelee series lured me into buying the deplorable Manifold series. Titan also blew. These books are bad enough to have me contemplating demanding a refund. Yes, I do have a bone to pick with him.

Similarly Greg Bear started very strongly with two or three Eon books, the great children-revenging-earth series, and some really good near-future detective stories, but recently has severely dissapointed with both "Darwin's Radio" and "Vitals". He has yet to earn a blanket disrecommendation: two duds out of 10 odd books ain't bad, but it is worrying that both duds were in a row. This suggests that like Baxter he may be searching for a new twist/style , and is not finding one.

Perennial favorites (by virtue of liking all their books) are Ken Mcleod and Iain Banks. Both write fairly unchallenging, but very fun, space opera. Watch out for Mr. Bank's non-SF output, which is not up to the level of his SF (IMHO).

Re:good hard sci-fi stuff

[orthogonal]

jovlinger's recommendations are on target. (Though I can't say I've heard of McLeod.)

Ley me also say that I just finished, and pretty well enjoyed David Brin's Kiln People, despite its flirtations with Dr. Roger Penrose's "quantum mind" silliness. (No, I'm usually far to respectful of hard-science Ph.D.s to call their theories "silly", but for Penrose's speculations outside his own field, I'll make an exception.)

I'd mod jovlinger's post up, except I wanna make my own recommendations too. (Sorry. It's not all about Karma, is it? Oh.)

Re:good hard sci-fi stuff

[Mandi Walls]

To the "hard sci-fi" list i'd like to add

Peter Watts - Starfish and Maelstrom

Eric S. Nylund - Signal to Noise and A Signal Shattered

Someone else in reply to this post suggested Noon, but I just can't get through his stuff. Anybody wants my mostly unread copy of Vurt, you're welcome to it.

--mandi

Re:good hard sci-fi stuff

[Snorlax]

For hard science fiction, I liked Vernor Vinge's work, particularly "A Fire Upon the Deep", and his Across Realtime series ("The Peace War", "Marooned In Realtime", etc...).

David Brin's Uplift series ("The Uplift War", etc...) was also good, but not really hard-core hard science fiction.

Re:good hard sci-fi stuff

[jovlinger]

Nylund was more enjoyable than well written. Ie, the story is strong enough to overcome the sometimes stilted writing. If you buy those books, buy both (they are really one book published in two volumes), and force yourself to finish the first one (the second is significantly better written than the first -- with any luck his next books will be even better written with the same strong plots). But well worth the read, all in all.

I don't know Watts. What sort of writing is it?

On a completely different note, If you like the Asimov style SF, you may want to pick up some Charles Sheffield. Be somewhat careful about what you buy as the same book (or at least same plot) has been published under two different titles (forget which tho. Sorry). In particular, I recommend "The compleat McAndrew" for well done Engineer-as-hero shorts. His "The Web between Worlds" is remarkable for being accused of plagarising Clarke's space elevators (Sheffield's book takes the concept in a very different direction, and since Clarke had no problem with it, neither do I). I suspect that Baxter is a fan of this book, as "Manifold:Space"'s super-smart-squid and protagonist Malenfant have clear counterparts in Web.

Lastly, (and then I promise to stop), on the cyberpunk level, I'd recommend Alex Effinger's (RIP) Marid series. Arab cyberpunk kicks ass! Also (if only because I can't seem to find these books anywhere) Walter Jon Williams' "Hardwired" (strong recommend) was probably the first cyberpunk I'd ever read. "Days of Atonement" (recommend) is good Twilight-Zone-meets-detective , while "Aristoi" is almost Piers Anthonyesq (that's not a Good Thing, IMHO). A brief web search indicates that he's now writing Star Wars novellas, which I am having a hard time reconciling with the style of what I've read, but there you go.

Doh!

[Black Parrot]

> What are you guys reading?

Slashdot.

Too obvious?

[dmah]

Neal Stephenson: Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash, Diamond Age.

Re:Too obvious?

[Helmholtz Coil]

I second David and Leigh Eddings, the Belgariad and the Malloreon are two of my all-time favourite series. Also the later books Belgarath The Sorceror and Polgara The Sorceress are fantastic, they tie the events in both the above series together. And finally The Rivan Codex was a great read, really lets you know what it's like to be a writer.

I'd also recommend Richard A. Knaak, probably better known 'round here for his Dragonlance stories and books, but he also did a series a while back that was really well done. Can't remember the name of the series (anyone remember the main character Bedlam? anyone?), but they were excellent.

Re:Too obvious?

[jovlinger]

The best part of Snow Crash was the nuclear-powered railgun called Reason, because everyone listens to Reason...

That and rat-thing.

Re:Too obvious?

[rossifer]

"Zodiac", "Snow Crash" and "The Diamond Age" were well written, fun reads, but "Cryptonomicon" was a painful waste of money (I bought the hardback). I must be the only /. reader who doesn't like it though...

His exposition was painful and labored, trying to explain modern "hacker-ware" to the non-elite. Linux and PGP have never been more painful to hear about than in that book. And then on top of that the ending was such a total and complete non-event, I have never been so completely underwhelmed.

I like Stephenson, but "Cryptonomicon" simply sucked and I'm desperately hoping the next one is a return to the wonderful storytelling of his earlier works.

Regards,
Ross

Re:Too obvious?

[kubrick]

Optimist.

Surely it'll be more like 12?

Re:Too obvious?

[billstewart]

Cryptonomicon was more fun if you knew half the people in it :-) The "Secret Admirers", the small company offices in Los Altos, an awful lot of inside jokes. Some of the jokes were inside for a much broader Silicon Valley audience ("Enhancing Shareholder Value....") and people who live near leftie-academia ("War As Text"). And, ok, Stephenson's never been that good at endings.

Re:Too obvious?

[Wiwi Jumbo]

Diamond Age *killed* me... there was so much cool technology in the book and just when it seemed like something was actually going to happen the book ends.

It's because of Diamond Age that I haven't read Zodiac yet... I don't want to be let down.

Re:Too obvious?

[ajs]

So, I gotta get this straight.... You read Zodiac, Snow Crash and Diamond Age and you were stunned that Cryptonomicon had a non-ending?!

You must have stopped 10-pages short of the end of Diamond Age then!

Stephenson has a wonderful ability to write about technological concepts in a way that is interesting and informative to the casual reader while (at least to me) engrossing for the long-time professional as well. I read Cryptonomicon and Applied Cryptography back-to-back and I have to say that he did a good job of capturing the really interesting parts of cryptography.

The end was standard Stephenson drop-off. He's turned on by the IDEA, not the story. To him, it seems, the idea is all that's worth writing about, and when he's done, the rest is a chore. I'm just guessing, as I don't know the man, but that's the way Diamond Age came off to me, and Cryptonomicon to a lesser extent.

I still find his idead compelling enough to keep reading. I see him as sort of the Arthur C. Clarke of this generation. A friend pointed out that while many engineers in the 50s would have said that Clarke didn't know "enough" about their field, he knew enough about several and had the vision to put them together in a way that told the story that the engineers could not.

I don't know that any of us in the trenches are telling the story that Cryptonomicon told in a way that will ever get to as many people. It's not a hugely important story, but certainly one that I think should be told.

Try New Genres

[tealover]

You remind me of a friend. The only books he ever read were fantasy books. That's it. He had no other books in his book shelves. As you can guess, he wasn't exactly the most open minded person in the world (not that I'm calling you close minded). He had the same thing with music. Only listened to heav metal. Wouldn't let anyone play any other type of music.

But I think you deny yourself some of life's pleasures by narrowly defining your interests. It's ok to like reading Sci-Fi books, but I can tell you that you are missing out on a lot if that's all you read. I don't consider Tech books to be "reading" books so I won't address that.

Re:Try New Genres

[tlayne]

Being well rounded is overrated. I say find what you like and read/listen to as much of it as you can. There are plenty of people who know a little bit about a lot of different things. There's also a place for specialists. Would the world be better off if Stephen Hawking decided he had spent too much time on Physics and took up literary criticism so that he could be more well rounded?

Try getting out of your genre

[Ars-Fartsica]

I used to dabble in scifi until I started hitting the general fiction/nonfiction shelves and found that in general, the quality of writing is much higher when there isn't a pixie or a dragon or a robot on the book's cover.

Whatgever genre, you can always hit the Amazon editor's picks list (avoid the topsellers lists, its filled with pedestrian crap) or the NY Times book reviews.

The first step to enlightenment is to be a book snob. Stay away from airport crap (John Grisham, Michael Crichton), and try batting out of your league a bit...you might just expand and learn something.

Re:Try getting out of your genre

[ledgeerama]

I used to dabble in scifi until I started hitting the general fiction/nonfiction shelves and found that in general, the quality of writing is much higher when there isn't a pixie or a dragon or a robot on the book's cover.

Perhaps you have been reading the wrong authors. In genereal, I've found the quality of writing in all genres isn't that fantastic, but there are good authors everywhere. In Sci-Fi, Philip K Dick, Iain M Banks and Peter F Hamilton are examples of good writers.

Neil Gaiman

[demi]

His books are better than they have a right to be. Don't know about series, but I really enjoyed American Gods, Stardust is a great adult fairy tale, and Neverwhere was the book that got me reading fantasy again after a decade-long break.

Re:Neil Gaiman

[swordgeek]

Damn! As soon as I saw the subject, I was going to jump in and recommend Neil Gaiman. However, SOMEONE beat me to it!

So the best I can do is second it. I'm reading American Gods right now, have read Neverwhere, and have the entire Sandman series of comics. (As a friend said, Gaiman disproves the statement that all 'adult comics/graphic novels' are written by (and for) horny 20-year-olds who never got laid. Neil is simply one of the best authors alive today.

Tad Williams: Great Fantasy AND Sci-Fi

[backlonthethird]

Tad Williams "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn" trilogy is probalby the best fantasy I've read, period (apologies to J.R.R.). Dragonbone Chair, Stone of Farewell, To Green Angel Tower are the book titles.

He also is writing an epic sci-fi cycle called "Otherland." A cross between the Matrix, classic cyberpunk, and Alice in Wonderland. High, High quality.

more info on his website

Re:Tad Williams: Great Fantasy AND Sci-Fi

[Malacca]

While Otherland began well, the rest of the series became a plodding exercise in frustration. The second and especially the third failed to develop the plot in a timely fashion and to me, became more of a chronicle of someone's roleplaying game sessions. A shame as Williams has the ability to write better.

In contrast, "Donnerjack" by Roger Zelazny and Jane Lindskold explores similar themes and concepts and manages to do so, and well in a single volume novel.

At the time of his death, Zelazny had a couple of unfinished books, the other is "Lord Demon". Both were completed by Jane Lindskold who succeeds in capturing the Zelazny voice which is no mean feat.

Define "new"

[gmuslera]

For me Orson Card, Terry Pratchett or Dan Simmons are "new" authors, even if the books I like from them have 10-20 years. You can even discover Isaac Asimov, and like their stuff, and being "new" for you.

Dozois anthologies

[Onan The Librarian]

Gardner Dozois edits a yearly anthology of science fiction that has turned me on to a variety of excellent new (and not-so-new) authors. To name a few whose work I'll read anytime: Lucius Shepard, William Sanders, Michael Swanwick, Robert Reed, Howard Waldrop, Terry Bisson, Ursula LeGuin, Mike Resnick, Kathryn Rusch, Karen Fowler... well, just about anyone he selects. I know there are other interesting yearly anthologies out there, and occasionally I buy one, but I've been purchasing Dozois's every year for the past 8 years. Worth checking out, might even be at your local library.

Vinge, Simmons, Stephenson...

[Anonymous Coward]

Vernor Vinge rocks:
A Fire Upon the Deep
Deepness in the Sky
(loosely related)

Dan Simmon's Hyperion/Endymion series (4 books) is excellent.

Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon.

Internet Top 100 List

[chandoni]

As much as I hate to do this to the site, check out the Internet Top 100 list. Google it if it's slashdotted.

Re: Internet Top 100 List

[Black Parrot]

> As much as I hate to do this to the site, check out the Internet Top 100 list [geocities.com].

Nice site, but kind of odd. Frinstance, I've read most of the Vorkosigan novels and either "enjoyed" or "really enjoyed" almost all of them... but #3 on the list?

You get similar oddities if you grep for an author (say, Jack Vance) and look at the order his books show up relative only to each other.

I think the problem is that there doesn't seem to be any sort of weighting by the total number of votes cast, with the result that a few avid fans of one book or series can put it far out of sequence.

OTOH, I suppose that if you filtered out all the older stuff then this method of ranking might be useful for answering the question posed by the Slashdot query.

BTW, O geeks, there's a juicy patent waiting for whoever solves the problem of internet polling. If you don't like software and business method patents, do it first and get that prior art!

Not hard SF, but still excellent

[DaveQat]

Check out China Mieville.

I haven't read his first novel, King Rat, yet, but the reviews are good.

I can say, however, that Perdido Street Station and The Scar, both set in the world of Bas-Lag, are incredibly good reads.

Mieville's writing has been described as slipstream - a new genre that incorporates steampunk, SF, and gothic horror. I'm not sure about the classification, but I'm eagerly awaiting his next book.

Some Recommendations

[haplo21112]

1. Elizabeth Haydon
2. David Drake
3. Terry Goodkind(although perhaps not exactly new)
4. George RR Martin(again not exactly new but you didn't mention him)
5. Tim Zahn
6. Brian Herbert - son of Frank

My Sugestions

[Thauma]

One good way to find new Sci-Fi and fiction authors is to follow the awards. I generaly like many of the Hugo and Nebula canidates... (The winners are not always the best of the bunch imho)

You can also try short fiction available electronicly, FictionWise.com generaly has free stories available as well as a good selection of new authors as well as classics.

Terry Pratchet

[dubbreak]

I love douglas adams and this guys writing style is very similar (very humorous yet full of amazing inovations). His big book "Theif of time". Of course if you haven't read every Isaac Asimov book yet that could keep you busy for a few years.

Re:Terry Pratchet

[happyhippy]

He has almost 30 books. And there are better ones than the Thief of Time.

I wouldnt recommend which ones to read, as although most can be read without reading any previous ones, its better to read them in order of they were made. Theres some jokes that you will only get if you read them in a previous book first

Benford is new?

[Paulo]

Gregory Benford has been around since at least the early 80s. "Timescape", his most famous novel, is from 1980.

I'll second the recommendation about Greg Egan, though. The guy is wicked cool. You can read some of his short stories in his web page (don't have the link handy, just google).

Historical Non-fiction

[dmah]

Simon Singh (http://www.simonsingh.net/)

Code Book - history of cryptograhy.
Fermat's Enigma - solving Fermat's last theorem.

Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact

[caesar-auf-nihil]

If you're looking for the best new SciFi authors, check out Analog. It's a paperback magazine, published monthly (www.analogsf.com), with lots of great SciFi and science fact articles. Sometimes its just a selection of short stores, but you'll also find novellas and serials, some of which have been turned into full published novels. Lots of new authors, as well as few older ones, publish great Science Fiction.

Vernor Vinge best

[msundman]

I have yet to find a better sci-fi author than Vernor Vinge. His novels and short stories are simply amazing.

My favorite New Sci-Fi author

[pogen]

EuroSeti.

Genius

[Kill da wabbit]

I'd highly reccomend Ian M Banks. Particulary Use of Weapons, The Player of Games, The phonetically (sp?) written Feersum Enjin is masterpiece of modern times. Some of his newer ones are excellent as well ( Excesion ) I'd keep clear of Look to Windward, it's a bit naff.

Highly imaginative, not just the same old reshashed stuff. Alot of the characters in his 'Culture' novels ( the culture is us lot of gibbons a few thousand down the road ) are sentient AI minds with a delicious sense of humour.

The author also writes fiction as Ian Banks, some classic there as well ( The Wasp Factory and so on). Go check him out, you will not be dissapointed.

The last 'new' author I read

[drinkypoo]

Or at least new to me, was Storm Constantine. At the time I had no idea who she was and I dropped like twenty or thirty bucks on a single-volume trilogy called Wraethu. I think the first book is called something like The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit, or maybe that's me somehow combining more than one title from the series... Anyway, quite a good read but the characters are a sort of new transhuman third gender so if you're squeamish about that sort of thing, try something else she's written. It's brilliantly depicted and has a lot of depth and is really quite entertaining.

A Sci-Fi author people tend to miss somehow who I really like is C.J. Cherryh, she's amazingly prolific and has quite a large body of interconnected work. Much like most of the works of McCaffrey, everything takes place in the same slice of reality, which is something I've always enjoyed in a sci-fi author. I started with The Pride of Chanur (first of four? books in a series) and I think the next series I read was Cyteen (a trilogy). 40,000 in Gehenna would be a good step after cyteen... Then run around and fill in with other books :)

As for people who you shouldn't have missed, and probably didn't, but really ought not: Vernor Vinge, and Walter Jon Williams. WJW has written some fairly trashy cyberpunk (Hardwired) which is basically a stroke-piece in the same way as Snow Crash (but also entertaining in many of the same ways - WJW isn't NEARLY as flowery as Stephenson, which is frequently a good thing) and also a fairly thought-provoking novel called Aristoi which is heavy on the nanotech, and far future. Vernor Vinge is amazing, the first book of his I read was a fire upon the deep; also check out a deepness in the sky.

Hopefully you've already read everything here; If not, hope this helps. Regardless, for everyone else and posterity, my statements stand.

Re:Robert Jordan

[Coffee Warlord]

There is no beginning or ending to the Wheel of Time.

Now with formatting

[markh1967]

Iain M Banks
The Culture series
Consider Phlebas
Player of Games
Use of Weapons ---best SF book I've ever read
Excession
Look to Windward
Other SF
Against a Dark background
Feersum Enjin

His non-SF books written as just Iain Banks (no M) are also strange, thought-provoking, and very well written.

Peter F. Hamilton
The Night's Dawn trilogy
The Reality Dysfunction
The Neutronium Alchemist
The Naked God
Not really a series but with recurring characters
Mindstar Rising
A Quantam Murder
The Nano Flower
Other
A second Chance at Eden
Fallen Dragon

If either of the above have passed you by then you're in for a treat
--
Input error. Replace user and press any key to continue.

My suggestions

[oh2]

I always seem to happen upon new and exciting books in this Genre. This is some of what I like. (YES I like Military SF) Here goes :

David Feintuch : Midshipmans Hope, Challengers Hope

David Weber : Anything, he is brilliant.

David Drake : Hammers Slammers and, well just about anything

Steve White : Insurrection, Crusade, In Death Ground, the Shiva option

Eric Flint : 1632, 1633, the Belisarius series

Peter F Hamilton : Nights Dawn trilogy, A quantum murder, The Nano flower, Fallen Dragon

John Ringo : Gust front, When the devil dances, A Hymn before battle, March Upcountry, March to the sea, March to the stars

Alastair Reynolds

Harry Turtledove

SM Stirling

Well, that's a few at least. Should keep you occupied for a few weeks. Have fun!

George R. R. Martin

[Trillan]

A Song of Fire and Ice

An extremely gritty and realistic fantasy series. So far, three out of the five books have been published: A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords (and coming at some point: A Dance with Dragons and The Winds of Winter.)

It is not a pretty world, but it is a riveting one. Best fantasy series I've read to date, and yes that includes the classics.

David Brin

[AuraSeer]

David Brin is one of the best writers I've seen in a very long time. His most recent book, Kiln People, was reviewed on /. not too long ago.

Not new, but... Julian May

[smoon]

Pliocene Exile series:
The Many Coloured Land
The Golden Torc
The Nonborn King
The Adversary

The Surveilance series (extension of above):
The surveilance
The Metaconcert

The Galactic milieu series (more of above):
Jack the bodiless
Diamond mask
One or two others...

Good writer, good series. These are from the 80's and (very) early 90's. Many are hard to find right now, but maybe there will be another reprint...

Summary Haiku

[Anonymous Coward]

"I think gay is evil.
Scifi has lots of gay.
Won't someone think of the children!"

You're in graduate school aren't you? If not, they'll be waiting with open arms...

George R.R. Martin

[guyo26]

The Song of Fire and Ice series. Highly recommended.

http://www.georgerrmartin.com/

David Weber

[Lechter]

I wouldn't call him a "new" author, but he seldom seems to be in the traditional top-10 or 20. Even so, Weber writes excellent books in the military-sci-fi vein. They're seldom "high art" or particularly thought provoking, but the characters are generally pretty good and the stories themselves are fun reads largely due to Weber's approchable style.

Of his books, I'd recommend the trilogy that begins with The Armageddon Inheritance is a lot of fun. If you like that then you should check out his Honor Harrington Series, which is also excellent

Ken Follett's "The Pillars of the Earth"

[Malc]

Not quite in your list of genre's. I couldn't put the book down, with at least one work night reading until 5am. Other people have told me of similar experiences. Based on heresay, you might like Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series too.

Re:Harry Potter

[vortmax(OU)]

Nah, book 4 is the best one in the group! And it's true, the books are much better than most of us would think: My friends had to convince me to read these "kids' books", and I'm quite happy they did!

By the way, book 5, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, is supposed to be coming out June 21! We'll see whether that actually happens or not...

My recent reading list

[pogle]

-Peter F Hamilton's Nights Dawn Trilogy

-George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series (book 4 coming soon!)

-Jack Whyte's Camulod Chronicles (Historical fiction on King Arthur's grandparents, very very good)

-Tom Clancy's Red Rabbit (been reading bits and pieces for months)

-Robert Jordan's WOT #10, Crossroads of Twilight (his slowest read ever though, and not too good IMO)

-Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series

-Orson Scott Card's Shadow Puppets, the latest book in the Bean series (Enders Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon preceeding)
-Also the rest of Card's Ender series (Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the mind)

-Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash

-Search for an online book, The Heretic. Got it from a friend, he said there was free downloads--very cool hacker type book, equates it to spellcasting and such

-Tolkien's LotR, Silmarillion, etc

-Anything by Robert Ludlum

-Clive Cussler novels

Some of these are oldies, but still good. Not all are fantasy or scifi. I've got a ton of others, but these are all the more recent ones (although in most cases it was re-reading them for the millionth time).

good, recent SF

[gribbly]

Didn't we have a question like this not so long ago...?
Anyway:

• Greg Egan - Permutation City, Diaspora
• Steven Baxter - Manifold:Time, Manifold:Space
• David Marusek - check his site
• Iain M. Banks - Culture series (you want me list them all? What the hell!? You haven't heard of google?
• 
  There you go!
  grib

Lois McMaster Bujold

[gorilla]

Winner of 4 Hugo's, 2 Nebulas, and oodles of nominations.

Re:Lois McMaster Bujold

[Animats]

Bujold is unique in that she sets stories of different genres in the same universe. "The Warrior's Apprentice" is space opera. "Ceteganda" is a detective novel. "A Civil Campaign" is a comedy of manners. "Barrayar" is a war novel. "Cordeila's Honor" is a romance.

Encyclopedias...

[RedWizzard]

You should consider checking out the Encyclopedia of Fantasy, and the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, both edited by John Clute. They won't get you onto the very newest stuff (check out the SF magazines and awards for that), but you're bound to find some good older authors you haven't read.

Re:wheel of time

[AuraSeer]

The first few books were great, but the later ones don't live up to expectations. Many fans of the series are tremendously let down by book 10, Crossroads of Twilight. It's 700 pages long, but there's not enough plot development to fill a paragraph.

I suggest that people wait until the series ends (no earlier than 2005) before they start reading it. That way, if the ending is a disappointment, at least you didn't have to spend years in anticipation.

James P. Hogan

[TrebleJunkie]

James P. Hogan, James P. Hogan, James P. Hogan. Great hardcore SF. Might not be new to you, but if you've been out of it for a while, you've missed a few books.

If you want to try some stuff that isn't SF, try Andrew Vachss for some really dark, hard crime stories with a message (more on the web site). I recommend his Burke series (too many books to list) or Graphic novels (if you can find them) to anyone. He's done a Batman or two, too, I think.

Harry Turtledove's Colonization series (I don't remember the names) -- taking place after his "WorldWar" series, are very good reading, but the series kinda "ends" leaving too much hanging, IMHO. Again, not completely new, but if you haven't read it, you might like to.

I'm probably the only one that will tell you this, but I tried reading Neal Stephenson/Stevenson/However you spell it, and threw it out less than 100 pages in. Not just put it away, THREW IT OUT. Neal is apparently the James Joyce of SF, That is to say, he uses too many freaking words and doesn't really ever gets to the damn point, nor does he tell all that great a story. It's an "emperors new clothes" kind of book. The sophists will tell you it's great, but only because they think they *have* to in order to stay in the "in" sophist crowd. Well, I'm that little boy telling his daddy that the king is walking around naked. Not a good book.

Not "new", just better.

[Doktor Memory]

I couldn't tell you who the top ten "new" science fiction authors are, but I can tell you one thing: you've been cheating yourself by consuming a lot of churned-out-by-committee crap, one identical "novel" after the other.

Instead of looking for the next endless, pandering "series" a la Weis & Hickman or (shudder) Piers Anthony, why not investigate some of the actual artists in the field? As about a dozen people above have already pointed out, we have these things called the Hugo and Nebula awards -- we give 'em out every year, and it's usually a safe bet that at least a few of the winners are worth your time to read.

A few authors and books you owe it to yourself to check out if you actually think you like this genre:

"A Fire Upon the Deep" by Vernor Vinge
"White Light" by Rudy Rucker
"Gun, with Occasional Music" by Johnathan Lethem
"The Book of the New Sun" by Gene Wolfe (this one's actually part of a "series", but Wolfe is a strong enough writer to make me forgive that)
"The Shockwave Rider" by John Brunner
"Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" by Haruki Murikami
Any of Harlan Ellison's mid-to-late 1970s short story collections. "Shatterday" is probably the strongest.
Anything by Thomas Disch (start with "Camp Concentration")
Everything by Alfred Bester.

And, god forbid, you could consider reading something other than SF&F occasionally. Non-genre "literature" needn't be a soul-crushing Lit 101 experience: grab a copy of "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez or "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" by Hunter Thompson and go to town...

Where to start?

[Nicholas Schumacher]

Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash, Cyrptonomicon, The Diamond Age)
Guy Gavreil Key (The Fionavar Tapestry)
Lois McMaster Bujold (the Vorkosigan books)
Mercedes Lackey (the Valdemar novels)
Michael A. Stackpole (Dragoncrown cycle)
Spider Robinson (the early Callahan books)

and a must read:
Terry Pratchett (Diskworld novels)

Those should keep you busy for a while :-)

Seriously good sci-fi

[yawble]

I am also a big sci-fi buff, end up reading about one book/week. My personal favorite is Nancy Kress, she has a serious on geneticlly altered children and how they cope. VERY good stuff.
Also if you like sci-fi w/ a good sense of humor, try Steven Brust. He has a "Taltos" series thats kinda fantasy, but still damn good. Brust also has some more hard core sci-fi titles, but i'll let you find those on your own ;)

Robert Asprin is pretty good, but again, hes more of a fantasy tilt. The best place to find new good sci-fi IMHO would be the Issac Asimovs monthly magazine. They have short stories, novellas, and novellettes. Thats where i've found most of the outstanding authors i've come across.
Happy hunting!

Some authors you might enjoy

[Interrobang]

I know how you feel. I own about 2000 books, so there are a lot of times when I go into my local second-hand bookstore and don't find anything I want to read at all. The posters who suggest you branch out have a good point, and I can provide some input as to "Mainstream for Science Fiction Fans" (remember that anthology, "Science Fiction for People Who Don't Like Science Fiction"?)

Note that some of these authors are not new, but you may not have gotten around to them (or heard of them) yet:

W.P. Kinsella, Shoeless Joe Comes to Iowa, The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, and If Wishes Were Horses, which are sort of "magic realism" fantasy (no orcs, elves, or swords to be seen!).

Stephen King, (bear with me!) The Dark Tower series, which is sort of dark, parallel-world fantasy drawn from contemporary popular culture, and not really like anything else King's ever written.

Tom Holt, Only Human, Snow White and the Seven Samurai, and Ye Gods!, which is sort of similar to Douglas Adams, only with less philosophy and more social skills.

Douglas Coupland, Girlfriend In A Coma, which is a complete departure from Microserfs.

Donald J. Skal, Antibodies, a very overlooked little tome on people who want to become machines.

Frank Norris, McTeague, written in 1899 and has probably one of the scariest endings ever written. Ok, so it's not SF, but it might count as horror, and it's definitely a classic book. I love this book and think it's a really great read. Norris doesn't pull any punches, so it's really gritty without any flowery phrases to be found. :)

Theme anthologies are also a great way of discovering "new" authors, as are subscribing to SF magazines. But I'm sure you knew that already.

Adviso: Keep in mind that I'm heavily into Harlan Ellison, Norman Spinrad, Norris, Theodore Dreiser, Stephen King, and Cordwainer Smith (among others), and I despise Tolkien and all the other sappy fantasists who take themselves seriously, so take with the appropriately-sized grain of salt.

Two more

[Nidhogg]

Two come to mind for me.

Peter F. Hamilton. I really enjoyed his Confederate Universe series. Looking at your list above you probably would too.

John Varley. Very entertaining. Also notice my sig. :)

James Morrow & Michael Bishop & Christophe

[millia]

Two names there that don't get enough credit. Both will stretch your mind, and both do stuff that runs along the border of SF & Literature.
Morrow is the most savagely satiric writer i've ever read. His Godhead trilogy (google for it) is so full of humanity, that summarizing it (what happens after god's body crashes to earth) is trivializing to the nth degree. Although I would say that any of his stuff is brilliant, good starting points are the trilogy and the book of short stories, "Bible Stories for Adults"
Michael Bishop's work encompasses both straight and SF subjects. My favorite is entitled "Brittle Innings" and is about minor league baseball during WW II- but there's a twist. "Close Encounters with the Deity" is a book of short stories all dealing with religion in SF.
Finally, for pure humorous writing, do check out Chris Moore. While it's not SF, or even really fantasy, it's absolutely hilarious stuff with a touch of the fantastic. "Practical Demonkeeping" is a great starting point.

Best troll so far this year.

[Doktor Memory]

The mark of a truly excellent troll is that it contains just enough elements of truth to hook the casually unwary. I tip my hat to you, sir or madam as the case may be.

SF is not Fantasy

[Andy Social]

If you're using "SF" to refer to Science Fiction, which is the most common breakout, rather than Speculative Fiction, you're missing the boat entirely with the books you have mentioned. Sounds like you want FANTASY books.

If you are looking for unusual well-written fantasy, check out Storm Constantine. The Wraethu omnibus edition is usually available, and it's a stunning piece of gothic fantasy alternate-reality post-apocalyptic gender-bending writing. Can't get enough hyphens.

For science fiction work, of course there's Neal Stephenson, and the recently feted Cory Doctorow. You can't go wrong with the classics of Heinlein and Asimov, of course.

Beyond that, as others have said, try something outside the F&SF realm. Or, if you can't bring yourself to do that, subscribe to Analog, Asimov's or F&SF to get a taste of new authors. Short fiction is like the snack before you dig into a big meaty novel.

Spider Robinson

[kent_eh]

For light, fun reading: any of the Calahan's books.
I also enjoyed the Lifehouse/Deathkiller/Time Pressure series. An intersting, if optomistic future view.
And finally, Stardancer, co-written with Jeanne Robinson was good for a bit of a mind bending.
Oh, here's his web site

Crossroads of Twilight

[djohnsto]

I was introduced to WOT in the summer of '01 by a friend who happened to have the first 9 books. I ended up reading all of them in about 2 months; I just couldn't put them down! So, it was with great anticipation that I received Crossroads of Twilight. I finally get to find out what happens with about 3 plot lines that have been leading up to something great. Then, I read the book.

Damn Jordan to Hell! I read the book and ... NOTHING HAPPENS!!! He spends 700 pages going over a month or so time frame from 3-4 different plot lines and creeping them all just a little bit closer to where something will actually occur. I'm tempted to just forget this series. I've read that he plans 3 more books, but if they're exciting as Crossroads, I think I'll just pass.

Re:don't forget

[rgmoore]

And The Big U, which is even earlier than Zodiac and, IMO, even funnier and more interesting. Both Zodiac and The Big U also seem to be from before Stephenson developed his every so annoying tendency to end his novels without wrapping up loose ends decently.

Re:Robert Jordan

[sjbrown]

I didn't mind the ending, seeing as the last 4 or 5 chapters were the only chapters where something actually happened. Up until that point, Jordan basically reiterated stuff we already knew and described how about 20 Aes Sedai looked or held themselves. It was my least favourite book of the ten.

Note to Jordan: Your fans would appreciate it if, in the future:

• stuff actually happens
• you include glossary entries for minor characters (how am I supposed to remember the difference between Reene, Renna, and Reine, when they were last mentioned in 2 paragraphs 4 books ago?)
• you wrote faster. Maybe consider hand steriods

Of course, for all the criticism, I highly enjoy the Wheel Of Time series and would reccommend it.

The "heirs" of Heinlein & Zelazny

[doofusdan]

Ok, I hate that "this writer is so and so's spiritual heir" thing, but if you really like an author, reading stuff by another person who really likes that author can be a good thing. A lot of good suggestions have been made already, so I'll name two that I haven't seen yet.

If I had to pick someone for Heinlein, I'd say check out John Barnes. A good one to start with is Mother of Storms.

And for a big Zelazny fan, Stephen Brust's Jhereg/Taltos series is excellent. Some of the earlier books have be republished in 3-in-1 editions. His non-Taltos stuff is even better, but it's hard to beat the Taltos books for sheer fun.

In the fantasy world, Robin Hobb's Assassin trilogy is one of the best new fantasy I've read in ages.

Also, Guy Gavriel Kay is INCREDIBLE. Start with the Fionavar Tapestry, then read everything else he's ever done.

Some other newer folks:
Wilhelmina Baird (start with the clipjoint trilogy)
C.J. Cherryh, esp. Cyteen - though the new Foreigner series is great.
Last, I really liked Tim Powers' Declare.

Check out http://www.fictionwise.com, they have lots of micropayment short stories; great way to check out an author. (US$0.50 for a short story, read it on your PDA...)

4000 books? You're done dude.

[JHandey]

Why?

Ok let's assume a few things.
1. You're unemployed and can spend 16 hours a day reading, 365 days a year.
2. You're an above avg reader(in terms of speed) and take an avg of 3 hours per book.
3. You do not have a photographic memory

16hourx365daysperyear/3hoursperbook = 1946.67 booksperyear

With 4000 books, that means even at marathon pace you could go two years without repeating a title.

Longer if you had a life.

So you should be set for a decade or so. :-)

Fantasy with heroes in control w/o much real probs

[Reinout]

A different style of fantasy hit my bookshelf a year ago. David (and Leigh) Eddings are the authors. The fun thing about their books is that it doesn't start out all-hopeless for the main character set.

You know, LotR. Nice army Rohan 's got, as does Gondor. But a wee bit underpowered when you look at all those nice, huge armies Sauron has got. Basically hopeless from the beginning.

Many other books keep averting disaster throughout a book by having the main wizard drown the enemy in avelanges, fires and steaming lakes. But without him/her they would be done for.

In come the series by the Eddingses. Especially in their 3-book Tamuli series the good guys have some 100,000 heavily armed knights at their disposal. And a little girl of course :-) Enough to competently trample the opposition. There's some damage, but two chapters later they're back in the saddle.

It is eneourmously refreshing compared to the rest of the genre.

If you want to try something of Eddings, beware. There are two 5-piece series and two 3-piece series. The last two belonging together. The most recent book stands on itself though, so that's your best bet. It's called "the redemption of Althalus". It's typical of their genre and mayor fun to read.

Reinout

That High-Pitched Keening Sound You Hear...

[RobotRunAmok]

...is dear Roger Zelazny twirling about beneath the ground as a result of being separated by a mere comma from Weiss & Hickman.

That being said, allow me to throw my support behind the Tad Williams fantasy and SF, mentioned elsewhere, as well as the standalone books by Guy Gavriel Kay: "Tigana," "A Song for Arbonne," and "The Lions of Al-Rassan." These are all self-contained, yet have the "epic" feel that most authors only achieve in trilogies or better. (If I'm not mistaken, it was Kay that was tapped to finished off some Tolkien fragments prior to their posthumous publication; when you read his stuff, you'll understand how he got that gig.) Kay also wrote something called "The Fionavar Trilogy" which I tried and couldn't get through, but which the reviewers said was a modern re-mixing of Arthuriana, so maybe you read it and are familiar with him...

Even though cyberpunk is so-o-o-o-o 1994, you should probably hit up the Gibson 'Sprawl Trilogy," or at least "Neuromancer."

Baen Books has just released David Weber's newest Honor Harrington book, "War of Honor," and for the price of the hardback you get the print version, and the entire rest of the series that preceded it on CD-ROM, along with artwork and a bunch of maps and stuff. I highly recommend the series, and supporting Baen's brave and innovative efforts in digital distribution.

The Goerge R R Martin trilogy (kings... thrones... swords... sump'n like that) is better than most (I've only read the first one so far).

Look, we could be here for days. "Fantasy and SF" covers a lot of ground. You want to narrow it down to Sword&Sorcery, Cyberpunk, Empowered Lesbian Telepaths, Space Opera, or some other popular sub-niche, we can really get down to brass tacks...

Some less obvious suggestions

[Dr. Smoe]

There have been plenty of good suggestions (like Gaiman and Stephenson), but here are some less obvious ones:

1. Syne Mitchell - There's a reason she won the
Compton Crook Award for her debut novel.
2. China Meiville - "Urban" fantasy may be the
best term for it, but the writing is simply
brilliant
3. Susan R. Matthews - an exceedingly talented
SF author
4. Kristine Smith - another great new SF writer
5. P.C. Hodgell - the best fantasy writer you
never heard of

And, while I think the anti-SF people who tell you to dump the genre are insufferable snobs, I do think that doing some reading outside of the genre stuff is a good idea.

Good luck.....

Iain M. Banks -- this time with formatting!

[Xeger]

MODS AND READERS: Please note that this comment is a duplicate -- the original appears somewhere below, and was posted without formatting because of a slip of the mouse. In that state it was unreadable, so I had no choice but to repost. (When, oh when, will we be able to edit our posts?)

Despite his wacky first name (just say "Ian"), Banks is really worth a try. He isn't originally a sci-fi author by trade; his first book (The Wasp Factory) was a contemporary novel, but we've seen some of his very best work since he started writing his Culture series of novels. And Iain Banks, even at his worst, is better with prose and with ideas than many sci-fi authors at their best.

His primary science fiction offering is a series of novels set in the distant future (perhaps 10,000 years from now), chronicling the adventures of humanity's descendents. The Culture is a vast interstellar civilization, a pseudo-anarchic meritocracy comprised of dozens of humanoid and nonhumanoid races -- it's unclear whether homo sapiens were founding members of the Culture, or if they joined the Culture sometime after its development, or even if they exist at all. Members of the Culture are referred to as "human" throughout the books, but Banks follows the panspermia hypothesis, so many of his races share the same basic biochemical and physiological traits.

The Culture has spread to perhaps 10,000 systems, filling space with planets, starships and Orbitals -- immense, ringworld-like structures that house as many as 100 billion people. In all, the population of the Culture is probably around 500 trillion (that's 5.0x10^14) souls. Of these, a sizeable fraction are plain old biological humans, and the rest of them are digitized people, Minds, or group minds.

The lifespan of a human is somewhere from 200 to 500 years; Culture citizens, the result of thousands of years of genetic tinkering, could conceivably extend their lives indefinitely. But human existence is seen as a sort of gestation period, and after a few hundred years of life, most biologicals get bored and euthanize. After death, they are converted into electronic form and continue to pursue an active and vigorous life in the collective virtual reality that forms the real meat-and-bones of the Culture.

Many of the Culture's most powerful citizens are Minds, vast, artificially-created intelligent constructs with dozens or hundreds of threads of consciousness. Typically, any structure or vehicle larger than a personal transport is inhabited by a Mind.

The Mind doesn't merely control the machine, the Mind is the machine, able to interact with the physical world using its "body" which is the ship, or house, or city, or Orbital, or whatever. Of course, a Mind could also be simultaneously inhabiting a dozen different android "avatars," manifesting itself as a holograph in front of an audience, and corresponding with other Minds in a virtual reality.

OK, all this is well and good -- but what can you expect from a Banks novel?

• No strife. Material wealth is meaningless when resources are unlimited. In the Culture, social reputation counts more than money. There is no standard form of money; rather, Minds operate factories in every habitat to provide (quite extensive) basic goods and services for free, and luxuries are traded through the social network.
• No death. People (and other entities) die in Banks novels, but this is the exception rather than the rule. Despite the fact that nobody is ever in any danger, and would just end up being restored from backup if he were to die, there is still plenty of suspense in a Banks novel -- I can't describe it; you'll just have to read and find out for yourself.
• Fantastic combat. Banks has a magnificent style when it comes to combat, both space- and ground-based. He runs the whole gamut, from exotic antimatter weapons and computer metaviruses, to simple bladed combat and projectile weapons.
• Intensely cerebral discourse. Because so many of Banks' characters are hyper-intelligent Minds, you'll often find a few paragraphs of calm discussion between Minds in the middle of an intense combat sequence.
• Great human characters. Whenever Banks introduces a character, you come to care about the person, his likes and dislikes, his motivations -- even if he's only a minor character. Banks' characters really come alive like no other.

Re:Iain M. Banks -- this time with formatting!

[theCulture]

I thought thanks to my /. name I had to reply to to this post!

I can more than recommend Iain Banks' novels. The society of the culture is a fascinating study in what might be. I really agree with the previous post, but in fact think [s]he's sold Iain Bank's SF credentials, and the idea of the Culture itself, somewhat short.

He displays good understandings of physics, underpinning his plots with intense realism - you can believe that what he writes one day may come to pass. The Culture does not descend from humanity (at least not from earth), as evidenced by one short story included in 'The State of the Art' (Although amazon.com says that it's out of print?) where the culture are examining earth (and us) and evaluating us. This seperates them nicely from us, giving Banks more freedom of expression, in my opinion.

Also, Banks actually started out as a SF author. In an interview I saw with him a few months ago on BBC 4, he admitted that he had written several SF short stories (a few of which are published in TSOTA mentioned above) before turning to conventional fiction.

He also has a wicked sense of humour, instantly recognisable. The ship's ideosyncratic names illustrate this nicely (meatf*cker anybody? :)

All in all, do take a look. Well worth it - and his 'normal' fiction too, while I'm at it. I would write all day about his books, but the best way is to just take a look yourself. Happy reading.

Re:Iain M. Banks -- this time with formatting!

[cosmosis]

Wow, I posted about Iain Bank early on in this story, see above. But I thought I'd mention it again here. I would love to do more with the site, but I just don't have the time. Here it is, Culture Shock

Xeger - Nice comprehensive overview of Banks by the Way!

Planet P Blog - Liberty with Technology.

Sarah Zettel ; James Alan Gardner ; C. S. Friedman

[Samrobb]

Suprised no one's mentioned them yet...

Sarah Zettel:

• Fool's War
• Playing God
• Kingdom of Cages

Highly recommended: Fool's War.

James Alan Gardner:

• Expendable
• Vigilant
• Ascending
• Trapped

Highly recommended: Expendable, Trapped.

C. S. Friedman:

• Black Sun Rising (Coldfire book #1)
• When True Night Falls (Coldfire book #2)
• Crown of Shadows (Coldfire book #3)
• In Conquest Born
• Madness Season
• This Alien Shore

Highly recommended: The Coldfire trillogy (fantasy), This Alien Shore (SF).

Try something old instead

[rgmoore]

I'm not sure if you've read them, but you might try reading something really old instead. Pick up some Jules Verne or Edgar Allen Poe, or some old classics like Frankenstein or Dracula, both of which have been very badly treated by the movies. You could even go back to some much older stuff like Gulliver's Travels, Beowulf (supposedly there's going to be a newly discovered translation by Tolkein published soon), The Illiad, The Epic of Gilgamesh, or the like. Many of the ideas being used by modern writers were first expressed in those classics, and they're very worth a read.

Iain Banks & The Culture

[cosmosis]

Banks isn't entirely new, but he remains largely and undeservedly undiscovered. You can read all about him on my Iain Banks website.

I would also say that if you have not already read Greg Egan, especially his book, Diaspora, do so. This is first-rank hard sf at its best!

Planet P Blog - Liberty with Technology

Re:Iain Banks & The Culture

[bastion_xx]

Can't say enough good things about Iain Banks. There are some really dark ovetones to his books, sci-fi and non-sci-fi.

I was turned on to Banks by one of British friends. Ended up in London at Foyles in Charing Cross. While picking up all of Banks books (about 9 or ten) one of the staff asked me about my selection. Told him I'd read a couple of his books and was hooked. All the books were signed by the author too.

The Brits definitely have a much better selection of Sci-Fi / Fantasy than most US bookstores. Plus, it doesn't seem to be such a "geeky" thing to read the genre.

Re:Iain Banks & The Culture

[mlush]

Iain Banks is of course not to be confused with that other chap, Iain M. Banks who does not do SF :->

Re:Iain Banks & The Culture

[JPRelph]

He seems to be pretty popular over here in the UK, I have no idea how much he sells, but most high street bookstores tend to carry a fair selection of his work. His books all tend to be very good, but some really do shine out, Excession and Feersum Endjinn are absolutely superb.

Re:Iain Banks & The Culture

[mark2003]

Iain Banks is definiteley one of the best writers of his generation. The sci-fi stuff (under Iain M. Banks), particularly the culture novels are miles ahead of anyone else. Personally I like his unusual approach to sci-fi in that it is about characters, societies and plot rather than the usual rubbish of who has the biggest/most technically advanced weapons/spaceships. The technology is just used as a way to get the characters involved in more interesting and unusual situations. And as a bonus it has a sense of humour. Some of his non-sci-fi books are also extremely good, Complicity stands out for me.

Re:Tad Williams

[aardvarkjoe]

I've read most of the Otherland series -- however, mostly because there are just enough good ideas to keep my attention. They're not good books by a long shot. My biggest complaint is that I haven't read about a more boring set of characters since Jane and Spot. If you want to find something interesting to read, I'd recommend you look elsewhere.

Re:wheel of time

[CableModemSniper]

well if someone's going mention wheel of time I might as well chime in with the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. Unfortunately it has been goign downhill lately but the first 2 books are kind of like the free crack hit. You get hooked and everytime you read the next book you hope, well maybe the next one will be better. Actually, don't read the sword of truth. It's the literary equivalent of a cock tease.

Project Gutenburg

[Ugmo]

If you've read 4000 books then you've probably read everything SF/Fantasy that is out currently in Barnes and Nobles. Expand beyong SF/Fantasy to related classics, history and source material.

Go to Project Gutenburg (http://www.gutenberg.net/) and look up some Charles Dickens, Herman Melville.

Why them?

If you've read fantasy you must have read Gene Wolfe's Earth of the New Sun Series. (If you haven't then read them. NOT the books of the LONG Sun, I wasn't crazy about them.)

The first book has a lot of settings and some of the language taken from Dickens' Great Expectations. The scene where Severen meets Baldanders in the Inn is taken from Moby Dick, so read that too. There are of course elements of Frankenstein in the later books but I think that is from the movie versions more than the actual book (Mary Shelly).

The book Frankenstein is really not what you would expect. I didn't get into it. Dracula was pretty good. PG also has the Invisble Man, Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde etc.

You could also read Jules Verne's books,H.G. Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars series, and Sherlock Holmes books there.

Related to King Arthur you can read Tennysons' "The Idylls of the King", Nennius's "History of the Britons" which is one of the earliest mentions of Arthur. Gildas "On The Ruin Of Britain (De Excidio Britanniae)". The last two historical documents written in the Dark Ages that mention King Arthur.

Not in PG but something you might not have read but would enjoy if you like Gene Wolfe, find a translation of short stories by Jorge Luis Borges. The originals are in Spanish but there are English collections. He writes little surreal stories and The New Sun Books take a lot of theme and atmosphere from them.

One of his stories is about an infinite library with every book ever written or could be written on the shelves. The first book is all the letter "A" written down. The second book would be all "a"'s and then at the end is a "b" and so on. Somewhere in the library a book with the story of your life in it and it was there before you were born. Borges writes stuff like that.

So:
Gene Wolfe
Jorge Luis Borges
Charles Dickens
Herman Melville
H.G. Wells
Jules Verne
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Bugger the "amerikano's" - UK & Aussie top wor

[Facter]

Top ten of the "newer" scifi authors. (not in any particular order)

1) Jeff Noon - top. seriously. wow. every single person that reads slashdot must read this guy. Im warning you!! Read him or suffer the fate of never having read him!! Im serious!
2) Sean Williams and Shane Dix - man. Aussie authors rock, vast space opera. Nice guy too.
3) Sean McMullin - more aussie rightness. any of them, but Souls in the Great Machine is fukin awesome.
4) Alystair Reynolds!!!! Tech space opera.
5) Ken McLeod!! OMG serious slashdot geek lover conspiracy gone mental writing...
6) Greg Egan - dont get me wrong, I love his stuff...but I love his earlier stuff where he wasnt trying so hard to make "a political difference" in some way with his stories much better,,plus I have issues with his feelings on immigartion and his boring anti-"cult of personality" thing..but, regardless...read Permutation City or Quarantine. Wow. Eh, Teranesia is good too...
7) China Mieville - Holy shit! The Scar and Perdido street staion. Mind blowing.
8)Iain M Banks - with the M. Need I say more?
9) Jon Courtney Grimwood - the Arabesk stuff. Amazing alt-history series. Blow go boom.
10)Interzone Magazine - okay, so I'm cheating, its not one author - but the stories and the format are fukin amazing - seriously, it is my favorite scifi magazine, and gives a wonderful cross section of non-amerikan-centralised works. A lot of Australian and British etc authors. Go get a copy and subscribe, you wont be disappointed.

Just wanted to throw this in to keep away fromt he us-bias that makes up the majority of this list =P

F.

a huge sf and fantasy author list, with comments

[Ludoo]

http://sfandf.owlcroft.com/authors.shtml, many of them may be found as ebooks, either legaly or ehm you know what I mean =)

noticed nobody mentioned the Assassin series by Robin Hobb (aka Megan Lindholm), one of the best books i've read in the past couple of years.

New authors

[mrbill]

I've been reading lately:

by John Ringo (in order):
"A Hymn Before Battle"
"When the Devil Dances"
"Gust Front"

and by Kage Baker (again, in order):
"In the Garden of Iden"
"Sky Coyote"
"Mendoza in Hollywood"
(unfortunately, the fourth, "Graveyard Game", is
out of print; I'd kill for a copy!)

I'm also reading Cory Doctorow's stuff.

Last night, I read (online) "The Metamorphasis of
Prime Intellect", by Roger Williams. <a href="http://www.kuro5hin.org/prime-intellect/">yo u can find it here.</a>.

SciSemiFiction -- Sterling's Tomorrow Now

[fatcat1111]

Bruce Sterling, Tomorrow Now.

Is it fiction? Is it nonfiction? Is it all SWAG? You decide!

Also, I met Sterling last week and he listed Cory Doctorow as one of the two English SciFi writers he was reading right now. I haven't had the opportunity to read anything from him except 0wnz0red yet, but he certainly looks promising.

Sci-Fi

[superdan2k]

Lately, I've really enjoyed Wil McCarthy's The Collapsium -- it has the grand-ideas of Clarke but it's somehow more riveting and more real. I'm working on reading Empire of Dreams and Miracles a collection of short stories edited by Orson Scott Card and Keith Olexa -- normally, I enjoy anthologies but skip a few stories...thus far, it's been one of the best I've come across. Haven't skipped a single story.

It's worth branching out if you've read that much sci-fi -- both because it's important to be well-rounded and because it'll make your reading of sci-fi that much more rich an experience. You'll understand more, you'll have things to compare it to outside of the genre. In the past couple of years, I've started venturing strongly outside the genre -- literary fiction, biographies, history, the sciences, etc. I find that doing this has not only enriched my reading of science fiction but it has re-started my "idea engine" for my own writing. (I hold a degree in English-Creative Writing.) And my ideas are my own, are more fresh than they once were, and I find that I'm much more satisfied with what I have produced.

Umberto Eco - Philip K. Dick - William Gibson

[bladerunner009]

If you're into fiction then I would suggest you try some of Umberto Eco's novels. Focault's Pendulum, Name of the Rose, and Island of the Day Before....The writing is exceptionally good. At the very least these novels are quite verbose and you may need to have a dictionary near by. I guarantee reading these books will bump your mensa score up a few points... And I also want to throw my 2 cents in for William Gibson (Neuromancer, Mona Lisa Overdrive) and Philip K. Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, also of the recent Minority Report movie fame)

Best new author

[Big Dave Diode]

Cory Doctorow comes to mind. And you can check out his latest novel for free. I haven't been this excited about an author since I discovered Vernor Vinge or Neal Stephenson.

Mostly Non-SF

[kalidasa]

Once in a while, if an SF book has a very good reputation, I'll pick it up, but for the most part I finished my SF reading days when I got out of college. Too much crap to wade through to find the real gems. That said, the only newer books (the former is what, 10 years old?) I've read and liked were Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman's *Good Omens* and Gaiman's *American Gods*.

Non SF: I'd suggest weaning youself from SF with Jorge Luis Borges, *Collected Fictions*, which is top-flight 20th c. lit with some of the same tone you'd find in good SF (though it is more fantastic). If you have the wits to handle really complex narratives, try Rushdie's *Ground Beneath Her Feet*, which has some SF-like elements (alternate universes, e.g.) but is unassailably good lit. Also worth reading would be Eco's *Foucault's Pendulum*, about a group of editors becoming too involved with the occultists they're trying to exploit.

This is all rather difficult prose, but it is worth the effort. And if you have 4,000 books and have nothing but SF + technical books, frankly you're wasting 2/3 of your money, because there's probably no more than a few hundred SF books that are really worth owning (and I have about 600 myself, including most of the great ones except the cyperpunks, which are a little after my time.). [Apply a good filter like a book review to Sturgeon's Law and you just might get down to 66% of everything being crap.]

If you like fantasy, you really ought to look into things like the Chinese novel published in the US as "Monkey" (there was a god-awful adaptation of it on NBC about a year ago whose title escapes me), or some of the Norse sagas, which mix mythology and history. Maybe try Ovid's Metamorphoses (get the Indiana translation by Humphries, it's far and away the most readable; or try Ted Hughes' *Tales from Ovid*).

Too much SF limits you to talking about nothing but ... SF. Not a good way to relate to possible future employers (the more sophisticated your small talk, the more impressive you are in such extra-curricular things as business lunches) and dates (You: 'Hey, have you read the latest Star Wars: New Jedi Order book?' Date: 'Oh, look at the time, I've got to go') - that way even if you don't know anything about the books she's read, you'll at least have a broader range of things to compare what she says about them too (I imagine if you have 4,000 books your probably past this sort of worry, but there are others on slashdot who might not be and might not realize this).

John Varley!

[Malfourmed]

Nobody does the mix of far-out, weird but strangely plausible milieus (human/plant symbiotic lovers travelling the asteroid belt, a marketing campaign heralding the obsolescence of the penis, human nuclear bombs celebrating their birthday, to give a taste) with complex, touching, human characterisation better.

A lot of his stories take place in his "Eight Worlds" future history, both short stories (many collected in The Persistence of Vision aka In The Hall of the Martian Kings, The Barbie Murders aka Picnic on Nearside and Blue Champagne) and - to date - three novels (The Ophiuchi Hotline, Steel Beach and The Golden Globe).

He's also written the Gaean trilogy (Titan, Wizard and Demon) which despite their titles are actually SF - wild romps of SF, expressing a real joie de vivre (as many of his stories do)... unless they twist the knife (as many of his stories do).

But some of his best works are standalone - like the Nebula/Hugo winning "Press Enter " (there's suppossed to be a blinking cursor after the 'Enter'), "The Pusher" or "Equinoctial".

Varley's been compared to Heinlein, though personally I never saw it. He's a heck of a lot better in my book.

Honourable mentions to Greg Egan (the earlier stuff like "Learning to be me" is better than the later stuff), Neil Gaiman (his comics, especially his run on Miracle Man, are better than his prose) and Orson Scott Card (Ender's Game and Lost Boys are his two best works IMO - the novel better than the the short story that spawned it in both cases).

Too many goofs

[mangu]

In Cryptonomicon there's a point when someone lost at sea gets oriented by stars that weren't visible from the place where he was. That's something a true SF author would always check, *very* carefully, because it's the obvious thing to verify...

Re:Too many goofs

[Wonko42]

Yeah, that totally ruined it for me. After I read that bit, I threw the book at the wall and grabbed the phone to warn my friends not to read it. I bought "cryptonomiconsucks.com" and called in sick to work the next day so I could spend the day putting together a website warning the rest of the world not to read the book as well.

That weekend, I went to the local Barnes and Noble and picketed in front of the "S" section. I posted several scathing reviews on Amazon.com under various pseudonyms and spent most of Sunday digging up Neal Stephenson's home phone number, after which I prank-called him for a good six hours straight.

I wrote a letter to my congressman as well, and I strongly urge you to do the same! If we don't fight the rising tide of inaccurate astronomical navigation references in modern science fiction, then who will?

Re:Too many goofs

[Webmonger]

Why do you call that science fiction? Or has "modern" come to mean "not"? As in "Modern art", "Modern Jazz" etc?

The best: Lois McMaster Bujold

[penguinland]

If you're going for Sci-Fi, one of the greatest authors out there is named Lois McMaster Bujold. Although few people have heard of her, she has won several Hugo awards and at least one Nebula award for her wonderful science fiction. Her Vorkosigan series starts with a book called Shards of Honor, although the first two books in the series have been grouped together in a book called Cordelia's Honor. I enjoy her work because it has most things you can want in a story: war, political sneakiness, a love story, action, adventure, etc. But above all, I like Bujold because she writes about round, dynamic, believable characters. They have strengths, fears, insecurities, everything that real people have. It makes the stories more believable than most other writers (who have great stories, but characters with little or no background). Give Bujold a look - she is easily my favorite writer.

Try a more relevent site?

[Xtifr]

Why "ask slashdot"? Wouldn't it make more sense to check out some SF related web sites for information and suggestions about SF?

Now I have an unfair advantage in that I live near not one, but two, high quality stores specializing in SF (Other Change of Hobbit and Dark Carnival, both in Berkeley CA), and I get a lot of recommendations by going in there and looking at their recommended shelves, or asking people who work there what's new and good.

If you aren't lucky enough to have a good SF bookstore nearby, then you might want to try some SF websites. This year's Hugo voting included the category of web site (a "one-shot" category that I hope will become permanent in future).Locus Online, the Hugo winner, and SF Site, which came in third, are my two favorites. Both are full of book reviews (and author interviews, and links to other interesting sites. (The second place Hugo vote went to the SciFi Channel's website, which is more oriented towards TV and movies than written SF, but still might be worth a look).

And speaking of awards, the various SF & Fantasy awards are a great place to look for recommendations. Check out the nominee list, not just the winners (it really is an honor just to be nominated), and don't forget to check out other works by the same authors. If you don't like short stories, you should still check out the winners (and nominees) in the short-story categories; they may have written some good novels too. Locus Online (link above) has extensive listings of the major SF awards.

That said, here's a few authors who have been high on my must-read list recently: Lois McMaster Bujold, David Brin, Orson Scott Card, C. J. Cherryh, Greg Egan, Tom Holt, Guy Gavriel Kay, Nancy Kress, Jane Lindskold[1], Ken McLeod[2], Wil McCarthy (yes, one 'l'), Jack McDevitt, Patricia A. McKillip, Robert Rankin, Allen Steele, Neal Stephenson, and Connie Willis. I probably included a few that qualify as "old school", there, and left out a few thinking they were "old school" that you may never have heard of, but such is life.

HTH

[1] Lindskold is an associate of, and collaborated with Zelazny, and is well worth checking out if you like Zelazny, IMO.

[2] MacLeod is the only SF writer I know of who has mentioned Linux in his SF. Others, most notably Stephenson, have mentioned it in non-fiction writings, but only MacLeod so far has embedded it in his fictional future.

Re:Miles Vorkosigan

[steveha]

Arrgh. Wrong link. The above link points to the Baen page on Bujold; here is the correct link to the Baen Free Library page for Bujold, with "The Mountains of Mourning".

http://www.baen.com/library/lmbujold.htm

steveha

Reading List

[VoidEngineer]

So, here's my 2 cents worth:

Jordan, Robert
Wheel of Time Series
Books: Eye of the World, The Great Hunt, The Dragon Reborn, The Shadows Rising, The Fires of Heaven, Lord of Chaos, A Crown of Swords

Herbert, Frank
The Dune Series
Books: Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God Emporer of Dune, Heritics of Dune, Chapterhouse: Dune, Dune: House Atraides, Dune: House Harkonen, Dune: House Coronin

Gaiman, Neil
The Sandman Series
Preludes and Nocturnes, The Dolls House, Dream Country, Seasons of Mist, A Game of You, Brief Lives, Fables and Reflection, World's End, The Kindly Ones, The Wake

Rice, Anne
The Vampire Chronicles
Books: Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the Body Thief, Memnoch the Devil, The Vampire Armand, Merrick, Blood & Gold, Blackwood Farm

King, Stephen
The Dark Tower Series
Books: The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three, The Waste Lands, Wizard and Glass

Rollings, JK
Harry Potter Series
Books: Sorcerer's Stone, Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire, Order of the Pheonix

Stephenson, Neal
Books: Snow Crash, Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon

Dick, Philip
Books: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The Man in the High Castle, The Dark Haired Girl, Confessions of a Crap Artist, Divine Invasion, Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, Galactic Pot-Healer, The Game-Players of Titan, Martian Time-Slip, A Maze of Death, Radio Free Albemuth, A Scanner Darkly, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, We Can Build You, The World Jones Made

OLDER / HARDCORE

Gibson, William
Books: Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive

Brooks, Terry
The Shannara Series
Books: The Sword of Shannara, The Elfstones of Shannara, The Wishsong of Shannara, The Scions of Shannara, The Druid of Shannara, The Elf Queen of Shannara, The Talismans of Shannara
The Landover Series
Books: Magic Kingdom For Sale -- Sold! The Black Unicorn, Wizard At Large, The Tangle Box, Witches' Brew

Tolkein, J.R.R.
Fellowship of the Rings, The Two Towers, The Return of the King, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, The Book of Lost Tales

Hubbard, L. Ron
The Mission: Earth Series
Books: The Invaders Plan, Black Genesis, The Enemy Within, An Alien Affair, Fortune Of Fear, Death Quest, Voyage Of Vengeance, Disaster, Villainy Victorious, The Doomed Planet
Also: Battlefield Earth, Dianetics

Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Series
1600+ other books and articles.

Wells, H.G.
The Time Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Monroe, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds

Verne, Jules
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Around the World in 80 Days

OTHER

White Wolf Publishers
Mage: The Ascension, Vampire: The Masquarade, Wraith: The Oblivion, Werewolf: The Apacolypse, Hunter: The Reckoning
(I figure that if you're reading DragonLance, that you're also probably playing some D&D or AD&D. If so, you may want to consider switching from TSR to WhiteWolf. I only suggest this because you've asked slashdot for some new reading.)

Re:Reading List

[swv3752]

Many of your recommendations are older but still good.

Some others:

Stephen R Donaldson: Very good writing with anti-typical protagonists- Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever series, The Gap Series, The Mirror of her dreams, Many short stories.

Alan Dean Foster: Mostly Humourous but some serious- Spellsinger, Dinotopia, Maori, Quozl, The Last Starfighter, Flinx, and many more

Glen Cook: Military Fantasy and Detective Fantasy- his novels of the Black Company and Garret typify his work
If anyone can recommend someone similiar to Glan Cook, I would be grateful.

Marion Zimmer Bradley: Darkover- I think she has written more Darkover novels than there exist Dragon Lance novels. Or maybe I should append that- good Dragon Lance novels.

Brian Lumley- Necronomicon and new Cthulu mythos books. A note, you will probably find his works in horror not SF/Fantasy.

My other suggestion is to google your favorite TSR Authors, and check out thier other works. And your local used book store is a treasure trove. I have found many Authors this way by picking books I would not normally read.

Re:Reading List

[G-funk]

Jordan, Robert
Wheel of Time Series
Books: Eye of the World, The Great Hunt, The Dragon Reborn, The Shadows Rising, The Fires of Heaven, Lord of Chaos, A Crown of Swords


I'm a huge fan of the WOT story and universe, but apart from the last few pages of winter's heart, the last 3 or so books have sucked. It's slow, and has diversified into too many different tales all at once... It's become a soap with magic. Kind of like Night's Dawn but not done as well. The next one is out in a few weeks I think, I hope it picks up the pace.

Doctorow, anyone?

[cel4145]

These have been mentioned on Slashdot before, but worth mentioning again here:

Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is a fun read. Besides, the "true" first edition seems to be the online one available for free download. The print edition is still unavailable on amazon.

You might check out salon for his stories Ownz0red and Liberation spectrum. Both are somewhat didactic, but they contain messages that most of this crowd will appreciate.

Honorverse: Not deep, but very fun

[gottabeme]

I wouldn't call the Honor books deep, but they're very fun to read. If you buy the hardcover edition of the 10th book in the series, War of Honor, it includes a CD-ROM with all of the books in the series in HTML, RTF, MS Reader, etc. formats, plus artwork, covers, schematics, other books in other series, and some other stuff. The publishers, Baen Books, are so generous that it says right on the CD that the contents can be freely distributed but not sold. You can download the first three books of the series for free from their Web site, Baen Books . If you hunt around you can probably find all of the Honorverse books online somewhere for download.

Turtledove and others

[CreationLtd]

Turtledove is certainly among my favorite. His main angle is alternate history (not the kind politicians play) where he creates novels based on how history would turn out should certain key events have turned out differently.

He is prolific, thought provoking, and just plain fun. Amongst his release...

The World At War series
Worldwar series
American Empire series
Ruled Brittania
Colonization series

Masses to read there.

Thumbs up as well for George RR Martin and his massive fantasy series Game of Thrones. I like Terry Brooks but his books have steadily shrunk in size and frequency. Even so his Shannara, Landover, and Knight of the Word series are great fun.

The human factor

[JPRelph]

Just to clarify on the human thing. The books are set at varying times, Consider Phlebas was set about 3000 years ago, and the rest of the books are not too far removed from our time, just far more advanced species of humanoid. One of his short stories, "The State of the Art" is set during the 1970s, and involves a Culture "Contact" ship and crew visiting Earth, and is mainly about their decision whether or not to contact us. They decide not to, but do in the next century or two (although that's mentioned in a different book). For human just read humanoid really. Also, while people can be transcribed into electronic form, if they do decide to auto-euthanise, they do actually die, completely. As for the Minds, I always remember that quote, the "If god did not exist, then we would have to create one" one (Voltaire, probably misquoted but it was like that). The Minds are basically created Gods in the way that WE would make them. Almost infinitely powerful, caring, fair, but with their own very unique personalities.

Great moments in history

[Xtifr]

J. Random Passerby: "Gee, Mr. Sturgeon, you write scifi? I've read some of this scifi stuff, and honestly, most of it is crud!"

Ted Sturgeon: "Indeed, about 90% of all science fiction is crud, but then 90% of everything, roughly speaking, is crud."

And thus was born Sturgeon's Law.

I used to dabble in scifi

I used to "dabble" in mainstream fiction, and found that most of it was crap. And what do we learn from this? Sturgeon was right.

Actually, I would argue that today, the meta-category of "speculative fiction" has, overall, a higher percentage of good stuff because it simply give the author more scope. All of time and space, all the lands of the imagination, up to and including the real world here-and-now. How can someone who is truly creative and inventive resist this wider scope? I think this is a fairly minor factor, and is partially offset by the stigma of being a "genre author", but I nevertheless think it's a factor.

avoid the topsellers lists, its filled with pedestrian crap

Here I strongly disagree. Sure, 90% of the bestsellers are crap, but remember Sturgeon's law. Throughout history, most of the great writers have been popular writers, at least as far back as Shakespeare. If you're not writing to entertain, then why the hell are you writing? I'd much rather have a novel written by someone who has worked for years to learn how to write an entertaining, popular novel, than by someone who has spent years trying to prove to the world how much smarter he is than the average joe.

The first step to enlightenment is to be a book snob.

Yeah, I tried that back when I was a young student, a couple of decades ago. Now, looking back, I realize what a pretentious young idiot I was. Back then, I thought James Joyce was the height to which literature could and should aspire. Now I realize that it's simply an interesting side-branch of literature. Worth investigating, but no better in any absolute sense than the best of the popular best-selling authors.

As for learning something, I think that in general, you'll do better to read some non-fiction. I read fiction for entertainment, and thus, I expect it to be entertaining. If it isn't, it's probably just a waste of my time.

Re:King Aurthur?

[DeComposer]

And since when did Fantasy get classified the same as Science Fiction? The two are very definitely NOT the same! It's fine to read one, the other, or both; but don't lump them into the same literary category.

Eric S. Nylund, SF writer & microsoft employee

[OneInEveryCrowd]

His A Signal Shattered and Signal to Noise books are both very good. If you like Neal Stephenson and Bruce Sterling you should check them out.

He also did a novelization of the game Halo but I never checked that one out.

If you're gonna mention Greg Bear....

[UrGeek]

....then you GOTTA mention _Blood_Music_. Tim Leary recommended it and it did complete blow my mind.

Science Fiction/Fantasy Writers On My List

[MisterMook]

These are just the authors of the books in my "put these away soon" pile. All have books that I have recently read and enjoyed and follow the basic theme of science fiction and/or fantasy. Qualifier: I have thousands of science fiction and fantasy novels and works collected by my father for over 50 years and I've been collecting them myself for over 20. I have an attic full of books, three rooms of bookshelves, and some in storage. Still there is a definite trend of taste in most of the books that some people might not share or agree with.

Lois McMaster Bujold (reread)

LMB simply deserves every accolade she's won. Of all the books of hers that I've read (which I believe with the completion of The Curse of Chalion now includes all of them) only Falling Free felt like it was wrote in haste or lack of care.

Harry Turtledove

Turtledove is the king of Alternative Historical Fiction and when he writes I always get the sense that he's gone to the effort of trying to get a unique or intimate perspective on the people or cultures he's writing about.

William Dietz

Not my favorite, but he's fun for neat explosions and one-liners occassionally I suppose.

Eric Flint

Hit or miss, I think that when he's writing with a co-author he sometimes either shows brilliance or else manages to bring out new ideas in otherwise somewhat tired authors.

Greg Bear

Vitals wasn't his best book mostly because of his insistence of switching viewpoints and thereby coming across like an accomplished conspiracy theorist. Sometimes I think he talks too much, like me. He's almost always dealing with a novel technology or idea though, so I generally read everything he writes.

David Drake

Unless it's yet another anthology of 20 year old stories, Drake is usually a good bet even when he's editing. Lately I've discovered that he's an acquired taste, though I still think that it's a worthwhile taste to acquire.

Laurell K Hamilton

Hamilton's major sticking point with me is that even her fantasy novels seem like they're firmly entrenched in the female romantic fiction market. Simply put, sometimes I feel like I'm reading soft core porn rather than something that I shouldn't be hiding the cover from passerbies.

Nancy Kress

I finished Probability Moon recently, but I had to pick it back up to remember anything about it. After reading through it some, I still don't remember much. I suppose that is a good endorsement that Kress doesn't do a whole lot for me.

Fritz Leiber

Every few years I reread Leiber, who in my opinion epitomizes a lot of good thing about past writers in the field that people don't do much anymore. His work is usually short and concise and complete. Since the present market is dominated by sometimes overly long winded, long running series I don't see how that can be a bad thing.

Charles Sheffield

Sometimes CS seems to have an underlining message to his books that I'm just not programmed to interpret. They're not bad books, they're memorable and mostly interesting. Perhaps it's that they sometimes lack a bit in plot development?

S M Stirling

SMS writes military science fiction primarily. In that, he's competent and worth filling a shelf or two checking him out. If you're out there cruising for new concepts or ideas though in your science fiction, I might recommend that you steer clear of him.

Fred Saberhagen

Another old favorite, like Asimov I doubt I've even begun to discover everything he's wrote to tell you how much I like it all. Every so often I delve into a dusty box of old books and find yet another book he's wrote or has a story in though, and each and every time I'm impressed. Sometimes you can tell that he's writing for a paycheck though, so some pieces are better than others.

Gordon R Dickson

I reread his old books, I buy his new ones. I recommend that everyone follow suit on general principles.

Ann Rice

Sometimes I get a lot of flak for reading her, but there is no denying that she started a trend with her books. Sometimes I wish her work were a little bit more like Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, who is a much better author of "vampire fiction" in my opinion. I'm always picking up the Mayfair Witches though, picking through it and rereading it. It's either good or I'm obsessive-compulsive.

Harry Harrison

Harrison isn't my favorite writer, but he's a good writer with a healthy portfolio of books to purchase from. If nothing else I think people should be familiar with his work in a sort of science fiction heritage way.

C S Friedman

I read Madness Season after passing the book over for years. I didn't know what to make of it, and I still don't. Part of me wants to like it, the other part insists that it's hokey. Sometimes hokey is fun though, so maybe someone else will enjoy it more than I did.

CJ Cherryh

When Cherryh writes about aliens, they're ALIEN, not funny looking humans with pointy ears or personifications of human traits. At least she tries, and her books set in her weird light speed restricted universe of Cyteen and Hellburner are pretty good too.

Jack McDevitt

Not a lot of people seem to know about Jack McDevitt, but more people should. I'm not sure how to classify his work, possibly because I haven't finished reading all of it. It seems like science fiction from a non-science fiction writer, which may be true. In any case it's usually fun and fascinating.

Poul Anderson

Anderson's Flandry novels always move me for some reason. Perhaps it's my father's deep affection for them. In any case, I reread one or two of them on occassion.

Steven Gould

A newer science fiction writer, of the "one gimmick" school. Boy though, does he write the gimmick well. Even as I sit here writing I can't help but look forward to his next book.

Dan Simmons

Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion might be the best science fiction books I've ever read. Carrion Comfort might be one of the better horror stories I've ever read. The Hollow Man is right up there in the top ten "literature disguised as science fiction" books...So, if you haven't read ANY of those, please go do so.

Joe Haldeman

Haldeman's talent seems to be slowing down, but every time I read something new that I don't entirely like I find myself picking up The Forever War and reading it again. The Forever War and Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card) ought to be required reading in high school I think.

David Weber

Honor Harrington lines the bookshelves, and since everyone else was buying it I didn't for a long time. Then after I read some of his other series, I turned around and gave it a try. Weber writes the equivalent of Science Fiction action flicks, but he does it well.

Bernard Cromwell

Cromwell doesn't really write science fiction or fantasy, but his Winter King series (I believe that is the name - the books are on loan right now)is good enough that I think he deserves mention. It's really one of the most interesting retellings of the Arthurian Legend I've ever read. I liked it so much I went and bought and read The Archer's Tale, which was quite good as well.

Gary Jennings

Gary Jennings bothers me sometimes. He writes too much, he bores me to tears, he makes me wonder if he'll ever finish his internal monologues and conversations sometimes. I still think he's worth reading, his Aztec books are so out of the ordinary that they read like fantasy.

I could continue, but is anyone really still reading now?

Sometimes Truth is Stranger than Fiction

[not_from_here]

like others have said, branch out a bit

Colleen McCullochs First Man in Rome series is awesome. i am on my third reading now. she has the largest collection of history books in the southern hemisphere and she tells the story so well. sulla is cooler than marius and julius ceasar is the man! She also wrote the Song of Troy which is an excellent story about Troy. taught me more about the history of it than i learnt in school.

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Breakfast of Champions is a funny book you can knock over in an afternoon. kilgore trouts story ideas are priceless.

James Clavell is pretty good. i really loved Noble House and King Rat and Shogun are also damn good reads.

Read some military history like Julius Ceasars Gallic Campaigns or the history of the french foreign legion or rommels book on tank warfare (i bet he wished he never wrote that!)

and the best book EVER is Dr. Suesses Sleep Book. The news just came in from the county of kek, tht a very small bug by the name of van vleck, is yawning so wide you can look down his neck. now this may not seem very important you know, but it is so i'm bothering telling you so.

tip: when you go to a bookshop, check out all the other sections!!

Modern Sci Fi Classics

[arrogance]

Neal Stephenson (who also wrote under the name Stephen Bury, title Interface: great book). I know he's been mentioned here, but it's worth reiterating. All of his books are great reads. Speaking of polymaths, it's amazing the number of people who say they've read everything good but have never read Stanislaw Lem (not recent I'll admit, but worthy of mention). He's the Ultimate sci-fi author: totally bleak, compelling, funny as hell. Other somewhat more recent stuff: William Gibson (Neuromancer et al), Bruce Sterling (The Difference Engine), Cory Doctorow (haven't read it but it's a free distro and was just mentioned on /.). The Culture novels by Iain Banks are wonderful. Have you read all of Orson Scott Card?

Didja Google? The tenth result lists: "2000 Thunderhead, D. Preston & L. Child: not sci-fi, but a standard southwest American Indian-based mystery with a smattering of archaeology Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson: excellent!, but an acquired taste, massively long; essentially two parallel tales of the Southwest Pacific, the Philippines and Indonesia split between World War II and today, with characters in the same families figuring in both threads; a long treatise on cryptography, with such characters as a young Alan Turing, and an invented Scottish Hebridean island; a bit of a treasure hunt spiced up with borderline criminal intent Darwin's Radio, Greg Bear: biological sci-fi, a rare sub-genre Enchantment, Orson Scott Card: not sci-fi, on the border between folk-tale and fantasy; this is not Card's normal genre, and he has immense fun with it; quite humorous, with an edge 2001 The Silk Code, P. Levinson: another entry in the genre of biological sci-fi, with a focus on the Amish and the Mennonites, with a bit of Neanderthal thrown in Perseus Spur (v1), Julian May: a trilogy with attitude, her characters are in the Dashiel Hammett or Humphrey Bogart vein, true smart alecks that have lots of odd and bad things happen to them; mixed up with planetary corporations gone bad, and other familiar villainy; she has always written well, but her humor is in the fore here Orion Arm (v2), Julian May: Sagittarius Whorl (v3), Julian May: Pegasus in Space, Anne McCaffrey: if you're familiar with her short stories about "Pegasus" (contemporary and a little in the future attempts to study and control real human psi powers), this is the first full-length novel in that series The Book of Q, J. Rabb: very good; not sci-fi, but another "hidden document" mystery/adventure with (again) the overtones and background of early Christianity, this time with conspiracies and Ludlum-esque action starting in contemporary war-torn Eastern Europe The Eye of Horus, C. Thurston: not sci-fi, but a cross between Egyptology, archaeology, and a forensic mystery; a surprisingly good first novel, parallel threads between ancient Egypt and contemporary events Wheelers, Ian Stewart & J. Cohen: a cross between the "mysterious alien artifact" genre and warring academic factions and "save the world" situations"

Another must read (immediately) ....

[fferreres]

Simmons, Dan
Hyperion

here's a good list

[on the 8ball]

I have also read thousands of SF books and these are some of my favorites. Try reading one book by each author and you will be happy for months. Not all are new, but all are good to great (IMHO).

==A==

Kevin J. Anderson, Poul Anderson, Patricia Anthony, Isaac Asimov, Robert Asprin

==B==

Kage Baker, Iain M. Banks, John Barnes, William Barton, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Ben Bova, David Brin, John Brunner, Lois McMaster Bujold, Chris Bunch

__C__

Orson Scott Card, Jeffrey A. Carver, Jack L. Chalker, C. J. Cherryh, Arthur C. Clarke

__D__

John Dalmas, Philip K. Dick, Gordon R. Dickson, William C. Dietz, Stephen R. Donaldson, David Drake

__EFG__

George Alec Effinger, David Feintuch, Alan Dean Foster, Robert Frezza, William Gibson

__H__

Peter F. Hamilton, Robert A. Heinlein, Frank Herbert, James P. Hogan

__KL__

Nancy Kress, Henry Kuttner, Keith Laumer, Fritz Leiber, Ursala K. LeGuin, Paul Levinson

__MN__

Ian MacDonald, Ken MacLeod, Susan R. Matthews, Julian May, Anne McCaffrey, Jack McDevitt, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., Elizabeth Moon, Larry Niven

__PR__

H. Beam Piper, Frederik Pohl, Terry Pratchett, Mike Resnick, Kim Stanley Robinson

__S__

Fred Saberhagen, Robert J. Sawyer, James H. Schmitz, Charles Sheffield, Robert Silverberg, Dan Simmons, Norman Spinrad, Allan Steele, S. M. Stirling

__TV__

Sheri S. Tepper, George Turner, Harry Turtledove, John Varley, S. I. Viehl, Vernor Vinge

__WZ__

David Weber, James White, Connie Willis, David Wingrove, Timothy Zahn, Sarah Zettel

Terry Brooks

[JS7773]

Terry Brooks is one of my favorite authors.

from www.terrybrooks.net...
The Original Shannara Trilogy
The Sword of Shannara
The Elfstones of Shannara
The Wishsong of Shannara

The Heritage of Shannara
The Scions of Shannara
The Druid of Shannara
The Elf Queen of Shannara
The Talismans of Shannara

A Shannara Trilogy Prequel:
First King of Shannara

The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara

Ilse Witch
Antrax
Morgawr

The Ard Rhys of Shannara
Jarka Ruus (forthcoming September 2003)
Book Two (untitled, forthcoming September 2004)
Book Three (untitled, forthcoming September 2005)

The World of Shannara
The Sword of Shannara Trilogy

The Magic Kingdom of Landover
Magic Kingdom For Sale -- Sold!
The Black Unicorn
Wizard At Large
The Tangle Box
Witches' Brew

The Word & the Void Trilogy
Running with the Demon
A Knight of the Word
Angel Fire East

Other Works
Imaginary Friends (short story)
Hook (novelization)
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (novelization)
Sometimes the Magic Works (forthcoming March 4th, 2003)

Some Great Authors...

[Matrix2110]

No particular order.

Neil Stephenson (any book)

Leo Frankowski (Adventures of Conrad Stargard series)

Terry Pratchett (Discworld series)

Simon R. Green (Deathstalker series)

L.E. Modesitt Jr.(most any book)

C.S. Friedman (Coldfire Trilogy)

Laurell K. Hamilton (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series)

Steve Perry (Matador series)

Orson Scott Card (Ender series)

Terry Brooks (Sword series)

Robert Jordan (Wheel of time series)

Terry Goodkind (Sword of truth series)

Alan Dean Foster (most any book)

Eric Frank Russell (most any book)

Keith Laumer (Retief series)

Glen Cook (Black company series, Garret, P.I. series)

Pick up most any book by these authors and you are in for a treat! I included the "old school" authors Russell and Laumer because they tend to get overlooked. I promise you that Hamilton and Goodkind books are almost impossible to put down.

Cory Doctorow is an impressive newcomer as well with "Down and out at Disneyworld" Located here: (for free!) http://www.boingboing.net/

Enjoy!

Re:Not obvious

[Grab]

Hell, if you can start with something which the reader thinks is a cliche and then surprise the reader with something they really weren't expecting, isn't that the *definition* of good writing?

Grab.

Sigh! parody anyone?

[danro]

It's a parody, get it?
Kind of like spaceballs.
Stephenson is mocking the "cyberpunk"-genre by taking the already over-the-top jargon really over the top. Introducing things like the full-body personal airbag (good for jumping into a busy freeway from a low flying helicopter), the fusion-powered gauss-gattling gun (requiering a mid-sized lake to dip the heatsink in) mentioned in the parent post.
And, last, but not least, the pacemaker wired to your own personal nuclear warhead (for those of you that really, really crave the same respect for your person that people otherwise only give major soverign states).

Reread it as a parody and I can almost promise you you'll enjoy it.

I'm sure you'll listen to reason... ;-)

Re:You forgot some...

[Fredbo]

He didn't forget them, they weren't worth mentioning. He did however forget Heinlein.

Eddings

[njj]

If you want to try something of Eddings, beware. There are two 5-piece series and two 3-piece series.

Strictly speaking, there's just one series. He just keeps republishing it with different titles, and different names for some of the characters, that's all.

nicholas

Gordon R. Dickson

[t8k_it_ez]

Don't know if this has already been mentioned or if you've already read them but the Dragon Knight series by Gordon R. Dickson. I love them all. 1. The Dragon and the George 2. The Dragon Knight 3. The Dragon on the Border 4. The Dragon at War 5. The Dragon, The Earl and the Troll 6. The Dragon and the Djinn 7. The Dragon & the Gnarley King 8. The Dragon In Lyonesse 9. The Dragon and the Fair Maid of Kent The author died a couple years ago so no more to this series.