Recommendations of Sci-Fi novels to read.

[ketamine]

Un Lun Dun by China Mieville



Never finished it because it creeped me out...

[leebass]

Yep, + 1 for Philip K Dick

A Scanner Darkly and Ubik are his best novels i've read.

Has anyone mentioned Iain M Banks yet?
Have only read Use Of Weapons and it is excellent.

[djake]

vurt by jeff noon

[kay]

Here're some of my favourites:
Iain M Banks - Excession
David Brin - The Uplift War saga
Frank Herbert - Dune
Jane Jensen - Dante's Equation
Sherri S Tepper - Grass (and related novels)
Stephen Baxter - Raft
Stephen Baxter - Timelike Infinity
Stephen Baxter - Ring
Stephen Baxter - Evolution
Mary Gentle - Ash
Joe Haldeman - Camouflage

On the fantasy side, can't recommend Game of Thrones enough. Unfortunately, it's being written even more slowly than the Wheel of Time series. But the writing in it blows everything out of the water. Others:
Roger Zelazny - The Chronicles of Amber
Melanie Rawn, Kate Elliot, Jennifer Robertson - The Golden Key

[particle-jim]

No1 mentioned J.G. Ballard yet?

I am disappoint...

[parson]

ecstasy club by douglas rushkoff

[wayoftheworld]

'the invisibles' and 'the filth' by grant morrison

[EBR]

L Ron Hubbard "Battle Field Earth"



' actually read this 1,000 page book 9 times over the years. Believe it or not, its a page turner.

and this was before he lost his mind and declared himself a god.

[the acid never lies]

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy is good. Political without being dry.

[dutty_switch]

Read The Cloud Atlas. Its not technically sci-fi but its fucking mental. Pretty hard to follow at points but its awesome.

[cogidubnus]

Another bump for Philip K Dick, I highly rate - Flow My Tears the Policeman Said, Now Wait for Last Year, Scanner Darkly, Valis & Do Androids Dream

Iain M Banks - a bit variable, but you won't go wrong with Consider Phlebas, The Player of Games or Look to Windward.

China Mieville's SF/Fantasy series starting with Perdido Street Station and The Scar is pretty fucking awesome.

..and Jeff Noon's Vurt & Pollen books are superb (but possibly hard to find now), especially if you know Manchester well!

Been hearing a lot of good stuff about Alistair Reynolds, need to check him out soon.

[wolf89]

Cheers guys

[kay]

Another bump for Philip K Dick, I highly rate - Flow My Tears the Policeman Said, Now Wait for Last Year, Scanner Darkly, Valis & Do Androids Dream

Iain M Banks - a bit variable, but you won't go wrong with Consider Phlebas, The Player of Games or Look to Windward.

China Mieville's SF/Fantasy series starting with Perdido Street Station and The Scar is pretty fucking awesome.

..and Jeff Noon's Vurt & Pollen books are superb (but possibly hard to find now), especially if you know Manchester well!

Been hearing a lot of good stuff about Alistair Reynolds, need to check him out soon.

Yes, his stuff is solid. Normally I'd've included both Reynolds and Mieville in any recommendation list, but sometimes their stuff is a little bit more difficult to get into. The City & The City is still on my to-read list.

[mikey_g]

cant beleive no-one's mentioned Michael Moorcock. His most famous work is the Elric books which are part of a massive concept of many books called the eternal champion - (from wiki - The "Eternal Champion" is engaged in a constant struggle with not only conventional notions of good and evil, but also in the struggle for balance between Law and Chaos. In a sense this reflects the idea of the "golden mean" as the ideal condition of being (Marcus Aurelius, etc). Many of Moorcock's most successful books follow this theme of promoting a dynamic stability which frees humanity (or thinking beings) from the burdens of superstition, hate and fear. The "black sword", which appears as the eternal champion's ally and/or nemesis in many of the fantasy novels, is explicitly identified as representing fear.)

i cant recommend his book s enough but I would defnitely start with the elric books as they are amazing. so deep and well structured - (again from wiki) - 'Elric is an anti-hero written as a deliberate reversal of what Moorcock saw as clichés commonly found in fantasy adventure novels inspired by the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, and a direct antithesis of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian.'

The guy collaborated with HAWKWIND on a concept album written around the books and he was named by the times in 2008 as one of the 50 most influential britch writers since 1945.

[kay]

cant beleive no-one's mentioned Michael Moorcock. His most famous work is the Elric books which are part of a massive concept of many books called the eternal champion - (from wiki - The "Eternal Champion" is engaged in a constant struggle with not only conventional notions of good and evil, but also in the struggle for balance between Law and Chaos. In a sense this reflects the idea of the "golden mean" as the ideal condition of being (Marcus Aurelius, etc). Many of Moorcock's most successful books follow this theme of promoting a dynamic stability which frees humanity (or thinking beings) from the burdens of superstition, hate and fear. The "black sword", which appears as the eternal champion's ally and/or nemesis in many of the fantasy novels, is explicitly identified as representing fear.)

i cant recommend his book s enough but I would defnitely start with the elric books as they are amazing. so deep and well structured - (again from wiki) - 'Elric is an anti-hero written as a deliberate reversal of what Moorcock saw as clichés commonly found in fantasy adventure novels inspired by the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, and a direct antithesis of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian.'

The guy collaborated with HAWKWIND on a concept album written around the books and he was named by the times in 2008 as one of the 50 most influential britch writers since 1945.

I'm afraid to say I didn't think much of the Elric stories. Might have been overhyped to me so I was expecting something completely lifechanging.

[mikey_g]

I'm afraid to say I didn't think much of the Elric stories. Might have been overhyped to me so I was expecting something completely lifechanging.

gutted dude. did you read them all and in order?

[cogidubnus]

cant beleive no-one's mentioned Michael Moorcock. His most famous work is the Elric books which are part of a massive concept of many books called the eternal champion - (from wiki - The "Eternal Champion" is engaged in a constant struggle with not only conventional notions of good and evil, but also in the struggle for balance between Law and Chaos. In a sense this reflects the idea of the "golden mean" as the ideal condition of being (Marcus Aurelius, etc). Many of Moorcock's most successful books follow this theme of promoting a dynamic stability which frees humanity (or thinking beings) from the burdens of superstition, hate and fear. The "black sword", which appears as the eternal champion's ally and/or nemesis in many of the fantasy novels, is explicitly identified as representing fear.)

i cant recommend his book s enough but I would defnitely start with the elric books as they are amazing. so deep and well structured - (again from wiki) - 'Elric is an anti-hero written as a deliberate reversal of what Moorcock saw as clichés commonly found in fantasy adventure novels inspired by the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, and a direct antithesis of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian.'

The guy collaborated with HAWKWIND on a concept album written around the books and he was named by the times in 2008 as one of the 50 most influential britch writers since 1945.

I couldn't get into the Elric stories at all, I read the Fantasy Masterworks edition and read I think the first 3 stories before tossing it, seemed to be fairly standard adolescent sword & sorcery bollocks, but maybe I just wasn't in the mood at the time.

HOWEVER, I have read some excellent stuff by Moorcock - Dancers at the End of Time is one of my favourite books, Behold the Man is well worth a look and I picked up an old second-hand paperback a while back in a charity shop called Breakfast in the Ruins which is a stunning novel (and I think featured the same character as BTM, although it wasn't a sequel). I started the Cornelius series as well a while back, still got quite a few of them on my shelf to be read (but I've got awkwardly large compendium volumes which aren't particularly easy to read on the bus).

[HRKRT]

Un Lun Dun by China Mieville



Never finished it because it creeped me out...

has anyone read Perdido Street Station China Mieville? that book was gripping.. scary funny sexy it had everything.

i think what i loved about it was that even though it was utterly sci-fi, it had a real human element to it, with poverty, the way the characters interacted with each other, the themes it brought forward etc.
absolutely brilliant. kay if you havent read it you should you would love it!!!

[cogidubnus]

has anyone read Perdido Street Station China Mieville? that book was gripping.. scary funny sexy it had everything.

i think what i loved about it was that even though it was utterly sci-fi, it had a real human element to it, with poverty, the way the characters interacted with each other, the themes it brought forward etc.
absolutely brilliant. kay if you havent read it you should you would love it!!!

It's a fantastic novel, as is the sequel The Scar. I was less keen on Iron Council though, and I haven't picked up The City and The City yet (although I think that's standalone)

You might like Jeff Vandermeer's stuff as well, quite similar in style.

This thread is reminding me that with one thing and another, I haven't read a book in about 3 months, need to do something about that...

[mikey_g]

I couldn't get into the Elric stories at all, I read the Fantasy Masterworks edition and read I think the first 3 stories before tossing it, seemed to be fairly standard adolescent sword & sorcery bollocks, but maybe I just wasn't in the mood at the time.

HOWEVER, I have read some excellent stuff by Moorcock - Dancers at the End of Time is one of my favourite books, Behold the Man is well worth a look and I picked up an old second-hand paperback a while back in a charity shop called Breakfast in the Ruins which is a stunning novel (and I think featured the same character as BTM, although it wasn't a sequel). I started the Cornelius series as well a while back, still got quite a few of them on my shelf to be read (but I've got awkwardly large compendium volumes which aren't particularly easy to read on the bus).

i'd definitely say its worth reading the whole elric saga, maybe its a bit slow moving but i didnt think so. the story as a whole (6 different volumes split into 22 books) is fantastic but you would have to see it all to fully see the sides to elric. there are a couple of parts i didnt get on with but i would expect that with any book and found it worthwile persisting. 22 books does sound like alot but the books are relatively short, i'd estimate all 22 books is the equivalent of 2 lotr's books. i recommended these to a longtime gf who didnt like fantasy and she thought they were so good she tried to steal them when we split. i dont think they are life changing but i did find them very thought provoking, hugely more so than standard fantasy books, the whole eternal champion/law against choas theory is very insteresting.

agreed on dancers at teh end of time. i've also read corum, which was good but very similar in arc to elric.