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There was a thread much like this on another forum I post on... I wrote a long response peppered with recommendations and a few warnings. It is all rather informal, so take it with a grain of salt...
| quote: | For a recent cheap and dirty read, try Ken MacLeod - Newton's Wake. Modern space opera with a socialist spin, not to be taken seriously. His best work is The Cassini Division--don't let the fact that it is part of a series throw you off; it can be enjoyed on its own. There is a heavy socialist theme running through it; plenty of politics, although it isn't particularly deep or enlightening. Trotskyite entertainment for pub-going slacker revolutionaries.
Dumb yet fun space opera: Jack McDevitt. Read The Engines of God but stop there and leave the mystery to tantalize your imagination. After four books he TOTALLY blows it. Infinity Beach is all right as well.
Ursula K. Le Guin has many great works: The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, etc. Not sure what to say, both should be read by everyone with an interest in SF.
Samuel R. Delany is brilliant. Read Dhalgren. Read it again. Do not read William Gibson's introduction, just puzzle it out for yourself. Don't read web pages. Read nothing about this book, not even the back, just get right into it and see what you find. Warning: it is a real challenge, there isn't necessarily any kind of plot or resolution (it's very cryptic) and there is a great deal of obscenity present within those pages. Stars In My Pocket Like Grains Of Sand is also a good one from Delany, but most of his books will appeal to outsiders and freaks with an attention span and an appreciation for poetic prose.
Philip K. Dick... like you needed a hint? Ubik, Martian Time-Slip, Do Androids Dream, Flow My Tears The Policeman Said, A Scanner Darkly, Now Wait For Last Year (a drug that whips the user back and forth in time!!)... lots of madness to be discovered in his body of work. A modern day genius from the last days of pulp, but can be very depressing at times!
JACK VANCE. Read: To Live Forever, the Planet of Adventure series, Cugel's Saga and Eyes Of The Overworld, Alastor ???: Wyst, and others... blends fantasy, world-building, science fiction, social issues, humour, and the writing is completely original--no one writes like this guy. Keep a dictionary handy, he loves to throw in complicated archaic words.
John Brunner is good 60s/70s "issues" exploration... start with Stand On Zanzibar (population explosion), move on to The Shockwave Rider (information overload--this book coined the term "worm" as in computer virus!), Jagged Orbit (ah, I forget), and IF YOU ARE REALLY BRAVE... The Sheep Look Up, a horrifying tale focusing on ecological collapse. Although he is a British author, his work is typically littered with a wry take on American values, race relations, and such things. Maybe its an acquired taste--his work is not well-regarded to my knowledge, but I have always enjoyed his stories for their prophetic angle, however many things he failed to foresee. Trashy, one would say.
Alfred Bester: a golden age titan. The Demolished Man. The Stars, My Destination. His style takes a massive influence from comic books of the time, and it shows. Pulp with an edge.
James Tiptree Jr. You won't hear much about him, shall we say. Up The Walls Of The World is the one to go with. Brightness Falls From Air is wonderful. It would make an incredible stage play!! Killer writing, and when you're done (and only then), research the author for an interesting surprise.
Robert Charles Wilson blends wonder and mystery into a whole bunch of great books that will keep you up at night, wide-eyed, turning pages. The Bridge of Years, Mysterium, Darwinia, The Chronoliths, The Harvest, etc. Avoid his more recent work--he's pulling a Robert Sawyer (trying to appeal to the mainstream). Personally, he's one of my favourites for pure escapism.
Alistair Reynolds gets lots of hype from the cyber-space opera fans these days, but I don't know. I didn't like Revelation Space the first time around but really enjoyed it on read two. Contrariwise, my opinion of, well, all the rest totally went down on a second read, Chasm City in particular. It all seems so pointless, although it undoubtedly has a lot of style. Redemption Ark was an exercise in frustration... again, cool ideas, but ultimately lame if you ask me. I have read mixed reviews of his newer works so I am hesitant to give him another spin.
A.E. Van Vogt - one of the old guard! Eventually turned to Scientology, but don't let Canada's most famous golden age SF writer out of your sight. His snappy prose, all concerning goons and flighty girls with big boobs, might be old-fashioned and downright misogynist at times, but it provides an interesting look into the 1940s mentality. I struggle to think up a good book or two to start with, but try out his classic Null-A series (an obvious early inspiration for Dianetics), Slan, and maybe The Darkness On Diamondia. Only for the brave. Kitsch/trash/pulp.
Greg Bear. He wrote Eon I think it was? Not bad. Artifact was fun when I was a kid. Gregory Benford. He wrote In The Ocean Of Night and five books that followed. Somewhat poorly written, and the plots are usually unbelievable, but his ideas of a malevolent universe are very chilling and thrilling. Try it out. One of these guys wrote The Martian Race which I found to be quite satisfying, but I usually mix them up. The Forge Of God is another title from one of these guys that I enjoyed even though its pure eighties cheese.
Kim Stanley Robinson. Widely recommended, fairly satisfying. His non-SF is decent too. The Mars Trilogy generally wins everyone's approval. Smart guy!
Cory Doctorow. Star of the blogosphere, well known from his time working on BoingBoing. That Wonderland book of his has some cool ideas in it. Available online or buy it in the shops. The reputation economy he explores with great humour is fun to read about. Light fare.
Joan D. Vinge - The Snow Queen, World's End, and The Summer Queen. Still one of the greatest stories in the genre, mixing myth and a believable far future civilization coming out of the dark ages. Archetypes galore. Highly recommended.
Dan Simmons. Used to adore the Cantos, but now I sort of despise him. He uses his books as his own fetishistic literary playground, dropping in classic poets and characters from history even when it makes no sense to do so. Hyperion, modeled after The Canterbury Tales, is fantastic, the sequel, less so. After re-reading the Endymion duo (concluding the Cantos) I decided I will never touch those again. Wild ideas but maddening plot twists. Bloated. Ilium infuriated me. Can this man write an original story without plucking characters from Homer and Shakespeare? It just doesn't fit. Didn't even bother with Olympos. I think the first half of the Hyperion Cantos is worth reading but the others, although they have some interesting ideas, are incredibly hollow.
Stephen Baxtar. Grr! The first Manifold book is AWESOME! Squid in space? I'm sold! The other two made me angry. He wrote an interesting book called Titan that had me hooked. Really goes for that semi-realistic near-future astronautics thing.
John Varley, oh yeah! A real Heinleinite with a number of GREAT stories. Start with Steel Beach and then try The Golden Globe. His older trilogy, Wizard/Demon/Titan is good and not good at the same time. His newer work like Red Thunder is shamelessly corny but kind of fun if you don't need serious reading. Go with Steel Beach!
Jack L. Chalker. Terrible writing and character development, but his books have some insanely creative ideas... or rather, his Well World series does. For corny SF you can do worse. Midnight At The Well Of Souls is where you start, and don't bother continuing if you can't get into it.
Clifford D. Simak... he was a newspaperman from the Midwest, and frequently wrote about the intersection between rural America and strange otherworldly affairs... he has a very pastoral writing style. I sometimes turn to his work when I want something simple to take me out of the damn city. I recommend Time Is The Simplest Thing, All Flesh Is Grass, Way Station (his Hugo winner), and Ring Around The Sun.
Greg Egan. Pure science, but insanely imaginative! If you have the brain for it, try Schild's Ladder. If you have the balls for it, read the last half (when they dip into the universe with alternate physics) on some kind of drug.
You want some trash? Allan Steele - Labyrinth of Night. Aging rock star gets sent to Mars to figure out a puzzle in the 5-pointed pyramid next to the Face. Ludicrous but entertaining.
Charles Sheffield. Sometimes his writing annoys the hell of out me--its basically a science special with a cardboard character to drive the narrative--but the series that starts with, ah, Summertide (?) is really good and entertaining.
The classics: Dune is everything they say it is. Read it. The sequels, not quite as good. Asimov. Essentially an idea man, not one for complex characters. Foundation is a light read. Childhood's End is something I studied in high school. Decent, nothing more. Heinlein has some good work, but avoid his "bloat" period (typically the later years). Stranger In A Strange Land is a good starting place. I can't stand Bradbury. Orwell's 1984 is worth a perusal, naturally. Very influential and justifiably so. Orson Scott Card is good high school material but stick with Ender's Game. It gets very fluffy after that. I never got much out of Harlan or Moorcock or those guys. A lot of what is considered to be "classic SF" is easily digestible idea stuff... never was into that so much--I tend to like it complicated or weird.
Cyberpunk. Intensely fashionable but often poorly written IMHO. Gibson and Stephenson have a lot of good works, most already recommended (Snow Crash/Neuromancer, both great). Bruce Sterling doesn't get nearly as much credit--check out Schismatrix Plus for a mind-bending trip through the future of the solar system. Rudy Rucker is another idea man, perverse and full of interesting things to say, but his characters are like cartoons. Software/Wetware is where you begin. Avoid Pat Cadigan.
David Zindell. Tremendously obscure. You may have to go to some lengths to score a copy of Neverness, The Broken God, The Vild, and War In Heaven, but they are worth it. The story is too big to explain, but there are many reasons why this series is compared to Dune/Hyperion. Might upset the more philosophically minded, but for a layman like me it was gold. I really appreciate that the main protagonist takes a vow of non-violence and manages to get through tremendous obstacles (almost) without harming another creature. Neverness might turn you off, but skip to The Broken God if so. Should give you lots of mind pain! Read to find out what I mean.
Vernor Vinge wrote a number of hard SF novels that have earned him a stellar reputation. From his early years, check out Marooned In Realtime, a collection of (three?) novellas based around an interesting concept. A Deepness In The Sky and Fire Upon The Deep are his recent hits. Good stuff.
To finish this off, here are a few more books I would recommend:
Iain Banks - The Algebraist
James Blish - A Case of Conscience
Fredrik Pohl - Gateway
Larry Niven - Ringworld
Philip José Farmer - To Your Scattered Bodies Go |
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