Recommended authors [Science Fiction]

You're viewing

science_fiction
Create a Dreamwidth Account Learn More

Reload page in style: site light

←

→

To get the discussion going, how about recommending some favourite books and authors to each other?

I'm a fan of Isaac Asimov, John Wyndham and Anne McCaffrey, for totally different styles of writing.

←

→

There are 28 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

I still have a soft spot for the Tower and Hive books, although I'm a bit scared to go back and reread them for fear they'll have lost their luster now that I'm not 13 anymore.

I love Roger Zelazny's forays in into science fiction/science fantasy: Lord of Light and Doorways in the Sand being the standouts. (I may well be the only person who likes Eye of Cat and Creatures of Light and Darkness. But I like them. And recommend them.) Zelazny had some real issues writing women, but I find his work deeply enjoyable even with that flaw.

Iain M. Banks's Culture is probably my favorite SF universe, though it can be hard to get into. He's profoundly concerned with social justice, and it shows.

In guilty pleasures, I like the Zahn Star Wars tie-ins, and Diane Duane's Star Trek ones.

Sorry for the double-post. DW hiccuped on me.

[link] [parent] [reply]

Tower and Hive is still good to me; just stop as soon as the McCaffrey's Id starts getting to you (usually about four books in, for me.) I also still like her Ship Who books, too.

And I adored Eye of Cat! And Lord of Light, and Doorways in the Sand, and all of his that I've read, more or less (haven't gotten around to Creatures of Light and Darkness yet, though. I think. I once read nine Zelaznys in a week; that may have been one of them.)

[link] [parent] [reply]

Oh, speaking of id, I also remember the Crystal Singer books fondly.

Creatures: Egyptian gods and other archetypes duke it out in the far future.

[link] [parent] [reply]

It's the only Asimov I have read but as someone with a (fondly earnt) philosophy degree it blows my mind !

Have you tried "Caves of Steel" and "The Naked Sun"? They're good, too. Philosophy-wise, "The End of Eternity" has fun time-travel stuff.

Edited Date: 2009-04-09 06:14 pm (UTC)

[link] [parent] [reply]

My biggest sci-fi fannishness is the Vorkosigan universe.

I've thought about rereading Anne McCaffrey's books with a critical/fannish eye, because I suspect that I'll still enjoy them, even if they aren't "good."

I'm also a big fan of Octavia Butler and Mary Doria Russell.

I am really interested in female sci-fi writers in general, and sci-fi that deals with gender & sexuality.

I like the Vorkosigan series by Lois Bujold. I think Memory is my favorite of the series, though I really like Cetaganda and A Civil Campaign too.

I love the Valor series by Tanya Huff.

The Hitchhiker's series by Adams.

I usually prefer series to stand alone books because it takes me forever to learn characters' names and I figure if I'm going to go to the trouble of learning about these people, I want to get more than one book out of the deal. *g*

I read a lot of media tie-ins, especially in the Stargate and Star Trek universes. There are a few like The Lives of Dax and The Romulan Way that stand out as decent sf literature.

While I wasn't crazy about The Romulan Way, I thought both The Wounded Sky and The Final Reflection were damn good sf novels.

[link] [parent] [reply]

I am a bad fan who has never read The Final Refelction. I should rectify that.

[link] [parent] [reply]

Oh, it's great. I prefer the John M. Ford Klingons to the "real" Klingons to this day.

[link] [parent] [reply]

I agree completely with you. Ford's Klingons made sense to me in a lot of ways.

Though I did love Majliss Larson's take in Pawns and Symbols.

[link] [parent] [reply]

There are a few like The Lives of Dax and The Romulan Way that stand out as decent sf literature.

Oh, The Romulan Way is fantastic. Also My Enemy, My Ally which is its prequel. Anything by Diane Duane, really.

But I think the quality of the Star Trek novels has gone downhill since they started insisting everything should fit into the same continuity.

[link] [parent] [reply]

But I think the quality of the Star Trek novels has gone downhill since they started insisting everything should fit into the same continuity.

I agree. There are only a few books in recent years that I liked. Lives of Dax, which I already mentioned, and Tales of the Dominion War. Articles of the Federation wasn't bad either, though it's certainly not a favorite of mine. And some of the DS9 relaunch story was good. But most of it has been pretty bland and uninteresting in recent years.

A lot of the older stuff, though, is great. There are plenty of duds, of course, but there are several novels that really shine.

(I need more Star Trek icons.)

[link] [parent] [reply]

Diane Duane wrote my other totally favorite Star Trek novel, Doctor's Orders, too. She's good stuff.

Edited Date: 2009-04-16 09:12 pm (UTC)

[link] [parent] [reply]

Oddly enough, I've lately been reading more fantasy (and specifically old fantasy, like Clark Ashton Smith and Lord Dunsany) than sf, but I used to be a big fan of Poul Anderson, Larry Niven, and Robert Heinlein.* And Arthur C. Clarke, though he tended to not bother with plot IMHO. Also, I haven't followed Catherine Asaro's later books, but I read Primary Inversion in one sitting. And early William Gibson, though aside from All Tomorrow's Parties I haven't really followed him since the Sprawl trilogy.

* Yeah, I know all the ways he's problematic, but I actually preferred later works like The Number of the Beast and The Cat Who Walks Through Walls. RAH said somewhere--maybe in Expanded Universe?--that he'd gotten fascinated with Donald Barthelme (i.e. postmodern metafiction), and it's always seemed clear to me that that's the sort of thing Heinlein was playing with in his last few works. But then, I'm the guy who thinks Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse: Dune are the best of Frank Herbert's series--Finally we get off that rock!--so YMMV.

I'm very much a Heinlein fan, and I see the 'problems' just as I see the ones McCaffrey has...but I remain unabashedly a fan when people consistently tell me I should like neither.

[link] [parent] [reply]

Right on. But then, it's a useful attitude when you keep liking things that everyone else seems to trash (The Cape, The Black Donnelys, Star Trek: The Motion Picture until fairly recently, etc.).

[link] [parent] [reply]

Amen. I tend to be prickly when someone tells me why I 'should not' enjoy things.

[link] [parent] [reply]

Let's see...McCaffrey (Pern, Ship, Crystal, Tower/Pegasus, and Freedom)
Dune (prequels, original, sequels)
Heinlein (more future history, but several juvies are in my must read piles)
I know now he'd be classed as Fantasy, but Burroughs' Barsoom series.
Star Wars novels (select ones, not New Jedi Order)
Star Trek novels (old Pocket Book imprint)
Piers Anthony's Battle Circle, to me, feels more sci-fi as it is a post apocalyptic world without magic.
And a wonderfully solid read called Emergence by David Palmer that few seem to have heard of.

Holy crap, the President wrote a novel? Now I have to read it. :-)

[link] [parent] [reply]

*snicker*

You know, I never even noticed that, because I've owned that book since 1991/2.

[link] [parent] [reply]

And a wonderfully solid read called Emergence by David Palmer that few seem to have heard of.

Maybe not that few. I went to my Paperback Swap account to see about ordering it. The wait list is 46 people long. (Not the longest list I've seen, but longer than most.)

[link] [parent] [reply]

That is awesome. I have only met two people in real life who had ever heard of it.

[link] [parent] [reply]

Emergence gets mentioned a lot at cons in "best books you've never heard of" panels. I got mail from David R. Palmer... last summer? summer before last? saying that he finally had lined up a publisher and was going to publish the sequel to Threshold and a sequel to Emergence, but I think it fell through and never happened.

I'm still hoping, though.

[link] [parent] [reply]

Analog serialized the Emergence sequel, in the July/August and September 2008 issues. I don't remember if that was all of it, or if it continued into later issues as well.

[link] [parent] [reply]

Oooh, a fellow Dune lover :B! I get you're reading/have read Brian Herbert novels too (as you mention the prequels)? This Universe is so lovely and there's so much that still can be said about it.

[link] [parent] [reply]

I think there is so much more left to explore, and hope Paul of Dune is not their last collaboration.

[link] [parent] [reply]

March