Books and Writers

[Jynks]

I was woundering what are some of the members fav scifi books and writers, or what they are currently reading?

I am reading a great book at the moment called "Dragon Egg" by Robert L Forward. an "ultra" hard scifi writter. He is kind of like Hal Clement as in uses lots and lots of real science in his stories.

He worked on such projects as space tethers and space fountains, solar sails (including Starwisp), antimatter propulsion, and other spacecraft propulsion technologies, and did further research on more esoteric possibilities such as time travel and negative matter. In addition to over 200 papers and articles, he published 11 novels. He described his first novel, Dragon's Egg, as "A textbook on neutron star physics disguised as a novel."

Dragons Egg is really great so far. I am only about 1/2 way though it though. It is about a nutronstar that has compressed and been flung out into deep space and is about to pass close to earth. There are intelegent creatures living on it. They are kinda like large amebia. As the gavaty on the star is massive they are large, flat and liquid like. This book is so good. It is the first decent scifi, or what i call "exploritive" scifi I have read in ages. The plot is so so, but the plot isn't the point. The point is just to use your imagination as you enter this completly alien world. Really great stuff.

A Robert L Forward's science fiction books

[dinky]

first sci-fi books I read and liked were fahrenheit 451</i> and alien vs. predator: prey</i>.



never liked brave new world</i>. dunno why. maybe cuz I never chose to read it.

hmm...come to think of it, I much prefer to read fantasy stuff. eh. push.

[Jynks]

Yea. Fahrenheit 452 is very cool book. I think it word a lot better than the film. I really liked brave new world though as well.

Whats your fav fantasy .... I quite liked Magician buy raymond e fiest and the winter of the world series by michael scott

[spudthedestroyer]

I have to say, I was never partial to sitting down and reading the big epic classic sci-fi and fantasy novels. Infact i can't recall any non-fiction i've read in a long time, not since starting uni.

I do recall reading Dune many moons ago... whats the one where there's like the emporer that's just a big worm and the desert has been reduced to a little bit where all the worms are? I read that one too, that was weird

Does the XML specifications by the W3 consortium count as Sci-fi?

[tweye]

i loved Robert Sheckley's first works. i enjoyed the nonsense of his "Options" a lot, but also all the manhunting-made-a-game variations.
ggh am i THAT old?
and that's a long time i dont read a book, as my free-time queue is filled with tv eps, movies and pc games (or is it a ? )

[Jynks]

I still read constantly. About a book every week or two.

Dune was a great series I think. One of my fav scifi books in fact, though they really went off the rails as they went on. I think the 1st and the 4th are the best ones.

If you are looking for a good fantasy that isn't a mssive long series try out "Dying Earth" by Jack Vance. Do not get freaked out by the massive list of books. They are like the culture series as in all set in the same land but not related. There is a very good collection that is collected under the Fantasy Masterworks I really tink it is worth a look at.

[demolished]

Anybody read Alfred Bester? I've read The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination. Both are really great.

[dinky]

Whats your fav fantasy .... I quite liked Magician buy raymond e fiest and the winter of the world series by michael scott

have to be LotR hands down. although its competion is pretty weak: buncha comic book novels and magic: the gathering novels. throw in a few michael crichton books too (not sure if they would be fantasy or sci-fi, actually). read one of the jack whyte camelot/merlin books. real disappointment. kinda like the same treatment of the story as the king arthur movie...historicizes it. eliminates the magic. wtf is the point of fantasy if there's nothing remotely magical? iunno. might just be my idea of what the fecking thing should have been.

other than that, just a buncha greek & roman stuff with some renaissance england drama slapped in for good measure.

[Frankiedamn]

"have to be LotR hands down. although its competion is pretty weak: buncha comic book novels and magic: the gathering novels."

WHAT? Robert Howards Conan stories literaly rape the living hell out of any of the long winded stories tolkien hatched. Robert Howard began writing the conan stories 20 years before tolkien invented a Hobbit. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Hobbit, and enjoyed LotR, but Howards Conan is far superior, and much more 'adult'. Its kinda like Sherlock Holmes and the Hardy Boys. Sure the hardy boys where fun, but sherlock is just way cooler.

As far as Sci-Fi, Lovecraft rocks, and I guess the dark tower is kinda sci-fi/fantasy(just got book 7).

[dinky]

uh...it's competion being other fantasy stuff I've read. not everything ever written.

[Frankiedamn]

uh...it's competion being other fantasy stuff I've read. not everything ever written.

No need to get defensive buddy, you said ; "...although its competion is pretty weak: buncha comic book novels and magic: the gathering novels"

So I don't know if you thought Howards Conan is a 'comic book novel' or what, I'm just trying to expand your horizons. Just pick up 'The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian' ($10.15 amazon.com) and I promise you will pleased.

[dinky]

and I'm not trying to expand your horizons. so I don't know if you thought I was making a judgment about howards conan one way or the other, which would be impossible never having read it. I'm just trying to answer the very specific question that I quoted. just read my post again. I promise you that's all I did.

[valja]

Fav writers are still Strugatsky brothers, especially their novels "The Roadside Picnic" and "Hard to be a God". By both novels there are shot films, but when Tarkovsky's "Stalker" is excellent, then the film "Hard to be a God" is far weaker. Fortunately Aleksei German is making the new version of this film.

Roger Zelazny. A lot of very good novels, my favourite is "The cronicles of Amber".

Last time writers - Sergei Lukjanenko. Again a lot of very good novels. My favourites - trilogy "Night watch", "Day watch", "Twilight watch". The film "Night watch" was a huge disappointment.

[ThunderBear]

I've got tons of fav authors and books. Magician by Raymond E. Feist was the one that got me started, and I've pretty much enjoyed all his other books too.

Kristen Britain is another great author, she's only got two books out, but she's already done remarkably well.

Margaret Weiss, Tracy Hickman and R.A. Salvatore are just some of the great names from Wizards of the Coast's shelves.

In science fiction you have authors like Julie E. Czerneda, Wen Spencer and Harry Turtledove.

Humour authors like Terry Pratchett and Piers Anthony are also high on the list.

OK, I could go on for hours, but will drop back to lurking mode now.

[Tigerion]

Reading Peter Hamilton at the moment, quite a good series half way through

Taking me ages to read this novel though, have been having to read books at work for book club (Business and management books) so that cuts down on my personal reading time

The rampart world by julian May is one of my favorite sci-fi series (More light the ultra hard)
The empire series by fiest is one of my fav fantasy series
And good omens by neil gaimon and terry pratchett is up there as one of my favorite comedies

Recommend them all

[redsnake]

Probably read them all (I think), anyway, all K Dick, all Azimov, all Anderson, all Heinlein, all Clark, all Silverberg, all....................

Probably consuming 2-4 novels a week.

Currently book 3 of the Second Foundation.

[Jynks]

@Tigerion - is that the series that starts with Nights Dawn Trillogy? It is peter f Hamilton... a nice trash book... lots a sci fi tech, violence and sex. Was a good read but I never read the 2nd and 3rd installments... are they worth it? I just started to hate that josh charicter so much.. wat a smarmy git!!

@valja - Hmmm..... some of those books you mentioned look cool.. I'll pick up a few and let you know wat I think.

I am currently reading The cat who walks through walls by Robert A Heinlein



[quote="wikipedia"]A writer seated at the best restaurant on a space station is approached by a man who desperately but cryptically urges him that "Tolliver must die" �?

[Tigerion]

Yeah that's the series. I'm enjoying it at the moment, nothing to deep to ponder, just a nice easy read

Has anybody read any john courtney grimwood, they are some wierd books

[damarofi]

My favourite sci-fi book will have to be "The Day of the Triffids"by John Wyndham.
An awsome story that blew my mind the first time I read it, (I was only 12 at the time).
After leaving Australia to come to Portugal, I tried for years to find the book, but you can all imagine the trouble to find anything English over here. But lo, and behold, I found a copy in Coimbra.
I read it once a year at least!

P.S: sorry if the English is bad, but its been 16 years!!!!!

http://www.sfsite.com/~silverag/wyndham.html

[Jynks]

I love his books as well... if you havn't read it yet try out The Kraken Wakes it is very good imo