Slappie 9 #1 June 26, 2006 I've recently got back into Science Fiction & such. Picked up 2001 for reading here in the office. Arthur C. Clarke is one of the cornerstones of the genre if you enjoy SciFi books. He's also well known for his political views and views on the future of man kind. So who's one of your favorite SciFi authors? "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
turtlespeed 212 #2 June 26, 2006 QuoteI've recently got back into Science Fiction & such. Picked up 2001 for reading here in the office. Arthur C. Clarke is one of the cornerstones of the genre if you enjoy SciFi books. He's also well known for his political views and views on the future of man kind. So who's one of your favorite SciFi authors? William Gibson. Johnny Neumonic is the most famous piece of his work . . . the movie didn't do the book justice.I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MF42 0 #3 June 26, 2006 Peter F. Hamilton is a current favorite. I'm a big fan of the grandiose, space opera, complex world creation that he does so very well. I've enjoyed everything of Matthew Stover's that I've ever read. Matt Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Icon134 0 #4 June 26, 2006 I have to agree AC Clarke is an awesome scifi author... one of my favorites by him is "Rendezvous with Rama" I also remember enjoying "Red Mars" by Kim Stanley Robinson. and Orison Scott Card's "Magic Street" is interesting too... I understand the appeal of Ender's Game to a lot of people... but I liked "Magic Street" better...Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Icon134 0 #5 June 26, 2006 QuoteJohnny Neumonic is the most famous piece of his work . . . the movie didn't do the book justice. I was telling someone that exact thing today... Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MF42 0 #6 June 26, 2006 Robinson's whole Mars series started out good, but towards the end drastically bogged down in all the main characters' various mental breakdowns, while the action ground to a halt. Matt Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Icon134 0 #7 June 26, 2006 QuoteRobinson's whole Mars series started out good, but towards the end drastically bogged down in all the main characters' various mental breakdowns, while the action ground to a halt. Agreed... I couldn't get through the second book... but the first book was really good...Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
turtlespeed 212 #8 June 26, 2006 Did you read the neuromancer series?I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Slappie 9 #9 June 26, 2006 QuoteRobinson's whole Mars series started out good, but towards the end drastically bogged down in all the main characters' various mental breakdowns, while the action ground to a halt. I have to completely agree.. I just didn't finish the trilogy. Got to bleh to read about the problems and get nothing done. "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MF42 0 #10 June 26, 2006 Try "Antarctica", also by Kim Stanley Robinson. It covers much of the same ground as the Mars series, but with a much better pacing. It's a good read. Matt Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MF42 0 #11 June 26, 2006 Yes! Loved every page of it! Matt Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jakee 1,280 #12 June 26, 2006 QuoteArthur C. Clarke is one of the cornerstones of the genre if you enjoy SciFi books. He's also well known for his political views and views on the future of man kind. Yep, Arthur C. Clarke's a damn good writer. For more really good old school sci-fi ya gotta go all the way back to H.G. Wells. The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man to name just a few of his books that are still firmly in the public conciousness.Do you want to have an ideagasm? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Slappie 9 #13 June 26, 2006 QuoteQuoteArthur C. Clarke is one of the cornerstones of the genre if you enjoy SciFi books. He's also well known for his political views and views on the future of man kind. Yep, Arthur C. Clarke's a damn good writer. For more really good old school sci-fi ya gotta go all the way back to H.G. Wells. The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man to name just a few of his books that are still firmly in the public conciousness. Funny you should mention H.G. Wells. Arthur C. Clarke is the president of H.G. Wells fan club. "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Samurai136 0 #14 June 26, 2006 Quote So who's one of your favorite SciFi authors? Neal Stephenson- Snowcrash Philip K. Dick Stephen R Donaldson- The Gap Cycle"Buttons aren't toys." - Trillian Ken Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MF42 0 #15 June 26, 2006 Slightly less well known Wells book: The Food of the Gods. Stumbled over that one when I was a kid and still love it today. Matt Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Icon134 0 #16 June 26, 2006 QuoteDid you read the neuromancer series?some of them... but is was several years ago... they were good too... Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
turtlespeed 212 #17 June 26, 2006 QuoteYes! Loved every page of it! I so MUCH wanted to be a "Cowboy" after that -I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Slappie 9 #18 June 26, 2006 I've been toying with the idea of hunting down a copy of Stephen R. Donaldson Unbeliever trilogy. I know it's more fantasy then SciFi but still a strong escapism read. "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Samurai136 0 #19 June 26, 2006 QuoteI've been toying with the idea of hunting down a copy of Stephen R. Donaldson Unbeliever trilogy. I know it's more fantasy then SciFi but still a strong escapism read. Read the Gap Cycle. It's some of the coolest character/ Plot driven Sci Fi I've read in a long time. It was written in the early 1990's and kind of reads like an alternate version of Farscape with out all the Wormhole mumbo-jumbo."Buttons aren't toys." - Trillian Ken Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jakee 1,280 #20 June 26, 2006 QuotePhilip K. Dick I've read a few of his books, and while they're very inventive stories with really interesting ideas I feel like there's a trick to them that I'm not quite getting. Why is it that his characters seem so completely disconnected? No one seems at all concerned about whether they'll live or die or win or lose - they just wander along out of some vague interest in finding out whats going to happen. Very strange.Do you want to have an ideagasm? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
marcandalysse 0 #21 June 26, 2006 Definitely Snow Crash! Samuel R Delany- NOVA, Babel17 and others...he was cyberpunk 20 years before the term was invented! And for Clarke, Childhood's End is a classic!! Asimovs Robot novels and short stories are fun... mp "The reason angels can fly is that they take themselves so lightly." --GK Chesterton Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
turtlespeed 212 #22 June 26, 2006 Neuromancer: Here is the novel that started it all, launching the cyberpunk generation, and the first novel to win the holy trinity of science fiction: the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award and the Philip K. Dick Award. With Neuromancer, William Gibson introduced the world to cyberspace--and science fiction has never been the same. There is a new one out . . . Pattern Recognition . . .Cayce Pollard is an expensive, spookily intuitive market-research consultant. In London on a job, she is offered a secret assignment: to investigate some intriguing snippets of video that have been appearing on the Internet. An entire subculture of people is obsessed with these bits of footage, and anybody who can create that kind of brand loyalty would be a gold mine for Cayce's client. But when her borrowed apartment is burgled and her computer hacked, she realizes there's more to this project than she had expected. Still, Cayce is her father's daughter, and the danger makes her stubborn. Win Pollard, ex-security expert, probably ex-CIA, took a taxi in the direction of the World Trade Center on September 11 one year ago, and is presumed dead. Win taught Cayce a bit about the way agents work. She is still numb at his loss, and, as much for him as for any other reason, she refuses to give up this newly weird job, which will take her to Tokyo and on to Russia. With help and betrayal from equally unlikely quarters, Cayce will follow the trail of the mysterious film to its source, and in the process will learn something about her father's life and death. I just ordered it.I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MF42 0 #23 June 26, 2006 Pattern Recognition was excellent. Slightly different direction from the more "hard" science fiction. Well worth the read. Matt Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skytash 0 #24 June 26, 2006 I like Iain M Banks's novels best, although reading Feersum Endjinn was hard work. He used to turn out one Sci-Fi out every other year, intersperse by a fiction novel published under Iain Banks the alternate year. Seems to have slowed down a little recently. tashDon't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MF42 0 #25 June 26, 2006 How about Heinlein? I've only read Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers, both of which were very well written. What would be a good next book? Matt Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites