Since this is a SF/Fantasy thread, hard to believe nobody has said anything about the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Read the books even if you've seen the movies, there's a lot in the books that didn't make it to the screen.
Dune - Frank Herbert - rocks. Lots more books in the series but Dune is by far the best.
2001, Arthur C. Clarke. Be warned that the further you go in the series (2061, ... 3001) the more watered down the writing gets.
Rendevous with Rama, AC Clarke. Again, sequels get bogged down in "humanity bad" crap.
Foundation Trilogy (Foundation/Foundation & Empire/Second Foundation) a bit dated but still a classic.
The Dream Park novels by Niven and Barnes are fun, especially for anyone who does fantasy gaming. Most of Niven's writing is top-notch, especially the Ringworld series. Not as fond of the Niven-Pournelle collaborations.
1633: Eric Flint. Alternate history with a twist - a West Virginia town finds itself plopped down in the middle of the Thirty Years' War (in 1633). A lot more fun than it sounds.
Islands in the Sea of Time, S. M. Stirling, as well as Conquistador. More alternate history, fun stuff.
1984, George Orwell.
The Martian Chronicles; Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
Gateway, Frederick Pohl.
A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin. I hope he lives long enough to finish the damned series; it takes him more time each time he writes a sequel, and the last one told only half of the story.
The Once and Future King (Arthur), T. H. White.
Chalker's Well World series. The man had a twisted thing about morphing characters into different bodies/shapes but it's good stuff.
Terry Brooks' Magic Kingdom of Landover series.
Stephen R. Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series (haven't read the newest) and Gap Into ... series.
The Dark Tower series, Stephen King. Just wow.
Just about anything from Terry Pratchett.
Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes.
OK, that's enough for now.
Thats pretty sweet!!
Was it this one for Legend? Its the cover I got... (Wont mention your name if its yours, even though its on the back cover)
If so, its pretty much exactly how I imagined his axe Snaga
On a side note, Im pleasantly suprised at the number of people who read sci-fi on ST... I thought for sure after CBF posted this would fall off the first page... definately gonna check out some of the books mentioned (the one's I havn't read anyway)
Last edited by phyzik; 01-31-2007 at 07:31 PM.
Right on, Physik. Yeah, that's my cover for LEGEND. Hey, I really appreciate the kind comment re: Snaga. Makes me feel good.
This month, I'm working on a cover for the third book in Mike Resnick's STARSHIP series. The first two are out from Pyr in hardcover. The first one is STARSHIP: MUTINY and the second is STARSHIP: PIRATE. These are really pulpy, fast-paced, wise-cracking space dramas. The first 2 books were really popular and have been selling well, and there will be five books in all for the series. You might check these out for fun escapism.
I saw Lamarcus' comment about NEUROMANCER. Yeah, that's a great one. If you like William Gibson, you might want to check out Charles Stross. His book ACCELARANDO has received a lot of critical love. I just turned in a cover to the Science Fiction Book Club for a 2-in-1 omnibus that will collect his books, THE ATROCITY ARCHIVES and THE JENNIFER MORGUE. These are really smart books and if you're an IT person, you'll love this stuff....think Ian Fleming meets H.P. Lovecraft, with heaping spoonfuls of geek-speak. Stross is one of the best writers of the latest sf wave. Check him out. If you're not a member of SFBC, I think you can still find TAA and TJM in hardcover via Amazon (except the covers on those editions are by Steve Montiglio, I believe).
Back to work....but yeah, I concur that it's terrific to see all of these ST folks who are knowledgeable about sf/fantasy. Very cool!
How is Flowers for Algernon a sci fi/fantasy story?
Also ya'll should check out some Aleister Crowley if ya'll are into fantasy
it blows those pussy Harry Potter books out of the water....plus he writes a cool book about Yoga.
The ones about the men were good. Death was my favorite, then Satan, War, and Time.
The ones on Fate, Nature and God are reallybut unfortunately contain a lot of important plot.
Those are both great books.
I like just about everything pre-Age of Mortals. The Villains and Lost Legends series are my favorite supplementals.
I didn't like the direction taken after the original authors left, though.
I liked the earlier 1-10 books. After that they got too cute for my taste. Too many bad puns.
I haven't read much of this kind of literature since college and some Micheal Moor stuff. The last sci-fi I read was some interesting books by Walter Mosley, who is better known for his LA-based mysteries. They were called Blue Light and Futurewolrd. I just read realized he has one more out there called The Wave, but it doesn't sound quite as original as I remember the others.
Now I'm just reading a bunch of history and political bull .
The Alchemist is good
The setup is straight SF: making someone smarter through science. It's not typical SF but still fits on the edges.
In no particular order:
William Gibson
Bruce Sterling
Howard Waldrop
Spider Robinson
Rudy Rucker--usually a hoot
CJ Cherryh--especially the Down Below Station universe and the Faded Sun trilogy
Orson Scott Card
Frank Herbert--in addition to Dune, check out "Whipping Star"
Robert Anton Wilson--both the Illumitatus trilogy, and the Historical Illuminatus
Older guys:
Theodore Sturgeon
Harlan Ellison
Clifford Simak
RH Heinlein
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