Sci-fi book recomendations

Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson. A linguistic virus, a nuclear dog, an Aleutian assassin and a protagonist called Hiro Protagonist. All this plus cyberspace, hacking, phreaking and the rest of it.

Failing that - The Diamond Age. Steampunk gone large - breathtaking scope!

For the larger literary appetite, Anathem.

For the book glutton, The Baroque Cycle.

You'll be amazed that one person could write it at all, let alone write it so damn well. It's set in the 17th century, but don't let that put you off - it's got more science fiction in it than all the books mentioned so far.

Just remember Neal Stephenson! He transcends the genre.

I had an inkling to read the Star Wars movie books and after the first chapter of New Hope I regretted starting. THey are EXACTLY like the films, as though someone has watched 5 mins of the film, then paused it, then wrote about it. A complete waste of time which adds nothing to the story.

Except, that is, for Revenge of the Sith. That book was brilliant; from the first to the last, it really went into the details behind the film. I deffinately reccomend Revenge of the Sith.

Ringworld, Larry Niven. Although you might want to read some of his other stuff first, as a sort of lead in. Followed by Ringworld Engineers.

great author.

Whilst I have a nostalgic fondness for Niven, Pournelle & Heinlein, looking back now they were a bunch of paternalistic, randian, and pretty misogynistic ********. IMO.

If you'd like something more lyrical and poetic than Neal Stephenson try

Vurt

Pollen

Nymphomation

Needle in the Groove

all by Manchester's own Jeff Noon.

Great books, especially the last one.

Raymond E.Fiest has some good books, i recomend Magician its a really good book, time travel ect, going to different planets.

He's a fantasy author, not Sci Fi...

I'd say Alastair Reyonlds, Iain M Banks, Richard Morgan (not the newest stuff it's not sci fi), Neal Asher. Those are the ones that trip right off my tongue, there are many more good SF authors of course.

Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson. A linguistic virus, a nuclear dog, an Aleutian assassin and a protagonist called Hiro Protagonist. All this plus cyberspace, hacking, phreaking and the rest of it.

 

Failing that - The Diamond Age. Steampunk gone large - breathtaking scope!

 

For the larger literary appetite, Anathem.

 

For the book glutton, The Baroque Cycle.

 

You'll be amazed that one person could write it at all, let alone write it so damn well. It's set in the 17th century, but don't let that put you off - it's got more science fiction in it than all the books mentioned so far.

 

Just remember Neal Stephenson! He transcends the genre.

Yeah, he's good. Not sure about the alternate past stuff, not my bag.

Charles Stross (he's not as clever as he thinks he is, but he's clever enough) - he's another one out of the Edinburgh Sci-Fi Mafia (Banks, McLeod, Stross).

Justina Robson for a modern Sci Fi/Fantasy twist.

Charles Stross (he's not as clever as he thinks he is, but he's clever enough) - he's another one out of the Edinburgh Sci-Fi Mafia (Banks, McLeod, Stross).

Indeed, he's not written a lot recently AFAIK though.

One of the best ways to find new authors is to rate your books on Amazon and then look at the recommendations. It's not as good as it used to be, but I still find new material that way.

Some of it's recommendations to me at the moment;

John Meaney

Gary Gibson

Paul McAuley

Gavin G. Smith - pretty good, near (distopian) future

Paolo Bacigalupi

That's plenty of suggestions from everyone to get you going anyway.

Yeah, he's good. Not sure about the alternate past stuff, not my bag.

"Alternative Past Stuff" ?

If you've not read it - I resisted for a couple of years because the rigorous historian in the family kept on at me to read it.

But then, with nothing else on holiday to read, I read it. I surfaced about four weeks and six books later.

Don't resist because of the "historical fiction" aspect - it's not what you think.

If you like science, you cannot fail to like it - this is the story of where the science came from, amongst other things.

For me, the stuff about Turing in Cryptonomicon was fantastic. It really doesn't matter to me whether it actually happened or not, surely science fiction is about the ideas, not the reality?

I'm a Neal Stephenson fan, unquestionably, but from a completely objective standpoint he's head and shoulders above any other SF writer. More. He's flying over in a solar ornithopter whilst they peck ideas out of the mud.

Have you noticed how he never does anything twice? One 'cyberspace' book. One 'cryptography' book. One 'ecological' book, one 'nanotech' book. One 'historical' book (ok it's six, but it was one manuscript).

Only Enoch Root/Enoch The Red ever make any kind of reappearance, all the themes are different, the settings, the action, everything.

Iain Banks, on the other hand, seems unable to escape from his Culture. Niven and Pournelle rehashed their randian survivalist manifesto several times. Noon was marooned in Madchester. Everyone digs a $erie$ of books, especially the publishers. But Stephenson won't have any of it.

Philip K. Dick.

Loads of his stuff has been turned into big movies. He wrote the book that Blade Runner is based on, "Do androids dream of electric sheep" as well as Minority Report, Total Recall and many more.

My favourite is "A Scanner Darkly", I must have read it a hundred times. The movie uses live actors with frame by frame animation on top to give it a comic book look. Both are really good.