You guys have mentioned just about all my favorites, but I’m still a big fan of Saberhagen’s Berserker series as well. Not great literature, but I’ll pick up a story about spacefaring murderous robots any day.
I haven’t read anything else by Stirling yet. I bought a couple of books, though, and they’re on the To Be Read pile (I believe the Sky People is one of them).
I have to say that the fact that he’s co-written books with David Drake worries me about the rest of his SF work. Drake is truly Tom Clancy-level wretched.
Even though I’ve yet to finish reading it, the Saga of the Seven Suns series by Kevin J. Anderson has been a total thrill ride so far. Totally loving it.
No, just no. I knew some yahoo would think to bring up that hack of an author in this thread.
Oh man. I hate it when our tastes differ so much, yet again!
After I read nearly everything Asimov wrote (this was around 1991), I wanted to read more good science fiction. I took my queue mostly from the Hugo Awards and Nebula Awards. I’ve been pretty happy with all the great science fiction authors I discovered through those awards.
However, I always wondered what non-Hugo and Nebula award winning science fiction authors were like. My brother had the Conqueror’s trilogy lying around the house, so I decided to give it a try. I won’t say it’s bad. It’s not. It’s quite good for what it is. But the difference in quality from the Hugo and Nebula award winning books was stark, I thought. The trilogy is completely forgettable. I was involved in it while reading it, but I remember it had a couple of interesting ideas, but other than that, it was just the book equivalent of junk food. Maybe the Conqueror’s trilogy is an aberration, and I should have given Zahn another shot, but I just thought his writing didn’t hold a candle to all the other great authors mentioned by so many people in this thread.
Nah - that’s Zahn. But sometimes junk food is just the thing.
Lucifer’s Hammer’s not part of a series. Though I suppose you could count Niven and Pournelle’s apocalyptic scenario novels as an unofficial series. In which case Footfall would be my favorite novel in that “series”.
Wait, what’s the Psion series? The only thing I ever found from Joan D. Vinge was Snow Queen and Summer Queen. Both incredible books. If I had one criticism for Summer Queen, it would be that it got too long and too emotional for one book. I understand that’s because it was originally published as two to three separate books, which explains it. But seriously, that book can be devastating sometimes can’t it? I found myself completely hooked, but it’s just sooooo long that you’re in there in the pit with those emotions for far too long. Not a good book to read if you’re trying to be a productive member of society at the same time. Excellent books though.
Are the Psion books as good?
And also, I always wondered, is Joan D. Vinge related to Vernor Vinge in any way? Two incredible science fiction authors with the same last name, so I always wondered.
You probably want to stay away from Zahn. Of his stuff, Conquerors comes the closest to not being forgettable junkfood.
A couple of authors you might like (and might know for their award winning stuff) I think haven’t been mentioned, are Brian Aldiss & Greg Bear.
No to the first. The sequel to Lucifer’s Hammer hasn’t been written yet anyway, but it’s been planned.
Formerly married, I think.
I only mentioned series I thought were good, so yes to the question about Psion. Edit: Oh sorry, you said “as good”. Well, they are different. I thought the Psion books were a bit less emo, so I liked them better; but possibly the writing quality was a bit better in the Queen books.
Stirling’s writing really irritates me.
Some of Drake’s early Hammer’s Slammers stuff was OK, kind of Dorsai-like, but more conventionally military with less magical intelligence. He had this afterword about how he wasn’t trying to write military porn, just trying to deal with Vietnam issues. Then he went on to write a million more military porn books for Baen. Sigh.
Without giving too much away, the problem I had with the series is that it takes a decidedly modern fantasy track in pretty record time. That could be a good thing if you’re looking for that, but I was not. He then kind of bends modern reality to make them fit and work within that scope. The story itself flows well, but he presses a bit hard on certain things to excess (the archtype for the two main groups) and that kind of got a little annoying while reading. I gave up the series after book 2, and he’s 6(?) books in now, so I really don’t know how well the story develops after the start.
I did love the start of the series though. If nothing else, a movie or TV series based on that would be pretty neat.
David Gerrold - The War Against the Cthorr
Fantastic, biologically (instead of technologically) inspired Sci-Fi series. Pretty much impossible to find, and unfinished, but still worth reading should you happen to run across them.
Frederick Pohl - The Heechee Saga (Gateway, Beyond the Blue Event Horizon, Heechee Rondeszvous, Annals of the Heechee
Larry Niven - The Ringworld Books (They get worse as they go on, but the first is definitely worth reading), The Integral Trees, just about anything set in Known Space…
Jack McDevitt - The Alex Benedict Series (The Priscilla Hutchinson series is fine too, IMO, but I’ve seen others disagree). I’m currently reading his short story collection and finding it quite enjoyable, too.
Neil Stephenson - Most people recommend Snow Crash. I far preferred The Diamond Age (It is, in fact, the only book I can think of that I originally read in paperback then bought a hardcopy afterwards.) Cryptonomicon was also good, but I had to work to get involved in it.
Everything else would have to wait until I’m home. These are the ones that I found good enough to sit far enough up in my mind that I can recall them off the top of my head.
Hahahaha. Okay, tell me some of your most hated books, so I have some stuff to go pick up this weekend.
Gerrold is pretty good, but yeah, that series is unfinished. I liked some of his standalone books better, but would read the end of the series if he ever came out with it.
Pohl, yes, good one, another series where the first book is much better, but the others are still readable.
Niven, ah, I generally like Niven but… I have to turn thumbs down on the Ringworld sequels, just like Dune. Good first book, but should have been left there.
McDevitt I just can’t stand. Tried two of his books. Time Travelers Never Die is just dreadful, I mean, truly stupid, with an inept and unscholarly handling of historical figures and events. Worse though, it plods dully through paths already covered much better by many other authors, with idiot characters who are apparently completely unable to think through what time travel implies. I looked at one of those Benedict books and couldn’t cope at all; it was enormously dull and implausible, and also I didn’t care even slightly about the setting or the supposed mystery being uncovered. McDevitt is worse than Asimov for characterization and dialogue, with none of the latter’s wit, intelligence, and erudition.
Stephenson: The only books I like by Stephenson are not in series.
That would be wise course of action, yes.
H.
I even found the first Ringworld to be pretty disappointing. Does anyone remember any of the characters? How about some of the ‘adventures’ they had on the Ringworld itself? The Ringworld idea itself was a great one, I just don’t think Niven really did anything interesting with it. Not that I dislike Niven either. When teamed up with Pournelle, at least, I enjoyed so many of their books. So I’m not sure what happened with Ringworld and why it’s so boring and such a waste of a great idea.
On Miramon’s dislike of Dune:
I’m always amazed at the number of people that like the Dune series. It’s so off-beat, and different from most novels. Frank Herbert’s writing style is quite different in the original trilogy from most other novels I’ve read. Now, for me, different is good, especially in the first book. But my favorite novel in the series is REALLY different: God Emperor of Dune. It’s almost a philosophical look at human civilization and the way we govern ourselves. Government isn’t exactly a sexy topic to cover in a science fiction book, you know? But I just love God Emperor of Dune for that reason. And then the last two books in the series are pretty standard action-adventure science fiction. I think anyone who enjoys most standard science fiction action books like ones written by David Brin, Orson Scott Card, Peter Hamilton, Asimov, or other authors, would be able to enjoy the last two books in the Dune series because they aren’t all that different. By not being different, I think they lose something special. But at the same time, it also makes them a lot easier to read.
So yeah, I’m always surprised by the number of people I encounter who like the Dune series. It’s enough off the beaten path that I always expect it to be more of a very niche taste. (Especially God Emperor of Dune).