Recommended Reading

[bjjones37]

Zudobug had started something similar to this which unfortunately got wiped out.  I though it would be fun to start it back up.

Anyone read "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert Heinlein?  It's a page turner.  About a penal colony that wants its independence. (Sound familiar?)  The trick is that it is on the Moon.  It is a great read with some interesting thoughts on Politics in general.

"Enders Game" by Orson Scott Card is IMHO profound.  Earth is poised for invasion by a deadly alien species and turns to her children to mold them from a tender age (about seven) to be the deadliest military commanders in history to counter the alien threat.

"Gates of Ivrel", "Wells of Shiuan", and "Fires of Azeroth" by CJ Cherryh are extremely well done in this trilogy of Morgaine. Pure science fiction written with a strong fantasy feel.  The fate of worlds and perhaps time itself rests in the hands of a beautiful young half-alien woman and her medieval companion. It is a lesson in how trust is built.

More to come.

[bjjones37]

"Foundation" by Isaac Asimov. The Galactic government has become so large that it is collapsing under its own weight. One man has predicted its total annihilation and a galaxywide dark age and is being charged with treason.  Mankinds only hope is a small island of technology on a desolate planet at the far end of the galaxy.  But are they alone?

Jame Retief is the main character in a series of short stories that have been compiled into several book by Keith Laumer, such as "Retief at Large".  He is an intergalactic junior diplomat who is sent by his superiors with other senior diplomats to negotiate between alien races at war.  But it is up to Reief to save the diplomats from all the aliens and, most of all, themselves.  A hilariuos read.

"Flatland" by Edwin Abbot is another work that should not be missed.  A fictional representation of geometric concepts that is unique in its ability to stimulate the imagination to visualize multidimensional shapes.  For every budding mathematician (and the rest of us too.) Incidentally, it is also a free download from the Gutenberg project.

[odin]

I've tried reading books from Asimov's Foundation universe but I've never liked any of what I read. I absolutely adore his robot universe novels though.

A relatively newish SF author I can highly recommend is China Miéville. I've only read his book Perdido Street Station so far but the sequel The Scar has been on my to-read-list for way too long. Perdido is a story set in a kinda fantasy-ish Victorian-era-style tech world (bit hard to describe really). I found it a very refreshing book and hard to put down.

[Speelgoedmannetje]

I mostly read historical books,
preferably about medieval times (since that is an uttermost interesting time, not to live in, but to read about the details of how a civilization collapsed and grew)
But I also like to read fantasy.
My favorite is Gormenghast, written by Mervyn Peake.
It's the only book I've read yet wich was realistic/surrealistic, and I just love surrealism :-)
My favorite historical/fictional book is Iskander, written by Louis Couperus, a Dutch writer from the 19th century.
I believe there's a translation to English of this work, but
because of the time this book has been written, and the poetic style makes the translation a lot less, I fear. The style it's written in makes it hard to read, but once you get into it, the rythm and usage of certain words make this book a lot more intense. I can highly reccomend this book to Dutch ppl here with enough time and patience (mostly, I read such books on vacation). Can't say anything about the translation.

-- of course you could also learn Dutch :-)

[bjjones37]

@odin
Asimov's Robot novels presume much about artificial intelligence but nonetheless are intriguing and well written.

@Speelgoedmannetje
I have an interest in war history myself and this trio of book should interest you.

"Stuka Pilot" by Hans Ulrich Rudel.   This autobiography was a slow starter but once I got into it, it rapidly became fascinating.  It is the autobiography of a man who became the most decorated German soldier in WWII.  A true patriot and a brave warrior.  He fought one the Eastern front against Russia in what was considered one of the most vulnerable light bomber aircraft of the war. Nonetheless he frustrated the Russian fighter pilots and destroyed over 500 Soviet tanks, some of these after he lost his right leg. A man of deep convictions and deeper commitment, there is much to be learned from him.

"Reach for the Sky" by Paul Brickhill is about a British fighter pilot named Douglas Bader.  A greater fighter pilot and renowned leader of men, he lost both of his legs BEFORE WWII started.  His personal battle to learn to walk confront life with no legs is a story of enduring courage and incredible motivation. During World War II he became a multiple ace with 22 confirmed kills and even after being shot down and imprisoned, led the resistance against his German captors. An ageless story which will amaze all who read it.

"Samurai" by Saburo Sakai is the story of a Japanese fighter pilot during WWII who shot down an amazing 64 aircraft, often in the face of superior enemy opposition. The greatest surviving Japanese ace of the war, his skill with the Zero was legendary.

[Karlos]

Basically, a quick recap of some Sci Fi stories I posted about before:

And thanks to googles cache, taken straight from the original thread :-D

Some Sci Fi stories I really enjoyed reading

Peter F. Hamilton:

Mindstar Rising, A Quantum Murder, The Nano Flower
The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist, The Naked God, A Second Chance At Eden
Fallen Dragon
Wasted Youth (more of a satirical thing, really)


Frank Herbert:

Dune - All of them, plus the prequels
The Jesus Incident


Greg Bear:

Blood Music
Moving Mars
The Forge Of God, Anvil Of Stars
Eternity, Eon
Slant
Vitals
Darwin's Radio
(waiting to get Darwin's children)


Orson Scott Card:

The Memory Of Earth, The Call Of Earth, The Ships Of Earth, Earthfall, Earthborn
Enders Game (havent read the entire series)

Isaac Asimov:

Foundation - All of them
Virtually everything else

Also worth a look is Jon Cortenay Grimwood:

Pashazade, Effendi, Felaheen (waiting to read this one actualy)

[T_Bone]

re: Asimov

Anyone know the current chronological read-order for the entire "'i robot' through foundation and beyond" stretch? Everytime I think I've got it, it changes.

[bjjones37]

For some great dog and cat stories - true stories - have a look at the works of James Herriot.  He was a Scottish veterinarian in the Yorkshire Dales in England. He wrote a series of books on his adventures which rank at the top of my list of favorite books.  All true and mostly hilarious! (Of course the names were changed to protect the not-so-innocent. :-D His real name was Alf White.) It was not just cats and dogs, there were also cows and horses and pigs and .....

[odin]

For a cool cat-fantasy I suggest Tad Williams' Tailchaser's Song. Simply a brilliant book, I first read it when I was about 12 and have read it more than ten times since.

Oh and the Otherland series of 4 (very thick!) books by Williams is also simply brilliant. Bit cyberpunkish and very adventerous(sp?) saga about a bunch of people who end up in a virtual cyberspace world trying to save the life of a lot of kids who went into a coma while plugged in into cyberspace.

Speelgoedmannetje wrote:
I mostly read historical books,
preferably about medieval times (since that is an uttermost interesting time, not to live in, but to read about the details of how a civilization collapsed and grew)
But I also like to read fantasy.
My favorite is Gormenghast, written by Mervyn Peake.
It's the only book I've read yet wich was realistic/surrealistic, and I just love surrealism :-)
My favorite historical/fictional book is Iskander, written by Louis Couperus, a Dutch writer from the 19th century.
I believe there's a translation to English of this work, but
because of the time this book has been written, and the poetic style makes the translation a lot less, I fear. The style it's written in makes it hard to read, but once you get into it, the rythm and usage of certain words make this book a lot more intense. I can highly reccomend this book to Dutch ppl here with enough time and patience (mostly, I read such books on vacation). Can't say anything about the translation.

-- of course you could also learn Dutch :-)

To a dyslexic, Dutch reads the same as German!

Take a german sentance, stick in a few 'oo's and 'v's here and there, jiggle the order of the words around a bit. Hey Presto it's Dutch! ;-)

[PMC]

mdma wrote:

To a dyslexic, Dutch reads the same as German!

Take a german sentance, stick in a few 'oo's and 'v's here and there, jiggle the order of the words around a bit. Hey
Pesto it's Dutch! ;-)

Hehe!  Dutch is a lot softer sounding than German.  I defy anyone to write decent romantic poetry in German...  

It's said that there is no word for "fluffy" in German.

(note, tongue very firmly in cheek).

PMC wrote:

mdma wrote:

To a dyslexic, Dutch reads the same as German!

Take a german sentance, stick in a few 'oo's and 'v's here and there, jiggle the order of the words around a bit. Hey
Pesto it's Dutch! ;-)

Hehe!  Dutch is a lot softer sounding than German.  I defy anyone to write decent romantic poetry in German...  

It's said that there is no word for "fluffy" in German.

(note, tongue very firmly in cheek).

The harshest sounding language I have ever heard is Hebrew.

A few ears back an Israeli came into the office and in hebrew started, what sounded like, effing and blinding at my friend, who then started shouting back at the same fella.

Shortly afterwards I said, "WTF was that all about?", to which the reply was "Nothing really, just asking if i'd had a nice weekend".


It really did sound like they were gonna kill each other, but all of them sounded like it everytime they spoke to one another.  Very odd language indeed.

[cecilia]

they may be hard to find but ANYTHING written by fritz lieber is well worth it.

I've read a bunch, including his most well known, "Conjure Wife" of which several films were based. it's one of the FEW books that made my hair stand on end. no kidding.

and the 'sequal', "Our Lady of Darkness".

basically, the man was incapable of writing anything less than brilliant.

Harlan Ellison - another brilliant writer - waxes poetic about Lieber. and always has.

Harlan Ellison, Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1977:  

"Wonderful, magical Fritz Leiber, before whom Bradbury and Sturgeon and Norton and Goldman and Barth and Vonnegut bow, not to mention Robinson, Busby, Anderson and even yours truly, the maddest egomaniac of them all. Fritz Leiber, very likely the best of all of us, the man who has won more awards than anyone else in the genre, the man who's words have lifted this too often wretched category to Olympian heights more than anyone cares to mention."

elsewhere I've heard him say that most so-called writers aren't good enough to carry Liebers' pencil box.

I once saw Lieber at a convention. He was quite tall (which is unusual for me to notice). The expression, "still waters run deep" seems to apply.