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What's the last good fantasy or scifi book you've read and could'nt put down?

Originally posted by glitterbizkit
"Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman (anything by Neil Gaiman, actually)

seconded - neverwhere is a great story, written wonderfully.

alasdair
 
"Speaker of the Dead," which is the sequel to ender's game, i would say is just as, if not, better. It's darker and explores on themes touched on in the original. I still have yet to read the rest of the series.

In the same vein, try "The Forever War" by Joe Haldeman. I believe there's a series of these too, with this one being the first. However, I haven't gotten a chance to read the others so I recommend this one.

Actually, nebula and hugo winners would be great places to look at for sci-fi recommendations.
 
I just finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick earlier this week. Real good. In the vein of sci-fi I can also recommend Neuromancer by William S. Gibson and, of course, Dune, which is pretty much a fucking juggernaut in the genre.

For fantasy, George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series cannot be touched.
 
I am a bit of a closet sci-fi fan. Who knew?

First on my list is Contact by Carl Sagan, one of my personal heroes. It is an extensive novel with many delights and much attention to detail, and even one sweet-ass marijuana reference.

A close second would have to be Hitchhiker's Guide. The allusion to the fact that humans are the third rather than second most intelligent form of life was not lost on this psych major. ;) It is full of humor, irony and my only complaint is that it ended so soon and I have yet to read any other of Douglas' Adams work.

I can't believe no one's yet mentioned Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. It was lent to me last summer by someone who has severe dyslexia and has a very hard time reading, especially anything lengthy. He swore to me I'd love it and enjoy reading it and he was right. I returned it to him after about a week (I literally could not put it down, I brought it to work with me and could not stop at the end of my commute) and now I need to get my own copy so I can revisit it. I have too much in the queue right now though as far as recreational reading is concerned. ;)

Lastly, Factoring Humanity, written by Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer is a strongly emotional novel written by an award winning sci-fi author. Its basis in theory is only slightly less strong than its basis in character development, and it also contains as many fun details as profound insights. On the whole also the characters are understandable and likable. Sawyer has that in common with Sagan it would seem. I like a good mix of interesting characters and intriguing theory, and this novel handles both quite effectively.

I like this thread - I'll put some of these on my "to read" list for the summer. :)
 
Originally posted by Finder
I just finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick earlier this week. Real good.


What did you think?
 
--I thought that book was great. I like Philip K Dick alot. I really recommend The Three Stimgmata of Palmer Eldritch, especially if you enjoy pyschedlic drugs. Man in the High Castle is really good.

I'm a big sf fan so here are some recommendations from Jert: old stuff, Alfred Bester is really good, Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination. Cordwainer Smith's collection of short stories The Rediscovery of Man .

From the 60s/70s beside Dick I like Larry Niven. Ringworld and A World out of Time .
You also can do no wrong going with Robert Heilien's classics, such as The Moons a Harsh Mistress and Starship Troopers .

80's, the little read cyberpunk series written George Alec Effinger set in the middle east, starting with When Gravity Fails is light reading, but enjoyable. If you haven't read Gibson's Neuromancer and Burning Chrome you should really re-examine your reading habits (j/king.)

90s, I enjoyed the Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy by Kim Stanely Robinison. It is a really well researched, plausible near future story of the colonization of Mars.

As for current writers, I don't read very many because I buy most of my books used :) . Actually, one exception : Really getting into Iain Banks now. Whomever mentioned him, I second that motion. Use of Weapons was great. I love this guy.

Other random comments: Didn't get into Snow Crash, I gotta try again. Ditto for Dune. Asimov's Foundation is overrated. Oryx+Crake kicks ass -- can't believe how sharp Ms. Atwood's mind is at her age.

I really want to read Dan Simmons Hyperion, some Neil Gaiman, and Stephenson's Crytonomincum, b/c of that posted recommendation. I have SO much reading to do this summer.

Props to arkitech for making this thread so I could reveal what a big nerd I am -- this has been on my B-L To Do List for sometime now.
 
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Another vote for Iain M. Banks here.

Consider Phlebas & Against A Dark Background are his best science fiction works imo, but any of his books that are set in the Culture universe are cracking good reads.

One problem that a fair amount of the better known sci-fi has I find, is that the characterisation can be found wanting (see much of Michael Crichton's stuff), but Iain M. Banks' characters I always find compelling & complex.
 
a 70's sci-fi author often overlooked now is Norman Spinrad... his novels weren't my faves, but his short story collection "All the Sounds of the Rainbow" is excellent if u can find it... predates much of the style used in the cyberpunk movement...

...which is what i've been re-reading lately: the Neuromancer trilogy and short stories along with Schizmatrix.
 
^Never read any David Brin... but if you put his work in the same catagory as Anthony and Salvatore, I might have to check him out.

The last book I made a point of reading during every trip to the john... Heir to the Empire, the first Star Wars novel, by Timothy Zahn (released after Jedi). Two books (or six books, if you count that both books contain 3 novels) I'm currently reading: The Garrett Files, by Glen Cook... Legacy of the Drow, R.A. Salvatore.

Honorable mention: Anything by Charles DeLint, L.E. Modesitt Jr. and Steven Brust.
 
^ David Brin is a bit more difficult to read but just as imaginative in my pov. pretty sweet sci-fi his aliens are friggin awesome!

i've read Legacy of the Drow, gud stuff! Drizzt is my hero =D
 
The last totally original--i.e., I had never read it before--novel I read was Robert Miller's A Canticle for Liebowitz, which I found to be a thematically complex, pessimistic, but also superbly crafted and rich work.

The last really superb piece of short sci-fi I read was a short story by David Marusek called "Getting to Know You", in an anthology of stories taken from Asimov's sci-fi magazine called Utopias. (I also have another anthology in the set called Sci-Fi Lite, consisting of humorous stories from the same magazine.) Marusek wrote the critically-acclaimed novella "We Were Out of Our Minds With Joy" (1995).

The story piqued my curiosity so much that I'm looking forward to his novel Counting Heads that will hopefully be published later this year.

His website:
http://www.marusek.com/
 
Blue Footed Booby said:
^ David Brin is a bit more difficult to read
Click to expand...

Ever read Number of the Beast? If Brin is worse than that, I'll re-evaluate my decision... there were just too many times I read 5 to 10 pages and had little to no idea what was going on, but kept going because the basic story was so facinating (I think the novel could have been a short stoy if all the complicated and confusing bullshit was cut).
 
David Brin is great!! The entire uplift series is amazing.

In the past I read a lot of Terry Brooks. He did the whole "Shannara" thing. Well written, classic fantasy.

Anyone read any Robert Silverberg? He's like one of the Sci-fi masters, in my humble opinion. The book "The World Inside" was wrote in 1970 but talks about many things that apply in today's world, like over-population and gender roles. Also anything in his "Majipoor" series is a must.

Geez I'm a book worm.
 
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