Cassie - Sci Fi Reading list please

[headvoid]

Others may add to my list but I know Cassie is a buff at these things:

My Sci Fi list is weak

Philip K Dick - Radio Free Albemuth
(OK, but was a bit dated and predictable)

Asimov
A number of titles - enjoyed them all

Iain M Banks
a number of titles, liked them, but there was a defined style which I grew tired of - unlike asimov who was different every time.

Aldous Huxley
Enjoyed brave new world and also Orwells 1984 - I consider them Sci Fi? maybe you dont.

Factual - Cosmos Carl, Sagan, Stephen Hawking - brief history

er that's it - I know I have to read Vonnegut at some point. But any other suggestions? If you suggest anything by Shatner I will kill you with an internet cattle prod

 

[CaptainWacky]

Cassie's going to recommend Dune. She is right to do so.

I think I veer more to fantasy because I was going to suggest Neil Gaiman's but he's more fantasy and George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire which is definitely fantasy but also fucking great.

 

[The Tomtrek]

I think I veer more to fantasy because I was going to suggest Neil Gaiman's but he's more fantasy

Interesting side fact: He's also rumoured as a writer for Doctor Who when Moffat takes over.

 

[curiousa2z]

Cassie said she was going to spend more time off-line reading books - maybe we can trick her into coming around more with a book reading club!!?

I remember when No.6 had one going for awhile and we read a few of Heinlein's books - good stuff.

CASSIE WOT THINKEST THOU?

 

[Cassie]

HOLY COW! Hey a book club would be fun, I've tried to be involved in book reading clubs at other sites but they were too uptight about it, so the conversations never really flow.. know what I mean? Here we could be silly, and serious and no one would get pissed.

I'm not sure what style of sci fi you are into headvoid, I prefer social sci fi where the story is driven by the characters living in a sci fi setting as opposed to the story being driven by the technology. I will give some deep thought to making reading suggestions but here are some right off the top of my head.

Dune, by Frank Herbert. If you love it, then read all six of them. DO NOT READ THE PREQUELS AND SEQUELS written by FH's degenerate son and the hack KJA. I talked Wacky into reading it and he is now officially a Dune nerd. You will be too. Frank Herbert wrote an amazing story, there are so many TRUTHS in it, sometimes you feel like you're being slapped around.

The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K Le Guin. She is a master story teller, and I don't believe she's ever written a bad book. This one is my favorite though.. so if you read it and like it, you'll probably like her other books as well.

The Sparrow, and Children of God, by Mary Doria Russel. I was really touched by these books. I don't know if they'll be your cup of tea, they're Russel's only sci fi and they explore religion more than anything science fiction.

OK.. that's it for right this minute. I'm going to go through my brain, which suddenly decided to stop working. OH and I agree with Wacky about Neil Gaiman, American Gods is kick ass, though not sci fi.

 

[CaptainWacky]

Interesting side fact: He's also rumoured as a writer for Doctor Who when Moffat takes over.

That would be better than BIG SEX. Though the Stephen Fry episode never ended up being made.

 

[Cassie]

Headvoid, have you read Ender's Game? I forgot about that one, it's a great book. ALSO have you read much Heinlein? I loved Heinlein when I was in high school, recently I tried reading him again and didn't like it as much, with all the cold war references his stories are really dated.

 

[Ishcabittle]

DO NOT READ THE PREQUELS AND SEQUELS written by FH's degenerate son and the hack KJA.

i second that.

it's as though young Brian H thought aloud to himself in his kitchen one night, "Hm... how can I burn my father's legacy in a haze of over-dramatic blood letting and rhetoric? I KNOW, I WILL WRITE A BOOKS ABOUT THE THINGS HE HAD RIT BOOKSES ABOUTSES!!!" and then promptly passed out in a pile of his own sick, knocking the empty bottle of Jack off the table and barely stirring as it shattered on the floor.

/flowery rant

 

[Cassie]

DID YOU KNOW, the hacks are writing four more books called Heroes of Dune? The first one is called Pail of Dung and it's a "direct sequel to Dune".. they have the nerve to claim they're filling in the gaps left by Frank fucking Herbert AS IF HE LEFT ANY GAPS MOFOS! Books about Irulan, Jessica, and Leto II will be out every other year, then I'm sure they'll find a few more stories left unmolested and promptly molest them.

 

[CaptainWacky]

Arthur C. Clarke.

 

[Cassie]

Have any of you read Neuromancer, by William Gibson? I've heard how great it is and have always meant to read it, but never got around to it.

 

[curiousa2z]

I loved Heinlein when I was in high school, recently I tried reading him again and didn't like it as much, with all the cold war references his stories are really dated.

yep, highschool's where I first discovered him too, but -gotta say, I loved his work more second time around reading them...appreciated his attention to minute details in the worlds he created, (WHAT an imagination!) and loved his brilliance at finding the precise word to convey a scene, a person, a moral dichotomy that kids just wouldnt pick up on - they just dont have the life experience, IMHO.
we still have political detente/ambiguity (ha! how PC of me) somewhere in the world even now, so it never felt -to me- that his works were dated, but I know what you mean.

haven't read Neuromancer....

 

[Cassie]

My favorites were the Lazarus Long series, I'd probably still like those if I read them again. I tried to get into The Moon is a Harsh Mistress about a year ago, I think, and it just didn't click for me.

 

[curiousa2z]

ohhh...LOVE that one.

Maybe you'll read it later....

Sekret Code: I'LL READ IT LATER= THAT BOOK WAS DRY AS CULVER'S GULCH AND THE ANSWER IS NO!

 

[Cassie]

Maybe I'll be in a Heinlein mood again SOMEDAY. Shit.. maybe I'll be in a reading mood again someday. I just don't know what's wrong with me.

LOL..looking at my suggestions for Headvoid makes me laugh. They're all great suggestions, but except for Dune they're kinda girly suggestions. He's lucky I didn't put Sheri S. Tepper on the list, lol. Have you read any of her books, curiousa2z?

 

[curiousa2z]

ohhh, no...should I?

 

[curiousa2z]

^as BDM mentioned in his thread, it's great discovering and falling in love with new authors' works.

 

[Cassie]

YES you should definitely read Tepper! I love her sci fi, haven't read any of her fantasy. She's a feminist and a tree hugger, so she's definitely not for everyone, but she writes a really good story. I recommend Grass, Raising the Stones, Gibbon's Decline and Fall, The Fresco, The Visitor, The Gate to Woman's Country, and The Companions. The first two I listed were my favorites, especially Raising the Stones. If you like them you'd probably like the rest. Your library should have some of them, I hope!

 

[headvoid]

I knew Cassie would deliver.

I am purchasing the first Dune novel and The Left Hand of Darkness.

I have bookmarked this thread as well - No internet cattle prods are required.

 

[curiousa2z]

The Gate to Woman's Country apparently is the one and only book by Tepper they have.
Couldnt put a hold on it which means it's available