A Book

StarBob

StarBob

Tank
Joined
Nov 17, 2004
Messages
2,677
Reaction score
0
So I got a Kindle for my birthday... and my fiction reading has always been relegated to either a handful of big time authors or game-related books... so does anyone know of any good sci-fi books that I probably haven't heard of? Really just suggest anything... but I do enjoy sci-fi books and I don't want to end up buying randomly and have it suck...
 
Have you read Metro 2033? Or everything by Ray Bradbury?
 
Gears of War: Aspho Fields & Jacinto's Remnant are good backstory/continuities of that series. The Halo set is definitely worthwhile too. Metro 2033 as recommended above provides a differing plot than the game almost entirely but contains so much more depth.

I want to mention that I could never imagine reading these same titles electronically. Each book has it's own feel to it. Metro had its thickness and slightly different texture to the cover, the earlier versions of the first Halo books were in a different print. I could never enjoy an electronic version nearly as much.
 
I was thinking about something outside of the gaming world... though I know nothing about Metro 2033. I never really got caught up in the Gears or Halo stories... in fact I don't even know what happens after Halo 2. I'd still consider it though. Even though I don't play WoW anymore I was thinking about getting The Shattering because I actually played for a while in Cataclysm.

I keep seeing all of these nerdy space books and I'm in to astronomy and space shit like that, but I have no idea what's even on the radar of good or bad. Virtually every book I read about space is non-fiction so I don't want to get some dumb completely outlandish thing that, on every other page, I scoff and inaccuracies and impossibilities. That's just a thing though... I'm open to whatever so keep the suggestions coming.
 
I hate how everyone always recommends books that were used as a basis for some other creation, but they never recommend them until after the other thing was made. Like everyone ranted and raved about Band of Brothers only after the HBO show came out. I just can't get myself motivated to read a book that already whored itself out. Tell me about a good book before it gets famous and I might be interested (ex, aSoIF).

That is all. I have no recommendations, because I've yet to find a Sci-fi book I liked.
 
Antares Dawn is quite a bit dated but I remember liking it. Other than that, the sci fi scene is pretty bad, just Star Wars/ Trek and childrens series
 
I assume you've heard of Philip K. Dick? He has some good books. Also...er...I liked the Jon Shannow books by David Gemmell though I'm not sure if they're sci-fi or fantasy or western or what.
 
I'm sure you've probably heard/read about it but the only sci-fi novel I've read was Ender's Game which was awesome
 
You'll really enjoy Blindness by Jose Saramago. It's fantastic.
 
Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash? Though you may have heard of that one already. Very entertaining.
 
Ok I haven't heard of anything except Ender's Game so moving forward we can say everything is new to me. From what I've read on some of these, they look pretty good.
 
Neal Stephenson:
The Baroque Cycle & Cryptonomicon are spectacularly funny reads
Anathem is a fascinating book
Snowcrash is fun

Iain M Banks:
I've liked everything so far except Consider Phlebas, the Culture series does not need to be read in any order at all really.

Philip K Dick:
Can get a little weird, but the short story anthologies and novels are usually very good, and practically required reading to understand the history of scifi.

Robert A Heinlein:
Haven't read much, I liked Starship Troopers, but other stuff gets a little to Ayn Rand-ish for my tastes.

Orson Scott Card:
Ender's Game series, fantastic (except Xenocide)
Ender's Shadow is also spectacularly well-written, but read it AFTER Ender's Game.

William Gibson:
Never got around to reading him, but I've heard he's amazingly good.

George RR Martin:
I've read the first book of A Song of Ice and Fire, but I'll be reading the rest this summer when I have the time. Absolutely amazing writing and he axes main characters like nobody's business.

Isaac Asimov:
Very, very, very good stuff. He is to scifi what Edgar Allen Poe is to horror.

Douglas Adams:
Riotously funny, except the last two books of the Hitchhiker's series, which are depressing/irritating. Dirk Gently and The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul are also awesomely funny.

I'll leave it at that for now, otherwise I might overload you.
 
Maestro said:
Neal Stephenson:
The Baroque Cycle & Cryptonomicon are spectacularly funny reads
Anathem is a fascinating book
Snowcrash is fun
*other book stuff*
Click to expand...

I'm reading Crytonomicon right now, so good.
 
DEATHMASTER said:
Gears of War: Aspho Fields & Jacinto's Remnant are good backstory/continuities of that series. The Halo set is definitely worthwhile too.
Click to expand...

What? **** off! There's libraries worth of good science-fiction outside of franchise-based mediocrity. Try Frank Hoyle's The Black Cloud.
 
Because I don't recommend things I haven't read. I think they're great as universe expansions. Which ones have you read?
 
I read a couple of the Halo books several years ago. No, they weren't bad - I did enjoy them. But all the same, I don't think they should be the first recommendation of 'good science-fiction'. I did however glance through the GoW books in Waterstone's and I can confirm that these are shit. GoW is not a universe I want to see expanded; it's a universe I want to see stopped.
 
I wouldn't call them cornerstones of any sort, and if you didn't care for the story for either franchise then yeah I don't see a point in reading them. But I was letting him know that they do exist and would be worth checking out if he was so inclined.

I prefer Aspho Fields much more than Jacinto's Remnant, it at least gives character background and backstory to a few characters. JR was a bit more of a chore but not terrible. I have yet to read Anvil Gate.
As for Halo, without going into great detail, Fall of Reach is great background. The Flood is pretty much the first game but I definitely enjoyed the covenant characters' perspective. First Strike bridges games 1-2 and was pretty fun to imagine. Ghosts of Onyx was an interesting take on how the SPARTAN IIIs were handled, as well as the whereabouts of various characters during/after Halo 3. Cole Protocol wasn't as exciting but was an interesting single story. Contact Harvest describes how the humans met the covenant and gives a bit more background on why the Prophets decided to go the route of genocide. Evolutions is a bunch of shorter stories which are alright. I have yet to read Cryptum but it's written by Greg Bear.
 
I wouldn't recommend anyone really bother with the Halo novels. They're OK. But why embark upon them? Read Player of Games.
 
CptStern said:
oh Samon. how could you?

just to wipe the disgust from my mouth here's the anti-thesis of halo novels as "good" science fiction

http://www.amazon.com/Embedding-Ian-Watson/dp/088184554X
Click to expand...

900,000 ebooks and Stern finds the one that's not.

I do kind of want to read Starship Troopers. I love the movie and I've heard the book is a lot better than the movie... more of a political essay than over-the-top often comedic gore and bug action.

I also agree that ones perception of whether a game-world book is good is really based on how much they know about the world itself... because that's usually how they're written. I was a guru of Warcraft knowledge because I had spent years playing the games and reading the books, but I figure if I picked up any one of those books with no knowledge of the warcraft unviverse... I'd have thrown most of them out. Some of them were written pretty well though... like the some by Christie Golden.

I have too many choices now though and I don't want to end up in the same boat I am with Steam games... so I'll probably just pick one or two.

I grabbed some free books too including The Art of War... but it's turning out to be more like this guy's reaction to the book and his in depth study of Chinese history rather than the actual book... which is disappointing.
 
Sulkdodds said:
Also, Iain M. Banks.
Click to expand...

This. So very much this. Plus others suggested above. But mainly this.


Also if you like some space opera you could check out Lois McMaster Bujold - her latest book Cryoburn has all previous titless in the series in ebook format included on a CD, nice deal.

Julian May has written some good stuff too, the Pliocene Exile and Galactic Milieu series are cool.
 
StarBob said:
I grabbed some free books too including The Art of War... but it's turning out to be more like this guy's reaction to the book and his in depth study of Chinese history rather than the actual book... which is disappointing.
Click to expand...

The copy I downloaded had commentary explaining a lot of things. It was really very helpful, and had some very interesting quips. While the actual book has a lot of wisdom in it, some of it is pretty difficult to really understand unless you have good commentary.
 
Sulkdodds said:
I wouldn't recommend anyone really bother with the Halo novels. They're OK. But why embark upon them? Read Player of Games.
Click to expand...

God damn that is a good book. Really so is the entire Culture series. I loved Use of Weapons as well.

Sheepo said:
Except that Asimov's writing is actually good.
Click to expand...

I don't read Poe either, but he is a convenient analogy.
 
Acepilotf14 said:
The copy I downloaded had commentary explaining a lot of things. It was really very helpful, and had some very interesting quips. While the actual book has a lot of wisdom in it, some of it is pretty difficult to really understand unless you have good commentary.
Click to expand...

I can see how it would be helpful, but I really wanted the raw text since it has so many applications and interpretations. I'd rather not have a book on a book when I haven't read the initial book...

Eejit said:
titless
Click to expand...

lol
 
I would wade in with a recommendation for Vernor Vinge's A fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky, since they fit the billing for hard sci-fi with nerdy looking covers while actually being great - well polished and conceptualised. However, word has it that the Kindle editions of these books are so badly formatted as to be near unreadable.

So I will just second or third the recommendation for Neal Stephenson. Diamond Age is worth checking out, cyberpunky in a similar vein to Snow Crash but not quite as good as that book. I'm half way through Anathem which is highly enjoyable. The Baroque cycle is different, though, being a huge, sprawling trilogy of historical fiction - quite hard to digest, but rewarding.

Although it is more contemporary fantasy than sci-fi, Weaveworld by Clive Barker is a wonderful book. Since it's a through-the-looking-glass tale it requires more than average suspension of disbelief, but it's transportive in a way not many books are.
 
If anyone's a mass effect fan, check out the novels!

Also the Ender's game series by Orson Scott Card are a must for any sci-fi fan.
 
The Mass Effect novels are good too, fast reads for 300pgs each.
 
So is Matter the worst book in series, should I have read them in order or am I just missing what makes the Culture so great? It felt very mediocre to me.
 
Dune
old-dune-book-jh01.jpg
 
Maestro said:
Holy ****. I cannot believe I forgot about Dune.

Starbob, if you start with anything, start with Dune.
Click to expand...

Yeah Dune is great, but don't bother with the other books as they aren't as good. Herbert was kind of pestered by his publisher to write a sequel, and it all spiralled on from that regrettably. It's a great example of a contained novel.

Also anything by J G Ballard. I'd definitely recommend 'Cocaine Nights', 'crash' and 'High rise'. Ballard is more psychological in his writing than a lot of what passes for Sci-fi. Don't expect lazer guns and space ships, it's more about exploring alternative realities to our own.

Phil.k.Dick Obviously. Big shout out for 'A Scanner Darkly' which is truly excellent.
 
If you'd like a touch of familiarity with Star Wars I highly recommend the Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn.

Starting with Heir to the Empire and ending with The Last Command, they're fairly dark and just plain brilliant.
They take place like 5 years after ROTJ and mainly focus on the Empire trying to regain their strength in the galaxy as the Imperial Remnant, led by the absolutely badass Grand Admiral Thrawn.

Also, check out Vector Prime by R.A. Salvatore, it takes place about 26 years after ROTJ and introduces the Yuuzhan Vong as a major threat to the Star Wars galaxy,
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Tollbooth Willie
HL2.NET HORROR SLAP
Replies
7
Views
2K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
bbson john
Hi everyone. I am new to this forum!
Replies
11
Views
6K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
MFL
Fascinating look at the ongoing psychological evolution of flat hieirarchies.
Replies
2
Views
2K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
E
New book on the design of Half-Life 1
Replies
2
Views
3K
Ennui
Ennui
B
Community Interviews: Final Exchange development team
Replies
0
Views
5K
Barnz
B
Back
Top