A Book

[GreatEmperor]

Holy ****. I cannot believe I forgot about Dune.

Starbob, if you start with anything, start with Dune.

Dune got too mystical and just tread water from the second on. It kind of reminds me of the first and second season of BSG versus the rest of that shit. Pretty damn good and interesting but the longer it goes on the weaker and more contrived it gets, also nutty plot development everywhere

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Sounds like I would like this Dune series.

 

[Mogi67]

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,

This. The Thrawn Trilogy is pretty great, definitely the best of the Star Wars novels.

 

[Smoke]

Asylum world is fantastic. As are the FOUNDATION, SECOND FOUNDATION, and EMPIRE books. The old sci-fi writers trump the shit out of modern ones, IMO.

Also any of the Polity novels. I particularly loved Hilldiggers.

 

[Maestro]

Dune got too mystical and just tread water from the second on. It kind of reminds me of the first and second season of BSG versus the rest of that shit. Pretty damn good and interesting but the longer it goes on the weaker and more contrived it gets, also nutty plot development everywhere

I didn't say anything about the Dune series. Everything after Dune kind of sucked.

 

[StarBob]

The old sci-fi writers trump the shit out of modern ones, IMO.

See that's sad to me... you have scientists these days practically writing sci fi for you in the form of theoretical awesome shit. A few anime/manga writers really took hold of that and wrote some good stuff, but it seems like there should be a sea of writers who could pull it in to a story well...

 

[Anthraxxx]

Brent Weeks- Night Angel Trilogy and Black Prism

Anything by Neal Stephenson, particularly Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash.

George R.R. Martin..... if you've watched Game of Thrones on tv and liked it, I suggest picking up the book series. If you haven't, I suggest picking up the book series.

Battle Royale by Koshun Takami

 

[StarBob]

Well I've got a $20 gift card coming that I got for $10 thanks to the special offers on this Kindle. I don't know why anyone with any level of intelligence would buy the normal Kindle 3 when you can get the special offer one.

 

[GreatEmperor]

I didn't say anything about the Dune series. Everything after Dune kind of sucked.

Man I just got on Amazon, his son made SHIT TONS more, Im gonna pick one up and see how bananas it is after all this development

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Oh god the sequels (and prequels) and all things I've read pertaining to that canon besides the original Dune text are so ****ing garbage, ugh.

...though I feel the same way about Ender's Game / Ender's Shadow - the rest are just... Zzzzz

 

[GreatEmperor]

Prequel sounds a little interesting. Maybe as long as they quit cloning the characters of the original, I might like it

 

[Maestro]

Man I just got on Amazon, his son made SHIT TONS more, Im gonna pick one up and see how bananas it is after all this development

No.

NO.

DO NOT DO THIS.

First issue is that Kevin J Anderson is involved, it will automatically suck a 2000-inch dick. Second, it's an expanded universe series, which only worked for Star Wars because Michael Stackpole and Timothy Zahn got involved.

If you value Dune, DO NOT read anything after Dune.

Have this comic for a graphical explanation for why this is a terrible idea.

Spoiler

 

[Sulkdodds]

Stern, I saw your post on The Embedding and then I saw that it was £0.01 on amazon (plus postage) and it just arrived. This had better be good.

 

[CptStern]

hope you dont mind boring

 

[Mogi67]

hA you guys read Gears of War and Halo novels? that's pretty gay

 

[Letters]

I read a bunch of Asimov in middle school... I liked it, but I don't think I really appreciated it. I should go back and read him again. It's like The Hobbit, which I just reread (and read for the first time in sixth grade). So ****ing good but I didn't even ****ing realize it.

 

[stuperhunt]

Try Drylor The First Artifact, It's a good book that I wrote! =P

 

[DEATHMASTER]

hA you guys read Gears of War and Halo novels? that's pretty gay

NO, THAT'S JUST ME. **** YOU.

 

[kupocake]

Think I've read all of one Sci-Fi book in my time: P.K. Dick's Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? Honestly, I'm not a fan of his writing style and it didn't really leave an impression (I my have seen it before or after Blade Runner. I don't really care for that either).

I have a bunch of other titles in my parents' attic: The Forever War, Cities in Flight, Dune. I got them assuming that science fiction writing would be some light relief from years of Literature scholarship, and found out that I had it all ass-backwards. I don't really read at all any more.