Thank you for keeping this to sex. I was afraid you were going to mention my checkbook.
FYI: Neil Gaiman’s American Gods is up for free online reading and is reachable through his website. I think it’s only up for a month. (It’s actually on the HarperCollins site, but there’s a link on his website.)
Here’s his website:
And here’s the HC direct link (if it works):
I like the books of Jenny-Mai Nuyen very much - the three books of her published yet are all fantasy, but it’s not that typical.
I read, for example, “Nijura” and was often surprised - when you read it as a fantasy-fan, you often think “yeah, sure, now that happens” - and it will happen completely different. Nuyen said that she thought of a typical fantasy story going totally wrong, but it’s not a parody or comedy, it’s a good story.
Dunno if they are available in English, though, she’s a german authoress.
To get to Sci-Fi:
I read Eric Nylund as I had some “yay Halo”-phasis and was quite surprised how good they turned out. Anyway, Michael Marshall Smith is quite interesting. Just thought of him cause he’s quoted at the Scrivener Main Site
I have to browse the public library, I rarely buy Sci-Fi books… I’m more into fantasy.
I don’t think anybody has mentioned Philip K Dick yet. Brilliantly prescient sci-fi author and all his books are pretty short too. Most people recommend starting off with the Hugo Award winner “The Man In The High Castle”. This is probably one of PKD’s most widely read books, but hardcore fans (like myself) don’t necessarily believe it’s his best. My personal favourite is “Time Out of Joint” (one of his lesser known works) which deals with PKD’s favourite themes of identity and the nature of reality. He was a master at describing ordinary characters in a twisted world. My other favourites are; “A Scanner Darkly”, “The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch”, “Martian Time-Slip” and his latter short stories.
I’d leave his harder works like “VALIS” until you’ve read some of the more common books. Dick had a breakdown in 1974 and most of the stuff he wrote after this time was pretty nuts. His ideas on religion, identity and reality become more frenzied and confused but a lot of fun to read if you’re into that kind of thing.
Actually, Dick did come up before, and I have actually bought Man in the High Castle as a result, although I have not read it yet (started to, then got distracted with some other books for a while and haven’t gone back to it yet).
But thanks for the additional info, and other books. If I like his style, I will certainly consult the ones you have mentioned next.
Matt
William Gibson, Kim Stanley Robinson, Anne McCaffrey, Orson Scott Card, and Neal Stephenson, because the Barouque Cycle rocks!
As a new member of the forum (proud new owner of a Scrivener license), I have only just now gotten to reading this thread.
I was weaned on science fiction as a young reader… I loved the tall tales of E.E. “Doc” Smith and Edgar Rice Burroughs. As I became a bit more sophisticated in my reading (just a bit), I graduated to Isaac Asimov and Cliffard Simak, among others. Then I lost my interest in science fiction for some time. In the past few years, however, I’ve rediscovered the genre and have enjoyed several authors who I have not seen mentioned on this thread:
Dan Simmons. I greatly enjoyed his book Hyperion and its sequel The Fall of Hyperion. The universe he creates is full of wonder. There are two follow up books, Endymion and The Rise of Endymion… while these are entertaining, they do not rise to the level of the first two books. Also by Simmons worth taking a look at are Ilium and Olympus… All of these books have many literary references enlaced in the stories.
Verner Vinge’s novel A Fire in the Deep fascinated me with its intertwined story that alternates between a galactic-wide battle between good and evil, and an intimate adventure story set in a medieval society of canines.
Robert Charles Wilson writes about ordinary human beings dealing with extraordinary phenomena… especially time distortions. His novel Spin is a great read.
I would also second the recommendations for Richard Morgan’s novel Altered Carbon and its sequel Woken Furies.
Steve
I was going to say “welcome to the forums”, but then I saw you are a 19 post veteran, so that is no longer required.
Instead I will say: thanks for the tip.
Altered Carbon is already sitting in my to-read pile. But I haven’t managed to track down Clifford Simak’s City anywhere.
Matt
I actually saw the film for this the other day. Have had the books sitting in my to-read pile for several months without them getting any closer to the top (the ones I borrowed were huge heavy hardcovers and just not suited to reading on the train). The original owner has since claimed them back, but I will get them back when my pile dwindles.
Anyway, I didn’t think the movie was too bad. I usually dislike any kiddie-oriented movies, but found this one to be quite watchable. There were things I found annoying about it (yes, including the continual mention of “golden compass” in case we had forgotten) and perhaps it would have been easier to follow had I read the book, but it was actually quite good.
So I will probably get to the books sooner now, as from what you have said, they seem to make up for what I found most lacking in the movie. No doubt my view of the movie will decrease as I read the book it came from.
Matt
I do recommend almost everything form Iain Banks. I’ve never, ever read so many…well, twisted novels in my lifetime. His Non-Scifi-Books are even spookier - The Wasp Factory is … completely insane, but the story in itself is strictly logical. Excession is probably his funniest. Consider sentences like this: “It (the warship) looks like a dildo” - “Thats appropriate. Armed, it can fuck solar systems.”
Peter Hamilton’s Armageddon series is someting to consider as well - it is a bit bloated, but a good read.
Ken Macleod (or so), David Weber (as mentioned before, pretty militaristic and a tad too simple, still good fun), David Brin, William Gibson…the list could get pretty long.
Oh, yeah, I forgot one of my favourite authors: C.J. Cherryh, especially the earlier books. She is very helpfull as well…
I read The Wasp Factory a few years ago. It was… different
I thought THE WASP FACTORY was quite dull, and it’s put me off reading any other Banks seeing as everyone bangs on about it being his most daring work… 
Not daring, twisted…
Actually, within the Sci-Fi genre, I would recommend Consider Phlebas, Use of Weapons, Player of Games and Excession, and in that order as well.
Today, his works are probably not as fresh as they were in the days Consider Phlebas was first published. But I do remember, during that period of time it was absolutely top of the line. And I wonder if British SF would prosper like it does now without these four books…
EDIT: Of course it would. Assuming anything else would be preposterous.
Yeah, I must confess that I wasn’t a big fan of The Wasp Factory. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I entirely ‘got it’, or if I was missing something. But I thought it was just me, so I kept quiet.
Still, it was ‘different’.
I didn’t even find it that ‘twisted’, to be honest. I think it’s probably just that I’d already been desensitised by the likes of Robin Cook, Shaun Hutson, etc. Body horror/mentally unstable sadism doesn’t really freak me out like it probably should…
I think the movie should probably have ended right after the rescue, but the book… no. Tolkien had this idea that Fairy Tales (which he would have considered LoTR to be) needed to be entered, read and enjoyed, and then left behind as we return to the real world–a sort of literary “hero’s journey.” Those last few chapters are more about gradually moving the reader out of Middle Earth and back into the Real World, and they’re quite well written, to boot.
Incidentally, you might try two of his short stories–they’re not written in the same style as LoTR, and they’re quite nice little fairy tales. I will admit that one–“Leaf By Niggle”–actually moved me to tears when I got to the ending. That story is enhanced if you also read his essay “On Fairy Tales.” The other, “Smith of Wooten Major,” is also quite good.
Hrm. I think I’m making a weird habit of posting in old threads.
Anyway, I’d like to reccomend to you Ian McDonald’s Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone. It’s quite short, only the one book, and is a masterpiece of cyberpunk SF and literary SF in the same story. This book was so good when I first read it, I bought all the copies in my local bookstore and handed them out to friends.
Thanks for the tip. Resurrecting old threads is most welcome in these parts, at least in the discussion areas.
Tech support and bug hunting not so much.
Almost anything by the classic authors (both their sci-fi and Fantasy), and that includes:
A.E. van Vogt
Jack Vance
Fredric Brown
Keith Laumer
Alfred Bester
Fritz Leber
Gordon R. Dickson
Roger Zelazny
Charles L. Harness
Newer
John C. Wright
Ursula K. Le Guin
Fredrick Pohl
Gene Wolfe, Gene Wolfe, Gene Wolfe (bring your OED, you’ll need it)
Stephen R. Donaldson (Mordant’s Need series - although strictly fantasy is actually one of the best I’ve read)
With the sole exception of John C. Wright, I don’t find anything out there worth mentioning that is new.
Hello,
I also would recommend Richard Morgan’s Altered Carbon. The world is very coherent, detailled, the plot is strong and the characters interesting.
By the way, hello everyone, this is my first post (though it’s not the first thread I read).
K.