Withdrawal symptoms: Help required!

[angular banjo]

Hi there

I've now read and re-read every one of Iain M Banks's novels at least three times each now. I've read his non science-fiction books too and now quite frankly...... I'm stuck!

I badly need some recommendations for well-written, intelligent science fiction (preferably with at least some of the wit, imagination, humanity and sheer story telling brio of IMB).

I've read most of Ken McLeod's stuff, grew up on Asimov, Arthur C Clarke and the usual Gollancz classics. I've enjoyed the Greg Bear novels, strayed into fantasy with Julian May (toyed with changing my surname by deed poll to Remillard) but to be honest, I'm out of inspiration for a worthy substitute until IMB's next one.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received and in all likelyhood will be followed up!

Cheers

Steve

[Deep Black]

Hi there Steve. You're possible opening up a can of worms with this question but I'm game.

Are you after old classics or more recent stuff?
I'll go with (slightly) more recent:

Aside from IMB, one of my other favorite authors is Robert Rankin, check out "Armageddon the Musical".
Neal Asher is good
I'm rather partial to Stephen Baxter (though some find him to Hard SF)
Eric Brown is worth checking out
Peter F Hamilton should keep you going for a while (the "Nights Dawn" trilogy alone is well over 3000 pages)
Richard Morgan gets good reviews, though I've not read any.
Likewise Alastair Reynolds, "Revelation Space" often cited as a classic.
Some of Dan Simmons SF novels are mentioned in the same breath as IMB, "Hyperion" being an example.

This thread may be better off in the "Chat" bit of the forum, but we'll let the mods sort that if they want too...

[angular banjo]

Thanks for the suggestions DB, can't really take to Robert Rankin but Dan Simmons and the rest sound worth checking out.

Old or new really. I've enjoyed everything from Olaf Stapleton through EE 'Doc' Smith to er.......Matter!?

[Deep Black]

For older stuff, check out the SF Masterworks series:

http://www.sfsite.com/lists/orion01.htm

I'm currently trying to work my way through them all, between other reads. I'm up to the 30's now (with a few missing). That way there's always something to read next...

[RedKing]

Larry Niven for hard SF, at least his 60s / 70s 'Known Space' stuff.

[Hilarity Unit]

Angular, Deep's list is a damn fine one. I've read all of the authors bar Eric Brown & Robert Rankin (though it sounds like I should give him a go).

Alastair Reynolds is my favourite, with Dan Simmons & Richard Morgan close behind. Be warned that Morgan stories tend to have a very high body count, but Altered Carbon is a first rate noir crime thriller.

I found both Neal Asher & Peter F Hamilton fairly entertaining but the characterizations are not a patch on the aforementioned (and not in the same league as TMH).

Only read a couple of Stephen Baxter's and found him a bit depressing, but willing to try some more of his.

I'd add Vernor Vinge to the list. A Fire Upon The Deep & A Deepness in the Sky are two space opera classics (although some say [I think it was Deep] they read like young adult novels).

[Deep Black]

A Fire Upon The Deep & A Deepness in the Sky are two space opera classics (although some say [I think it was Deep] they read like young adult novels).
I did ;) At least with Fire Upon The Deep.


Rankin (though it sounds like I should give him a go).
I'd recommend you have a try. Start with "Armageddon the Musical". I've recently lent this to a friend of mine who's not really into reading, but he seems to be liking it...

[Hilarity Unit]

The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse - worth a read solely on the basis of the title (John Peel often applied the same principle)

[Deep Black]

Great book, won SFX readers vote for novel of 2002 (I think).

Though I would say it's not a "typical" Rankin book.

[edash]

Gary Gibson, who has the added advantage of only having 3 books out.

Michael Marshall Smith (as opposed to Michael Marshall, same guy but writes thrillers) for books that go off on strange tangents and end being something completely different from how they started. There's only 3 of them too, plus pile of short stories.

Ray Bradbury, because you can't read SF and not read Ray at some point.

I'll add to the Dan Simmons (specifically his Hyperion series), Richard Morgan and Eric Brown (although he's generally more sedate SF) recommendations.

[BeckyH]

Mick Harkaway's Gone Away World is fairly new and a stunner. And it comes with a fuzzy pink jacket-in the hardcover, at least.

[Unexpected Deviation]

You can call me Santa Claus, because I've got lots of presents for you son. I just hope there are at least some you havent already played with

- Cordwainer Smith
unworldly, multi-layered, and haunting mythic fables of our future history. This chap was a science fiction Tolkein in the making. A very unusual upbringing - Nationalist China and Germany between the wars. An academic turned intelligence officer who ended up as the US govts 'china hands', and wrote one of the best works on psychological warfare to date.

"the rediscovery of man" from the NEFA press has most of his short fiction. Look out for these stories in particular; "No, no, not Rogov", "Scanners live in vain", "The Game of Rat and Dragon", "Alpha Ralpha boulevard" and "The Dead Lady of Clown Town"

- Philip K. Dick
Anything at all by him! Funny, absurd and brilliant at the same time. Always surprising plots that centre around what it means to be human, and what it means to be sane. Most of these slim little volumes were written on meth.

- Paul Park
'Soldiers of Paradise', 'Sugar Rain' and 'The Cult of Loving Kindness' which form the 'starbridge chronicles'. These novels will produce culture shock - the extreme but cyclic climatic changes on an isolated world, and the dramatic cultural shifts that follow. Just as Cordwainer Smith and Wingrove were influenced by China, elements like the extreme inequality and tight caste system came from experiences in Sri Lanka.

- Greg Egan
Hard sci fi with an avowed transhumanist bent.

- David Zindell
You should be able to download his story 'Shanidar' for free online. If you like it then you can follow up with 'Neverness' and 'The Broken God'

Mythic and epic, with prose that creates one of the most beautiful and realistic worlds since Arrakis. Still underlying it is a geeky love of math and computers and the abstractions of Vedic Hinduism and Buddhism. Perhaps one of the more interesting stories revolving around the struggle between humanism and transhumanism

- David Wingrove
Chung Kuo series, 8 novels. Epic (I'm using that word a lot arent I?) series a future that is as thoroughly sinicised as we are westernised today, and told. Structured like a Chinese historical novel.

- Brian Aldiss
'Galaxies like Grains of Sand' - this linked collection of short stories that havent dated one bit despite having been written 4-50 years ago. I'm not certain of this of course, but I think many of the portrayals and ideas here may have helped shape The Culture.

- Gregory Benford
The Galactic Center series is excellent space opera. 'Great Sky River', 'Tides of Light', 'Furious Gulf', 'Sailing Bright Eternity' - follows the account of a small tribe of enhanced humans in the far future eking out a living and struggling to survive in a galactic environment dominated by mech/AI civilisation.

[Deep Black]

Not heard of Paul Park or David Wingrove off your list there.

Feel free to add to this thread too, with the above & anything else you like:
http://www.iainbanksforum.net/showthread.php?t=93

[Nearco]

One of my reasons for joining a book forum was to get some decent ideas about new authors. I`ve always found new, exciting music easy to come by but good book/author recommendations not so much. I`ve already ordered Hyperion.

[Deep Black]

Good choice