Recommended Reading

[Deep Black]

When ever anyone said "so & so is a good book/author", I'd always say "I'll add it to the list".

A few years ago I actually wrote up the list (it's quite long now).


So anyway, I thought I'd ask again:

What would you recommend as some of your favorite authors / books?

[Adamus]

Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rise_of_Endymion) is pretty good. I always recommend it to genre fans if they haven't read it yet.

[Hagbard Celine]

James Ellroy and Timothy Dorsey.

[Chiaroscuro]

Terry Pratchett - everything I've read by him so far. :)

Arabella Edge - I've read The Company and The Raft. They're both good, but I particularly like The Company - written from the point of view of the psychopathic Jeronimus Cornelisz, it's based on the true story of the survivors of a ship that ran aground off the coast of Western Australia in 1629. In fact I loved it so much I wrote a really gushing review which is even now on Amazon. :o

Ray Bradbury - I love his short story collections particularly.

HP Lovecraft - weird, wonderful and spooky.

Robert McLiam Wilson - Eureka Street. One of my top ten.

Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. And another :).

Markus Zusak - The Book Thief. I wouldn't have read this if I'd known what it was about before I picked it up while I was browsing one day and got immediately hooked. It's narrated by Death, which was what intrigued me, and is about a girl growing up in Nazi Germany. I've recommended it to several people, but always with a slight uncertainty because some of it is heart wrenchingly sad.

Charles Dickens - Our Mutual Friend. His best novel in my ever so 'umble opinion.

[Hilarity Unit]

I second the Dan Simmons and raise you an Alastair Reynolds.

[Deep Black]

I have Revelation Space sitting on the shelf awaiting attention

[edash]

I'll third the Dan Simmons' Hyperion books and second the Ray Bradbury.

Jasper Fforde for alternate reality, surreal madness in books. His whole set up shouldn't work but does, and very cleverly too.

George RR Martin's A Song Of Ice And Fire sequence for epic fantasy, which after four books is still surprisingly thin on all the magic, elves and other associated fantasy trappings (there's a little magic in a shamanistic style, plus some dragons, but they're not major players in the story yet).

[Hagbard Celine]

The first 3 books of A song of ice and fire are a great read, and I was delighted to get the 4th, but I put it down after about 60 pages thinking wtf is he going with this?

After reading 3,000 odd pages of the same story I just want it to have an ending.

Peter F Hamiltons commonwealth books on the other hand are great and have an ending, although not just yet, from Pandoras star and Judas unchained to the Void trilogy, so far one volume left to be published, damn it.

[Deep Black]

Just bumping this one up, incase any of our newer members have any suggestions...

[jag]

I always recommend Julian Copes 'Head-On' autobiography for those of us that watched TOTP (or Toppy) in the mid 80's and thought it was all innocent and make up.
Irvine Welsh.
Edgar A. Poe.

[mahoney]

Science Fiction:

WASP: Eric Frank Russell
Consider Phlebas: Iain M Banks
StarHammer by Christopher Rowley
Foundation Trilogy: Isaac Asimov
RingWorld: Larry Niven

Going to read:

Tau Zero,
Lord of Light,
StarShip Troopers,
Stranger in a Strange Land...

[RobD]

Putting in a good word for Neal Stephenson, especially Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash. I find the opening scene in Cryptonomicon - the start of WWII in Shanghai - unforgettable and it just keeps on gathering momentum from there. Any novel that includes the Riemann zeta function formula in the first 10 pages has got to be great. Then it's on to Turing machines and Gödel's incompleteness theorem, in parallel with a racy history of code-breaking in WWII and a plot about a modern-day hunt for Nazi gold. This is all peppered with some great one-liners. And has any other author included so many lovable geeks in his books as Stephenson?

His latest book, Anathem, is more conventional sf and also worthwhile, though I suspect that the author's <BLOAT> function key has got stuck down in places. (Do these guys get paid by the pound-weight for their manuscripts? Why are so many sf books today so damned big?)

[RobD]

And I'd also recommend another contemporary sf author who, like IMB, can combine really thought-provoking ideas with great style in her books: Connie Willis. Completely different in tone from IMB, though. Her starting point is not space opera but screwball comedy films of the 30s and 40s, such as Bringing up Baby. She must have an ineffective or non-existent agent in the UK as most of her books only seem to be available as imports of US Bantam paperbacks - very strange as several are actually set in Britain, e.g. To Say Nothing of the Dog, which time-slips between Victorian England (as you might guess from the title) and the bombing of Coventry Cathedral in WWII. Some of her short stories are particularly good, e.g. At the Rialto, which uses a screwball comedy framework to explain that the particle-wave duality in quantum physics is not really so hard to understand. Honestly, that's a good summary! Even the Queen is another gem - a very funny story about, I kid you not, menstruation.

[Deep Black]

(Do these guys get paid by the pound-weight for their manuscripts? Why are so many sf books today so damned big?)
See http://www.iainbanksforum.net/showthread.php?t=190

[RobD]

I recently read Great Apes by Will Self. It occurs to me that this would appeal to someone who likes a high weirdness factor in their reading (like The Wasp Factory or Walking on Glass). The starting point of Self's book is a character who wakes one morning to find that he (along with everyone else) has been transformed into a chimpanzee. Because he thinks that he (and everyone else) should be human, he is deemed to be psychotic by doctors, who are, of course, themselves chimps. The book is about how he learns to adjust to being a chimp, re-discovering his inner primate. In this world Planet of the Humans is a fantasy film about chimp astronauts (one of whom is played by the famous chimp actor, Charlton Heston) who crash-land on a planet where, bizarrely, humans are the dominant species.

In the process of reading the book I learnt more than I really wanted to know about the social / sexual habits of chimpanzees. It's a bit too long, I thought, but on the whole is an effective satirical fable. Don't take it too seriously, or you may find that you want to present your posterior to someone you meet, rather than shaking hands.

[jag]

WASP is a very good read.
'Phaed the Gambler' by Mick Farren is a Star Warssy kind of adventure thang.

[Champagne Socialist]

I have begun Dan Simmons Hyperion.
with it mentioning warp tree-ships, and using made up terms for already well established ideas, such as farcasters, I'm already ready to give up on it and give it to a charity shop.
Should I? Or does it get better? Does all the sillyness stop? Or does the strength of story and quality of characterisation carry it enough to make it worth while continuing?

[BeckyH]

Considering when Hyperion came out, some of those ideas may well have started there. I really liked the Hyperion books and would recommend continuing, but life is too short to read books that bore us, and there are plenty good ones out there.

[Felonious Monk]

Besides anything by Banks...
I'd have to add anything by Vonnegut, then a couple classics like Frankenstein and one of my favorite all time books Ivanhoe. I just love the language and writing styles of the older books. You're never too old for Ivanhoe.

[rac]

I have begun Dan Simmons Hyperion.
with it mentioning warp tree-ships, and using made up terms for already well established ideas, such as farcasters, I'm already ready to give up on it and give it to a charity shop.
Should I? Or does it get better? Does all the sillyness stop? Or does the strength of story and quality of characterisation carry it enough to make it worth while continuing?

I'd say continue- the Hyperion books are superb. As Becky said, Simmons was a trailblazer, and what has now become cliche was not when he wrote this.

[edash]

Yes, stick with them. The first two certainly.

[Deep Black]

Yeah, stick with it

[Solipsist Mercenary]

Still SF, but completely and utterly opposite to IMB, Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. Hard SF with good characterizations. I'm not so hot on the other stuff of his that I've read, I just finished the Forty Days of Rain, Fifty Degrees Below, and Sixty Days and Counting trilogy and it's, well, got some interesting ideas.

I see a lot of folks here like Alistair Reynolds, and I'm respectfully confused. I read Century Rain a few years ago and it just grated on me. Was this a bad first choice? Really not inspired to read more of him, but since there seems to be a following here, I thought I'd ask.

-sm

[Deep Black]

I'd go with Revelation Space & if you're still not take with him, then give up ;)

[edash]

Or maybe not. I started and finished with Revelation: Space.

[black]

to name but a few...

underworld by don delillo
american pastoral by philip roth
the yiddish policemen's union by michael chabon
the little book of atheist spirituality by andre comte-sponville
fargo rock city by chuck klosterman (that one for all you old headbangers out there)

i'd mention use of weapons and the crow road, but that seems redundant.

[KaitsuL]

Simmons, Hamilton, Robinson, Stephenson & Reynolds as mentioned above - ranging from OK to superb, IMHO.

Have read and enjoyed most of the Sci Fi written by

Charles Stross
Thomas Harlan
Neal Asher
Ken MacLeod
Stephen Baxter
Robert Reed (e g Marrow)

and, though it's been a while, I cannot leave the three "classics" out (Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein)...

[Rackon]

A newby here...to the forum, not SF, which I've been reading for - ahem - over 40 years. Not going to recommend any specific Banks, except to mention he's my current favorite SF author, and that I love The Bridge & Transition.

I have sitting in my to be read pile: American Gods, by Neil Gaiman, plus Silver Screen and Natural History by Justina Robson

So here's a list of my favorite SF; classics old and not so old, a little space opera, some time travel, a pinch of cyberpunk...a soucon of fantasy...all thoughtful speculative fiction.

Grass; Beauty; The True Game (omnibus) Sheri Tepper
When Gravity Fails/ A Fire In The Sun/ The Exile's Kiss; a trilogy by George Alec Effinger, a forgotten master who was one of the originators of cyberpunk - also recommend his recently published book of short stories, Budayeen Nights, which includes characters from the aforementioned trilogy).
Hyperion/The Fall Of Hyperion, Dan Simmons
The Left Hand Of Darkness/The Dispossessed, Ursula K Le Guin
The Pastel City (go on to other Viriconium books if you like this); Light/Nova Swing; M John Harrison
The Female Man, Joanna Russ
Nova; Babel 17; Samuel R. Delaney
A Fire Upon The Deep; Marooned In Realtime; Vernor Vinge
Tales of the Dying Earth (an omnibus that collects it all); Arminta Station (book 1 of the Cadwall Chronicles) The Last Castle; Jack Vance (another master, a great American writer with a...shal we say...unique style)
The Stars My Destination (Also known as Tiger, Tiger), Alfred Bester
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
More Than Human, Theodore Stugeon
Earth Abides, George Stewart
Neuromancer, William Gibson
Solaris, Stanislaw Lem
The Man Who Fell To Earth, Walter Tevis
The Mount, Carol Emschwiller
Cyteen; Down Below Station, C.J. Cherryh
The Harvest; A Bridge of Years; The Chronoliths; Robert Charles Wilson
Oryx & Crake; The Handmaid's Tale; Margaret Atwood
Stand On Zanzibar; The Sheep Look Up; John Brunner
Rendevous With Rama, Arthur C Clarke
Sirius, Olaf Stapledon
Sarah Canary, Karen Fowler

[Solipsist Mercenary]

I loved American Gods, I've also read Anansi Boys, which is a semi-sequel (same universe, one shared character). It's not as good as American Gods, but still worth a read. Definitely seconding the recommendation for George Alec Effinger's trilogy, excellent writing, some pretty funny moments mixed in too.

-sm

[Deep Black]

Hi there Rackon, welcome aboard the GSV Banksieforum :)


and that I love The Bridge & Transition.
So you prefer the SF edged non-SF books, I loved The Bridge too

Hyperion/The Fall Of Hyperion, Dan Simmons - Great books indeed
The Dispossessed, Ursula K Le Guin - Wasn't a big fan of this one
The Pastel City, M John Harrison - Not bad (one of Banksies fav's too I believe) way better than the almost unreadable "Centauri Device"
Babel 17, Samuel R. Delaney - I can't recal to much of this one, but I did like it at the time (another Banksie fav I think)
A Fire Upon The Deep, Vernor Vinge - Nope, didn't get on with this one, the writing style grated on me (I have "A Deepness in the Sky", but don't know if I'll read it)
The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester - One of my favorites (& another of Banksies)
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card - Read this one quite recently, decent book & I'll read more sometime, but won't be rushing into the rest of them
Earth Abides, George Stewart - Lovely book, very subtle but nicely done.
Oryx & Crake, Margaret Atwood - Not bad
Stand On Zanzibar, John Brunner - Took me a while to get into but I was loving it by the end (& yet another Banksie one)

The rest I've not read, though many are on my list...

[Rackon]

Where the heck did my post go???

Oh well...thanks for the welcome everyone. I do adore Banksy.

Deep Black, I may have given a something of a false impression - I don't in fact favor Banks' SF-edged non-SF over his "straight" SF. (In the US, Transition is an "M" anyway.) I do tend to prefer his "speculative" writing over his straight novels...mostly.

Besides The Bridge and Transition, the only non-M I've read is The Wasp Factory, The Crow Road and Complicity. I've got Whit on order from the library. I haven't yet read Against A Dark Background, Excession or Look To Windward. I enjoy the Culture books tremendously but not necessarily more than Banks' non-Culture novels.

If forced to choose, my favorite Banks would probably be:

Use Of Weapons (not the best, but the curernt favorite)
The Bridge (arguably the best Banks)
Feersum Endjinn
The Algabraist
Player Of Games
Transition

Order of preference changes according to mood, what I've had for breakfast etc. But those six are my favorite Banks.

Regarding Orson Scott Card, his first Ender book is quite good and still holds up well IMO. He's an uneven though talented writer - I know some people cannot get past his personal views. Tepper is a gifted writer who excells at world-building. A couple of her novels are marred by excessive preachiness (not Grass, thankfully). Interestingly, Card and Tepper are both from the western US (Utah and Colorado respectively, cheek by jowl), although philosophically they are far apart.

I just uncovered some old SF books- novels and story collections - from my so called youth, my high school and college years during the late 60s and early 70s: A E Van Gogt, Harlan Ellison, Phillip K Dick, several others. Be interesting to delve into them again. One I liked as a teen that no one seems to have read these days is Alexei Panshin's Rite Of Passage, which was an award winner in its day.

Solipsist Mercenary, I had the pleasure last month of attending a lecture by Neil Gaiman here in Indy where he was presented with the Curt Vonnegut Award (our local SF writing claim to fame). Gaiman read from several works and was quite charming. Excellent in person. He hinted that there are 2 more novels from the world of American God's in the works, eventually if not immediately.

I'm in the process of moving house, but when I settle in, I'm looking forward to a summer with Aubrey and Maturin in my 4th transversal of Patrick O'Brien's great historical novels.

[Deep Black]

Where the heck did my post go???
Yes I'm noticing some problems too :confused:


Deep Black, I may have given a something of a false impression
I see, I'd forgotten Transition was "M" in the US


A couple of her novels are marred by excessive preachiness (not Grass, thankfully).
Grass is definatly on my "to read" list, I also have The Companions on my shelves.


I just uncovered some old SF books- novels and story collections - from my so called youth, my high school and college years during the late 60s and early 70s: A E Van Gogt, Harlan Ellison, Phillip K Dick,
I've only recently discovered Ellison, PK Dick I find a little hit & miss.

[Solipsist Mercenary]

Look for a short story by Harlan Ellison called (IIRC) "Repent, Harlequin, said the TickTockMan." That was published in an anthology called The Survival of Freedom, edited I think by Jerry Pournelle. Great book if you can find it, it was in my dad's extensive paperback library.

-sm

[BeckyH]

If you're reading Panshin don't forget The Thurb Rebellion! Rite of Passage was deftly done.

[Deep Black]

Doing a bump on this one as I'd like to hear from some of our newer members too...

[the neu[t]ralist]

Another newby here. Liked many of the novels already mentioned.
Enjoyed the Uplift series by David Brin when I was younger.
Eon by Greg Bear.
Would've thought more people would reference PKD.
I highly recommend Perdido Street Station by China Mieville, but it's more fantasy.

Glad I found this place. There are several recommendations I intend to read.

[Deep Black]

I've not read any of those you name
I do have several books by Greg Bear & enjoyed Blood Music recently.
I have Perdido sitting on the shelf, but being rather long (& the fantasy angle along with the reputation of being a bit odd) puts me off starting it a bit.
I've nothing by David Brin (did he do one of the Second Foundation Trilogy books?)

Of course PKD is great

[the neu[t]ralist]

I've not read any of those you name
I do have several books by Greg Bear & enjoyed Blood Music recently.
I have Perdido sitting on the shelf, but being rather long (& the fantasy angle along with the reputation of being a bit odd) puts me off starting it a bit.
I've nothing by David Brin (did he do one of the Second Foundation Trilogy books?)

Of course PKD is great

Perdido - definitely odd and dark, but unique in my opinion

Brin did the last Foundation book although I've not read it. He's most famous for The Postman which was made into a terrible Kevin Costner movie.

The Uplift Novels deal with a galactic community where species are "uplifted" by other, more advanced species who share knowledge and technology. The uplifted species are somewhat indentured to their progenitors for a certain period of time. When the earth first comes to the notice of the galactic community, the human species has already "uplifted" both dolphins and chimps.....without even knowing about the concept of Uplift. Apparently, they've done it without having progenitors uplift them as well. I'll end my gross attempt at paraphrasing there.

[Gullwire]

Cormac McCarthy is my favourite author by orders of magnitude (though in terms purely of reading pleasure, M Banks isn't far off). His most famous book, The Road, is SF-y insofar as it's set in an apocalyptic near future or alternate present/near-past (ie not really at all, but it's been labelled that way), and so might be a good gateway for M Banks fans, but has a lot more in common with Song of Stone (only bleaker), and is by no means his best work and is very unrepresentative of the rest. Still great though. His best books are Blood Meridian and Suttree, though his best straight-up storytelling is in The Border Trilogy, esp. the first book, All the Pretty Horses.

[Deep Black]

Hi & welcome Gullwire.

This would be "The Road" that we recently made into a film with Viggo Mortensen?
Good movie & definatly SF (though more of a post-apocalyptic alternative/near future tyep SF as you say).
It's certainly been added to my (long) list of books to read, since seeing it.

Have you heard this song that is based on it? As the Crow Dies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwzzxZcC2lc

Infact all the songs off that album are based on post-apocalyptic / dystopian type stories.

[Gullwire]

Thanks Deep Black.

Though think I'll stick to the OST (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aye_WH0txl8).

Viggo Mortenson was perfect for the role. But, as every fan of a book has ever said of its film adaptation (with a few exceptions, namely The Lord of the Rings) - it's a pale imitation.

[Deep Black]

Very nice, that's the music used in the film itself right.
Is the footage just of a random road in that clip?

The book is indeed usually much better.

[Gullwire]

Very nice, that's the music used in the film itself right.
Is the footage just of a random road in that clip?
"Video made on the road E1,near the Plitvicka jezera, Croatia". I don't think they shot any of the film there, so I guess so. Someone didn't have much imagination.

[Champagne Socialist]

just reading through this thread again after the disaster of stealing light.