Recommend books to a sci-fi lover?

[natural20]

Hi Escapists,

I'm about to finish a degree and get a whoooooole lot more free time, and I want to fill it with games and books! Games, I have covered. I have a stash that's built up over a couple of all-nighter years. Books, on the other hand, I need a little help with.

Stuff I love: cyberpunk, historical fiction, science fiction, criticism on human nature, hilarity

I have already read a lot of Neil Stephenson, CS Lewis, and Orson Scott Card. Who else should I look into? What books might I like?

 

[tippy2k2]

John Ringo's sci-fi books. Specifically the core books of the Posleen Wars (Hymn Before Battle, Gust Front, When the Devil Dances, and Hell's Faire). I love all of his stuff but those books in particular are my favorite.

Think an alien race with the numbers and intelligence of the Zerg combined with the technology of the Protoss and the humans are...well, the Terrans with the big robot suits of armor and giant tanks.

 

[Sjakie]

Frank Herbert's Dune series (dont bother with his sons brian work)

William Gibson: the godfather of cyberpunk SF

Greg Bear
Gregory Benford
Peter F Hamilton

and of course: Isaac Asimov

 

[The Salty Vulcan]

I would recommend Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. It has science fiction trappings, but it serves more as a philosophical novel than anything else, discussing mythology and how ethics are affected by them. It's a really good read.

 

[octafish]

I second Gibson.

His Sprawl trilogy has dated a bit now, I think someone gets killed for 4Mb of stolen RAM, but if you can look past that sort of stuff they are still good.

The Bridge trilogy is good (better than the Sprawl IMO) and moves away from the harder sci-fi of the sprawl series.

His most recent series which I'm going to call the Bigend trilogy until someone gives me a better name, has almost no sci-fi elements at all (it is still speculative fiction just much more grounded) and I think it is his best work.

Grab some Dick, everyone should have some Dick in their library. The Man in the High Castle, Ubik, and The three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch are the three I would reccomend along with a compilation of short stories.

Thirdly, Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five, Player Piano, and lets say...Cat's Cradle are the three I'll point you towards, but really you should read everything Vonnegut ever wrote.

 

[Mustang678]

The 'Hyperion' series by Dan Simmons, sounds right up your alley.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_Cantos

-'The story weaves the interlocking tales of a diverse group of travelers sent on a pilgrimage to the Time Tombs on Hyperion. The travelers have been sent by the Shrike Church and the Hegemony (the government of the human star systems) to make a request of the Shrike. As they progress in their journey, each of the pilgrims tells their tale.'-

I also enjoy Dan Simmons' Ilium. Mix of history + sci fi. Good author

David Weber's Mutineer's Moon was an interesting read. It's up online for free somewhere as part of a free sci fi book program

 

[natural20]

I do rather enjoy Vonnegut. Haven't hit Cat's Cradle yet, so maybe I'll pick that one up.

I started reading Dune once and really wish now that I had, in fact, bought it.

 

[deesmon]

All of the above plus Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy "Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars"

If you can get past the first couple of chapters with one of the main Russian characters sleeping with EVERYONE then its great stuff.

You'd be surprised what happens when you nuke a space elevator!

 

[Berenzen]

The Dune series by Frank Herbert

The Matador Series by Steve Perry

Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein

GRRM Dreamsongs collections which is two sections of his novellas that are very good. A Song for Lya is probably one of the most powerful stories I've read.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

The Star Wars Expanded Universe has some gems, such as the Thrawn Trilogy.

 

[General Grind]

I second Dan Simmon's "Hyperion" and "Fall of Hyperion". While it certainly fits into science fiction, cyberpunk and criticism of human nature (Even a bit of historical fiction), it's the kind of books that trancends genres and is just really great.

Also, I have to recommend the Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson, even though it is epic fantasy. There is tons of criticism on human nature and society in general. Steven Erikson writes really good dialog as well, so there is a lot of good humor in the books through all the gloom and doom. He is an archeologist, so you really feel the wait of history in his works, even though they are set in a fictional world. For me, the Malazan Book of the Fallen really is historical fiction, only in a world which just happens to be made up. Also, it's 10 books, each of them at around a thousand pages, so you'll have something to read for a good time.

A testiment to the awesomeness is me trying to look up a cool quote from the Malazan Book of the Fallen to end this recommendation, and instead I just read through all the quotes I could find with a great grin on my face and an almost unstoppable urge to re-read the entire series again.

 

[teh lurker]

Kethani by Eric Brown.

It's a collection of inter-related but stand-alone short stories about the lives of people in a British village after the Kethani come to Earth and grant people the dubious gift of immortality. I warn you though, it's got a depressing ending, but it's still one of the best books I've ever read.

 

[Kuranesno7]

Can't go wrong with Gibson. I've read most of his stuff, among the other things you could look up the science fiction anthology he made with a few others, s' called Burning Chrome.

as for phillip K Dick, you could go with A scanner darkly, which had drug addicts in the future.

That and damn near anything Neal Stephenson has ever written (i.e. Zodiac, Snow crash, Cryptonomicon, the diamond age).

 

[Chased]

Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner

Be warned, it's not written like a conventional novel. Contains a lot of criticism on politics, mysticism, overpopulation and people in general.

 

[CrazyHatMan]

The hitchhikers' guide to the galaxy series by Douglas Adams. Best thing in the history of everything. Covers just about everything about the universe in an absolutely hillarious manner. Changed the way i look on life.

 

[Spitfire-IX]

The Foundation Trilogy, Dune, Rendezvous with Rama are pretty good for Sci-fi.(and are also the only sci-fi I own right now.)
As for Criticism on Human nature, I guess maybe "East of Eden", "Grapes of Wrath", "Huckleberry Finn", "Clockwork Orange" or "The Picture of Dorian Gray". "On the Road" may fit in to that aswell.

 

[Raddra]

Check out books by Alan Dean Foster. He has wrote some excellent sci-fi books in his day.