Comments on: a fall sci-fi reading list

By: M

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:50:41 +0000

Kim Stanley Robinson! Start with the California series, then the Mars series, then read “The Years of Rice and Salt” to see how City of Brass might have been very different. Ok, then we have Greg Bear’s Darwin books and Maria Doria Russell’s “The Sparrow”. Both are heavy going but totally worth it.

Also, I have Neal Stephenson’s entire Baroque Cycle in eReader format. Send me your GPG public key if you want those (since they require my CC number to unlock). They include bonus material and more efficient than lugging around 4 huge tomes of wood.

Oh, and not quite sci-fi, but add “Freakonomics” to your reading list too. You’ll be surprised by the power of economics!

Eid Mabrook!

By: fledgling otaku

fledgling otaku — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:47:56 +0000

agreed, i loved how he managed to tie all his stuff into the Foundation universe. Some of that was retconning, to be sure, but still

i think no one mentioned Asimov because then this would be a “must-read scifi list”. Thats definitely a topic we shoudl do though – the greatest 100 books of sci fi. i wonder if 100 is enough.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:26:12 +0000

Oh yeah, Asimov is great. Be careful with the Foundation Series though. Some of the ones that were written later (i.e. Prelude to Foundation, Forward the Foundation and Foundation & Earth) assume you’ve read other Asimov series (namely, the Robot series). Asimov was one of my favorite authors growing up, so I read a ton of his books and he had tied together a few of his series so that they were all related. Here’s the guide he had published in Prelude to Foundation:

http://kaedrin.com/fun/asimov/aguide.html

The Empire series are not strictly necessary, but if you’re reading 12 books, why not read 15?

By: Reverend

Reverend — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:22:17 +0000

I’m surprised no one mentioned the Foundation series prior to my remembering it this morning.

If you haven’t already read it … you must!

By: IKnight

IKnight — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:59:38 +0000

Like Andy Janes I got the most out of Pratchett’s Watch series, though that may be because the crime/detective/hardboiled genres that he riffs on in the Watch books are the kind of thing I rather enjoy.

It’s been a while since I read Small Gods, but I remember enjoying it. If I remember rightly, Pratchett commented that he received a strange set of responses to that particular book: letters from Christians surprised at how sympathetic to Christianity they found it, and letters from atheists saying how good a job he’d done of satirising Christianity and organised, monotheistic religion in general.

By: matoko_chan

matoko_chan — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:05:14 +0000

I read Ender when i was younger….it was good then, but i find it more YA.
And Card bores me now….im one of those strange grrls that digs “hard” scifi, and Card is too lowtech and pedestrian for meh.

By: Aaron Davies

Aaron Davies — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:31:11 +0000

if you like eragon, i strongly recommend naomi novik’s temeraire books–they’re basically a cross between eragon/pern and susanna clarke’s _jonathan Strange & mr, norrell_ (which i also recommend if you haven’t read it). they’re a fantasy alternate history series concerning the exploits of the british dragon air corps in the napoleonic wars.

By: Reverend

Reverend — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:12:36 +0000

Fledgling Otaku says:

I’ve actually read the first few books in the Ender series already through to Xenocide (and found them to decrease in quality exponentially). Is Shadow the retelling from Bean’s perspective? If so then maybe I need to re-read Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow together. To be honest for personal reasons I’m not inclined to read much more of Card’s work beyond that because his political views are enormously offensive to me. (and no, I dont want to discuss that further here).

———————————

Personally, I agree with you on his political (and spiritual) views. But I’m constantly amazed at how such a twat could write something so good.

In answer to your question, yes the Shadow series is the one from Bean’s POV. Because of my OCD, when I start re-reading the series each year I have to read all of them. But I read them in the order I gave because if I don’t “remember” to read Xenocide or Speaker for the Dead, then I don’t feel like I’m missing anything.

By: Andy Janes

Andy Janes — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 20:22:57 +0000

Have been re-reading a few Diskworld novels recently, the Watch ones are the best IMO (Nightwatch is the single best book in the whole series)

Haven’t read Anathem yet but I lovrd the Baroque cycle, it does take some getting into but in hugely entertaining.

Time is ok but the Xeelee novels (Raft, Vacuum Diagrams, Flux and Ring) are Baxter’s best- though is a bit of a case of spot the Niven references!

By: matoko_chan

matoko_chan — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:27:48 +0000

And…..Holes is the only movie ever that is as good as the book.
The casting is absolutely perfect.