Best Sci-Fi Authors

Garroldy

More recently I have found Neal Asher, Richard Morgan and Venor Vingh to be outstanding, all different ways. Neal Asher for his inventiveness and storyline, Richard Morgan for the thrills and Venor Vingh for sheer scale.

There is the high priest of sci-fi that is Ian M Banks.

For just plain weird, China Melville weighs in as a heavyweight.

Charles Stross is amazing.

Peter F. Hamilton, Alastair Reynolds maybe not in the same league but good reads as well.

Anybody else reading these guys? Opinions on the best?

Black Swan

Dune (the first in the series) by Frank Herbert.

ixoy

Good list of authors there.

Just finished "Singularity Sky" myself - some great ideas there, although I'm not sure how I felt about the old-Englishness of some of the pieces (makes a change from the American flavour I suppose).

Neal Asher - he's next on my list to try out.

Richard Morgan - Read "Altered Carbon" and am keen to try out the next Kovacs novel. A lot of energy in that, and a decent lead protaganist.

Vingh - Who is this? No listings for him on Amazon at all.

Peter F. Hamilton - Liked the Greg Mandell series, loved the Night's Dawn trilogy (bar the Deus Ex-Machina ending), though "Fallen Dragon" was his best, and greatly enjoyed the recent 2-part series (can't recall its name). Possibly my favourite for the sheer grand scale of the action.

Alstair Reynolds - Just purchased "Pushing Ice" and "Century Rain" today. Greatly enjoyed the Revelation Space series but always felt he had trouble ending the novels, which marks him down a little (IMO).

Can I throw in David Zindell's amazing Neverness and "A Requiem for Homo Sapiens" trilogy in there? Great mixture of philosophy and technology with a great lead.
I'm sure you know Iain M. Banks - Culture novels are always good fun.

Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age" and "Snow Crash" are well worth checking out.

For "harder" sci-fi, I hope you've read Greg Bear. Most of his work is good, but "Moving Mars" particularly stands out. His newer work is a bit more contemporary but some of his earlier stuff, particularly in the short stories, isn't afraid to push the imagination.

Pugsley

Id second the notion for Ian M Banks, excellent writer, and also recommend Dan Simmons, the Hyperion and Endymion books are an unbelievably good read, so much depth to them, very heavy reading but definately worth getting.

Tree

love dan simmons, he's probably my favourite modern sf author

Hitting the time machines for older authors:

Isaac Azimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Phillip K. Dick, John Wyndham, Frank Herbert, Jules Verne (waaaay older than the rest of this lot)

You'll find the older authors have a sixties sf style that's very different to read, but once you start, you just can't get enough!

There are millions more to be listed

And Robert Reed's Marrow, and Down the Bright Way.
Oh, and Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy is amazing if you like sciencey sf.

mcgovern

ixoy wrote:

Vingh - Who is this? No listings for him on Amazon at all.

Alstair Reynolds - Just purchased "Pushing Ice" and "Century Rain" today. Greatly enjoyed the Revelation Space series but always felt he had trouble ending the novels, which marks him down a little (IMO).

...

Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age" and "Snow Crash" are well worth checking out.

For "harder" sci-fi, I hope you've read Greg Bear. Most of his work is good, but "Moving Mars" particularly stands out. His newer work is a bit more contemporary but some of his earlier stuff, particularly in the short stories, isn't afraid to push the imagination.

Vingh should be spelt Vinge, not wrote much but I really liked what he has written. "A Deepness in the Sky" and "Fire Upon the Deep" especially. Seems he has a new one out so I'll have to check that out.

Reynolds is probably my favourite author right now, I love Revelation Space and the rest of that series.
Have Pushing Ice and his two new sets of short stories ordered from Amazon right now, read everything else he has wrote.

Read those two Stephenson book and I have to agree, very good reading, especially Snow Crash.

I'll have to try out "Moving Mars" as I've enjoyed all of Greg Bear that I've read.

With the trick on Amazon.co.uk for free delivery I might just stock up again

User45701

William Shatner!

Johnny Storm

Rudy Rucker.
Particularly "Software" and "Wetware"

Garroldy

Originally Posted by ixoy
Can I throw in David Zindell's amazing Neverness and "A Requiem for Homo Sapiens" trilogy in there?

Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age" and "Snow Crash" are well worth checking out.

No question that you’ll enjoy Asher, the Runcible universe he creates is very rich. Although don’t buy Cowl as a first novel, it isn’t his best. Gridlinked is outstanding. Apologises about the Vinge Vingh thing, even when I search amazon I do it, bit of a mental block.

I haven’t tried Zindell and I wondered why, it occurs to me, after searching amazon, that I’ve mistaken him for fantasy novelist, purely on the covers of the books. Just goes to prove the old axiom. I also haven’t read anything by Neal Stephenson. Thanks for the tip offs.

Hard sci-fi is really the icing on the cake for me, Greg Bear as you mention and Robert Reed has some amazing ideas. Also Gregory Benford has some elements of hard sci-fi

Originally Posted by Tree
You'll find the older authors have a sixties sf style that's very different to read, but once you start, you just can't get enough!

Yeah love these guys. How about the 70's with Larry Niven and David Pournelle with Footfall and Lucifers Hammer, great sit back and enjoy the ride type of reads. And the daddy of them all HG Wells. I really love the short stories fom the 50's, things like 'Flowers for Algernon' complete classic.

As mention for grand scale space opera the Simmons 'Hyperion' series is awesome.

And no question that when I was a kid I wanted to be Paul Atreides

Originally Posted by mcgovern
With the trick on Amazon.co.uk for free delivery I might just stock up again

Fill me on this one mcgovern, its new to me?

Johnny Storm

Garroldy wrote:

...Yeah love these guys. How about the 70's with Larry Niven and David Pournelle with Footfall and Lucifers Hammer, great sit back and enjoy the ride type of reads....

IMHO Larry Niven's Ringworld is his best novel and one of the best SF books ever - as usual dont bother with the sequels.

And while we're back in the 70s Joe Haldeman's Forever War is another great book. It's an SF war book given a Viet Nam spin but its a lot better than my description makes it sound.

Also Kim Stanley Robinson's Red, Green and Blue Mars is a classic trilogy. 1st two are better.

And Bruce Sterling is another very smart SF writer.

Garroldy

For some reason I've never read Ringworld, I did try some of Larry's other stuff and found turgid (The Mote in God's Eye, what a waste of a tree), but if you recomend it I will try it. Also Robinson I have avoided although I must have picked up a million second hand copies in Chapters and read the back.

I've put Haldemen's book on my amazon list. I found it while searching the hugo/nebula award past winners, looks to be very influential by all accounts.

Similarly has anyone read Barry B Longyear's 'Manifest Destiny', four exquisite linked novellas containing huge heart. The theme of war in far flung places echoes with modern wars like Vietnam and the Gulf War, it would have to be one of my favourite reads.

In passing to mention that HG Wells is out of copyright and all of his novels are free to download from the likes of Project Guthenburg. I re-read 'The Time Machine' recently downloaded from there, pure genius.

http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/

Johnny Storm

Garroldy wrote:

For some reason I've never read Ringworld, I did try some of Larry's other stuff and found turgid (The Mote in God's Eye, what a waste of a tree), but if you recomend it I will try it.

I don't think you'll be disppointed.
(You'll also see where they got the ideas for light-sabres and Worf from )

C Fodder

Robert A. Heinlein

Nowadays his sci-fi is a mix of science fact and complete nonense but if read from the viewpoint in time where it was written it is excellent. A must read for all lovers of sci-fi. The chatacters in his books read like real people and his writings with regard to race and sex were unusual for the time for popular fiction

Vokes

ixoy wrote:

Peter F. Hamilton - Liked the Greg Mandell series, loved the Night's Dawn trilogy (bar the Deus Ex-Machina ending), though "Fallen Dragon" was his best, and greatly enjoyed the recent 2-part series (can't recall its name). Possibly my favourite for the sheer grand scale of the action.

Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained? Great first book but the 2nd ....it just kinda fizzled out at the end. Very disappointing

Tree

i can't stand alistair reynolds, got halfway through revelation space and gave in.

neal stephenson's interface is brilliant too, nice bit of politcal black humour in an information age.

man, a mental review of my library contains waaaay too much popular science and classic science fiction to catagorise me as anything but a nerd, and i love it!
i also love buzz aldrin and some other dude's Encounter at Tiber (i think, i can imagine the cover, and buzz aldrins name on it, prolly didnt write too much of it, but it's a great book nonetheless)

mcgovern

Garroldy wrote:

Fill me on this one mcgovern, its new to me?

This will answer better than I can

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055023237

It works as I've got 3 books posted yesterday.
Its also handy for pre-orders
Last cc bill was a bit high though so trying to not go and buy every book I want.


On topic: What do people think of the Uplift saga? I thought it was brilliant, really great stuff at times, though could get a bit drawn out.

Garroldy

mcgovern wrote:

What do people think of the Uplift saga?.....
though could get a bit drawn out.

Brin's got great ideas...seems to get lost over the last third of the stories. The endings always feel as if he was in a hurry to finish. Brin needs to read more Banks to see how its done.
Thanks for the thread link.

MrJoeSoap

I'm not a huge Sci-Fi fan at all but surely Douglas Adams deserves a mention at least?

Johnny Storm

Robert Silverberg
William Gibson

- how did we forget them?

mcgovern

Johnny Storm wrote:

Robert Silverberg
William Gibson

- how did we forget them?

Gibson, agree, he's very good.
Silverberg, I would say he ranks up there with the worst trash I have ever read, can't believe I forced myself to read the whole Majipoor series, was hoping it would eventually get good, but it never did.

rtyped

I've found the masterworks of sciencefiction a great collection, lots of books I would never have thought to read.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Science-Fiction-Masterworks-Series-1-25/lm/2RD0U28BH3K5V

In addition to those already mentioned , I also liked the Stephen Donaldson Gap series.

Johnny Storm

mcgovern wrote:

Silverberg, I would say he ranks up there with the worst trash I have ever read, can't believe I forced myself to read the whole Majipoor series, was hoping it would eventually get good, but it never did.

Slight generalisation there TBH, dude. FYI Silverberg has won 5 Hugo and 5 Nebula awards. He may not be your cup of tea but he is generally accepted as one of the greats of Sci-Fi (by me ). I don't think I've ever read the books you mention but I have read and enjoyed many of Silverberg's SF novels and short stories. Try reading the novel "Dying Inside", probably his best.

Tree

i've read some silverberg and i'd dump him in the fantasy category, he's not really my cup of tea

Marksie

A lot of the authors above i would agree with, but i would add some others

H.G Wells

J.W. Campbell

I particularly enjoyed James Morrow, this is the way the world ends.

I suppose for slightly younger readers then Orson Scott Card: enders game and associated series.
I actually beive thats on the curriculum in some american schools.

Yeah, Iain M. Banks Culture novels are very good, i think the best of those would be use of weapons.

Pepe LeFrits

Johnny Storm wrote:

And while we're back in the 70s Joe Haldeman's Forever War is another great book. It's an SF war book given a Viet Nam spin but its a lot better than my description makes it sound.

Agreed, I've just finished reading it and it is a truly excellent book.

Tree

i'm rather enjoying neal asher's gridlinked at the moment, forgot how much i miss solid sci fi

Johnny Storm

Frederik Pohl - very readible. In particular the HeeChee series of books would, I'd imagine, appeal to a wide audience.

shrapnel222

one which i love as well is Julian May, the many coloured land series and the intervention series are just brilliant

Jimboo_Jones

Tree wrote:

i'm rather enjoying neal asher's gridlinked at the moment, forgot how much i miss solid sci fi

Just finished reading his 'polity agent' book (4th in the cormac series) and its ace ... ends on a kind cliffhanger though which is annoying as I bet its a year or so before the next one is out.

also there is the 'splatter jay' series set in the same uiniverse which are as good

bonkey

Pugsley wrote:

and also recommend Dan Simmons, the Hyperion and Endymion books are an unbelievably good read, so much depth to them, very heavy reading but definately worth getting.

Not to mention his newer two-parter Ilium/Olympus. Super mix of Homerian content with sci-fi, I thought.

Also - although he's often lambasted for his oftimes-preachy style - Orson Scott Card has some classic stuff...perhaps most notably Ender's Game. The rest of the Ender series I thought got progressively weaker, but the newer "parallel" series he wrote (Ender's Shadow, and the rest of the Shadow series) was great, I thought.

kaki

I don't really think that the Ender Saga (by Orson Scott Card) is pitched at, or geared towards younger readers, no more than any other sci-fi series. Then again, I'm 17. Does that make me a younger reader?!

I think that they (Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide) are excellent, for the way in which Card slides in all these deep and dark questions/ insinuations, between the star fights, and the plagues, and the xenobiologists...

Also, I just acquired "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep?", which I can't wait to read. Yippee.

Tragedy

I'd just like to mention that Chasm City is by far my favourite Al Reynolds book. It just oozes awesomeness.

Kinda been turned off Richard Morgan at this stage, it seems every new book has more and more abysmal sex scenes that are just the male protagonist saying c**t over and over.

pwd

Don't see one author I like listed yet: Rob Grant is very good. Colony is especially good.
Doug Naylor is very very bad on the other hand..

CiDeRmAn

bonkey wrote: »

Not to mention his newer two-parter Ilium/Olympus. Super mix of Homerian content with sci-fi, I thought.

Such good books, fantastic, I preferred them to the Shrike books.

For me though, as modern SciFi goes, it has to be either Iain M Banks, Peter F Hamilton or Alastair Reynolds, brilliant brilliant writers, I snap up everything they write as soon as its published.

But then I think of the likes of Jonathan Lethem with "As She Climed Across The Table" and "Gun With Occasional Music".
The likes of Richard Morgan with the Takeshi Kovacs trilogy and his latest work of genius "Black Man".
The likes of Michael Marshall Smith with "Only Forward" and "Spares".

And my favourite SciFi book of the last decade "Mobius Dick" by Andrew Crumey, absolute pure genius.


But then you think of the great classics,
Arthur C Clarke with "Rama", "2001", "Fall of Moondust" and "Songs Of A Distant Earth".
John Brunner with "Stand On Zanzibar",
John Varley with "The Ophiuchi Hotline" and "Steel Beach"
James Blish, "Cities In Flight"

and so on and so on.

So, no really, I don't have a favourite SciFi author, the nature of the genre means that someone is always bringing out something startling and new, something to take your breath away.

At the same time, I can tell the folk I wish never picked up a bloody pen!