Light reading in sf & f

Trojan

Quite often I'm looking for something fairly light and easy going to dip into - the opposite of Malazan, ASOIAF, The Black Company, etc.

I think The Name of The Wind, or Riftwar series would be fairly good candidates for that kind of categorisation. Not quite "bubble-gum fantasy" but fairly light and easy going.

Anyone else sometimes just looking for an easy read of it at times? What do you recommend?

sentient_6

Read the first book of Robin Hobbs Liveship Traders recently & would say it fits the bill. Core of only a hand full of characters & a predictable but interesting enough plot. Nothing to strenuous at all. Farseer trilogy would be the same in my opinion.

Manach

Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files". Hackneyed gumshoe/wizard for hire in Urban Chicago. Quite a fun series.

AnCapaillMor

Anything by gemmell. Abercrombies pretty direct.

Nody

Eddings come to mind; esp. the Belgarion series (10 books in two series and another two follow up books after that); Gemmel as noted earlier, Best served cold series, and I'd throw in Gotrek & Felix and the Malus Darkblade (if you like the Warhammer fantasy world) for fantasy (esp. Malus is fun as it's written from an evil dark elf's view who've lost his soul to a demon and needs to take it back).

For Sci fi I'd also throw in the "Orphan" series, Star Risk series (only started the first book but it's a quick and easy read) and the Gaunt series (if you like the WH40k world) as light reads; you also have several "Omnibus" that are great as the stories are 30 to 80 pages only so easily to pick up and stop (and for me tends to find me new authors to read longer stories with later).

Raif Severance

David Eddings, David Gemmell, Raymond Feist, James Barclay, Chris Bunch, David Farland and LE Modessitt Jr.

Specially the last one. I usually read Modesitt after I've consumed a Multi-Volume Monstrosity.

Dermighty

The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison.

shockwave

Retribution falls by Chris Wooding. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Retribution-Falls-Tales-Ketty-Jay/dp/0575085169/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1362403936&sr=1-1

Its a steampunky scifi series which is very much like Firefly, good plot and an easy fun read.

nesf

I'd second Hobbs' Assassin Trilogy. Pretty easy, fast reading but with good characterisation, plot and so on. It's been ages (a decade?) since I've read them though.

gufnork

I know the Gor chronicles get a lot of stick and maybe not everyone's cup of tea but they're surprisingly easy to read. The kind of book you pick up intending to read a couple of chapters and find you're still sitting there 4 hours later.

OwaynOTT

Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant novels. Dresden crossed with Gaimen's Neverwhere.

Nody

Only came to my mind (and I'm ashamed I forgot it) but the Paksenarrion series is quite an easy fantasy read (3 books for the main story that are quite thick but are gone through easily, 3 follow up books if you want more background to the world).

BlaasForRafa

The Pern series by Anne McCaffrey is fairly light reading.

On the SF side, a lot of military sci-fi like Jack Campbell's "Lost Fleet" series and Graham Sharp Paul's "Helfort's War" series are good page-turners.

stevenmu

BlaasForRafa wrote: »

On the SF side, a lot of military sci-fi like Jack Campbell's "Lost Fleet" series

I was just going to suggest these books. They're easy and simple to get into, but fantastic compelling reading. Think Tom Clancy doing giant futuristic space battles.

Stenth

SF: Anything by John Scalzi. Start with Old Man's War.
His books are not great literature, but fun. Sort of like early Heinlein.

Fantasy: If you are not afraid of being seen reading young adult books, Diane Duane's Wizard series. Or Dianna Wynne Jones.

Trojan

I've read the Dresden ones (well, first 8 or so anyway) - love it.

Scalzi I enjoyed, haven't read his latest.

Anne McCaffrey is on the list, but haven't got into the first one yet.

I enjoyed the Assassin series from Hobb, but think her books went downhill from there - couldn't finish the Soldiers Son series.

I loved The Stainless Steel Rat, have to get the next one

swampgas

From an SF POV, Asimov's Foundation trilogy is easy to read, and oddly quaint in the way it's written. The Lost Fleet books are a good light read as well. For fantasy, Terry Pratchett and John Wyndham are old favourites of mine.

Necronomicon

On a friend's recommendation I started reading the 'Wool' series by Hugh Howey:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13453029-wool-omnibus

It started off as a self-published series of novellas - the link above is to an omnibus edition of the first five. I'm on the fourth novella at the moment, and loving it. It's a dystopian fiction - the closest thing to a novelisation of Fallout as I've read so far. Not at all dense given the premise.

SuperInfinity

Rai Kirah Trilogy - fantasy series where you see things through the eyes of a slave, it's an original take on the lives and feelings/perspective of people that are usually quickly dismissed. She also concentrates on the established characters and world, rather than continually throwing new ones at you.

BlaasForRafa

Toby Frost's "Space Captain Smith" trilogy is are real funny light reads too. Think "Carry on up the Khyber" in space

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Space-Captain-Smith-Chronicles-Isambard/dp/1905802137/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1364318415&sr=8-3