Good Sci-Fi Collection?

shuffles03

I'm looking to start reading a Sci-Fi collection. Can anyone recommend some if the best? What about the following:

The Xeelee Sequence: Stephen Baxter

The Culture Series: Iain M. Banks

The Foundation Series: Isaac Asimov

The Darkover Series: Marion Zimmer


Cheers in advance.

Nody

The Foundation series is never a bad start and there's a lot more in that universe as well if you end up liking it.

shuffles03

Nody wrote: »

The Foundation series is never a bad start and there's a lot more in that universe as well if you end up liking it.

Cheers! I have a Kindle but unfortunately, not a lot is appearing there (only a few).

I'd love the idea of a massive saga that involves mankind leaving earth in search of colonisation/search for extra terrestrial life etc.

HivemindXX

Olaf Stapledon's First and Last Men tells the story of humanity from our ancestors to our extremely distant descendants but it is one book and I suspect you want a huge series.

That tends to be more of a fantasy thing although there are some examples in science fiction. You might look at Dune although most people feel that the quality went downhill at some point (some say after the first book, but personally I thought the first four were good).

It's a blast from the past but EE Doc Smiths Lensman series goes from the distant past to the far future but the it is very pulpy (from what I remember).

David Brins Uplift War series goes from the near future and quickly ramps up to galaxy spanning scale.

If you only want to read series I think you are missing out. Some of the best books are stand alone novels.

Nody

HivemindXX wrote: »

Olaf Stapledon's First and Last Men tells the story of humanity from our ancestors to our extremely distant descendants but it is one book and I suspect you want a huge series.

That tends to be more of a fantasy thing although there are some examples in science fiction. You might look at Dune although most people feel that the quality went downhill at some point (some say after the first book, but personally I thought the first four were good).

It's a blast from the past but EE Doc Smiths Lensman series goes from the distant past to the far future but the it is very pulpy (from what I remember).

David Brins Uplift War series goes from the near future and quickly ramps up to galaxy spanning scale.

If you only want to read series I think you are missing out. Some of the best books are stand alone novels.

Dune held it all the way through to the final book he wrote if you don't expect a frenzied war book as Dune is (esp. if you dig deeper in the sources of symbolism used etc.); his son's efforts though turns were very simple and fell flat by comparison; esp. the final two books in the Dune series are atrocious with one sided characters etc. (though the House of X series did have some ok background filler for the main characters in the universe).

Thargor

HivemindXX wrote: »

Olaf Stapledon's First and Last Men tells the story of humanity from our ancestors to our extremely distant descendants but it is one book and I suspect you want a huge series.

Evolution by Stephen Baxter does the same thing and is more modern, First and Last Men is nearly a hundred years old now, just a standalone book not a series aswell though.

shuffles03

Just Googled Stephen Baxter books. There's a lot. Where would I start....or is there a starting point?

seagull

A few other names I'd throw in the mix

Kurt Vonnegut
Robert Heinlein
C J Cherryh
L E Modesitt

Thargor

shuffles03 wrote: »

Just Googled Stephen Baxter books. There's a lot. Where would I start....or is there a starting point?

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

has them in order, search Goodreads for the reviews, you can skip the novellas and short stories imo, not great.

Xeelee Sequence, Flood/Ark, The Long Earth series and Manifold are all amazing imo, jealous you have them all ahead of you, he's one of the best ever sci-fi writers.

stuboy01

Don't write off old old sf like van vogt. He's got some good stuff. Especially null-a books. They're good fun and some of them are really reminicent of early bw sci fi movies.

daUbiq

I have to recommend this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night%27s_Dawn_Trilogy

One of my favourite series...

Have to agree with the posters above, Stephen Baxter is amazing. The Culture series is great fun too.

Thargor

Im always recommending Nights Dawn here and nobody ever seems to read it!

daUbiq

Thargor wrote: »

Im always recommending Nights Dawn here and nobody ever seems to read it!

It's an awesome series, love most of that guys books.. they're very long so might be intimidating for some people!

Have you read his last book?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_North_Road_%28book%29

I enjoyed it.

Thargor

Yeah its discussed a few pages back, I like his stuff aswell but thats by far my least fav, he spent so long on the investigation and the convoy through the frozen forest that I just wanted it to be over by the end, that book is literally twice as long as it needed to be. Fallen Dragon is the best of his standalone works imo.

daUbiq

Thargor wrote: »

Yeah its discussed a few pages back, I like his stuff aswell but thats by far my least fav, he spent so long on the investigation and the convoy through the frozen forest that I just wanted it to be over by the end, that book is literally twice as long as it needed to be. Fallen Dragon is the best of his standalone works imo.

It's definitely a bit long alright! I see you're a Malazan reader too... I'm on the final book now. Not usually a fantasy reader but loving this.

wyrn

Thargor wrote: »

Im always recommending Nights Dawn here and nobody ever seems to read it!

A friend recommended The Reality Dysfunction to me years ago and I eventually bought it for the grand sum of €1.99 in Chapters.

I still haven't started it

Thargor

I found The Reality Dysfunction for a similar price years ago in the little 2nd hand bookshop between Charlie Byrnes and Eyre Square in Galway years ago, no internet back then so Id never heard of it and mostly was drawn to the size of it, couldn't believe it when I read it, instantly my favourite sci-fi ever, couldn't believe it again when I found out there were 2 more books after that...

shuffles03

Cheers for all the replies. Loads of options. Think I'll start with Stephen Baxter first.

ixoy

Thargor wrote: »

Im always recommending Nights Dawn here and nobody ever seems to read it!

Terrible ending to the trilogy really marred it for me. I think the Commonwealth Saga and the previous duology are much better series over all. Looking forward to the third series in the same universe.

dimcoin

Thargor wrote:

Evolution by Stephen Baxter does the same thing and is more modern, First and Last Men is nearly a hundred years old now, just a standalone book not a series aswell though.

Halfway through Evolution atm. Hope you did not ruin the ending!

dimcoin

Thargor wrote:

Im always recommending Nights Dawn here and nobody ever seems to read it!

What's it about??

daUbiq

dimcoin wrote: »

What's it about??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night%27s_Dawn_Trilogy

shuffles03

Going to try and pickup Xeelee Sequence tomorrow. I live in Delgany. Does anyone know if it's freely available in most bookshops? Heading off on holiday on Thurs so need to get it tomorrow. Cheers!

Thargor

You should get a couple of them in the sci-fi section of a big secondhand shop, cant say Ive seen them for sale new in a while, not in Dubrays anyway. There was always a few in Charlie Byrnes in Galway if thats any good to you...

daUbiq

Thargor wrote: »

You should get a couple of them in the sci-fi section of a big secondhand shop, cant say Ive seen them for sale new in a while, not in Dubrays anyway. There was always a few in Charlie Byrnes in Galway if thats any good to you...

When I used to buy paperbacks I found lots of great sci fi on ebay cheap.

Thargor

Well yeah but he wants to buy it in a shop by tomorrow.

shuffles03

Need it by this afternoon. Nowhere seems to have it though. I've tried ringing Dun Laoghaire, Greystones and Blackrock bookshops.

shuffles03

shuffles03 wrote: »

Need it by this afternoon. Nowhere seems to have it though. I've tried ringing Dun Laoghaire, Greystones and Blackrock bookshops.

Not even Hodges Figgis have it. Don't think I'll find it. I have a Kindle so can get it there for £1.99 but would have preferred a physical copy.

RichardoKhan

Anything by Philip K Dick...............the guy was a genius.

RichardoKhan

Also anything by Robert Heinlein, Ursula Le Guin & Gene Wolfe

RDM_83 again

RichardoKhan wrote: »

Also anything by Robert Heinlein, Ursula Le Guin & Gene Wolfe

Great writers and big ideas
Le Guin- The Earthseas for Fantasy one of the few series I read as a child that doesn't seem childish to my eyes now, her Hainish cycle is more sci-fi, for a Sci-Fi collection if I had to pick one it would be The Left Hand of Darkness for the ideas but possibly not the best read.

Heinlein - Personally Starship troopers for me over "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"

My recommendations.

For Cyberpunk: Neuromancer by William Gibson, remember its written Pre-internet!

For Steampunk: Again Gibson with the Difference Engine (with Sterling), for an older Steampunk-ish work try Moorcocks Warlords of the Air

For Hard Sci-Fi: Lots of ideas in the Blindsight by Watts that make you realise how easy a lot of writers make the idea of making contact with aliens as well as lots of ideas about consciousness, I found it a hard read but AFAIK since its available for free its definitely worth a try.
Also The Forever War

For quality Space Opera: Alaistar Reynolds 'Revelation Space' books, there isn't a problem with the suspension of disbelief in his works I have with a lot of other Space Opera (I'm looking at Peter F Hamilton and Ian M Banks here) since Space isn't made to seem small with "magical" FTL drives etc. Its also full of action and weird characters in case I'm making it sound too serious.

Post-Apocalypic: Wool: H Howley was self-published on Amazon so should be pretty cheap to buy for your Kindle (also they might be making a film of it )

Honorable mentions to check out: Kathleen Ann Goonan, Paul J McAuley, Bruce Steling (Schizmatrix is very very good), Michael Swanwick