[HeX]

Series and single books I've read and loved

Series
Hyperion series - Dan Simmons

Otherland series - Tad Williams

Culture series - Iain M. Banks

Tom Swift series (not the modern day ones, the future ones) - Victor Appleton

Single

Illium - Dan Simmons

Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Addams

[Ace]

Originally posted by Liberator
Also, though I've only read one, the Lensmen series.

Dirigible planets! Negaspheres! Wooooo!

It's good old fashioned space opera, not cerebral, no hidden meaning things, just plain and simple mega-massive-huge space battles and such.

Some of the "archaic technology ideas" are fun too, like the massive computer ships used to handle all of the firing data for the fleets, etc.

[ShadowWolf_IH]

check out the Lost Regiment series.  William R Forstchen.  it's about a civil war regiment who are transported through time and spacre to a world where human are cattle.  The being who rule the world are medeival in technology, but descend from the people who built the portals to begin with.  it's more about the people and the impact of what they go through than it is about what they go through.

Also...i thoroughly enjoyed books 1 and 3 of the Faded Sun Trilogy, i liked the whole concept of the books.  not realistic....then agian we play fs2 .

Beyond that....a friend of mine got me into reading the battletech novels....devouring them is more apt a term.

[Rictor]

currently reading through Starship Titanic, though I don't know if that can be classified as science-fiction. Its a sci-fi setting, sure enough, but like anything concieved by Douglas Adams (though written by someone else), humour is the main element.

[Liberator]

Thought of something else:

Robotech #1-18 by Jack McKinney

If you are a fan of the series/movies, and have never read/heard of these snatch up a set and read away.  #1-#6 detail the lives and adventures of the crew of the SDF-1, before, during, and shortly after their traverse to Pluto and the subsequent journey home which is shortly thereafter razed by the Zentraedi(I pronounce it Zen-Tree-Dee, there is no way, phonetically, that it could be Zen-Tra-dee, or Zen-tr-a-edi, or anything else other that Zen-Tree-Dee.  Though, I suppose a case could be made for Zen-Tray-Dee...)

#7-#12  Detail the life and adventure of Dana Sterling and friends in the 15th ATACs as they and the rest of the Army of the Southern Cross attempt to fend off the advances of far superior Tirolian(they are from the planet Tirol, which is actually a moon of the giant Fantoma)Robotech Masters and their clone army as they(the Masters) attempt to reclaim the Protoculture Matrix which is buried in the still radioactive husk of the destroyed SDF-1.

13-17 tell the tale of the REF(Rick Hunter and Co) as they travel to Tirol-space to try and make peace with the Tirolian Robotech Elders, who are the evil, wizened, protoculture addicted rulers of Tirol and once an vast empire controlled by their mind-controlled Zentraedi slave army.  Instead they find a war in progress and are attacked by the insectoid Invid.

18 ties everything up fairly effectively and leaves no dangling plot holes save how Zor escapes the pocket reality that Haydon set up to observe Minmei and Rem(who is a clone of Zor and his father at the same time)

There are a couple of books, 19-2x that detail the "missing" 15 years that are between book 6 and book 7.

This is by far the most entertaining version of Robotech I have ever partaken of.

[Gloriano]

Honor Harrington books-David Weber

Culture series - Iain M. Banks

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card


Those I really enjoyed reading

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Maeglamor
[color=66ff00]Yeah, I was thinking more of Verne when I said that.

War of the worlds is still pretty gripping even in this post ID4 world.
[/color]

War of the Worlds is brilliant. The Time Machine isn't bad either. Haven't read the others but I've heard good things about them too.

As for other reccomendations,

Enders Game, Speaker for the Dead etc are well worth a read. They are fairly different styles though.

Greg Bear's Forge of Eath/Anvil of Stars are both pretty good. If you've read the first one you probably spent the whole book wondering how in hell they would save Earth from destruction. The answer was quite surprising

Larry Niven's earlier stuff was pretty damn good. Protector features some of the best examples of fighting at near lightspeed I've seen (i.e fire your weapon at the enemy. Wait three weeks to see if it killed him or not ) and Ringworld is definately an influence on Halo.

If you fancy some lighter reading I reccomend Harry Harrisons Stainless Steel Rat books. Well worth a read

[Knight Templar]

The Halo series.

[MicroPsycho]

The HALO series was okay for a quick read, except for The Flood which I thought was horribly...


Patriarch's Hope was a good book by David Feintuch

and "Forever Free" and "Worlds" by Joe Haldeman are "thought-provoking.

Other than that I haven't read any other SF novels

[kasperl]

The Honor series by David Weber are pretty good, though the last couple of books are not centering on the interesting time period. And they're all available for free, as e-books.

[Ford Prefect]

The Hyperion books by Dan Simmons are masterpieces. I really think they have the potential to become classics of literature.

-Almost anything by Arthur C. Clarke, as previously mentioned.

-Any of Stephen Baxter's work.

-1984, by George Orwell.

[Stunaep]

Originally posted by karajorma



Larry Niven's earlier stuff was pretty damn good. Protector features some of the best examples of fighting at near lightspeed I've seen (i.e fire your weapon at the enemy. Wait three weeks to see if it killed him or not ) and Ringworld is definately an influence on Halo.
 

Oh, aye,  Ringworld was damn excellent. Not as damn excellent as Clarke or Asimov type of excellence, but still quite good.

BTW, Clarke's Childhood's End is quite good, and the short story collection Expedition to Earth is just excellent.

And Verne is always good. If you haven't read anything by him yet, check out the 20 000 leagues/Mysterious Island/Children of captain Grant trilogy.

Then there's Orwell.

[jdjtcagle]

there of books in here

[mrfun]

Thought I's point out Philip K. Dick again- he's the guy that wrote the original minority report.  Good, original scifi in the old way, ala heinlen, but a lot more creepy.

[Stryke 9]

The Man in High Castle was pretty awful, though. Don't read that, unless you're really into I Ching.

[Impurial]

A. A. Attanasio - Centuries

I'm just impressed that he could stretch out a human's lifespan for over 600 years.  It's a bit whacked though.

[jdjtcagle]

Explain?
Curious...