Author Topic: In need of Titles  (Read 6747 times)

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Offline esarai

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Morning Hard Light,

I suddenly, shockingly realized that despite how much a SciFi and Fantasy fan I am, I am poorly versed in decent titles other than the most easily recognizable works ever.  So I come to you for help.  Could you give me some titles that are an absolute must read?  And hell, even if they aren't in the genres, suggest them anyways. 

<Nuclear>   truth: the good samaritan actually checked for proof of citizenship and health insurance
<Axem>   did anyone catch jesus' birth certificate?
<Nuclear>   and jesus didnt actually give the 5000 their fish...he gave it to the romans and let it trickle down
<Axem>and he was totally pro tax breaks
<Axem>he threw out all those tax collectors at the temple
<Nuclear>   he drove a V8 camel too
<Nuclear>   with a sword rack for his fully-automatic daggers

Esarai: hey gaiz, what's a good improvised, final attack for a ship fighting to buy others time to escape to use?
RangerKarl|AtWork: stick your penis in the warp core
DarthGeek: no don't do that
amki: don't EVER do that

 
Oh I thought you meant a custom title.

So you've read snow crash, Heinlein, Orson Scott Card and all that already, right?

 
I recommend looking into an author by the name of Charles Sheffield. He writes some good SF.

In particular, I liked Godspeed and Between the Strokes of Night.
"You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?" -DEATH, Discworld

 

Offline The E

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Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash, Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, Anathem
Charles Stross - Accelerando, Glasshouse, Halting State, Saturn's Children, The Atrocity Archives
John Scalzi - Old Man's War
Richard Morgan - Altered Carbon
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

 

Offline Black Wolf

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I've been reading Peter Hamilton for awhile now, yetcyo be disappointed. I guess he's reasonably recognizable though.
TWISTED INFINITIES · SECTORGAME· FRONTLINES
Rarely Updated P3D.
Burn the heretic who killed F2S! Burn him, burn him!!- GalEmp

 

Offline The E

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Oohhhh, How could I forget

Iain M Banks - The Player Of Games, Consider Phlebas, Use of Weapons, Excession, Surface Detail in that order
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

  

Offline Colonol Dekker

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A little bit of Seth Dickinson never goes amiss i'm told ;)
Campaigns I've added my distinctiveness to-
- Blue Planet: Battle Captains
-Battle of Neptune
-Between the Ashes 2
-Blue planet: Age of Aquarius
-FOTG?
-Inferno R1
-Ribos: The aftermath / -Retreat from Deneb
-Sol: A History
-TBP EACW teaser
-Earth Brakiri war
-TBP Fortune Hunters (I think?)
-TBP Relic
-Trancsend (Possibly?)
-Uncharted Territory
-Vassagos Dirge
-War Machine
(Others lost to the mists of time and no discernible audit trail)

Your friendly Orestes tactical controller.

Secret bomb God.
That one time I got permabanned and got to read who was being bitxhy about me :p....
GO GO DEKKER RANGERSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
President of the Scooby Doo Model Appreciation Society
The only good Zod is a dead Zod
NEWGROUNDS COMEDY GOLD, UPDATED DAILY
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Offline The E

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Yeah, but it's not like his publications are easy to pick up in a book store.
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

 

Offline CommanderDJ

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A little bit of Seth Dickinson never goes amiss i'm told ;)

I can testify to this.  :yes:
[16:57] <CommanderDJ> What prompted the decision to split WiH into acts?
[16:58] <battuta> it was long, we wanted to release something
[16:58] <battuta> it felt good to have a target to hit
[17:00] <RangerKarl> not sure if talking about strike mission, or jerking off
[17:00] <CommanderDJ> WUT
[17:00] <CommanderDJ> hahahahaha
[17:00] <battuta> hahahaha
[17:00] <RangerKarl> same thing really, if you think about it

 

Offline Unknown Target

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For good cheese, Timothy Zahn's "The Icarus Hunt" is a fun sci fi romp.

 

Offline General Battuta

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For good cheese, Timothy Zahn's "The Icarus Hunt" is a fun sci fi romp.

Zahn really was a good time. He's not very sophisticated but he's a good intro to SF.

 

Offline Luis Dias

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"The Player of games" is a classic for me. Couldn't help but repeat the reading for it, I highly support E's recommendations.

... annnnd there's always Douglas Adams.

 

Offline StarSlayer

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I generally enjoyed the books from the Honor Harrington books by David Weber.  I obviously like science fiction and old Age of Sail books like the Richard Bolitho series and the Harrington Series is a nice meld of those themes.  Its certainly harder scifi then Star Wars but not diamond dense as the stuff tutta usually advocates.
“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world”

 

Offline General Battuta

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I liked the second Honor Harrington book a lot, but felt the series got long-winded and dry and a bit ridiculous as it went.

Listing off all of the ways Honor Harrington is overpowered by the eleventh book is a fun party game though.

 

Offline StarSlayer

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I liked the second Honor Harrington book a lot, but felt the series got long-winded and dry and a bit ridiculous as it went.

Listing off all of the ways Honor Harrington is overpowered by the eleventh book is a fun party game though.

I generally go on a tear and just consume books like a fire when I get a decent series, to the point where I often forgive quite a bit.
“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world”

 

Offline The E

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Yeah, even though I am a fan of the HH series, I do consider the latest offerings (basically everything between and including Mission of Honor and At All Costs) to be a real low point in the series. The Shadow Of Saganami sub-series was rather good, but it seems that Weber is more interested in his worldbuilding than his characters lately, which has a real detrimental effect on the series. Mission Of Honor seemed to be a bit better than the rest, so I hope he can turn it around again, but that hope is relatively slim.

Also, while I am confessing to guilty pleasures, I must admit to being slightly amused by some stuff written by John Ringo. He's not a bad writer, if he can keep that raging right-wing-american stereotype of his in check.
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

 

Offline peterv

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O.K., i know that this is classic and you probably know it already,  but just in case:

Isaac Asimov's: The foundation trilogy.

(the absolute masterpiece  :pimp:)

 

Offline Dragon

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"I, Robot" too (also classic and also by Asimov).
Also, you could try something by Stanislaw Lem, such as "Solaris" and "Invincible". They're both old style "hard" SF, much like most of Lem's works.
Kir Bulyczow's "Pass" and "Settlement" are very good, too.

 
The good ones I read this month:

Flood by Stephen Baxter (I think). Good book, I felt weird after reading it  (at work we were moving large bodies of water around, so it resonated)

Endymion, by I don't know who. A strange novel. It is the third book in a series, but that didn't affect the read all that much.

Shine, which is a collection of short stories. There were some gems in this book.

Ivory, by Mike Resnick. About the Kilimanjaro elephant's tusks, throughout history.

Zima Blue, by Alastair Reynolds. More short stories.


 

Offline General Battuta

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Quote
Endymion, by I don't know who. A strange novel. It is the third book in a series, but that didn't affect the read all that much.

Skip Endymion, go to Hyperion, its far superior predecessor. Endymion is okay as a standalone but is so much worse than Hyperion as part of a series that it's painful.