Good quality Science Fiction - Recommendations ?

[dibbly_dobbler]

Evening All.

I've recently finished Ilium/Olympos by Dan Simmons - ok not as good as Hyperion but enjoyable in a totally nutty way. (That bit where 'Zeus' flies up in his chariot and takes out the Moravec shuttle excellent stuff)

Also love Iain M Banks Sci-Fi although Matter was a wee bit disappointing tbh particularly in comparison to the excellent Algebraist.

Any others out there of a similar calibre ?

Cheers, DD.

[br d]

Have you read all the Banksie Culture stuff? Use Of weapons is untoppable IMHO.

[dibbly_dobbler]

br d said:

Have you read all the Banksie Culture stuff? Use Of weapons is untoppable IMHO.

Yes unfortunately

Use of Weapons is indeed magnificent...

[Ace-T]

Usual suspects are

Richard Morgan - Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, Woken Furies
Peter Hamilton - Nights Dawn trilogy
Greg Bear - Eon, Eternity , Blood Music, Forge of God
Alfred Bester - The Stars my destination
Larry Niven - tales of known Space series
Jack McDevitt - Engines of God


I presume you have read all Arthur Clarke's stuff? Particularly Rendevous with Rama.

That little lot should keep you occupied!

Trace

[oldbanger]

The Peter F Hamilton's Nights Dawn Trilogy is rather good (if a wee bit long) complete with sentient space ships and large scale civilisations http://www.peterfhamilton.co.uk/index.php?page=con...

Can I also recommend good old RA Heinlein? Friday, any of the Lazarus Long books and Stranger in a Strange Land might appeal to someone who likes Banks. (my favourites are Friday and Starship Troopers - which is nothing like the film)

[Eric Mc]

tey some of Stephen Baxter's suff - very close to Clarke in breath and scope - although less optimistic on overall outlook.

[jayfish]

Ace-T said:

Usual suspects are

Richard Morgan - Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, Woken Furies
Peter Hamilton - Nights Dawn trilogy
Greg Bear - Eon, Eternity , Blood Music, Forge of God
Alfred Bester - The Stars my destination
Larry Niven - tales of known Space series
Jack McDevitt - Engines of God


I presume you have read all Arthur Clarke's stuff? Particularly Rendevous with Rama.

That little lot should keep you occupied!

Trace

Peter F Hamilton and Grwg Bear I can also recommend heartily (not slating the others but not fimiliar enough with them to comment)

Check out The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson not space opera but a damn fine sci-fi.
Also Alastair Reynolds for some classic far reaching Space opera, similar in style to Hamilton.

[dibbly_dobbler]

jayfish said:

Ace-T said:

Usual suspects are

Richard Morgan - Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, Woken Furies
Peter Hamilton - Nights Dawn trilogy
Greg Bear - Eon, Eternity , Blood Music, Forge of God
Alfred Bester - The Stars my destination
Larry Niven - tales of known Space series
Jack McDevitt - Engines of God


I presume you have read all Arthur Clarke's stuff? Particularly Rendevous with Rama.

That little lot should keep you occupied!

Trace

Peter F Hamilton and Grwg Bear I can also recommend heartily (not slating the others but not fimiliar enough with them to comment)

Check out The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson not space opera but a damn fine sci-fi.
Also Alastair Reynolds for some classic far reaching Space opera, similar in style to Hamilton.

Thanks chaps

I've just started Hamilton's Pandora's Star - labouring a bit with it tbh but early days yet. Anybody read it ? Already read the Night's Dawn stuff - great read but a bit on the long side as mentioned !!

Embarrassingly I am not too familiar with Arthur C Clarke's work so maybe I should start there !

[XXVIII]

Banks - 'Use of Weapons' as people here know... the very thing... Sma the very gal!!

Although I like 'Matter' well enough but didn't enjoy 'The Algebraist', mostly because I was reading it around about the time my Mum died in 2005 and it's not a Culture novel, though 'Against a Dark Background' isn't either but reads in much the same was as a Culture novel in many respects...

I'm just rereading 'Excession' again and have just reached the passage where the Sleeper Service is starting to go pretty quickly enroute to the potential .

Banks' mate Ken MacCleod's 'The Cassini Division' includes the phrase "traffic was slow on the North Circular" delightfully out of context with current meaning especially when you read it when living close to that bloody clotted mess of a road anyway as I did from 1988 - 2003...

Pending nothing better to do, I might dig out my hardback copy of the original Dune trilogy - it's been a while and I suspect the moths in the loft might have nibbled at it a bit though.

Williams Gibson's later works, especially 'Idoru' make post-whenever-crapness-happened almost attractive. The dust cover picture on my copy of 'Idoru' has a Japanese girls face, is on the end of a bookshelf in a bedroom and she seems to follow you around, not that that's too creepy. Not really...

Edited by XXVIII on Friday 3rd July 21:39

[Parrot of Doom]

Greg Bear - Forge of God, followed by Anvil of Stars.

Absolutely superb sci-fi, and quite heart-rending.

You should also check out Orson Scott-Card's "Ender's Game" and its sequels.

Edited by Parrot of Doom on Friday 3rd July 21:46

[dibbly_dobbler]

XXVIII said:

Banks - 'Use of Weapons' as people here know... the very thing... Sma the very gal!!

Yes - they really dont make them like that anymore ! There's a 'Zakelwe' (sic) on here which always made me wonder - spelling mistake or coincidence ?

XXVIII said:

Although I like 'Matter' well enough but didn't enjoy 'The Algebraist', mostly because I was reading it around about the time my Mum died in 2005 and it's not a Culture novel, though 'Against a Dark Background' isn't either but reads in much the same was as a Culture novel in many respects...

Interesting. I thought The Algebraist was magnifico. 'One day HG we will all be free'... lovely. Against a Dark Background is brutal but brilliant.

XXVIII said:

I'm just rereading 'Excession' again and have just reached the passage where the Sleeper Service is staring to go pretty quickly enroute to the potential .

Oh yes - 42kilolights or some such. Beat that Carlos

XXVIII said:

Banks' mate Ken MacCleod's 'The Cassini Division' includes the phrase "traffic was slow on the North Circular" delightfully out of context with current meaning especially when you read it when living close to that bloody clotted mess of a road anyway as I did from 1988 - 2003...

Pending nothing better to do, I might dig out my hardback copy of the original Dune trilogy - it's been a while and I suspect the moths in the loft might have nibbled at it a bit though.

Williams Gibson's later works, especially 'Idoru' make post-whenever-crapness-happened almost attractive. The dust cover picture on my copy of 'Idoru' has a Japanese girls face, is on the end of a bookshelf in a bedroom and she seems to follow you around, not that that's too creepy. Not really...

Read Dune about 1000 years ago - must revisit !

Cheers, DD

[Famous Graham]

Much as I love the Culture, the Federation is where it's at. And I don't mean Rodenberry.

Asimov is the granddaddy

[dibbly_dobbler]

Parrot of Doom said:

Greg Bear - Forge of God, followed by Anvil of Stars.

Absolutely superb sci-fi, and quite heart-rending.

You should also check out Orson Scott-Card's "Ender's Game" and its sequels.

Edited by Parrot of Doom on Friday 3rd July 21:46

Cheers P.O.D. - Read 'Ender's Game' but not the sequels...

The Greg Bear books are now on my list !

[grumbledoak]

dibbly_dobbler said:

I've just started Hamilton's Pandora's Star - labouring a bit with it tbh but early days yet. Anybody read it ?

Stick with it!

Also, The Peace War and it's sequels:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peace_War

[dibbly_dobbler]

Famous Graham said:

Much as I love the Culture, the Federation is where it's at. And I don't mean Rodenberry.

Asimov is the granddaddy

FG - I have not read much Asimov either . I know this probably sounds daft but I worry they might be a bit well - dated - on account of having been written a while back ?

[dibbly_dobbler]

grumbledoak said:

dibbly_dobbler said:

I've just started Hamilton's Pandora's Star - labouring a bit with it tbh but early days yet. Anybody read it ?

Stick with it!

Also, The Peace War and it's sequels:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peace_War

Cheers Paul - I will persevere !

Thanks for the suggestion - looks intriguing ...

[FPC]

dibbly_dobbler said:

I've just started Hamilton's Pandora's Star - labouring a bit with it tbh but early days yet. Anybody read it ? Already read the Night's Dawn stuff - great read but a bit on the long side as mentioned !!

Embarrassingly I am not too familiar with Arthur C Clarke's work so maybe I should start there !

I'm a big fan of Hamilton and about the start on his latest (Temporal Void). I have to say that his later works, while good, are not a patch on the original Night's Dawn series.

As mentioned earlier, Alastair Reynolds does similar Space Opera type sci fi but, to my mind, better written and grander in scale. In fact, he just signed a million pound deal with his publishers for his next set of works.

[Digger]

Richard Morgan - BlackMan. Half way through and loving it.

[FPC]

And while we're at it, 'Matter' was a poor effort and Ender's Game sequels go rapidly downhill. I gave up halfway through Xenocide, it was just dire.

[JonRB]

jayfish said:

Check out The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson not space opera but a damn fine sci-fi.

Anything by Neal Stephenson is superb. I'm still very fond of Snow Crash, and Cryptonomicon is truly epic (although for a book thick enough to club baby seals to death with, it's surprisingly rushed at the end)