Good Sci-Fi/Fantasy Books

[.Maleficus.]

Well, school's starting up again, and with the neato "mod" scheduling we have (one of only a few schools in the nation! 8) ) I have lots of free time scattered around in a day. Most of my time is spent in the library. So, what are some good Sci-Fi/Fantasy books/authors? I have R. A. Heinlein, Garth Nix, and the kid who wrote Eragon. Oh yeah, and Orson Scott Card. Can anyone recommend any more?

And what was that book mentioned in another thread I can't find? I think it was in a thread DaveW started, about the internet being a huge brain or something. Anyone remember that?

Thanks in advance!

Maleficus

[d_stilgar]

If you want a short read you can look up Invitation to the Game. That's an ok read. Brave New World and, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress are good books too. I like all of the Ender series by Orson Scott Card.

[The Black Pumpkin]

Well, try Silverlock and the Belgariad and Mallorean. I loved all of those.

I'll think of more later and I'll just have to share, I love books! :rolleyes:

[Slug Toy]

are you set on fantasy and science fiction? the stream-of-consciousness stuff is good. try breakfast of champions... thats a good one. ulysese is another one.

i for one love the books that dont make much sense. i suppose you could classify all that stuff as a sort of drugged up fantasy...

[Airbozo]

here...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_(novel)

or this...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughterhouse-Five

[DaveW]

I'm a fan of Asimov's work. Get Robot Dreams-if you've never read it, it will blow you away.

If you're into Fantasy, get your mitts around Terry Pratchett. Not so popular in the US, but he had 7 books in the top 100 big Read in the UK. That's pretty incredible, considering we're talking about classics like Hugo's Les Miserables here. Terry Gilliam wants to make one book into a film-Good Omens-that he wrote with Neil Gaiman, who's another great Author. Pick up American Gods from him, it's pretty out there.

If you're interested in more Abstract Sci-Fi, Flowers for Algernon is an incredibly moving book. And for possibly the darkest comedy i've ever read, look for a copy of Tik-Tok on fleabay (out of print) which is about a Robot who decides to see just how evil he can be, and instead finds out just how incredibly stupid humans are.

Then...there's Philip K. Dick, his books are grea for classic Sci-Fi, if that's all your after.

Oh, and if Fantasy is more your thing, try and read the Earthsea Quartet-but don't bother with book 4, it's rubbish. The first 3 are the good ones.

That's all off the top of my head.

-Dave

[.Maleficus.]

Thanks for all the suggestions! I'm going to check out as many as I can today (well look at I guess, I can't check-out all of them).

And DaveW, THANK YOU! I remember reading about Tik-Tok on another thread, and couldn't think of the name. I will definately check that one out (if I can find it).

[Crimson13]

I like RedWall Abbey by Brian Jacques. Its about personifying animals and putting them in a medieval setting. I started to read his stuff years ago and i still love it. Check out www.redwall.org for more information.

Edit and some good sc-fi/fantasy that my dad gave me is Bolo, Solaris, Dune (all three), Dhalgren, The Exile Waiting, The Dosadi Experiment, and those are just the ones I have sitting on my desk now. Might be good to search for sc-fi/fantasy from the 60's and 70's i have found many good books that way. And even if they dont help with the mod its still good reading. :)

[tennysol]

C S Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy (Fantasy) very unique story, well written, and engrossing

Kevin J Anderson - Ill Wind (ecological disaster sci-fi), Saga of the Seven Suns (future of humanity sci-fi)

Arthur C. Clarke - The Songs of Distant Earth (sci-fi)

Orsen Scott Card - Timewatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (time-travel sci-fi)

These are some of my favorite books

Hope that helps

[MitaPi]

I personaly have always loved the Dragonlance series. I also read a pretty good book by Frank Peretti, Its called "Monster". I like "Monster" mainly because it addresses a few things in society today and all of it is believeable.

[Jarnauga]

I am a big fan of Raymond E. Feist.

He has a bunch of series that all fit into one big story, and they rock. I read all of them. :)

[Cevinzol]

Fantasy
the Dark Elf trilogy by R.A. Salvatore
The Icewind Dale Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore
The Amber Series by Roger Zelazny
The Myth series by Robert Lynn Asprin
the harry potter series by J.K.Rowling
The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock

Sci-Fi
Foundation Series by Isacc Asimov
Anything by Larry Niven
Neuromancer by William Ginson
Virtual light by William Ginson
The difference engine by William Ginson

Also check out The Baen Free Library (http://www.baen.com/library/) they have electronic copies of older books they published. there are many famouse authors there. and Project Gutenberg (http://promo.net/pg/) has thousands of titles of older books.

[sullie]

Karen Traviss Republic Commando series
anything by R.A. Salvatore
anything by Troy Denning
and Terry Pratchett Discworld series

almost forgot Harlan Ellison, if you like Heinlein or Asimov you will like Ellison

[tennysol]

Neuromancer by William Ginson
Virtual light by William Ginson
The difference engine by William Ginson


I think you mean William GiBson...but yes those are awesome books.:)

[b4i7]

a series i liked to read is (ready for geek time) Magic:The GAthering series of books..........yeah..the card game.......

the books are pretty good.... each story is about 3 books....cuz of the different expansion sets of cards..... so each one has a different story....but only the characters are based off the game itself...