Science Fiction

Just finished John Varley's The Golden Globe. Set in the same future as Steel Beach. Very Heinlienesque...

I recently bought Tehanu by Ursula Le Guin, and the back blurb mentioned something about other books in the "earthsea cycle." Well, I couldn't figure out which books in the cycle should be read first .....or doesn't it matter? Thanks!

http://www.greenmanreview.com/earthsea_trilogy.html

I'm on a craze for anything written by Orson Scott Card! Ender's Game and the rest of the series is his first big claim to fame. Just finished Enchantment, which is almost a combination of fantasy, folk tale and historical fiction - what a tour de force for him!

Cobalt - I thought Ender's Game was cool too.

Glad to hear of another fan for Card, littlek! Right now am starting to read a new sci-fi author. Well, new to me. So, perhaps I'll come back to give a review? I often find my best sci-fi authors by getting recommendations from friends. This time, BillW has a son who gave me a lead. Nice to have spent time talking with him about so many great authors in Sci-Fi! My youngest son likes Robert Jordan and even has a great tat of the Wheel of Time across his shoulder/bicep. But I never could get into the Jordan books. More to my liking is anything by Frank Herbert and now his son Brian. And one of the best mixed category books I've read is none other than Stephen King's Talisman. Waaaaay cool book!

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Theodore Sturgeon. His All Too Human is a re-readavle classic. Agree wholeheartedly on I am Legend, which was filmed as Omega Man, a so-so movie made from a great book. I've never read anything by Matheson that wasn't top notch. Philip Jose Farmer, yes. Beedlesqoink, I agree with you completely re: Asimov's Foundation series. It's so 1950s, it hasn't stood up well for me. But, that's just me. I can't even think of Bradbury's Martian Chronicles as sf. Those stories are just fine literature. Bradbury wrote a number of other stories with the same setting which were never included in the Chrnocles anthology.

Enough raving for now. Comments, anyone?

Lots of interesting stuff here. I think I've probably read thousands of SciFi books over the years. Many authors have been mentioned already: Neil Stephenson - SnowCrash and Diamond Age, Orson Scott Card - Enders Game (a fantastic classic), Alfred Bester, Frank Herbert - Dorsai Experiment, Niven and Pournell - Legend of Heorot and Mote in Gods Eye, Dan Simmons - Hyperion novels, Anne McCaffrey - Dragonrider books, and John Varley. All great stuff.

Julian May - The Many Colored Land (and connected books): For a vivid description of Earth Pliocene history mixed with SciFi
Vernor Vinge - A fire Upon the Deep: For a the idea of profound consciousness beyond gravity wells
A. A. Attanasio - The Last Legends of Earth: For a romp through reality and time from the subatomic to the cosmic
David Brin - StarTide Rising: For the idea of uplift, the mystery of the progenitors and the most flawed aliens in the cosmos

Of all of the the books I've read, one stands out for me as the best ever. It's by a relatively unknown author named Daniel Keys Moran. The book is called _The Last Dancer_ and it is spectacular; with ideas and prose to satiate the brain and action to thrill the heart

Best Regards,

It's sooooo great to get names of favored authors and books here! There is so much drivel "out there" that I just hate reading a loser and having to finish it because of a hope it may yield some type of surprise.

The favorite trilogy I read is by Frank Herbert: The Jesus Incident, The Lazarus Effect, and the Andromeda (something). Technically, these three all started off with Destination Void, previously mentionned by Dyslexia. I often think of the tales and the vivid and POSSIBLE scientific advances that made life habitable in hostile territory. The "plasmeld" furniture that adapts to the user's weight and form still comes to mind when I think of all our human adaptations to furniture, rather than a creative and achievable creation of new human conveniences!

first book in the series was simply called A Wizard of Earthsea - there is a paperback with the trilogy in though.

Thanks for the information, littlek and vivien!

i have never read science books but def will start soon

Pratchett is a true genius. I wonder if Bush and Co. realize that they are acting out a live version of "Jingo?"
Lyda Morehouse has become a new favourite, and stirs my interests both as a fan and as a medievalist.
Tanya Huff always makes me wish to move to Toronto.
Charles DeLint has been my lifeline since Junior High.