Fantasy & Science Fiction worth Reading/Re-reading

Me too. Noddy was a Pratchett fan. One of his characters, my favorite, has always reminded me of Noddy. The character is a witch named Esmerelda Weatherwax. She is wise, like Noddy was, about life and death, nature, and human foibles.

littlek, have you read pratchett's book (written with neil gaimen) "good omens"

I have indeed. It was fun.

if you haven't already read them, you might enjoy gaiman's books "neverwhere" and "stardust"

I think I tried stardust once. Maybe I'll try it again.

Dwan Ev ceremoniously soldered the final connection with gold. The eyes of a dozen television cameras watched him and the subether bore throughout the universe a dozen pictures of what he was doing.

He straightened and nodded to Dwar Reyn, then moved to a position beside the switch that would complete the contact when he threw it. The switch that would connect, all at once, all of the monster computing machines of all the populated planets in the universe -- ninety-six billion planets -- into the supercircuit that would connect them all into one supercalculator, one cybernetics machine that would combine all the knowledge of all the galaxies.
Dwar Reyn spoke briefly to the watching and listening trillions. Then after a moment's silence he said, "Now, Dwar Ev."

Dwar Ev threw the switch. There was a mighty hum, the surge of power from ninety-six billion planets. Lights flashed and quieted along the miles-long panel.

Dwar Ev stepped back and drew a deep breath. "The honor of asking the first question is yours, Dwar Reyn."

"Thank you," said Dwar Reyn. "It shall be a question which no single cybernetics machine has been able to answer."

He turned to face the machine. "Is there a God?"

The mighty voice answered without hesitation, without the clicking of a single relay.

"Yes, now there is a God."

Sudden fear flashed on the face of Dwar Ev. He leaped to grab the switch.

A bolt of lightning from the cloudless sky struck him down and fused the switch shut.


(Fredric Brown, "Answer")

Has anyone read Use of Weapons by Iain Banks?

http://www.iain-banks.net/science-fiction/use-of-weapons/

from neatorama, 10 Sci-Fi Books That Even Non-Geeks Would Love

Just read a new Niven book he wrote in tandem with Brenda Cooper. The book covers 10s of thousands of years. Cyrogenics allows for deep space travel. People are warmed to do various jobs, carefully controled nanobots keep them young even while warm. The main character makes a planet by crashing moons of a gassy giant together. They need workers and so they allow breeding on the new planetoid. The book turns from a basis of physics to one of psychology/sociology as the people born on the new planet fight for some kind of equality with those who were born on Earth. Meanwhile, everyone is dealing with solar flares, earthquakes, and less than ideal atmospheric conditions.

Loved it.

interesting

It was, but it took some time to read - little dry, maybe.

Try reading "The Sharing Knife" by Lois McMaster Bujold. It's four tightly linked novels. Strictly speaking, it's fantasy, but there are no elves, or dragons, or swords involved. I mean no offense to anybody with that because I do read some stuff with swords, etc, - The Lord of the Rings, some of Anne McCaffrey's stuff, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, etc. The two main characters are people you want to know - and Bujold goes a long way toward helping you get to know them. There are four subsidiary characters you also get to know pretty well. Bujold's forte is character development, but there is also action. Elizabeth Moon's "Vatta's War" series - 5 novels - is another good bet, as are her Herris Serrano/Esmay Suiza novels, of which there are 8 or 9 or 10. Oh, okay, I can't quit without mentioning Bujold's "Vorkosigan" series. One can start with "Komarr" and "A Civil Campaign", even though she wrote numerous novels and novellas in the series which come before those two novels. Bujold has won four Hugo's in the novel category, more than anybody else except Heinlein who also won four.

Only read "The Algebraist" so far, but loved that enough to decide to read at lot more of his work.

Never read a Niven I didn't like either.

Have you read Time craft by Mark A. Ely and Relativity 1 by Aaron Aaikin? They are page turners you might enjoy.

Recently read some new stuff by Walter Jon Williams that I enjoyed:

Implied Spaces: Humanity has avoided the
Singularity, but has not conquered the Existential Crisis. Is apocalypse the answer?

This is not a Game






Also new: Reamde by Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash, Anathem)

I also had fun with Ready Player One