Out of Pod Experience

I know there have been threads like this in the past,(very good ones too) but right now I am at a loss as to what to read next.

Please recommend your favorite Science Fiction reads. I'll start the ball rolling.



The Gap into conflict: The Real Story , by Stephen Donaldson. This is book 1 of 5. The first book is the shortest of them all, but it really is the start of a roller coaster ride through space, alien hostiles and hard nasty psychological warfare. It's brilliant!

Pandora's Star by Peter F Hamilton. Another space opera massive in it's scope and written in a very believable style. This book and it's sequel, Judas Unchained, are again very hard to put down.

Perdido Street Station by China Meiville. This tale blurs the line between Sci-Fi and Fantasy, but is nevertheless a brilliant read and well worth the time.

The whole culture series by Iain M.Banks. Excession was probably my favorite.

If you don't mind searching around for them (various authors over the years), try the Bolo stories/novels (original author - Keith Laumer).

"The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Heinlein (pardon the spelling).

The Foundation novels of course (Asimov for most of them).

The recent 'Worlds' novels (regarding the Puppeteer Fleet of Worlds) by Niven and Lerner have been pretty interesting.

Short Stories? 'The Draco Tavern' by Niven, and just about anything from Clarke and Asimov.

Asimov: I would also like to recommend the Foundation novels by Asimov. That would be my top recommendation. Asimov comes up with clever science fiction ideas interesting character interactions. I also really liked The End of Eternity.

Niven: I've read several of Niven's Ringworld series. Niven's not my favorite, but his books are worth reading. He has really cool science fiction ideas, but his characters are all two dimensional and boring. If you're in it for the science fiction and don't care about the characters, he's the guy for you.

Bradbury: Ray Bradbury has awesome character plots. His grasp of science as a whole is a bit lacking. He's your man if you want well developed characters but don't care about bad science. Any of his short story collections are a good read.

I have not yet read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. It's at the top of my to-read list, along with Stranger in a Strange Land.

Here we go:

Replay, by Ken Grimwood. "The novel tells of a 43-year-old man who dies and awakens back in 1963 in his 18-year-old body. He then begins to relive his life with intact memories of the previous 25 years. This happens repeatedly with different events in each cycle."

Hellstrom's Hive, by Frank Herbert. "It is about a secret group of humans who model their lives upon social insects, and the unsettling events that unfold after they are discovered by a deeply undercover agency of the US government."

Steel Beach, and Titan, by John Varley. Titan, "A scientific expedition to the planet Saturn in 2025, aboard the ship Ringmaster, discovers a strange satellite in orbit around the planet."

Neuromancer, by William Gibson. Cyberpunk.

The Lathe of Heaven, and The Dispossessed. by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Fire Upon the Deep, and A Deepness in the Sky, by Vernor Vinge.

Dune.

Also in before the move to OOPE.




Slade

Ian M. Banks is my favourite, but two books sets come to mind that have not been mentioned

Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons (don't read the books after that).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_(Simmons_novel)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fall_of_Hyperion

The Mote in God's Eye and The Moat around Murcheson's Eye (also known as The Gripping Hand) by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mote_in_God%27s_Eye
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gripping_Hand


God, these books are magnificent.

It's not a book but a comic book, but i can't stress enough on how good it is.

It is called Universal war I or UWI.

In short, you have a giant black sphere that appears in our solar system, and it is millions of kilometers wide. No one knows why it appeared, or what's inside. Is it a natural phenomenon? Aliens? A secret weapon from the Marsian colony?

A group of renegade fghter pilots are sent to a suicide mission to get inside that sphere and find out what's going on. From there, it's soy sauce and banana's.

I am not going to tell anything else.

here are two panels from the comic :

http://www.fond-ecran.com/ORIGINAUX/bd/bd_universal_war_one/bd_universal_war_one_001.jpg

http://www.fond-ecran.com/ORIGINAUX/bd/bd_universal_war_one/bd_universal_war_one_002.jpg

This is a very smart Sci-fi comic novel. It's not just lasers and ships blowing up (although there is a lot of that), it tries to explain everything with physics and space theories.

The only trouble being that it's a belgium comic (Meaning that it is in french). But i am sure you can find a translated version on the net.

It's just my own opinion, but if you want the smartest and yet most epic sci-fi tale in a comic, Universal war I is a master piece. Hands down. If you can read french or get a translated version of this, this is a must to read for those who enjoy space operas.

Well good news for english speakers, universal war one is being a best seller in europe was actually translated in english :
http://occult-books.info/comic-book-universal-war-one-1-of-6-us-variant-cover-edition.html

Do grab it if you heppen to find it

You'll love it i swear.

I have to agree. WH40k novels in general are probably not the most acclaimed science fiction books out there, but I got a kick out of those (and the Ciaphas Cain series too).