What is your favorite books/series/authors within the sci-fi genre?

I love sci fi, and would love some good examples of science fiction that you have really enjoyed.

One of my favorite Sc-fi authors is David Weber.

The honor Harrington series is a great series that revolves around Honor Harrington a very strong woman starship captain.

Really is a great series, seems kinda corny at first, but let me tell you this guy can take corn and make an epic tale, and his science-fiction is spot on with great ideas. He doesn't let it bog down with science details, just enough to give it a great illustration then bam back into characters and plot.

I don't care much for fantasy. all the stories all seem the same anymore

but I dig hard science scifi

latest favorites is Elizabeth Moon.
she is an ex Marine officer and does a great job of portraying what Fleet life would be like

EDIT: oh, I read yours closer. I dig the Honor stories too. very similar to Elizabeth Moon's stuff

Yea when I was a kid I dug the fantasy stuff I mean LOTR was a great series (to me more about the characters then the fantasy world) but as I grow older I agree with you . . . they all seem like LOTR copy cats.

I will have to check out that Author!

edgar of-course, and robert e howard.

mostly lately I'm leaning towards the old 40's era "space opera" stuff

Alfred Bester's "The Demolished Man"

James Blish's "Cities in Flight" (and the Triffids)

and of course Heinlein is my personal hero

The Amber series by Roger Zelanzy mixes sci-fi and fantasy really well. I loved the first series of books, and just now starting the second series

anything by Margaret Weis,Tracy Hickman,Terry Goodkind,also drangonlance series,conan series, Robert E Howard of course.

I dig Zelazny too. his novel "Lord of Light" is an all time favorite of mine

and check out Joan D Vinge's Snow Queen/Summer Queen series. she is a sociology perfesser and did a great job of creating a socio/political civilization

quiet_2008 said:

Robert Heinlein is in a class by himself as far as I'm concerned. With five Hugos to his name he has to be on anybody's short list. I can truthfully say I've read every Sci-Fi story he's ever written at least 3 times, and in some cases - like his hugo winners - 6 or 7 times.

I've recently (the last couple years) read some stuff by Spider Robinson that I really enjoyed. His style is simlar to Henilein's. (Note: Spider was chosen by Virginia Heinlein to finish an unfinished work of Robert's. And I think he did a masterful job of it.)

For "space opera", the "Lenseman" and "Skylark" series' (E.E. "Doc" Smith) are tops.

For an absolutely brilliant job of inventiveness, "The Dragon's Egg" (Robert L. Forward) revolves around life on a neutron star. (Despite the title, and the subject, the book has nothing to do with fantasy. The title is simply a reference to a constellation of stars.) Larry Niven said of this book "Dragon's Egg is superb. I couldn't have written it; it required too much real physics."

L. Ron Hubbard is a great writer, regardless of the genre. I find all of his fiction, in the half dozen fiction genre he chose to write in, to be highly entertaining. But IMO his ten volume "Mission Earth" dekology should be considered a milestone for the Sci-Fi genre. Besides being actually a single story that had to be split into ten volumes for publishing (as opposed to one original story with nine sequels) it is the most entertaining and engaging blend of Sci-Fi and satire I've ever read.

For fantasy, I like Piers Anthony. He tends to write a lot of series (Xanth, Mode, Adept, Tarot, Incarnations of Immortality, Bio of a Space Tyrant). The Xanth series is just plain fun. But everything he writes I find entertaining.

And I got a kick out of Robert Aspirin's "Myth" fantasy series. ("Mything Person", "Mythdirections", you get the idea. )

Strangely enough, I've never read any Jules Verne or H. G. Wells. Not sure why that is really.

No one has mentioned either the Robot series or the Foundation series (Isaac Asimov) yet. Both are classics in the field.

And "Childhood's End" (Arthur C. Clarke) is another one I would put in the "Top 20 of all time"

BTW - GREAT topic Jeremy! I'm going to use this thread as a reference for future book selections.

I enjoyed one called "The Dispossessed" by Ursula K. LeGuin. The protagonist Shevek is a physicist attempting to develop a General Temporal Theory. I was smoking a lot of weed back then.

Thanks Sky, yea I started rereading some books last night due to some insomnia and just thought to myself dam, I need to branch out a bit. Asimov has been on my list for a while, but I usually do this in spurts so I will grab 10 books and gobble them up in short order so I wanted a list to keep myself busy for a bit!

A few years ago I came upon a good method for avoiding some of the disappointment that comes from buying a book and finding out you don't really like it that much...

I got a list of all the Hugo winners and started reading them. Every one of them is really good, but some appeal more than others solely because of the writing style of the author. From there I started reading more by the authors I liked best. I ran into a couple disappointments anyway - e.g. "Ender's Game" (Orson Scott Card) was one of the most riveting books I've ever read, but the sequels went downhill rapidly as far as I was concerned. Same with the Dune series (Frank Herbert).

Sky wrote: "Robert Heinlein is in a class by himself as far as I'm concerned" I almost agree, but I have to restate and say - "in a limited class."

Others in that class:
Ray Bradbury
Issac Asimov - Robot Series and Foundation Series

Sky also mentioned another of my favorites:
Ender's Game & series by Orson Scott Card

As a change I really got into the Vampire Cronicles by Ann Rice

and no list of favorites can put Stephen King too low.

I read my first Sci Fi when I was about 12 - Ray Bradbury - short stories, I was hooked.

I've moved around a lot and there were some heafty library donations. The largest donation included 6 car loads, back seats and trunks.

Great memories - gosh I can't believe I read that much, because that wasn't all I was reading. I sure wish I could read that fast now. I could use a little more speed and a LOT more comprehension.

The Space Odyssey series by Arthur C. Clarke (though they get worse as they go on lol)

And the Gap series by Stephen R. Donaldson - fantastic books (that get better as they go along)

I absolutely love R. A. Salvatore! I am a big fan of the books about Drizzit.

Redy wrote:

Yes, "Interview With The Vampire" really hooked me. But I only got halfway through "The Vampire Lestat" (because I was reading a copy that belonged to someone who was visiting for a short time) and never got my own copy and just never took it up again. But now I'm fired up about reading it over again, and more of her stuff too.

I've always liked Stephen King, but "The Stand" was the one that rocketed him up the charts for me. Awesome book.

And as to that "limited class"... If it's going to include Bradbury and Asimov, it would also have to include Clarke. (And I agree that the Space Oddesy series deteriorated as it progressed.)

My introduction to Sci-Fi was also at the age of 12 - Heinlein's "Have Space Suite - Will Travel".

Yeah I liked The Stand also. Great novel. Read that in high school. Captain Trips!

Asimov's short story about a planet near too many suns. Only has night once every few thousand years. It was extended to a full length novel. Very good.

Other favorite books:

The Moon is A Harsh Mistress.

Door into summer.

Neuromancer.

Also fond of the Rhapsody series, Terry Pratchett books, and a lot of others.

Just remember another good Trilogy. "The Neanderthal Parallax" (Robert J. Sawyer)
"Hominids", "Humans" and "Hybrids". Interesting premise. A portal opens up between two universes when experiments in Quantum Physics are being conducted simultaneously in both universes. One universe is our own and in the other, Neanderthal is the dominant species. Interesting perspective on social evolution in the Neanderthal civilization.

"Nightfall" Good one.

One of Heinlein's Hugo winners and my second favorite of his.

Way up there in my personal list of Heinlein favorites.

Speaking of that "time loop" premise, he did one ("By His Bootstraps") where a guy looped back on himself three times. There was a very intersting scene where he was having a three-way argument with himself. One of the most inventive of that type. But its a short story.

And speaking of his anthologies, the entire "Future History" of his that runs through something like a couple dozen of his stories is fascinating in itself.

(Yeah, ok. So I'm really a "fanatic" insted of a "fan" of his. )