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Posted: 9th Oct 2003
(i'm turning this into more of a favorite author's list than a favorite books list)

Neil Gaiman is definitely worth reading.

I'm an unabashed David Brin fan, though you have to be a bit selective about his books at first, until you really get into him. Some are lightweight sci-fi written in a style like Issac Asimov's, but others are very heavy and have some very insightful glimpses into near future possibilities. His stuff seems fairly light-weight at first, but once you get used to him, you will find a lot of very interesting philosophy behind it. He also has some very interesting essays (more like conjecture than sci-fi) about where the human race may be headed Read "otherness" for an insightful collection of short stories and essays.

I'm an Asimov fan too, both for his science fiction (try the foundation series first) and non fiction (if you can find his interpretation of the bible, definitely check it out). He was also excellent at writing intersting essays explaining serious science in layman's terms. there are hordes and hordes of books that are collections of these essays (Asimov was one of the most prolific writers the human species has ever seen, and this is double exceptional when you take into account that most of it is worth reading).

Authur C. Clark - I especially like some of his short stories.

Anne MacCaffery is another author mentioned before that I will agree with.

The books Spritie mentioned are also fabulous reads. I especially like the first of the Ender series (Ender's Game), though my sister liked the last one the best.

Heinlein's "Stanger in a strange land" changed my life. Read it.

Tolkien goes without saying of course, but I have to say I didn't go for the Simirilian much personally.

I like the ring world series by Niven (there are at least two Niven's out ther though, so soryy that Ican't remember the first name of this one). Haven't read his other stuff.

Piers anthony also gets a nod from me. this guy can be a sick mo-fo sometimes though (which would be why I like him). You can find a couple especially F$%@ed-up short stories in "Anthonology" near the end.

I also like Kurt Vonugut, though some of his books are better than others.

Same goes for Tom Robbins.

I've heard lots of good things about Robert Jordan, especially from fellow physicists, but never gotten to reading his stuff yet.

"a deepness in the sky" and "a fire upon the deep" by, Vernor Vinge (if I remember correctly) are both worth your time (especially the latter) if you like sci-fi at all

A strange recommendation, since it comes from the "dungeons and dragons" series, is the dark elf novels by R. Salvatori.

I never fail to be completely entertained by anything written by Douglas Adams. most poeple have read the hitchhiker's series, but be sure to read the dirk gently detective novels too!

And last, but definitely not least, as she is one of my very favorite authors, is Ursula LeGuin. If you are a tolkien fan, then do yourself a huge favor and pick up her "wizard of earthsea" series (especially the 1st and 3rd ones). Touted as children's fantasy, it is never the less top rate and I recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy at all and even most people who don't. She also has some excelent regular fiction and sci-fi out there (try left hand of darkness for the latter category)

[ 10. October 2003, 01:29: Message edited by: vanize ]

-v-

Wiederstand ist Zwecklos!

Posted: 9th Oct 2003
- The Alchemist (Paul Coelho)
- My Perfect Present (Dunno - I have a priceless handmade copy that was hand made just for me )
- The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
- Sidartha (Herman Hesse)
- Pay it forward (CAn't remember)

I live in a world of infinite possibilities.

Posted: 9th Oct 2003
It's hard to choose particular books but authors worth reading are - Philip Pullman, Terry Pratchett, Ian McEwan, Tolstoy, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jean Paul Sartre - Partucularly 'The Age of Reason'. There's tons more but when I think about something that I really want to remember it always flies right out of my head!

Posted: 9th Oct 2003
Vanize, will you marry me? I mean, everyone's listing great authors here, but you, oh you've *really* read Brin and you mentioned Vernor Vinge!

I was reading an interview with Vinge in the NY Times a few years ago. They asked him what he was working on, and he said it was a story about a recovering Alzheimer's patient. The reporter interrupted him and said, "But there's no such thing as a recovering Alzheimer's patient." Vinge apparently just smiled and said, "There will be."

***

Okay, a few more books:

Anything by Salman Rushdie. Haroun and the Sea of Stories is a powerful faerie tale, The Satanic Verses is what he's known for, The Ground Beneath Her Feet really got to me... the only book of his I wasn't impressed by was his most recent, Fury.

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, if only for the way he tells the story. It is an epic poem, and the story comes out through the annotated endnotes to that poem.

Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. Anything translated by William Weaver, really - which includes most of Italo Calvino and Umberto Eco's books, among others.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman. It is infinitely better than the movie, which is incredible. Life isn't fair, and it never was, and it's never going to be, and we can live with that, is the point of the book.

Anything by Tom Stoppard (a playwright). Start with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (the movie was an excellent adaptation), move on to Arcadia, and then explore his opus from there.

E pluribus unum, baby.

Posted: 9th Oct 2003
I'd suggest listening to Vanize. He's who I turn to when it's time to find something new to read, and he hasn't steared me wrong yet. The list he gave is really quite good.

Also, if you haven't read at least one sci-fi book in your life, I suggest you at least give it a try. I hadn't until about 5 years ago. Then I realized how much I was closing myself off to by not even touching that section of the bookstore. It's amazing...