Sci-Fi authors

[guessingo]

This forum seems to be more of a fantasy forum. How about talking about Sci-Fi. However, lets skip the really famous guys that everyone knows. We all know about Orson Scott Card and such. Who are some not so famous sci-fi authors that you like. Here are a few of mine.

Jack McDevitt: He writes sci-fi archeology which is a neat twist. He has space archeologists going and doing research. It is an interesting twist. They are just different than other books. No real epic battles. No poor kid saving the day. Cool stuff though.

Stephen Baxter: He is an engineer by trade so writes hard science fiction. My two favorite by him are Voyage. It is a what if we went to Mars in 1986 like we planned in the 1960s. It talks pros and cons. Pros, we go to mars. Cons, we only go to mars. We can't afford anything. So only a few people go into space and no unmanned probes. VERY well done.

The Light of Other days. He co-authored this with Arther C. Clarke. It asks what happens if we get a device that can see anywhere in the world at any time. So anyone can see what anyone else is doing. No privacy, but no crime (how do you get away with anything?). Very interesting read.

Robert Charles Wilson: He is pretty well known and has a bunch of awards. He is also Stephen Kings favorite sci-fi author. His book Spin was reviewed on here. I really liked it. The sequel Axis is not that good. I want to read Julian Comstock when I get a chance.

[Sigyn]

I'm a big fan of Karl Schroeder. I've read his Virga series and loved it. It takes place on a world where the towns need to spin to have gravity, they have small artificial suns, and the ships they use to sail between towns have air but no gravity, which makes for a fun mix. Also, radar doesn't work. The first book (Sun of Suns) is good, but the second and third are amazing.

Also, I really like Implied Spaces by Walter Jon Williams. The author talks about it here: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/05/20/the-big-idea-walter-jon-williams/

[Patriotic Kaz]

You apparently don't read my post  , i mention Sci-Fi quite frequently. Heinlein is my favorite author, yeah i know big name... but then the Sci-Fi i read is old school i.e. Dune, Ringworld, Stranger in a Strange Land, etc.

[Recovering_Cynic]

John Steakly's Armor is one of my favorite books of all time.

[ErikHolmes]

I've said it once and I'll say it again. E. E. Knight is the best author that no one knows about.

His Vampire Earth series is really awesome. Vamps from another world invade the earth and take it over. David Valentine is a resistance fighter trying to help kick them off our world. It's a really hardcore Military Sci-fi series. The Red Badge of Courage if written by H. P. Lovecraft.

You can read a chapter here:

http://www.vampjac.com/vampireearth/wolfch1.htm

[guessingo]

Opon Kaz: What posts? Iam new here. I have read a number of reviews. There have not been alot lately.

[little wilson]

Scott Westerfeld. He's sci-fi for young adults. I haven't read his Midnighter series, but I want to (same with Leviathan). His series that I have read is Uglies and it was pretty darn good...except the last book. He should've kept it as a trilogy.

[Patriotic Kaz]

I'm pulling your leg.... though i mention classic Sci-Fi alot... almost finished with Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, absolutely beautiful. After it I'm going to read Starship Troopers.

[guessingo]

I started reading Left Hand a while ago. That whole 3 gender thing did nothing for me and i dropped it not long into it. My understanding is that some people love Leguin and some don't. It is not my taste.

I really liked Starshoop Troopers. I am wierd though. I was utterly bored by Stranger in a Strange Land which I think was his classic. It might be a generational thing. It was written with 60s culture in mind and I am too young for that.

I looked at Leviathan in the book store. Looks interesting. I don't usually like Young Adult stuff. I prefer more grown up stuff.

[little wilson]

Yeah, I really like YA. I definitely enjoy 'adult' stuff, but there's something about YA that I just like. BSG's site reviewed Leviathan. They liked it, and they're also big fans of the 'grown-up' stuff....

However, as it's the first book in a trilogy, I'd say check out Uglies first if you're gonna pick up Westerfeld. The world is really rather cool. It's dystopian, but...I thought it was awesome. Of course, it's also one of the first dystopian books I'd read, so maybe that had something to do with my loving it. I don't know. Either way, it was some good sci-fi, even with it being YA.

[Bookstore Guy]

Leviathan is YA Steampunk.  It was decent, but it suffers from being the first book in a series (i.e. not much happens).  We reviewed it on Elitist Book Reviews (thanks for the easy link wilson).  Just keep in mind, it isn't really SF.

The Midnighters series by Westerfeld is YA Urban Fantasy.  I enjoyed it for what it was.  It isn't really SF.

SF worth mentioning?  Alastair Reynolds, John Scalzi, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, David Louis Edelman, Dan Simmons, Peter Hamilton (very hard SF), Sean Williams, etc.  A good place to get some good SF is to look at authors published through Pyr.  Recently, their SF is the only SF I can stomach (that isn't Military SF).  E.E. Knight's Vampire Earth, as mentioned, is pretty good.  It rides the border of Urban Fantasy/Urban SF--now it is more SF, but the first novels were more fantasy.

[guessingo]

How vampire is vampire earth? I am kind of done with the whole "vampire thing". I watch the vampire show on HBO and that is enough vampire for me.

I have seen Hamilton in really thick trade paperback in the store for a while. As far as hard sci-fi does he do any semblance of research on the science? I get frustrated when people do "hard sci-fi" and I am like oh come on. I am a professional programmer and I read alot of techie stuff... Two authors who do a great job with hard sci-fi are Stephen Baxter (he is a former engineer) and Joe Haldeman.

George RR Martin has mentioned Reynolds on his website. I have to check him out.

Has anyone read Cory Doctorow's books? I find as I get older I am less interested in epic sci-fi (hero character and all) and just cool type of sci-fi stuff happening. I really liked Joe Haldemans little book "The Accidental Time Machine". I found the whole idea of a lazy graduate student(he is too lazy to finish his dissertation) who accidently makes a time machine, but can't figure out how it works, really funny. Plus he is just a good writer.

[guessingo]

anyone read The Road by Cormac McCarthy? It was made into a movie last fall. I heard the movie was not that good. The book won a pullitzer prize. It is a post apocalytpic world with rampaging canabals. It is remarkable.

Basically McCarthy had a son later in life and one day he wondered just what he wouldn't do for his son. So he created a world where a father has to go so far for his son that it is unbelievable. McCarthy did not write this as a sci-fi book. He wrote it as a book about a father and son. So it does not have any kind of hero arch or world building. It is remarkable. The prose is incredible.

He is the only author I have seen who can get away without even using quotes around dialogue. He writing is so good you know someone is talking and who is talking. It is short and a very fast read.

Anyone here who is a writer should read this book just to read the prose.

[little wilson]

Leviathan is YA Steampunk.  It was decent, but it suffers from being the first book in a series (i.e. not much happens).  We reviewed it on Elitist Book Reviews (thanks for the easy link wilson).  Just keep in mind, it isn't really SF.

The Midnighters series by Westerfeld is YA Urban Fantasy.  I enjoyed it for what it was.  It isn't really SF.

Ah. Yes. For some reason, I correlate Westerfeld to sci-fi, since I've only read Uglies (which I know is YA Sci-fi)...I don't know why, since I knew Midnighters is Urban Fantasy and I remember on the review that Leviathan is Steampunk....


guessingo--I know exactly what you mean about being done with vampires, but I would say give Vampire Earth a shot. The 'vampires' in it are a different sort of vampire....And when I say 'different' I don't mean sparkly-different...Just read it and you'll understand.

[Bookstore Guy]

Vampire Earth is set in a Post Apocalyptic world where an alien species of sorts has come to earth and essentially destroyed all semblance of a cohesive civilization--all progress has been shot back to a bizarre conglomerate of Civil War/WWI with a Fallout feel.   The story is about the human "resistance" more-or-less, The vampires aren't even really vampires.  They are just called that.

Nearly everyone I know has read The Road.  It has some awesomeness, but it also has some serious eye-rolling moments.  The movie is fine as long as you don't mind depressing/hopeless-ish movies.  I personally found the prose decent at best, but this is personal taste.

Hamilton is solid hard SF.

Doctrow is interesting.  His YA stuff is entertaining.  His adult stuff is too random/bizarre for me.  I'm reading the ARC of his new YA right now.