Sci Fi recommendations

[Eats hoops and leaves]

Just stick with the original three:

The first four stories were collected, along with a new story taking place before the others, in a single volume published by Gnome Press in 1951 as Foundation. The remainder of the stories were published in pairs as Foundation and Empire (1952) and Second Foundation (1953), resulting in the "Foundation Trilogy", as the series was known for decades.[citation needed]

Oh god that's so confusing what the fuck.

There are three really good Foundation books. God knows which ones they are!

[Headache]

Oh god that's so confusing what the fuck.

There are three really good Foundation books. God knows which ones they are!

From memory they are Foundation, Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation. I did manage to read Foundation's Edge but drew to a grinding halt midway through Foundation and Earth, I tried diving back in a couple of times by it was just too tedious to read. The first three are great though! Check 'em out. (Finding this out has made me realise I'm missing my copy of Second Foundation too, damnit.)

[K]

I may just do that. Sounds pretty interesting, cheers for that!

Bear in mind that Sundiver is rubbish, and is nothing like the other books in the series. If you’re getting started with David Brin, I would recommend beginning with ‘Startide Rising’, which is the second book in the series, and is basically space opera with the fast-forward button sellotaped down.

The Uplift books come in two series, the first trilogy (Sundiver, Startide Rising, and The Uplift War) and the Uplift Storm Trilogy (Brightness Reef, Infinity’s Shore, and Heaven’s Reach). The first set isn’t really a trilogy, as the books are standalone and only make slight references to one another; the latter two are epic adventures, whereas Sundiver was the author’s first published novel and is a rather dull and implausible murder mystery.

[Danster]

I've just started on 'prelude to foundation' after reading back over this thread. At least I think it's the first book. It's awfully confusing as he's released so many different ones over a large period of time!

EEK! NO!

Don't read Prelude first! It is the last book, although it is based before all of them and contains MASSIVE spoilers!!

Stop reading it immediately and go get Foundation. That is the right and proper place to start....

[Sardan]

Another recommendation for the first three Foundation books. The second three were rubbish IIRC.

[Danster]

Not rubbish but... not as good as the first three. It's the underdog thing I think.

[smac]

I would recommend beginning with ‘Startide Rising’, which is the second book in the series, and is basically space opera with the fast-forward button sellotaped down.

Yeah, 'Startide' was the first I read and was great fun.

[fasteasyfree]

Bear in mind that Sundiver is rubbish, and is nothing like the other books in the series. If you’re getting started with David Brin, I would recommend beginning with ‘Startide Rising’, which is the second book in the series, and is basically space opera with the fast-forward button sellotaped down.

The Uplift books come in two series, the first trilogy (Sundiver, Startide Rising, and The Uplift War) and the Uplift Storm Trilogy (Brightness Reef, Infinity’s Shore, and Heaven’s Reach). The first set isn’t really a trilogy, as the books are standalone and only make slight references to one another; the latter two are epic adventures, whereas Sundiver was the author’s first published novel and is a rather dull and implausible murder mystery.

Cheers for that, I'll go hunting for those recommendations.

[fasteasyfree]

Right then, it seems that I'm going to stop reading Prelude to Foundation and get stuck in to Foundation, followed by the next two.

After that I'll be checking out Startide Rising.

[Ryan]

Foundation books were great, but I never bothered with Prelude. The ending was a bit shit though

the seldon plan was created by an iRobot.

Just finished Stand on Zanzibar[\b] which was a good read. Interesting as it was written in the late 60s and the story is set in 2010. He nailed a few things spot on, but with many others was so way off it's laughable.

Still, a good read.

Reading the first Culture novel now (Consider Phlebas)... interesting, and I love Bank's writing style

[fasteasyfree]

I wish I could read his novels all over again

[Eats hoops and leaves]

Did you read his little essay that's hanging about online?

http://www.vavatch.co.uk/books/banks/cultnote.htm

[fasteasyfree]

Did you read his little essay that's hanging about online?

http://www.vavatch.co.uk/books/banks/cultnote.htm

Yeah, I think I've gone through that twice at various points

I love how he has to put a disclaimer at the top explaining that the culture is fictional

[El Geet]

Having read Revelation Space a while back I'm on a bit of a Reynolds roll at the moment and i would highly recommend his books as others already have. Read Chasm City and now nearly finished Redemption Ark.

They're all fantastic books but they remind me a little bit of the West Wing. A lot of the time I haven't got the faintest idea what they're talking about what with all the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contractions, photo-leptonic explosions, altered vacuums expanding superluminally and stuff falling into tachyonic mass states but I enjoy it anyway.

I get the feeling it's all based on actual physics but it might be a load of old tosh too. Who cares?

[Zappster]

That's sort of how I felt during, and after, reading House of Suns, which I loved to bits. Looking forward to trying out some of his other stuff eventually.

I also need to check out the likes of Banks, and Hamilton. I've got one or two of their books (Player of Games and The Reality Dysfunction respectively) on the to-read pile now

[Sardan]

Reynolds - I agree. Very long books but the action seemed to happen at a break neck speed which made it hard to follow with huge amounts of stuff happening at the end of the books.

Hamilton - I liked a lot of Night's Dawn Trilogy but not the whole "the beyond" stuff. I hated that.

Banks - Brilliant.

[Nick R]

They're all fantastic books but they remind me a little bit of the West Wing. A lot of the time I haven't got the faintest idea what they're talking about what with all the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contractions, photo-leptonic explosions, altered vacuums expanding superluminally and stuff falling into tachyonic mass states but I enjoy it anyway.

I get the feeling it's all based on actual physics but it might be a load of old tosh too. Who cares?

Revelation Space is the only one of his books I've read so far, but I loved the ending's

unimaginably fast computer carved out of a neutron star that, due to the uncertainty principle, is both stable and collapsing into a black hole at the same time

.

[Flub]

Bear in mind that Sundiver is rubbish, and is nothing like the other books in the series. If you’re getting started with David Brin, I would recommend beginning with ‘Startide Rising’, which is the second book in the series, and is basically space opera with the fast-forward button sellotaped down.

That happened to me. I read Sundiver and thought it was meh. Never bothered with the rest. I heard about Startide Rising being much better only recently so I've got it queued up to read.

Greg Bear has a load of good books worth reading too. Eon, Eternity, Darwin's Children, Forge of God, Anvil of Stars.

[Flub]

I started reading Startide Rising this morning. Wow. What a difference. It's like a completely different author wrote this and Sundiver. I normally like sci-fi mysteries but Sundiver was a real struggle. Startide is one of those books that goes down smooth.

[Lovelyman]

Let me know what startide ends up like. I quite fancy it.

[SM47]

I'm reading Hyperion at the mo mo. Well, I've read Hyperion and I've moved on to The Fall of Hyperion, but it's in one big volume. Very convenient. Colonel Kassad is a bit of a cool bloke, isn't he? Colonel Koolio I call him. Inside my mind.

[michael]

Finally started reading Consider Phlebas last night. Only a couple of chapters in, but it's rather good innit?

[fasteasyfree]

Finally started reading Consider Phlebas last night. Only a couple of chapters in, but it's rather good innit?

I really enjoyed it. I like how the opposite viewpoint to the other culture novels is presented. The Culture are the baddies, and deserve to be stopped. I'm glad it was the first one I read, as otherwise my views would have been skewed.

[Flub]

Let me know what startide ends up like. I quite fancy it.

3/4s through now. Very good space opera and very easy to read. It's like it was written by a completely different author to Sundiver.

EDIT. And finished. Enjoyed it a lot. Started another one but I'm not feeling it.

[Vimster]

I'm reading Hyperion at the mo mo. Well, I've read Hyperion and I've moved on to The Fall of Hyperion, but it's in one big volume. Very convenient. Colonel Kassad is a bit of a cool bloke, isn't he? Colonel Koolio I call him. Inside my mind.

I had that compiled volume, and whlist there's lots of story it never gets dull. The Fall Of Hyperion is the best one, super stuff.

[Smitty]

Oh, squeeze in Joe Haldeman's 'The Forever War' if you want to hate our species.

I was going to recommend this also.

Brilliant.

[Eats hoops and leaves]

pft.

[Headache]

Were you drinking at the time?

[Smitty]

pft.

Also: pah

[fasteasyfree]

Give it another go. It's pretty epic.