Books, Movies, Music & Entertainment - The Science Fiction/Fantasy Thread

Reading a bunch of Harry Turtledove right now - I don't know how I could have passed over this stuff before.
It is so nice to find a new good author and know you got 15 or 20 books of good reading in store!

Reading The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter. It's a sequel to H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, authorized by the Wells estate. It's very, very good so far. Can't wait for work to end (more so than usual) so I can read more on the train.

I knew I recognized that name - I read Sunstorm and Time's Eye that Baxter wrote with Arthur C Clarke. both good books. I have always loved Athur C. Clarke - one of my favorites of all time. I just found that they released the third book in this "Time Odyessey" trilogy called - Firstborn I will have to check that book out next!

I also read Baxter and Clarke's Light of Other Days great "time travel with a new concept" book.

The Hyperion and Ilium/Olympos books are on my radar after reading Simmons' The Terror. It's not SF/F, but gripping historical fiction with a dose of supernatural.

I'm reading that now. Very good so far.

Edit: "That" = "The Terror".

Hey everyone.
Thought I'd hit this thread as it is of great interest to me; and I'll try to stop in as much as possible.
Big TV/Movie Sci-Fi Fan, and a Swords and Sorcery guy in books.
Hard-Core loves are Babylon 5, Firefly/Serenity, and the new Battlestar Galactica.
Favourite Swords and Sorcery comes with the obligatory Tolkien baggage;).
Enjoy Eddings before he starts going on to long (The Ellenium trilogy for instance is a favourite).
So many to list. So little time...:D
I'm reading Robert Sawyer's "Neanderthal Parallax" right now:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Neanderthal_Parallax
have read "Mindscan", and "Calculating God" as well.
Have to say I enjoy his work.

I'm reading Robert Sawyer's "Neanderthal Parallax" right now:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Neanderthal_Parallax
have read "Mindscan", and "Calculating God" as well.
Have to say I enjoy his work.

Also check out "Flashforward", "Golden Fleece", and "Starplex" if you haven't already. Along with "Calculating God", these are my favorite of Sawyer's books.

Also check out "Flashforward", "Golden Fleece", and "Starplex" if you haven't already. Along with "Calculating God", these are my favorite of Sawyer's books.
I've read Calculating God, and Mindscan (they were the first two of his I found).
I am gonna peddle to the bookstore after work to find any copies of the first three listed.
TY for the recommendations.
Need a book to take to Portland for the "lazy time" in between pedalpalooza events:D

Trekkie from way back reporting in. :D

What a setup (for me).

I was recently in a local used book store, A & M Book Cellars, 19801 Vanowen, and was talking to one of the owners. He made the comment that Heinlein was saying the same thing in Starship Troopers and Stranger in a Strange Land. I'll point out that this is at a more abstract level. Marty should know, he knew Robert and there at least used to be a picture of them along with Robert and Ginny in Jerry Pournelle's back yard posted at the back of the Science Fiction section of the store.

Oh and one other things that came up. The more any site on the web the more it gets mentioned in blogs and sites like this the higher up it comes in a search. This can be very important to used or speciality book stores.

So I encourage everyone to mention favorite sources of books as well as books.

Dude, just wow.

I used to work at A&M, I think I even remember Marty talking to a few people about Heinlein. and its not just that he's sending the same messages in Starship Troopers and Stranger In a Strange Land, but also Citizen of the Galaxy.

I miss Alice and Marty

The things that i haven't seen mentioned here so far are some that I got turned onto working in the bookstore.

Eric Frank Russel
Fredrik Brown (mostly a mystery writer, but wrote incredible short scifi)
and
Henry Kuttner

One of my personal favorite short stories is from Fred Brown called "Blood". It's only a page long and it's provided me with quite a few laughs when I feel like crap.

These 3 authors are hard to find (as their books have not been reprinted in a VERY long time, with minor exceptions). For those in the San Fernando Valley, check out A&M and tell Marty you're interested in them. He can get you started (he usually has at least a small selection, usually in the hard to find stock he puts online).

For those who aren't local, you can check out the rare and hard to find books they put online at
http://home.pacbell.net/ambooks/

Also check out bookfinder.com if there's something you're having a hard time finding. It searches the major online book sellers (amazon, biblio, alibris to name a few)

Any William Gibson fans? I'm really into cyberpunk and such right now. Neuromancer is great.

Any William Gibson fans? I'm really into cyberpunk and such right now. Neuromancer is great.

You could say that. . .

After Idoru it all got kind of old for me, and with Spook Country he just lost me completely.
Great writer but his books are all the same.

I read "Space Skimmer" by David Gerrold on vacation, in one sitting. Good, but I was a little disappointed by the part ending. YMMV.

Just finishing Patrick Rothfuss' "The Name of the Wind".
he won a Quill Award for it, and I can see why.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UYyvZht2Qm0/SXzq2mm13II/AAAAAAAAAjg/okg3Fc_qPrw/s400/51agosw05VL._SS400_.jpg

Any William Gibson fans? I'm really into cyberpunk and such right now. Neuromancer is great.

Gibson was good but Neal Stephenson is better - Read Snow Crash
and then read- The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
http://www.amazon.com/Diamond-Age-Illustrated-Primer-Spectra/dp/0553380966/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248707460&sr=1-4

Any William Gibson fans? I'm really into cyberpunk and such right now. Neuromancer is great.
I like Gibson. Pattern Recognition was very good. His new one, Spook Country, is a pretty good thriller if not up to his early work.

bump- We need more posts!
I've read a bunch since my last post. These are my last three:

The Tuloriad By Ringo and Kratman - an interesting twist changing the Posleen, the enemy from the last 10 or so books, to the protagonist. B+

a classic:
A Citizen of the Galaxy -Heinlein. One of his best by one of the big three masters. A+

Go Tell the Spartans - By Stirling and Pournelle. I never realized these two greats teamed up for a novel. Miltary sci-fi with a dash of world building, flavored with some decent battles. B-

bump- We need more posts!
I've read a bunch since my last post. These are my last three:

The Tuloriad By Ringo and Kratman - an interesting twist changing the Posleen, the enemy from the last 10 or so books, to the protagonist. B+

a classic:
A Citizen of the Galaxy -Heinlein. One of his best by one of the big three masters. A+

Go Tell the Spartans - By Stirling and Pournelle. I never realized these two greats teamed up for a novel. Miltary sci-fi with a dash of world building, flavored with some decent battles. B-

I've never considered Citizen as being anywhere near the top of Heinlein. (Of course that still can leave it in the class of better than the best of 90% of the writers you can find on the shelves). Mind you this is coming from someone who remembers Colonel Baslam, Renshaw and just what the secret ship languages really are. In some ways it is just too cheesy as to the storyline. On the plus side we see one one character travel through 3 very different societies. Also it is a bit different, much of Heinlein's stuff is very similar.

For the different ones might I recommend "Double Star", "Magic Inc.", "The Menace form Earth" and "Deliglia(sp) and the Space Rigger"

All but "Double Star" are probably avainable only in collections. "Double Star" could suffer if one is a prig about reality, as it was written when we hoped for a Martian Civilazation. If that ruins it for one then forget about it. "Magic Inc." is fantasy, perhaps the grandfather of 'realistic' fantasy. Think of the 50s or 60s where Magic works, but has not replaced science. The last 2 are just different, nothing huge in either one, just how some of the little things might still work out in out future.

Great thread! If you haven't already, Altered Carbon by Robert Morgan is an awesome read. He combines hardish SF with high adreniline streetfighter thriller/action and it works well. Actually he did several titles set in that universe, all of them worth the reading.

My other recommendation is Nova Swing, by M. John Harrison. Also SF, it's not space opera, but neither is it hard SF. It's written like a 1930' Humphrey Bogart movie, complete with film noir dialogue. More about people than science, the skill of the writer makes it a book I keep coming back to.

Iron Council by China Mieville is quite awesome. Charles Stross's short story collection "Wireless" is also excellent.

recently finished the Prince Roger series by John Ringo (March Upcountry. . .) I really like Ringo's writing style.
I've been reading his Ghost (Kildar, choosers of the slain) series but they're not Sci-Fi.
I'm also slogging through Prelude to Foundation and I just can't get totally immersed in it.