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Okay, all over people are looking at the utter shit Hollywood is throwing up and saying "Sci Fi is dying" but I dont buy it for a second!
Tell me what your favorite "new" (as in within the past decade) Sci Fi is- it can be novels, cartoons, anime, comics- whatever.
I'll start (as I'm especial)- Charles Stross' Laundry series of noves (three so far but not a "trilogy or anything so snotty) The Atrocity Archives, the Jennifer Morgue and The Fuller Memorandum. It's sorta IT geek meets civil service meets Lovecraft and James Bond. Really incredible fun.
Any spy that can rant for pages about why MS Powerpoint is pure evil is awesome i my book.
For more epic sci fi, go with Dan Simmons' Illium and Olympos- it' the Illiad with the Gods useing super science, time manipulation, robots, extra dimensional aliens and all the heroes of the Illiad in real and believable characterization... plus a historian thrown into it all, with an intimate knowledge of the Illiad itself, looking to screw everyone's day.
SO PONY UP YOUR FAVORITES!
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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I went to the library to get something of his for my roommate and it was an impossble maze of books- a dozen series with no clear idea where to start with what.
He swears by them though.
I love the Dresden Files series- really great character development over the series as well as a finely woven universe-build of supporting characters that might seem a minor introductin in one book and return to save the day or stab someone in the back a few books later.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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My last two summers have been given much more joy from Justina Robson and her Quantum Gravity series, depicting the story of Lila Black, government spy and body guard partly rebuilt with machine parts after a terrorist bombing in one of the new dimensions that opened up to Earth after a quantum bomb event. Intelligent story, coy, shameless and bloody execution. As it says on the cover, "The work of a smart and sexy novelist having smart and sexy fun".
Registered: Aug 1999
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Some of the series are completely independent of others whereas some are connected. But, none of the books are numbered so you pretty much rely on the listings inside the book or online to figure out where to start.
-------------------- I haul cardboard and cardboard accessories
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:Some of the series are completely independent of others whereas some are connected. But, none of the books are numbered so you pretty much rely on the listings inside the book or online to figure out where to start.
Yes, wikipedia is your friend. I don't know how many shortcuts I have in the style of "list of Asimov story arcs", "list of doctor who serials" or "divine factions in elder scrolls".
I also like how most book series, TV shows and games nowadays have their own Wiki. People tend to take this for granted, but the comfort in knowing someone has counted the runes, checked the damage on Clarke's rivet gun, or snooped up the real reason that guy got killed in season 3 (he got a theater gig in Australia and got tired of going to the show conventions), is nice.
Registered: Aug 1999
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I never Wiki stuff I want to read- you usually have to sift throuh spoilers to learn basic info, like what goes where.
Registered: Aug 2002
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Properly written wiki-pages have a content box in the start, offering a hotlink to the relevant paragraph.
The only time I get close to spoilers is if I look up the name of a specific character, as in the Song of Ice and Fire wiki, and glance at stuff I haven't seen yet. But that's asking for it, really.
When I read Lord of the Rings I managed to spoil the identity of Dernhelm to myself. I would've gotten a nice surprise at Pelennor if my edition hadn't had such a very exhaustive and detailed index section in the back. :.)
Registered: Aug 1999
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I am currently reading The Saga of Seven Suns. I have finished the first four books and near the end of book five...it's a lot to read but I am thoroughly enjoying them.
-------------------- If you cant convince them, confuse them.
Registered: Apr 2001
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quote:Originally posted by akb1979: I am currently reading The Saga of Seven Suns. I have finished the first four books and near the end of book five...it's a lot to read but I am thoroughly enjoying them.
Catchy title! What's the premise?
Registered: Aug 2002
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quote: The Saga of Seven Suns is a series of seven space opera novels written by Kevin J. Anderson and published between 2002 and 2008. The series is set in a not-too-distant future where mysterious alien benefactors, the Ildirans, have helped humanity to spread out among the stars, colonizing a number of planets in the Orion Spiral Arm of the Milky Way galaxy. Much of the human race is ruled by the powerful Terran Hanseatic League (Hansa), which intends, by force or by subterfuge, to extend its control to every corner of human space while the Ildirans simply continue to look on.
The series details the outcome of an ancient war rekindled by human folly when scientists experimenting with alien technology create a new star from a gas giant and thereby awaken the fury of a hidden empire of elemental aliens known as the hydrogues, who dwell within gas giants. The hydrogues start to extinguish stars, thus awaking another elemental race in the stars—the faeros—who fight back. On the planet Theroc, human colonists awaken the verdani, a tree elemental race, and two Roamers awaken a fourth elemental race—the water elemental wentals. The series details the rekindled war between these forces and the Illdirans, Hansa and Roamers who are caught in the middle.
Beneath this all, a subplot of artificial intelligence lurks. Ancient black robots ally with the humans and the Illdirans, and aid them in their war. Later in the series, their creators, the Klikiss return, attacking both human and robot to regain their lost colonies.
I've finished book 5 now, and have started book 6. I hope that book 7 arrives from the USA by the time I finish book 6.
-------------------- If you cant convince them, confuse them.
Registered: Apr 2001
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Why is it always "human folly"? Why cant our mysterious benifactors ever screw the pooch?
They're obviously not infailable, or they'd never have asociated with humans in the first place.
Darksaber was a SW novel, I take it?
While it's slightly before the time-range I imposed, Forge of God and Anvil of Stars by Greg Bear are my favorite sci-fi novels (for the second book, mainly) and I will happily talk about both for hours as they raise many moral and ethical problems with dealing with aliens and powers far outside human experience and ability.
I'll add Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons too as incredible.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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