Bringing the Light
In response to Davis' "Dark Age" post below: I know your frustration. Despair not, good sir; I have you covered. Following are some of the best sci-fi ever written, and most of it within the last couple of decades. There are Asimovian-sized talents still out there, you just have to know where to look.
The sci-fi author who wins my personal award for Largest Number of Completely New Mind-Blowing Concepts Per Book is Iain Banks. His Culture series is fantastic and mind-expanding. He's like a blend of Clive Barker's ability to create unique worlds and characters with Asimov's penchant for inventing new concepts. The Culture series begins with Consider Phlebas.
Peter Hamilton made his reputation as a ground-breaking sci-fi author with his Commonwealth series. The series begins with Pandora's Star. My father, who originally got me hooked on sci-fi back when I was a wee lad, has found it and its sequel, Judas Unchained, some of the best sci-fi he's ever read. That's high praise coming from someone who's been reading the stuff since the 1950s.
Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky and its sequel, A Fire Upon the Deep, have some very unique settings and races. There is very much an "old school adventure" feel about, though not quite what I'd called pulpy.
Finally, if you want a lot more spaceship blasting-ness and complex political maneuvering set in a far-distant future, you really can't beat David Weber's Honor Harrington series. The series begins with On Basilisk Station . Weber is a former naval intelligence officer, and he brings to the table both the brains and the experience to write large fleet actions in a convincing and nail-biting fashion. It's pure space opera, but it's really, really good space opera.
Those should keep you busy for quite some time, since the sequels and series they lead to amount to over two dozen books in total. Enjoy!
The sci-fi author who wins my personal award for Largest Number of Completely New Mind-Blowing Concepts Per Book is Iain Banks. His Culture series is fantastic and mind-expanding. He's like a blend of Clive Barker's ability to create unique worlds and characters with Asimov's penchant for inventing new concepts. The Culture series begins with Consider Phlebas.
Peter Hamilton made his reputation as a ground-breaking sci-fi author with his Commonwealth series. The series begins with Pandora's Star. My father, who originally got me hooked on sci-fi back when I was a wee lad, has found it and its sequel, Judas Unchained, some of the best sci-fi he's ever read. That's high praise coming from someone who's been reading the stuff since the 1950s.
Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky and its sequel, A Fire Upon the Deep, have some very unique settings and races. There is very much an "old school adventure" feel about, though not quite what I'd called pulpy.
Finally, if you want a lot more spaceship blasting-ness and complex political maneuvering set in a far-distant future, you really can't beat David Weber's Honor Harrington series. The series begins with On Basilisk Station . Weber is a former naval intelligence officer, and he brings to the table both the brains and the experience to write large fleet actions in a convincing and nail-biting fashion. It's pure space opera, but it's really, really good space opera.
Those should keep you busy for quite some time, since the sequels and series they lead to amount to over two dozen books in total. Enjoy!
posted by Jar(egg)head at 08:36
4 Comments:
I heartily endorse David Weber's Honor Harrington series (a Baen published book). It's available on iBook too. I read On Basilisk Station when it first came out in the early 90s and looked forward to each new book in the series with anticipation.
Props to Iain Banks. I believe it was a post on this site that inspired me to read some of his work. "The player of Games", and "Use of Weapons" were both outstanding novels.
-JW
I suggest checking out Neal Stephenson, though he is technically more of a speculative fiction writer than traditional Sci-Fi. His works offer a lot of variety, but they are all well conceptualized and researched. His characters and plots are intricate, and his ability to incorporate various cultural and mythological elements is somewhat reminiscent of Zelazny's works.
His most famous work, Snowcrash is a highly entertaining, action-filled twist on the cyberpunk genre set in a quirky alternative near-future.
Cryptonomicon is an interesting work of historical fiction that delves into cryptography and the development of early computing engines with ties to modern applications.
Anathem is a lengthy, highly speculative work that ties many different elements including metaphysics, mathematics and philosophy into a mind-bending story of epic proportions.
On a side note, since I have little time these days to sit and actually read books I have been listening to audiobooks quite a lot. I find it convenient to keep my hands and eyeballs free for other tasks, like changing diapers or steering. While not free, Audible offers a large selection of audiobooks that can be downloaded to various devices, including via Android and iOS apps. They recently added quite a few of Heinlein's books and have been absorbing works from many other publishers. Many of the classics are available, so there is no reason the next generation of egg-heads can't still be inspired by the masters.
IMHO, the greatest SF writer of our time is John C. Wright. For proof, just check out The Golden Age trilogy.
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