Walrus

Science Fiction/Fantasy is far and away my favoritve genre of fiction. The problem is that so much of what's out there is total and utter crap, and it can be difficult to find the well written, compelling stuff without wading through all the nonsense. I'll give my list of the truly excellent fantasy/scifi that I've read to help anyone out there that's interested:

The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (of course)
The Silmarillion - JRR Tolkien

The Fionavar Tapestry - Guy Gavriel Kay (excellent trilogy)

A Song of Fire and Ice - George RR Martin (ongoing series, great stoned reading)

Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson (incredible cyberpunk novel)

Dune - Frank Herbert (classic)

Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman (dark, comedic, fantastic)

Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn - Tad Williams (trilogy, a bit slow but overall solid)

That's my short list, please feel free to comment on any of these books or recommend some of your own, I'm always looking for good reads in this genre.

Peace

The Stoned Philosopher

Finish off the Dune Chronicles (the order of them are:
Dune Messiah,Children of Dune,God Emperor of Dune,
Heretics of Dune,Chapterhouse: Dune)
Heres some classics for ya:
2001,2010,2065,3001 by Arthur C Clarke
War of the Worlds,The Invisable Man by H.G Wells
(the books are almost completely different from the movies)
I know i havent read much sci fi,Iam considering reading some of Herberts other novels besides Dune or might check out Lord of the Rings.

The Stoned Philosopher

Dispersion

Martin is a great author. Still have to read the third book. Other good authors/series..

C.S. Friedman - Coldfire Trilogy -- Sometimes a little strange in the way the characters interact, but it's very well written. Rather than the typical "superhero" characters that most books put out the characters do have limitations and you'll soon realize that no one is gifted with "big character immortality." Her other books are good, too, even if not in the same genre.

David Eddings - Elenium/Tamuli Trilogies -- His other two series (Belgiariad, Mallareon) were pretty good too, but the Elenium/Tamuli story was better. A great mix of politics and actual combat that a lot of authors tend to struggle with.

Terry Brooks - Shannara Series -- This is the series that got me into sci-fi/fantasy.

Robert Jordan - Wheel of Time -- Not really a bad story, but man.. how many books does the guy need? I burned out on the fourth and still have 5 to go (more to come!). I'll get around to finishing the series someday.

And for a few off-genre suggestions for good reads..

Stephen Baxter - Manifold: Time/Manifold: Space -- Excellent books, two of the best I've read. Read both in under 48 hours each, just couldn't put them down. If you're the sort that ponders the meaning of life and the universe, they're a couple of great reads.

Jeanne Kalogridis - Covenant With the Vampire -- I've only read the first book of the trilogy (the above mentioned title), but it was a good book and I plan on picking up the rest eventually. I'm not a big fan of the whole "vampire" deal, but the story was good and the way it was written was a nice change of pace (journal entry style). Pretty easy to figure out the "surprise," but entertaining regardless.

FullyBaked

Some damn good fantasy series can be read from the authors Margerett Weiss, and Tracy Hickman (working together)

Yeah, D&D type stuff, but I love reading it.


"Dragonlance Chronicles" Great series
"The Deathgate Cycle" (not sure if the title's correct, but no book around to check) a set of 7 books, Originally was only 4, but they added 3 books to expand on the series. I've only read 6 of them so far, and can't wait to get my hands on the 7th, just can't find it anywhere.

I've also read a lot of Sci-fi books, but can't much remember the authors of them. Mainly I've read star-wars related books (X-wing series)

Oh, and had to add this, Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy by Douglas adams.




42

Walrus

Just to comment on a few of the above suggestions:

Stoned Philosopher:
I have been meaning to continue with the Dune series, just haven't gottten around to it. Also, do yourself a favor and read the Lord of the Rings, especially with the movies coming out soon. I would consider it a tragedy for someone to go see those movies without ever having read the books.

Dispersion:
Jordan's Wheel of Time series really pisses me off. I thought the first book was incredible and by the time I got to book three I was expecting the best Fantsy series ever. Although there are some good points after that, on the whole the books seem to be getting slow paced, and boring with no advancing of the plot. Maybe once the series is finished I'll go back and give it another chance, but right now he seems to be churning out as many books as possible just to make money with no thought toward the actual story.

Fully Baked:
Don't know how I left out Hitchhikesr Guide, that is definately one of my favorites, good call.