[Reading] Sci-Fi

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PantsMcFist

So I'm on the hunt for some good science fiction - recommend me some TW. Here are my tastes:

Heinlein - Starship Troopers is my favourite by him, also enjoyed For Us the Living and Friday. Didn't actually like Stranger in a Strange Land (is that the right title?).

Arthur C. Clarke - The Rama series.

Frank Herbert - I actually enjoyed his pre-Dune The Dosadi Experiment quite a lot, despite it being an obvious thematic condensation of Dune.

Cheers!

*Edit*

Also, everything that I can think of by OSC.
 
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The novel is set in an undefined distant future (although it is implied to exist roughly 5000 years from now), in which there is a galactic empire spanning eighty worlds, amongst other human civilizations. The empire is ruled by the Risen Emperor, who has discovered the secret of immortality through means of a symbiont (spelled "symbiant" in the novel). Immortality is conferred on favored Imperial citizens, who, after their death, become 'grays', living in a zombie-like state and making pilgrimages in honor of the Emperor. To create balance, the living citizens of the Empire are represented by an elected Imperial Senate, and by elected governments on each world. Faster than light travel is impossible, and the result of more mundane interstellar travel between the eighty worlds of the empire results in relativistic effects due to the high speeds involved; as such, the ages of space travelers become out of sync with those of their friends and family, an effect known as the "Time Thief". Other groups in the Empire, such as the Imperial Senate, are also subject to the "Time Thief" due to the use of cryogenic freezing. The Empire, protected by the Imperial Navy, is at war with a cult of fanatical cyborgs known as the Rix, who worship compound artificial intelligences and seek to spread such intelligences throughout the galaxy.

The central characters are Captain Laurent Zai of the Imperial Navy, and Senator Nara Oxham, a member of the Secularist Party, which opposes worship of the Emperor and the use of the symbiont to create immortality. Despite their political differences, the two become lovers. Zai is sent away to fight the Rix; due to the death of the Emperor's sister at the hands of the Rix, Zai is expected to commit ritual suicide to mark his failure, but chooses not to do so. Senator Oxham, appointed to the Emperor's War Council, opposes unpalatable war plans that would lead to the sacrifice of billions of Imperial citizens.
 
Iain M Banks Culture books...start with Consider Phlebas and Player of Games to see what you think

Eisenhorn by Dan Abnett (40k sci-fi)

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson? I guess that counts as sci-fi

Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
 
Dweasel said:
Foundation.
Ender's War ( not Ender vs. goshin" :lol:)
Rama


anna soooo many.
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I read the Foundation series. They were alright - are his robot series better? I tend toward broader storylines, though I do think the Worthing Saga, compared to any one of OSC's other books is the best thing he's done.
 
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PantsMcFist said:
I read the Foundation series. They were alright - are his robot series better? I tend toward broader storylines, thought I do think the Worthing Saga, compared to any one of OSC's other books is the best thing he's done.
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Canna member, "Old Timer's" setting in I guess. :lol:
 
The Mass Effect novels are pretty good even if you never played Mass Effect 1 or 2. Just don't do what I did and read them in reverse order :sunny:
 
PantsMcFist said:
I read the Foundation series. They were alright - are his robot series better? I tend toward broader storylines, though I do think the Worthing Saga, compared to any one of OSC's other books is the best thing he's done.
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Asimov's Robot series ties in with the Foundation series, at least at the end. I'd recommend reading "I, Robot" which is a collection of short stories wrapped around a series of interviews with Susan Calvin and a quick read (I haven't seen the movie, and from what I understand it's nothing like the book).

I enjoyed The Worthing Saga more than the Ender series as well :shrug:
 
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