What books to read while waiting?

[long_fella]

I've read Ender's Game (much better than the sequels) more times than I can count. At no point have I ever picked up a homophobic vibe. It is true that, at least in the earlier editions, he used the "n word", but even then I think it was more an aspect of the author's time than deliberate racism (not condoning it, just providing some context), and I think it may have been removed / edited in later editions.

Also +1s to Halderman's Forever War, and anything by C J Cherryh, and anything by Ian Banks. And Herbert's Dune (not not, imho, the others).

Carpe Diem (and others in the series) by Steve Miller and Sharon Lee is great fun and worth picking up if you can. The last time I looked they were out of print though.

If we stretch the definition to include cyberpunk then William Gibson's Neuromancer (and subsequent books), Neil Stephenson's Snowcrash, and Michal Morgan's books are at worst brilliant fun and at best incredibly visionary excellently written brilliant fun.

I'm re-reading Excession at the moment, only because I lent my copy of Hydrogen Sonata to somebody but can't remember who, and my Kindle has run out of juice so no repeat (again) of Ender's Game.

 

[Pugmak]

"A Fire Upon the Deep" and "A Deepness Upon the Sky".

 

[Wulfburk]

Anyone ever read the Mass Effect novels? are they good?

 

[Rubidium]

Going back to the Golden Age of SF, I want to throw out a plug for the Lensman series, which I consider essentially the canonical space opera. A bit dated at times, but definitely worth a read if you haven't; many of the themes will also likely be relevant to Stellaris.

 

[Gqarz]

Peter F. Hamilton the Neutronium alchemist series or the Judas Unchained series. Also, like early Honor Harrington series.

 

[Pyoro]

Anyone ever read the Mass Effect novels? are they good?

"Good" is a stretch, but the first three are OK for fans (written by the writer of the game so why not...). Fourth one though was rubbish. I kinda see a parallel there ^^


Also, thanks to whomever mentioned the Ancillary series here. That was a fun read; amusingly covers very similar topics to other Scifi series I've recently read so there was some extra fun in comparing how they did it

 

[Velorian]

Another book serie that I really like and i think that noone has talked about yet is the Ender serie, by Orson Scott Card. The movie adapted from the first book is really bad, however the books are awesome. They talk about the first contact and how humanity would treat other species. It talks about discrimination, authoritarism, respect of others.

Quite ironic since the author is highly homophobic, but the books are really nice and have a philosophical and ethical background that I really appreciated

Unless the author constantly hits me over the head with his views and the world is overly screwed into an idealized version of his viewpoints I tend to ignore how offensive the author behind it is. If after brief research I discover the writer is an ass (not all that rare) then I just stick to the books.

I read the entire Ender series, plus the "Ender's shadow" series and I quite liked them all, though they never reached the first books level. I also never picked up any kind of vibes from it (except a loosely spiritual vibe, but no religious tenets) and had no idea he was a devout Mormon until later. Maybe his homophobia just lead to not dealing with the issue at all in his books but the absence went unnoticed.

Many movie directors and actors are also complete ass-holes but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy the movie, does it?

 

[Valakhan]

Many movie directors and actors are also complete ass-holes but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy the movie, does it?

I absolutely agree. This book series is one of my favorite Sci-fi. I don't care about an author political, religious or whatever stance, as long as I like his work.
I just found funny that an author which writes a book that promotes tolerance to people who are different is actually intolerant himself

 

[208]

Dune, while certainly a classic, is I think more fantasy than SF.

This is a curious statement. Granted, Dune doesn't go into depth with "hard" sciences, but the basic premise of science fiction - "fiction based on imagined future scientific or technological advances and major social or environmental changes" - is certainly true. Things Herbert explores this way in the Dune series include prescience, hydraulic despotism, eugenics, genetic engineering, a post-computer society, and more.

 

[Emre Yigit]

This is a curious statement. Granted, Dune doesn't go into depth with "hard" sciences, but the basic premise of science fiction - "fiction based on imagined future scientific or technological advances and major social or environmental changes" - is certainly true. Things Herbert explores this way in the Dune series include prescience, hydraulic despotism, eugenics, genetic engineering, a post-computer society, and more.

Anything that includes prescience is, for me at least, fantasy. Moreover, I don't see much difference between Saul and the Witch of Endor on the one hand and the Padishah-Emperor and the Bene Gesserit on the other.

IMO, fantasy does not require the absence of technology - it can include eugenics, genetic engineering, a post-computer society, etc and whatnot; however, SF does require the absence of fantasy.

 

[208]

Anything that includes prescience is, for me at least, fantasy.

What's the distinction between perceiving the future and time travel? The latter is pretty much THE science fiction trope.

 

[Emre Yigit]

What's the distinction between perceiving the future and time travel? The latter is pretty much THE science fiction trope.

One of them, anyway.

A similar question (posed in, say, 1880 or even today) would be: what's the distinction between a) a human being who can levitate across the Atlantic and b) one who can fly across it in a plane.

I suppose that it might be possible at some future date for us to be unlock an innate ability to fly, but this would be a future so advanced that in ACC's words, it would appear like magic to us.

Same with prescience.

And note, I didn't say that Dune was fantasy. I said it was more like fantasy to me than SF. I'll go so far as to amend that to state: "Dune contains too many fantasy elements for me to regard it as representative of SF" but no further.

(Severely edited.)

 

[Kourgath223]

Well as of right now I won't be reading anything specific but come March, assuming the game is not out by then, I will be reading this, the first volume in the Legend of the Galactic Heroes series.

I will probably try to base by first faction off of the either the FPA (Free Planets Alliance) or the Galactic Empire (I prefer Galactic Reich since they have some Germanic, Norse, and Anglo-Saxon naming principles).

 

[State Machine]

Anything by Jack Vance.

He's a great stylist, very unique, and multi-multi SF award winner.

Another is M.A. Forster - "The Gameplayers of Zan" is completely different and brilliant. His Morphodote series is rather different as well. And his novel "Waves" is totally original in terms of... well, earth sentience, and good, old fashioned mystery.

 

[prithupaul]

Well as of right now I won't be reading anything specific but come March, assuming the game is not out by then, I will be reading this, the first volume in the Legend of the Galactic Heroes series.

I will probably try to base by first faction off of the either the FPA (Free Planets Alliance) or the Galactic Empire (I prefer Galactic Reich since they have some Germanic, Norse, and Anglo-Saxon naming principles).

Ohh that is great news!!!!! LOGH is by far greatest space opera in movies and TV as far as I am concerned. Looking forward to both the translated books and officially subtitled anime. Finally I have a chance to pay for LOGH Thanks for posting that.

Still hoping for a remake, or remaster sometime soon.

 

[PrinceCola]

A lot of books here, but which ones would serve best as an intro to Sci-Fi? I have read lots of fantasy books, but never sci-fi and am afraid of picking up a difficult book.

 

[Emre Yigit]

A lot of books here, but which ones would serve best as an intro to Sci-Fi? I have read lots of fantasy books, but never sci-fi and am afraid of picking up a difficult book.

Asimov's Foundation series (first three books) are as good (and brief) an introduction as any, I'd say.

 

[Pugmak]

A lot of books here, but which ones would serve best as an intro to Sci-Fi? I have read lots of fantasy books, but never sci-fi and am afraid of picking up a difficult book.

A good place to start reading sci-fi is:
http://www.baenebooks.com/p-469-with-the-lightnings.aspx

The author based the storyline on the shenanigans that British Royal Navy got up to in and around central and south America way back in the day but transformed it into space navy adventure. Think Master and Commander in space.

The sciency parts don't beat you over the head with complexity. The characters are fun and diverse.

If you have an ebook reader, you can download the book in whatever format fits your reader. If you don't have an ebook, you can get reader software free for your computer and read the book on your computer. The book at the link is free to download and read so no need to risk money on the book. The series is some 10 books, iirc.

In case you want to check out what the series is all about.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCN_Series

 

[Valakhan]

A lot of books here, but which ones would serve best as an intro to Sci-Fi? I have read lots of fantasy books, but never sci-fi and am afraid of picking up a difficult book.

Dune, I would say. The first book is a good introduction

 

[Enlil]

If your interested in a scientific look at almost every aspect of space exploration, there is an excellent site called Atomic Rockets.