Recommend to me some decent Sci-Fi novels please..

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Finding decent Sci-Fi is difficult (there is so much rubbish out there).
I have not been able to finish the last two books which i borrowed from my local library.
They were:

1. "Gradisil" by Adam Roberts.
I managed to get half-way through this novel before aborting it.
I thought "Stone"& "Polystom" were fantastic, else i would have aborted sooner; this book was just too much hard work. A good idea but a bit of a dredge; a disappointment ( "Snow" was enjoyable, but not without faults.)

2. "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman.
I actually enjoyed reading the first 50 pages of this. But then i strangely decided to jack it in.
I had the feeling that the next 600 pages would be just going downhill, it reminded me of early long & drawn out Stephen King novels such as "The Stand" or "Talisman." Not that there is anything wrong with these, i just don't have the patience no more.

My favourites are Gibson, and in recent years the Takeshi Kovac novels by Richard Morgan.

Looking for some recomendations please.

Don't mention any fantasy. It's all crap except for Ursula Le Guin & maybe China Mieville ( i couldn't finish "Iron Council" either.)

the diamond age - Neal Stephenson
snow crash - Neal Stephenson (its more cyberpunk lite than gibson but still good)
cyptonomicon - Neal Stephenson

have you tried any Larry Niven or pohl? I've been on a major retro sci-fi mission the past few months so read all the smoke ring , integral trees books and pohls gateway series.

a canticle for leibowitz by Walter M. Miller is another good one if you havent read it.

Theres a podcast running at the moment sci-fi sofa where every show they take an authors work and life and talk about it - they have run through some classics of sci-fi in recent months and might be worth a listen if you want inspiration http://www.starshipsofa.com/

Look at my name and guess what I am going to recommand.... Ender's Game duh! I also checked out his new book today called Empire that looks good though not very sci-fiy.

Try reading "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" by Philip K Dick. Its about a bounty hunter in a post apocalyptic world.

Think i made a start on Crytonomicon but gave up on it ( if it's the one i'm thinking of with all the nano-technology.)
As for retro stuff, i recently read Robert Silverberg's "Dying Inside". I thought it was impressive. Very well written; his talents were wasted churning out them Majipour novels.
Will check out the link when i have some time.

edit: i just googled Crytonomicon and am clearly getting it mixed up with something else.

Last edited by Kosmonaut on 19 Jan 2007, 7:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yeah, read most of Phil Dick.
They don't write them like that no more.

try ' the colour of distance' amy thomson
'halfway human' carolyn ives gilman
'the left hand of darkness' le guin
available through amazon

Yes, 'the left hand of darkness' & 'the disposessed' are amongst my favourites.
Never heard of the other two you mentioned, they certainly have good titles.
Thanks, will check if they have them at the library first.

Starplex

All of the above (especially the Neal Stephenson and PK Dick), and I can't recommend Stephen Eriksons' "Malazan Book of the Fallen" series highly enough. It's semifantasy and quite the opposite of a lot of the crap that's representative of the fantasy genre.

Although understanding it might require reading the manga version or watching the anime, Crest of the Stars is still a great sci-fi series. Although it deals not so much directly on technology, but on interaction and the shape of bonds between people.

Anime/Manga is for the japanophilles

Stick with Dick

"A Scanner Darkly"

and

Harry Turtledove's

"How Few Remain"

Radix, by AA Attanasio
Ringworld (Series) , by Larry Niven
Rendezvous With Rama ( Begins series) by Arthur C Clarke
Helliconia (Trilogy begins w/ Helliconia Spring) by Brian Aldiss
Mars Series by Kim Stanley Robinson (Begins w/ Red Mars)
Neuromancer, by William Gibson

1984.

Everything Philip K. Dick writes is absolutely incredible...I'm so glad someone mentioned him. I think VALIS was his absolute best, followed by "Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said." But they both bordered on philosophy in a lot of ways, so if you're looking for more strictly science fiction I'd recommend Ubik and A Scanner Darkly.

I have to second Crest/Banner of the Stars, granted it was later made into an anime series it is alot like many other good scifi stuff in America (and I think better then alot of what we have), the stories were never at all Japanisse all that was was the art (which you don't get with the stories.) I wish I had more good books to mention but sadly I read mostly young adult stories (and even there mostly fantasy) so you probably wouldn't be interested.