On 9 Dec 2003, at 1:17 am, Jon Gabriel wrote:
From: "Travis Edmunds" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
-David Brin (as evidenced by this post in the first place)
You may run into a few of his fans here as well. ;-)
-David Gerrold (Star Trek TOS writer/War Against The Chtorr/and a few other interesting books)
He also wrote TNG's Encounter at Farpoint. His writing always reminds me of Larry Niven's. Creative and conceptually fascinating, but fast-paced.
_The Flying Sorcerers_ (with Niven) was quite funny. _When Harlie was One_ and _The Man who Folded Himself_ were pretty good. I think I read the first in the Chtorr sequence and decided it wasn't my thing, so I haven't read anything more recent.
-Terry Pratchett (Discworld series. The "little things" that this man thinks up and transfers to paper are quite outstanding to say the least)
I've never read anything by him, but now own a bunch of his books. With luck, I'll start them within the next few weeks. :)
Pratchett is great. I started reading the Discworld series when there was one book in it :) Now I tend to fall three or so behind and then catch up.
-Anne Rice (Blurs the line of sci-fi/one of the most captivating and talented writers I have ever come across)
Her Vampire series was first rate.... up until she began to blend it with the Talamasca Witches series. On many, many levels, her Witch characters simply don't work for me. Most hardcore Rice fans I've met disagree with me though.
Haven't read the Vampire or Witch books, but I quite enjoyed the films.
-Arthur C. Clarke (Rama series, that's all I have to say)
Great, great classic author. If you like him, I highly recommend a compendium I recently picked up of all his older short stories. (I love old, outdated sci-fi.) Will locate and post the link on Amazon when I find it.
I prefer his earlier works. In fact I haven't read anything after _The Fountains of Paradise_. I think my favourite of his is _The City and the Stars_ (vt _Against the Fall of Night_).
-Orson Scott Card (Ender series/the champion of the "demigod"<lol>)
I've always felt Card was an author who should have stopped while he was ahead of his game. I enjoyed the Ender series, but... the Bean series is just completely unappealing. I don't like the hero and his novels just don't captivate me. Christopher Columbus was a short story that shouldn't have been stretched into a novel.
Ah well. To each his own, huh?
He should have stopped the Ender series after the first two. And I found the 'Homecoming' series unreadable.
-Ben Bova (Has always held an interest for me, since I read "Mars")
Urgh. Bova. He reminds me of Michael Chrichton. Characters that aren't terribly deep and storylines that read like 'treatments' for movies. I'm not a fan. :-)
I haven't been impressed by any of his that I have read.
-Steve White (Eagle Against The Stars....<lol> Ok, so it's complete B-side sci-fi, but it's not without it's merit)
Oddly enough, I just finished Forge of the Titans a couple of months ago. I'd never heard of him before when my father-in-law handed me the book. It was different, and I enjoyed it.
I haven't read any Steve White, but I have read quite a few by his former collaborator, David Weber.
-Tolkien (I suppose THAT'S just a given)
Heh. I'm almost afraid to ask, but what was your take on the movies?
I like the movies, but I was never a huge fan. I read the books two or three times, last time about thirty years ago :)
-Various Star Trek and Star Wars novels tend to find their way into my personal library.
IMO, Peter David's the only one worth reading. :)
I'm not into media tie-ins and novelizations and such.
-I also love the Stargate Universe (For those of you who may share that interest)
I watch the show on occasion... but I've never really gotten deeply into it.
I like Stargate (the series). Despite being a spin-off of a mediocre film with a rather dire premise it is actually quite a good sf series. And probably the best that is left now :(
-Michael Chrichton is certainly noteworthy.
Ugh. Ugh. and Ugh. :-D
I didn't like the films and I haven't read the books.
Well, that's enough for now. I look forward to perhaps SOME degree of extrapolation, and/or expansion on the subject of "Science Fiction In General"
Well, how about these authors. Have you read any of them?
Robert Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers, Time Enough for Love, etc.,)
I read all of the early Heinlein, struggled through various dreadful 1970's Heinlein disasters (_I Will Fear No Evil_ ...) before abandoning him. I read _Friday_ because it was supposed to be a return to form, and it was better but not up to the old standards.
Iain Banks (Culture Series)
That's Iain M Banks. Iain Banks is his alter ego who writes mainstream novels. I have read most of both of him. In fact I read his first novel _The Wasp Factory_ before his second was published. I even have some of them autographed!
Vernor Vinge (I think he's an honorary "Bee") (A Deepness in the Sky)
His recent work has been very good.
Dan Simmons (Hyperion and Endymion Series)
I found Endymion a bit of a let down compared to Hyperion. He has done some good horror as well.
Kim Stanley Robinson (Mars Series)
I read his Orange County trilogy, and _The Memory of Whiteness_ and found them a little dull. So I never got around to the Mars series.
Joe Haldeman (Forever War / Forever Peace)
_Forever War_ is quite good. He never wrote anything up to that standard after, and I stopped reading him after _Buying Time_.
Larry Niven (RingWorld)
Read all his early stuff of course :) I don't think he's written anything worth reading since the mid 80's. The last one I tried (can't even remember the title!) was just awful.
Isaac Asimov (Robots / Foundation Series)
I stopped at _The Gods Themselves_. I haven't read any of the posthumous add-ons.
Anne McCaffrey (Pern)
The first few Pern books are quite good. Another series I stopped reading a long time ago :) Most of her other stuff is distinctly inferior to the Pern series.
Harry Turtledove (How Few Remain)
I like his short fiction, and the Videssos fantasy novels. _The Guns of the South_ is a great alternate history sf novel. I got bogged down after the first four 'World War' novels.
Douglas Adams (HHGG)
Never read him for some reason. I suspect I was being snobby because it came from a radio series and everyone was saying how great it was when there were lots of other very funny sf writers who had been around for decades not getting recognition. Like Robert Sheckley and Ron Goulart.
And what about these authors?
Poul Anderson John Barnes Alfred Bester James P Blaylock Marion Zimmer Bradley John Brunner Lois McMaster Bujold C J Cherryh John Crowley Samuel R Delany Philip K Dick Thomas M Disch Greg Egan Philip Jose Farmer William Gibson Frank Herbert Ursula K Le Guin Tanith Lee Fritz Leiber Barry N Malzberg George R R Martin Donald Moffitt Richard Morgan Frederik Pohl Tim Powers Mike Resnick Joanna Russ Robert Silverberg Clifford D Simak Norman Spinrad Neal Stephenson Bruce Sterling Theodore Sturgeon Michael Swanwick Jack Vance Tad Williams Walter Jon Williams Connie Willis Gene Wolfe Roger Zelazny
??
To mention a few :)
-- William T Goodall Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/
'The true sausage buff will sooner or later want his own meat grinder.' -- Jack Schmidling
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