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Old 05-14-2008, 10:21 PM   #46
Donnageddon
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For that matter, Steve Jordan's Berserker (the Kestral Voyages) might work.

After all it is set in a Star Trek-esque Universe, and has a strong female lead character. And if enough people ask for it, he might write another Krestal Voyage.
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Old 05-15-2008, 11:44 AM   #47
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jplumey View Post
Actually, my wife loves Star Trek. She even went to a convention once, a long time ago. I think she would be interested, except she doesn't know where to start, with either series. There's so many dang books.
True... figuring out where to begin with either series is pretty daunting...

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Originally Posted by Donnageddon View Post
For that matter, Steve Jordan's Berserker (the Kestral Voyages) might work.

After all it is set in a Star Trek-esque Universe, and has a strong female lead character. And if enough people ask for it, he might write another Krestal Voyage.
Yeah... I might...
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Old 05-15-2008, 01:47 PM   #48
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Anne McCaffrey's books are often a good read , in both Fantasy and SciFi genre .
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Old 05-15-2008, 01:57 PM   #49
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Has anyone mentioned Elizabeth Moon? She has a couple of series with female protangonists. (Herris Serrano, Vatta)
I love her scifi, my husband prefers her fantasy.
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Old 05-15-2008, 01:58 PM   #50
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Has anyone mentioned Elizabeth Moon? She has a couple of series with female protangonists. (Herris Serrano, Vatta)
I love her scifi, my husband prefers her fantasy.
Some of hers' I like , also she has co-authored with Anne McCaffrey ...
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Old 05-15-2008, 02:14 PM   #51
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Anne McCaffrey's books are often a good read , in both Fantasy and SciFi genre .
Indeed, they are a great introduction, as they are not heavy on the Jargon, and can be a light and fun read.

From Her Science fiction series, Start off with her Pegasus series, as it still quiet contemporary, near future, and starts off with a series of short stories in the first book.

1) To Ride Pegasus
2) Pegasus in Flight
3) Pegasus in space

Then move on to her Tower and the Hive series, which is set in the same universe, but much further in the future. The series consists of 5 books, namely

1) The Rowan
2) Damia
3) Damia's Children
4) Lyons Pride
5) The Tower and the Hive


Her Crystal Singers series is also nice, and set in its own univers, more or less. The books are

1) Crystal Singer
2) Killashandra
3) Crystal Line

If you enjoy those, Her ship series is also nice, and each is a self contained story set in the same universe. Of them, I personally really Like 2 of them, namely

The Ship Who Sang &

The Ship who searched

Finally Her Planet Pirates series is also good, and more of a classis SF series, but could be good stepping stone for more hard SF novels.

Well, Hope that helps
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Old 05-15-2008, 03:50 PM   #52
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Elizebeth Moon's SF (Vatta's War series and Familias Regnant, which includes the Herris Serano books) are all good. They have a similar flavor to the Honor Harrington books.

Now the Honor Harrington books have the advantage of being freely available:

http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/ (disk 9 - At All Costs)

Yes - it's legal!

Ace
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Old 05-20-2008, 05:19 PM   #53
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I love them but I wouldn't call the Harrington books "soft" by any definition.

I also second the Elizabeth Moon and Anne McCaffrey suggestions -- McCaffrey's "Pern" series has so little science content that many folks will argue that it isn't SciFi at all.

I'd also suggest Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. The science in there is fairly understated, and it's certainly a very good story. The various sequels I wouldn't recommend without knowing how the first one was liked, though. Actually, I don't recommend the first set of sequels at all, but that's me.
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Old 05-21-2008, 09:33 AM   #54
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Originally Posted by NatCh View Post
I'd also suggest Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. The science in there is fairly understated, and it's certainly a very good story. The various sequels I wouldn't recommend without knowing how the first one was liked, though. Actually, I don't recommend the first set of sequels at all, but that's me.
She actually read Ender's game and enjoyed it many years ago. For some reason I could not got into the sequels. I can't even remember finishing them.

Thanks everyone for these suggestions! It certainly will be fun researching all these options.
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Old 05-21-2008, 10:05 AM   #55
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Originally Posted by jplumey View Post
Actually, my wife loves Star Trek. She even went to a convention once, a long time ago. I think she would be interested, except she doesn't know where to start, with either series. There's so many dang books.
I recommend Peter David's Star Trek New Frontier.
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Old 05-21-2008, 10:17 AM   #56
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Must be some other women they're talking about.

Does she like philosophy? I'd suggest C.J. Cherryh's Wave Without A Shore. Orson Scott Card's Songmaster might also be a good choice. If she likes politics, Frank Herbert's original Dune is a classic. I think Heinlein is a little heavy on science and engineering for someone who doesn't like those subjects, though he has great characters and tells a ripping good story. His "Young Adult" books, e.g. Have Spacesuit, Will Travel are quite good. Um... Arther C. Clark's Dolphin Island is very readable, and rather less on science than characterization.

It would help to know what else she likes to read. I could make better recommendations, then.

Edit: Somehow I missed seeing that this discussion went on for 4 pages before I posted. Knowing that she liked Ender's Game, I would recommend John Barnes' Orbital Resonance and probably Ian Banks' The Player of Games. I also highly recommend Card's Speaker for the Dead (I didn't think the books after that were quite as good) and probably Ender's Shadow, which tells a story overlapping the time period of Ender's Game, but from the point of view of Bean, one of the other characters. I liked the sequels, but others have given them mixed reviews.
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Old 05-21-2008, 10:23 AM   #57
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"Soft Science Fiction" makes me think of social sciences SF as opposed to hard sciences SF, and I'm thinking that sort of stuff is maybe not what you're looking for. If you're looking for good storytelling and ideas without all the techie stuffs, I'd recommend Roger Zelazny's Amber series.
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Old 05-21-2008, 07:49 PM   #58
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Originally Posted by nekokami View Post
Must be some other women they're talking about.

Does she like philosophy? I'd suggest C.J. Cherryh's Wave Without A Shore. Orson Scott Card's Songmaster might also be a good choice. If she likes politics, Frank Herbert's original Dune is a classic. I think Heinlein is a little heavy on science and engineering for someone who doesn't like those subjects, though he has great characters and tells a ripping good story. His "Young Adult" books, e.g. Have Spacesuit, Will Travel are quite good. Um... Arther C. Clark's Dolphin Island is very readable, and rather less on science than characterization.

It would help to know what else she likes to read. I could make better recommendations, then.

Edit: Somehow I missed seeing that this discussion went on for 4 pages before I posted. Knowing that she liked Ender's Game, I would recommend John Barnes' Orbital Resonance and probably Ian Banks' The Player of Games. I also highly recommend Card's Speaker for the Dead (I didn't think the books after that were quite as good) and probably Ender's Shadow, which tells a story overlapping the time period of Ender's Game, but from the point of view of Bean, one of the other characters. I liked the sequels, but others have given them mixed reviews.
I was wondering when you'd get in this one Neko.

I love your suggestions. Any more?
You know, all the ones you gave me so far are in my reading plan or I've read them since.
You go girl!
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Old 05-21-2008, 08:58 PM   #59
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Sorry, I've been really busy with work and grad school (and dealing with severe allergies) so I haven't been following new threads very well.

Other suggestions... Well, there's Madeline L'Engle, but I'm not even sure whether to call her books SF, even though they often get classified as such.

Part of my problem in recommending something is that a lot of the SF I like has plots that revolve around some point of science. To me, that's sort of the point of SF. Otherwise, it's just mystery/romance/westerns etc. in space. Which is ok, I guess, but not usually what I'm interested in. I like fantasy, too, but in this thread we're talking about science fiction.

But then, most people are more ok with some kinds of science than they might think. Sundiver might be a bit heavy on solar physics, but there's also a lot of very interesting character development. Another book by David Brin, Earth, has some stuff about black holes and computers in it, and a fair amount about ecological disaster, but also some very human stories. Cherryh's books don't worry about physics so much, but tend to have a lot of complex anthropology and linguistic elements (which I like). I'd really have to recommend Cherryh's Finity's End in this context, I think. IMHO, it's one of her most readable and engaging books. Another good pick by Cherryh might be Cuckoo's Egg. (I liked Cyteen, as well, but it's a much longer, more complex work.)

If I were going to recommend anything by Zelazny in this context, it would probably be Doorways in the Sand, which stands alone rather than being part of an extended series, is very readable, and only involves a bit of science around achiral chemistry that is pretty clearly explained.

How about Spider Robinson's Callahan stories? You have to like puns, though.

Oh! I know. Zenna Hendersons "People" stories, collected in Ingathering. Possibly Dreamsnake, by Vonda McIntyre, or perhaps James H. Schmitz' Telzey books (available from Baen). Of Heinlein's books, Double Star is much more about politics than science. For straight-up adventure, maybe Alan Dean Foster, either the Flinx books or Nor Crystal Tears (very good first-contact book).

I haven't read much in the way of Star Trek or Star Wars books, but I did like The Final Reflection quite a bit.

Edit: I meant to mention Joan Vinge's Cat stories: Psion, Catspaw, and Dreamfall. Her short story collection Eyes of Amber is also excellent.
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Old 05-23-2008, 03:03 AM   #60
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I like pretty much anything in any genre that is not too dark(he dies, she dies and everyone else is miserable), has good character development and a complex, consistent world view. I don't like pages of discussion of obscure science trivia that have a limited impact on the plot. Or, for that matter, pages of obscure mythical history with no impact on the plot(like in a fantasy epic I recently read). I don't know if that makes what I like 'soft'.

Books I have enjoyed are
Lois Bujold--Miles Vorkosigan series, especially the prequel 'Cordelia's Honor': Very funny, and kind of 'space opera', but lots of exploring social conflicts and the effect of technology on society(whithout shoving your face in it)
Verner Vinge--A Fire Upon the Deep and his short stories. Excellent characters and a gripping story.
Connie Willis--To Say Nothing of the Dog Kinda borderline SF I suppose; involves time travel, so there is historical stuff as well

Of course, it would take years just to read all the suggestions in this thread! Years well-spent, of course...

edit--Sorry to hear of your allergies, Neko--they are miserable!

Last edited by momghoti; 05-23-2008 at 03:05 AM.
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