Quote:
Originally Posted by Fidney
If you are after harder SF I would recommend you try:
Peter F. Hamilton (who is by far and away my favourite author at the moment) has three fantastic series:
1. "The Night's Dawn" trilogy - The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist, The Naked God - these first got me hooked on the guy (although I almost gave up on the first one, but then BLAM, about half way in it goes from "ho-hum" to absolutely fantastic).
2. "The Commonwealth Saga" - Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained
3. "The Void" trilogy (set in the same universe as the Commonwealth Saga) - The Dreaming Void, The Temporal Void & The Evolutionary Void (though I've still to read this last one)
I also heartily recommend Alastair Reynold's "Revelation Space" series - there are three in the main ark - Revelation Space, Redemption Ark, Absolution Gap and a few others set in the same universe.
There's also Kim Stanley Robinson's "Mars" trilogy -Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars
Not quite as hard, but well worth a read is Dan Simmons "Hyperion Cantos" - Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, The Rise of Endymion.
Fantasy wise (hard as in brutal and adult) you could do much worse than George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series - 5 books out to date - A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, A Dance with Dragons and two more on their way. These are FAR, FAR, better than the HBO series(es) and are, in my opinion unputdownable - I'm currently half way through the 4th book, having read them all back to back so far (these are keeping me from The Evolutionary Void, which I really want to read!).
That lot should keep you busy for a while!
|
Have to say I've read most of those other than Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars books
My opinion on Peter F. Hamilton is very good most of the time, but he suffers distinctly from a tendancy to invent a technology without thinking too much about the consequences and actual mechanisms behind it
The Evolutionary Void isn't quite as good as the first two either, the direction he chooses to take the Void itself in whilst not unexpected (If you've been following the clues in the previous books, and the way he's taken other concepts of this nature) doesn't quite fit with the way he's previously setup Edyard and the others living in there.