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Old 05-13-2008, 05:33 PM   #1
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Your Favourite SF & Fantasy Series
Many of us on the forums are Fans of Science Fiction and Fantasy Books.

So I thought, why not ask you all for your all time favourite SF & Fantasy Authors, Books, Series, Etc. that you would recommend to a friend or a relative to get them interested in the Genre, or into reading in general (in case of young people).

Let me start off, in no particular order.

Science Fiction -

Isaac Asimov - Foundation Trilogy (The originals)
Isaac Asimov - Robots Series
Isaac Asimov - I, Robot Story Collection


Robert A. Heinlein - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Robert A. Heinlein - Stranger in a Strange Land
Robert A. Heinlein - Time Enough for Love
Robert A. Heinlein - Methulsa's Children
Robert A. Heinlein - Have Spacesuit will Travel
Robert A. Heinlein - Job, a Comedy of Justice
Robert A. Heinlein - Space Family Stone
Robert A. Heinlein - The Number of the Beast


E.E. 'Doc' Smith - Lensmen Series (A Bit Dated, but still so grand in scale)

Ann McCaffrey - Talent series (Rowen, Damina, etc)
Ann McCaffrey - Pegasus Series (To Ride Pegasus, Pegasus in Flight, Pegasus in Space )
Ann McCaffrey - Ship Series (Ship who Sang, Ship who Searched, etc)
Ann Mccaffrey - Nimisha's Ship
Ann Mccaffrey - Planet Pirates

Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (all 5)

Arthur C. Clarke - 2001 a Space Odyssey


Fantasy

Terry Pratchett - Anything and Everything by him.

David & Leigh Eddings - The Redemption of Althasus
David & Leigh Eddings - The Belgariad
David & Leigh Eddings - The Elenium

Ann McCaffrey - Dragon Riders of Pern (yes, it might be a little SF in the later books, but in the beginning it is classic fantasy)

David Gemmel - Drenai Series (Waylander, Druss, etc)

Stephen Donaldson - The Gap & The Land Series

Robin Hobb - Assassin Series

Fritz Leiber - Fafhrd & The Grey Mouser Series

Tom Holt - Grailblazers
Tom Holt - Only Human
Tom Holt - Expecting Someone Taller
Tom Holt - My Hero


This is by no means an exhaustive list, just titles that sprang to mind when I thought about it.
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Old 05-13-2008, 05:59 PM   #2
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Good list and I'm very ashamed to admit that I've not read a single book by Asimov *or* Heinlein. Well as soon as my Sony 505 shows up I'll just have to remedy that! Anyway, let's see if I can add something useful here.

Science Fiction
Frank Herbert - Dune (classic and well know for a good reason, though I didn't care for the rest of the Dune books.)

Alastair Reynolds - Pushing Ice (first of his books that I read. Great space opera with a fair amount of solid science thrown in)
Alastair Reynolds - Revelation Space / Redemption Ark / Absolution Gap (loved the series, but like most others thought the 3rd book was much weaker than the first two)

Tad Williams - The Otherland series (it's definitely not hard scifi, but I'd still say this is generally science fiction and good stuff)

Fantasy
J.R.R. Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (not for someone new to fantasy, but I feel it's needed on any Fantasy list!)

Tad Williams - Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy

Terry Brooks - Shannara series of books (this is more for someone new to fantasy I feel as it's a little light for me now)


That's what pops into mind quickly in addition to your list. I'll make notes as more people add items here for what I need to be reading.
Last edited by Shadowplay; 05-13-2008 at 06:12 PM.
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Old 05-13-2008, 06:05 PM   #3
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So, most favories would be:

Terry Brooks
Swords of Shannara series
Magic Kindom of Landover series (on of my first Fantasy reads)

David Eddings
The Belgariad

Asimov's Robot Series
(still have foundation on the book shelf to read, believe it or not)

Other great ones...

Harry Potter (yes, I really enjoyed it)
Lord of the Rings (Tolkien of course)
Voyage of Jerle Shannara (Brooks)
Sword of Truth (Goodkind, some later ones not as good as the first 4)
Star Trek: The Captian's Table (mini sub-series)
The Mallorean (Eddings)

BOb
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Old 05-13-2008, 07:17 PM   #4
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SCIENCE FICTION

The Star Beast - Robert A. Heinlein (If I was only going to suggest one book - this would be it!)

The Five Gold Bands - Jack Vance (An obscure but great intro to Vance - and far future science fiction in general)

The Stainless Steel Rat
The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge
The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World
The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You - Harry Harrison (A little ( A lot?) of light entertainment.)

Wasp - Eric Frank Russell (One Man - One country to destroy - With only a piece of chalk and stickers!)

The Shockwave Rider - John Brunner ( The Original Cyberpunk book)

Hammer's Slammers - David Drake (Just to remind you that humanity is not a tame animal...)


FANTASY

Silverlock - John Myers Myers (A MBA lost in the World Of Letters)

The first 4 MYTH books - Robert Asprin (Great fun for eerybody)

The Lord Darcy Series - (Magic and Mystery, all in one package)


This list is an add-on to the above lists. All gret reads, and are easily accessable to a non-science fiction/Fantasy reader.
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Old 05-13-2008, 08:36 PM   #5
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Fantasy:

The Riddlemaster trilogy by Patricia McKillip
Riddlemaster of Hed, Heir of Sea and Fire, Harpist in the wind.
Anything by Terry Pratchett,
Belgariad by Eddings,
Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey,
Guardians of the flame by Joel Rosenberg


Sci-Fi:
The Honor Harrington Series by David Weber,
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
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Old 05-13-2008, 08:55 PM   #6
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I'm surprised no one has listed:

Vorkosigan series by Lois McMasters Bujold
Starfire series by David Weber (and others)
The General series by David Drake (and others)
Belizarius series by David Drake (and others)
Draka series by S.M. Stirling
Warworld series by Jerry Pournelle

I just realized that I like Mil SF and some of y'all don't. Okay. To each his own.
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Old 05-13-2008, 09:40 PM   #7
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I have a few favorites that I didn't quite see mentioned yet.

Fantasy
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - Stephen R. Donaldson
Dragonlance Chronicles - Weis and Hickman

Scifi
The Gap Sequence - Stephen R. Donaldson
The Dark Tower Novels - Stephen King
Gateway/Heechee novels - Fredrick Pohl
Eschaton Trilogy (The Other End of Time, The Siege of Eternity, The Far Shore of Time) - Fredrick Pohl

almost forgot

A Fire Upon the Deep, and a Deep Within the Sky - Vernor Vinge

Just a few that have stuck in my head for quite a long time.
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Old 05-13-2008, 10:06 PM   #8
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The ringworld series by Larry Niven though like Dune the first is the best
Vampire series by Anne Rice
Witch World series by Andre Norton, dated and for a younger crowd but good
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Old 05-13-2008, 10:09 PM   #9
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Let us not forget the late Keith Laumer's Bolo series and the ever popular Retief series.
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Old 05-13-2008, 10:14 PM   #10
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Anything by Heinlein or Laumer, also have the complete (trash) Perry Rhodan and Atlan US ACE releases (and the Starman that was to complete people's subscriptions) in the basement. I'm gonna miss ya 4E! Loved Asimov's writings, didn't particularly like him as a person. Great sense of humor but a real sleaze when it came to women.
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Old 05-14-2008, 02:59 AM   #11
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In addition to many of the previous recommendations, I like a category mostly known as Alternate History. In general, books from this category take a real historical setting and tweak it with something else - aliens, a bigger natural disaster, magic, or even just the proverbial one little thing different - and then write about how stuff expands from there.

Three variations on this theme:

1. The ongoing classic is the 1632 series from Baen Books and Eric Flint, et al. Basic premise is an unknown alien process moves a 3 mile radius sphere around a West Virginia town in 2000 to a spot in the year 1631, in a semi-mountainous place is southern Germany (or better, "the Germanies") in the middle of the Thirty Years War. Lots of fun, romance, politics, basic technology, and very intricate thought about the interactions of religion have developed over a buncha books plus an ongoing online magazine.

2. Another dozen book series by Simon Hawke about time travel, but this one takes a literary work as the "historical" background to write a story about. First book is The Ivanhoe Gambit (with source from Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott) next is The Timekeeper Conspiracy (based on The Three Musketeers), and other books in the series go after The Scarlet Pimpernel, 2000 Leagues Under the Sea, Jason and the Argonauts, Gunga Din, etc. Lots of Fun!


3. A single book by Harry Turtledove, The Guns of the South. Ak-47s at Fredricksburg (after Gettysburg) in the American Civil War (via time travellers again). This one is complete in one book, but if you like Turtledove, he's got a multi-book sequence that start with Aliens arriving in the middle of World War II.
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Old 05-14-2008, 03:12 AM   #12
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Michael Moorcock 'Dancers at the End of Time' series.
Peter F Hamilton 'Night's Dawn' trilogy.
John Christopher 'Tripods' trilogy (childrens).
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Old 05-14-2008, 03:52 AM   #13
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Here goes:

SF
Iain M Banks: the Culture novels + The Algebraist (containing imho the coolest aliens in any SF book)
Richard Morgan (the Kovacs novels)

Fantasy
Robin Hobb (Assassin + Liveship + Fool's trilogies Yeah I know 9 books is a lot to go through)
George Martin (Song of Ice and Fire cycle)
and the great classic 'Cugel's saga' by Jack Vance (hilarious)
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Old 05-14-2008, 09:52 AM   #14
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Books not yet listed which I'm glad to recommend:

Jack Vance's Lyonesse Trilogy
Susan Cooper's _The Dark is Rising_ pentalogy
Steven Brust's Drageara / Vladimir Taltos novels --- start w/ Jhereg
Barry Hughart's Master Li books, esp. _Bridge of Birds_

William
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Old 05-14-2008, 09:52 AM   #15
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I've always had trouble determining whether something was scifi or fantasy, probably because -- at least to me -- many of the books I like are blends. But here are some that I like, in addition to many of those already mentioned:

The Recluse series by L.E. Modesitt
anything by Harry Turtledove and Isaac Asimov
The King Arthur series by Peter David
The Honor Harrington Series by David Weber
The Oath of Swords series by David Weber
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