Sci-fi authors you (and I) should read

[Archergal5219]

Peter F. Hamilton writes great sprawling space operas. I really liked the duology Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained. I especially liked his depiction of truly alien aliens, and I love his really high-tech future world. He's kinda wordy sometimes though, so you have to be prepared for that.

Peter Watts writes strange and interesting future worlds. Blindsight was an amazing book.

Richard K. Morgan writes complex, adult sf novels. They're also violent and full of sex. But very satisfying to read. Not fluff or light fiction, but good stuff.

[Cabe]

Altered Carbon is a particularly fine example of Morgan's work.

[Crusader]

Altered Carbon is on my "to read" list. I'm just so far behind as things are. When my Opus arrives it'll be even worse since that will add all those wonderful Baen freebies as well.

[Archergal5219]

Originally Posted by Cabe

Altered Carbon is a particularly fine example of Morgan's work.

I liked Thirteen a little better than Altered Carbon.

[Faenad]

I saw here many authors I appreciate a lot, but I was surprised that nobody mentioned yet Lois McMaster Bujold nor David Weber.

Both are great authors, and I think Bujold is actually tied to Heinlein for the number of awards won (she won like 4 hugo and 2 nebula, two time both the Hugo and the Nebula were awarded for a single novel)

[chlorine]

I would recommend Scott Westerfeld.

Copy-pasted from the thread about 'new' sci-fi authors:

The risen empire is a brilliant space opera, told from the point of view of several characters, involving different human civilisations, one of which is lead by an emperor who has understood how to avoid death more than one thousand years ago, and therefore has been ruling for all this time...

I haven't read Evolution's Darling, but it looks great.

Scott Westerfeld also writes a lot of books for teens, sci-fi or fantasy.
The Uglies series is about a dystopian world in which everybody undergoes surgical surgery at 16, in order to become pretty and spend their life partying with their pretty friends. When she's about to turn 16, Tally is forced to wonder if there may be more to life than partying...
I recommand this one most highly, for teens or adults.

Peeps takes an original view of vampires as people infested with a parasite. A quick read, but very good and gripping.

The Midnighters series also looks interesting, though I've heard it's a bit inferior to Uglies.

And a last book, Leviathan has just gone out.
It's steam punk and looks really good, though very expensive as an ebook.

Of the books described above, the Uglies, Peeps and Midnighters series are available as ebooks, as well as the newest one, Leviathan.

[JBNY]

Originally Posted by Archergal5219

I liked Thirteen a little better than Altered Carbon.

That's interesting. Thirteen was my least favorite of his books. If I read it by itself, never having read him before, I probably would have liked it a lot. But by the time I read Thirteen, I had read all his other novels and felt that it was just a re-hash of his ideology and the characters that he had really over explained in the Woken Furies novel.

BTW Market Forces was a novel by Richard Morgan I thought I would not like, but really did enjoy, when all was said and done.

[Archergal5219]

Originally Posted by JBNY

That's interesting. Thirteen was my least favorite of his books. If I read it by itself, never having read him before, I probably would have liked it a lot. But by the time I read Thirteen, I had read all his other novels and felt that it was just a re-hash of his ideology and the characters that he had really over explained in the Woken Furies novel.

BTW Market Forces was a novel by Richard Morgan I thought I would not like, but really did enjoy, when all was said and done.

Ah, Thirteen was my first RKM book. I've since read Altered Carbon and his fantasy novel The Steel Remains, and I was working on Broken Angels till I got distracted by a re-read of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.

[Penforhire]

I enjoyed all of RKM's books but I admit I'm easy when it comes to cyber punk. Thirteen was, for me, less about the tech and more about a couple of old-but-good SF themes.

[llreader]

Originally Posted by Gideon

I read Robert Sawyer's "Calculating God" the other day... pretty good. I'd say Gene Wolfe buries him but it's the best sci-fi I've read in years.

I will check out Sawyer. Never heard of him, but that rec is good enough for me. I would second Wolfe, and add China Miéville. Some of his stuff is skating on the edge of horror, but a lot of it fits into the big tent version of sci-fi.