Favorite Sci-fi Universe

[Polyglot27]

Originally Posted by chlorine

Zelazny's Amber series is among my favorite books ever. The universe is great and the characters are very well thought-of. These books have really moved me and in a sense always stay with me.
Which last volumes are you talking about? The series is a series of 5 books, followed by another series of 5. In my opinion the second series is not so good. I found it a fun read but it lacked the depth of the first.

Thanks for reminding me that it is in two series of 5 books. I read them more than 25 years ago. The last volume for me is volume 10 I guess. So I am relieved that you too find that the second series is not as good as the first.

By the way, what about Michael Moorcock's "Eternal Champion" and "Corum" series? In a fit of madness I must have read 30 or 40 of his books over one year at the time I read Zelazny. Moorcock's characters move in different universes but they sometimes appear together. There is even one story where the male character finds himself in a female body and had to carry on his adventure to the end of the book.
For inventiveness and variety, I think Moorcock is hard to beat.

[Idoine]

I liked Jo Clayton's Diadem of the Stars series, though I could'nt read all of them (the last ones were not published in french...)
Each one is on a different planet/world, with different civilizations...
She is one I'd like to find the books in ebook format !

[wayspooled]

Originally Posted by sabredog

One SF setting I quite like is the Elizabeth Moon "Vatta" series. No central government, all independent systems and some loose alliances. There is one large fairly benign megacorporation controlling the FTL communications network.

Hey, this is pretty good, thanks for mentioning it. And did you also used to play the Privateer video game? I've always been fascinated sci/fi based on merchant trading in space.

[Moe The Cat]

Is anyone familiar with Cordwainer Smith's universe, The Instrumentality of Mankind? It's a quirky place, mostly fleshed out in short stories with a kind of Chinese folk-tale vibe (Smith spent much of his youth in China).

[Andybaby]

Originally Posted by wayspooled

Hey, this is pretty good, thanks for mentioning it. And did you also used to play the Privateer video game? I've always been fascinated sci/fi based on merchant trading in space.

I had a friend who made me play it. great game. I remember a Sequel too, but it didn't have the same aroma to it. I never truly got that far in the game, but it was fun. in any event, Gaming is where my Fantasy niche Comes out, Books are for Scifi.

I hardly ever mix those to because when I do I get burned.

I'm finally Reading Stranger in a Strange land (finally get to meet Jubal Harshaw after the Number of the Beast on others) boy do I love heinlein.

A Fire Upon the deep, a book the same length as this took me a month to read. this one I havent been able to put down. not that I didn't love Deep. but Heinlein just rolls off my tongue and I absorb his work very quickly

[MMascaro]

In addition to Lensmen and Dune, I reread Stephen R Dicksons Dorsai series every couple of years.

Mankind moves out into space and splits into multiple cultures. Over the centuries only four are going strong. 1. The Dorsai, the martial or fighting spirit. 2. The Exotics, the mental spirit. 3. The Freindlies, the true faith holders. 4. and old earth the original stock.

Now the human race needs the first three to recombine into old earth for the next great step forward, but there is opposition. 'The Others' who are of a mixture of 2 of the first three see them selves as mans masters and try to gain control of it all.

As to the Ember series. I talked to my son after reading the first 10 and he mention that the second 5 where half of a second story that was suppost to be 10 book long for a total of 15. The death of the author stopped it.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by wayspooled

Really.. I'll have to give that a look. Very much like her Paksenarrion fantasy but never read anything of the Vatta series.

No problems, It is a great series.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by wayspooled

Hey, this is pretty good, thanks for mentioning it. And did you also used to play the Privateer video game? I've always been fascinated sci/fi based on merchant trading in space.

I certainly did play Privateer (both that and the sequel)

Happy to recommend a good series

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by Moe The Cat

Is anyone familiar with Cordwainer Smith's universe, The Instrumentality of Mankind? It's a quirky place, mostly fleshed out in short stories with a kind of Chinese folk-tale vibe (Smith spent much of his youth in China).

Good call, Moe The Cat. I found it a very interesting and "quirky place" too.

Cheers,
Marc

[lmarie]

I haven't read much sci-fi in years, but I recall loving Asimov's Foundation series universe, and also the Ann McCaffrey Dragonriders of Pern books (maybe they border more on fantasy?)

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by ahi

Also a big Dune fan. I have a question, in fact: do other Dune fans agree that Frank Herbert's son's prequels feel incongruous with the original books? I have not read all of them, but the few I have read left me feeling like the world he described doesn't seem like a world that could ever have given birth to the Dune universe.

You should read all of them. I do find they're less well written then the original 6, but then, no author writes the same. I didn't really like the three "prequels" (House Artreides, House Harkonnen, House Corrino), as I felt they strayed too much from the existing story at times.

Originally Posted by Peadar Ó Guilín

Fantasy doesn't tend to fare so well on the originality front, but recently, I blogged about some of my favourites in a post entitled, 100 imaginary places to see before you die. Julain May, China Miéville, Robert Holdstock and others feature.

I love the universe Julian May created. It's well thought out and complete. I find the best part how she tells of things that are yet to be written and when she finally did write them, it actually fits.

Originally Posted by Polyglot27

Roger Zelazny wrote a multi-volume series called the Amber chronicles. It takes places in different dimensions where the laws of physics change. The characters slide from one dimension to another and find that guns don't fire because gunpowder does not ignite for example, because in that dimension the rouge in cosmetics is used in its place. Has anybody read this? I am asking because I find the last few volumes less interesting the the beginning volumes and wonder if others think so too.

That it took so long for somebody to mention Zelazny's Amber! I think this is my favourite universe.

[ylefox]

nobody has mention arthur c clarke`s universes, from the rama series to the odyssey series,granted they all feature earth and some of them earth of the future. then you have cradle,times eye and the hammer of god which i like the best.and to quote arthur c clarke when talking about the odyssey books, he said no trilogy shoud have more than 4 books

[Andybaby]

Originally Posted by ylefox

nobody has mention arthur c clarke`s universes, from the rama series to the odyssey series,granted they all feature earth and some of them earth of the future. then you have cradle,times eye and the hammer of god which i like the best.and to quote arthur c clarke when talking about the odyssey books, he said no trilogy shoud have more than 4 books

I Mentioned the world he created in Childhoods end.

I only read the first Rama book, but the world created there isn't too far from current earth. Not that the Rama Book wasn't great in its own right.

[BlackVoid]

My favs:
- Asimov's Foundation universe
- Revelation Space (Alastair Reynolds)
- William Gibson's world in Neuromancer (and others)
- Dune universe (Frank Herbert)
- Star Wars
- Warhammer 40K

[Ham88]

Hey! I don't think anyone has mentioned any of Ben Bova's stuff. It pretty good. I haven't read all of it. I don't remember what the name for the universe is. I'm sure you could find it fairly easily as most of his work occurs in the same universe (well, solar systems).