Sci-fi/Fantasy recommendations

[pearsjd]

Hi All

I'm looking for some sc-fi/fantasy for my 15 yr old daughter. I haven't read many of the newer authors. She's read Raymond Feist, Katherine Kurtz, Arthur Clarke, Eddings. She didn't care for Terry Brooks. I would appreciate some suggestions. My only request is no graphic sex. Some language and violence is okay. Can anyone tell me if Anne McCaffrey's Pern series would be a good choice? Thank you

Susan

[bfisher]

She'd probably like The Dragonriders of Pern. She might also like Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea books.

[FizzyWater]

She might want to look into Michelle Sagara's Chronicles of Elantra. The books all start with "Cast" (Cast in Flame, Cast in Sorrow, etc.)

IMO, it's a sort of cross between fantasy and urban fantasy - the main character - Kayla - is around 21. She's had some bad stuff happen to her in her past, but it's never graphically explained.

Spoiler:

She was raped as a young girl. In addition, she grew up in a very bad part of the city, and her (also young) companion killed two very young children they were taking care of because of some magic affecting Kayla - he did it to save the main character, but it's a big deal in her life, naturally). It's hard to explain in a short paragraph. Other than this situation in Kayla's past, and a few references to other women who are forced to live as prostitutes in the bad section of town, there's no sex so far in this series (10 books so far!)

I can give you a better synopsis if you're interested. I would have loved it at 15, but I know that some 15-year-olds are "older" than others.

[CRussel]

The Steerswoman books from Rosemary Kirstein. The Liaden Universe books from Sharon Lee&Steve Miller. Both series would be good fits for her, I think.

[gbm]

The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. Baen Amazon
The Serrano Legacy Series by Elizabeth Moon. Baen Amazon



bernie

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by bfisher

She'd probably like The Dragonriders of Pern. She might also like Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea books.

I agree with the Pern books, but not Le Guin. I think Le Guin will put her to sleep.

[sl42]

On Fantasy, I can offer no advice it’s just not my cup of tea - but here's
a few science fiction recommendations that I think someone new to the
genre might find inspirational and hopefully habit forming:

You mention Clarke, I'd highly recommend “Songs of Distant Earth” and
“Childhood's End”.

Larry Niven: Protector, followed by the Ringword series.

Stephen Baxter: Calcuating God, and Illegal Alien

Robert J. Sawyer's WWW trilogy (Wake, Watch, and Wondor) are excellent and
might be particularly attractive to a younger reader.

Robert Charles Wilson's Spin trilogy (Spin, Axis, Vortex) -- great books
and I think very accessible.

And, of course, if she hasn’t yet already read them, and though I’m not
sure what ‘genre’ you would classify his works in, but all of Douglas
Adams’s books - The HHGTTG “trilogy in five parts”, Dirk Gently’s Holistic
Detective Agency, Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul, Last Chance to See, and
Salmon of Doubt (a collection of material from unfinished drafts published
after Mr. Adams’s Death).

[sl42]

Oh, and Dark Universe by Daniel F. Galouye - excellent book that I would
highly recommend to a younger reader in hopes of getting them hooked on
hard sci-fi.

And here is a great blog post by David Brin filled with great
recommendations:

http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2011/1...ng-adults.html

He has some great suggestions there, including “Dinosaur Summer” by
Greg Bear, “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card, “The Door into Summer” &
“Have Spacesuit, Will Travel” by Heinlein, “Brave New World”, of course,
& Walter Miller’s “Canticle for Leibowitz”.

[pearsjd]

Thanks for all the great suggestions. We'll hit the library downloadable books site tomorrow and then try the 2nd hand book store.

Susan

[cromag]

For stories that cover the spectrum from science fiction to fantasy you might try almost anything by Jack Vance.

In particular, I'd recommend The Jack Vance Treasury, which includes both The Dragon Masters and The Last Castle, as well as a large collection of short stories.

http://www.amazon.com/Jack-Vance-Tre...rds=jack+vance

[xg4bx]

Maybe Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy. It has a very cool magic system and a strong female lead.

http://brandonsanderson.com/books/mi...-final-empire/

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

Maybe Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy. It has a very cool magic system and a strong female lead.

http://brandonsanderson.com/books/mi...-final-empire/

Or really anything by Brandon Sanderson. He is a specialist in cool and unusual magic systems. Elantris and Warbreaker both have strong female leads too. Haven't read Way of Kings and refuse to until the 6th or 7th book because I am NOT adding another series to my list of things I will have to wait a good decade to finish.

[owly]

"His dark materials" trilogy by Philip Pullman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Dark_Materials
Susan Cooper wrote a great series that starts with "Over sea, under stone" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over_sea_under_stone

[crich70]

Perhaps the wizardry series by Rick Cook or Christopher Stasheff's A Wizard in Rhyme series. Also Susan Cooper's "The Dark is Rising" series or Diane Duane's young wizard series might interest her.

[rhadin]

You might try Kristen Britain's Green Rider series. The hero is a young woman (about 21). It is an excellent fantasy series written with the teenage market in mind (although I have enjoyed it in my 60s). There are 5 books in the series. Here is a B&N link so you can get the titles and read more about the books.

Also perhaps of interest to your daughter might be the Honor Harrington series by David Weber. There are a lot of books in this series and he also has a special series aimed directly at the young reader market, which series includes, for example, Treecat Wars. The series certainly is one that shows a strong, intelligent, and independent woman.