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persian85033
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27 May 2010, 1:36 pm

I’m soon running out of books to read.O_OAnyone got any ideas? I want to switch from historical fiction and biographies for a while, perhaps in favor of some Asimov type hard science fiction. Asimov’s Foundation I’ve already read, I was trying to look for something new, but along the same lines.


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27 May 2010, 2:14 pm

^^Yaye greetings persian85033.

I must say that I very much enjoyed reading The Gunslinger by Stephen King and also Running with the Demon written by Terry Brooks. ^^Also, very much enjoy reading happy Terry Pratchett bookies.

I believe that both The Gunslinger and Running with the Demon may be perhaps classed as dark fantasy.


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27 May 2010, 2:40 pm

You say you want to switch from historical fiction and the book I just started reading (and I'm loving it) falls under that category. I will mention it anyway. It's "Traveller" by Richard Adams (the fellow who wrote "Watership Down" and "The Plague Dogs") and it's the story of the American Civil War as told by General Robert E. Lee's horse. The author did a lot of research on Lee and the War as well as research on the psychology and general nature of horses and it's making for a compelling read.

It's been so long since I've read any science fiction that I can't recall anything to recommend there, but I'd also like to recommend a mystery/thriller with a heavy technical component. I tend to pass those sorts of novels on after reading them but I still have this one because it's got so much technical detail in it that I'm afraid to hand it off to someone else who might just be bored by that part. It's "Airframe" by Michael Crichton and I learned so much about how passenger jets are assembled and tested from reading that novel. It was fantastic!

If anything hard science fiction pops into my head, I'll revisit this thread and mention it. Best wishes in finding new and interesting things to read!


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27 May 2010, 2:55 pm

Why don't you just Google the website for Amazon.com and see what the latest titles are for hard science fiction? You don't have to purchase the books...just obtain the titles and have your local library obtain them for you.



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27 May 2010, 3:02 pm

Quote:
just obtain the titles and have your local library obtain them for you.


8O They do that? There's all kinds of books I want to read that are nowhere to be found in the city/county library system.



Sparrowrose
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27 May 2010, 3:15 pm

Aimless wrote:
Quote:
just obtain the titles and have your local library obtain them for you.


8O They do that? There's all kinds of books I want to read that are nowhere to be found in the city/county library system.


Yeah, go to the desk and tell them you want to do an interlibrary loan. They will find out who has the book and have it shipped to your library and phone or e-mail you when it arrives. The library system pays the shipping (although some libraries may charge you a small fee to cover the shipping. My university library charges a dollar for interlibrary loans and more for articles that had to be photocopied and mailed.) When you're done and return it, they mail it back to the other library for you.


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Ambivalence
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27 May 2010, 3:48 pm

persian85033 wrote:
I’m soon running out of books to read.O_OAnyone got any ideas? I want to switch from historical fiction and biographies for a while, perhaps in favor of some Asimov type hard science fiction. Asimov’s Foundation I’ve already read, I was trying to look for something new, but along the same lines.


I recommend "Revelation Space" and the rest of the series by Alastair Reynolds. It's reasonably hard sf / space opera.

Also "Red Mars" and the rest of the series by Kim Stanley Robinson. Reasonably hard sf on the colonisation of Mars; political stereotypes abound. :wink:

Also "Downbelow Station" by CJ Cherryh, also "Cyteen" and "40,000 in Gehenna."

Also "Dune" and the rest of the series by Frank Herbert.

Also "The Player of Games" by Iain Banks, and the rest of the series. Classic space opera.

Also "Gridlinked" and the rest of the series by Neal Asher (semi-aspie protagonist - officially so as of the prequel); gangster space opera. Mister Crane is the coolest clank-clank-argh! robot ever, never mind HK-whatsit. :lol:

Also "The Reality Dysfunction" and the series by Peter Hamilton. They are not good books - they're very bad books, but they're entertaining space opera if you're willing to overlook how terrible they are. If that makes sense. Bit like Star Wars.

Also the "Lensman" series (starts with "Triplanetary" I think) by E E E E E "Doce" Smithe. See above.

Also the "Uplift" series by David Brin.

Perhaps the "Heliconia" series by Brian Aldiss, they aren't very good but it's an interesting world.

Also "The Centauri Device", "Last and First Men", "Star Maker", "The Stars My Destination", "Gateway", "The Rediscovery of Man", "Ender's Game", "A Voyage to Arcturus", "A Fall of Moondust", "Rendezvous with Rama" (there are no sequels), "A Fire Upon the Deep", "Stranger in a Strange Land", "Orthe", "Grass", "Souls in the Great Machine", "Shiva 3000", "Starship Troopers."



That enough to be going on with? :lol:

The short version:

Revelation Space (Reynolds), the Culture series (Banks) and the Polity series (Asher) are excellent space opera. Get them. :D

The Mars trilogy (Robinson), Dune series (Herbert) and Alliance-Union books (Cherryh) are good but heavier and slower going.


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27 May 2010, 5:14 pm

If you want hardcore sci-fi, read the Dune series. I'm serious, and don't stop a few pages into the second book, Dune: Messiah, like everybody else does. Read the whole series, you will be blown away, I promise.


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persian85033
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28 May 2010, 1:20 pm

Thanks. :D These are great ideas! Now I can finish the Spanish Bridegroom comfortably, knowing I have more books waiting to be read. :D

Zsazsa wrote:
just obtain the titles and have your local library obtain them for you.


I did used to do that, however, my parents never wanted me to go to the library, so they didn't like to drive me there to pick them up. I walked to and fro a few times, but boy were the books heavy, and of course, with this weather, I almost dehydrated once. If it wasn't for the fact that I was already close to my house, and my mother decided to go somewhere, and was driving and found me, I would have dehydrated.


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30 May 2010, 4:40 am

Try, William Gibson, Bruce Stirling and Neal Stephenson.
I'm not a big fan of Sci Fi but these three write from the 'cyberpunk' science fantasy angle and are skilled and imaginative.



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30 May 2010, 8:01 am

Try 1984, or Almost French.


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