You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access
to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our community, at no cost, you will have access to start new topics, reply to conversations, privately message other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is free, fast and simple, so please join RX8Club.com today!
Aye! What ya be readin' when stuck in the Sargasso??
Earthsea Trilogy - Ursula K. LeGuin (Not the chum made-for-tv swill they put out!)
Foundation series - Isaac Asimov
Hyperion series - Dan Simmons
The City and the Stars - Arthur C. Clarke
Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
This ad is not displayed to registered and logged-in members. Register your free account today and become a member on RX8Club.com!
Oh SCI-FI Books. I actually don't read, but I did read the post Starwars trilogy books written by Timothy Zahn. They were pretty good. That's only 3 though.
Yarrrr....
Song of Ice and Fire series - George R. R. Martin (Best fantasy series. EVAR imho)
Ender's Game/Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card (the rest of the books in this series range from pretty good to meh to sucky.
Gateway - Fredrick Pohl (different style of sci-fi book)
Harry Potter - JK Rowling (fairly entertaining. and the fact that she thot out and planned a lot of the key points from the start is interesting. doesn't hold a candle to the song of ice and fire imo tho).
Dune - Frank Herbert
And some fantasy series to avoid
Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan. Why? His plot got stupidly complex. Nothing gets accomplished in each book (after the first few). A majority of his characters are annoying and boring. He cannot write women. 99% of his women you just want to kill because they're so annoying. Most of his characters in general are like that honestly. I stopped reading it after book 7. I tried reading book 8 but just couldn't do it.
Sword of Truth - Terry Goodkind. The first book (Wizard's First Rule) was pretty good. Though the sudden appearance of graphic sado-masochist sex was kinda... wrong. I don't mind it if it fits in with the flow of the story but this didn't. But anyways, the main reason this series is wrong is because... Goodkind eventually just copies Robert Jordan. So much of Jordan's world finds itself in Goodkind's world under a different name. It's really pathetic actually. I mean Blood of the Fold = Whitecloaks. I stopped reading the series at book #3. At book #2, I started thinking "hey some of this sounds awfully like Wheel of Time". Book #3 I thought, "ok, he's not even trying to hide it anymore."
My wife quit reading Wheel of Time at about book 7, and I gave up on Sword of Truth after book 2. Unlike you, I gave up on the Game of Thrones series by George RR Martin after about 4 books. Endless series are just not much fun for me.
Great books; well, here's today's selections. There are so many candidates that I probably would have a different five every day (except for Doomsday Book and Alas, Babylon:
Firewatch and its prequel, Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis. Doomsday Book is perhaps the best book I've ever read (of any genre), but it's not for the faint of heart.
Cities in Flight, by James Blish
Alas, Babylon, by Pat Frank
The robot books, starting with I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. These are what got me hooked on this genre in the first place.
Nightfall, By Isaac Asomov. The short story is better than the later novel he wrote of the same name. Asimov was a master of the short story.
Unlike you, I gave up on the Game of Thrones series by George RR Martin after about 4 books. Endless series are just not much fun for me.
That's kind of difficult to do seeing there's only 3 books out in the Song of Ice and Fire series! Game of Thrones, Clash of Kings, and Storm of Swords. He hasn't released A Feast of Crows yet.
It's definitely NOT an endless series seing that by book 3 all that stuff goes down! He originally said it plotted it to be 5 books. Then by book 3 he said it would be 6 books total for sure. But he was thinking of skipping ahead 4-5 years between book 3 and book 4. He wasn't sure about it though and the fan community was really against it so he said he was going to scrap the skipping forward in time idea and it'll wind up being 7 books.
That kind of worries me too, but seeing how much actually happens in book 3 leads me to believe that this will NOT be an endless series. I mean I can make a list of major story changing events, but I don't want to spoil anything.
Good choices! I have read all but Mote in God's Eye. I'll have to try that if it belongs in that group.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sport
That's kind of difficult to do seeing there's only 3 books out in the Song of Ice and Fire series! Game of Thrones, Clash of Kings, and Storm of Swords. He hasn't released A Feast of Crows yet.
Drat, I guess that I must have read only two of them; it's been a while. Any time now that I see that a series will be more than about three books, I lose interest.
And, to add some honorable mentions to my previous list:
Anything by Terry Brooks (who has the sense to break his Shannara books into nice three book sets), particularly the Magic Kingdom For Sale/Sold series for offbeat but very, very entertaining plots and characters, and Running with the Demons, for a very good combination of excellent plots and a fine, strong female character.
Dune (just the first one, not crazy about all of them, esp the new ones)
Ender's Game
Stranger in a Strange Land
The Weapon
Hitghhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, books 1-5
My wife would say:
Discworld series
Dragon Riders of Pern series
HHGTTG
Incarnations of Immortality series
Harry Potter series
It's a tough call, but those are our lists. We each like series of books, but I tried not to include those in mine, Terry Pratchet has like 30 odd discworld books (which I love as well). I like a lot more than this, there are some really good short SF stories I'd put up there to, but I just went with full books.
Oh, who am I kidding? I liked those books too. I know they were bad but I can't help but like them. I read the whole series too.
Oh and 124Spider, you should really try reading book 3 of the Song of Ice and Fire. A LOT of stuff happens in that book. I would say less stuff happens in books 3-7 of the Wheel of Time series than in this one book. But then again, you might want to wait until he's done with the series to make sure he doesn't make this an endless series (which again, I doubt) and so you don't have to wait.
I liked incarnations of immortality as well... I thought they were very well written, full of puns and sarcasm... so what's so bad about those books? What's bad enough to call my wife a "loser"?
Well, maybe I'll finally crack open that book then. Thanks.
Yeah, that's one of those books that's so good, I'm jealous of those who haven't read it yet. It's so good that I bought it for my then-16 year old son (I had read it many, many years before), but he viewed the "gift" as enthusiastically as he did required summer reading from school. Until he read it. He absolutely loved it.
Has anyone read "A canticle for leibowitz" and is it recommended? I have a copy on my shelf and have always heard it was good.
It's been a while but I remember it as a memorable read.
My favorite of all time is "Stranger in a Strange Land" - Henlein. There's always "1984" but it's a little too close to the current government's manipulation of reality. Might be banned by now.
stephen baxter manifold series
hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, and all the others in that series
peter f hamilton's nights dawn trilogy, long read, but pretty good
a deepness in the sky by vernor vinge
ender's game, and most of the other books in the line
sword of shannara trilogy
^\/ both by terry brooks
kingdom for sale:sold
mission earth series
wheel of time series, i know some people dont like it, but i have read all but the last book so far
I liked incarnations of immortality as well... I thought they were very well written, full of puns and sarcasm... so what's so bad about those books? What's bad enough to call my wife a "loser"?
Like I said, I like the series, and the loser thing twas a joke.
But yeah I dunno if I look back at it the series just was kinda... schlocky in my opinion. It doesn't stop me from liking it, but I can't bring myself to say it's good. The situations and the tie ins seem really cheesy to me. There just didn't seem to be much complexity to most of the characters, things happen too "conveniently". But those are the very things that make it entertaining to read too. Hell, I OWNED the first 3 books in that series.
Kind of like another book I really really liked... The Wolf's Hour. I love the book but it's pretty campy. In fact I'll have to say it's one of my favorite books.
There's always "1984" but it's a little too close to the current government's manipulation of reality. Might be banned by now.
1984 is an excellent study of totalitarian governments, in which government control includes the media. It reminds us how vital this separation is. Fortunately, in the U.S. and other Western nations we still enjoy press freedom and direct government control of the media is unthinkable. (If there is any cautionary lesson for us, though, it is in the over-reliance on media that cater too much to one view or the other.)
Another excellent sci-fi examination of censorship is "Fahrenheit 451." It is interesting how ahead of his time Bradbury was in predicting the rise of special-interest censorship. He predicted that future censorship would arise from groups offended by books. These offense-taking groups would lead the push for censorship. Decades later, you saw groups trying to ban "Huckleberry Finn," etc.
Game of Thrones, Clash of Kings, and Storm of Swords. He hasn't released A Feast of Crows yet. 
Any time now that I see that a series will be more than about three books, I lose interest.
I read the whole series too. 
Linear Mode
