OK - 'Fess Up

[Kit-renard]

I know these books have been mentioned already but I've loved the Dune books since I was a kid. Plus because it's such a long series they're good for hours of on-boat reading. I've always liked irony and something about reading a book about a waterless desert while I'm sitting in a boat has always made me laugh If you're looking for a longer series there is a series called The Crown of Stars by Kate Elliot that I really like. I'm not sure it qualifies as sci-fi, it leans more towards fantasy, but they're good enough that I've read the whole series two or three times. Re-readability is important when you have limited boat space!

[roverhi]

I've got a 'Fantastic Story Quarterly' from 1951 and two 'Amazing Stories' from 1950 that I want to get rid of, $5.00 plus postage. Covers are attached but edges worn. The Fantastic Story Quarterly has a corner of the cover torn off.

[mintyspilot]

Greg Bear writes some good modern "hard SF" where the universe is manipulable through bit-patterns and "Blood music" on the dangers of improving humanity through nanotechnology. His aliens aren't very nice either. He wrote that one in the 1980s.

I have the entire Asimov Foundation - Robot - Empire series as well as collections of his short stuff. Heinlein and Philip K Dick are the masters IMNSHO, but why has no one mentioned Larry Niven? Read "The Integral Trees" for a novel approach to living.

For a good, worrying, short story, read "Harrison Beregon" by Kurt Vonnegut - a warning to us all not to let mediocrities take over every aspect of our lives.

"THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General."

The whole story is here - http://www.tnellen.com/westside/harrison.pdf

[Roaring Girl]

Gosh - well that's a lot of Golden Age stuff for sure. What about:

Kim Stanley Robinson - almost anything but especially the Mars trilogy
Ursula Le Guin - anything, but for sailors the Earthsea books
Nicola Griffin - The Ammonite in particular
Octavia Butler (now very hard to find) - the Imago series is fantastic.
Angela Carter - lots of hers but particularly some of the short stories in Wayward Girls
Gwyneth Jones - Escape Plans and all of the Bold as Love series

These beginning suggestions, though not bang up to date, show why in the thread on storing books, we had strong comments on how to keep them dry and safe!

[malovich]

I really love john ringos into the looking glass
I've determined I like a very specific genre, mil/hard/space opera scifi, but the book should have all 3, hard scifi pre PC just doesn't cut it with me when they are describing knobs and dials, yes I know about apollo.....
Let me take a look at some of the books I have on my sony pocket reader which actually does fit in my pocket better than most paperbacks... The battery will last through 3 whole books for me
Richard Morgan - Altered Carbon
Joe Halderman - The Forever War
Poul Anderson - The High Crusade
Larry Niven - Ringworld
John Scalzi - Old Mans War
Robert Heinlein - Starship Troopers
David Drake - Hammers Slammers
David Feintuch - Midshipmans Hope

[mintyspilot]

Originally Posted by malovich

Richard Morgan - Altered Carbon
Joe Halderman - The Forever War
Poul Anderson - The High Crusade
Larry Niven - Ringworld
John Scalzi - Old Mans War
Robert Heinlein - Starship Troopers
David Drake - Hammers Slammers
David Feintuch - Midshipmans Hope

Read "The Forever War" in my teens and immediately went out and bought "All my sins remembered". Great story, chilling ending. Whilst I have read Ringworld, I prefer Niven's short stories and his collaborations with Pournelle. As for Heinlein - what a great author. He was a massive influence on me with his insistence on self-reliance, helping others and learning as much as possible about any situation you are in.

Alas, I have not heard of the others. I might need to make a trip to the library and see if I can order them in.