Science fiction books that you feel are way above average

[Edi]

Blayne's hijack split here.

Stas, I would recommend some of C.J.Cherryh's books. You can get most of her series in omnibus format, which makes them relatively cheap. The Chanur Saga (two omnibus volumes, five books in total) and the Faded Sun trilogy were good. Haven't read her other stuff yet, but they will probably be equally good.

If you want something that starts out fantasy but is revealed to be science fiction as it progresses onward, the Morgaine Saga is also good.

C.S. Friedman's writings are also good, but they can take some getting used to. The Coldfire trilogy is fantasy, but with a science fiction backstory. Madness Season is science fiction and I liked it well enough too.

If you like older stuff, try E. Hamilton's Starwolf trilogy if you can get it. I enjoyed the hell out of that, even though it is more pulp style stuff.

[Formless]

It looks like you missed one, Edi.

Edit: Never mind.

[Edi]

It looks like you missed one, Edi.

He was probably posting it while I was busy splitting the thread. Sent after the rest.

[Formless]

It looks like you missed one, Edi.

He was probably posting it while I was busy splitting the thread. Sent after the rest.

Gotcha.

[Imperial Overlord]

Stas, I would recommend some of C.J.Cherryh's books. You can get most of her series in omnibus format, which makes them relatively cheap. The Chanur Saga (two omnibus volumes, five books in total) and the Faded Sun trilogy were good. Haven't read her other stuff yet, but they will probably be equally good.

I like a lot of Cherryh's work.

C.S. Friedman's writings are also good, but they can take some getting used to. The Coldfire trilogy is fantasy, but with a science fiction backstory. Madness Season is science fiction and I liked it well enough too.

The deus ex machina end of the Cold Fire still leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but the rest of the series is awesome.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Another one:

Miller's A Cantacle for Liebowitz, and St. Liebowitz and the Wild Horse Woman

It's after an atomic bomb and the Catholic Church based out of Colorado, is considering an Athiest engineer of Jewish Ancestry for Canonization. (I wonder what Mike would think if centuries later someone found SDN science debates on a disk, and decided to worship the blessed Wong?) STill up there with the book form of Damnation Alley as possibly being the best post apoc sci-fi.

[The Dark]

well since I'm a sucker for the oldies, Read some frakkin Lensman

oh, and Wells, Verne, Cohen Doyle's Lost World, Edgar Rice Burroughs john carter books...

If you're wanting seminal works in the "planetary romance genre," in addition to the John Carter books, there's also Sprague de Camp's Viagens Interplanetarias series and Burroughs' Carson Napier of Venus series. A more contemporary rendition would be Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover saga. All are fun, though the early ones need to be read with a mind's eye toward their time of publication.

[Imperial Overlord]

I enjoyed SM Stirling's new planetary romances, particularly the Vancian dialogue in In the Court of the Crimson Kings. Basically an alt universe where Mars and Venus were terraformed by godlike aliens in the ancient past and life was transplanted from Earth. This obviously affects the space race and creates an alt history. The protagonists are, in true planetary romance fashion, part of the tiny elite of humans who make it onto other planets and get into lots of trouble.

[Junghalli]

I enjoyed SM Stirling's new planetary romances, particularly the Vancian dialogue in In the Court of the Crimson Kings. Basically an alt universe where Mars and Venus were terraformed by godlike aliens in the ancient past and life was transplanted from Earth. This obviously affects the space race and creates an alt history. The protagonists are, in true planetary romance fashion, part of the tiny elite of humans who make it onto other planets and get into lots of trouble.

I'm about halfway through In The Court of the Crimson Kings right now, and so far I think it's pretty good. The Sky People was pretty meh by comparison (IMO).

Edit: damn, I hadn't realized that much time had elapsed since the last post.

[The Dark]

I enjoyed SM Stirling's new planetary romances, particularly the Vancian dialogue in In the Court of the Crimson Kings. Basically an alt universe where Mars and Venus were terraformed by godlike aliens in the ancient past and life was transplanted from Earth. This obviously affects the space race and creates an alt history. The protagonists are, in true planetary romance fashion, part of the tiny elite of humans who make it onto other planets and get into lots of trouble.

I'm about halfway through In The Court of the Crimson Kings right now, and so far I think it's pretty good. The Sky People was pretty meh by comparison (IMO).

Edit: damn, I hadn't realized that much time had elapsed since the last post.

Having just finished Crimson Kings, I agree. Sky People seemed rather bland. I think Crimson Kings was more interesting because of the very Eastern nature of the Martians, along with the radically different technological base. I'm still uncertain whether I like the last chapter of Crimson Kings. It felt too contrived to me.

[scottlowther]

What, no love for Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged?" Sure the characters are as one dimensional as line segments, the writing is stilted, the science is actually magic and the Message is used as a club... but every time I turn on the news, "Atlas" is coming more and more to life.

Kinda like "Wreck of the Titan" in that regard. Both are pretty bad storytelling, but looking back on them from the vantage of history you gotta scratch your head and wonder how the authors managed to nail forthcoming events to accurately.

[loomer]

Wheelers, which was written by two guys - a mathematician and a biologist - who worked with Terry Pratchett on the Discworld books. It's some good, modern (relatively) hard sci-fi with an interesting premise, even if the basic plot is a bit on the simple side. It's got your usual decent goodness like relativistic travel, frozen technology (people just love using that) and so forth.

It also has the asteroids being mined almost exclusively by Buddhist monks. Don't tell me that's not awesome.

[Ford Prefect]

What, no love for Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged?" Sure the characters are as one dimensional as line segments, the writing is stilted, the science is actually magic and the Message is used as a club... but every time I turn on the news, "Atlas" is coming more and more to life.

Kinda like "Wreck of the Titan" in that regard. Both are pretty bad storytelling, but looking back on them from the vantage of history you gotta scratch your head and wonder how the authors managed to nail forthcoming events to accurately.

In a thread about books which are 'way above average', you don't normally suggests books which are dull, long-winded and preachy as examples, regardless of how accurate you think it is.

[scottlowther]

In a thread about books which are 'way above average', you don't normally suggests books which are dull, long-winded and preachy as examples, regardless of how accurate you think it is.

Oh, I dunno. I guess it comes down to not just the accuracy, but the importance of what it's accurate about.

[Stofsk]

Blayne's hijack split here.

Stas, I would recommend some of C.J.Cherryh's books. You can get most of her series in omnibus format, which makes them relatively cheap. The Chanur Saga (two omnibus volumes, five books in total) and the Faded Sun trilogy were good. Haven't read her other stuff yet, but they will probably be equally good.

I tried reading the Chanur novels. The first one seemed to follow well enough, however I gave up on the second one maybe half way or two-thirds way through. I also started Downbelow Station but then put it down again.

There's something about her writing style that bugs me. Mainly in her dialogue, but also her prose. The ideas she has are excellent, and so are the settings.

[Junghalli]

Having just finished Crimson Kings, I agree. Sky People seemed rather bland. I think Crimson Kings was more interesting because of the very Eastern nature of the Martians, along with the radically different technological base. I'm still uncertain whether I like the last chapter of Crimson Kings. It felt too contrived to me.

Having just finished the book, I'd say yes, Stirling's alternate Mars seemed a much more interesting world than his alternate Venus. I'd say I feel the same way about the ending but I'm not "uncertain" about it at all, I hated it.
Spoiler

Seriously, what purpose did having FTL magic portals show up have? To get us to realize the Lords of Creation were really powerful? You can have very impressive levels of power while staying hard SF; in fact I'm kind of peeved at how Sterling seems to think the only way to make LoC tech impressive is to make it effectively run on magic. To set up a deal for the sequels? I'd rather read about the impending Martian war of reunification and the fall-out that's going to have; that'd be plenty interesting and it actually flows organically from the story instead of a Deus Ex Machina tacked on. To be a maraschino cherry on top of the good guys' success sundae? That's just lame.