I'll second Orson Scott Card. What do you mean by "campy"?

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My plan to become an SDK is here.

I've read the first two and I've been hooked.(the use of Portuguese in the second is a bit off, and strange to a native speaker even when it is used right)

Although I'm not sure that is "hard sci-fi", the books are more philosophical, I think. However, if you don't mind that, try Robert Silverberg's Starborne. Features a lot of Go, as a bonus. It's what got me into the game.



A portuguese author being recommended here? I'll have to check it out.

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a1h1 [1d]: You just need to curse the gods and defend.
Good Go = Shape.
Associação Portuguesa de Go

I liked Silverberg a lot in the 90s. One of those I remember especially fondly would translate as "Gypsies Star". I also liked Orson Scott Card. Reading this thread revives a lot of memories, I was a public library junkie back in my school and Zivildienst (civil service?) time.

Actually, Ricardo Pinto is living in Scotland and the book was originally written in English. The Portuguese version is a translation, Im not sure if the author did it himself.

I don't mind reading it in the original language.

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a1h1 [1d]: You just need to curse the gods and defend.
Good Go = Shape.
Associação Portuguesa de Go

I found out there are quite a few different possible readings for "campy", but the one I'm going for was: "overdone; out of fashion and intriguing. : Most camp entertainment is pretentious and overdrawn."

I personally thought the endings to both of those books were pretty weak, and quite cliche; especially when compared with the rest of the book leading up to those endings. They came up really quick and felt like they were rushed too much. Of course that is my personal opinion.

Either way, though, I still loved all of those books.

And I agree Phelan. Definitely not a hard sci-fi. I'd put them as a pretty soft sci-fi with a lot of philosophical elements added in. Especially in "Speaker for the Dead." It's all tied together with sci-fi elements, though. And his use of a number of different foreign languages (the Portuguese!) is quite interesting, though has always made it a pain for me to try and remember how to pronounce everything.

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KGS: schultz [?].

I am surprised. I find there was a thread on recent fantasy recommendations and nobody recommends Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of the Wind. Granted, it was distinctly said that he doesn't like magic and wizards in his novels, however i think anyone would agree its in there as more of a scientific process rather than the normal leaping about in robes and wizard hats.

Raymond E Fiest also bears mentioning. Again, some of his books deal with his beloved character Pug who happens to be a magician, but "The King's Buccaneer" and his Conclave of Shadows trilogy should fit the bill nicely. Just read the descriptions first to see if pug is a main character and you should be fine.

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If Go is too complicated, you're probably forgetting the basics.

For me, the chase has just reached the edge of the desert (maybe halfway through the first book). Maybe it's a bit early for me to form strong opinions about this book, but I will say thank you for convincing me to give it a shot. The series just might go somewhere amazing.

It does. Read on. It's a long trip, much longer than many, but well worth it. The first book is actually the weakest, for a number of reasons; it's in the second, The Drawing of the Three, that it really gets interesting.

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My blog about Macs and more: Kirkville

I read the gunslinger a few months back and it was quite annoying to read. But I've bought the second book since King promised that it's better.

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Sanity is for the weak.

Three recommendations for science fiction. (I agree with plenty of earlier recommendations, but two are new, and one is for a particular series by a previously mentioned author. I rarely read fantasy, and usually find it very disappointing.)

1) Strongly recommend: The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. This is some of the best hard SF written in the last 20 years, in my opinion. If you haven't read it yet, and enjoy hard SF, you have a great read ahead of you.

2) Greg Bear has already been mentioned, but the the trilogy that I've probably enjoyed the most is The Way.

3) I would be remiss if I didn't include a classic SF author who is too little known: Cordwainer Smith (wiki) Official website

I have plenty of other recommendations, but will only mention one other name: Thomas Disch.

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"I teach you the overplay. Joseki is something that shall be overcome.
What have you done to overcome it?"
— Nietzsche, via Bill Spight

Ah, this one, yes! Definitely hard sci-fi, and wonderfully written.

I made the mistake of reading Blue Mars before Green Mars, though. Don't do that. It was still interesting, but a bit more confusing.
I have to reread it sometime.

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a1h1 [1d]: You just need to curse the gods and defend.
Good Go = Shape.
Associação Portuguesa de Go

The Mars Trilogy was quite good, but when I went to read some of Robinson's other books - notably the first in a series about environmental issues - I was appalled by the terrible writing and trite characters. Maybe when I read the Mars Trilogy I was more open to his weaknesses (this was more than ten years ago), or maybe those books were better written, but, damn, he is one bad writer.

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My blog about Macs and more: Kirkville

There are many good writers in genre fiction. But there are far more mediocre or downright bad writers. Oddly, some get better, but I find many more get worse over time. Like the Wheel of Time series; not only do the stories get more convoluted and less interesting as the series goes on, but the writing gets clunky; as if Jordan just wasn't interested any more. (Actually, he wasn't; he famously said he'd keep writing that series as long as he had to pay for college for his kids.)

The Robinson was surprising; he was a competent writer (no better), who, in my opinion, just got plain bad. I could say the same for Neal Stephenson, but his writing is so tied to the complexity of his books that it's hard to judge.

I read a lot of mysteries, and, interestingly, don't see that sort of change in the quality of writing over time. Must be something to do with SF/F more, maybe because of the length of many of the books that gives writers less time to pay attention to the writing...

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My blog about Macs and more: Kirkville

Couldn't it be argued that being a "good writer" is entirely subjective anyway?

Not entirely. There is certainly a question of style, but in every language there are a number of ways to judge what is called "good writing," and even in specific genres, where writing conventions differ, there are still criteria that are generally considered valid.

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My blog about Macs and more: Kirkville

If you're only looking at it from a story side (the author's storytelling abilities), then yes. Otherwise I think kirkmc is right.

Edit - just re-read kirkmc's post and realized I didn't actually say anything he didn't. Oops.

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KGS: schultz [?].

To go back on topic, I was inspired by this thread to go get some sci fi/fantasy books. I ended up getting The Road, a collection of short stories by phillip k dick, and the first book of the dark tower series. I've just started the dark tower, but im intrigued...

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"There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level." -- Bruce Lee

Similar to Jedo, I was inspired by this thread to order the first 'Stone Dance of the Chameleon' book. I'll report when I've finished and developed an opinion. Judging by its weight, expect it to take a while =D

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Someday I want to be strong enough to earn KGS[-].

I'm a bit surprised that nobody has mentioned Dune by Frank Herbert yet. Ok, it's not exactly recent, but it's still among my favourite SciFi series so I thought I'd mention it.

Sadly, I never got around to reading the whole series. Perhaps I'll resume it once I finished with my current "to read" backlog
I read the first three books of the six book series. The second book was a bit disappointing in comparison with the first, but it's still a good book. The first and especially the third are really great. I'm not really sure how I managed to stop after that one...

Regarding writing quality, I couldn't really tell, since I only read the German translations of the books.

A Song of Ice and Fire by GRR MArtin is really really good, It's a bit long (more than 12 books) but it is one of the best fantasy novel i've ever read =)