Book recommendations? (sci-fi or fantasy)

[serapis]

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.

[rubin427]

"The man in black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed."

Best opening line in genre fiction. (If you've read the entire series, you understand why.)

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.

[kirkmc]

"The man in black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed."

Best opening line in genre fiction. (If you've read the entire series, you understand why.)

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.

[Li Kao]

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.

[Recusant]

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.

[Phelan]

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.

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.

[kirkmc]

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.

[kirkmc]

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

damn, he is one bad writer.

There is a reason why I don't contribute to this tread.

I usually judge books by language, story and ideas. I'm usually able to filter out the language if the story and ideas are worthwhile. (But I stopped reading English genre books in Swedish translation long ago. Yucky translations of language that wasn't that great to begin with really pushed it.)

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...

[topazg]

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

[kirkmc]

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.

[schultz]

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

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.

[Jedo]

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...

[Chew Terr]

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

[flOvermind]

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.

[Elesthor]

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 =)