# SciFy and fantasy novels



## gbhammer (Feb 2, 2012)

I recommended the “Slayer” series because it is a series of War Hammer novels, and are at best pulp fiction, they are easy and fun to read. If he liked Heinlein then get him all of his books, they are by far the best of the pulp fiction esque novels. There are so many great books and authors and so little time to read.  :banghd


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## brudgers (Feb 2, 2012)

We are thankful to have a really good public library (a library science department at the university and high local taxes are the reason) which has nearly all Heinlein's novels - just read "Friday" wherein he accurately predicts the use of computers to  erode privacy (back in 1982). It has a  real sort of cyberpunk vibe.


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## gbhammer (Feb 2, 2012)

I reread 30 or 40 Heinlein novels every couple of years. Once I pick one up I can't stop until I have read them all.


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## gbhammer (Feb 2, 2012)

A couple of years ago, I picked up "Have Spacesuit Will Travel" for my son.

He wasn't ready for that level of book, but I reread it.

That started me reading SF again for the first time since I was in my teens. There's a lot I missed over twenty-five years (Card among them), and a lot I missed from the 1960's - Phillip K. Dick, Roger Zelazny, Clifford Simak, etc. It's amazing how much more I appreciate now that I am older - "The Martian Chronicles" and "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" were enormously dull as a teen, but compelling as an adult.

Try "Old Man's War" it is a science fiction novel by John Scalzi. It is more mature than Starship Troopers so please don't just give it to your son until you have read it first.


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## Papio Bldg Dept (Feb 2, 2012)

> A couple of years ago, I picked up "Have Spacesuit Will Travel" for my son.He wasn't ready for that level of book, but I reread it.
> 
> That started me reading SF again for the first time since I was in my teens. There's a lot I missed over twenty-five years (Card among them), and a lot I missed from the 1960's - Phillip K. Dick, Roger Zelazny, Clifford Simak, etc. It's amazing how much more I appreciate now that I am older - "The Martian Chronicles" and "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" were enormously dull as a teen, but compelling as an adult.
> 
> Try "Old Man's War" it is a science fiction novel by John Scalzi. It is more mature than Starship Troopers so please don't just give it to your son until you have read it first.


Phillip Dick inspired a lot of my bar napkin design charrette solutions in college over a midnight pint at the tavern.  Do androids dream of sheep and a scanner darkly are probably two of the most impactful movies on my thought process.  Every once in awhile we talk an independent theater into running some of the movies influenced by his work.  Blade Runner on the big screen is still one of my favorites.

I found this interesting on Heinlein:

_In the introduction to the 1980 short story collection The Golden Man, Dick wrote:_

_    "Several years ago, when I was ill, Heinlein offered his help, anything he could do, and we had never met; he would phone me to cheer me up and see how I was doing. He wanted to buy me an electric typewriter, God bless him—one of the few true gentlemen in this world. I don't agree with any ideas he puts forth in his writing, but that is neither here nor there. One time when I owed the IRS a lot of money and couldn't raise it, Heinlein loaned the money to me. I think a great deal of him and his wife; I dedicated a book to them in appreciation. Robert Heinlein is a fine-looking man, very impressive and very military in stance; you can tell he has a military background, even to the haircut. He knows I'm a flipped-out freak and still he helped me and my wife when we were in trouble. That is the best in humanity, there; that is who and what I love." _

To date, I find William Gibson and Phillip Dick's socio-technological landscapes the most compelling.


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## Papio Bldg Dept (Feb 2, 2012)

There is a remake of Total Recall coming out this year, staring Colin Fa'real?


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## brudgers (Feb 2, 2012)

gbhammer said:
			
		

> A couple of years ago, I picked up "Have Spacesuit Will Travel" for my son.  He wasn't ready for that level of book, but I reread it.  That started me reading SF again for the first time since I was in my teens. There's a lot I missed over twenty-five years (Card among them), and a lot I missed from the 1960's - Phillip K. Dick, Roger Zelazny, Clifford Simak, etc. It's amazing how much more I appreciate now that I am older - "The Martian Chronicles" and "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" were enormously dull as a teen, but compelling as an adult.   Try "Old Man's War" it is a science fiction novel by John Scalzi. It is more mature than Starship Troopers so please don't just give it to your son until you have read it first.


  I just read "Old Man's War" and then "Ghost Brigades" last month. Enjoyed both - We have a great public library.  Have you read "Forever War" by Joe Haldeman (Highly recommended, as is "Forever Peace" which he wrote twenty years later).


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## gbhammer (Feb 2, 2012)

Good stuff and all that those two have inspired.


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## gbhammer (Feb 2, 2012)

brudgers said:
			
		

> I just read "Old Man's War" and then "Ghost Brigades" last month. Enjoyed both - We have a great public library.  Have you read "Forever War" by Joe Haldeman (Highly recommended, as is "Forever Peace" which he wrote twenty years later).


Not yet, but I will if you say their good.

Have you tried World War Z?


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## brudgers (Feb 2, 2012)

Scalzi give props to both "Forever War" and "Starship Troopers" at the front of "Old Man's War."


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## beach (Feb 2, 2012)

I always liked Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle(sp?) that was thirty years ago.....


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## gbhammer (Feb 2, 2012)

beach said:
			
		

> I always liked Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle(sp?) that was thirty years ago.....


So you read "Ringworld", but not the new stuff with Luis Wu. "Ringworld Engineers" was great.


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## beach (Feb 2, 2012)

Ringworld and Ringworld Engineers was one of my favorites! I haven't read sci-fi in years....

Hitchikers guide to the galaxy, Inferno (loosely based on Dantes Inferno)...... loved those too


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## Kearney.200 (Feb 2, 2012)

Try the last centurion by John Ringo one of my faves and of course there is always the Dresden Files


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## gbhammer (Feb 2, 2012)

If you were reading those books in the eighties then maybe you read Anne McCaffery, Peirs Anthony, L. Ron Hubbard... so many books aaah


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## gbhammer (Feb 2, 2012)

Kearney.200 said:
			
		

> Try the last centurion by John Ringo one of my faves and of course there is always the Dresden Files


Have you read the  Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher? He is my new fav.


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## Kearney.200 (Feb 2, 2012)

no I have not


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## Papio Bldg Dept (Feb 2, 2012)

Thanks for all the great recommendations...what a walk down memory lane.  I just got back from the library with a 'fantastic voyage.'


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## gbhammer (Feb 3, 2012)

For Christmas I got $50 in gift cards to Barnes & Nobel, so after yesterday I took a trip to the bookstore and for the love of God they were closed. AHHHHH very very upsetting.


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## gbhammer (Mar 2, 2012)

Watched "IN Time" last night and loved the whole concept. I had never seen anything quite like it in all the books I have read. So I looked up the movie to see if the idea came from a book, and found this in Wikipedia:

 On September 15, 2011, according to The Hollywood Reporter, a suit was filed by attorneys on behalf of speculative fiction writer Harlan Ellison that the plot of the movie was based on his award-winning 1965 short-story, ""Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman". The suit, naming New Regency and director Andrew Niccol as well as a number of anonymous John Does, appears to base its claim on the similarity that both the completed film along with Ellison's story concern a dystopian future in which people have a set amount of time to live which can be revoked, given certain pertaining circumstances by a recognized authority known as a Timekeeper. Initially, the suit demanded an injunction against the film's release;[4] however, Ellison later altered his suit to instead ask for screen credit[5] before ultimately dropping the suit, with both sides releasing the following joint statement: "After seeing the film In Time, Harlan Ellison decided to voluntarily dismiss the Action. No payment or screen credit was promised or given to Harlan Ellison. The parties wish each other well, and have no further comment on the matter."

Has anyone read "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman"?


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## Doorman (Mar 2, 2012)

_"Has anyone read "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman"?"_

Sorry, I haven't.  But after your story I am intrigued. I might have to find one to read.

Wikipedia knows a little bit about the book and the plagiarism suit.


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## Doorman (Mar 2, 2012)

Yikes, Zowie, and Boy-Oh-Boy!

This is what happens when I read too fast.  Sorry...


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## Papio Bldg Dept (Mar 2, 2012)

gbhammer said:
			
		

> Has anyone read "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman"?


Nope.  Haven't, but will ask my pops and see if he ever came across it.  Currently reading The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi.  So far a great and intense sci-fi thriller.


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## gbhammer (Mar 2, 2012)

The Windup Girl looks like a good read.


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## Papio Bldg Dept (Mar 2, 2012)

I had my doubts when I read a review that compared his vision to William Gibson's...I don't have those doubts anymore.


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## gbhammer (Mar 2, 2012)

Its a shame you live in the frozen tundra, I need another person in the book trading group.


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## Papio Bldg Dept (Mar 2, 2012)

It's been more like soupy tundra this winter.  The Post Office hasn't shut down...yet.  I have a couple extra copies of "A Difference Engine" by William Gibson I have been told to get rid of now that my bookcases are "our" bookcases.


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## gbhammer (Mar 2, 2012)

You get a bookcase or even more than one. Sheesh, I have a couple thousand books packed away in plastic totes. To be fair now that the boy has moved out on his own I suppose I could claim a piece of the basement. Before I was married my basement had a 35' wall of built in shelving, all the books alphabetized by author, and another wall with plaques and trophies. Got married 7 years ago and still it is packed up.


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## Papio Bldg Dept (Mar 2, 2012)

gbhammer said:
			
		

> You get a bookcase or even more than one. Sheesh, I have a couple thousand books packed away in plastic totes. To be fair now that the boy has moved out on his own I suppose I could claim a piece of the basement. Before I was married my basement had a 35' wall of built in shelving, all the books alphabetized by author, and another wall with plaques and trophies. Got married 7 years ago and still it is packed up.


I am too cheap for plastic totes... it is trash bags in boxes for me.  I 've got books 2 rows deep on the shelves.  I have been given a green light to do built-ins in the 1/2 story 2nd floor study...haven't found a good hinge to support a false front book case though.  Might be 7 years before mine are unpacked too.


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## brudgers (May 17, 2012)

Robopocalypse: A Novel  -  Daniel H. Wilson


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## Papio Bldg Dept (May 17, 2012)

The Ship Breaker - Paolo Bacigalupi

Dog-men & Hurricanes on the Gulf Coast


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## Mac (May 18, 2012)

Anything by Piers Anthony.


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## fireguy (May 18, 2012)

My girlfriend boughgt a Nook,  and likes it. So I got one yesterday.  But, I could not get the thing to accept the hotel wireless.  When I get home on Sunday, her job will be to set it up for me.  Then I will make a list of books she can download for me.  She has wireless at home, I have DSL.  I got the cheap Nook, no lights, no color, no video capabilities, just a book,  and  case to keep it in.  Now what do I do with the books as at home?  I think Mom still has books that I left when I moved out 50 years ago.


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## brudgers (May 18, 2012)

Non-fiction but about space travel:

  Lost Moon - Jim Lovell

  Way better than the movie.


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## gbhammer (May 18, 2012)

Mac said:
			
		

> Anything by Piers Anthony.


Love Piers. Bio of a space tyrant is 5 great books.


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## Kearney.200 (May 21, 2012)

Lately I have got into Bernard Cornwell


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## Mac (May 22, 2012)

The NYTimes opinion section has a very nice commentary on the work of Philip K Dick today & yesterday.


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## brudgers (May 22, 2012)

Mac said:
			
		

> The NYTimes opinion section has a very nice commentary on the work of Philip K Dick today & yesterday.


  *The Man in the High Castle* is a classic (probably why it won a Hugo).


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## jim baird (May 23, 2012)

Venus on the Halfshell, by Kilgore Trout, Kurt Vonnegut's nom de plume.

A space wanderer named Simon Wagstaff pilots a Chinese spacecraft named the Hwang Ho that has an egregiously phallic appearance.


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## jim baird (May 23, 2012)

Of course Vonnegut's best is Slaughterhouse Five, about a hero who becomes "unstuck in time".


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## jim baird (May 29, 2012)

OK, slumbering brethren.

If you don't subscribe to the New Yorker, buy the summer reading issue off the stand...it is all sci-fi.


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## Papio Bldg Dept (May 30, 2012)

Just finished "The Magicians" by Lev Grossman.  Essentially the Adult version of a Harry Potter/Narnia series without all the happy endings.


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## brudgers (May 30, 2012)

Forgot about this near future novel but was reminded by Google Glass: https://plus.google.com/111626127367496192147/posts

  Walter Jon Williams - The Fourth Wall.

  Funny, thought provoking and entertaining. Reminds me of William Gibson's Spook Country.


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## Papio Bldg Dept (May 31, 2012)

brudgers said:
			
		

> Forgot about this near future novel but was reminded by Google Glass: https://plus.google.com/111626127367496192147/posts   Walter Jon Williams - The Fourth Wall.
> 
> Funny, thought provoking and entertaining. Reminds me of William Gibson's Spook Country.


Thanks for the recommendation...Blue Ant is one of my favorite Gibson series.


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## Papio Bldg Dept (Jun 6, 2012)

Rest in peace Mr. Bradbury.


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## fireguy (Jun 6, 2012)

I just bought myself a Nook.  Not the color edition, not the notebook edition.  This one just has words.    I also got a cover for it, with a big rubber band to keep it closed.  The books are less than paper, and I can fill it with lots of books.  It also fits in my briefcase.  I think I will like the Nook, it even downloads wirelessly.


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## Mac (Jun 7, 2012)

"Rest in peace Mr. Bradbury."

One of the all-time best of authors, and a personal favorite.


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## brudgers (Jun 7, 2012)

When I was teenager, I loved Bradbury's short stories...but his novels didn't resonate with me...the Martian Chronicles was probably one of the most boring books I read at the time.

  A couple of years ago I started reading SyFy again and reread it.

  The way in which it's themes of family and community resonated with me was stunning.


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