Reynolds and LeGuin fan looks for new reads!

[Nymne]

Please help me with some suggestions of new authors! I tend to loose myself in one author, read all the books and then when I devoured them all, suffer from withdrawal!
I will give you a few details of myself, so you might get an idea of what I would like; I have read quite a lot of fantasy (I am very fond of Scott Lynch, Naomi Novik Temeraire series, Trudi Canavan Black Magician Trilogy, G. R. R. Martin, China Mieville Perdido Street Station) but I would really like to get in to SF - Reynolds gave me a taste for it! When I was younger I also read most by Ursula K LeGuin and William Gibson and I loved both. So where do I go from here?
I am a scientist myself and when its SF, I want it pretty hard. I would love new and fresh, visionary stuff, with a credible grasp of the science and a creative mind when it comes to characters.
I tried Ian Banks, The Algebraist but was put off. I feel like a heroin addict in search for my drug, please help me!

 

[Pyan]

Welcome to the Chrons, Nyme!

There is a huge thread on SF recommendations here: http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/6329-sci-fi-recommendations-for-the-unenlightened.html, and I dare say, people will be pleased to pass on their favourites!

We also have an Introductions thread, so why not pop along, tell us a bit about yourself there as well, and get yourself welcomed by the really nice people that are our members...

 

[Nymne]

Oki, thanks alot

 

[clovis-man]

I am a scientist myself and when its SF, I want it pretty hard. I would love new and fresh, visionary stuff, with a credible grasp of the science and a creative mind when it comes to characters.

Try Stephen Baxter. The Manifold series might be jusrt what you're looking for. See: Stephen Baxter: Books

 

[dask]

Larry Niven, Frank Herbert, Greg Bear, Charles Sheffield, and of course Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein.

 

[J-Sun]

Never much cared for Niven, but I agree with all that otherwise - especially Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein. I'd add Clement and Anderson to the classics and Greg Egan to the moderns. Maybe Joe Haldeman goes in between there.

If you like Gibson and hard SF, you have to check out Bruce Sterling who, to me, is both harder and cyberpunkier than Gibson. Other than his Shaper/Mechanist stuff, he tends to be more near-future-earth-based rather than grand cosmological visions, though, but that's true of most cyberpunk.

Not sure where to go to extend Le Guin, though.

There are also people who are or were working scientists like Robert L. Forward, Geoffrey A. Landis, G. David Nordley and so on, though I'm not sure if you can find Nordley anywhere outside of Analog. You might well enjoy that magazine a lot, though. (I haven't actually read Forward yet, but I know him by reputation.)

 

[Fried Egg]

Well, given you want it "new and fresh", asking this question in the "Classic SF & F" section is probably not the best place to start.

I haven't read much recent stuff but I can recommend some good classic SF. The hardest SF I've read recently was James Blish's "Cities in Flight" series which is pack with a lot of science (much of which went over my head) but I suspect it might be slightly dated now.

 

[Nymne]

Thank you all for taking your time! You have been very helpful, even though I do realise I am in the wrong branch of the tree (I was thinking "classic in the sense of absence of elves and stuff). Stephen Baxter is now in the basket, and of other authors, Greg Egan is easy to get hold of on amazon and gets good reviews; any particular book that is better? I am also adding Joe Haldeman Forever War and Greg Bear Darwins Children!

I realise that I am not really after "classic". I actually read Azimov (the Foundation books translated to Swedish!), and it didnt make a lasting impression (neither did Frank Herberts Dune Triology. At a more tender age, I didnt even get through the first book; do I even dare to say such things here...?)

 

[Connavar]

Dont let the fact that you didnt like Foundation or Dune stop you from other classic sf.

If you like Reynolds you will like similar authors from yesterday. Imo no does Hard science oriented SF better than Heinlein for example.

When you feel for trying more classic sf that is.

 

[J-Sun]

and of other authors, Greg Egan is easy to get hold of on amazon and gets good reviews; any particular book that is better?

I don't think you could really go wrong with anything by him. I like his short and long fiction and, for short, Axiomatic is the only collection I have, but it's great. For long, I think my favorite is probably Diaspora, though I'm a couple of novels behind now. It's probably one of the wildest but some might find it heavy going if it didn't hit them right. Maybe Quarantine or Permutation City would be more accessible while still being pretty far out. Distress is good, too, but "smaller screen", sort of, at least on a page-by-page basis. I haven't gotten to Teranesia or Schild's Ladder (both have been waiting patiently on my shelves for years) but I gather the former is more small screen and the latter is more wide screen.

If you just wanted to pick up with the latest, Incandescence may be available to you - I haven't read it, but some stories set in that universe were good.

In sum, though, I'd say Diaspora and Axiomatic. (Diaspora really should have been the Neuromancer of the 90s but didn't seem to have the impact it should have.)

 

[jojajihisc]

Please help me with some suggestions of new authors! I tend to loose myself in one author, read all the books and then when I devoured them all, suffer from withdrawal!
I will give you a few details of myself, so you might get an idea of what I would like; I have read quite a lot of fantasy (I am very fond of Scott Lynch, Naomi Novik Temeraire series, Trudi Canavan Black Magician Trilogy, G. R. R. Martin, China Mieville Perdido Street Station) but I would really like to get in to SF - Reynolds gave me a taste for it! When I was younger I also read most by Ursula K LeGuin and William Gibson and I loved both. So where do I go from here?
I am a scientist myself and when its SF, I want it pretty hard. I would love new and fresh, visionary stuff, with a credible grasp of the science and a creative mind when it comes to characters.
I tried Ian Banks, The Algebraist but was put off. I feel like a heroin addict in search for my drug, please help me!

Maybe if you like China Mieville you might like Samuel R. Delany because of the genre straddling style and intelligent writing. Dhalgren and Nova are very good books. There are lots of cyberpunk writers to check out if you think you want more William Gibson kind of books. Vernor Vinge's True Names or Rainbow's End or maybe Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash might work. Here is also an article by Vinge about "the coming singularity" which is quite interesting. It may give you an idea of whether or not his books suit your tastes.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Well, given you want it "new and fresh", asking this question in the "Classic SF & F" section is probably not the best place to start.

Accordingly, I have just moved the thread to General Book Discussion!

Let's see how it works here.

 

[Hypnos164]

Please help me with some suggestions of new authors! I tend to loose myself in one author, read all the books and then when I devoured them all, suffer from withdrawal!
I will give you a few details of myself, so you might get an idea of what I would like; I have read quite a lot of fantasy (I am very fond of Scott Lynch, Naomi Novik Temeraire series, Trudi Canavan Black Magician Trilogy, G. R. R. Martin, China Mieville Perdido Street Station) but I would really like to get in to SF - Reynolds gave me a taste for it! When I was younger I also read most by Ursula K LeGuin and William Gibson and I loved both. So where do I go from here?
I am a scientist myself and when its SF, I want it pretty hard. I would love new and fresh, visionary stuff, with a credible grasp of the science and a creative mind when it comes to characters.
I tried Ian Banks, The Algebraist but was put off. I feel like a heroin addict in search for my drug, please help me!

Names and books that spring to mind (favouring a "hard" science slant if Banks wasn't to your taste)

Elizabeth Bear - Hammered or Undertow might be to your taste

Dan Simmons - Hyperion - not exactly "hard" SF but one of the best ever (IMO) - certainly works on a scope similar to Reynolds

David Brin - Startide Rising - Again comperable to Reynolds in epic scope and ambition of vision.

Ian McDonald - River of Gods - Near future (2040's) earth based SF with elements of post-cyberpunk - set in India.

Red Mars (and the rest) - Kim Stanley Robinson - Masterpiece exploring the terraforming of Mars, very good science base.

Dawn (Book One of the Xenogenesis Series) - Octavia Butler - first contact, genetic modification and loss of humanity by an outstanding writter.

Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan - Not exatly "hard" science, but well handled and very stylish in a post-cyberpunk / noir style.

Spin - Robert Charles Wilson - very much "hard" SF

A Fire Upon The Deep - Vernor Vinge - epic scope, great concepts explored with rigor (and a lot of fun)

 

[Thadlerian]

For Le Guin-ish SF, see if you can pick up any of Nobel prize winner Doris Lessing's Canopus books. Yes, the first book, Shikasta, is a bit heavy-handed on the political allegory side, but the rest are awesome. Especially The Sirian Experiments.

For Le Guin-ish Fantasy, Robin Hobb is your friend.

 

[Clansman]

I must second Hypnos' recommendation of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series (Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars) if you want hard science. This is truly speculative fiction, not a space opera or space fantasy. Some people disliked it because of its technical detail, but that is why I liked it, though I couldn't read it if I was particularly tired.

Wouldn't be a bad HBO series, imo.

Dan Simmons Hyperion is a masterpiece not just of SF, but of English literature in the latter part of the 20th Century. Excellent book on a whole lot of levels. I have not read its sequels.