New Kobo - recommend some classic SF & F please!

[Mon0Zer0]

@Mon0Zer0 - which Kobo did you get? I'm in the market too!

I got the Libra H20. I was surprised how small the screen is. I thought the aspect ratio would be more like the Kindle. Build quality feels a little flimsy - but maybe I'm too used to tablets.

Unlike the Kindle, I very much appreciate being able to easily load pdf's, mobi, and epubs on there by drag and drop, though.

 

[Mon0Zer0]

So far I've picked up:

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein
Starship Troopers by Heinlein
All Systems Red by Martha Walsh
Planet of Adventure by Jack Vance
ASOIAF by GRRM
Asimov - Foundation series
Complete Chronicles of Conan by Robert E Howard
The White People by Arthur Machen
The Expanse books by James SA Corey
The Culture Series by Iain M Banks

 

[Randy M.]

Seems like a solid start. I would suggest that after Starship Troopers you might want to read The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. The latter is in conversation with the former.

 

[Bren G]

I got the Libra H20. I was surprised how small the screen is. I thought the aspect ratio would be more like the Kindle. Build quality feels a little flimsy - but maybe I'm too used to tablets.

Unlike the Kindle, I very much appreciate being able to easily load pdf's, mobi, and epubs on there by drag and drop, though.

Thanks for the feedback. That one was on my shortlist. I was also looking at the new elipsa as I thought it'd be good to push my in-process drafts to it, and scrawl comments right on the page. The screen size is bigger and from what I've gleaned the fit in finish is improved, but most review sites have said it's not a daily use note-taker, which for me could justify it's hefty price tag. So I think I will wait for the technology to improve before I shell out the big cash.

 

[AE35Unit]

I got The Purple Cloud by M. P. Shiel for my book reader years ago, free from Gutenberg. It was a good read!

 

[Rodders]

Nice to see a recommendation for Edmund Cooper. My personal favourites were The Cloud Walker, A Far Sunset and Transit.

I'd recommend the short stories of Philip K. Dick. They vary in quality, but for the most part they are good to excellent and there is a reason why many of them have been adapted for the big screen.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein is well worth a read.

Has anyone mentioned The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adam's yet?

 

[BAYLOR]

Goldstar By Zach Hughs
The Williamson Effect Edited by Roger Zelazny

 

[Astro Pen]

Daybreak 2250 by Andre Norton
The Corridors of Time by Andre Norton
Witch World by Andre Norton

I think it's:
Corridors of Time Poul Anderson
Crossroads of Time Andre Norton

Easily confused. I'm actually looking for the one involving up timing down timing and trading resources between eras. Might be Norton's Time Traders series. I'll have to check the web
PS looks like not Time Traders

 

[BAYLOR]

I think it's:
Corridors of Time Poul Anderson
Crossroads of Time Andre Norton

Easily confused. I'm actually looking for the one involving up timing down timing and trading resources between eras. Might be Norton's Time Traders series. I'll have to check the web

Faulty memory on my part. Read that book quite a while ago.

 

[J-Sun]

Edgar Pangborn
C. L. Moore & Henry Kuttner
Fritz Leiber (for sf or fantasy, or horror/urban fantasy for that matter)
Fred Brown
Leigh Brackett
Theodore Sturgeon
Avram Davidson
Damon Knight
Roger Zelazny
Eric Frank Russell
Cordwainer Smith
Clark Ashton Smith

Great list. I agree that short fiction is the way to go, especially when sampling but, if I had to pick some novels for that list (because some people just go for novels), I'd say Judgment Night for Moore, either Fury (the traditional pick) or The Valley of the Flame for Kuttner, and Earth's Last Citadel for Kuttner and Moore. For Leiber's SF, it's tough, but I might give The Big Time the edge. For fantasy, also tough, but I might say Our Lady of Darkness as long as I could say You're All Alone/The Sinful Ones for Just Plain Weird stuff. Actually, the only Leiber I wouldn't recommend would be A Specter Is Haunting Texas and, especially, The Silver Eggheads. Brown's What Mad Universe is great. For Brackett, it's got to be the Stark books but The Long Tomorrow is really good if you're looking for more sober SF. Sturgeon: it's hard not to say More Than Human. but you can't go wrong with any Sturgeon. Zelazny: This Immortal. Russell: The Great Explosion, unless you count the collection of connected stories that is Men, Martians, and Machines. (Fans of Russell's more highly regarded novels will yell at me, but those didn't work for me so well.) Cordwainer Smith has just the one with Norstrilia. I don't think CAS has a novel. I have Pangborn's A Mirror for Observers, in the Pile, rather than Davy, so I hope that's also a good one. I haven't read any books by Knight that do it for me (or any books of Davidson at all), so I can't say there.

For additional suggestions I'd say almost all of Asimov and Clarke, of course. Aside from that, I don't think these books up to 1980 have been mentioned yet:

Poul Anderson - Tau Zero
Ben Bova - The Kinsman Saga
Algis Budrys - Rogue Moon
C. J. Cherryh - The Faded Sun trilogy
Hal Clement - Mission of Gravity
L. Sprague de Camp - Lest Darkness Fall
Edmond Hamilton - The Star Kings
Pohl & Kornbluth - The Space Merchants
Frederik Pohl - Gateway
James H. Schmitz - The Demon Breed
Clifford D. Simak - Way Station
A. E. van Vogt - Mission to the Stars/The Mixed-Men

I'm cutting off at 1980, so I'm also including 1980 and making it a baker's dozen - Robert L. Forward's Dragon's Egg.

If you're into short fiction, then all these authors have written great stories. Additionally, there's obviously all of the Ballantine "The Best of" series and Asimov/Greenberg's "The Great SF Stories" series. And I couldn't live without essentially all of Varley's and Tiptree's stories.