Need Recommendation: Sci Fi book

Going on vacation at the end of this week. Flying across the coasts in the States, so we're talking a pretty long plane flight.

Wouldn't mind having a book for the ride, but since I haven't been reading books in a while I was wondering if I can get a recommendation on a good sci fi book so I don't end up wanting to read the emergency manual over and over. 🙂

My preference in sci fi tends to be space-related, preferably with intergalactic political undertones. Although a Star Trek fan, I don't care to read the books since I'm looking for a new world to dive into.

For reference, some of the books I've enjoyed are Alan Dean Foster's The Damned trilogy (my favorite) and Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game.

Any suggestions would be very welcome. I'm hoping to stop by a Border's on Friday to pick up the book.

I like The Gap series by Donaldson. The first book isn't that long and could be read on a 10 hour flight.

Isaax Asimov and Robert Silverberg wrote a book together called "Nightfall". I really liked it, and it is not all that long.

TheSkipper

I could recommend a thousand books .. but I'll stick to two ..

1. DUNE by Frank Herbert ... greatest sci-fi novel ever

2. Hyperion by Dan Simmons ... almost as great as Dune... beware when you start reading Hyperion you will have to buy " Fall of Hyperion" too as you wanna read it immediatly after finishing Hyperion.

There is only 1!!!!!!!!

"The Player of Games" by Iain M. Banks

It is sci-fi, it has many novel ideas about the future, based on the politics and actions of a 'utopian' society. Probably the best sci-fi I've ever read (I've only just started Dune)

Anything by Iain Banks is good, as well as the above mentioned: Consider Phlebas, Against a dark background

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein or any of his other books. 🙂

~ Cheshire Cat 😀

in no particular order, you could try:

'The mote in gods eye' (niven + purnelle)
'the player of games' (banks),
'hyperion' (simmons) (not the sequels: they were rubbish)
'dune' (herbert) (again, first book only, skip sequels until books 5+)
'the jesus incident' (herbert) (though that might be too reminicent of rhp forums...)
'altered carbon' (morgan)
'the hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy' (adams)
'the use of weapons' (banks again)

Originally posted by belgianfreak
There is only 1!!!!!!!!

"The Player of Games" by Iain M. Banks

It is sci-fi, it has many novel ideas about the future, based on the politics and actions of a 'utopian' society. Probably the best sci-fi I've ever read (I've only just started Dune)

Originally posted by Cheshire Cat
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein or any of his other books. 🙂

~ Cheshire Cat 😀

Originally posted by Mesmiris
I like The Gap series by Donaldson. The first book isn't that long and could be read on a 10 hour flight.

Originally posted by gumbie
Anything by Iain Banks is good, as well as the above mentioned: Consider Phlebas, Against a dark background

Gateway : Frederick Pohl, and of course the rest of the heechee saga
I second anything by Douglas Adams
and anything by Asimov
Speaker for the dead or Ender's Game : Orson Scott Card

Asimov Foundation books are well worth a read, they are about the rise and fall of empires in a future space empire. If you are looking for space sci fi that is more into space ships etc, you might want to try something by EE Doc Smith or Arthur C Clarke (the person who wrote 2001: A space Odyssey)
If you want something semi funny try the Red Dwarf books Red Dwarf and Better than life writen by Grant Naylor (dont read the ones his brother wrote, they are urgh bad 🙂 )

Again Hyperion and Dune are top books. Probably more easy to lay your hands on those than something by EE Doc Smith.

Enjoy your hols 🙂

Arthur Clarke's Imperial Earth involves humans living on Saturn's moon Titan. (Incidentally, along about next January the Cassini Saturn orbiter will drop the Huygens probe into the clouds of Titan.)

Clarke has a series of at least three Rama novels. The first one is great, the second one is good.