Need Recommendation: Sci Fi book

Originally posted by Paul Dirac
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.

There are already four Rama's:

Rama
Rama II
Garden of Rama
Rama Revealed

Originally posted by stammer
I'm looking for a new world to dive into.

This is getting kind of late for book buying, but here are some recs if you're looking for a new world.

I find C.J. Cherryh to be one of the most interesting world-creators around. Her aliens are both very alien and very convincing. She has 3 series that have new and interesting universes for you to "dive into." (Actually there are more, but I recommend these 3 particularly.)

The Union-Alliance series, including Downbelow Station, Merchanter's Luck, the Cyteen trilogy, Tripoint, Finity's End, Rimrunners, Hellburner, Heavy Time, along with some marginal ones such as Serpent's Reach and Forty Thousand in Gehenna. I can't remember the internal chronology of most of these very well. IIRC, Downbelow Station is the first, at least it is the one with the best overview of what the heck is going on. 🙂 I'm not convinced it is the best written or most engrossing, but I read it first and found it good enough to read lots more of Cherryh's work.

The "Chanur" series, consisting of The Pride of Chanur, Chanur's Venture, The Kif Strike Back (a bit of reference to the Star Wars series🙂 ), Chanur's Homecoming and Chanur's Legacy. This is "probably" related to the Union-Alliance series, but is pretty much standalone. Most of the story is from the aliens' point of view. The humans are the "aliens" here.

The "Foreigner" series consisting of Foreigner, Invader, Inheritor, Precursor, Defender, Explorer is an entirely different universe with humans interacting with aliens who seem very human in some ways and very alien in others. I haven't finished the series because I have not managed to get my hands on a copy of Defender but it's extremely convoluted and utterly engrossing.

I also recommend the "Known Space" universe of Larry Niven. You really can't go wrong entering at most any point. (I would be sure to read Ringworld before The Ringworld Engineers and The Ringworld Throne though. And those last two are probably reserved for late in your reading if you decide you like the Niven series.) The Niven-Pournelle books are almost all standalone, but The Mote in God's Eye and its sequel The Gripping Hand along with Lucifer's Hammer and Oath of Fealty are all among my recommendations. The "Man-Kzin Wars" series (shorter stories and short novels generally written by others and edited by Niven) is a spin-off of the "Known Space" series.

And how can I mention new worlds without including Terry Pratchett's Discworld series? Some people recommend reading them in the order they were written, and that does have something to recommend it, but other people, including me, find the earliest ones less well written than the later. I recommend Small Gods as probably the best place to start with Pratchett. Go on from there if you like Small Gods. Some of my favorites are Men At Arms, Soul Music and Hogfather but I'm sure other people will have different favorites. (As will I on different days.🙂 )

Hope these help 😀

Paul

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.

Got to agree with that, his novels are excellent. May be a bit long for a plane ride though.

You could possibly try The State Of The Art, which is a collection of Banks' short stories - though they are not, imo, his best work ever, they would surely fill your time slot nicely. Other than that, I started reading Banks with Against A Dark Background, then went on to Consider Phlebas, and the rest, but you could read Feersum Endjinn and The Player of Games in any order.

If you fancy departing from Sci-Fi you could try The Bridge (also Banks), or A Memory of Demons (Ambrose).

1984 would make good reading if you've not already read it.

Originally posted by Mesmiris
The Gap series by Donaldson

Now that was friggin awesome!
You wont be sorry if you get this series - I think it's 5 books.
Very very cool.