[OT] Suggested Sci-Fi

G Baily lamented
> *sigh* I miss reading some good sf. Anyone have any suggested

I really enjoyed the "Uplift" Saga by David Brin. Can't say how they compare
to Asimov or Niven, but I would recommend them. Basically two trilogies
"Sundiver", "Startide Rising", "The Uplift War" and "Brightness Reef",
"Infinity's Shores", "Heaven's Reach"

> On Thu, 18 May 2000 Aron_Clark@digidesign.com wrote:

> G Baily lamented

or the Culture series by Iain M Banks - might be hard to get stateside.
i
am/was halfway through 'Excession', and it is seriously brilliant.
intelligent, well-written space-opera-without-being-brainless.

tom

> On Thu, 18 May 2000 Aron_Clark@digidesign.com wrote:

Try the Heritage Trilogy by "Ian Douglas" (actually William H. Keith) -
Semper Mars, Luna Marine and the latest, Europa Strike. Good
thud-and-blunder combat SF in the near future (mid 21st Century), all in
Sol system, rather jingoistic "US Marines against the rest of the world"
stuff but a good fun read nonetheless. All out now from Avon/EOS. Very
good
for ideas on vacuum and low-G combat.....

> St. Jon wrote:

This from the man who came up with the story line in which England becomes
"Saviors of the Western World."  ;-)

--- Tom Anderson <thomas.anderson@university-college.oxford.ac.uk>
wrote:
> On Thu, 18 May 2000 Aron_Clark@digidesign.com wrote:

Iain Banks is getting easier to find stateside. I've seen trade paperbacks of
a lot of the series (including the mandatory "State of the Art") in several SF
Bay Area stores. We may be ahead of the curve tho...

Btw, I think we're getting into FAQ territory again.

Anything by Lois Bujold (except Spirit Ring which is excellent but not SF). A
Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge. Anything by Terry Pratchett (not SF but
required reading anyway). Honor Harrington books by David Weber. Winning
Colors, Once a Hero, and other books in that series by Elizabeth Moon. Any of
the Dominic Flandry books by Poul Anderson. Horatio Hornblower books by CS
Forester (set in Napoleonic Wars ca AD1800 but read them anyway, great insight
into the thoughts of an aggressive captain).

Of course you've already read Mote in God's Eye, Gripping Hand, the Prince of
Sparta books and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress...right?

That should keep you for a while.

> I really enjoyed the "Uplift" Saga by David Brin. Can't say how they

> At 06:34 PM 5/18/00 -0400, Laserlight wrote:
[snicker-snack]
> Horatio Hornblower books by CS Forester (set in Napoleonic Wars

And, in a similar vein but SF, the "Hope" series by David Feintuch (starts
with Midshipman's Hope).

Also the two Star Wolf books (Voyage of the Star Wolf, The Middle of Nowhere)
by David Gerrold, though in the second he gets into the same didactic
moralising that filled his third Chtorr book and Starhunt. (The Chtorr books
are good, if you don't mind a major leap in tech in the fourth book and the
abrupt, if hopefully temporary, endpoint to the series 'cause he doesn't have
a publisher.)

If you can find it, get Butterfly and Hellflower, by Eluki Bes Shahar. (That's
the name of the book club omnibus; the individual books are
Hellflower, Darktraders, and Archangel Blues.)  It's a far-future
trilogy, lotsa fun, though getting into the accents & patter takes a bit of
work.

Far-far future stuff would include Gene Wolf's Book of the New Sun
series & associated books, but that also verges into fantasy.

Hmm... that's about it from me, that hasn't been said on the list yet anyway.
(I assume you've read Steakley's Armor....)

> Aron_Clark@digidesign.com wrote:

Well, if you are interested in educated apes and cetaceans, give The
Probability Broach by L. Neil Smith a try. Currently, I'm in the middle
of his latest release (or rather re-release) "The Forge of the Elders."
        L. Neil's libertarian style of sci-fi is "polemic" to say the
least. However, they are quite humorous, filled with satire and action, and
have some far out technology.

One of the things that I recently added to my Science Fiction Collection web
page (http://members.xoom.com/rlyehable/scifi/) was a section for book
reviews. Anyone who would like to contribute a review, may send it to me. I
request the following information (if you have it) for the book:
- Title
- Author (or Editor)
- Copyright
- Publisher
- ISBN
- Special notes on the edition (i.e. Book Club Edition)
- Rating:  (1-100 scale)

If you have a scan of the cover, that would also be nice.

I currently have ONE review. Granted, it is not a wonderfully presented
review, but you can take a look if you like.

---
Brian Bell bkb@beol.net <mailto:bkb@beol.net>
http://members.xoom.com/rlyehable/ft/
ICQ: 12848051 AIM: Rlyehable
---

[quoted original message omitted]

> At 8:21 PM -0400 5/18/00, Aaron Teske wrote:
(The
> Chtorr books are good, if you don't mind a major leap in tech in the

I've got an update from David Gerrold (dated 5/13/00) sitting in my
In Box. He's apparently just cleared his desk, and is starting to work on the
fith book again. The first four will be reprinted. So there's hope.

... and don't forget David Drake and William (?) Dietz for military SF.
Hammer's Slammers by Drake is a classic!

btw, any more *military* SF anyone would like to suggest?

dave

> At 8:36 AM -0400 5/19/00, David Reeves wrote:

Glen Cook's "Passage at Arms", the Starfisher Trilogy (good luck finding these
OOP gems) and "Dragon never Sleeps"

> On Thu, May 18, 2000 at 08:21:54PM -0400, Aaron Teske wrote:

I thought these were very depressing and dark. Interesting, but tough to get
through.

Has any one suggested the Helmsman series by Bill Baldwin?
Very space-operatic, but fun.

> David Reeves wrote:

> ... and don't forget David Drake and William (?) Dietz for military

Robert Frezza's "A Small Colonial War", "Fire in a Faraway Place", and "Cain's
Land". Elizabeth Moon's "Once a Hero", and "Rules of Engagement". James P
Hogan's "Voyage from Yesteryear"

Other titles I don't recall having been listed yet...

Starcruiser Shenandoah series by Roland Green These Green Foreign Hills by
Roland Green Sten series by Alan Cole and Chris Bunch Sassinak and Generation
Warriors by McCaffrey and Moon Rogue Powers and Torch of Honor by Roger
Macbride Allen Profiteer, Partisan, and Revolutionary by Andrew Swann Texas
Triumphant by Daniel da Cruz

Mostly space opera--but I seem to remember enjoying all of these along
with many of the others previously listed.

Rob

[quoted original message omitted]

> Robert Crawford wrote:

Agreed. Very spartan and puritanical

> [quoted text omitted]

> Michael Llaneza wrote:

        Passage At Arms is one of my all-time favorites.
It is sort of a retelling of "Run Silent, Run Deep" in deep space, but it is
incredibly realistic for an SF novel.

The first of the Starfisher Trilogy is good as well, it is also a retelling of
the Norse "Twilight of the Gods".

More good Sci-Fi (though not necessarily military) are Eon and Eternity
by Greg Bear. A friend who's opinion I value tells me that Bear's books The
Forge of God and Anvil of the Stars are also excellent.

> Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 17:48:43 -0400

agreed. i only made it halfway thru the third book before i had to stop. the
main character was on a major guilt trip that made the whole series a major
bummer.

dave

Nobody has as yet mentioned The General series by David Drake and S.M.
Stirling.

Niven and Pournelle's Footfall, Lucifer's Hammer and The Legacy of Herot are
all good reads and have some nice battles in them. I have always wanted to try
and game out the final battle in Footfall. "Allright humans you have a
smaller, less technologically advanced ship, but you have caught the aliens
napping. Go get them. Aliens, you have more ships but they are spread out,
your mothership's main drive is down for maintenance and you can not afford to
take to much damage as all of your women and children are on it. Survive long
enough to get your drive on line and run. Oh and humans if you fail the aliens
are going to drop enough rocks on Earth kill mankind."

> ODUPSHAW3@cs.com wrote:
Survive
> long enough to get your drive on line and run. Oh and humans if you

> On Tue, May 23, 2000 at 10:10:00PM -0400, Nyrath the nearly wise wrote:
[The Michael from Footfall]
> It could have carried the main batteries from the battleship

I think it did. I seem to remember something about cannons with just enough
engines to steer.

        The Jayhawk War would make a good, if one-sided, DSII
battle. Oh, and the partisans against the snouts could make a decent SGII
scenario.

> Try the Heritage Trilogy by "Ian Douglas" (actually William H.
Keith) -
> Semper Mars, Luna Marine and the latest, Europa Strike. Good

Bought Lunar Marine on Jon's recommendation, read it in 24 hours, no deep
philosophy here but pretty good. Back to Barnes & Noble for Europa Strike.

My friend bought this series. I got the chance to read it, and I love it! Just
one question...Does anyone who still can find their copy tell me what the
"patch" said. (For those who don't know...after the first book all of the
first expedition members recieved a "patch" that said something like "We went
all the way to
mars, and had to throw away the beer." -- read the first book...8D)

Could someone please tell me what exactly that phrase was? My friend
"temporarily misplaced" the book with the phrase in it...8(

Thanks

Donald Hosford

> Ground Zero Games wrote:

> Try the Heritage Trilogy by "Ian Douglas" (actually William H. Keith)
-
> Semper Mars, Luna Marine and the latest, Europa Strike. Good

> On Thu, 1 Jun 2000, Donald Hosford wrote:

> My friend bought this series. I got the chance to read it, and I love

They give a description of the badge in Luna Marine. Its a shield shaped badge
with 2 crossed rifles over a red disk representing Mars. Over top of the
rifles is a gold, white and gray cylinder for the beer can. At the top of the
badge is "Hops Vincet", the USMC version of the Latin for "Beer Conquers". At
the bottom is ATWTMATMUTATB which stands for "All the way to Mars and they
made us throw away the beer".

Thanks! My friend has been turning his house upsidedown searching for that
book. Too bad we lost the book....:(

Donald Hosford

> s666@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca wrote:

> On Thu, 1 Jun 2000, Donald Hosford wrote:

> My friend bought this series. I got the chance to read it, and

all the way to mars and they made us throw away the beer

Read and enjoyed Europa strike despite the nauseating gung ho
"marines-are-true blue-hard rocks-must always do what's right stuff
crap" that's on just about every other page. Makes me think the author
actually believes all that stuff.

Los

> Laserlight wrote:

> >Try the Heritage Trilogy by "Ian Douglas" (actually William H.

> Read and enjoyed Europa Strike despite the nauseating gung ho

Whereas we all know that it's actually the _Army_ team that
would save the world if the situation ever arose <very, very big grin>

Actually, I bought Europa Strike this evening so I'd have something to read
during the speechifying at our political party's state convention tomorrow.

The new book out by "Eric Kotani" is also good, although a $25 price seems a
trifle excessive. Read about two chapters courtesy of Barnes & Noble this
evening.

> Read and enjoyed Europa strike despite the nauseating gung ho

What !? You mean we're not ;-)