OnlineBookClub.org

I am new to this forum and if this is not the right subsection for this kind of thread I appologise and would be thankful if it could be moved to the proper place.

Hi everyone. I am fairly new to books in general (which is not to say that I am illiterate , but have not read many fictions).

I was looking for a recomendation ( I know there are a ton of these lists, but they genrally dont meet the criteria I am interested in) and hoped you guys could give me a few.

I am looking for a nice sci-fi book that more or less meet these criteria:

• Most important points:
• It should be an actual fiction and not repainted history. I understand that to some degree every author is inspired by past events, that is of course natural. But sometimes its just taken a bit too far.
• In the vain of the last point, it should be detached from the current earth-philosphical dilemas to some extent. Again, this is not possible in full, but basically what I am saying is, no "Do androids dream of electric sheep", and the likes of books. Its nothing aginst these types of books but I am looking for something that really fells like "its far away".
• To elaborate on the last point, far away does not mean it must be some other galaxy or something like that, it can also be the near future earth etc. but basically, the focus should not be earth and its problems.
  --------------------------
  Less important points:
• Sci-fi should idealy be realatively close to science, cause noone give us better fiction then scientists . But basically what I am saying, if its about mars (and it does not have to be mars btw), less about green martians and more about human colonists. Though green martians can also make an appearance later, but maybe less like Mars attacks if you guys know what I mean. (Sry for the rant in this point).
• Would be nice if it was a series of books but by no means imporant.

If anyone has any suggestions, I would be very happy.
Thanks in advance.

"Old Man's War" fits somewhat. Set in the distant future, focus is on humans, aliens are involved later in the book. The science does not stretch the imagination too much. It's one of my recent favorites.

Thank you very much. I will have a look .

Anything by Anne McCaffrey. I am partial to the Dragons of Pern series, but the Crystal Singer is also excellent. She did a great job in mixing fantasy and science in the Dragons of Pern, though. Bear in mind, though, that the Pern series is pretty extensive.

Brandon Sanderson books might be a good start. He writes science fiction books. Epic fantasy set in their own world. Magic has links to science which explains their limitations. An example would be Mistborn. A resistance trying to take down a King seen as a God. Not the best explanation but I don't want to ruin the story and plot twists if you wanted to read it.

Terry Goodkind is another good author to read for fantasy books.

Remind you that fantasy is NOT science fiction. Anything where people ride dragons is fantasy.

I'm a fan of the 1980s and beyond "new wave" of SF. This is strong and often adult writing and not for everyone, but it's written for literate readers.

I'd recommend Roger Zelazny first. His "Lord of Light" is amazing. It deals with the far future, thousands of years when humans emigrated to the planets and the galaxy and settled planets, terraforming them. One ship, the Star of India, was mostly staffed by distant descendants of Hindu culture. So, when having a technology which is near magic, they create a "New Hindi pantheon" and take upon themselves powers which emulate the ancient Hindu gods, Vishnu, Brahma, Kali, etc. But there are "rebels" on the planet who wish to give powers to all and not just a chosen few. And a battle ensues. Great heroic fiction.

I'd also recommend Robert Silverberg's "Downward to the Earth" -- it's a great discovery journey novel. Earth went thru a colonization period which resembled the old British Imperial era, subjugating the aliens on these planets. One planet was ruled by an "administrator" who was instrumental in this suppression. Later, Earth government underwent a big change and relented the rule. So the former admin guy returns to the planet to make amends and find his soul. It's deliberately written in the homage to Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" (there's even a character named Kurtz) and the book is one of the finest, most intelligent, and exciting SF novels ever.

Another Roger Zelazny novel I'd recommend is "This Immortal" -- the earth went thru an atomic war and survived but things were fragmented. Aliens from another solar system arrive and help the humans. They are more advanced than the humans but don't rule over them, acting like "good uncles" and are patronizing. Enter this guy who has a deep secret -- he's immortal. We never really learn how old he is. And he is hired by the Earth govt to host one of the Aliens on a tour of the "hot zones" which are quite dangerous even now. This novel is thrilling, an adventure and filed with great characters and a terrific story.

The Veiled Isles Trilogy by Paula Brandon. This series was one of the most unusual books I've read so far.

The Veiled Isles is a fantasy series, not SF. I think Hamster's asking for SF.

If you are still interested, Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote a book called The Princess of Mars, since you mentioned it, and contains green men. Despite all that, though I was dubious to begin with- and some of the writing made me cringe, I liked the overall story; and as some of the physics was explained, I found I had no trouble following the lead character, who begins his tale on Earth, but goes to Mars. It was fun once I got into it.

Hope this finds you well.

Oh, wow, the John Carter series? I read them as a little kid and they were fun, also the Carson of Venus stories.

But those are pure-dee fantasy, totally not SF. And likely too rancid and goofy to really entertain an adult. Kinda fun for impressionable kids, though, but with kids today cognizant of the actual facts of Mars? Even kids would probably laugh themselves silly at the impossible plot and characters.

I feel like Orson Scott Card may be the easiest Sci-Fi author to get into, especially if you are just getting into reading in general. The Ender's Game series is quite expansive, exploring huge sci-fi concepts. The character development is in my opinion some of the best of any series I have ever read. He does have many other novels worth reading. I feel like you can't go wrong starting with Card.

I tried to read Ender's Game and thought it was sprinkled with cheesy porn. What was it about all those scenes where the boys are nude and wrestling and whatever? Plus the strange non-pubescent girls? Weird. I got slightly queasy and tossed the book.

I'm sorry this has nothing to do with the topic. I'd just like to say to the guy that goes by moderntimes that I really enjoy reading your posts. I don't think I've read any of your works, but if you send me a book title of your i would love to read it.

And to the topic...
have you tried reading in the fairy-tale direction. Alex Flinn has quite a few good books. One that you might of heard of is "Beastly". A really bad movie version of is came out a few years ago. I tell you, it's a very good book, nothing like the movie.

I would recommend WIRED then AMPED (they go together) by Douglas E Richards. It has a bit of a "Limitless" feel to it, however with more action and takes that whole idea to a new level, with a ton more action to go along with it. I thoroughly enjoyed both books. The characters kept me questioning how they were going to act next. I read the first book in a day simply because I couldn't put it down, after one chapter ended I couldn't wait to see what happened next. Also the first book WIRED I got for free on Amazon. (Have to have the Kindle app to read it).

Also I agree with orskorsk15 about Orson Scott Card. The Ender's Game series is massive and expands over thousands of years and involves different planets and sentient beings. I've read most of the series and wasn't disappointed. Hope this helps!