Here ya go...
Posted on 02/09/2013 4:41:00 PM PST by narses
TechRepublic member lcallander asked me for some suggested reading material, with a rather intriguing sci-fi stipulation:
“I was rereading an old post, where guys were reminiscing about reading ‘Heinlein, Asimov, and Clark,’ my personal favorites. I got out of reading SF in the ’80s and am bewildered by the variety today. What do guys who liked H, A, and C read today?”
Well, that’s a really interesting question. I’m really only able to answer the Heinlein part of it, since I’ve read very, very little Clarke or Asimov (blasphemy, I know). John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War, The Ghost Brigades, and The Last Colony are openly admitted Heinlein pastiches, the first of which won the Campbell Award and was nominated for the Hugo.
Scalzi’s style is breezy and easy to pick up, so I’d start there. I’m also told (though haven’t read) that John Varley’s Red Thunder and Red Lightning ably pick up the Rocket Ship Galileo torch. That’s about the extent of my advice.
Thankfully, Amazon.com can actually help some here. (Shocking, I know.) See, Amazon has a nice bit of collaborative filtering that lets you view items that Amazon customers bought before and after buying a product that you’re interested in. That’s a fancy way of saying: These people bought X and also bought Y, so if you like X, odds are you’ll also like Y.
So, let’s take Stranger in a Strange Land (my favorite Heinlein novel) and check out its extended list of Customers Also Bought items, scrolling until we find some modern stuff not written by Uncle Bob himself. Filtering out the usual suspects of Hugo winners who get bought out of sheer notoriety, we find: Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Now, let’s do the same thing with Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama, and we get: Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. For Asimov’s Foundation we get: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.
Do this for a number of books by Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein, and you’ll begin to get a picture of where adherents of the Old Masters go to sate their sci-fi thirst today. Do the same for Hyperion, Red Mars, and Ender’s Game, and you’ll link into a web of recommendations that open whole new doors of possibility.
Of course, for all of Amazon’s tech, there’s nothing like a good old-fashioned reader recommendation. So, how about it Geekenders — what modern writer (published since 1990) would most satisfy a fan of Asimov, Clarke, and/or Heinlein? Post your recommendations in the comments sections. With any luck, we can help a fellow member out (and maybe even attract some SFSignal attention).
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“Stranger in a Strange Land (my favorite Heinlein novel...)”
I assume he’s under 21 LOL!
Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein were historians- not techies or soap-operatists.
I do not believe their like exist today. (Mainly because there are no venues like magazines for them to develop their craft.)
That just gave me a great idea... crap I hate copying ideas... :p
The problem with great ideas I have found is that upon researching them...someone already wrote that exact book in 1950 ;)
So I read it. And grumble...a lot...
Three authors owned a house boat together and tried to live in Mexico together with their respective families on the cheap with writing advances/ pulp work: Frank Herbert, Jack Vance, and Poul Anderson.
If you read any autobiographical type stuff from any on them they will mention being great buddies and having adventures.
Jack Vance says he was there when Herbert came up with the concept of Dune in Mexico; he’s never read it though. He’s a character, Vance.
My favs from Anderson are Polesotechnic League/van Rinj/ Terran Empire/Ensign Flandry. We actually have a Freeper named ‘dominic flandry.’
Vance and Anderson have written both classic sci-fi and ‘fantasy.’ Fairly unusual.
My handle is taken from CS Lewis and his space trilogy.
Freegards
A great tale about when a man who is found a couple hundred years after the Grand Collapse. The second book in the trilogy wasn't as good add the first though.
Jack Campell, the lost fleet series
John Varley
Allan Steele, the coyote series
Yeah...the Harrington books can get a little stale, though I’d say they are still a good read.
Have you tried the Safehold series? Another great series with a premise I’ve not seen elsewhere.
You haven't started one yet?
Hmm, let’s see. Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Orson Scott Card, Anne McCaffrey, John Ringo, B. V. Larson, T. R. Harris, Richard Phillips, Michael McCloskey... There are others, but these will do for now.
As others have said here, of course our own Travis McGee, but I don’t think we can classify his books as science fiction.
Greg Bear’s “Dead Lines” was one of the most original ideas I have read in a while. If not a completely original idea in and of itself, what he did with it was.
Any love for the cyberpunk Sci Fi here? Sterling and Gibson? Neuromancer?
Awesome!!
Yep.. I just wrote a page.... now the hard parts... heh
I need more shelves. :)
Have you completed the safehold series, maybe I just need to go back to it?
Friggin writers...buncha liberals...all of em!!! ;)
Wait! That’s no Wookie!
I actually only read ‘Neuromancer’ recently despite it being a proclaimed classic.
I thought it was really good, excepting the sex garbage he included. I though it was good enough to overlook that.
Freegards
That’s another story.
Here ya go...
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