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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Gene Wolfe. Conservative, Christian (Catholic). Fairly critically acclaimed, even by a lot of ‘literary elite’ types. Uses unreliable narrators to great effect, in my opinion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Wolfe
John C. Wright. Also conservative and Christian (Catholic again). Younger than Wolfe, but the things I have read are much more in the golden age sci-fi realm than Wolfe. He wrote a continuation of Van Vogt’s the World of Null-A. He groups Van Vogt with Heinlein and Asimov as the ‘classic three of golden age sci-fi’ over Clarke or Bradbury because of the Astounding/Campbell connection apart from popularity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Wright_(author)
Here’s his essay about the ‘classic three’, I thought it was interesting.
http://www.scifiwright.com/2013/02/the-big-three/#more-7169
His blog is also political with a heavy conservative/Christian bent, it’s amazing Tor publishes him, he railes against the homosexual agenda which is basically a hate crime to a lot of people. I take it he is pretty reviled amongst a lot of sci-fi authors and fans nowadays who seem to have a high % of liberal or various flavours of libertarian leanings.
He probably should be looked back on like Gene Wolfe will be, but he is probably too politically incorrect today.
Freegards, thanks for all the pings on FR
So that is what they doing. Today they are probably business owners. lol
These threads don’t usually die so fast..... lots of Heinlein fans here
The guy was a hack...couldn’t write a dog food commercial.... ;)
God how did I forget this guy?
Leo Frankowski. His Conrad Starguard books were fantastic...And he was ‘one of us’.
“According to the author, most of his fans consist of “males with military and technical backgrounds,” while he likewise claimed his detractors consist of “feminists, liberals, and homosexuals.”[3] “
RIP
cool!
oh my...
For Heinlan, while I really liked “Stranger in a Strange Land” I liked “Starship Troopers” better.
These are a must read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Stargard
Cripplecreek’s Turtledove reference made me think of it. Haven t read them in years. Wish I still had them. I’d be doing it now ;)
If it weren’t the weekend this thread would be busier I bet.
...
I think I agree with your preference, btw.
I think I might write something tonight, probably pure crap though
You sound like you enjoy fantasy. See what you think about Markus Heitz’s stuff. And check out George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series if you haven’t already.
Heinlein has no peers. He’s the master.
It always surprises me that more Freepers aren’t published authors. Most of the ideas and actual dialog that takes place here is worlds above much of what gets published.
Then again, there’s a difference between laying out good arguments and entertaining with a good story. But many freepers have half the battle already covered.
Hell, many of us write several pages a day in posts alone ;)
and much of it is fiction too. lol
Indeed! ;)
Yes, on a week day this would have over 200 responses by now.
That's so true! And the stuff they call "science-fiction" these days usually leaves the science out. I'm very "old school," and became addicted to the "hard" nuts-and-bolts science-fiction nurtured by famed "Analog" (formerly "Astounding Science Fiction") editor John W. Campbell Jr.
Campbell published some of the finest SF stories ever written, like Tom Godwin's "The Cold Equations." He discovered and mentored Asimov, Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon and many other famed Golden Age writers. He also created a style of SF based on actual science often described as "speculative but plausible."
The most famous of those "hard science" yarns was "Deadline" by Cleve Cartmill. It was published in 1944, a year before the the first atomic bomb exploded. The story described all the basic steps of making a fission bomb and it set the FBI into a frenzy. They wanted to recall all the magazine's news stand copies but Campbell was able to convince them that doing so would be a big tip-off to the Axis that we were involved in nuclear research. The agency backed off.
As far as I'm concerned reality has mostly caught up with and in some cases surpassed the imaginative scope of that type of science fiction. The SF I've read over the past few years is mostly devoted to the "soft" sciences like sociology -- ok for those who like it but not me. I long for the days of the likes of Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore, C.M. Kornbluth, Hal Clement, Murray Leinster, Poul Anderson, Alfred Bester, James Blish, Fredric Brown, L. Sprague de Camp, Lester del Rey, Fritz Leiber, Chad Oliver, Frederik Pohl, Eric Frank Russell, Clifford D. Simak, E.E. "Doc" Smith, Theodore Sturgeon, William Tenn, A. E. van Vogt, Jack Vance and many of the other "greats."
Orson Scott Card; David Drake; John Ringo;
Tom Kratman; Fred Saberhagen; Larry Niven; Jerry Pournelle;
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