Here's some awesome writers and some of their books. The ones listed are
not by any means the only good ones I think these people have written, but they are ones that popped out in my mind when I skimmed my nearby bookshelf.
Douglas Adams ...even if you've read 2001-3001, you can't call yourself a sci-fi fan unless you've read some of these.
'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'
'The Restaurant at the End of the Universe'
'Life, The Universe and Everything'
'So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish'
'Mostly Harmless'
'Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul'
'The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time'
Robert Aspirin'M.Y.T.H.'
series'Phule'
seriesPiers Anthony ...only this author seems to range from near-childrens titles to books called 'The Magic Fart' and 'Pornucopia.'
'Balook'
'Bio of a Space Tyrant'
series ...is usually centered around events taking place on the United States of Jupiter and nearby moons, and moves now and then to other planets.
'Hard Sell'
'Incarnations of Immortality'
series'Killobyte' ...another take on killer video games (for real)
'Prothso Plus' ...a xenoperiodontist's adventures...
'Rings of Ice'
'Xanth'
series ...is filled with enough puns for two years vomit supply.
Peter S. Beagle'The Last Unicorn' ...might seem a bit sappy to some people, but it's classic fantasy.
Ray Bradbury'Fahrenheit 451' ...don't settle for Moore's 911 rip-off.
Ben Bova'The Grand Tour'
series, starting with 'Mars', occasionally branches off into miniseries here and there.
'The Winds of Altair'
Diane Carey'Best Destiny' ...is yet another Star Trek novel, but it goes into Kirk's past as a juvenile delinquent.
Lewis Carrol'Phantasmagoria'
Jack L. Chalker'Well of Souls'
series ...almost as strange as you can get, except for a few Heinleins. This series packs its share of WTF's.
Deborah Chester'LucasFilm's Alien Chronicles'
trilogy ...is one I hope will never be made into a movie while Lucas is alive to potentially mess it up.
Arthur C. Clarke'2001', '2010', '2061', '3001' ...are four awesome books. Not much else to say, really.
Gordon R. Dickson ...is an awesome writer and, being dead, thusly fulfills one of the high school reading prerequisites.
'The Dragon and the...'
seriesSir Arthur Conan Doyle'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' ...probably inspired Bruce Campbell's 'Army of Darkness: Evil Dead 3'.
T.S. Eliot'Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats' ...which Disney was thankfully unable to license, inspired the stage musical 'Cats'.
Alan Dean Foster'Codgerspace'
'The Damned'
trilogy, starts out in which humans, as the galaxy's most ill-tempered sentient species, are discovered by both sides of the galaxy's civil war, who both use various methods to try and recruit us.
'Spellsinger'
series ...in this series, a flunky singer gets teleported to a dimension where songs influence magic. In no other series will the phrase 'time keeps on slippin'...into the future' will summon up an angry deity.
Christie GoldenWarcraft: Lord of the Clans ...attempts to revive the storyline that Blizzard threw away when they ditched the animated adventure Warcraft title and went with World of Warcraft. I think Myst killed the adventure genre...let's hope Alan Wake can bring it back.
Winston Groom'Forrest Gump' ...is a random collection of even more extreme and unfortunate events than was present in the film adaptation. Includes profanity.
Robert A. Heinlein'The Moon is a Harsh Mistress' ...is the quintessential moon nation rebels against the earth story. Copied many times since.
'The Sixth Column' ...is almost universally derided by critics as being early, unpolished work and racist towards Asians. It isn't racist, and it's an awesome book.
'Starship Troopers' ...yes. Before you go professing love for the dumbed-down and ill-equipped and ill-funded movie, go read the real thing.
'Stranger in a Strange Land' ...available in an extended edition, is probably the only book I have ever heard of that features a human Martian messiah.
Brian Herbert'Legends of Dune' and the 'Dune: House Trilogy'
series ...are prequels to Frank Herbert's Dune.
Frank Herbert'Dune'
series ...up to #6, Chapterhouse Dune
'The Green Brain'
Robert E. Howard'Conan'
series ...continued by numerous other authors
C.S. Lewis'The Chronicles of Narnia' ...consists of seven of his most popular books.
Anne McCaffrey'Dragonriders of Pern' ...is quite a long and awesome series that began with the futuristic settlement of a world populated by small creatures resembling dragons. Recently taken over by Todd J. McCaffrey.
Larry Niven'Gas Ring'
series ...beginning with 'The Integral Trees'
'Ringworld'
series ...alot of Halo fans think that Halo is so unique because it has a ring-shaped planet. I think not...sorry Jeff.
Chuck Palahniuk'Fight Club: A Novel' ...you saw the movie? Fine, now read the book.
James Patterson'Maximum Ride'
series ...about escaped mutant bird things that run around, steal food, and run from/kill other mutant goons the lab sends after them. Sorry, they're not furries. Indistinguishable from humans, in fact, if you discount the wings, x-ray images, organ structure and DNA samples.
Ayn Rand'Anthem'
'Atlas Shrugged'
'The Fountainhead'
J.K. Rowling'Harry Potter'
series ...is almost done being written. Despite its detractors, it is a viable work of fiction. And no, you won't learn Satanic rituals from it.
R.A. Salvatore'The Dark Elf Trilogy', 'The Icewind Dale Trilogy', 'The Legacy of the Drow'
series ...are nine books compressed into three books, set in the Neverwinter Nights universe. Hardcore fantasy.
'Echoes of the Fourth Magic' ...An interesting book about a submarine transported to an alternate dimension through a rift. Part of the 'Chronicles of Ynis Aielle' series.
William Shatner ...yes, I know...
'The Return' ...in this, Kirk is brought into the future yet again, but Shatner does a good job of it.
Robert Louis Stevenson'Treasure Island' ...yes, the pirate book.
J.R.R. Tolkien ...you can't call yourself a fantasy fan unless you've at least read at least the basics
'The Silmarillion'
'The Hobbit; Or, There and Back Again' ...the Illustrated Edition is the second best.
'The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'
'The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers'
'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'
Want More Tolkien?'Annotated Hobbit' ...addresses a few apparent inconsistancies
'Road Goes Ever On'
'The Tolkien Reader' ...also includes all contents from the out-of-print 'The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and Other Verses from the Red Book'
'The Book of Lost Tales 1 (The History of Middle Earth, Vol. 1)'
'The Book of Lost Tales 2 (The History of Middle Earth, Vol. 2)'
'The Lays of Beleriand (The History of Middle Earth, Vol. 3)'
'The Shaping of Middle-Earth (The History of Middle Earth, Vol. 4)'
'The Lost Road and Other Writings (The History of Middle Earth, Vol. 5)'
'The Return of the Shadow: The History of the Lord of the Rings, Part One (The History of Middle Earth, Vol. 6)'
'Treason of Isengard: The History of the Lord of the Rings, Part Two (The History of Middle Earth, Vol. 7)'
'The War of the Ring: The History of the Lord of the Rings, Part Three (The History of Middle Earth, Vol. 8)'
'Sauron Defeated: The History of the Lord of the Rings, Part Four (The History of Middle Earth, Vol. 9)'
'Morgoth's Ring: The Later Silmarillion, Part One (The History of Middle Earth, Vol. 10)'
'The War of the Jewels: The Later Silmarillion, Part Two (The History of Middle Earth, Vol. 11)'
'The Peoples of Middle Earth (The History of Middle Earth, Vol. 12)'
Jules Verne'Around the World in 80 Days'
'20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'
'Journey to the Centre of the Earth'
H.G. Wells'The First Men in the Moon'
'The Food of the Gods'
'In the Days of the Comet'
'The Invisible Man'
'The Island of Dr. Moreau'
'The Time Machine'
'The War of the Worlds'
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'Aliens vs. Predator: Prey' (Steve & Stephani Perry)
'Aliens vs. Predator: Hunter's Planet' (David Bischoff)
...these two books illustrate how the movie AvP should have been (Prey), and how its sequel should be (Hunter's Planet), had the movie been like Prey.
Last edited by unnamednewbie13 (2006-09-10 08:17:44)
