A reading list (by no means exhaustive) of my SF favourites (I've begun adding new material to the top of the list):

• Frederik Pohl's recent (1994) The Voices of Heaven and without a doubt, his Heechee saga, beginning with Gateway;
• I enjoyed J. L. Chalker's first (of three books, in the The Quintara Marathon series) Run to Chaos Keep; the plot really degenerates in the 2nd and the 3rd book, but the technology, the characters and the different races were really well crafted;
• Rick Cook's Wizardry Compiled (fantasy), the sequel to Wizard's Bane; the novel tells the adventures of a Silicon Valley hacker in a land where "Magic is real, unless declared integer.";
• Isaac Asimov's Foundation series (it used to be called the Foundation Trilogy but his additions soon obsoleted that usage; his last book to be published was Forward the Foundation (where the creator of The Foundation reminisces about the early days of The Foundation); any of his uncountable science columns in the magazine Fantasy and Science Fiction;
• Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey, 2010: Odyssey II, Rendevous with Rama (and the subsequent sequels to a lesser extent), The Fountains of Paradise, The Hammer of God, his early short-stories;
• Harlan Ellison's novels; his short-stories (Mephisto in Onyx which appeared in a 1994 issue of OMNI magazine);
• Tolkein's Rings trilogy of course! (fantasy);
• Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana, and the sequel to a lesser extent (fantasy);
• Larry Niven's Ringworld series;
• Terry Pratchett's Discworld series and Wyrd Sisters series (fantasy);
• Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy [sic];
• John Wyndham's novels (particularily Day of the Triffids);
• Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass;
• H.G. Well's War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, etc.
• C. J. Cherryh's Foreigner (I must admit that this is the first book of hers that I've actually read completely-- and it was a joy! My technique for choosing what book to read is to simply pick a book off the shelf and begin reading it. If I feel interested, I take it home, otherwise I re-shelve it);
• Nancy Kress' Alien Light (this is the first SF novel I enjoyed that was written by a female author; the first novel I read was Ursula K. LeGuin's Left Hand of Darkness. It scared the living daylights out of me (but then, I read it at an impressionable age)). Nancy Kress' latest (pub. 1994) Beggars in Spain has an interesting premise: a society where some people do not need sleep and the advantages this genetic gift affords them;
• William Gibson's Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive, Burning Chrome, Virtual Light;
• John Brunner's Shockwave Rider, Stand On Zanzibar;
• Robert J. Sawyer's Far Seer, End of an Era;
• Brian Stableford's The Empire of Fear, Werewolves of London (fantasy) (these are period pieces taking place in the 1700's. The dialog of that period is re-created exquisitely. The Empire of Fear has an interesting premise for the existence of vampires.);
• Vernor Vinge's True Names...and Other Dangers (a collection of short-stories; of which the title one is the most amazing thing you will read).
• The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories, Tom Shippey, ed. has a collection of very good SF; e.g. Rudyard Kipling's 1912 Easy as ABC, Brian Aldiss' 1958 story Who Can Replace a Man?;
• If you can find it, The Omnibus of Science Fiction (pub. 1980), Groff Conklin, ed. (Chatam River Press), also has an excellent collection of short-stories, mostly from the 1950's, including Alan E. Vogt's Recruiting Station.
• The Forever War, by Haldeman (who served in the Vietnam war) also has an interesting premise, though it was just a bit fanciful for me (you won't forget the 1 micro-ton tachyon grenades, though).

Last Modified: Tue Jun 8 09:16:30 EDT 1999