UKC

I'm not usually a sci-fi reader but I've just finished this fairly epic set of books and couldn't put them down. Hyperion was much darker than I expected and though the scope was maybe a little vast by Endymion the plot and general philosophy throughout was excellent. I felt he tied religion and science nicely together by the end, a superb read.

I've just started The Night’s Dawn Trilogy – The Reality Dysfunction, I hope these will be equally good. Its certainly started well.

Any recommendations for what is a relatively new genre for me would be great! Nice to try something different...

In reply to James Rushforth:

DON'T DO IT!

I'm sure you will read the nights dawn trilogy to the end anyway, but don't say I didn't warn you!

In reply to James Rushforth:

I don't want to disappoint, but the Nights Dawn has a renownedly terrible ending. Which is a shame as the entire work up to it is a good read. It's something the author has struggled with until more recent books: Great North Road has a better ending that his past works.

I'd firmly recommend Vernon Vinges books, should re right up your alley if you like early Simmons. On the subject of Simmons, IMHO, he has really gone down hill and never recaptured the promise of the Hyp/End books. His latest seem to be almost incoherent political polemics dressed up as Sci Fi.

In reply to damowilk:

It was enough to induce me to permanently boycott PFH. I won't read another one of his books no matter how desperate I am for entertainment.

I agree Vernor Vinge is a good ideas writer, but his characterisation is a little flat IMHO. Despite that, A Fire Upon The Deep is something of a classic.

Another ideas man is Greg Egan. A lot of people like his work, but unfortunately I have never read anything by him that makes me care what happens next. Plenty of "that's clever" moments though.

In reply to James Rushforth:

Some of Alastair Reynolds stuff is great, and quite dark in places. The Revelation Space series is worth a read. If you want a stand alone book, then Century Rain is fantastic, but far from traditional sci-fi.

Iain M Banks is pretty much all good. My favourites are Excession, Against a Dark Background, and The Player of Games.

In reply to Mike Peacock:



Except Matter. Skip that one.

In reply to davidbeynon:

Actually, I even enjoyed Matter, though did think the ending felt a bit sudden and contrived.

Funnily enough I only got round to reading Hyperion this year. I loved it, but the Fall of Hyperion left me a bit cold, so I didn't read the other two books.

In reply to Mike Peacock:

There is a definite decline in quality over the series. I quite enjoyed "Fall", but Endymion left me cold - too much of it seemed to involve digging out of plot inconsistencies by expedient retconning for my liking. I try to forget what happened in it.

For pure space opera John Meaneys stuff is good fun, but a bit light.

For some complete batshit insanity then the milkweed books by Ian Tregellis are worth a look - alt history WW2 and cold war series involving british sorcerors doing deals with demons in order to defeat electrically enhanced nazi superhumans...

In reply to davidbeynon:

I find its a problem finding Sci Fi that is good for both ideas and story/characterisation. I prefer more "hard" SciFi these days, it's harder to gloss over things like eating alien plants and animals etc.
But often the books with more interesting concepts don't seem to have such good story telling, or the ability to maintain tension or interest. Books that do both well are rare.
Alastair Reynolds is an example of good concepts, but often leaves me uninspired by the story. Later Bank's books likewise as the Culture just seems too powerful and omnipotent. Neal Asher and other "space opera" writers can tell a good story (sometimes) but not much new or interesting for ideas.
David Brin's existence had great ideas, but was a poorly told story with uninteresting characterisation, and seemingly random jumps forward whenever a thread ran out of steam.

In reply to James Rushforth:

After more thought, some other recommendations for the OP:
Asimov, the foundation series
Orson Scott Card, Enders Game, the sequels are weaker though.
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (?sp), even more than the above, avoid the sequels, they actually retrospectively reduced my enjoyment of the first.
Any Neal Stephenson books.

In reply to damowilk:

If you prefer your SF hard then some of the stuff by Peter Watts is brilliant. Bleak and depressing, but brilliant. One of his best is "Blindsight", which has recently been republished along with its sequel in a single volume under the name "Firefall". You can also find blindsight free on his website at www.rifters.com.

In reply to davidbeynon:

Cheers, always good to find a new author to explore. Plowing my way through Diaspora at the moment, it seems to start slowly.

In reply to James Rushforth:
James S A Corey writes grand space opera, which sounds like it might float your boat. Pretty much everything by Neal Asher is tremendous fun. And Gary Gibson's Shoal Sequence is a good read.

All of these (IMHO) are significantly better writers than Simmons or Hamilton.

And here's a left-field SF suggestion: Eric Frank Russell. This is SF from the 50s; try "Next of Kin" or "Wasp" for intriguing stories and a barrel of laughs.

In reply to James Rushforth:

I though Night's Dawn started out well, and went progressively downhill, which is a real shame. I've come to the conclusion that I don't really like any of PFH's other stuff.

Charles Stross has done some good scifi... Singularity Sky was entertaining, if quite lighthearted (its sequel, Iron Sunrise was neither as lighthearted nor as entertaining, and the author has abandoned the universe). Accelerando, Glasshouse (both set in the same universe and sequential, though you don't need to read one before the other, really) and Saturn's Children (and to a less extent, its sequel Neptune's Brood) are all pretty good.

Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space books (of which there have been quite a few) are jolly good. I haven't liked all of his other stuff, though... Pushing Ice wasn't bad, Blue Remembered Earth was good, but the sequel On The Steel Breeze didn't work nearly as well as any of his other books.

I really liked Ken MacLeod's Fall Revolution books (near future technological singularity etc etc), but I didn't like any of his other work at all which is a bit of a puzzler.

Richard Morgan's Kovacs' books aren't bad, though they may not be quite what you're after. The first one is very much a film noir homage, though the later ones are more conventional pulpy scifi with some clever things thrown in for good measure.

I've read Ancillary Justice and Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie and liked them... the scifi awards people loved her work, but I don't think she's the new Iain M Banks by any means.

Oh, and for slightly older-school but very-clever-for-its-time stuff, have a look at Schismatrix Plus, by Bruce Sterling. He isn't the easiest author to read, but he's had some amazing ideas, and generally has them years ahead of more 'mainstream' scifi folk.

In reply to James Rushforth:
I've been binge reading Christopher Nuttall books - they vary from quite good to so-so. His thoughts on spaceships fighting at relativistic speeds are intriguing. Sometimes (a lot of the time?) he's just a bit too gung ho, however.
This led me to "Sufficiently Advanced Technology", which is a hoot. And then his "Schooled in Magic"series which are somewhat Harry Potterish, but more the mechanics of doing magic. Easy reads and worth a punt.

---
I also found the Hyperion series to drag quite a bit towards the end. His take on the Franklin expedition "Terror" is excellent and rather sticks in the mind. It's not SF at all though.

In reply to James Rushforth:

Thanks all, lots of great info. Will do some research. Now I've started the Night's Dawn trilogy I feel I've got to finish it.

I read Ender's Game not long ago and really enjoyed that. I even thought the film took a decent stab - the casting of Sergeant Dap aside.

I'll have a flick through all of the above. Thanks all!

In reply to James Rushforth:

I'll put in a good word for Ann Leckie's _Ancilliary Justice_ (as mentioned by Shearwater, above): it's science fiction with a huge sweep of backstory, but a very individual focus - giant star-spanning empire on one hand, and one person intent on delivering a message on the other. The writing's sufficently nifty that the author gets to do some very clever things without getting in the way of the story - meaning that it's fun and fast to read, but bears a re-read.