Sci-fi/Fantasy recommendations

[Neil]

I always like it when the hero saves the day thanks to the clever application of college-level physics along with a can-do attitude and some human ingenuity.  I read a lot of 60s, 70s and 80s sci-fi, before the internet sort of ruined everything.

[Admiral Yi]

I always like it when the hero saves the day thanks to the clever application of college-level physics along with a can-do attitude and some human ingenuity.  I read a lot of 60s, 70s and 80s sci-fi, before the internet sort of ruined everything.

Tom Swift?

[Grey Fox]

I liked the Ryiria Chronicles.

http://www.michaelsullivan-author.com/MichaelSullivan_Book.html

It's pure fantasy with ridiculous tropes.

I'm reading the Chathran Voyages Trilogy by Robert V.S. Reddick but I doubt anyone here would like it, it's kinda weirdly written.

[viper37]

I don't really read sci-fi or fantasy and I think I should, especially after reading the LRB piece on Game of Thrones ( http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n07/john-lanchester/when-did-you-get-hooked ) and Ross Douthat on that piece ( http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/29/games-of-thrones-and-the-fantasy-authors-challenge/ ).

I generally like genre fiction. I enjoy thrillers, mysteries, comic books and some historical novels but generally avoid sci-fi or fantasy. I don't think writing's the issue either, I don't enjoy a badly written, clunky thriller either.

I think Douthat's right that I normally think I many be interested in a book, look it up online and see it's one of seven in an epic series which worries me. If it gets poor in the middle that seems like a lot of wasted effort and I just may not enjoy it to begin with; though I normally always finish books I start I'm not really keen on reading two books before the author gets into it.

I've read most of the Game of Thrones books (no spoilers, please ) and recently read Hyperion. I enjoyed Game of Thrones a lot. In the end I liked Hyperion but I found bits of it a slog and won't be reading the next book. The only other fantasy-ish book I've recently read was the Rivers of London which I liked.

So I know there's lots of people here who read fantasy and sci-fi. What's good?

Edit: And I've got Cryptonomicon waiting to go, because loads of people have mentioned Stephenson here. I really enjoyed Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell too.

If you liked Star Wars, the original trilogy, there are some pretty decent books.  Some pretty bad too.

There is the Sword of Truth wich was apparently good:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_of_Truth

This will be my next reading after the 5th GoT book.  I liked the TV show in the end.

[Neil]

I always like it when the hero saves the day thanks to the clever application of college-level physics along with a can-do attitude and some human ingenuity.  I read a lot of 60s, 70s and 80s sci-fi, before the internet sort of ruined everything.

Tom Swift?

Larry Niven.

[Grey Fox]

There is the Sword of Truth wich was apparently good:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_of_Truth

That series has 14 books & they were not created equal. The first one is pretty good tho.

[Ideologue]

Michel Houellebecq.  You can read French, can't you?  The English translations are also fine, but reportedly the prose is blunter, which I think fits it.  Possibility of an Island is the truly SFnal one, with something like a third of the book taking place in the future and another third involving one of the protagonist's involvement with super-science, but Elementary Particles, while largely about some fat guy's sexual relationships, is framed as a transhuman origin story, and Platform involves a quasi-SFnal business plan.

Or Arthur C. Clarke.  That's good stuff.

[Viking]

There is the Sword of Truth wich was apparently good:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_of_Truth

That series has 14 books & they were not created equal. The first one is pretty good tho.

books 3-14 are repeated attempts to get right what Ayn Rand got wrong in Atlas Shrugged.

[mongers]

Shelf for British writers might I recommend Brian Aldiss for 'sci-fi', Robert Holdstock for 'fantasy' and Christopher Priest as written some nice cross-genre stories.

[Kleves]

Some sci-fi:
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Ilium by Dan Simmons (though skip the sequel and just come up with your own ending, because the sequel was complete and utter shit)

For fantasy, you might like some Neil Gaiman. You may also like Game of Thrones by GRR Martin (though be aware he might die before the series is finished) or The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie (the first book of the First Law trilogy). There's a lot of urban fantasy stuff (usually set in London) you might like.

Of course, it's all subjective (and it really depends on what you're looking for); many of the books that others have already recommended to you were books that I thought were terrible. 

[barkdreg]

I like the Culture novels by Iain Banks. Sadly the poor man has the cancer so no new ones will be written.
Slaughterhouse 55 by Vonnegut, cool but is it really SF?
I like some of the Heinlein novels. Starship Troopers is fun. The moon is a harsh mistress is quite good. Glory Road has is good. Citizen of the galaxy is ok.
Larry Niven's Ringworld series is quite good. Or at least I thoought so when I was 15, maybe I should re-read them.

[Jacob]

I like Guy Gavriel Kay, but he almost verges on historical fiction. I also rate Ursula Le Guin highly - both her fantasy (the Wizard of Earthsea series) and sci-fi (Left Hand of Darkness among others). Asimov, of course, is solid as well in the sci-fi department.

Terry Pratchett's Discworld is good if you like something more light-hearted; it's the closest you'll get to Wodehouse in fantasy.

Personally, I quite like Neil Gaimann's work as well, and Jonathan Norrell & Mr. Strange by Susanna Clarke is quite good.
Dr. Norrell and Mr. Strange.

Robert E. Howard's stuff is great as well, including Conan as mentioned, and shows a lot of the foundational tropes of fantasy genre. Tolkien too, of course, and C. S. Lewis' Narnia series if you didn't read them as a youth.

Gene Wolfe's Dying Earth is worth reading. And if you haven't read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, it's worth giving that seminal work a look.

Ian Gibson and Bruce Sterling have written some good sci-fi books too, in my opinion - Neuromancer and the Difference Engine.

Personally I'm not a fan of Abercrombie at all.

[Razgovory]

There is the Sword of Truth wich was apparently good:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_of_Truth

That series has 14 books & they were not created equal. The first one is pretty good tho.

books 3-14 are repeated attempts to get right what Ayn Rand got wrong in Atlas Shrugged.

If he attempted that, he'd dispense with the ridiculous ideology.  Instead he simply keeps wallowing in that particular failure.

[Razgovory]

I always like it when the hero saves the day thanks to the clever application of college-level physics along with a can-do attitude and some human ingenuity.  I read a lot of 60s, 70s and 80s sci-fi, before the internet sort of ruined everything.

Tom Swift?

You ever wonder what TASER was an acronym for?

[grumbler]

Mote in God's Eye is probably the best "pure science" kind of SF book written in living memory.  Don't expect much character development or the like, though; its about the science and some truly alien aliens.

Shielbh, I think you'd like David Brin's work a lot.  Lotsa high-concept stuff there.  Again, not much character-driven stuff.  Start with Startide Rising (a Hugo and Nebula Award winner).  If you don't like that, you won't like Brin.

One of the most memorable books I read was Melissa Scott's The Roads of Heaven.  It is pretty much completely character-driven and features a unique concept of what FTL travel would consist of.

If you like space opera, the first five or six books in the Honor Harrington series will scratch that itch.  There are more in the series, but you will probably tire of them long before you finish the increasingly-silly last six or eight books.

The Conan stories are, as mentioned, good reads and short.  Howard had a way with words that no one has quite matched.  Don't bother with the non-Howard stuff.

For Classic Era SF, you con't go wrong with anything by H. Beam Piper.  Read Piper and you will never have to touch a Henlein book - Piper did everything Henlein did, but much better.  But he is a classic era author; nothing modern about his work.

I'll note my dissent on the opinions generally expressed about Pratchett, Card, and Ambercrombie.  The former two really write juevies, and the latter is just too heavy-handed (though he does create very memorable characters and locations).