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I only recently learned that reading was enjoyable when about 3 years ago i read Enders Game. From that moment i couldnt keep my hands off of Osc books. Hes basically the only author i read. I enjoy his style and his genre but i think its time to expand my horizons. You guys and gals know any other authors i might enjoy
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Hm, for me I like Peirs Anthony (incarnation series) and Isaac Asimov (Foundation series, 'nuff said).
Posts: 1831 | Registered: Jan 2003
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Try reading Dune, written by Frank Herbert. Great novel! If you like it a lot, there are plenty more in the series.
Posts: 31 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Let's see, who takes up significant shelf space.... Frank Herbert (Dune) Stephen King Anne McCaffrey (Pern and Talents series) Isaac Asimov Terry Goodkind John Sandford Ridley Pearson Janet Evanovich Anne Rice James Patterson Brian Lumley (Necroscope series)
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You know I've read a few of the authors that you guys have mentioned. but I still feel no one comes close to OSC. I've read Frank Herbert, Terry Goodkind, Stephen King, Anne Bishop, Tad Williams, NO ONE COMPARES! I really need to find something insightful and beutiful like OSC's writing. Help me find something.
Posts: 2 | Registered: Oct 2004
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Alfred Bester Philip K. Dick Ursula K. le Guin John Kessel Cordwainer Smith A. E. van Vogt H. G. Wells Jules Verne
Posts: 53 | Registered: Jan 2003
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*twitches* I... despise... H.G. Wells, for personal reasons, there is a proper amount of description in a book, but the amount he put into War of the Worlds made me go nuts...
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I despise: Ursula K.LeGuin Peirs Anthony Stephan R.Donaldson Terry Brooks
I find Tolkien to be overly verbose, and I don't much like Heinlien.
But they are all "classics" people will tell you to read. So, you might like them, but don't feel like you are some low brow knuckle-dragger if you don't like them.
I have found: Terry Goodkind, (gets repetitive though) Robert Jordan, Jack Chalker, (Just the first 3 dancing Gods) Tom Clancy, Steven Coonts, and W.E.B.Griffin, To all be entertaining.
No one compares to OSC, though.
But W.E.B Griffin and Steven Coonts have a natural Storytelling about them that makes them almost as enjoyable.
W.E.B.Griffin is extremely readable and full of military/police minutia, but if you are a person of delicate sensibilities, then stay away. His books belie their military nature with the kind of language that servicemembers are prone to use.
Honestly, People can't stop raving about LeGuin and Donaldson, so give them a read. I personally felt violated, and wanted the time back, but that's just me.
A lot of people like Charles DeLint, and I liked the first few books of his I read too. But reading DeLint is like listening to Lillith Fair artists, a lot of fairies, elves, Ren Faires, estrogen and rape/abuse recovery crap. After awhile his inability to write about anything else gets annoying, but he has some good stuff.
Oh yeah, I think Mercedes Lackey and Anne Mcaffery are hacks, but I still enjoyed some of their stuff. Like watching Knight Rider, or eating Twinkies, No redeeming value, but still fun, sometimes.
Posts: 186 | Registered: Jul 1999
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His fantasy stuff is okay, not that inspiring to me, but I realized I truly despised his work when I read the cluster trilogy. I have never understood the school of thought that says Sci-Fi has to have arbitrary rape scenes, but some Sci-Fi authors seem to have to throw that in there. I have no problem with sex scenes in a book, but Anthony seems to just toss them in there for no good reason.
I usually like to have some ability to identify with a character, or I will lose interest in a book. The one exception is OSC, who for some reason, can write about characters and things which I have no interest in, while still keeping my interest.
That Arbitrary, "Where-the-hell-did-that-come-from" sex scenes are also why I almost quit reading the Lord Foulbane series by Donaldson. How am I supposed to maintain interst in a leper-rapist? I only kept reading the series because so many people compared it to the Alvin Maker series. Then I realized I thoroughly hated the character not just for his action at the start of the book but for his constant whining. But you asked about Anthony, not Donaldson.
I have also not continued to try to find good Anthony book, because the type of people who reccomend them to me, (The ones I know, not the online ones,) were really into that kinky RPG/Con/Fanfic/Furry type writing, and I hate that crap.
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What about Ursula K. le Guins writing don't you like? I've only read her Earthsea stuff and some other stories but I know people who have read her other stuff and liked it. Though I do know of one person that doesn't like most of her stuff.
I've read some of Piers Anthony's Xanth stuff and I liked it.
I've read the first two of Terry Goodkind's series and I enjoyed those. But I don't have any desire to read Robert Jordan, with his huge books and series that doesn't end. Or Eddings or Tad Williams or any of those type of fantasy books.
I liked A Canticle of Liebowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
And Brian Jacques Redwall books I've liked.
Posts: 53 | Registered: Jan 2003
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Wow...thats alot of good stuff. thanks alot you guys. I think now i will always have a good book to read.
Posts: 81 | Registered: Feb 2004
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I saw his named mentioned, but not enough. Tad Williams' Otherland series and Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series are excellent. The first is almost techy sci-fi and the second is fantasy. Another one that I didn't see is John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. Maybe everyone else read it in high school or something, but I didn't and just recently did. It still has power 70 years after the storyline. S. King's Dark Tower series is one of my favorites and it's finished as opposed to R. Jordan's Wheel series. There's one more that you probably never heard of, Paul O. Williams' Pelbar Cycle 7 book series is a hidden gem, but hard to find.
Posts: 36 | Registered: Nov 2003
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Try Julian May. Science fiction, written in mid 80s-90s. Great series of books called the Saga of the Exiles (about 5 books), followed by the Galactic Milieu trilogy. Both series linked by a 'prequel' called The Intervention. Absolutely fascinating series involving esp-capable humans, time travel to prehistoric times, warring alien races, and 'superhumans' trying to take over the galaxy. Sounds garbled, but it's great reading. Wow, i want to read it all over again! You ought to try Stephen King too...
Posts: 867 | Registered: Dec 2003
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I second both Simmon's Hyperion series and Julian May's Galactic Milieu world (3 series). Both are fabulous, engrossing, with great charactors and are extremly well-plotted. I also admire May's gigantic vocabulary and poetic prose.
edit: and try anything by Gene Wolfe (my favorite) or Neal Stephenson
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Dean Hughes's "Soldier Boys" is a really good book. WWII HiFi. I started it and read it in the same day. Couldn't put the blasted book down. I'm relatively new at reading though (I hated reading as a teenager, and through the intervention of a number of English courses that forced me to read some incredibly terrible books, ie: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard, I learned to enjoy just about anything, but I'm still trying to catch up to all the other bookworms out there).
Posts: 3003 | Registered: Oct 2004
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pretty much all of the Sci-Fi/Fantasy authors I like have already been mentioned (postively and negatively!) - I'd recommend getting a few of each from your local Half Price books and making your mind up for yourself. The Incarnations of Immortality series is good Piers Anthony fantasy.
for non-fantasy I'd recommend taking a peek at Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series. I have always been a sci-fi junkie, but her books pulled me into the murder mystery/forensics category. I loved each and every one. No, they're not great for deep thouhgt, but they're a good read nonetheless.
Posts: 262 | Registered: Jun 2004
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Man i look up and realise there are so many i should have mentioned.
So i'll throw Asimov, Herbert, Douglas Adams and Donaldson into the mix too.
Yes, yes i've heard a lot of mixed opinions on Thomas Covenant - its the whole point of well he is a whiny rapist afterall - not to mention some people finding the leprosy just off putting but i still find the Chronicles as some of the most satisfying reading i've done for a while.
And however unseemly the rape scene is you just got to read on and into the Second Chronicles (Third on the way) to see how much that act really keeps coming back to bite him in the ass!
Oh and um...Dante Alghieri is always a nice bedime read.
Posts: 200 | Registered: Mar 2000
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I agree about Le Guin. I love her short stories but I find her novels incredibly boring. However, I'm definatly in the minority there, so you should try her out.
If you're looking for fun fluff I love Eddings and Lackey. Lackey's a pretty bad writer, but her stuff doesn't require much thought and is good for when you're down.
If you're looking for something definatly better than OSC and you don't care about the genre, read Chaim Potok. Everytime I finish one of his books I get depressed because I know there's no one out there who can even compare.
I'd watch out for Anne Rice, her books have a lot of theology, and they're not always clean. A lot of people love them, I don't care, but since I have no idea if that will bother you you deserve to be warned.
For Sci fi writers who may or may not be better than OSC I'd try Nancy Kress and Lois McMaster Bujold. Kress is hard sci fi (science oriented) and Bujold is soft sci fi (character oriented) both are exellent. I've never heard anything bad about either of them, although I suppose I'm asking for it now.
To Mazer- You don't like gratituous sex and yet you don't mind Jordan. I liked Jordan for a long time before I became disgusted with the sex and torture that he couldn't resist sticking in his books even when completely unnecessary.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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She doesn't have anything to do with sci-fi or fantasy, but I'm recommending Jane Austen anyway.
Posts: 407 | Registered: Jul 2003
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And no one has mentioned Crichton? In terms of writing styles, he's closer to OSC than anyone (wether OSC wants to admit it or not )
Posts: 238 | Registered: Jun 2004
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No, Chricton's characters are flat, cardboard cutout pieces, and his plots are very predictable. You wonder why people go places, and you know it is simply so they will be at a certain place when something important happens. But they had no realistic motivation to be there. I read Timeline about the time it came out. I could tell what would happen to each one by what particular cardboard role they had.
Anyway,
I second the Gene Wolfe recommendation. I haven't seen anyone recommend Robin Hobb (or her pseudonym, Megan Lindholm). She is one of my favorites.
Posts: 438 | Registered: Apr 2004
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