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Looking for some good sci-fi... please post a list of your 'don't miss this' type SciFi novels... leave out the obvious stuff like Dune, Cluster, Foundation, PDK anything, Uplift, etc....

Military SF
Redliners
The Honor Harrington series
Crown of Slaves

Hard SF
The Forge of God
Anvil of Stars
Blood Music - awesome Greg Bear
The Diamond Age

WTF? SF

Vurt

Have you read anything of he Culture series by iain banks?

Oh Stanislaw Lem... How could I forget that.

The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner was always a favorite.

O
X

A.A.

Picked up the Hugo Award winning Hyperion by Dan Simmons. The first page mentions receiving a burst message via decaying tachyons which to me means it will be a cool book.

I'm about half-way, cool story but it has one of the most offensive paragraphs I've ever read.

Well, Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series might be more like soft sci-fi, but I love them.

One forgotten master of scifi:

Jack Vance
http://www.jackvance.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Vance

My favorites from him include:

The Dying Earth trilogy set in distant Earth at a time when the sun is dying..A tale of a morally unscrupulous (anti)heros journeys on Earths last days..Magick already waning with the sun.

Emphyrio
To Live Forever

Vance has written tens of books, over several decades. Ive read maybe 20 of his books, and liked most.

Do you guys who read military sci-fi read any Baen/Ringo books?

I've read some military sci-fi, The Baen Free Library has tons and it's free!. I've read 10 or so the Honor Harrington series, found it really enjoyable. There's a book called Crown of Slaves that takes place in the same universe. The free library thing sells books too, they get you hooked to an author - then you have to buy their stuff.

I've read the March to the Sea trilogy by Ringo and David Drake, it was pretty cool.

Ever read Micheal Morcock

Blood and souls for my lord Arioch!

I've only read a few Elric stories though. For me that stuff is beyond fantasy the way Lovecraft is supposed to be beyond horror. Speaking of Lovecraft... a bunch of free stuff is here: http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/index.html

Frank Herbert's always good--

Dune, of course, but also some of his short stories and other novels.

Easy to see parallels between the Dune series and current events, a la 'spice' = 'oil', Arrakis = Arabia (or the general, oil rich regions of the middle east, etc. etc.

Along the same lines: Asimov's Foundation series is good: has a sort of elite, behind the scenes aspect (hope that's not a spoiler!) that looks a bit different to me now, after reading a lot here at R.I., than it originally did when I read it 10 or 20 years ago.

Also: Joe Haldeman's Forever War and Heinlein's Starship Troopers--but read Heinlein's S.Ts. first.

Last (for now) but not least: John Birmingham's Axis of Time alternate history series. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_of_Time)

--just a few I've enjoyed; maybe they're obvious, but if you haven't read 'em yet, you're in for a treat.

I'd recommend Iain M Banks' Sci-fi (as apposed to his "Iain Banks" modern literature, which is also v.good and worth checking out).

John Varley's "Steel Beach" is a great read. A masterpiece really...

Finally Gene Wolfe probably my favorite author.

Cheers,

Telexx

Sorry if any of these are "obvious". Since the request was for Science Fiction novels, I'm limiting this list to stuff I consider to be SF (not Fantasy or Horror), and leaving out any collections unless they relate to a series.

Sheri S. Tepper's unnamed trilogy: Grass, Raising the Stones, and Sideshow. Read them in that order.

F. Paul Wilson's "LaNague" novels: Healer, Wheels Within Wheels, An Enemy of the State, Dydeetown World, The Tery, plus The LaNague Chronicles (anthology). And his "Sims" series: La Causa, The Portero Method, Meerm, Zero, Thy Brother's Keeper, and Sims (another anthology).

Neal Stephenson's Snowcrash.

William Gibson's Neuromancer and Count Zero.

John Shirley's City Come A-Walkin'.

Theodore Sturgeon's The Dreaming Jewels and Almost Human.

John Wyndham's Day of the Triffids.

Dean R. Koontz's Watchers.

More after I jog my memory...[/i]

RomanyX wrote:William Gibson's Neuromancer and Count Zero.

I have read Neuromancer (on a computer screen, appropriately) but not Count Zero. How do they compare? And are you leaving Mona Lisa Overdrive off your list on purpose?

By the way, the Guardian had a list of must read sci-fi. That is part one. You can find parts two and three in the sidebar.