Science fiction recommendations please

Sylvia Engdahl has lots of character development in her books and most of them are available as cheap ebooks from her website.

The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord is good.

Ursula Le Guin gets very into emotions and people - The Dispossessed, or The Birthday of the World.

Yes to Sheri Tepper.

Octavia Butler is excellent but you might find her too gory/upsetting.

If I had to pick just one, then The Left Hand of Darkness by Le Guin, which is utterly flawless (although a bit light on giant robots, time travel paradoxes and space battles if that's what you're looking for).

But it's bloody impossible without knowing some examples of the sorts of books you like.

I'm not a big sci fi fan but I recently enjoyed Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway - maybe more fantasy than sci fi?

Try 'Emerald' by Rosemary Smith - on kindle/ iPad . It's very exciting and not weird. It's aimed at young adults but my daughter raved about it so much and pushed me to read it too and I loved it

I'm going to do a complete re-read in the run up to the new book. Last re-read I did was in the run up to the first book of the third chronicles so it's about time. I've read them all roughly every 5 years since my A levels.

I might have to reread the first ones beforehand....my reading list has suddenly got quite long!

Of course....Hitchhikers Guide...brilliant!

Handmaid's Tale is a good read also Anne McCaffrey - the Ship who sang.
Ursula LeGuin - Earthsea Quartete (think there may be 5 now) & the Left Hand of darkness. she also has some short stories- Changing Planes.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy... et volià!

Here you go www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_15?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=thomas+covenant+the+last+chronicles&sprefix=Thomas+covenant%2Cstripbooks%2C242

Te first 4 books listed. The 4th one comes out in October. Absolutely brilliant. I can't wait!

My dad read the original ones as they came out (I was too young - read the original 6 in the week after my A levels). I remember there used to be a notice on the relevant shelf in our local bookshop saying 'we don't know when the next book is coming out, as soon as we know we will put the date here p,ease stop asking!'

....now I sound like a saddo as well as old!!

Ooooo no, what are they?

I'll never forget how exciting it was when one got published...I even bought them as hardbacks and I was skint then!

thehairybaby I think the last Gap book was published in 1996. So not quite 20 years! Have you been reading the new Covenant books? The last one is due in the autumn - I can't wait!

I feel really old now that I've realised how long ago that was!

I read and was totally gripped by Stephenson Donaldson's the Gap Series, I had to wait for each of the next ones to be published. Prob 20+ years ago (), but they were brilliant books. Have stuck with me as some of the best books I have ever read! I don't usually read SciFi either. I also don't read Fantasy but also enjoyed his 'Thomas Covenant' series of books too.

In fact I might reread, is so long ago I can't recall the Gap story just how good they were!

I'd also second Margaret Attwoods The Handmaids Tale.

I have not commented on all Gap books, by the way, but the first one that I have read and hence am "qualified" to comment on.

Dune books are not fantasy and I honestly don't know what you mean by "gruesome".

If there was a point to that first Gap book that I have missed, I'd be interested to hear it so please share.

I've read the Gap books, and I've read the Dune books, therefore I'm qualified to comment on both of them. And you aren't. You completely missed the point of the first Gap book, and didnt read the others, so you really can't comment. Dune is actually more fantasy than sci fi anyway. And it's (mostly) fine, although it's a good example of the law of (steeply) diminishing returns. No more than that though, I'd say. And pretty pointlessly gruesome.

I can't even begin to compare the complex mind games and strategies of Dune to that first Gap book which was truly all about the control, subjugation, torture, and rape of one woman. Ok, if not entirely, lets say 98%. Really not my kind of book and seriously impossible to compare with Dune, which has consistently been voted The Best Sci-Fi Of All Time.

Stick with it, Remus

'Dune' isn't currently making me want to put the computer down and go and read it, I'm afraid. I will keep trying though.

And of course, the first book wasn't entirely about that at all. That's kind of the point. It wasn't the Real Story.

But even if you hadn't completely missed the point, no more grim than Dune, I'd've said.......

Yes. You missed the other books. which dealt extensively with the consequences of the events in the first book and the events that had led up to the events of the first book. Very grim indeed. But utterly compelling. The whole sequence is based loosely on northern myths and legends.

I read Stephen Donaldson's first Gap book . It was basically entirely about the enslavement, torture, and rape of a woman. I didn't read the rest.

Have I missed something?

Dune :) However it helps to read a brief overview of where it's all at first. When I first tried to read it I was chucked in the deep end of strange words, people with titles I didn't understand, etc. and gave up after three pages vowing to NEVER try it again Once I had read a basic layout of what was going on (on Wiki) to set the scene I tried again and was hooked.
Iain M Banks Culture series- again, brilliant (though not too deep). His sci fi stuff was his magnum opus- the 'straight' novels were second to him :)