Favourite Science Fiction/Fantasy books

[Ecci]

Just wondering what the scifi & fantasy folks out there enjoy most?
For me, it's currently Jodi Taylor's Chronicles of St Mary and The Expanse by James S A Corey.

John Wyndham's The Chrysalids and Midwich Cuckoos, Orwell's 1984, LOVED John Christopher's Death if Grass and the Tripod series.

Anything by Jack McDevitt-Deepsix is probably one of my favourite books.
Saga of the Exiles by Julian May
The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay
Oryx And Crake series by Margaret Atwood
Coldfire Trilogy by C.S Friedman
The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weiss & Tracy Hickman

Philip K Dick's short stories. I don't think he was a good enough writer to carry something the length of a novel, but the concepts that he had make for fantastic shorter length pieces.

PKD often wrote “pulp” novels at speed, to support his 5 ex wives' alimony payments! that's why his novels were sometimes not all they could be.

But no one had the wild whirligig of ideas that he did.
A shedload of SF films emanate from PKD's ideas...

Some great books on here.

My son is really into fantasy books. Loved the Belgariad. I find it tricky to find stuff without sex or other adult themes for him to read. Which makes the genre sound awful, I know.

I thought Tad Williams would be ok, until I got to the dubious consent scenes.

He doesn't like teen fantasy books, likes the adult stuff. If anyone can recommend a safe series I would really appreciate it.

Is WofT clean? It's been ages since I read it. Not sure I want to re read it all to check!

Kage Baker and The Company series - really excellent and on kindle. Love these

@tilder

Some great books on here.

My son is really into fantasy books. Loved the Belgariad. I find it tricky to find stuff without sex or other adult themes for him to read. Which makes the genre sound awful, I know.

I thought Tad Williams would be ok, until I got to the dubious consent scenes.

He doesn't like teen fantasy books, likes the adult stuff. If anyone can recommend a safe series I would really appreciate it.

Is WofT clean? It's been ages since I read it. Not sure I want to re read it all to check!

As far as I can remember it's clean. He'll be an adult by the time he gets to the last few.

Babysharkdoodoodood very true! Unless I can get a bargain box set he might not get if anyway.

If you like time travelling historians, try Connie Willis. Particularly The Doomsday Book.

For fantasy I love Robin Hobb.

Ann Leckie's Ancillary trilogy is some of the best sci-fi I've ever read
NK Jemisin, Becky Chambers, Kage Baker are all good, as are Dana Stabenow's Star Svensdottir books
For urban fantasy, you can't beat Patricia Briggs!

My son is really into fantasy books. Loved the Belgariad. I find it tricky to find stuff without sex or other adult themes for him to read. Which makes the genre sound awful, I know.

Well, there’s no sex at all in Tolkien. Nor much in The Name of the Wind - which is excellent.

Maybe Lois McMaster Bujold, both her scifi and Five Gods books.

If he liked the Belgariad then perhaps Kate Elliot? There are a lot of them, with endless battle scenes.

Brandon Sanderson is excellent.

Raymond Feist - more battle scenes, not much sex, if any.

Mark Lawrence perhaps, his Prince of Thorns series.

Robin Hobb - I’m not a big fan, but lots of people are.

Barbara Hambly’s Time of the Dark books and the Sun Wolf books. Old school, but she’s a terrific writer.

Joe Abercrombie and Brent Weeks - I can’t remember the sex quotient of those.

Seconding Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

Many mentioned above, but I'm really addicted to Sheri Tepper.

Melissa Scott

The Sime/Gen series by Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah

Terry Pratchett starting with Guards, Guards!

Everything by Julian May but my favourite series is the Galactic Milieu trilogy.
I may be due a re-read shortly.

Another all time favourite is the Fionavar Trilogy by Guy Gavriel Kay.

@DancelikeEmmaGoldman

My son is really into fantasy books. Loved the Belgariad. I find it tricky to find stuff without sex or other adult themes for him to read. Which makes the genre sound awful, I know.

Well, there’s no sex at all in Tolkien. Nor much in The Name of the Wind - which is excellent.

Maybe Lois McMaster Bujold, both her scifi and Five Gods books.

If he liked the Belgariad then perhaps Kate Elliot? There are a lot of them, with endless battle scenes.

Brandon Sanderson is excellent.

Raymond Feist - more battle scenes, not much sex, if any.

Mark Lawrence perhaps, his Prince of Thorns series.

Robin Hobb - I’m not a big fan, but lots of people are.

Barbara Hambly’s Time of the Dark books and the Sun Wolf books. Old school, but she’s a terrific writer.

Joe Abercrombie and Brent Weeks - I can’t remember the sex quotient of those.

Just a heads up that Prince of Thorns has lots of rape references.

Joe Abercrombie is a bit...tortury.

Brandon Sanderson, Robin Hobb, Lois McMaster Bujold, I would be happier recommending. They have some mild sex references but nothing very explicit, while having enough depth to hit the mark. And definitely Tolkien, of course. I’ll add in Patrick Rothfuss as well.

I don’t remember Wheel of Time having any overtly sexual content, but the attitude to women is a bit immature and weird - female characters are always having “cat fight” type things with slapping and hair pulling, behaving irrationally/ overly emotionally, and the lead character has multiple...er...love interests. I’d recommend it to a teen old enough to enjoy the plot (which is intricate and interesting, if long-winded!) and able to apply a bit of critical thinking to how characters are portrayed.

I love Rothfuss and Tolkien. I've never read any of Terry Pratchett's books but they seem quite popular, I'll have to give him a go.

Thanks all. He has read Tolkien (including the Silmarillion etc, however you spell it) plus Pratchett. He loved all of it. I think he likes the humour of it as well as all the detail.

Will have a look at WofT, Rothfuss and some of the others. Thank you.

I remember being irritated by WofT as well. Need to find books with strong non stereotypical female characters. Other than Pratchett, the genre doesn't do that so well. He is a bit old for Tamara Pierce.

Revenger series by Alastair Reynolds. It's less convoluted than his other stuff, and a superb mixture of fantasy and SF.

Contemporary sci fi - Another vote for Adrian Tchaikovsky, especially 'Children of Time' (which I also read to dd 13) and Cage of Souls.

Also the Becky Chambers Books - but they vary a bit - 'A Closed and common orbit' has more weight to it.

Very fond of Stephen Baxter (I teach some evolutionary biology and have recommended 'Evolution' to students).

I don't read fantasy (apart from Anne McCaffery's dragon books a while back which I loved) but DD now 15 is into Brandon Sanderson - currently reading the Mistborn series which does seem OK for that age.

I read 'Evolution' to dd age 12 - the animal characters work well but I did edit the later human parts ad hoc for sexual violence.

I'm currently reading dd 'Ender in Exile' - sequel to 'Enders Game', Orson Scott Card - these are fine for younger teens.

I thought the NK Jemesin trilogy was a bit crap, and needed a competent editor to shorten it. First book okay, then I carried on because I was invested.

Ditto the Three Body Problem. Excellent first book, can’t believe I finished the other two.

Currently reading the Expanse, which is great. Also a trilogy by Marko Kloos which is on the cheapy Amazon section and good, in an airport blockbuster fashion.

I love the WoT series, although it does drive me to distraction.

And let’s not forget Snow Crash.

the fiction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle " The Sherlock Holmes" is very interesting, a bit old though but worth reading