[Tagalie]

Greetings all, I'm a newbie.
To my mind there is a hierarchy in SF literature. I'm a huge fan of what I call Quality SF which stands proud alongside all other literary classics. Whenever I browse the shelves of my local library however, there is never any Ursula K Leguin, just loads of stuff by Greg Bear etc, who seems to me to be the SF equivalent of John Grisham.I don't want to try any of these airport style SF novels because they look so lame. They can't all subscribe to the "so bad it's good" school.
Now, am I being narrow minded and tainted by my (useless) BA in Eng Lit?
My fave writers are Clarke, Heinlein, Asimov etc, ie the original and best.
feedback would be appreciated.
cheers.

[Vitriol]

Well, I've just finished Ben Bova's 'Starcrossed'. It wasn't awful, but it didn't contain anything of merit, either. As far as I can tell, he thought of the last line, and then wrote a novel to fit around it.

I've read a fair bit of Greg Bear; Eon and Queen of Angels are definitely worth a look, while Eternity, Forge of God and Anvil of Stars are pretty good. I didn't enjoy Darwin's Radio at all, though. In terms of literary style, he's not too bad; while nowhere near Heinlein, he's probably better than Asimov, and about level with Clarke.

[Rob B]

I'll have to come to the defense of Greg Bear as well, what have you read by him? I've mostly liked what I have read by him. Many of the titles Vitriol mentioned. I thought Darwin's Radio was good, but not deserving of the Nebula (or was it Hugo). Either way, I remember liking one or two of the other finalists much more.

I've got a BA in English as well. http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif

Jack McDevitt is pretty good.
Vernor Vinge, IMHO is very overrated, but still thought provoking.

Dan Simmon's Hyperion Cantos is another top-notch SF read.

[saintjon]

I've read a lot of Star Wars novels and although some live up to Star Wars a lot of them are just crummy.

[Hope for Humour]

Stay away from L Ron Hubbard. William Shatner is also not a good writer. In general movie novelizations are not meant to be high class literature.

Heinlein's early and middle stuff is good but the later stuff gets absurd.

I like Sheri Tepper's novels and Joanna Russ's short stories.

I love Asimov, but he is a very utilitarian writer - no flourishes.

[Tagalie]

thanks; I may give Mr Bear a crack then. I've just noticed my brother has the tie-in novelisation of "Tron" which looks pretty amusing though....

[Penumbra]

Try some Ben Bova, Poul Anderson and Clifford Simak. Early Ray Bradbury, such as "The Illustrated Man." Some of H.G.Wells short stories are fairly classic and mostly unknown.

[Llama]

Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke?? Good lord, where have you been for the last forty years? Your tastes seem to be stuck in pre-"New Wave" land. A few suggestions, from the sixties onward:

Some New Wave authors:

PHILIP K DICK. Martian Time-Slip, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, A Scanner Darkly, Ubik, The Man in the High Castle

SAMUEL DELANY. Nova, Empire Star, Dhalgren

JG BALLARD. Crash, Vermilion Sands, High-Rise

THOMAS DISCH. 334, Camp Concentration

HARLAN ELLISON. Deathbird Stories

Some cyberpunk authors

WILLIAM GIBSON. Neuromancer, Burning Chrome, The Difference Engine (w/Bruce Sterling)

LUCIUS SHEPARD. Life During Wartime

LEWIS SHINER. Frontera

JOHN SHIRLEY. Eclipse

BRUCE STERLING. Schismatrix, Zeitgeist, Islands in the Stream

Some more contemporary authors

IAIN BANKS. Consider Phlebas, Use of Weapons, Player of Games

KEN MacLEOD. Stone Canal, Cassini Division, Cosmonaut Keep

STEVE AYLETT. Slaughtermatic

KIM STANLEY ROBINSON. Red Mars

PAUL DIFILIPPO. Ribofunk

[James Barclay]

Original doesn't necessarily mean best...

Try Peter F Hamilton, Alistair Reynolds and (new out this week in the UK at least) Richard Morgan. Oh, and looking back, how about Brian Aldiss?

[nicba]

Brian Aldiss, wasn't he the guy who wrote a series about a world with alternating periods of warmth and long ice ages?

I can't remember the name of the books, or much of anything about them for that matter. But they were easily the worst books I have ever read. Ever. They were just so incredible boring! http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/frown.gif