Sci-FI series?

[owlcroft]

All of these are, I reckon, well-written stuff. So, from Lists 'R' Us Central:

• The Hitchhiker "trilogy" (5 books) by Douglas Adams (humorous)
• The Radix tetrad by A. A. Attanasio
• The "Culture" books by Iain M. Banks
• The Aldair tetralogy by Neil Barrett, Jr.
• The Langdon St. Ives books by James Blaylock (weird humor)
• The Qfwfq duo by Italo Calvino (literate, light-hearted philosophy)
• any S.F. series by C. J. Cherryh (such as Morgaine, Chanur, or the Faded Sun)
• The Transformer trilogy by M. A. Foster
• The Ler trilogy by M. A. Foster (Foster is undeservedly overlooked these days)
• Ash by Mary Gentle
• The Windhover tetralogy by Warren Norwood (another unjustly overlooked writer)
• The Anthony Villiers quartet (unfinished at 3 books) by Alexei Panshin (irony)
• The Starbridge Chronicles trilogy by Paul Park
• The Bromeliad trilogy by Terry Pratchett (YA but amusing)
• The Samaria books by Sharon Shinn (earlier are better)
• The Majipoor books by Robert Silverberg (but, I think, only the first 3)
• The Instrumentality cycle by Cordwainer Smith (stick to the NESFA editions--most others are badly cut up).
• Any SF series by Brian Stableford (there are a lot: Dies Irae; Hooded Swan; Daedalus; Asgard; Lydyard; Genesys; eMortality; Doomed earth (1 so far)
• The Inquestor tetralogy by Somtow Sucharitkul (aka S. P. Somtow)
• Any SF series by Jack Vance (including the Demon Princes; Planet of Adventure; Durdane aka The Faceless Man aka The Anome; Big Planet; Magnus Ridolph; the Cadwal Chronicles; and Lurulu aka Ports of Call)
• The Otherland tetralogy by Tad Williams
• The New Urth and New Sun series by Gene Wolfe
• The Neverness tetralogy by David Zindell

There are two other excellent series that are borderline as between sf and fantasy: Viriconium by M. John Harrison (but do it anway--he's one of the great writers, in any field, of our times), and Ryhope Wood by Robert Holdstock.

Enjoy.

[Hobbit]

That's a good list, owlcroft: I see you've mentioned Mary Gentle's Ash! - do you mean Holdstock's Mythago Wood, though? (which I think is based on Ryhope Wood, but I could be wrong.)

There's a new one of those due in the summer.

M. A. Foster I don't know; the nearest I got was Alan Dean Foster...

Mark

[owlcroft]

Some sources refer to the "Mythago Wood" series, but quite a few others to the "Ryhope Wood" series--of course, it's the same set of books. I was under the impression that Holdstock had moved on to other series; I am glad to hear there's another Mythago book due.

M. A. Foster produced seven novels and a story collection, mostly or entirely in the '70s, then seemed to vanish from the scene. It was not a retirement: a few years ago, he posted on his occasional blog (Eyeless in Gaza) that he had two novels in submission, but that even if accepted neither would appear before (as best I recall) 2009 or 2010. Foster is the only writer I can think of who reminds me of Jack Vance, who I assume Foster was influenced by; nonetheless, Foster remains his own man--his works are by no means pastiches of Vance. They are all intelligent, decently written, complex, and thought-provoking.

[Hobbit]

Thanks, Owlcroft: Foster's not an author I've come across before, and certainly not seen here in the UK; but I've added him to my list! ( I do like a bit of Vance, too.)

Mark

[psikeyhackr]

the nearest I got was Alan Dean Foster...

Mark

Now that rang a bell.

http://www.amazon.com/Flinx-Alan-Dea...m/P6TFYGYPDI9L

It is like the Honor Harrington series in that it gets a little tired passed the 7th or 8th book. Maybe I'm just getting old, but the Bujold series hasn't suffered from that. Maybe they weren't as good from the beginning.

psik

[killhus]

I would recomend allastair reynolds
The first book of the series is revelation space

[worldmaker]

Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" anyone?

[owlcroft]

Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" anyone?

Not science fiction. But try his (non-series, one-off) novel Strata; it's flat, it's big, its....title is worked into every Discworld novel somewhere.

[genedi]

As a fantasy reader you may well have read Stephen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series.
So now read his GAP series as a science fiction series.
Specifically:
1. The Real Story (a place setter. Reasonably short and not nearly as good as the rest.)
2. Forbidden Knowledge
3. A Dark and Hungry God Arises.
4. Chaos and Order
5. This Day All Gods Die.

[BlackVoid]

Ringworld series by Larry Niven
Mote series by Niven and Pournelle
Foundation series by Isaac Asimov
Revelation Space series by Reynolds
Gateway series by Frederik Pohl
Dune series by Frank Herbert (DO NOT TOUCH the books by his son Brian & Kevin Anderson - very bad)

Bujold's Vorkosigan series is young adult category, it is just not plausible at all. In the first book of the series Miles (the protagonist) is about 17, goes on vacation to another star system and ends up controlling another star system by fooling just about everybody else in the book. And he whines constantly. I may have liked this series when I was 13.

[creemore]

I can suggest the Thousand Cultures series by John Barnes. The books aren't on everybodies top 10 but I think they're still worth reading. The first book is a bit strange in comparison to the rest of the series, but is used mostly to introduce the main character.

I also agree with the comments about Donaldson's Gap series. They're a great read!