Suggested Sci-fiction reading for a new writer?

[D.R. Stevenson]

I have only been writing for a few months now maybe five months at the most. I’m embarrassed to say I have not really read anything for the past fifteen years. My writing is suffering for it. I read a lot of sci-fi in my teens and early twenties, at least until I got into video games and the Internet. Damn you Civ IV and Masters of Orion II.

What I’m asking for is your recommendations for what to read that are good examples of sci-fi or fantasy? I have just bought a Kindle touch and I’m looking for books that are good representation of solid story lines, believable characters, and a good pacing.

So in short, what would you recommend? Thanks!

[zachariah]

Classic: Dune (Frank Herbert)
Contemporary: Blindsight (Peter Watts)
So you know what sort of thing most people are reading these days: The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)

[Fung Koo]

I would say that "solid story lines, believable characters, and a good pacing" are characteristics of good books in any genre. You don't necessarily need SFF to see these. The question with SFF is how the SF or F element is incorporated into "solid story lines, believable characters, and a good pacing."

Are you looking for a broad range of representational styles? Or a fairly normative basic approach?

I'd say ask a friend from your real life who you know you share similar interests with for a suggestion first. If you've truly been out of reading for that long, then it's probably pretty important to get back into the practice and sort out how your taste has changed, see what's been done, what the present style is... What were some of your favourites when you were younger?

On the other hand, if you've not had your nose in a book in that long, maybe just start writing and see how it goes. It might be an advantage not to be overly constrained by genre conventions, and it might help keep you from imitating other stories.

[PeteMC]

If you want an idea of how things have changed, try Richard Morgan and Alistair Reynolds

[Sarunus]

On the other hand, if you've not had your nose in a book in that long, maybe just start writing and see how it goes. It might be an advantage not to be overly constrained by genre conventions, and it might help keep you from imitating other stories.

I thought this would be the case for me. I haven't read fiction in probably fifteen years myself, and even then, it was sparingly. I've found that a couple of things I've written here over the last year or so have been compared to works I've never read, let alone heard of.

While I think there's merit to not reading and having one's own writing style, it's probably not a bad idea to keep abreast of what people are reading to avoid having one's works considered derivative or rehashed versions of already existing works.

[kennychaffin]

Difficult question. I guess to perhaps target it more, what do you intend to write? Short Fiction? Novels? Fantasy? Hard SF? Speculative? I'd say read (and don't just read, but STUDY/ANALYZE/DISSECT) the best examples of what you want to write.

[D.R. Stevenson]

Difficult question. I guess to perhaps target it more, what do you intend to write? Short Fiction? Novels? Fantasy? Hard SF? Speculative? I'd say read (and don't just read, but STUDY/ANALYZE/DISSECT) the best examples of what you want to write.

I would have to say I want to write short stories and one day novels. I am intrested writing in Cyberpunk, post-apocalypse, alien first contact, military, and soft science fiction genres.

I like stories involving man dealing with new advance technologoes. Humans dealing with newly discovered alien species and cultures. The human race loosing it's humanity due to interaction with aliens or advanced technology. Exploration of new worlds also appeals to me.

So what would you recommend?

[kmtolan]

Great characters - Ender's Game by Card.
Great world building - Dune.
Great originality - read nothing and commence writing.

Kerry(who rarely reads whilst writing)

[tmso]

I am intrested writing in Cyberpunk, post-apocalypse, alien first contact, military, and soft science fiction genres.

Right now, Hugh Howey's WOOL Omnibus is very popular. And, I love it. Great characters, lots of action (in my opinion), and speaks to current events/fears/etc.

[kennychaffin]

I would have to say I want to write short stories and one day novels. I am intrested writing in Cyberpunk, post-apocalypse, alien first contact, military, and soft science fiction genres.

I like stories involving man dealing with new advance technologoes. Humans dealing with newly discovered alien species and cultures. The human race loosing it's humanity due to interaction with aliens or advanced technology. Exploration of new worlds also appeals to me.

So what would you recommend?

Thanks. I see Wool recommended, definitely agree. One of the most impressive first novels I've read recently was "Faith" by John Love. (in includes several of your topics, Alien contact, military, first contact) Excellent stuff -- strange alien and the exposure of the aliens in our own species.

As far as short stories, you could do worse than reading the last few "Years Best Science Fiction" from Gardner Dozois there have been some very memorable stories in the last couple for me. New one is out next week.

There is a lot of short fiction being published in on-line mags these days as well, check them out. Clarkesworld and Lightspeed for example...

Good Luck!

[Awesomov]

I would have to say I want to write short stories and one day novels. I am intrested writing in Cyberpunk, post-apocalypse, alien first contact, military, and soft science fiction genres.

I like stories involving man dealing with new advance technologoes. Humans dealing with newly discovered alien species and cultures. The human race loosing it's humanity due to interaction with aliens or advanced technology. Exploration of new worlds also appeals to me.

So what would you recommend?

You can mix all of that into one zany little story. It's a lot of fun experimenting like that, seeing what neato little things you can come up with.

As for short story collections, if you want great variety and great greatness wrapped into a tight-knight little ball, I'd suggest The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volumes One and Two A and Two B, The World Treasury of Science Fiction, The Science Fiction Century, The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories, The Best of Analog, The Best of Astounding, The Best of *insert author here*, etc.

Great characters - Ender's Game by Card.

I have to disagree big time. If you want great characters, Ender's Game is the absolute last place you'll want to turn to.

[hyperchord24]

Start with the classics and learn why they are classics. From your other post, I'd suggest Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

[E_Moon]

If you read up to fifteen years ago, you don't need to go back to the '50s and '60s, probably. I'd recommend diving into the nearest library and just reading voraciously, as you did when younger, to find what interests you, with one additional thing--read women writers of SF, if you're not in that habit.

For short fiction, there are anthologies, but if you're looking to make a career in SF writing, books are the way to go. You've indicated a fairly wide range of interests, things you'd like to explore, so here are some authors to check out. All have relatively recent books.

Kim Stanley Robinson, the "Mars" books. David Brin, Allen Steele....space exploration, planet colonization and development. China Mieville, Charles Stross. You'll find some military SF/Fantasy crossover (Myke Cole's Control Point, if you think of paranormal stuff as definitely fantasy...but it reads more as SF. And paranormal used to be an SF trope back in the '50s and '60s.)

C.J. Cherryh, alien contact & cultural anthropology--excellent characterization. Right now doing books set in a human/alien contact situation where aliens are highly intelligent, but not as advanced as humans and spacefaring aliens. Intricate political/cultural plots.

Octavia Butler, post-collapse stories. Somewhat older books; she died in 2006.

Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan books (multiple cultures, interesting tech, solid characterization)

Tanya Huff's "Valor" series...military SF with humor, aliens, mystery, etc. There are now women veterans writing military SF; Tanya and I among them. (Much of my SF is military-based.)

Since you were reading more 15 years ago, I assume you read LeGuin's The Left Hand of Darkness, but if not--that's one you should hunt for.

SF today generally (not always) has better characterization, a broader range of characters per story, better grounding in cultural anthropology, politics, etc. than it did 20-25 years ago. (That's opinion. But since I've been reading SF for a long, long time--and read back into the early stuff when I was a teenager--it's pretty firmly set.)

[KatG]

I would have to say I want to write short stories and one day novels. I am intrested writing in Cyberpunk, post-apocalypse, alien first contact, military, and soft science fiction genres.

I like stories involving man dealing with new advance technologoes. Humans dealing with newly discovered alien species and cultures. The human race loosing it's humanity due to interaction with aliens or advanced technology. Exploration of new worlds also appeals to me.

So what would you recommend?

Well then, you're going to want to read Elizabeth Moon's SF (she's the one posting down in this thread.) You'll want to check out Charles Stross. If you haven't read any Neal Stephenson, you should read Snow Crash and The Diamond Age, and maybe his new one, Reamde. If you haven't read Julie Czernada before, you might want to try her. I'll second Peter Watts, both Blindside and his other series starting with Starfish. WOOL is not very cyberpunky or alien or militaristic, but it is good and post-apoc, so you might try that. Myke Cole's Shadow Ops and Kameron Hurley's God's War series are futuristic military fantasy novels that have SF fans, so might be worth checking out for you. I can recommend Hannu Rajaniemi's The Quantum Thief -- a very good cyberpunk thriller. Paolo Bacigalupi's The Wind-up Girl has a lot of fans, and he has several other novels worth checking out. If you never read David Brin's Uplift Wars series, I'd recommend them, and he's finally come out with a new novel, Existence, which deals with alien life too. You should probably give Peter F. Hamilton a shot. Pick whichever one seems interesting to you. Alastair Reynolds and Richard Morgan as noted are big names of the British movement. Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series and David Weber's Honor Harrington series are the big guns of military SF at the moment. I'd say that Bujold is the better writer of the two, but they're both worth checking out. T.C. McCarthy's post-apoc Germline is getting some attention. Paul McAuley I haven't read, but he's a main name in hard SF/cyberpunk apparently. Sarah Zettel is concentrating on fantasy right now, but she's pretty good on sociological, planetary SF. James S.A. Corey is a pseudonym for Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck and is military SF, so that's worth checking out. C.J. Cherryh and Mary Gentle are both still writing and worth checking out if you haven't read them before. I also recommend Liz Williams. You could try out John Scalzi's Old Man's War, and Laura Beukes' novels (sort of cyberpunk,) have made a splash. Terry Bison is a wonderful guy to study for short story writing. Maureen McHugh, China Mieville and Connie Willis are excellent writers for style. Karen Traviss' City of Pearl may be right up your alley.

There's a lot going on out there, so keep an eye on the SF Forum and browse the stacks, I would say. Who did you like before?

[D.R. Stevenson]

Right now I am reading the Omnibus of Wool, but will be checking out other titles listed in this thread.