Hi Everyone,

I've been itching to read more good science fiction books but have only read a few authors and really don't have a good idea of what's out there.  I'm hoping folks can recommend some authors or books.  I've read almost all of Jack McDevitt's books and loved everyone one and I'm almost done with Kristine Kathryn Rusch's Retrieval Artist series and have loved those.  I've read some military science fiction books and liked those but need to read non-military driven ones in between as I can only take so many of those.  I love the idea of space exploration, interacting with alien cultures, etc.  I think I've read one Stephen Baxter book but can't remember which one - otherwise I'm a newbie with Sci Fi - most of what I've read has been fantasy/paranormal and mainstream stuff. 

Can anyone recommend anything?  Thanks!

Brian

Hmm.

It sounds like you tend towards "hard" sf, but with character development.  So I'm going to recommend Robert Charles Wilson.  Here's the list of his books .  They are almost all stand-alones.  Unfortunately, the older ones are getting hard to find.

-Tom Hl.

I am reading Spin by Robert Charles Wilson right now.  It's not bad, but seems a little slow at points.  I'd also recommend Joe Haldeman if you like Hard SF.  Some of his stuff is military SF, but not all of it.  His most recent books are: The Coming, Guardian, Camouflage, Old Twentieth, The Accidental Time Machine.  I highly recommend all those.   

Frank Herbert's Dune.  An obvious recommendation by SF fans, perhaps, but as a newcomer to the genre it's a must read.  I've never met anyone who disliked it.  I've met plenty of people who loathe the movie, and a fair number of people who were disappointed by the rest of the books in the series.  But everyone I've ever talked to agrees that the original book is a landmark classic of the genre.

Xenogenesis by Octavia Butler is one of my Favorites. 

Robert Heinlein - Friday, being my favorite.

David Feintuch - The Hope series is pretty good for military books along with Elizabeth Moon and David Weber.

I think Anne McCaffrey is fun. my favorites are the Brainship series and the Crystal Singer series.

Lois McMaster Bujold - The Miles Vorkosigan Series

James White - The Sector General series is about a very large space hospital filled with every imaginable alien.

Robert L Forward - Rocheworld series

James H Schmitz - Telzey Amberdon series

Orson Scott Card - Lovelock is my favorite

Isaac Asimov - anything

Suzette Haden Elgin - Native Tongue

I agree with most of the above recommendations...I wondered about your name, Athena.  Heinlein is my favorite author, though I think The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is my favorite book of his, but Dune might be my favorite single book.  I was a little disappointed with Dune Messiah but standing alone Dune is amazing.  The '80s movie was pretty bad, in my opinion, but I thought the SciFi Chanel's mini-series was very well done. 

I thought Dune was excellant. The rest of the series wasn't as good.

My thanks to everyone that responded with suggestions! 

Brian

If you like space exploration - James P. Hogan's "Giants" series -

#1 Inherit The Stars,

#2 The Gentle Giants of Ganymede

#3 Giants' Star

#4 Entoverse

could be a good one for you too. Bet these all are to be found right here ;-)

Ben Bova writes good 'space exploration/travel' books too.

Katcha

How about some Larry Niven? Two classics of the field that sound like they would fit your taste are "Ringworld" and "The Mote in God's Eye".

Have you considered any C.J. Cherryh?  She has lots of sci/fi that tends more to the Technological.  Usually, she has the human meets alien culture and shows it from the alien's point of view.  She has great character development.  I don't think she's as good with her "fantasy" books. 

Ruth

My boyfriend is  a Sci junkie  he likes  Ben Bova, Arthur Clarke, Robert Sawyer   hope this  helps.

Happy reading

Tammy

McDeavitt's books are, by and large, about a mystery being solved, or at least explored (A Talent for War, Seeker, Polaris, Chindi, Oddessy at least).

Recommendations based on that:

Pandora's Star/Judas Unchained - Peter Hamilton (note: I though the whole Reality Dysfunction and Neutronium Alchemist books were way too padded out - I'd go back to the Greg Hamilton (mindstar rising/quantum murder/nanoflower) for anything I really enjoyed, althogh Fallen Dragon picked up a lot toward the end).

The Android's Dream - John Scalzi

Steven Brust -

for a kind of fantasy noir setting (told from the viewpoint of an assassin.

Warning: Skip the latest books he's been writing unless you LIKE 19th century English-style prose - I understand why he did it, but that doesn't make it any less painful to read.

Jim Butcher - Dresden files. Set in modern day chicago with a wizard as a hero - Televised on SciFi channel.

Second the recommendation for Lois McMaster Bujold - try The Vor Game

Stewart & Cohen - Wheelers, and to a lesser extent Heaven

Charles Stross - Singularity Sky/Iron Sunrise (collected as Timelike Diplomacy) for a bit of post-Singularit adventure, and Jennifer Morgue/Atrocity Archive (collected as On Her Majesty's Occult Service) for a bit of James Bondish Cthulu.

Finally, Wrede & Stevermeyer wrote a couple of good Napoleonic-era magic that were collected as Magicians of Quality - if you liked the premise of Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norell but the prose style got a bit much this is probably ideal.