Currently reading the sci-fi themed "Spinward Fringe" series by Randolph Lalonde.

It really reminded me of Eveonline, to the point where I thought it was somehow related when a ship called Loki was mentioned.



The first book is free on Amazon books as of now but I liked the first book enough that I bought the rest of the series (7 books out as of now).

Ender's Game is probably assumed by most people here, but deserves a good mention nonetheless. Even Mitt Romney put it on his favorite list.



From there I would have to go with Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s works on the future. Cat's Cradle is specifically useful to read for Endless Space as it will explain what Ice 10 is in the game. The penalty for living on those planets should probably be greater. I find that reading his work over and over generally provides a better experience than getting anything off the Sci-fi best seller list. The best writers are dead or pretending.

Hmm, Sci Fi wise:



Anything in the Dune Universe,

The Myst Reader,

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein,

Frankenstein (though not of what one thinks of sci fi, it is one of the oldest and truest) by Mary Shelley,

The Darth Bane novels from the Star Wars Universe



As per fantasy:

Anything in Tolkien's Universe,

The Kingkiller Chronicle (whose first book, The Name of the Wind, just so happens to be my favorite) by Patrick Rothfuss,

The Legend of Drizzt series by R.A. Salvatore,

The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks,

and the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson

Lets see....





+1 to Redwall series, Myst series, Tolkien & C. S. Lewis



Song of Ice & Fire, J R R Martin's short story colections are fun as well.



The graphic novel version of the enders game series are actually pretty well done, but reading first is probably better. That or the full cast audio book version.



Newsflesh trilogy by Myra Grant (I'm currently in the midst of rereading the first two to read the final one)



Also anything by Michael Chabon or Cormac McCarthy gets my vote. Anne Lamott is a great writer too, more memoir style.

I would recommend "The Hunger Games" Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

Have to mention the great works from Philip K. Dick, mainly and foremost the VALIS-Trilogy (more of a philiosophical book about God, the human mind and its evolution), UBIK (about death and the meaning of "real" and "imaginative or virtual" reality), A Scanner Darkly (Drugs, their influence and the aspect of different personalities in everyones head) and a classic of my favourite genre, the postapocalyptic sci-fi literature, Dr. Bloodmoney or how we get along after the bomb (about the degradation of human civilization and the possibilities and chances of a new way mankind could evolve again).

Especially in the postapocayptic literature there are lots of great books beside the one mentioned, relatively new one is from the already mentioned Cormac McCarthys The Road (fantastic movie too btw!) and one of my favourite, yet strangest ones: Engine Summer from John Crowley (where all remains of the "old" civilization is only rumoured about in myths and legends, being gone thousands of years ago).

Same goes for a book, only released in Germany though from Georg Zauner. The title would be translated as "The grandsons of the rocket makers" and is located in Bavaria (yes, the land of beer and pretzels lol ) a thousand years after the degradation of mankind. It is presented as a collection of documents that some monks found and try to comprehend and letters about new and strange findings from different monk-communities throughout the region.



Could mention so much more, but these are the ones that come to my mind at the moment.

Books to read some are starts of a series -



Wise Man's Fear

The Lies of Locke Lamora

A Cavern of Black Ice

The Painted Man

The Blade Itself

Game of Thrones

1984

Heart of Darkness

War of the Worlds

Do Androids Dream or Electric Sheep?

Almayer's Folly

The Lord of the Rings

Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow

Sir Gawain & the Greene Knight

The Canterbury Tales

Beowulf

A Christmas Carol

Frankenstein

The Prince





.... I think those will do for the time being!



"I cannot live without books."

- Thomas Jefferson

The Foundation series, written by Issac Asimov. It has got to be one of the best book series i have ever read.

David Weber's Off Armageddon Reef (Safehold) is Sci Fi



I also like David Weber's Honor Harrington series



David Drake and Eric Flint's Belisarius series (starting with An Oblique Approach)



Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series

The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking



A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

"The wheel of time"-series by Robert Jordan and led on by Brandon Sanderson. May it finally come to an end, soon.

"A song of ice and fire"-series by George R.R. Martin

All "Discworld"-related books by Terry Pratchett, especially the lesser known three philosophical offsprings featuring Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen. Who doesn't know spacelifts should definitely read those.

"Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

For pure fantasy action, the "Cleric Quintet", the "Drizzt" and the "Demon wars" series by R.A. Salvatore.

"The Kingkiller chronicles" by Patrick Rothfuss

Stephen Hawking's laymans science books are a nice read, too.

Also I'd advertise the Hellsing Mangas to everybody above 18.

c-Row wrote:
Not exactly straight fantasy, but Stephen King's The Dark Tower is an essential read in my opinion and a huge departure from his usual work.

Definitely got to second this recommendation for The Dark Tower series, it's definitely one of my favourite series I've read. A lot of people seemed to have been upset with the ending but I personally loved it.



Also, the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett if you like some humour with your fantasy.

Starship Troopers, by Heinlein



(I don't think that anyone has recommended it yet, which surprises me)

Classic Sci-Fi book. The film is only vaguely related to it.

I can add nothing of value to this thread because all my favourites are already mentioned



Do you read the books or do most of you read it on an e-reader?



maybe its a good idea for a new poll ;-)

One of my favorite books came out last year and it's Ernest Cline's first novel. Ready Player One is the title I reccommend it to all gamers.

The Wheel of Time saga is a must read for anyone considering himself a proper person.

A Game of Thrones by George R.R Martin & Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky.

I'm current reading Seeds of Earth by Michael Cobley



I would recommend in Scifi



Peter Hamilton's Commenweath Saga

Timothy Zahn's Conquerors Saga

Alistair Reynolds Pushing Ice and Revelation Space saga.

Dan Simmon's Hyperiod Cantos

David Brin Uplift Series

John Ringos Troy Rising series

Daniel Abraham The Expanse series

Jack McDevitt's Alex Benedixt Series

Larry Niven's Fleet of Worlds and Moties series'

Vernor Vinge A Deepness in the Sky

CJ CHerryh - Chanur series



and in fantasy



Steven Brust Khaavren Romances

Steven Erikson Memories of Ice (Malazan saga)

Elizabeth Haydon Sympohny of Ages

David Eddings Elenium

David Webber Off Armageddon reef series (best in audiobook)

Piers Anthony Quest for the Fallen Star

Tracy Hickman Mystic Quest series

i love reading scifi and fantasy books that are from games i have played..

like Starcraft, Warcraft , Halo, Mass Effect and Warhammer 40.000

my favorite books have been from Warhammer 40.000 universe

Ultramarines

Gaunts Ghosts

Ciaphas Cain

Soul Drinkers

Grey Knights

all are omnibus.. more for the money :P

SCIFI :



LEM :

GOLEM XIV - hardcore scifi - ai talking to humans

Solaris - hardcore scifi - humans found a sea that creates things

the invincible - scifi - the invincible is a spaceship with a crew, sent to a planet where they lost contact to an earlier expedition

the star diaries - funny scifi - ijon tichy is telling stories about his spacetravels and the strange things that happened there.

and many more...



Stanislav Lem wrote many of his stories in the nineteensixties. So in the "modern" scifi you read a lot about warp engines... in LEMs space stories it are rocket engines.



Isaac Asimov :



Foundation - hard scifi - a dying empire, a man trying to save as much wisdom as possible through the uprising dark times, and the try to keep the dark times as short as possible.

The Caves of Steel - scifi - earth policeman who dislikes robots have to investigate a homocide together with a robot.

Naked Sun - scifi - same earth policeman investigates a crime on an othe planet.

Lucky Star - low scifi - nice stories about a person called lucky star.

Asimov wrote many great short stories too.



Many of the stories are old, in one of the stories the venus is a nice planet with water^^. Story was writen before the first probes showed us what the venus ist really like.



Arthur C. Clarke :

2001 - scifi - not much to say, nice one

and so on.



Joe Haldeman

The forever war - hard scifi - warstories about a mistake of humankind



Larry Niven

Ring World - scifi - Stories around a space object.



Allen Cole/ Chris Bunch

The Sten Chronicles - mil. scifi - A Story in multiple books about a person called Sten. Great Story and the end is what makes it very different to other military scifi.

Without telling to much, I can say the end is magic.



Ben Bova

Mars, return to Mars, Venus, Jupiter - all scifi - well written stories, most with alien lifeforms, but the humans and the conflicts of them are the main theme.



Douglas Adams

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - funny scifi - 42 ^^

Spaceship Titianic - funny scifi - very funny



Terry Pratchett

Dark Side of the Sun - funny scifi - story about somebody who tries to uncover a secret.



Ray Bradbury

451 - scifi - firefighter in the future burns books

Martian chronicles - scifi





....and many many more.

never can read enough scifi.



Best wishes

Redbull102



@ Yurixy



If you do not like to read because you hate reading, none of the above.

If you like funny things, maybe Spaceship Titanic.