spec8472 wrote:
I too quite liked the Honorverse series... You can pick up the series at Baen Free Library (linked in a previous post).
I thought there was a short story prior to the Basilisk Station? or was it published after Basilisk? The story where Honor is fresh from the acadamy - her first posting (can't remember the name of it right now, and my PDA is in the other room).
Here is the Series list as provided by Baen Books (on the Honorverse CD):
On Basilisk Station
The Honor of the Queen
The Short Victorious War
Field of Dishonor
Flag in Exile
Honor Among Enemies
In Enemy Hands
Echoes of Honor
Ashes of Victory
War of Honor
More Than Honor
Worlds of Honor
Changer of Worlds
"On Basilisk Station" IS the first book in the series, published. From there, all the major novels continue chronologically. However, the last three books in the list are story collections. As I haven't read these yet, this info is based on the summary for each book included on the CD: "More Than Honor" introduces other authors to the Honorverse (David Drake and S M Stirling), "Worlds of Honor" appears to primarily explore the treecats (the five stories appear to occur BEFORE the rest of the series), and "Changer of Worlds" appears to be filler and background stories.
In one of the collections (can't remember which) there is a shortstory about Harrington as midshipwoman straight out of the academy which takes place before the main series, but Basilisk Station is a good place to start.
sancria wrote:I forgot those two lovable authors David and Leigh Eddings, who brought us the Belgariad, the Mallorean, and Begarath the Sorcerer et al.
And of course Sir Sparhawk saga: Elenium and Tamuli cycles.
I AM DEATH, NOT TAXES. *I* TURN UP ONLY ONCE.
(Terry Pratchet, "Feet of Clay")
Just finished reading R.A. Salvatore's new Drizzt novel, called "The Thousand Orcs"
Dont' waste your time reading it. Pure drivel. However, the next book in the series looks like it will be a kick ass combat book like his original three books.
I'd gladly travel back in time, except I would have to wait longer for the next chapter of Fel's work...sorry, pass.
How about the books of Elizabeth Moon? Like S.M Stirling, she writes good military-based fantasy or scifi, using her military backgroung to make the novel more realistic.
I am currently rereading her "Deed of Paksennarion" trilogy, a fantasy about the adventures of a sheepfarmers daughter as she joins a military group (mercenaries) and beyond. Very good.
Let me add my agreement that Moon's Paksennarion series is one of the best stories I have ever read, and I don't like very many books with a female lead character. If you get a chance to get these books, get them.
As the author of this thread, Sancria, had posted some names of authors and titles of fantasy books himself, I think that this thread is not limited to SF only.
I don't remember anyone mentioning C. J. Cherryh, both Atevi ("Foreigner", "Invader", "Precursor" and Inheritor"), Union/Empire sagas (e.g. "Cyteen"), and other stories. Good psychological SF. Very good in weaving threads.
Joan D. Vinge, Cat's cycle ("Psion", "Cat's Paw", "Dreamfall") and "The Snow Queen"/"The Summer Queen". Good stories, nice developing of characters.
Another good author is Michael Scott Rohan. I have read the "The Winter of The World" trilogy ("The Anvil of Ice", "The Forge in The Forrest", "Hammer of the Sun" if I remember the ordering correctly) -- very good fantasy, and "Spiral" series ("Chase the Morning", "The Gates of Noon", "Cloud Castles") -- well, you can call it urban fantasy...
Talking about urban fantasy genre... I recommend "The War of The Oaks" by Emma Bull. Very nice reading...
David Eddings, Roger Zelazny, Douglas Adams, Connie Willis, Ursula K. Le Guin and Terry Pratchett have been mentioned... Have Piers Anthony been mentioned as well?
I agree, that Moon's "Paksennarion" saga is quite good. Best of the stories I've ever read? I don't think so. I find something lacking... maybe some depth in described world? But it is a good book nevertheless. De gustibus....
More authors to come...
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Shadowhawk
Last edited by Shadowhawk on Mon Jun 14, 2004 4:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I AM DEATH, NOT TAXES. *I* TURN UP ONLY ONCE.
(Terry Pratchet, "Feet of Clay")
Michael Scott Rohan's winter fo the world is a trilogy? But what about "Castle of the winds" and "The singer and the sea"? What are they? I haven't read the series but i looked at it in the store an there were five books.
mr wrote:Michael Scott Rohan's "Winter of the world" is a trilogy? But what about "Castle of the winds" and "The singer and the sea"? What are they? I haven't read the series but I looked at it in the store an there were five books.
I haven't read the books you mentioned (haven't even heard of them, to be more exact), but "The Winter of the World" is most definitely trilogy. First, there is definite closure (ending) in the "Hammer of Sun", the last book of those three I have mentioned. Second, each of the books is about one of three special items (I don't want to elaborate on this, and spoil the reading).
So I think it is trilogy. Well, it might be perchance trilogy in more than three parts, like Earthsea trilogy by Ursula K. Le Guin: "A Wizard of Earthsea", "The Tombs of Atuan", "The Farthest Shore" and "Tehanu" (added later).
I AM DEATH, NOT TAXES. *I* TURN UP ONLY ONCE.
(Terry Pratchet, "Feet of Clay")
winter of the world was originally a trilogy, but rohan has since added two books, I think, that don't focus on the same character. the fourth book of the spiral series is the same way. so i would still view each series as being a trilogy, but with spin-offs.
paksennarion wasn't bad. i really liked the trilogy when i first read it years ago, probably when i was about fourteen. my last reading of it, however, left me pretty disappointed. i liked "once a hero" by elizabeth moon but found the followups to be pretty trashy. i quit after reading the third book, i think it was. you know, the one about the planet of the texan rapists, who forcibly impregnant one of the main characters, followed by her rejecting the baby who resulted from it after the planet is invaded by the good guys several years later. i haven't touched an elizabeth moon book since; that was just too bad for words.
for sci-fi i don't think has been mentioned...the deathstalker series by simon r. green was decent, excepting the worst ending i've ever read in any book/series. that's at the end of the fifth book. there's a followup series, a trilogy i think, that the author recently put out, and that focuses on a different character. supposedly owen (the previous deathstalker) returns in book three of that, but i haven't bothered reading those books, since as i said, the ending to the original series was horrible. simon r. green has other books that a lot of people like, and i'll probably read them if i can ever get past that crappy book five and allow myself to read something else by him.
hm...one of my favorite sci-fi books is probably tuf voyaging. it's a single novel focusing on a bald fat man who likes cats and has become the sole owner of a genetic seed ship from some lost age thousands of years previous to the story. the book has six or so short stories showing how tuf (the character) uses his ship. three of them (spread out) are about how he handles a progressively difficult situation with a planet whose inhabitants are massively overpopulating, to the point where they're about to invade the galaxy looking for more space. the book is interesting because it raises the question, literally, of whether a person with the powers of a god (tuf) really IS a god. the book is by george r. r. martin. martin also has a couple of other single books, dreamtheatre, iirc (a book about vampires, rather different from normal), and the armageddon rag. both are pretty decent, and more to my tastes than the overwhelmingly broad and incredibly over-POV'd song of fire and ice, which he is currently writing. neither is sci-fi, though.
tad william's otherland series is kinda sci-fi. mix of that and fantasy. it's kind of wierd, actually. again, though, LOTS of POV characters. if you don't much like that, as I don't, you may not care for it much.
one of the earlier sci-fi books i read was the dark beyond the stars, by poul anderson. it's been a while, but it was rather interesting. the story is about an explorer ship sent into space to find alien life. unfortunately the captain had a liberal interpretation of his orders to come back after finding aliens or after 40 years; he's going for aliens, and he is NOT going to stop. by the time the events in the book take place, it's been hundreds of years, many generations of crew, and the ship is falling apart. and, of course, the captain is about to send them through a huge area empty area of space with no planets for them to retrieve raw materials from to keep the crew alive...
armor, by john steakley, is what starship troopers SHOULD have been. unlike ST, which does not focus on characters, and instead on trying to get some political opinions across, armor is very character-focused. it's pretty much a ripoff of the ant planet chapter of ST, but done so much better; the main character is the only survivor of the hundreds or so that he is dropped with, and he continues to be the only survivor repeatedly as he's sent down time after time (far beyond the point where he should be dropped--they're supposed to stop at like 8 drops or so). the only problem i had with the book is that halfway through, it switches from having the sole POV of fenix (the dropee) to a set of characters who find his armor years later and begin to examine the automatic recording the suit made while felix was fighting. they proceed to try to figure out his character, and what happened to him after the POV switch.i would have preferred to stick with felix all the way through...oh well. anyway, very good read.
another armor series is um...the sand wars books by charles ingrid. they were recently reprinted in two volumes, with three books apiece, i think. it's probably the best armor series i've read, though not as good as the felix segments of Armor.
another sci-fi/fantasy thing is heroes die, by mathew woodring stover. basically it's set in the future, where technology has advanced to the point where people can be sent into alternate worlds. the main character is the most famous adventurer of all time; he's an entertainer, who gets sent into a fantasy world while all of earth experiences what he does through a neat sensory recording--they literally BECOME him as he does these things, though of course they have no control over the actions. they can hear his thoughts, feel everything he does, etc. of course, the problem comes in when his ex-wife, also an actor whose character is in the same world, loses her connection to the "real" world without knowing it; she has only a few days before the energy that established her there is lost and she becomes smeared across the multiverse or whatever. a very good book, and the main character's attitude is well done rather refreshing to read. there is a followup book, but i haven't read it, since it sounds like it is mostly focusing on the "real" world and the aftermath of the things the character did in the first novel. again, very good, though not all that focused on the sci-fi aspects of the story.
hm. i read a trilogy some years back by chris bunch, but i can't recall what it was. it's probably out of print, anyway. the main character was a telepath or something, and was trying to save a race of aliens...*looks it up...* shadow warrior, it was called. the original books are out of print, i think, but a hardcover omnibus came out in june 03, and a paperback one is due out next month. i'll have to pick that up...
I was reading an ongoing story online. The general storyline was about a man and his wife being pulled thru a portal to help against the ongoing evil taking over the world. It turned out he was a weretiger and son of the "Dragon". His wife and he decided to help and using magic asked his brothers and friends to help also. One of those friends turned out to be an elf from this sphere. The main character becomes not only a were tiger but the queens champion and a powerful mage.
I lost track of the url that had this story when my system crashed. Would like to pick it up again and find out how many chapters have been posted since I last read it. If any one can direct me to a site that may have this story line on it I would appreciate it.
