Recommend me some sci-fi and fantasy reading

ennspek

If you enjoyed the Thomas Covenant stuff Stephen Donaldson also wrote a sci-fi series. I think it was called The Gap Cycle. 
I admit it unfortunately sounds like a setting on a washing machine but hey ho.

Chuffola

I’d forgotten about The Gap series but it’s absolutely fantastic. Dark and gritty space opera - superb characters and writing. Highly recommended.

boogieman

Thanks everyone so far, some interesting sounding suggestions, keep ‘em coming. 

Thinking about it, my son has mentioned reading some of the Robin Hobb and Joe Abercrombie books. I’ll see what he says about them.

@RandallFlagg I started the Dark Tower series but I thought it got a bit stupid around the talking monorail train point so I gave up. I like Stephen King generally otherwise.  

fob

Another less well known book (but great) is 'A Canticle For Leibowitz' by Walter Miller.

'Axiomatic' by Greg Egan is another common recommendation of mine. It's a collection of short stories and, however imaginative you think you might be, you just have to sit back and be awed by some truly leftfield thinking.

Some stone-cold classics that I'm a little surprised haven't been mentioned yet:

'Ender's Game' by Orson Scott Card - infinitely better than the film.

'The Martian' by Andy Weir - ditto

'Red Mars' by Kim Stanley Robinson - first in a trilogy (followed by Green & Blue) that were so influential that the billionaire playboys that talk of settling Mars for real have suggested that the Martian flag should be red/green/blue.

'Hyperion' by Dan Simmons - the Cantebury Tales in space. Way better than that makes it sound.

guitargeek62

TheBigDipper said:

I just did this a few weeks ago for a mate who'd never really tried any sci-fi. Try some of these...

Robert A Heinlein:

The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress ** 

Stranger In A Strange Land

Starship Troopers

The Door Into Summer

Ursula K Le Guin:

The Dispossessed ** 

The Left Hand Of Darkness ** 

The Word For World Is Forest

Philip K Dick:

A Scanner Darkly ** 

Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? 

John Brunner:

Stand On Zanzibar ** 

The Jagged Orbit **

Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle:

The Mote In Gods Eye **

Joe Haldeman:

The Forever War **

Frank Herbert:

Dune **

Lucius Shepherd:

Life During Wartime **

James Blish:

Cities In Flight ( 4 books telling a big story set over centuries, but can all be read independently. The 3rd, Earthman Come Home, is the best) ** 

Robert Silverberg:

Dying Inside ** 

JG Ballard:

High Rise 

Terry Pritchett & Stephen Baxter:

The Long Earth

Seriously good list, you’ve got some corkers on there - some of my all-time favourites!

I’d add the books 2 & 3 of Dune too, they take a great setup and really build on it - much the same way as Foundation in that sense.

@Boogieman - with your interest in crime novels then you really have to read Philip K. Dicks works, they’re generally film noir types in believable futures. For short stories or a slightly different/lighter* spin on things you have to read some other sci-fi classics too: H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Arthur C. Clarke, William Gibson and Ray Bradbury. 

The latter’s, ‘The Illustrated Man’ is a perfect sci-fi short-story collection imo, that things like Dark Mirror owe a lot to - albeit with an ever darker edge that we seem to devour in spades these days. 

LuttiS

Craig Alanson - Expeditionary Force 
Joe Abercrombie - blade itself series 

Joe Haldeman - the forever war

Raymond Feist - magician 
Philip Hamilton - commonwealth saga

monquixote

The Bobiverse series are great.

Self aware replicating space (Von Neumann) probes.

Cols

@TheBigDipper has knocked it out of the park with his sci-fi list.

donbot

Another Robin Hobb recommendation. The Assassin trilogy is great. 

Jasper Fford has written some pretty funny unusual books too The Fourth Bear and The Big Overeasy are pretty good. 

Christopher Moore’s Fool and The Serpent of Venice are two of the funniest kinda fantasy books I’ve ever read. I’d recommend those two to anyone who can read. 

Obviously there’s Pratchett. I’d go with Small Gods. That’s his best IMO. 

KDS

boogieman said:

drofluf said:

Have you tried Iain M Banks, Alastair Reynolds or Ken McCleod?

I’ve got a vague memory of owning The Wasp Factory (is that Iain M Banks?) but can’t remember much about it. No idea on the other two, I shall Google. Thanks. 

yes Wasp factory is ian M banks

Nitefly

Another vote here for the Kim Stanley Robinson Mars trilogy, @boogieman - really well thought out as to how Mars might be colonised. 

Should we or shouldn't we "terraform" it, and how could you do it?  What about colonies that "splinter off" from the main colony?  What if another Earth nation established a rival colony?

All these questions, and more, are dealt with 

HAL9000

Neil Gaiman
   Neverwhere
   Stardust
   American Gods

Erin Morgenstern
   The Night Circus
   The Starless Sea

Melvin Peake
   The Gormenghast Trilogy

 Mark Z Danielewski
   House of Leaves

Andrew Caldecott
   The Rotherweird trilogy

jdgm

Roger Zelazny - many excellent stories inc Lord Of Light, Today We Choose Faces, the 1st 5 books in the Amber series - 9 Princes in Amber etc.

Alfred Bester - The Demolished Man and Tiger, Tiger are classics.

Someone has already mentioned James Blish - Black Easter and The Day After Judgement are 2 more of his best.

boogieman

HAL9000 said:

Neil Gaiman
   Neverwhere
   Stardust
   American Gods

Erin Morgenstern
   The Night Circus
   The Starless Sea

Melvin Peake
   The Gormenghast Trilogy

 Mark Z Danielewski
   House of Leaves

I’ve read American Gods and liked it a lot. I also had a copy of Gormenghast sonewhere, must see if I can find it again. 

Brio

Neal Stephenson:
Snow Crash
Diamond Age
Cryptonomicon
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.
These are the SF titles I like but there is a lot more fantasy stuff from him.

The Laundry Files by  Charles Stross is a great series crossing between SF and fantasy with deliberate spy fiction styling. Read them in order.

Brio

Alfred Bester is a great shout. Tiger, Tiger is the best teleportation story in my mind. Usually sold as The Stars my destination.

HAL9000

Brio said:

Neal Stephenson:
Snow Crash
Diamond Age
Cryptonomicon
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.
These are the SF titles I like but there is a lot more fantasy stuff from him.

The Laundry Files by  Charles Stross is a great series crossing between SF and fantasy with deliberate spy fiction styling. Read them in order.

Ooh.. good call. I’d forgotten Neal Stephenson but I’ve read most of his and they’ve been consistently excellent.

bacchanalian

Some great recommendations already

Day of the Triffids is one of the very few books I have read more than once
Caves of Steel and Naked Sun in Asimov's Robot sequence
Flowers for Algernon

Search Amazon for SF Masterworks. Does a nice job of collating many of the classics

If you grew up in the 70s or 80s Ready Player One is good fun

stratology

Binti series by Nnedi Okorafor

Themis series (Sleeping Giants/Waking Gods/Only Human) by Sylvain Neuvel

Ancillary Justice/Sword/Mercy by Ann Leckie

The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu



Old, but a must read if you're not familiar with it:
Uplift series by David Brin


If you count super hero related writing as SF: 'Soon I will be Invincible' by Austin Grossman is one of the best books written in the history of mankind.

Snags

+1 for Rotherweird.

If you like a more modern fantasy, the Rivers of London books are good, too (Ben Aaronavitch)