Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

Hey Everyone, I was reading through some of the recommendations when I started to notice something. I had never heard of most of the books being mentioned. Which is fantastic because I love to find new gems. Besides you ask five SF/F fans for book recommendations your likely to get twenty books you never heard of :)

Anyway I thought I'd start this topic so everyone could put up a few SF/F books that they really enjoyed but don't get mentioned often elsewhere.

Here's some of mine,

The Red Knight, Miles Cameron, Basically this book is Legend and Lord of the Rings mixed together perfectly. While the sequels kind of suck this book is a great read and I rarely see anyone ever mention it.

Alexander Outland Space Pirate by G.J Koch, this book isn't for everyone, but I loved it. It felt very much like Firefly in book form. Admittedly not for everyone but a cracking read anyway.

My last one is a rather famous book but I never see anyone mention it at all. It's a collection of novels and novellas called the Prince by Jerry Pournelle and S.M Stirling, split roughly into two parts the first follow Falkenberg and his mercenary Legion and the second mainly focuses on the planet of Sparta and the Prince Lysander. It is probably my favorite military sci fi book. If you like highly realistic battle scenes and a fantastic treatment of army traditions than I would really recommend this book.

Post below with your own :)

I don't know if I know a lot of obscure ones, some of these might by more well-known that I think.

Fantasy:

Riyria by Michael J Sullivan

Faerie Wars by Herbie Brennan (YA, read it years ago but still good)

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett

Sci-Fi:

Contact by Carl Sagan

Gridlinked by Neal Asher

Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky

The Meek by Scott McKay (very Avatar-ish)

I read about ten pages of metro 2033 could not finish it. Did it pick up, i found out it very slow

Daniel wrote: "I read about ten pages of metro 2033 could not finish it. Did it pick up, i found out it very slow"

I don't really remember what I thought of it in the beginning in particular, but I ended up loving it and giving it 5 stars.

Man of Many Minds is an old space opera that I've always enjoyed. It's free on Gutenberg here.

Few seem to list Keith Laumer any more. He's best known for his Bolo universe (others also wrote in it) & his Retief! series, but he has a lot of other good books, too. Earthblood & The Long Twilight are 2 of my favorites. All SF.

Dinner. More later.

Fantasy: The Savage Empire books by Jean Lorrah were something I liked, but haven't read in years. Something about telepathy in a post apocalyptic world, I think.

Fred Saberhagen wrote some interesting fantasy/SF books besides his main series: Swords (fantasy) & Berserkers (SF). Octagon, Merlin's Bones, & his Thorn (Dracula) series were good, too.

Sterling E. Lanier wrote Hiero's Journey & other books about a barbarian in a post apocalyptic world. He rides a moose, IIRC.

Adrian wrote: "I don't know if I know a lot of obscure ones, some of these might by more well-known that I think."

Riryia has had not just one but two group discussions (both several years ago.)

And both Contact & Hogfather have had movie adaptations.

SCIENCE FICTION
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester - not necessarily "lesser known" but more "neglected," it's a science fiction retelling of the Count of Monte Cristo

Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney - forget the cheesy 1970s film, read the book and watch the black and white movie for maximum effect

The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth - science fiction as commentary on the modern world, as frighteningly prescient as the movie NETWORK - go ahead and read the sequel The Merchants' War also

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton - most people think about dinosaurs when they hear this guy's name, but check out his early science fiction in this book (also worthy are Sphere, Congo and Next)

I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon by Philip K. Dick - short stories by The Man

FANTASY
Master of the Five Magics by Lyndon Hardy - it's baffling why this book is so overlooked, the sequels are progressively less terrific by the way

The Mis-Enchanted Sword by Lawrence Watt-Evans - a laugh-out-loud send-up of genre conventions, first (and I think the best) in the ongoing Ethshar series

Time Master series by Louise Cooper - also Tredana series by Joyce Ballou Gregorian - fantasy series by female authors which otherwise have not much in common besides being often overlooked

Love this topic. I don't really know what's considered "lesser known", some of the books mentioned here I definitely wouldn't call obscure but here are a few I've given five stars to that don't seem to be that well known, judging by the low numbers of reviews they've received.

The Year of Our War by Steph Swainston - The first book of her Fourlands series is a bizarre mix of China Mieville, Starship Troopers and Final Fantasy. A unique author, and I'm glad that it looks like she's returned to writing again and her fifth book is coming out this year.

Mind of My Mind by Octavia Butler - My favourite book from one of Butler's less popular series.

In Viriconium by M. John Harrison - One of my favourite fantasy books because it shows just how much of fantasy's potential other authors aren't using. It isn't strictly necessary to read the other Viriconium books, they won't help make sense of this one.

Randy wrote: "Master of the Five Magics Master of the Five Magics by Lyndon Hardy by Lyndon Hardy "

What? That's a book, and not just a Megadeth song? Now I have to read it!

A lot of my obscure faves are just lesser-known works by my favorite writers- Jack Vance and Roger Zelazny.

Faves by authors that don't get talked about much are:
The Worm Ouroboros- a great pre-LotR fantasy saga
Day of the Giants- a fun and exciting use of Norse myths in a sci fi setting
Despoilers of the Golden Empire- an excellent short story about space soldiers with a surprising ending
The Great God Pan- an awesomely creepy precursor to Lovecraft
The White Mountains- a YA sci fi classic that nobody seems to talk about anymore

Good call on Lawrence Watt-Evans, Randy. He doesn't get enough love. The Cyborg and the Sorcerers was the first book of his I read. Fun & well written.

Brendan, Mind of My Mind was the first of Butler's books that I read & my favorite, too. I really liked Patternmaster & Clay's Ark, but haven't gotten into any since then. Her writing changed, I think.

Silverlock is a classic fantasy that used to be very popular. I rarely see it mentioned at all now. Crispan Magicker & Merlin's Ring are a couple of others.

Phil wrote: "Randy wrote: "Master of the Five Magics by Lyndon Hardy "

What? That's a book, and not just a Megadeth song? Now I have to read it!"

Ah, yeah, forgot about the Megadeth song "Five Magics" which was apparently inspired by the book.

Jim wrote: "Good call on Lawrence Watt-Evans, Randy. He doesn't get enough love. The Cyborg and the Sorcerers was the first book of his I read. Fun & well written."

Thanks Jim, I like his stuff too. Also, LWE is the only author I've read who added me as a friend on Goodreads.

I had really enjoyed Villains by Necessity

These are more like soft thrillers with a SF component that I had not heard of until they were recommended to me:

Gene Mapper by Taiyo Fujii

Jennifer Government by Max Barry

So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld

Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge

Some of my favorites that I don't see mentioned a ton:

Blindsight by Peter Watts

The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers

The Last Stormlord by Glenda Larke

Besieged by Rowena Cory Daniells

Transformation by Carol Berg

Deathstalker by Simon R. Green

The Bone Doll's Twin by Lynn Flewelling

I don't see Simon R. Green's Secret History series mentioned much. I wouldn't have heard of them if I hadn't stumbled onto them at the town library. I was intrigued by the Dresden Files crossed with James Bond concept enough to read the first book and I really enjoyed it.

Tani wrote: "Some of my favorites that I don't see mentioned a ton:

Blindsight by Peter Watts

The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers

[book:..."

I love Deathstalker, I found it really cool. Lot of people don't like that one though. Never really understood why. I am on book three so far and dying to get the time to read the next few books.

Mike wrote: "I don't see Simon R. Green's Secret History series mentioned much. I wouldn't have heard of them if I hadn't stumbled onto them at the town library. I was intrigued by the Dresden Files crossed wit..."

Simon R. Green is a great author but although he is prolific I don't think he gets the credit he deserves, practically all his books area awesome. I haven't heard of the secret History ones so I done a quick google and wow, buying the first one next week.

Has anyone else been reading through this and just adding an absolute ton of books to their To Read List. I think the mountain of books i'll buy from this thread alone will crush me :D

Brendan wrote: "Love this topic. I don't really know what's considered "lesser known", some of the books mentioned here I definitely wouldn't call obscure but here are a few I've given five stars to that don't see..."

Ya I thought it was something that would make a great topic, and I've never actually seen anyone else do it before.


To me anything that has a movie adaption is too well known or if it is from a really famous writer, like nothing Neil Gaiman writes is truly obscure :D.

Of course the film thing doesnt always work, I always think John Steakleys Vampires Inc is an underrated work but it had a film adaption. so I dunno :D

Jim wrote: "Man of Many Minds is an old space opera that I've always enjoyed. It's free on Gutenberg here.

Few seem to list Keith Laumer any more. He's best known for his [book:B..."

I've had the Bolo series on my TBR list for ages. I just generally don't like series written by more than one author. But the first book just looks really good.

In science fiction:

The Golden Age by John C. Wright (it is actually a trilogy).

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny.

Axiomatic by Greg Egan (the best collection of hard scifi short stories ever by one author).

The Instrumentality of Mankind by Cordwainer Smith (a saga of short stories).

In fantasy:

I don't see Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock that recommended nowadays, but is a true classic and the inspiration for tons of great concepts considered topical today.

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman doesn't get mentioned enough (in my opinion).

Tani wrote: "Some of my favorites that I don't see mentioned a ton:

The Last Stormlord by Glenda Larke[book:..."

I'll second The Last Stormlord. That was a great one I discovered this year.

I love S. M. Stirling's work (his Change novels especially), but the first thing I ever read by him was his T2 series that played off the original "Terminator" movie. The first one is T2: Infiltrator. Thought he did a GREAT job of bringing the movie characters to life.

My other lesser known series is by Carol Nelson Douglas. The first one is Six of Swords. Love the world and the rich characters. It's nicely romantic as well.

His Dark Materials was huge at one point, everyone I know was reading it, but it's definitely gone completely quiet now.

As for adding books to my to read list, some of these were already there :) Like Simon R. Green stuff (don't recall the series name, the one with the male/female pair lead), Elric, Lord of Light...and I'm intentionally not reading the summaries of others since I've got way too many to read anyway!

Andromeda Strain is great. Been thinking of tossing up a Michael Crichton book as a group read at some point. One of the older ones, I don't like his newer ones as much.

Kivrin wrote: "I love S. M. Stirling's work (his Change novels especially), but the first thing I ever read by him was his T2 series that played off the original "Terminator" movie. The first one is [book:T2: Inf..."

I only just bought the first change novel so Im excited to read that one and find out why its so famous :D

Andrea wrote: "His Dark Materials was huge at one point, everyone I know was reading it, but it's definitely gone completely quiet now.

As for adding books to my to read list, some of these were already there :)..."

Hawke and Fisher I think is the Simon R. Green one, really good. i Like Michael Crichton but some of his novels are terrible. I personally love the first Jurassic Park novel, sequel isnt so good. I also love the Viking one, they made the Movie the 13th Warrior out of it. Can't recal its name. Congo was also really good.

Hawke and Fisher is the one I was thinking of, a coworker had recommended the series

Andrea wrote: "Hawke and Fisher is the one I was thinking of, a coworker had recommended the series"

Ya its very good. I really recommend most of Simon R. Green's writing though. He has some great series. Nightside is also pretty good apparently.

Daniel wrote: "Tani wrote: "Some of my favorites that I don't see mentioned a ton:

Blindsight by Peter Watts

The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear by [author:Walter Moers|3..."

I really really enjoyed the first five Deathstalker books a ton! They're so zany and action-packed, with such great characters! Such fun romps.

I didn't particularly like book 6, but it's been so long since I read it that I can't say if it was actually not as good, or if I was just disgruntled by the time skip/new cast.

The only other thing I've read by Green is the first couple of the Nightside books. they are also amusing, but not as good for me, although I think they may get better as the series goes on. That's usually how urban fantasy goes, and I think that those books will definitely benefit from building up the cast a little.

If you live long enough, all your favorite books become lesser known.

Every year approximately 650 science fiction/fantasy books are published, plus 325 million more are self published. Maybe 100 of these find any real fans at all. By the end of the year, all but about 50 are already lesser-known. By the next year, all but 15 have become lesser-known. (Last year only 15 novels were nominated for a Hugo by 5% or more of WorldCon members.) Soon even these leave memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten.

All this is for the good. You have to muck out the stables every now and then to make room for new... I guess this metaphor isn't going to work very well, is it?

Well, those statistics are certainly, uh, "encouraging" for us aspiring writers. (Or would that be perspiring writers?)

I am heartened by the fact the science fiction/fantasy readers tend to be author oriented. Active writers in the genre will find the popularity of a new title is also good advertising for their works that are on their way to becoming, sigh, lesser known.

65.3 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot!

325 million? Pfft, more like 327.4 million, especially once I'm done!

Randy wrote: "Phil wrote: "Randy wrote: "Master of the Five Magics by Lyndon Hardy "

I agree Randy. It was a fun series.

A lot of books by Tim powers.
I don't see them very often. I discovered him with The Stress of Her Regard who blew my mind with the richness of the story, the reference to great literature, and this kind of twisted history. Then I read The Anubis Gates who, once again, left me wanting for more. I fell in love with The Drawing of the Dark. Completely. On Stranger Tides was lovely as well, taking me in a strange world of pirates and voodoo... Each time Tim Powers takes me by the hand and guides me in a world of magical words, exquisitely described scene and even more complicated characters. Did I say I love this author?