Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

New members, Welcome to the SF&HF Group!

We are a group sharing an interest in science fiction and fantasy books, though we don't limit conversations to just books.

If you have the time, please use this topic to introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your tastes in fantasy and science fiction.

We have a number of General SF&F Topics under discussion.

Also, over the course of each month we select three works of science fiction or fantasy for more detailed discussion. (One classical science fiction or fantasy novel, one contemporary SF/F novel, and one short story, novella, or anthology of SF/F.) You'll find all our past discussions in our Book Discussions folder. Those are never closed, so feel free to add your opinions anytime!

The Recommendations Folder has member recommendations based on specific sub-genre topics, and our Award Folder has some information on award-nominated and award-winning sci-fi and fantasy for the last couple of years.

The SF/F Movie, TV & Video Game Chat provides a venue for discussing SciFi & Fantasy outside of books: TV, radio, the movies, VoD, Video Games and the like.

The Just for Fun folder is for discussing topics not specifically related to science fiction or fantasy.

If you're looking for a way to motivate yourself to read some SF/F books, we have a number of SF/F Group Challenges. You can find out more about them here.

Members who are also authors of science fiction and fantasy are invited to promote their work in our our Promotions folder. We ask that you limit your promotions to that folder and post at most one post a week.

And we have several other Folders which hopefully explain themselves!

So, welcome to the conversation!

Hi there.
The mere fact of being here probably shows I'm just a voracious reader like most of you. Hard SF, SF opera, classic SF, actually almost any SF will do for me. Fantasy less so.
Cheers!

Paps wrote: "Hi there. The mere fact of being here probably shows I'm just a voracious reader like most of you. Hard SF, SF opera, classic SF, actually almost any SF will do for me. Fantasy less so."

Hi, Papa, and welcome to the group. I hope you'll join some of our discussions.

Welcome, Paps. It's good to hear that you enjoy a range of sci-fi. It's such a broad genre, there's plenty to explore and enjoy.

Nick wrote: "Hi all, I am a long time reader of science fiction and fantasy novels and thought it would be nice to join a group with like minded individuals. Particular favourites of mine (current favourites a..."

Welcome to the group, Nick. Glad to have you join us.

As it happens, Feist's Magician it is our Classic Fantasy Novel discussion for the month, and if you're so inclined, please jump right into the conversation. We also have a number of Sanderson discussions, and plenty of Wheel of Time and Dresden fans around, too.

Welcome, Nick. I hope you enjoy the discussions here.

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson has been on my TBR list for a while. I really need to get through some more reading this year.

I read a great post by Sanderson last year in which he talks about lengthy fantasy books and his vision for Words of Radiance. I like that he describes it as the piece of art he wanted to make.

http://torforgeblog.com/2014/03/03/wo...

Hi,

I'm a fan of a lot of genres but Sci-fi and fantasy are my favourite. I love getting lost it the worlds authors create and the endless possibilities for what can happen.

I look forward to joining in some conversations with the group

Thanks

David

David wrote: "Hi, I'm a fan of a lot of genres but Sci-fi and fantasy are my favourite. I love getting lost it the worlds authors create and the endless possibilities for what can happen...."

Hello, David, and welcome to the group. We look forward to reading your comments as well. (Jump right in and anywhere.)

Welcome, David. I really enjoy the possibilities of sci-fi and fantasy too. I like how the genres range from realistic, near-future, hard sci-fi to wonderfully imaginative, breathtaking fantasy.

I look forward to seeing you around on the discussion threads.

Hi everyone!

I'm Adeba. I love many genres but fantasy and science fiction are my favorites. I'm interested in pretty much every sub-genre of fantasy. For science fiction, I prefer any sub-genre except classical because that's the only science fiction I've read so far (it was the only type of science fiction available in my school library and in the bookshops in my country).

My favorite authors are J. K. Rowling, J. R. R. Tolkien, Eoin Colfer, Rick Riordan and Jules Verne.

Adeba wrote: "Hi everyone! I'm Adeba. I love many genres but fantasy and science fiction are my favorites. I'm interested in pretty much every sub-genre of fantasy. For science fiction, I prefer any sub-genre ..."

Welcome to the group, Adeba. (And welcome to Goodreads as well.) Hi, Andrew, and welcome aboard. Join in any conversation you see that interest you, or start a new one if you'd like to talk about something different. We look forward to reading your thoughts.

Leonard wrote: "Hi everyone! I joined the group about a week ago, so I think it is time I introduce myself. I am Leonard, I enjoy reading different genres; at the moment it is all SciFi & Fantasy...."

Hi, Leonard. Welcome to the group. Sounds like you got a couple good reads going at the moment. I look forward to reading your comments and the group.

Welcome, Adeba and Leonard. It sounds like you're both Rick Riordan fans. :)

G33z3r wrote: "Adeba wrote: "Hi everyone! I'm Adeba. I love many genres but fantasy and science fiction are my favorites. I'm interested in pretty much every sub-genre of fantasy. For science fiction, I prefer an..."

Thank you :)

D.K. wrote: "Welcome, Adeba and Leonard. It sounds like you're both Rick Riordan fans. :)"

Thanks :)

Hello. My name is Matt. I am voracious reader of lots of stuff including science fiction and fantasy. I am currently reading Lord Foul's Bane.

Matt wrote: "Hello. My name is Matt. I am voracious reader of lots of stuff including science fiction and fantasy. I am currently reading Lord Foul's Bane."

Welcome to the group, Matt. Please make yourself at home, join a conversation or two, or start a new one!

Welcome, Matt. I look forward to seeing you around in the discussions.

Hello, I'm Thomas.
About 40 years ago I found "Have spacesuit, will travel" in the local library. If I'd picked another book that day, the universe wouldn't be what it is today.
My choice started a chain reaction with unforeseen consequences. Worlds have been shattered, billions have died, and I do not doubt that more will follow.

On the other hand I have made some remarkable discoveries and I try to keep notes of everything, hoping that someone someday will find the truth of what really happened.

I'll try to send messages when I'm within reach but as the universe sometimes doesn't allow communication, I cannot make any promises.

Thomas wrote: "Hello, I'm Thomas. About 40 years ago I found "Have spacesuit, will travel" in the local library. If I'd picked another book that day, the universe wouldn't be what it is today...."

Hi, Thomas, and welcome to the group. I think you'll find we have plenty of Heinlein fans around here. I hope you'll join in the conversation whenever you get a chance.

Hi all! I've been on Goodreads for a while, but only now am I starting to get how it all works :) I love classic heroic fantasy, especially the Lord of the Rings and C.S. Lewis's Cosmic Trilogy. In scifi, I'm only starting to get back into it after being a huge fan of the classics in my childhood: Asimov, Clarke, Bradbury, etc. Recently I've been getting into a lot of Gene Wolfe and John C. Wright. Always looking for that voice that you immediately know will be remembered for centuries to come.

Hey everyone, so I'm a college student who reads a lot. I'm heavily into fantasy. Whether it's epic or urban or historical fantasy depends on my mood.But suffice it to say that fantasy is a favourite genre of mine. So favourite books, as an 18 year old, I've obviously grown up with Harry Potter, so like many young people HP is a particular favourite.More recently, I can't get enough of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series. Carrying on with Butcher, I also loved his Codex Alera series. I'm eagerly anticipating the release of Peace Talks

Nicholas wrote: "Hi all! I've been on Goodreads for a while, but only now am I starting to get how it all works :) I love classic heroic fantasy, especially the Lord of the Rings and C.S. Lewis's Cosmic Trilogy...."

Robin wrote: "Hey everyone, so I'm a college student who reads a lot. I'm heavily into fantasy. Whether it's epic or urban or historical fantasy depends on my mood. But suffice it to say that fantasy..."

Welcome to the group, Nicholas & Robin! I hope you find some time to join us for some SF/F talk.

Always happy to talk mate.

Welcome, Thomas. I hope you're able to transmit a message now and then. Best wishes with your discoveries.

Welcome, Nicholas. I'm a big fan of Asimov and Clarke too. Kim Stanley Robinson's work is also very impressive.

Welcome, Robin. I really enjoyed the Harry Potter series as well. Fantasy is such a broad, diverse genre - there are so many fantastic stories to explore.

Hi Guys!

Been on goodreads for a while now and have been consistently getting the urge to find a good forum/discussion to join about the books I read.

If I said to you I was predominantly a gamer and gaming is my primary interest, that would maybe sully your opinion of me. However, books are essentially the ONLY thing that will stop me from gaming :) so make of that what you will.

I predominantly read sci fi and fantasy but do read most other genres and am open to good recommendations of any type :)

Cheers,

Ozy.

Hello folks,
I have been a reader for a long time. I read mostly scifi/fantasy. Cut my teeth on Starship Troopers, The Bolo books, and the Hammer Slammers. First fantsy novel I read was "Once a Hero". But I love history, science, Philosophy (New to it yet). Favorite Authors Mike Shepherd (Moscoe), John Ringo, Dan Abnett (Hard to list "Favorites") anyway. Im also an author who writes scifi as well :D

I look forward to some good discussions.

Fred

Ozy wrote: "Hi Guys! Been on goodreads for a while now and have been consistently getting the urge to find a good forum/discussion to join about the books I read.
If I said to you I was predominantly a gamer..."

Hi, Ozy, and welcome to the group. Please make yourself at home. (Our robo-butler Jarvis hasn't been around this year, so you'll have to brew your own klah, sorry. :)

I wouldn't say I'm "predominantly" a gamer, but I do turn on the old PS3 frequently, mostly for just a few games I've come to enjoy but replay a lot (e.g. Mass Effect, Dragon Age.) Right now I'm on my second pass through DA: Inquisition (unless I count the 5-10 times I've deleted the game after the first 15 minutes after deciding I didn't like the way my character looked!) Feel free to pitch some of your own favorites in our What are your Favorite SciFi / Fantasy Video Games topic. :)

Or join any of our book conversations, or recommend something you liked to others.

Ozy wrote: "I predominantly read sci fi and fantasy but do read most other genres..."

There are other genres? :)

Fred wrote: "Hello folks, I have been a reader for a long time. I read mostly scifi/fantasy. Cut my teeth on Starship Troopers, The Bolo books, and the Hammer Slammers. First fantasy novel I read was "Once a Her..."

Welcome to the group, Fred. Glad to have another David Drake fan on board. His Hammer's Slammers military sci-fi was a lot of fun to read. Sounds like you could add some interesting perspective to our Favorite Military sci-fi novels topic if you'd like.

Welcome, Ozy. Great games are just another form of storytelling. Back in the day, I really enjoyed exploring the worlds of Quest for Glory, Gabriel Knight and Final Fantasy. And I think several of the Assassin's Creed games have been nominated for Writers Guild of America awards.

But I'm glad you enjoy books as well! There's something very satisfying and lovely about the written word. I hope you find some great recommendations on the forums. :)

Hi everyone. I'm R.S. Mellette
I am the author of Billy Bobble Makes A Magic Wand which mixes hard sci-fi with magic.

Besides Billy Bobble, I also was a writer's assistant on Xena: Warrior Princess, and wrote The Xena Scrolls for Universal's website - so Xenites, feel free to get in touch, though I'm not going to know much beyond the first two seasons, since that's all I worked.

Everyone else, I hope you'll enjoy Billy Bobble Makes A Magic Wand

Welcome, Fred and RS. Best wishes with your books.

Hey, all. [wave] I'm Angie. I write SFF under this name and romance under another one. I just got this account established and decided to start poking around under my SFF persona, which is weird because I've been reading SF longer than romance, but anyway. :)

I've been writing mostly short fiction lately. I have stories out in a couple of anthologies, and more coming out this year. I love reading, of course, but only have time for it in waves, and I spread my reading time over a number of genres plus various nonfiction areas.

I watched Trek Classic in first run, and played Star Trek on the playground when I was six. I discovered Star Trek books when I was eleven (not that there were many back then) and tripped over Gerrold and Ellison's other work a couple of years later, which led me to the hard stuff. [grin]

I started reading fantasy as well, somewhere in there, and I do like it a lot, but my first love is SF. Talking about specific favorites, whether writers or books, would probably take more verbage than this box can hold (I've always sucked at choosing favorites) so I'm just going to spare everyone and skip that for now.

I hardly have any books attached to this account right now, but we have thousands of SFF books around the house, thousands more nonfiction, plus assorted mystery, war, YA, a few thrillers, some memoirs, and a lot of reference books. Plus a few thousand romances, but those are going up on my other account. I imagine I'll add books here as I read them, and I might occasionally get on an organizing kick and enter in a batch or two.

It's funny -- looking at my SF reading the last few months, I've been mostly catching up on a bunch of Asimovs' I have lying around, plus a few other mags and some webzines I wander over to at times, which don't get marked down here. (They don't, right?) Some great stuff in the zines, both paper and web, if you're into shorter work.

Later all! [wave]

Angie

Hello everyone!

Reading is a huge passion of mine and I love diving into the worlds of science fiction and fantasy. I have a few short story/novel ideas I am working on and have one on my profile titled 'The Utopia Ship' if anyone wants to check it out and provide any pointers. Great to find many fans of such a great genre and glad to be here.

Thanks!

Hey, folks!

Believe it or not, even as an avid reader I never strayed into the sci fi & fantasy genre until last year! I started with Ender's Game, then went on to read Hyperion, I, Robot, The Fall of Hyperion, and I, Robot: to Protect. I'm also a big fan of asoiaf.

Since reading those books, sci fi and fantasy has dominated my to-read list. I'd love to read some more classics as well as more recent pieces of sci fi and fantasy since I don't know too many series or books that have come out in the past 5 years for this genre.

My main interest right now is mostly hard science and artificial intelligence. I also enjoy space operas with excellent world building. Aside from asoiaf, I'm still fairly new to fantasy as a whole.

I'm really excited to find more recommendations and actually discuss these works! A lot of my friends aren't readers (tsk, tsk) and those that are have no real interest in this genre. Right now I'm reading I, Robot: to Obey by Mickey Zucker Reichert.

Nice to meet you all!

Kelsey wrote: "Hey, folks! Believe it or not, even as an avid reader I never strayed into the sci fi & fantasy genre until last year! I started with Ender's Game, then went on to read Hyperion, I, Robot,..."

Welcome to the group, Kelsey. If you're looking for suggestions of SF/F to read, you might find our Recommendations folder a good place to start. It contains lists of member favorites in various sub-genre's of Science Fiction and Fantasy. And if you don't see what you're looking for, start a new topic of your own!

Kelsey wrote: "Hey, folks!

Believe it or not, even as an avid reader I never strayed into the sci fi & fantasy genre until last year! I started with Ender's Game, then went on to read Hyperion, I, Robot, The Fal..."

Hey, Kelsey! [wave]

For some really good hard SF, I suggest James P. Hogan, especially his earlier work. Inherit the Stars is his first book and a great puzzle story. For truly awesome worldbuilding, I highly recommend Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosiganverse, which begins with Shards of Honor. As you go through the series, she keeps adding more and more -- Cetaganda is a particularly awesome piece of worldbuilding, as well as being a great story. I love her characters, too.

Angie

Welcome, Angie. It's great to meet another Star Trek fan.

I've only read a few of Lois McMaster Bujold's books and I really need to find some time to read more of them.

Best wishes with your writing!

Welcome, Kelsey. I'm a big fan of Isaac Asimov's work, and his books are one of the reasons I developed such a fascination for robotics and AI.

Some of the sci fi classics I've enjoyed include Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, Robert J. Sawyer's books eg. Flashforward, and Carl Sagan is one of the masters.

I'm sure you'll find lots of recommendations in the various discussion threads!

Hi all,
As both reader and writer, I'm happy to find this group. I appreciate that you have a "Promotions & Advertisements" folder where I can promote my latest book, 2048 : A Diary.
Thanks!

Hi Everyone,

My name is Alia, and I thought I should finally join some groups on Goodreads. I read widely, much of it in sci fi, fantasy and general speculative literature. I like everything from classic sci fi to modern urban fantasy. I have most recently finished Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness and Legends: short novels from the masters of modern fantasy. I'm currently starting on The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood and listening to Neil Gaiman's American Gods on audio. I look forward to getting to know everyone!

Hi Alia,

Just joined this group myself today. I am hoping to learn more about sci-fi and promote my own novel about the future set in London. . . but I don't think I'm allowed to mention its title here.
Anyway, welcome, and cheers!
Jim

Alia wrote: "Hi Everyone, My name is Alia, and I thought I should finally join some groups on Goodreads. I read widely, much of it in sci fi, fantasy and general speculative literature. ..."

Hi, Alia, and welcome to the group. Please make yourself at home and drop in on any discussions that catch your eye. I look forward to reading your comments!

Hi guys. I'm Peter. I was born in 1980 in Vienna and still live my quiet life in Austria (cows, not kangaroos) working in IT services as developer since 2000. I started reading fantasy and science-fiction in my teens when I stumbled upon the books of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams. Later on I loved the Cheysuli books of Jennifer Roberson, the Dune novels by Frank Herbert and the Darkover series by Marion Zimmer Bradley. In the last years my focus was on books/series by Anne Bishop, Andrzej Sapkowski, Joe Abercrombie, Seanan McGuire and Brandon Sanderson (among others).

I'm currently reading:
* Firefight (Reckoners #2) by Brandon Sanderson

This is a list of books I've been reading this last few weeks (since the holidays):
* Tower Lord (Raven's Shadow #2) by Anthony Ryan
* The Crown Tower (The Riyria Chronicles #1) by Michael J. Sullivan
* Sparrow Hill Road (Ghost Stories #1) by Seanan McGuire
* A Guile of Dragons (A Tournament of Shadows #1) by James Enge

Welcome, James. Best wishes with your books!

Welcome, Alia. The Left Hand of Darkness has been on my TBR list for a while. I hope to get to it soon.

Peter wrote: "Hi guys. I'm Peter. I was born in 1980 in Vienna and still live my quiet life in Austria (cows, not kangaroos) working in IT services as developer since 2000. I started reading fantasy and science-fiction in my teens..."

Welcome to the group, Peter. I hope you'll make yourself at home here. Over the past years we've discussed a bunch of books by Brandon Sanderson, as well as a Riyria & Seanan McGuire's alter ego Mira Grant. (I'm reading McGuire's Discount Armageddon at the moment, though in audio book form.)

Hi everyone! my name is José and I'm from Uruguay.I'm a huge fan of fantasy and sci-fi,my favourite books are the Lord of the Rings trilogy,Dune and the Malaz book of the fallen.

Right now I'm finishing the First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie and I plan to start reading the Asimov's novels (I don't know where to start though).

This seems to be a great group,I look forward to read some books with you guys!Feel free to add me as friend to share reviews and recommendations :).

(Sorry for my grammar mistakes,english isn't my first language)

Jose -- my favorite Asimov novels are The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun. The Foundation Trilogy is good too. And if you read the later-written sequels, the two eventually merge, which is pretty cool the way he pulls it off.

He wrote some great short stories, too. There are a lot of collections. Probably his best known short story is "Nightfall," so any collection with that one in it would be a good place to start.

Angie

Angela wrote: "Jose -- my favorite Asimov novels are The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun. The Foundation Trilogy is good too. And if you read the later-written sequels, t..."

Great! Thanks for the advice Angela I'll add those books.