Best Modern Fantasy and SF

[Madalch]

I like Tad Williams, even though his first novel, Chaser's Tail, was fun (although it had a very disappointing ending).

Tailchaser's Song? The one with the cats?

I remember liking it, but not much more than that.

 

[supercorgi]

Tailchaser's Song? The one with the cats?

I remember liking it, but not much more than that.

Yeah that's the one, I thought it was charming (guess you have to be a cat person) but the ending was a flop.

 

[Praktik]

I read The Road about two months ago. My reaction is 'meh'.

I watched The Proposition last night. I didn't like it, so between the book and the director, I am not expecting much from the movie.

Hehe!

Different strokes!

Loved them both..

 

[RobRoy]

I read The Road about two months ago. My reaction is 'meh'.

Out of curiosity, are do you have children? I'm not saying this to fling it in your face or anything. I just wondered, as my wife was either about to give birth or had just given birth to our first son when I read this book, so I wonder if that didn't color my own personal perceptions regarding its worth.

 

[Ixion]

My wife and I do not have children of our own (but we have cared for and played a large role in raising several children). I concede that those emotions could play a large role in the liking of the book, but, then, I am not that interested in reading books simply as an appeal to emotion.

I have not read anything else by Cormac McCarthy, so I don't know if it is simply his writing style I don't care for or the scope of the book.

 

[Madalch]

Yeah that's the one, I thought it was charming (guess you have to be a cat person) but the ending was a flop.

I think you mistake my meaning. I remember that I liked the book, but that's about all I remember.

I think there was a bit containing a story of an evil cat which rebels against the cat-god, and fights until he loses his tail, his claws, and nearly all his fur. He is then renamed "Man" and sentences to serve the other cats eternally.

And something about an undead lich-cat at the end? And Tailchaser finishes his quest, goes home, and find that the babe he was trying to impress is now far too domesticated to be of any interest to him....?

 

[RobRoy]

My wife and I do not have children of our own (but we have cared for and played a large role in raising several children). I concede that those emotions could play a large role in the liking of the book, but, then, I am not that interested in reading books simply as an appeal to emotion.

Exactly. The book may be mediocre, but my own circumstances may have colored the way I viewed the book when I was reading it. Pleasent memories evoked by an appropriate novel. <shrug>

I have not read anything else by Cormac McCarthy, so I don't know if it is simply his writing style I don't care for or the scope of the book.

I haven't either, but as an author I have read, I didn't like the style in which he crafted his dialogue.

 

[elevatedsteve]

I think that Eric Nylund's books Signal to Noise and the sequel A Shattered Signal were really good.

I just finished reading Trigger by Todd Durrant and I would suggest you check that one out too. (I have heard that a sequel is on the way, but it is not available yet.)

Another one that I think you should read is Improbable by Adam Fawer

 

[Winterfrost]

So my question is, are there any sci-fi books that take one wrinkle and really run with it?

The Truth Machine by James Halperin, about the creation of the first 100% accurate lie detector (and the human cost to develop it).

Some of his "conclusions" are possibly naive, but the ideas he presents on how such a thing might ultimately affect society have been fuel for a few very interesting discussions with friends and family over the years.

How would your life change if you couldn't lie?

 

[supercorgi]

I think you mistake my meaning. I remember that I liked the book, but that's about all I remember.

I think there was a bit containing a story of an evil cat which rebels against the cat-god, and fights until he loses his tail, his claws, and nearly all his fur. He is then renamed "Man" and sentences to serve the other cats eternally.

And something about an undead lich-cat at the end? And Tailchaser finishes his quest, goes home, and find that the babe he was trying to impress is now far too domesticated to be of any interest to him....?

Yeah that's the book. But at the end I think the cat he was interested in was spayed and he just went away. I just remember it as a let down (maybe I was hoping for hot kitty sex!)

 

[arthwollipot]

I've finished Little Fuzzy - loved it, by the way, and I've started re-reading War of the Worlds, which is a masterpiece of science fiction - although I'm not sure whether it counts as "modern" as per the OP (it was written in 1898). I'm currently looking for more free books to download to my iPhone.

 

[Soapy Sam]

Always nice to come across someone else who has read Cherryh and would recommend her. Most of my friends have difficulty with books like Foreigner, where you may go most of a long chapter almost entirely inside the main character's internal self-dialogue.

Cherryh's Chanur Saga was quite possibly the first sci-fi I ever read. Ah, such fond memories. Cherryh's ability to invent and flesh out alien species and civilizations that are so completely antithetical to normal human thought has always amazed me. The fact that, in the Chanur Saga, the SINGLE human character isn't even the main character is exceptional; that Cherryh has the ability to write a story where you, a human reader, feel that the only human in the story is the alien... Such a talent she has.

Yes, I'm gushing, but I happen to be a huge fan of Cherryh's sci-fi work.

I'm rather happy that there's a 10th Bren book (as Cherryh calls them) in the works.

Just re-read "Cyteen" in preparation for the new sequel.
I have long considered Cherryh the best stylist in current SF.

 

[arthwollipot]

Just re-read "Cyteen" in preparation for the new sequel.
I have long considered Cherryh the best stylist in current SF.

I was a little disappointed in Regenesis - it carried on the story very effectively, but it was an incredibly long and slow read. I loved Cyteen, and I loved how consistently it tied in with Downbelow Station and 40,000 in Gehenna, but Regenesis could have been a bit more... interesting.

My favourite Cherryh books are still, of course, the Chanur series. They were well-paced.

 

[catsmate]

How about David Weber? He covers a wide gamut of genres, from high fantasy to space opera, and is a favourite of mine. In fact he covers alternative history, techno-fantasy, space opera, military SF, epic fantasy and much inbetween.
It's easy to start reading Weber too, many of his books are available as free ebooks and almost all have samples available online.