LogFAQs > #976072045

agesboy posted...

Isaac Asimov has some good ass science fiction, specifically the Foundation series, that gets overlooked because it's pretty old

On the other hand, the fact that there's literally a Foundation TV show on Apple TV+ right now means that a lot of people are potentially aware of it now and considering reading the source material.

A shame that Apple TV+ has metaphorically murdered the source material with a chainsaw, set the body on fire, and then fucked the charred corpse.

Aside from that, I'd recommend anyone thinking about Asimov consider reading the Robot novels first instead, if only because the Robot, Empire, and Foundation novels are all interconnected.

But I'd also say that I don't necessarily think people SHOULD read those books fully in chronological order. For example, I don't think anyone should read Prelude to Foundation or Forward the Foundation before the other books. I think Asimov's stories/universe benefit immensely from reading them in publishing order rather than in-universe order.



Muscles posted...

Either more obscure Fantasy, Horror or Sci-Fi or just some great authors from other genres since I want to branch out

It's worth asking if you're interested in more soft sci-fi or harder sci-fi, but since Asimov's really the only one I was going to suggest it won't help me to recommend things all that much.

For obscure fantasy... again, it kind of depends on what sort of flavor of fantasy you're into. But I will always recommend David Eddings as a writer for anyone who is new to fantasy or who just hasn't read his books. Then I'd usually encourage them to segue out into the Fred Saberhagen "Book of Swords" series (and possibly the Empire of the East novels if they can). And Saberhagen also has a lot of books straddling other genres (like his sci-fi Berserker novels) if you're interested in that.

Roger Zelazny is fantastic, though his Amber novels might feel a bit too "modern" or "metaphysical" for some people if they just want pure medieval fantasy. His Dilvish novels are more traditional, but a lot harder to find.

Stephen R. Donaldson is quite possibly my favorite fantasy fantasy writer ever (though quite possibly tied with Zelazny), but his works can be really dark, and a lot of people have a hard time reading his stuff because his Thomas Covenant books have a really unlikable protagonist. His Mordant's Need books are much better in that respect, but some people may still be kind of turned off by one of the two main characters.

Piers Anthony is another possible recommendation - most people who know/like him like him for the Xanth novels (which he churns out like crazy), but those are mostly kind of beginner-level fantasy and revolve around puns a lot (which is why kinds tend to like them), but he has a lot of other books that are a bit more complex. His Apprentice Adept series is kind of a neat fusion of fantasy and sci-fi, and his Incarnations of Immortality series is kind of cool if you're into more metaphysical fiction.

Terry Pratchett's Discworld is pretty much the classic fantasy series that gets recommended a lot, though especially in the earlier books it's more like a parody of fantasy, and it helps to be really well read in the genre already to get what he's making fun of (stuff like Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels, Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser books, and even the original Conan stories by Robert E. Howard - all of which are nice fantasy recommendations in and of themselves for this list). But later Discworld books sort of take on their own identity and flavor and are just a really fantastic fantasy series in general.

Looking over my bookshelves... I could also throw in stuff like the Death Gate novels by by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - those are pretty good (and if you like their writing style and are willing to get into RPG tie-in novels, there's always their Dragonlance books). Or even the Night Watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko, if you're willing to read a series that is always a slight bit awkward in writing style because it's being translated from Russian (though if you don't mind that, there's also all the original Witcher novels by Andrzej Sapkowski that have been translated from Polish).

If you're willing to dip into "genre-trash" game tie-in novels, a lot of R. A. Salvatore's earlier D&D novels (aka the ones Drizzt comes from) are pretty good. As are some of the earlier Halo novels back from before 343 took a steaming shit on the entire franchise's narrative. I could also recommend Jack Yeovil (aka Kim Newman)'s Warhammer novels, mainly about Genevieve the vampire. Or sticking with Kim Newman, his Anno Dracula series starts out pretty good as well.

If you're willing to get into a long-running super-hero series with a bit more of a sci-fi bent, the Wild Cards novels are a pretty good read. They're generally edited by George RR Martin (aka the Game of Thrones guy), and are mostly a collection of interconnected short stories or mosaic novels written by multiple authors (and if you wind up liking one author's contributions a lot, it might even give you more recommendations for the future).

Apart from that... hmm. I've read way too much fantasy (both good and bad) over the last 40 years to remember it all. Riverworld by Philip Jos Farmer is kind of interesting. The Chung Kuo novels by David Wingrove were pretty good. I liked Poul Anderson's Time Patrol stories. Larry Niven's Ringworld books are generally a pretty popular suggestion.

There's writer Iain M. Banks' Culture novels - I never really liked them myself (other than The Player of Games), but a lot of people like them (and apparently they were a huge inspiration to the Bungie guys when they made Halo, along with Ringworld).

A lot of people like Michael Moorcock's work, though I think he's extremely hit-or-miss. Though I did like his Eternal Champion novels, his Von Bek stories, and his Elric stuff (somewhat).

I feel like I could probably remember more if I really concentrated on it, but that's probably way more of a list than you really need for starters.