Any good Science fiction or Fantasy novels?

Question

All suggestions welcome. If it's a series, I need the name of the first one. Thanks.

Answer 1

Fahrenheit 451
Flowers for Algernon

Answer 2

Sci-Fi is my favorite genre. These are my suggestions in no particular order,

1) Anything by the grand masters:
Isaac Asimov http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_asimov
Robert Heinlein http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_heinlein
Arthur C. Clarke http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C_Clarke
Ray Bradbury http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Bradbury

2) James P. Hogan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_P._Hogan_%28writer%29
One of my personal favorites. He does hard science fiction. The kind where the fictional science is almost believable. I own all of his books and it would be difficult to pick a favorite. Some that come immediately to mind are "Inherit the Stars", "Thrice Upone a Time", "The Genesis Machine", "The Two Faces of Tomorrow"

3) Frederik Pohl http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederik_Pohl
The Heechee Series is a great read starting with "Gateway" which won both the Hugo and Nebula awards sometime in the mid-70's

4) Frank Herbert http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Herbert
Dune. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_%28novel%29
If you haven't already, then at some point you must read this. It is a bona fide classic. Period.

5) Orson Scott Card http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orson_scott_card
The Ender Saga starting with "Ender's Game"

6) William Gibson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Ford_Gibson
The Sprawl Trilogy starting with the classic "Neuromancer". I believe "cyberspace" was first coined in this book, and there is also reference to "the matrix - Mankind's unthinkably complex consensual hallucination representing cyberspace"

7) Anne McCAffrey http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_McCaffrey
She writes good stories and her lead character is female, which is a switch from most scifi. I'd recommend anything in her Dragonriders of Pern series starting with "Dragonflight". I'd also recommend her Crystal Singer Series starting with "Crystal Singer".

.. that's just for starters. I have about 700 sci-fi novels in my personal library. I won't list them all for you! :)


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On the Fantasy side

1) Everything by Tolkien http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolkien

2) The Chronicles of Narnia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia
by C.S. Lewis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Lewis

3) The Thomas Covenant Chronicles, The Unbeliever http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Covenant
by Stephen R. Donaldson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_R._Donaldson
starting with "Lord Foul's Bane"


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Here's a lot of references for you to find the kinds of scifi/fantasy books that interest you.

About the Hugo awards:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award
List of Hugo award winning authors:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Hugo_Award_winning_authors
List of Hugo award winning novels:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel

About the Nebula awards:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebula_Award
List of Nebula award winning authors:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Nebula_Award_winning_authors
List of Nebula award winning novels:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebula_Award_for_Best_Novel

List of works that have won both the Hugo and Nebula awards:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_joint_winners_of_the_Hugo_and_Nebula_awards

Answer 3

Try Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. Read one, if you like it there's about 30 more that are just as good.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/series/-/40/ref=pd_sr_ec_ser_b/104-3143013-5107966