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[Retropunch]

I just finished Leviathan Wakes, which is really good.  It is part horror/part noir.  It centers around a detective based on a station at Ceres, and the executive officer of an ice hauler.  They slowly unravel a conspiracy, which unravels more conspiracy, and so on.  It does have elements of the classic Sci-Fi mindfuckery, but it isn't too bad.  In the authors words, it is a working mans sci-fi, where you deal with the nitty gritty of space travel.  He said he doesn't consider it hard sci-fi, but it is definitely realistic in places (G-Forces are a bitch, and if you undergo high acceleration you have to sit in special seats while you are pumped full of drugs to prevent your insides from being turned into jelly.)
I haven't read the rest of the series yet, so I can't comment on any of the other books.
Also, how is Dune not acid tripping?  I remember it being one of the trippiest books I've ever read.

I've heard good things about Leviathan Wakes, I'll definitely put that on the list too.

Re: Dune - The first book does have it's weirdness, but it is grounded in a really awesome sci-fi adventure. What I dislike is where there's just lots of random dream sequences and lots of pondering on the existence and nature of man and the universe, and little else.

It's all fine in moderation, but a lot of the books I've read recently (like the other books in the Dune series) have seemed to be just packed with lots of metaphysical stuff at the expense of a proper story.

Also, if anyone is interested in audio books, the Perdido Street Station is one of the best I've ever heard (after the Dark Tower series) - truly fantastic.

[MonkeyHead]

Ken MacLeod has a good series known as "The Engines of Light" series. Interesting take on time dilation/FTL, and a decent alternate history/future too. He has a number of other hardish scifi novels too, that are probably worth a look.

[Remuthra]

If you take the definition "sci-fi" loosely, I'd recommend the works of H.P. Lovecraft to you, and maybe Chambers' work if the cosmic horror interests you. Besides that, most of the standard classics (Orwell, A Clockwork Orange, etc.) are more based in philosophy, since that's a pillar of the genre.

[PTTG??]

I have to highly recommend the Expanse series, it's written like the hardest science fiction, but it has real, living, breathing characters with complex motivations.

So yeah, highly recommended. George RR Martin apparently closely advised the authors.

The first book is Leviathan Wakes.

[Mr. Strange]

I'd recommend Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds, it's pretty good.

+1, great series, Chasm City was my favorite one by far.

[Samarkand]

Mindscape by Andrea Hairston. Just finished it, one of the best books I've ever read. Hard to get into, you need to give it a chapter or two before you understand the world. Rich development of a small collection of characters. They're all different, and usually fighting each other, but you feel for all of them. Author is a genius as far as I'm concerned.

[fricy]

I'm reading Red Mars from Kim Stanley Robinson, it's good science-fiction. With lot's of science! And fiction!
Also: I highly recommend checking out the "Culture" books from Ian M. Banks, one of the smartest books about the faraway future. Parts of them are a bit slow, but the settings and the unique ideas are worth reading them. Best aliens ever - Mass Effect can go hide in a hole...

[MonkeyHead]

Has anyone mentioned "The Forever War" series yet?

[Retropunch]

I've already read the Culture series and the Revelation Space series (except for the last one, which I've been holding off on for a while).

I love The Forever War - a firm favorite of mine.

I tried Mindscape a while back and I have to say, I wasn't a fan. I guess what I'm really after is 'straight forward' sci-fi adventure, whereas Mindscape was pretty much the opposite of that in terms of tons of difficult timelines, lots of scene setting/'immersion', weirdness and just a complicated book in general. I'm sure working it all out appeals to some (and at times would to me) but between the disjointed world and a not-so-amazing writing style, I have to say that it wasn't my cup of tea at the moment.

[Samarkand]

I tried Mindscape a while back and I have to say, I wasn't a fan. I guess what I'm really after is 'straight forward' sci-fi adventure, whereas Mindscape was pretty much the opposite of that in terms of tons of difficult timelines, lots of scene setting/'immersion', weirdness and just a complicated book in general. I'm sure working it all out appeals to some (and at times would to me) but between the disjointed world and a not-so-amazing writing style, I have to say that it wasn't my cup of tea at the moment.

That's fair. Its definitely not for everyone.

[Flying Dice]

I just finished Leviathan Wakes, which is really good.  It is part horror/part noir.  It centers around a detective based on a station at Ceres, and the executive officer of an ice hauler.  They slowly unravel a conspiracy, which unravels more conspiracy, and so on.  It does have elements of the classic Sci-Fi mindfuckery, but it isn't too bad.  In the authors words, it is a working mans sci-fi, where you deal with the nitty gritty of space travel.  He said he doesn't consider it hard sci-fi, but it is definitely realistic in places (G-Forces are a bitch, and if you undergo high acceleration you have to sit in special seats while you are pumped full of drugs to prevent your insides from being turned into jelly.)
I haven't read the rest of the series yet, so I can't comment on any of the other books.
Also, how is Dune not acid tripping?  I remember it being one of the trippiest books I've ever read.

I've heard good things about Leviathan Wakes, I'll definitely put that on the list too.

Re: Dune - The first book does have it's weirdness, but it is grounded in a really awesome sci-fi adventure. What I dislike is where there's just lots of random dream sequences and lots of pondering on the existence and nature of man and the universe, and little else.

It's all fine in moderation, but a lot of the books I've read recently (like the other books in the Dune series) have seemed to be just packed with lots of metaphysical stuff at the expense of a proper story.

Also, if anyone is interested in audio books, the Perdido Street Station is one of the best I've ever heard (after the Dark Tower series) - truly fantastic.

To be fair, that's because Dune is a good book written by a competent author, while the rest of the "Dune" books are shovelware churned out en masse by his son and other authors. It's telling when the best of them are the far-past prologue trilogy, as utterly removed from the setting as possible.