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[Urist McScoopbeard]

There was this one... where everything was determined by playing an RPG. I forget what i was called, but i'd liked it a lot as a kid.

[Naryar]

Dune is awesome although if you don't like detail and worldbuilding it may not be your thing.

Read the first books, at least.

Bradbury, Asimov, Henlein and the rest of the greats as well.

[Trapezohedron]

The Martian (Andy Weir)

Astronaut gets stranded on Mars. MacGuyver ensues, as close as Andy Weir could get his facts straight (hard sci-fi).

[Jo]

This is an easy one. Start with the Hugo and Nebula award winners. Begin at the beginning. By the first 20 years you'll have a very solid idea about what you like and what you don't. Then you can make choices from there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebula_Award_for_Best_Novel

[Urist McScoopbeard]

I just remembered!

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH and 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA are great.

Some of the Star Wars Expanded Universe books are really well written too (Speaking of which, you should read anything relating to the Old Republic Era, it's even got some damn good comics/graphic novels.) Let's see, what else?

If you don't mind books meant for younger people, the Artemis Fowl series is a pretty good Sci-Fi/Fantasy mix up.

I think I mentioned The City of Ember, but if not, it's a great series and something you should read.

[Urist McCoder]

I love city of ember. I just finished reading ancillary justice and ancillary sword. If you read ancillary justice/sword you have to remember the languages it is translated from has no gender, so no all the characters are not female.

[oriramikad]

Anything by Karen Traviss. I've only read her Star Wars books, but she was lead writer for Gears of War 3, and she's written Gears and Halo books, in addition to her own series. Best author I've read, hands down.

[Flying Dice]

Seconding Honor Harrington, but it gets Sequelitis Syndrome late in the series when the author decided "Yeah, I'm not going to kill my protagonist."

Don't even bother reading A Rising Thunder until he comes out with an actually new book in the series, and for the love of whatever you find sacred NEVER EVER READ SHADOW OF FREEDOM. I was pissed off enough at the chapter repetition in ART and SoF not only does that, but repeats the typos.

Be warned that Weber uses his novels for political soapboxing even more so than his contemporaries in the milSF crowd. They're solid enough if you can ignore that.

[Lord Shonus]

Seconding Honor Harrington, but it gets Sequelitis Syndrome late in the series when the author decided "Yeah, I'm not going to kill my protagonist."

Don't even bother reading A Rising Thunder until he comes out with an actually new book in the series, and for the love of whatever you find sacred NEVER EVER READ SHADOW OF FREEDOM. I was pissed off enough at the chapter repetition in ART and SoF not only does that, but repeats the typos.

Be warned that Weber uses his novels for political soapboxing even more so than his contemporaries in the milSF crowd. They're solid enough if you can ignore that.

I've read the entire HH series, and the only times I noticed anything of the sort was in the Saganimi series, where most of the planets seemed to be aimed at his detractors.

[Flying Dice]

Seconding Honor Harrington, but it gets Sequelitis Syndrome late in the series when the author decided "Yeah, I'm not going to kill my protagonist."

Don't even bother reading A Rising Thunder until he comes out with an actually new book in the series, and for the love of whatever you find sacred NEVER EVER READ SHADOW OF FREEDOM. I was pissed off enough at the chapter repetition in ART and SoF not only does that, but repeats the typos.

Be warned that Weber uses his novels for political soapboxing even more so than his contemporaries in the milSF crowd. They're solid enough if you can ignore that.

I've read the entire HH series, and the only times I noticed anything of the sort was in the Saganimi series, where most of the planets seemed to be aimed at his detractors.

To be fair, HH doesn't have nearly as much as the Starfire novels or his various love-letters to the Thirty Years War, but IIRC the main antagonistic faction for a long time is the ebul planet-of-hats Communist empire who are equally pointlessly evil and hopelessly incompetent. There's also the usual internal politics thing where everyone who isn't a Mary Sue social-progressive economic-conservative hawk seems to either be a fascist or a moronic peacenik libtard secretly in bed with the corporate scum.

At least there's no absurdly evil Catholic Church expy as the antagonist for his faction of anachronistically democratic monarchists or lost-in-space teenagers.

e: I mean, it's sort of sad, because he's a good writer and the battles are a joy to read. The two books he co-wrote with Linda Evans (I think), Hell's Gate and Hell Hath No Fury? Those were excellent. In Death Ground and The Shiva Option from the Starfire books were both great because he didn't bother with the harebrained intrigue subplots. The Excalibur Alternative was equal parts hilarious and fun. Path of the Fury/In Fury Born was superb. That's my short list of recommendations for people new to Weber.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

WARNING: NOT SCI-FI, but if you want some good battles and generally good books, Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series is the bomb.

[Lord Shonus]

Seconding Honor Harrington, but it gets Sequelitis Syndrome late in the series when the author decided "Yeah, I'm not going to kill my protagonist."

Don't even bother reading A Rising Thunder until he comes out with an actually new book in the series, and for the love of whatever you find sacred NEVER EVER READ SHADOW OF FREEDOM. I was pissed off enough at the chapter repetition in ART and SoF not only does that, but repeats the typos.

Be warned that Weber uses his novels for political soapboxing even more so than his contemporaries in the milSF crowd. They're solid enough if you can ignore that.

I've read the entire HH series, and the only times I noticed anything of the sort was in the Saganimi series, where most of the planets seemed to be aimed at his detractors.

To be fair, HH doesn't have nearly as much as the Starfire novels or his various love-letters to the Thirty Years War, but IIRC the main antagonistic faction for a long time is the ebul planet-of-hats Communist empire who are equally pointlessly evil and hopelessly incompetent. There's also the usual internal politics thing where everyone who isn't a Mary Sue social-progressive economic-conservative hawk seems to either be a fascist or a moronic peacenik libtard secretly in bed with the corporate scum.

Not exactly. The People's Republic Of Haven is communist in name only - it's more akin to the pre-Revolution French aristocracy it's based on, with a small ruling class and a large poorly-pacified class of peasantry. Meanwhile, there are a lot of Manticoran politicians that oppose the Crown Loyalists, it's merely that the leaders of the party are either corrupt, blackmailed, or both.

[Bohandas]

Has anyone mentioned the works of H.P.Lovecraft yet? Those are generally a mix of science-fiction, fantasy, and horror. At the Mountains of Madness and The Shadow Out of Time lean particularly hard towards the sci-fi end

[forsaken1111]

gonna ptw this and skim through it later / share my own suggestions

[Bohandas]

The Songs of Distant Earth is a good hard sci-fi book that I've been meaning to re-read