SciFi and Fantasy eBook Club discussion

I just bought a kindle and I would like to read some science fictions both for entertainment and to improve my English. So would you please recommend some books are both interesting and written in a plain English?

Thanks a lot!

Take a look at Distant Cousin. It's sci-fi "lite," but it's written in clear, simple English (except for a few idioms). I used to be an EFL professor. If you like it there are more in the series.

Try Earth Abides by George R. Stewart. It's a wonderful book written about 60 years ago but definitely holds up over the years. It's a wonderful classic post-apocalyptic novel.

There are a lot of good and free sci-fi books at the Baen Free Library David Drake's Lt. Leary Commanding and With the Lightnings are good "space opera" reads generally written in non-complex English.

Thank you for your kind help!

I would recommend Richard Morgan's books. Start with Altered Carbon,Broken Angels, Woken Furies, Thirdteen. He also wrote Market Forces which is a bit slow compared to the others and Steel Remains which is his first Fantasy book.

I know a lot of the Star Wars books are available for free on the Kindle I think I downloaded #1 - #4 - you might want to check them out.

Go to amazon and check the top 100 free ... or browse Kindle Science Fiction, and sort by price lowest to highest.

There are a number of older or out-of-copyright early SF books that you get either free or just for $1-3.

Here's 100 books for $4.69
http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Collect...

Robin wrote: "I know a lot of the Star Wars books are available for free on the Kindle I think I downloaded #1 - #4 - you might want to check them out."

#5 is out for free now also.

Link, please?

(you're talking about the Lost Tribe of the Sith series, right?)

Sorry. It is only on Sony and B&N. I thought I saw that Amazon had it also.

Try the Pern books by anne mccaffery.The Dragonriders of Pern They are intering and will have you yearning for the next book and you will be rooting for the characters and hoping they succeed in what they are out to do.

Seconded on the Pern books.

What kind of books have you already read and enjoyed, Ablmf? I'd like to make some recommendations but the field's pretty broad...

Ender's Game is one of my all-time favorites. It's an engrossing story, and the prose is straight forward, not overly flowery or dense.

2001: A Space Odyssey is one of my favorites. I also highly recommend Roadside Picnic. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Hard to say when they are hunted...

If you are still working on improving your English, Starship Troopers may be great for you. It was originally written for younger readers, so the language is straightforward, but it doesn't feel like a "young adult" novel. It has many very interesting topics that my adult friends debate all the time.

How about the Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars books:

http://www.feedbooks.com/list/1/barsoom

I'll be honest - I've gone through some comments, and am effectively intimidated. I have recently finished "The Name of the Wind" and "The Wise Man's Fear", both written by Patrick Rothfuss, and was hoping to get some recommendations for similar novels. But, really, I haven't read or even heard of many of the books I've seen discussed, and so am wondering if this was one of my more hopeless ideas. If anyone has any suggestions, please, feel free to share.

When you say you're looking for novels "similar" to Rothfuss's, what do you mean? Long epic fantasy novels? Have you tried Peter Orullian or Stephen Erikson? Orullian just started his series, so only book one is out -- Erikson just finished his, so you have some 3.5 million words ahead of you. For a more surreal, drug-induced fantasy, you might try Stephen King's The Dark Tower sequence (7 books, finished), which is sort of epic fantasy but has cowboys and trains. Roger Zelazny's 10 Amber novels are finished, and collectively long, and have a much higher-level, faster feel, with a pulpy narrative tone and vaguely eastern themes.

Or, if you just mean that you want stories about wizard's apprentices, there's Raymond Feist and J.K. Rowling.

Scott wrote: "Sorry. It is only on Sony and B&N. I thought I saw that Amazon had it also."

Was free for Amazon -- apparently limited time offers

Oddly enough for English speaking -- the dragonriders of pern series someone earlier recommended was very useful to me in an English vocabulary class (you had to find the vocabulary word in a book and quote).

With the Kindle if you move to a word, it is looked up in dictionary for you.

For any series you are considering, look for "bundle" or "omnibus" editions if they've been out for a while. Sometimes Amazon kindle will offer a bunch of books by an author or in a series for a deep discount over buying individually.

If you go to the book page on goodreads for The Name of the Wind and look over in right hand column it will give you some bookshelves (like "Epic Fantasy") to look at for more book recommendations and will show some book covers for other books you might enjoy. towards bottom of book description, more covers will show for other reader's lists (like someone's list of favorite "epic fantasy" books).

I personally really liked the series Robin Hobb did starting with Assassin's Apprentice / Royal Assassin; Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time The Eye of the World, and Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule

I'm in the middle of enjoying it so far - sci-fi thriller.

I always recommend, because they are my favouritist (I don't care if it isn't a word) books by Scott Lynch


and


Only when everyone on this forum has read these brilliant books will my work be done.

The Mission
I recommend The Mission by Bill Talcott. Great read!

S.B. wrote: "Ender's Game is one of my all-time favorites. It's an engrossing story, and the prose is straight forward, not overly flowery or dense."
I'd agree with that Ender's Game is a good one to go with.

If you enjoy cheap sci fi reads check out Michael R. Hicks, In Her Name series. Empire is the first book and I believe it's still free. I'm reading the Omnibus collection and on book 2, it's quit entertaining.

Right now I'm reading John Carter of Mars Series which contains five books and is available at Amazon for 99 cents. Good deal! They are older books so the language is somewhat formal but very correct.

Brad, have you tried the new anthology, Under the Moons of Mars edited by John Joseph Adams?

I've read Planet Janitor and I can confirm it's a great read. Very suspenseful and action packed. It would make a great movie. I have The Moon prequel but havem't read it yet.

Karl and David--bless your hearts. I did want something different. I can only apologize for the long pre-flight prep and some of the physics--Einstein I am not. But I sure wanted to take the reader on a realistic space transit and explain all the operational functions. In my heart, I just couldn't warp you there and say, "Yeah, man, we've landed!" I think Bob Heinlein rubbed off on me or something...

Chris

ETA: Either that, or I was channeling Simon Hayne's Hal Spacejock, which is another fun adventure, with a lot more humor and irony.

I second the recommendations for the Pern series and Ender's Game. Also, when I'm working on a language, I enjoy short stories (more satisfaction for the effort, lol) so I'll suggest The Martian Chronicles and I, Robot.

LE - I loved The Lies of Locke Lamora, I didn't know the next one was available - thank you (it's now on my Kindle!!!!).

I'm going to also go with Ender's Game. There's a reason it was dubbed the book "most stolen from high school libraries." I made up the quotation marks, but I swear I heard that somewhere.

LE/Pauline: is Lies of LL really that good? I keep hearing buzz about it.

I have to recommend Sean DeLauder's book The Speaker for the Trees

Very good allegorical scif-fi novel about tolerance

i would recommend " the stars my destination" by alfred bester. or " the demolished man" by the same author.

I would recommend that you read by Julia Crane. :)

Jack Vance The Dragon Masters is one I would recommend.
It's a good place to start with this author

Looking at some of the suggestions, I find that I can do no more than second the suggestions to read The Pern Series by Anne McCaffrey and just about anything by Robert A. Heinlein.

After those, the only other one listed in previous posts that I would recommend would be Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.

Epic Fantasy Morrigan's HarvestThe Broken Tomb

Take a look at Camouflage by Joe Haldeman, which won the Nebula in 2005. I read it a few years ago in one day, and like many books you tackle all at once, you often think about some of the scenes long after it's put back on the shelf.

While the Pern series is one of my favorites, I wouldn't recommend it for someone trying to learn better English. It's quite advanced. Orson Scott Card does have a simpler style, as others have said. So do Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury in science fiction. For fantasy, I might recommend Terry Brooks or David Eddington.

I would totally recommend that you check out by Julia Crane. :)

Who hasn't read Atopia Chronicles?

<< raises hand hesitantly >>

me

Yes, actually. Dragon's Blade by Hallowell. Fantasy. Dragon Blade

I suppose self-promotion is not welcomed... so I would suggest books that my novel (and trilogy) have been compared to:

The Stand
On the Beach
Childhood's End
The Road