I also quite liked the Metro series, I bought the games but never really got around to playing.

Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (also has a netflix series now)
Pandora’s Star by Peter F. Hamilton
The Martian by Andy Weir

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Or for fantasy try Magician by Raymond E. Fiest and be introduced to a cool young magician named “Pug”……………

Pandora’s Star by Peter F. Hamilton

Ahh, those were a great read! (Judas Unchained and The Temperal Void complete the trilogy)

Cowsy introduced me to magician, very good indeed.

Dune was a hard slug. I was used to sci fi authors getting pretty much straight into the meat of the story but it seemed like Herbert spent the first half of the book telling us all about the history of the dynasties. Of course it was well worth the effort and once read could never be forgot.

My favourite series was the Mars trilogy (Red, Green, Blue) by Kim Stanley Robinson – could not put them down. Knowing I liked him, my daughter bought me his recent tome ‘New York 2140’ but at 613 pages I am going to have set aside some serious time before I tackle it.

Another old one (and I am talking 40+ years) that got me hooked into serials was the Lensman series by E.E. Smith – rollicking boys own sci fi space opera that I’m bloody sure George Lucas must have read.

Single sci fi issues that get mentioned in dispatches is ‘The Drowned World’ by J.G. Ballard – climate change gone mad; London has an equatorial climate and is under 10 metres of water and covered by jungle. Sticking with the world theme is ‘Inverted World’ by Christopher Priest that er, would take too long to describe the plot.

But all in all, I still remember one day in the local library I idly picked up a new book called ‘The Colour of Magic’ by some guy called Terry Pratchett.

The Gap Cycle series by Stephen R. Donaldson. Awesome sci fi series, he did some good fantasy stuff too (Chronicles of Thomas Covenant was fab)

Titus Groan, by Mervyn Peake.
Really well written descriptions, atmosphere etc.

non-fiction –

The Axemaker’s Gift, by James Burke & some other guy.
can be listened to on yt. very interesting.

On Bullshit, by Harry G. Frankfurt.
short philosophy essay which is interesting on its own, but even more so due to frequent mentions of the word ‘bullshit’

But all in all, I still remember one day in the local library I idly picked up a new book called ‘The Colour of Magic’ by some guy called Terry Pratchett.

….my bookshelf is full, mostly of one set of books…. GNU Pterry Pratchett.

Hey Baker I have the complete paperback series of the Lensman books along with the side series ones……..

….my bookshelf is full, mostly of one set of books…. GNU Pterry Pratchett.

Yeah, me too Cowsy – except my complete collection is one third here, one third at a son’s place and one third at a daughter’s place. I have given up trying to keep them all in one spot. :greyalien:

Hey Baker I have the complete paperback series of the Lensman books along with the side series ones……..

Ripper yarns, hey Horrie. Ron Howard and Universal Pictures bought the rights to the books a decade ago, intending to make a ‘Star Wars’ series of movies, but Universal twiddled their thumbs and the rights lapsed back to the estate. A damn shame.

I also forgot to mention in my OP Isaac Asimov’s great ‘Foundation’ series – they are around the same vintage. There are reports that the mob who co-produced ‘Altered Carbon’ are working on doing a TV series based on his books. Fingers crossed.

Has anyone read any of the Three Body Problem series by Liu? I have a couple of friends that are devotees of hard sci-fi, and they have been raving about it. I generally need a bit of coaxing to read sci-fi these days but on the strength of their recommendations, I might push the keyboard back and check it out…

Although it took nearly a year to get book two…

John Meaney’s Nulapeiron Sequence was great.

I also forgot to mention in my OP Isaac Asimov’s great ‘Foundation’ series – they are around the same vintage. There are reports that the mob who co-produced ‘Altered Carbon’ are working on doing a TV series based on his books. Fingers crossed.

Finally …

[video=youtube] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCtQ70knyeo [/video]

I don’t think the lensman series will happen in our lifetime.

It certainly looking that way Horus.

I watched the first three eps of Foundation and it’s pretty hit and miss. Looks like not much budget outlayed for stuff like CGI for example. I have seen some amateur attempts at rendering spaceships with Blender that look almost professional compared to Foundation’s efforts. It is still early days yet, and I suppose we are a bit spoiled by the standards bar set by shows like The Expanse. But still, it’s better than all the recent Star Trek crap.

Got a link for Foundation?