Been enjoying the SF discussion a lot. Couple of names that I would love to hear you chat about.

Damon Knight and Joe Haldeman.

Couple of names that I would love to hear you chat about.

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Orson Scott Card. I love the Ender books and Pastwatch.

Joe Haldeman

I like Haldeman, although it's been a long while since I've actually read any of it. The Forever War is a great book, an anti-war version of Starship Troopers.

Calli, there's a bibliography page here:

CJ Cherryh

Where to start? Wow. Depends. How about Downbelow Station, or The Pride of Chanur or Gate of Ivrel or Cyteen or Forty Thousand in Gehenna?

marty, I thought Joe Haldeman's The Forever War was engaging and horrifying and I think it is still an important book 30 years later. I read it as a perfect counter-point to Starship Troopers, but I'm not sure that juxtaposition is relevant anymore.

ETA: really cool x-post with DX.

P-C, I like the Ender books. Pastwatch was good too. I thought the Alvin Maker books, at least the first few, were good reads too.

Heh, good x-post there, John.

Thanks, JohnS.

Cyteen's description at Amazon looks pretty interesting. I'll add it to my "look for at library" list.

Cyteen is a fascinating book, but it might be a little dense. I had to read it twice to be sure I wasn't sure. But I liked it.

I loved Orson Scott Card, but he makes Joss's absent father trope look like nothing when he pulls out the traumatized young boy guns.

Plus I want to smack him for the Seventh Son crap.

I stopped reading SF for a while, because all I wanted was Bull, Brust or Butler, and they were going too slowly.

I stopped reading SF for a while, because all I wanted was Bull, Brust or Butler, and they were going too slowly.

I've been through phases exactly like that. Particularly with Emma and Steven and their contemporaries. One time what I did to get out of it, was to go back and pore over lists of stuff that Terri Windling was editing for Ace (and then Tor) and make sure I had read all of it. I found a few new authors and books that way. The shortcut way to do this is to pull out the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror that she edits with Ellen Datlow and scan that for unread writers.

I loved Orson Scott Card, but he makes Joss's absent father trope look like nothing when he pulls out the traumatized young boy guns.

So much Word. He wore me out. I haven't gone back to read him since.

I love OSC, although I got bored with Alvin Maker about three books in. All the others were pretty much awesome. I HATED Xenocide, but the Ender books after that - Ender's Shadow and Puppet Masters - were great. Also adore Brust and have read them all about fifty times. Haven't read enough Bull. Butler - I really liked that series about the Seeds and the Garden (memfault and too lazy to Google) and there was one more, but need to read the rest of them.

I need to rub Orson Scott Card all over with a child development textbook. Also, a thesaurus. Maybe a psychiatrist too.

Maybe I could just lock him in a room with 10 toddlers and have them do my work for me?

Cyteen was the Cherryh book I tried, and it didn't work on me. I kept being distracted by the authorial tactics, and hated the protagonists. I keep feeling like I ought to read more of Cherryh, but in that homework way and not in the way that actually puts her high on my to-do list.