Old School Sci-Fi Books

[RushingMountain]

Sometimes I procrastinate. (Please save the melodramatic gasps for the end of this post. Thank you.)

Sometimes, I do this by reading some of my old books, which are predominantly sci-fi books that few people have heard of mixed with some that people have heard of. This post from iamdave reminded me of an incomplete series I have that I was totally smitten with in my tweens: The Paratwa Trilogy.

I'd write a whole review of the Paratwa Trilogy, but I don't believe in redoing something other people have already done reasonably well, so I'll just link to a review for the whole series, and to reviews of each of the books Liege-Killer, Ash Ock, and The Paratwa

I'm sure the titles of the books had something to do with the lack of commercial success these books seemed to have, but I've read the last two books (the ones I have) several times, and never seem to be able to put them down.

What old school obscure books (sci-fi, fantasy, or other) do you read over and over?

[Mr Fox]

Neither of them are obscure, but the ones that have drawn me to read them over and over are Tolkien's books, and Jordan's Wheel of Time.

[Justin OOC]

nowadays, because they're all out of print, some for decades now, They might be considered obscure. I love the Battletech novels. The Old Jack McKinney Robotech books were great too.

The entire WWIII series done by Ian Slater was really great too.

[RushingMountain]

Oh no! I just did the math based on my publish dates, and I was actually in my mid-teens, not in my tweens when those books started coming out.

Nobody else I new had ever heard of them, or would admit to it, anyways. Obviously "obscure" is relative here.

[Titan]

Jeez, I read books over and over and over and over...

Probably everything by Heinlein I have read the most often, but esp.:

The Number of the Beast

Stranger in a Strange Land

Time Enough for Love

Um... I read the DragonLance Chronicles and Legends a bunch in my teens.

The Bio of a Space Tyrant series by Piers Anthony is a perennial read.

Wheel of Time has been mentioned, but with every new book, I will go back and re-read from the beginning in anticipation of it. Started as a Junior in High School.

I love the Thomas Covenant books. Both trilogies.

Ender's Game is one I have read fully a hundred times.

All of the Foundation books by Asimov. Not so much the ones by other authors.

Some newer stuff that I have already read over and over:

The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb

Island on the Sea of Time by S.M. Stirling

Kiln People by David Brin, as well as his Uplift series

I'm leaving out hundreds of favorites, but we'd be here all day. Those are the highlights, anyway.

[Bombshell]

I reread several series over again, especially after a new one in the series is released. Like others, I rather enjoy the Wheel of Time, even in the middle ones are sort of slow. I do think Sanderson has done a job with his start closing the series down.

The Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire gets read often (and I really hope Martin would stop getting distracted and bring out the next book already - though admittedly, I am looking forward to the HBO series next year). Another one I get through with each new book released is the Malazan Books of the Fallen, by Erikson (and a few by Esselmont, though I don't find his as good). Highly complicated, with some truly over-powered beings populating the setting, but has some of the best characters, that you can't help root for even if you know they are doomed. Plus, the authors were a pair of gamers, who turned their game into a well realized setting.

Piers Anthony's Xanth series is a guilty pleasure I keep returning too.

Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy series is another great read, with politics and mystery, blended with a hint of magic and the divine, set somewhat fictional, medieval/renaissance Europe (mostly France, though it is called Terre D'Ange).

Finally, for something a little more obscure, War Against The Chtorr by David Gerrold, which shows an early 21st century Earth being taken over by an alien ecology. I read the first four the books (the fourth even had an interview with the author talking about what we could see in the fifth) and waited... and waited... and waited for the fifth to come out. The fourth book was published in '93, I probably read it in '95 or '96, and ended up waiting for the next one so long I gave up.

But I've always regretted it. But there is news finally, in 2004, David Gerrold announced the titles of the remaining three books in the series. So again, I find myself waiting.

And waiting...

[jameson (ST)]

Originally Posted By: Titan

I love the Thomas Covenant books. Both trilogies.

Titan, you know that Donaldson is wrapping up the series with a third cycle of four books right? The 3rd just dropped two weeks ago and the fourth is due in 2 years. Apparently Donaldson planned this series at the same time as the 2nd Chronicles but was actually scared that his writing couldn't handle it so he worked on other stuff until he felt he could finish Covenant's story properly.

As a side note, his Gap Series is also very good.

[Titan]

Yeah, I read the first two. I was kinda 'meh'. But the first two trilogies will always be seminal works for me.

[jameson (ST)]

I'll let you know if the 3rd is better (although I rather liked the second so maybe we just disagree) when I read it, probably early next year.