I'm looking for sf/f book recommendations

[thewayne]

I have a friend who apparently wants to get more into SF/F, and possibly into conventions, and I'm going to build a reading list for her. Fortunately we have two great used bookstores here and one fair one, so getting ahold of older SF shouldn't be a prob.

Yes, there are numerous lists online, I wanted it from my friends. :-)

Some that I'm going to recommend are:
Asimov: I, Robot
Harrison: the Stainless Steel Rat trilogy
Heinlein: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Pratchett: the first Discworld trilogy
Zelazny: The Last Defender of Camelot
(Yes, I obviously have pretty old taste in books)

There was a Heinlein collection of short stories that I'm trying to remember, I know it had By His Bootstraps and The Man Who Traveled In Elephants, was that The Past Through Tomorrow? Did it have The Roads Must Roll?

Her main exposure is Star Wars/Star Trek/Battlestar Gallactica, so I'm trying to expand her horizons.

Come to think of it, Scalzi's Old Man's War would be a good addition.

Comments

[vaudy.livejournal.com]

I read far more fantasy that hard sf, so I'm not sure what I can recommend. Asimov's Foundation was pretty good, and I probably should get around to reading the rest of the series.

I consistently enjoy Anne McCaffrey (Pern, specifically the Harper Hall trilogy, was my gateway drug into sf); I haven't read Restoree since I was about twelve, so it may not actually be as good as I remember, but it might be a nice balance to some of the other authors you've already mentioned since McCaffrey wrote it to satirize the misogyny in a lot of classic sf. Maybe in the morning my brain will work, and I can think of something else.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Thanks for mentioning McCaffrey, that spurs me to remember Ship Who Sang and Crystal Singer!

I was just thinking about Foundation the other day, future history and all that.

[thedragonweaver.livejournal.com]

I've read Restoree more recently— it's not the world's deepest book, and it's very tied to its time, but you're right, it is pretty fun as a bit of satire.