John Ringo is a very good action/war writer and he's done quite a few SF books.

 

I didn't see it mentioned, so I might as well throw it in.

Anything by Iain Banks is great.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Banks

Reading his Culture Series now, and loving it. (In fact, I was introduced to it by a fanfiction of Rustbyte's.) If your interested you can find all his works on the web if you look carefully. (Thats as far as I'm going, no warezy talk from me.)

 

I forget the author, but the trilogy of books starting with The Clone Republic is a really good realistic sci-fi series.

 

Yeah, those are really good if you're into military sci-fi. Rogue Clone and Clone Alliance are the other two in the series.

Also, S.M. Stirling's Draka Trilogy is quite possibly the pinnacle of awesomeness when it comes to alternate reality/military sci-fi. If you like Turtledove, you'll love this series. There are three major/minor changes in history that create all sorts of craziness, centered around the American Revolution.

Firstly, The Dutch declare war on Britain either earlier or later than in RL (can't remember which). The Brits still lose the American colonies, but give the Dutch a major beat down and take their African colonies, renaming the main one Drakia, after Sir Francis Drake. Secondly, after the Revolution, the Brits relocate the exiled Loyalists there, where they eventually build an Empire founded on slavery and conquest. And lastly, some brilliant Loyalist officer that was killed in our timeline, was only wounded. He recovered and moved to Drakia, eventually inventing a steam powered car in the 1810s or 20s. After that, the pace of technology accellerates to the point where by the 1970s, there are orbital battlestations over the Earth and fusion powered warships wandering around the solar system, as the world's two major powers, the U.S. led Alliance for Democracy, and the Domination of the Draka fight a cold war that makes the real one look like child's play. All sorts of insanity ensues.

 

I think you might like the Vampire Earth series by E.E. Knight. Basically these aliens called Kurians take over the Earth and the story follows the Resistance group fighting them or more specifically one of them called David Valentine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_Earth

 

Authors you should get to know include those already mentioned, especially Heinlein and Asimov...it isn't snobbishness to appreciate the masters of the field. Sometimes the same names crop up during discussions of the greats in Science Fiction because those people truly are the best in the field!

Any way... here are a few more names to add to your shopping lists...

Philip Jose Farmer - get your hands on his Day World series. Books One, Two and Three in a series.

Norman Spinrad - See if you can find any of his short story collections and or novellas. I especially recommend his collection Other Americas (four novellas about possible futures, one of which nearly made me piss myself laughing) Little Heros (a novel about the future of music industry as created by the RIAA) Journal of the Plague Years (a novella about the future if HIV\AIDS were a little more deadlier and if we were a little more concious of the risks of death by sexual intercourse - warning includes gay characters, treat as you would treat slash) and last but not least, The Iron Dream(an alternate America where an embittered Adolf Hitler left Germany after WWI to become an American SF writer...imagine what sort of novel such a man would write and you've got this book.)

Poul Anderson - The Time Patrol series. GET IT!

Alan Steele - If you liked Heinlein's earlier stuff (Future History series and the Moon is a Harsh Mistress) you'll love this guy's take on things in his Near Space series of novels that takes us from the first forayies into space, to the further reaches of the galaxy.

L. Neil Smith - Libertarians rejoice, thy prophet has come! Pretty much everytghing this guy writes has quite a bit of alternate\future history to it. Highly recommend this guy's stuff but be prepared to sit through some libertarian philosphy.

Leo Frankowski - Some good here and some bad. I liked his Adventures of Conrad Stargard but I wasn't so hot on his A Boy and His Tank series. The first one wasn't so bad, but the ending and the sequels sucked. Copernick's Rebellionis also well worth the search. Most of his books will likely have to be found in used book stores as they are quite old.

There are others I like but these are all I can think of at the moment... Enjoy!

--bornagainpenguin

PS: I apologize for the necro, but I think the length of my post makes it clear I'm trying to add to the thread, not spam it...

 

Well since I'm not the necro...

Time Traveller's Wife. Its actually pretty awesome.

 

If they haven't already been suggested:

Warchild by Karen Lowachee is fantastic.

The Culture series by Iain M. Banks is classic sci-fi. The first book in the series is Consider Phlebas, published in 1987. The most recent is Matter, published earlier this year.

 

Next book. Right on the dot. Also, THAT SIG/AVA SET SEEMS FAMILIAR. :|

If you've got any interest in Warhammer 40K, I highly recommend the Ciphias Cain novels. They've got a good balance of humor and action, with a bit of intrigue thrown in. Good read.

 

Interesting bump Mindless ^-^. You do realize Kit has posted in 3 months right? I'm all for resurrecting this thread for a bit though since I'm currently looking for a new series. Does anybody know if the Black Company series is any good?

 

Ciaphas Cain is awesome. No doubt about it. They're my favourites out of the whole Black Library.

Never heard of Black Company, though the wiki makes it look decent.

 

If you had to recommend some examples of the thriller genre, what would they be?

 

I've just started reading A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. I haven't watched the movie yet, but so far I am enjoying the book and recommend it, even if it is a little confusing with all the slang.

 

Black Company is an epic series. Definitely worth the read.

 

Recomend any Post Apocalyptic books?

Ok so I've been playing fallout 3 and I'm suddenly re-interested in Post Apocalyptic survivalist books. Can anyone recommend any? Online or novels.

I've read Lucifer's hammer a long time ago, Alas Babylon, and Al Steiner's online novel Aftermath. (great read highly recommended.)

 

Dude, I'm on this kick, too. I actually have started outlining a book about it, lol.

But on recommendations... Eh, do you remember that Kevin Costner film 'the Postman'? The movie was a little goofy in places, but I read it was based off a series of novels that were pretty good, so ya might check them out. Author is David Brin.

Um... damn, I know I recommend these books really often, but the Mistborn series deals with this. It's sort of a fantasy setting, though, but it's about what happens AFTER the bad guy wins. Ash storms, red sun, etc, etc. Awesome books. Author is Brandon Sanderson.

I'll get back to you if I can think of any others, because this genre is really appealing to me as well.

 

Do those have anything to do with robots with AI taking over everything after humans try to destroy them?

 

Eh, not really looking for the fantasy type, that seems weird for post apocalyptic, unless its a series i'm into like dragonlance.

And I aint never heard of that movie or seires, but I'll look it up.
I also started to pre outline a book lol. I always have ideas for books that I kno I'll never commit to.

I haven't read any of Asimov's work yet. But that sounds cool actually.