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Best top 10 SCi-Fi for Traveller, & Why

L

Liam Devlin

SOC-14 5K
Okay, I've looked back a ways, and I see mention of books fer folks, n all (this might be better on Random static, might not). Then lately mention here of Gordon Dickson vs Pournelle.
So I ask you to provide these lurkers here with your top 10 authors (list some titles too now!) of Traveller-esque Sci Fi. I'd do this as a poll, but I'd foregt an author, and that author's fans would be after me worse than TJ looking for his afternoon CJ-fix.
file_23.gif
:eek: :eek:

So...Lets get rolling, shall we? Who's up to it?
 
Traveller esque - In no particular order

i) The Co-Dominion series (Mostly Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven) including such classic traveller stories as King David's Spaceship - A fun account of a how technology affects people. Lots of fighting, heros and fun stuff

ii) Lois McMaster BuJold. In particular "Falling Free" MegaCorps, uplifted races etc etc

iii) David Brin "Uplift series" in particular "Uplift war". a multi-race universe - races interleave much less than in traveller (ie each state is based on a race) but some wonderful characterisation.

iv) Weber's Honor Harrington. For the navy militarists amongst us. "On basilisk station" is probably the best and it's available to be read for free at Baen's free library. No deep characterisation but a "cracking good read". a humanocentric universe

v) Timothy Zahn. Tied between the "cobra" series and his Star wars "post movies" books. Both are highly applicable but in very different ways.

vi) Heinlein. "Time for the stars" for the scouts who like being first in alternatively "Citizen of the galaxy" for the merchants.

vii) Niven, Pournelle & Barnes "Legacy of heurot" for another "let's explore a strange new world". It's brilliant in so many ways

viii) David Drake "Hammer's slammers series" - my favourite is "Tank Lords" (again available from Baen) for the track toads

ix) Anne Macaffery (sp) "The ship who sang series". The closest to traveller would be "The city who fought" -

x) Keith Laumer - "Odessy" for a very very traveller universe - tramp merchants, spaceport bars etc etc. The only thing it's missing is an "imperium". (again available from Baen)

OK - I kept the list down to top ten - but it's not easy. I'm sure someone else will weigh in with Cherryh, but I'm not as big a fan.
 
Good topic. In no particular order, here are some authors I've used as inspiration (sometimes more like plagiarism) in my campaigns:
-Anything by Jerry Pournelle.
-Anything by Larry Niven (with or without Pournelle)
-Roland Green (Peace Company, The Mountain Walks - both mainly military oriented)
-David Drake - yes, I'm a treadhead.
-OK, C.J. Cherryh (Merovingen Nights is a cool wilds setting for TNE)
-H. Beam Piper (Fuzzy Papers, Federation)
-Heinlein (duh)
-Margaret Weis (Star of the Guardians)
-Robert L. Forward - good hard SF stuff
-Keith Laumer (Bolos are a tanker's dream).
Lots of others, but those are my favorites.
 
Here's my cr0.02

</font>
  1. Niven and Pournelle - The Mote in God's Eye is arguably the best first contact story EVER written. Also lots of good navy & nobles ideas. Perfect example of how to do aliens right. If you enjoy it read the sequel, The Gripping Hand as well.</font>
  2. Pournelle (solo and with SM Stirling) - everything in The Prince if you can, but The Mercenary covers the essentials if that's all you can find. Any of the Janissaries Books for warfare with mismatched tech levels. King David's Spaceship is another gem set in the same universe as Mote and Mercenary - great for that low tech world in a high tech empire thing.</font>
  3. H Beam Piper - Star Viking is a must for any Traveller fan. The Fuzzy books are also a lot of fun. The Cosmic Computer and Uller Uprising are also very good. Four Day Planet and Lonestar Planet are two novellas that were published together... both are chock full of adventure seeds. If you've gotten this far you might as well try to get Federation and Empire - two collections of short stories that will round out the Piper canon. Piper's universe is another of those wherein the computer revolution never happened - always fun to read about those starships with data being moved about on magnetic tape and punched cards <g>.</font>
  4. C.J. Cherryh - the Charnur books - you need to read these books if you're even thinking about running Aslan. The Hani don't match up 100% but, damn, there are a lot of ideas there. There is another race in there (Mahendosat? SP??) which has a lot of characteristics that could spill over to roleplaying Vargr. Merchanter's Luck and Rimrunners are very rich for any merchant campaign. Read the Foreigner series for another example of aliens done right. My big problem with Cherryh is that I have to take her in small doses - her stories seem to have a repeating theme of thrusting her characters into situations of lonliness, exhaustion, angst and stress which leaves me feeling lonely, exhausted, angst-ridden and stressed out if I consume too much at a stretch. Feeling like the lone sane person in a world full of aliens is way too close to real life for me to take in large doses ;)</font>
  5. David Weber - the Honor Harrington books are a SF retelling of CS Forrester's Horatio Hornblower stories. He steals from a master, he does it well and his characters and setting are generally very good. I also recommend getting the current book (War of Honor) in hardcover as Baen has kindly included a CDROM with electronic editions of every Honor book plus 30 or so other SF books (including many titles mentioned here). Big, big bang for your buck. I hope they sell a lot of dead tree editions as a result. I know they will with me. For what it is worth I discovered the Honor books through the $1.99 loss leader edition of On Basilisk Station - hats off to Baen for understanding how to attract readers!</font>
  6. Heinlein - Starship Troopers is essential. There is also a LOT to be mined from The Moon is a Marsh Mistress. Starman Jones is a quick read but very good for all sorts of stuff about life on a starship if you can get past the total lack of computer tech (and you thought the LBBs were light on computers - LOL).</font>
  7. Asimov - the Foundation books. Asimov's writing style is distinctive and not for everyone, but these books (including Foundation's Edge the 4th book written later) have a great deal of Traveller goodness - especially if you're looking at a Hard Times or Long Night type of period. Traders, Merchant Princes, Imperial Admirals, Psionic Cabals, Planets on the rim that are losing touch with the Empire while Admirals take the fleet and sack the capital - it's all here. Oh and by the way - Lucas stole Trantor and renamed it Coruscant - Asimov's estate should sue his ass ;)</font>
  8. Gordon R Dickenson - the first few books in the Dorsai series like Tactics of Mistake are excellent. It gets a little wearisome by the Final Encyclopedia but the early stuff is worth the read - it's been about 15 years for me, so I'm probably due again.</font>
  9. Frank Herbert - Dune. I wouldn't call all of the later stuff essential - it's good, very good - but not up to the standard of the first one. There is enough power politics and political intrigue in Dune to power a dozen campaigns.</font>
  10. James H Schmitz - the Witches of Karres is slanted a bit towards the younger audience - but a very good read and lots of Traveller relevent stuff. I've heard Agent of Vega and some of his other stuff is very good as well - it's sitting in my 'to be read' pile, which never seems to die.</font>
Honorable mention - Allan Dean Foster's humanx books - Catchalot, Bloodhype, The Tar-Aiym Krang, The End of the Matter, Nor Crystal Tears and the Flinx & Pip stories.... Fosters stuff is good, workmanlike SF which is very reminiscent of Pipers work in terms of tone and characterisation. He's incredably prolific and (IMHO) somewhat under-rated in the genre.

Note: Keep in mind that these are books I've read - rated by relavance to running or playing in a Traveller Campaign. It's not inteneded as a comprehensive SF reading list, so don't chastise if your fave isn't here or ranked as high as it might deserve from a 'literary' standpoint, okay?
 
I will second most of what has already been said about the following authors, with my own comments:

CJ Cherryh - my favorite SF settings (The Beyond and Compact Space, Merovingen) and "history"-best character writer I have read to date.
Robert A Heinlein - wish he were still around; my personal favorite along with Cherryh
Jerry Pournelle - Military SF one of the best
Larry Niven - good stuff overall
H Beam Piper - stories and settings have very authentic flavor.

Dean
 
Originally posted by The Mink:
Traveller esque - In no particular order

i) The Co-Dominion series (Mostly Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven) including such classic traveller stories as King David's Spaceship - A fun account of a how technology affects people. Lots of fighting, heros and fun stuff

ii) Lois McMaster BuJold. In particular "Falling Free" MegaCorps, uplifted races etc etc

iii) David Brin "Uplift series" in particular "Uplift war". a multi-race universe - races interleave much less than in traveller (ie each state is based on a race) but some wonderful characterisation.

iv) Weber's Honor Harrington. For the navy militarists amongst us. "On basilisk station" is probably the best and it's available to be read for free at Baen's free library. No deep characterisation but a "cracking good read". a humanocentric universe

v) Timothy Zahn. Tied between the "cobra" series and his Star wars "post movies" books. Both are highly applicable but in very different ways.

vi) Heinlein. "Time for the stars" for the scouts who like being first in alternatively "Citizen of the galaxy" for the merchants.

vii) Niven, Pournelle & Barnes "Legacy of heurot" for another "let's explore a strange new world". It's brilliant in so many ways

viii) David Drake "Hammer's slammers series" - my favourite is "Tank Lords" (again available from Baen) for the track toads

ix) Anne Macaffery (sp) "The ship who sang series". The closest to traveller would be "The city who fought" -

x) Keith Laumer - "Odessy" for a very very traveller universe - tramp merchants, spaceport bars etc etc. The only thing it's missing is an "imperium". (again available from Baen)

OK - I kept the list down to top ten - but it's not easy. I'm sure someone else will weigh in with Cherryh, but I'm not as big a fan.
Click to expand...
____________________________________
Excellent choices sir. Thank you for your responses!!
:D ;) :cool: :cool: :cool:
 
Originally posted by Steve Perlot:
Good topic.
________________________________________________
Why thank you sir. I try to make others use their noggins round here these parts!______________________________________________
In no particular order, here are some authors I've used as inspiration (sometimes more like plagiarism) in my campaigns:
-Anything by Jerry Pournelle.
-Anything by Larry Niven (with or without Pournelle)
-Roland Green (Peace Company, The Mountain Walks - both mainly military oriented)
-David Drake - yes, I'm a treadhead.
-OK, C.J. Cherryh (Merovingen Nights is a cool wilds setting for TNE)
-H. Beam Piper (Fuzzy Papers, Federation)
-Heinlein (duh)
-Margaret Weis (Star of the Guardians)
-Robert L. Forward - good hard SF stuff
-Keith Laumer (Bolos are a tanker's dream).
Lots of others, but those are my favorites.
Click to expand...
_______________________________________
Thank you Mr perlot! Good job. I see we're on the right track here...(no tread-head pun intended!) :D ;) :cool: :cool: :cool:
 
Originally posted by theSea:
Here's my cr0.02

</font>
  1. Niven and Pournelle - The Mote in God's Eye is arguably the best first contact story EVER written. Also lots of good navy & nobles ideas. Perfect example of how to do aliens right. If you enjoy it read the sequel, The Gripping Hand as well.</font>
  2. Pournelle (solo and with SM Stirling) - everything in The Prince if you can, but The Mercenary covers the essentials if that's all you can find. Any of the Janissaries Books for warfare with mismatched tech levels. King David's Spaceship is another gem set in the same universe as Mote and Mercenary - great for that low tech world in a high tech empire thing.</font>
  3. H Beam Piper - Star Viking is a must for any Traveller fan. The Fuzzy books are also a lot of fun. The Cosmic Computer and Uller Uprising are also very good. Four Day Planet and Lonestar Planet are two novellas that were published together... both are chock full of adventure seeds. If you've gotten this far you might as well try to get Federation and Empire - two collections of short stories that will round out the Piper canon. Piper's universe is another of those wherein the computer revolution never happened - always fun to read about those starships with data being moved about on magnetic tape and punched cards <g>.</font>
  4. C.J. Cherryh - the Charnur books - you need to read these books if you're even thinking about running Aslan. The Hani don't match up 100% but, damn, there are a lot of ideas there. There is another race in there (Mahendosat? SP??) which has a lot of characteristics that could spill over to roleplaying Vargr. Merchanter's Luck and Rimrunners are very rich for any merchant campaign. Read the Foreigner series for another example of aliens done right. My big problem with Cherryh is that I have to take her in small doses - her stories seem to have a repeating theme of thrusting her characters into situations of lonliness, exhaustion, angst and stress which leaves me feeling lonely, exhausted, angst-ridden and stressed out if I consume too much at a stretch. Feeling like the lone sane person in a world full of aliens is way too close to real life for me to take in large doses ;)</font>
  5. David Weber - the Honor Harrington books are a SF retelling of CS Forrester's Horatio Hornblower stories. He steals from a master, he does it well and his characters and setting are generally very good. I also recommend getting the current book (War of Honor) in hardcover as Baen has kindly included a CDROM with electronic editions of every Honor book plus 30 or so other SF books (including many titles mentioned here). Big, big bang for your buck. I hope they sell a lot of dead tree editions as a result. I know they will with me. For what it is worth I discovered the Honor books through the $1.99 loss leader edition of On Basilisk Station - hats off to Baen for understanding how to attract readers!</font>
  6. Heinlein - Starship Troopers is essential. There is also a LOT to be mined from The Moon is a Marsh Mistress. Starman Jones is a quick read but very good for all sorts of stuff about life on a starship if you can get past the total lack of computer tech (and you thought the LBBs were light on computers - LOL).</font>
  7. Asimov - the Foundation books. Asimov's writing style is distinctive and not for everyone, but these books (including Foundation's Edge the 4th book written later) have a great deal of Traveller goodness - especially if you're looking at a Hard Times or Long Night type of period. Traders, Merchant Princes, Imperial Admirals, Psionic Cabals, Planets on the rim that are losing touch with the Empire while Admirals take the fleet and sack the capital - it's all here. Oh and by the way - Lucas stole Trantor and renamed it Coruscant - Asimov's estate should sue his ass ;)</font>
  8. Gordon R Dickenson - the first few books in the Dorsai series like Tactics of Mistake are excellent. It gets a little wearisome by the Final Encyclopedia but the early stuff is worth the read - it's been about 15 years for me, so I'm probably due again.</font>
  9. Frank Herbert - Dune. I wouldn't call all of the later stuff essential - it's good, very good - but not up to the standard of the first one. There is enough power politics and political intrigue in Dune to power a dozen campaigns.</font>
  10. James H Schmitz - the Witches of Karres is slanted a bit towards the younger audience - but a very good read and lots of Traveller relevent stuff. I've heard Agent of Vega and some of his other stuff is very good as well - it's sitting in my 'to be read' pile, which never seems to die.</font>
Honorable mention - Allan Dean Foster's humanx books - Catchalot, Bloodhype, The Tar-Aiym Krang, The End of the Matter, Nor Crystal Tears and the Flinx & Pip stories.... Fosters stuff is good, workmanlike SF which is very reminiscent of Pipers work in terms of tone and characterisation. He's incredably prolific and (IMHO) somewhat under-rated in the genre.

Note: Keep in mind that these are books I've read - rated by relavance to running or playing in a Traveller Campaign. It's not inteneded as a comprehensive SF reading list, so don't chastise if your fave isn't here or ranked as high as it might deserve from a 'literary' standpoint, okay?
Click to expand...
_________________________________________
Quite a selection and titles. Excellent Mr The Sea! And the addenda was appreciated...My missus is the SF scholar, I'm the finicky one, so I tried to shoot for the Traveller-esque SF listings in this post. Well done, Stars fer you!
:cool: :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool:
 
Originally posted by Dean:
I will second most of what has already been said about the following authors, with my own comments:

CJ Cherryh - my favorite SF settings (The Beyond and Compact Space, Merovingen) and "history"-best character writer I have read to date.
Robert A Heinlein - wish he were still around; my personal favorite along with Cherryh
Jerry Pournelle - Military SF one of the best
Larry Niven - good stuff overall
H Beam Piper - stories and settings have very authentic flavor.

Dean
Click to expand...
_______________________________________________
That's five good ones, Dean, thanks ! Looks like my turn at the wheel here...
 
Liam Devlin's top 10 Sci Fi/Travelleresque Authors (works included where memory hasnae failed me yet): Order is in recall, not preference!

#1.) Robert A Heinlein: Moon is a harsh Mistress/ Starship troopers (A militant's must!)/ Friday/ Citizen of the Galaxy (merchant/ Free Trader's Must have)/ Time enough for Love.

#2). Tony Frezza's Two novels, Fire in a Far Away place(?), and ???argh.! Well, Both for mercenary compnaies taking over small planets/ bootsrapping, then playing against the Big league Heavies who break the contract.

#3). Pournelle's Janissary/ & Mercenary series. (War as its fought/ as it should be fought).

#4) CJ Cherryh's Chanur series (Merchanting/ Aslan-Hani type aliens. Must have for roleplaying Aslan--agreed 110%)/ Union-Earth war series (for you Navy big fleet type stuff)/ 40,000 in Gehennna (nice look at a "long Night" on pne world../ Rimrunners (Smugglers, and TJ- types)/ Heavy Time (belters R Us, must read for Maspy)/ The Atevi series (Alien first Contact/ Loss and regaining technology/ and social changes with regaining it(-Scouts/ TNE folks)/ Merchanter's Luck (interaction between Free traders)/.

#5) David Drake's immortal "Hammer's Slammer's, and sequels. Ruthless gritty, dirty war-fighting, on any scale in the future.

#6) Larry Niven (Mote in God's Eye/ Lucifer's hammer) Surviving the worst/ TNE!), Ringworld series/ Any joint effort with Pournelle.

#7) Isaac Asimov's federation/ Foundation trilogy are classics (Long night/ recovery of lost knowledge/ a grand sweep of rise and fall of man thru the stars)

#8) David Weber's Honor harrington series (Navy action, yeah, he's transposing over the Napoleonic wars, but the heroes are heroes, and the creeps are creeps. I LIKE em, so what!?

#9)Glen Cook (Star Fishers)/ Several other SCi Fi nocvels--he's generally knowne for his Black Company series/ Fantasy Genre sleuths with metal names. Takes a grim look at Military operations versus aliens with superior tech, and sacrifices made. More human drama than science, but thats my take--still worth the read.

#10)A Three way between Tim Zahn, Lois Mcmaster Bujold- & Anne mcCafferey. For books and reasons mentioned in the above posts.
 
Once these posts reach critical mass Liam, you should consider doing a tally. Obviously any book/author which get's 100% votes from THIS disparate group is really worth the read for a traveller player. (forget that durn two votes two value system Siskel and Ebert came up with.)
 
Originally posted by Garf:
Once these posts reach critical mass Liam, you should consider doing a tally. Obviously any book/author which get's 100% votes from THIS disparate group is really worth the read for a traveller player. (forget that durn two votes two value system Siskel and Ebert came up with.)
Click to expand...
__________________________________________
Those two paragons of "good taste" (retch cough hack, barf!)?? :rolleyes:


But the pint is well taken Garf. When is critical mass tho? We shall see. Great idea. Credits to you fer thinkin it tho! ;)

who's next?! You there..lurking! I see you with a bookshelf back there! whats on it?
 
Top Ten 'Traveller-esque' novels and why. Bear in mind I'm trying to restrict myself to ten AND this is not alway a rating of 'best book' as it is 'most traveller-esque'

For The navy-mad

10 DownBellow Station - CJ Cherryh
09 RimRunners - CJ Cherryh both this and number DownBellow, for a gritty 'real world-dirt and blood on the bulkheads' feel of both spacer life and life in a real military on the losing side.
08 The Mote in God's Eye -Pournelle,Niven, Navy officer/Imperial Noble connection.
07 The Short Victorious War - David Weber, Good fleet action.
06 Echos of Honor - David Weber, POW's, Carrier Action.
05 StarCruiser Shennandoah: Squadron Alert! - Roland Green, there are better book but this has a very Traveller Navy feel.
04 With The Lightnings/Lt Leary Commanding - David Drake. Not as gritty as his earlier stuff but very travelleresque.
03 On Basilisk Station - David Weber, Great naval character, especially at this point her career.

----

For the Army/Marines types.

10 Rimrunners - CJ Cherryh, M.Sgt. Elizabeth Yeager Earth Company Marines! -- seriously though, best description of power armour I've ever read.

09 Peace Company - Roland Green, Solid military fare. On a peace keeping mission no less.

08 Marching Through Georgia - SM Stirling, it don't get any nastier.

07 Janisaries - Jerry Pournelle, Small party force, Tech differentials, reasons why 'Hack and Slash, Haul away the loot' Doesn't work in Traveller.

06 The Mercenary - Jerry Pournelle, REQUIRED reading.

05 Hammer's Slammers - David Drake, REQUIRED reading.

04 The Uller Uprising - H. Beam Piper, REQUIRED reading, sci fi recreation of the Indian Sepoy Mutiny by The Master.

03 Starship Troopers - Heinlein, The Seminal Marine-in-Battledress novel.

--------

For Merchant/Adventurers

10 Ship Of Strangers - Bob Shaw, totally wrong tech but still way cool collection of SCOUT stories.

09 Outland, Aliens -- Alan Dean Foster, Good traveller movies made into better traveller books good 'dirty baseball cap/rust on the bulkheads' feel.

08 Pride of Chanur, Chanur's Venture, etc. etc... -- CJ Cherryh. Great feel of one lone ship crew against the universe and the Hani are MUST for Aslan fans.

07 Rimrunners - CJ Cherryh, She really can do spacer life like no other.

06 Plague Ship, Postmarked the Stars - Andre Norton, I think there's a couple more too. Adventures of a free trader crew in CLASSIC sf style. WORTH finding. (try Andrew North as well, she published in less gender-open times than ours.)

05 Hunters of The Red Moon - Marion Zimmer Bradley. Just a cool story worth reading. A way to insert your party into an adventure reminiscant of the short story 'The Most Dangerous Game'. Even has a psi talent running around in it.

04 Four Day Planet - H. Beam Piper, Mid tech/low law tough planet about to get very sick of it's 'rulers', AND something for your party to shoot at, instead of other characters.

03 Merchanter's Luck - CJ Cherryh, REQUIRED reading.
----

General

02 Anything by H. Beam Piper, I CANNOT reccomend him enough. His failings as a tech predictor work for him in this regard as they are a match for Traveller's failings.

AND the Number one Traveller Novel of All time is:

01 ...

...

...

up to you, I've exhausted myself racking my brains this hard.
 
What, no Poul Anderson from anybody? For shame! Well, here's my top 10 Travelleresque sf (as always, off the top of my head and surely missing something great):

</font>
  1. Poul Anderson - Dominic Flandry series (any and all)</font>
  2. H. Beam Piper - anything and everything</font>
  3. Asimov - Foundation trilogy</font>
  4. E.C. Tubb - Dumarest series</font>
  5. Niven & Pournelle - The Mote in God's Eye</font>
  6. Larry Niven solo artist - Known Space series (and and all)</font>
  7. Heinlein - Starship Troopers</font>
  8. Harry Harrison - The Stainless Steel Rat</font>
  9. Herbert - Dune</font>
  10. David Weber - Honor Harrington series</font>
If the reason none of you have listed Anderson is because you haven't read any of his books, then I highly recommend going out and buying some immediately -- you're in for a definite treat! Best place to start IMO: Ensign Flandry and the story collection Flandry of Terra.

Edited to add: Oops, forgot the "& why." But since most of the titles are just echoing previous posters, I'll also echo their reasons :D
 
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSmokin'!!!! Yus! Garf man congrats on crossin' 300th Post lad! Nice way to divvy em up.

where's 02 in the Navy-Marines-Merchants? Jus askin.

Who's on deck next? Hey it ain't hard, type slow if'n ye have to!
 
What, no Arthur C. Clarke? Fair enough- maybe he's more 2300 than CT... but I've always been a fan of his writing, both fiction and essays.

Asimov- never really got into the Foundation stuff, but I used to have a vast collection of his non-fiction work. His stuff on astronomy and mathematics is excellent.

Not science fiction, but fact- Dragon Hunter is a book about Roy Chapman Andrews who led a series of Central Asiatic Expeditions in the 1920's. I actually just finished this biography, and found it very apt for any Traveller games that involve exploration, especially on low-tech worlds with low-tech equipment. A fascinating read, I highly recommend it.
 
Originally posted by T. Foster:
What, no Poul Anderson from anybody? For shame! Well, here's my top 10 Travelleresque sf (as always, off the top of my head and surely missing something great):

</font>
  1. Poul Anderson - Dominic Flandry series (any and all)</font>
  2. H. Beam Piper - anything and everything</font>
  3. Asimov - Foundation trilogy</font>
  4. E.C. Tubb - Dumarest series</font>
  5. Niven & Pournelle - The Mote in God's Eye</font>
  6. Larry Niven solo artist - Known Space series (and and all)</font>
  7. Heinlein - Starship Troopers</font>
  8. Harry Harrison - The Stainless Steel Rat</font>
  9. Herbert - Dune</font>
  10. David Weber - Honor Harrington series</font>
If the reason none of you have listed Anderson is because you haven't read any of his books, then I highly recommend going out and buying some immediately -- you're in for a definite treat! Best place to start IMO: Ensign Flandry and the story collection Flandry of Terra.

Edited to add: Oops, forgot the "& why." But since most of the titles are just echoing previous posters, I'll also echo their reasons :D
Click to expand...
______________________________________________
Poul Andersen is in me library, but he's the Missus's choice over Pournelle (my choice), TFoster, sorry. Glad YOU remembered him though. He was a great author, and a founding member fo the SCA. He is missed in more than one way, truth be told...But Flandry is a fun series, must admit. Glad to see HH's Stainless steel rat made it in too! I'd give ye stars but they lemme vote once round here!

Good stuff! Thanx!
 
Originally posted by Stephen Herron:
What, no Arthur C. Clarke? Fair enough- maybe he's more 2300 than CT... but I've always been a fan of his writing, both fiction and essays.

Asimov- never really got into the Foundation stuff, but I used to have a vast collection of his non-fiction work. His stuff on astronomy and mathematics is excellent.

Not science fiction, but fact- Dragon Hunter is a book about Roy Chapman Andrews who led a series of Central Asiatic Expeditions in the 1920's. I actually just finished this biography, and found it very apt for any Traveller games that involve exploration, especially on low-tech worlds with low-tech equipment. A fascinating read, I highly recommend it.
Click to expand...
___________________________________
The Missus likes Clarke, if its a consolation to ye. Isaac can be dry, but his Foundation Trilogy does the panorama sweep fine--okay, the characters are wee shortlived in that vast stretch of time, but compare it to a book version of sweeping the 1st-4th Imperiums...too much to cover to get real detailed characters.
Your last suggestion I will take you up on (bein' a fella who likes low tech solutions to hi tech problems(and their makers). Good job Stephen!

On deck next is...
 
Originally posted by Garf:
Thanks for the Congrats Liam.

Number 2 for all was Piper.

have a good one.
Click to expand...
_______________________________
.."Anytime.."-from Predator/Movie
Okay. HB Piper for all of 02, gothcya. (Marks it down).

With my HOME computer repaired/ rebuilt and RESTORED..YUS...okay, down off the power trip...back to posting!
 
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