Recently, for the first time in a very long while, I had the urge to do some dead-tree reading. I wanted quality writing, space sci-fi, strong female lead character. I haven’t really read any sci-fi for years, apart from some Babylon 5 and Voyager novels, based around the TV series. Some of them have been fairly good and some very trashy, but it was time for something a bit different.
Knowing there was no point, I first visited Whitcoulls. My initial instincts were quite correct and it was a waste of time. Dymocks and Unity books were further away than I had time for, but as I headed along Courtenay Place I realised that Arty Bees was nearby and stopped in there.
I scanned the endless shelves of sci-fi books, noticing that huge numbers of them were in the fantasy or vampire genres: not for me. I was also trying to keep my distance from an iPod fool nearby — I was deafened by his music; it won’t be too long before he’ll be deafened for real.
Feeling somewhat defeated by far too many books, and not being current with the genre I asked the incredibly knowledgeable assistant for help. I was eventually pointed to a series by David Weber about a character called Honor Harrington. Volume 1 was only $12, new, for 458 pages so I took that and the next two in the series too, though they were more expensive.
I’m more than half way through that first volume and am thoroughly enjoying it. The writing isn’t perhaps quite as innovative and inspiring as I would have desired, but it’s perfectly good. The bookseller had warned me about the high technobabble quotient, to which I had replied that I wanted that. I’m disappointed though and still waiting for the technobabble to start.
It looks like this phase of reading fiction on paper might be setting in. If you can recommend any good fiction for me, I’d be happy to see your comments. What I want: futuristic sci-fi, set in space, one or more strong female characters in lead roles. I’m not into fantasy, vampires, horror, alternate universes (eg, what say Germany had won the war), historical. Technobabble is good. Science is good. Quality is good. Old-fashioned bug-eyed monster space aliens is bad.
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Against a Dark Background by Iain M Banks.
Thanks. That looks interesting. Found it at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1857231791/
Cross posted in the Backup Brain comments:
Well, there’s a variety of books that I can suggest that I’ve enjoyed lately, but the strong female character requirement makes it a bit more difficult. Here are a couple of thoughts:
“Accelerando” by Charles Stross has a variety of strong women characters (likeable and not), enough technobabble to make your head explode, and one of the story’s heros is a post-singularity artificial intelligence in the shape of a cat. What’s not to like?
“Learning the World” by Ken MacLeod is a big critical favorite. It left me a bit cold, but maybe that’s just me. Woman and alien protagonists.
Both the above are current Hugo Award nominees. I’m also a fan of two of the other nominees, “Spin” and “Old Man’s War,” but they fall outside of your criteria. The latter is kind of like a “Starship Troopers” for the 21st century, sans Heinlein’s political screeds.
Julie E. Czerneda wrote three books in her Trade Pact series that I liked: “A Thousand Words for Stranger,” “Ties of Power,” and “To Trade the Stars.” Set in space, but includes telepathy.
Jack McDevitt has done several novels that feature, to one extent or another, the same character, Priscilla “Hutch” Hutchins. She’s a starship pilot, among other things. The books, in order: “The Engines of God,” “Deepsix,” “Chindi,” “Omega,” and the forthcoming “Odyssey.”
McDivitt also has three other books, “A Talent for War,” “Polaris,” and “Seeker,” that are about a guy named Alex Benedict, but are told through the viewpoint of his female pilot/associate.
I’ve enjoyed all of the McDivitt books; they’re not deathless literature, but they’re fun.
These should get you started!
You might check out Catherine Asaro’s Skolian Empire books. They’re virtually unique — space opera meets romance against a galaxy-spanning empire backed by rigorously-worked-out telepathic and FTL technology (Asaro has a Ph.D. in physics from Harvard). And some of her female characters (particularly that of Sauscony Valdoria) are outstanding. I recommend starting with “Primary Inversion” and seeing how you like it. Beware, though, the books weren’t written or published in anything much resembling in-series chronological order.
Thanks for all the suggestions folks. I think this list will keep me busy for a very long time.
Oh, and the discussion is continuing over at Backup Brain, with many more suggestions: http://www.backupbrain.com/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/dori/mt-comments2.cgi?entry_id=4909
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