Authors you can’t go wrong with, part 1

If you pick up any book by these authors, you will be well rewarded. There may be some off-by-one errors in my ratings for books I read many years ago, but this gives you a good idea of the books I like.

Isaac Asimov

Asimov wrote more books than just about anybody, in a wide variety of fields. In particular he was a master at both science fiction and science.

  • Masterpieces
    • The Foundation series
      • Foundation
      • Foundation and Empire
      • Second Foundation
      • Foundation’s Edge
      • Foundation and Earth
      • Prelude to Foundation
      • Forward the Foundation
    • The End of Eternity
    • The Gods Themselves
    • I, Robot (collection)
    • Nightfall and Other Stories (collection)
  • Great books
    • The Caves of Steel
    • Gold (collection)

Orson Scott Card

Card is a master of both science fiction and fantasy.

  • Masterpieces
    • The Ender Saga
      • Ender’s Game
      • Speaker for the Dead
    • The Shadow Saga
      • Ender’s Shadow
    • The Tales of Alvin Maker
      • Seventh Son
      • Red Prophet
    • Pastwatch
    • Maps in a Mirror (collection)
    • Keeper of Dreams (collection)
  • Great books
    • The Ender Saga
      • Xenocide
      • Children of the Mind
      • First Meetings (collection)
      • Ender in Exile
    • The Shadow Saga
      • Shadow of the Hegemon
      • Shadow Puppets
      • Shadow of the Giant
      • Shadows in Flight
    • The Tales of Alvin Maker
      • Prentice Alvin
      • Alvin Journeyman
      • Heartfire
      • The Crystal City
    • Homebody
    • Enchantment
    • Magic Street

Arthur C. Clarke

Clarke was a master at both science fiction and science. He co-wrote the screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey with Stanley Kubrick.

  • Masterpieces
    • The Nine Billions Names of God (collection)
    • Expedition to Earth (collection)
    • Childhood’s End
    • The City and the Stars
  • Great books
    • 2001: A Space Odyssey
    • The Fountains of Paradise
    • Rendezvous with Rama
    • The Songs of Distant Earth
    • 1984 Spring: A Choice of Futures (nonfiction)

Julie E. Czerneda

I’ve only read Czerneda’s science fiction books so far, but lately she’s branched out into fantasy.

  • Masterpiece
    • Species Imperative
      • Survival
  • Great books
    • Trade Pact trilogy
      • A Thousand Words for Stranger
      • Ties of Power
      • To Trade the Stars
    • Web Shifters
      • Beholder’s Eye
      • Changing Vision
      • Hidden in Sight
    • In the Company of Others
    • Species Imperative
      • Migration
      • Regeneration

Guy Gavriel Kay

Every one of Kay’s fantasy books is brilliant. His books are typically more like historical fiction, with very little magic.

  • Masterpieces
    • Tigana
    • A Song for Arbonne
    • The Sarantine Mosaic
      • Sailing to Sarantium
      • Lord of Emperors
  • Great books
    • The Fionovar Tapestry
      • The Summer Tree
      • The Wandering Fire
      • The Darkest Road
    • The Lions of Al-Rassan

Ursula K. Le Guin

Le Guin is a master at both fantasy and science fiction. It seems she’s retired from writing novels, but she’s left an amazing legacy.

  • Masterpieces
    • Earthsea
      • A Wizard of Earthsea
      • The Tombs of Atuan
      • The Farthest Shore
      • Tehanu
      • Tales from Earthsea
      • The Other Wind
    • The Left Hand of Darkness
    • The Dispossessed
    • The Telling
    • The Birthday of the World (collection)
  • Great books
    • Rocannon’s World
    • Planet of Exile
    • City of Illusions
    • The Lathe of Heaven
    • The Language of the Night (nonfiction)

Anne Rice

Rice writes books that are infused with history and details that will almost make you believe vampires and/or witches are real.

  • Masterpieces
    • The Vampire Chronicles
      • Interview with the Vampire
      • The Vampire Lestat
      • The Queen of the Damned
    • Lives of the Mayfair Witches
      • The Witching Hour
      • Lasher
      • Taltos

Robert J. Sawyer

Sawyer writes science fiction books that contain ideas worth thinking about, and characters worth meeting.

  • Masterpieces
    • Golden Fleece
    • Starplex
    • Factoring Humanity
    • Calculating God
    • Iterations (collection)
    • The Neanderthal Parallax
      • Hominids
    • Identity Theft and Other Stories (collection)
  • Great books
    • The Quintaglio Ascension
      • Far-Seer
      • Fossil Hunter
      • Foreigner
    • End of an Era
    • The Terminal Experiment
    • Frameshift
    • Illegal Alien
    • Flashforward
    • The Neanderthal Parallax
      • Humans
      • Hybrids
    • Mindscan
    • Rollback
    • The WWW trilogy
      • Wake
      • Watch
      • Wonder
    • Triggers

Neal Stephenson

Stephenson’s science fiction novels will help prepare you for the future.

  • Masterpieces
    • Snow Crash
    • The Diamond Age
    • Cryptonomicon
  • Great books
    • The Big U
    • In the Beginning… was the Command Line (nonfiction)
    • Some Remarks (mostly nonfiction)

Robert Charles Wilson

Wilson is a master at stories that feature a world-changing event and fascinating characters who react to that event.

  • Masterpieces
    • The Harvest
    • Darwinia
    • The Chronoliths
    • Blind Lake
    • The Spin series
      • Spin
    • The Perseids and Other Stories (collection)
  • Great books
    • Mysterium
    • The Spin series
      • Axis
      • Vortex
    • Julian Comstock
  • Good book
    • Bios

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 1st, 2015 at 10:50 pm and is filed under My thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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