Are these Sci-Fi books any good?

[2000AD]

Going to be going on a family holiday over christmas and holidays are normally when I devour entire books, so I'm looking to take advantage of the xmas sales to stock up on reading material. Currently I'm looking at:

Warhammer 40,000: The Salamander's trilogy (Salamander, Firedrake and Nocturne?) by Nick Kyme
I like 40K, are these any good? Are they like the Ultramarines or the Space Wolf books?

The Mass Effect tie in novels.
I like the games, are the novels any good?

The tie in novel for Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Ditto.

The Doctor Who tie in novels.
In particular I'm looking at The Silent Stars Go By, an 11th Doctor story by Dan Abnett. Never read any DW tie novels, are they ok?

The Warcraft, War of the Ancients series.
It's fantasy not sci-fi, but I dabble.

As a measuring stick I like:
Warhammer 40K and fantasy
Discworld
The Star Wars EU up until then end of the NJO, my favourites being the X-Wing series.
Some of Iain M. Banks Culture series, Player of Games is my favourite, wasn't too keen on Matter and Excession.

Some things I didn't like:
Dune, got the first 3 in an omnibus edition and found them boring as hell.
The sequels to Ender's Game. I liked EG but not so much the books after, including the Bean books.
The Star Wars Swarm War series.

Feel free to chip in with your own recomendations, what I already have ready to read are:
The first five books of the Song of Fire and Ice series
The Outcast Dead, Battle for the Fang, Blood Reaver and Salvations Reach (all WH40K)

[Tasoth]

If you can swing buying it cheaply, I suggest The Strain. It is the first in Guillermo del Toro's vampire trilogy and has them as violent, marauding monsters and links to viruses and what not. It was pretty good, very cinematic.

A Crossed the Nightingale Floor was pretty good, but is Japanese themed fantasy. There is some action, but most of the plot involves a grand scheme of revenge and averting a war.

[Stark]

Are you primarily attracted to books based on licensing? This is a serious question that will help people decide if it's worth suggesting something.

Oh and look out for the pages of 'list of books I like' heading your way.

[Panzersharkcat]

I recommend The Stainless Steel Rat.

[Stofsk]

The Mass Effect tie in novels.
I like the games, are the novels any good?

Eh. Quality varies. It depends on whether you like David Anderson because two of the books centre on him as a protagonist. Also whether you like Drew Karpyshyn as a writer. But one complaint is the female protagonist who's in all three books is something of a mary sue.

Revelations made me wish we'd seen more of Saren in the first game. Each book appears to act as a prelude to one of the games, with the third and so far recent book acting as a prelude to ME3 (sort of). Revelations goes into the story behind Anderson's failed bid to become a Spectre and his teaming up with Saren. Ascension goes into the story behind Cerberus and some of the events in ME2, like how the quarians don't react too well to Cerberus because of something they did. Retribution is about what happened after ME2 and btw it assumes that Shepard didn't blow up the base but kept it for TIM. So much for the power of choice :V (it also suggests that Anderson was never really happy being a councilman and Ascension also assumes Shepard sacrificed the council)

I'd say Revelation is decent, and its best value is fleshing out Saren as a character (which is one of the biggest disappointments in ME, Saren was criminally underused), Ascension is on the whole pretty meh but ok, and Retribution was the best. But none of them are really great books or anything.

[2000AD]

If you can swing buying it cheaply, I suggest The Strain. It is the first in Guillermo del Toro's vampire trilogy and has them as violent, marauding monsters and links to viruses and what not. It was pretty good, very cinematic.

Already read it, thought it was ok but it didn't grab me enough to get me interested in the rest of the series.

A Crossed the Nightingale Floor was pretty good, but is Japanese themed fantasy. There is some action, but most of the plot involves a grand scheme of revenge and averting a war.

Never heard of it, but then again I can't say I'm that interested in Eastern style stuff.

-----

Are you primarily attracted to books based on licensing? This is a serious question that will help people decide if it's worth suggesting something.

Oh and look out for the pages of 'list of books I like' heading your way.

40K and Star Wars are the only licenses that I've read a lot of and only because I've been playing Warhammer (40K and Fantasy) for over 10 years now (shouldn't have to explain why I liked the earlier SW EU on SD.Net ). In no way am I mainly attracted to liscences, though I admit that when I'm looking for new books I first look for new 40K stuff before looking for other stuff.

The main reasons I've suggested a bunch of liscenced books initially is that:
- I see them on offer or cheap quite often and also in the airport book stores quite a bit.
- Theyr're based on games (and a TV show) that I like.
- There's some cross over with authors I recognise from 40K, like James Swallow did the Deus Ex book (IIRC) and Dan Abnett doing some Doctor Who / Torchwood stuff.

-----

I recommend The Stainless Steel Rat.

I'm letting the origin of my username down by admitting I've never read any of the novels or the comic series based on them featured in 2000AD. I guess if it was good enough to be in the most thrill-packed comic on Earth it's good enough for a holiday read.

[Bakustra]

Some sci-fi/fantasy authors that you should probably read:
Roger Zelazny
Joanna Russ
Tim Powers
China Mieville

All four of these authors are rightly renowned for their literary qualities among the field of sci-fi authors. Zelazny has a massive bibliography, which is generally about 50% out of print at any given time. Some stuff that should be in print still: Lord of Light, The Chronicles of Amber, Creatures of Light and Darkness. His works generally walk the line between fantasy and sci-fi and are firmly in the New Wave tradition of focusing on the characters.

Russ also wrote a decent number of books, but she may be a bit harder to find in chain bookstores or small libraries too. Her most famous works are The Female Man and The Two of Them, but you could also pick up one of her short-story collections if you can find it. She's also a major part of the New Wave.

Powers has written a lot as well, but most of his stuff is again, harder to find. Some of his most famous works are Last Call, On Stranger Tides, Declare, and The Anubis Gates. His stuff is harder to classify, but it generally falls into the category of "historical fantasy".

Mieville is easy to find. Just go down to the bookstore and pick one up. His books are part of the New Weird, which is about the strange and unusual and deliberately exploring that.

[Iroscato]

I recommend...Seeds of Earth.

[Bedlam]

The Doctor Who tie in novels.
In particular I'm looking at The Silent Stars Go By, an 11th Doctor story by Dan Abnett. Never read any DW tie novels, are they ok?

As its quite a large series with alot of writers the novels vary alot from writer to writer. Generally I've not beem to impressed with the series so far. I haven't read the silent stars so far but I generally like Dan Abnett's 40K books and comics so I'm going to read it eventually.

[Connor MacLeod]

LIST OF BOOKS I LIKE HEADING YOUR WAY!

40K: Anything by Abnett, Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Sandy Mitchell and William King are good. Some like Graham McNeill and he has some good books, but he's not one of my favorite authors. Beyond that it's going to be up in the air depending on the book.

I haven't read any SW novels in a long time, but in my opinion the good authors were Troy Denning, Aaron Allston, Michael Reeves (anything with his name on it is good, he contributed to the Death STar novel) James Luceno. I used to like alot of Zahn's stuff but I'm not as enthusiastic about him anymore. Again like 40K it's up in the air for the rest. Hard Contact was a good novel though and I would recommend that.

David Drake, Catherine Asaro, and Alistair reynolds are my current favorite sci fi authors, I'd recommend any of those (although they're about as far form 'hard' sci fi as you can get...) David Drake's Leary series is good.. it still has some of the problems of Weber's books when it comes to math (most baen books do, honestly) but it doesnt get quite as over the top about technology.. it still retains that flavor from the first couple HV novels. (although I got into the series when the frist several books are out.. they're up to like 7-8 now). Like Honorverse its age of sail in space, but in a different manner with much fewer missiles and no gravity shields. Revelation space is a series of novels and a bunch of short stories, and the main distinguishing point is that its intelligent but 'soft' sci fi that does totally without any sort of FTL drive (at least as far as I am aware.. maybe the recent novels have changed that.) Catherine Asaro has alot of mathematic/sciency mumbo jumbo in it, but it reminds me a bit of Legend of the Galactic Heroes mixed with a downscaled 40K without the grimdark and skulls and cathedrals in space.

[dworkin]

Guideline the first: Tie in novels are the money spinning drek they appear to be. If the label is more recognisable than the author, avoid.

Guideline the second: B is a good letter of the alphabet when looking for new SF. Many good authors of SF have surnames starting with 'B'.

Guideline the third: Sequels not written by the original author are best used to help start fires.

Guideline the fourth: Anything that comes in a series bigger than three books is best viewed with suspicion.

Guideline the fifth: Any book where the actual plot has yet to start after page 100 is wasting your time.

Guideline the sixth: Any book which is twice the size of the last one in the series is not to be trusted.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

Warhammer 40,000: The Salamander's trilogy (Salamander, Firedrake and Nocturne?) by Nick Kyme
I like 40K, are these any good? Are they like the Ultramarines or the Space Wolf books?

The Mass Effect tie in novels.
I like the games, are the novels any good?

I would recommend against The Salamander's Trilogy myself. There's something in Kyme's writing about Space Marines that I just didn't like. You might try Atlas Infernal or Soul Hunter, though.

I haven't read the Mass Effect Nivelizations, but my Dad has. He didn't know they were based on a video game and just picked up the first one on a whim (Yeah, I don't get it either), but he enjoyed it and recommended it to me.

EDIT: Dworkin, are you serious or just a trolling Try Hard?

[Bob the Gunslinger]

Whoops! Too late to edit...

If you just want some fun page turners, and aren't too concerned with questions such as "Is this the kind of book a strak would buy in hardcover?" I highly recommend the Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher. The first two books are not his best, but the series picks up with the third and really moves.

[Connor MacLeod]

I would recommend against The Salamander's Trilogy myself. There's something in Kyme's writing about Space Marines that I just didn't like.

If the Salamanders were normal people they'd be find, but they don't quite come off like Space Marines. Unless they were space wolves. They swear, they don't show quite the same levels of superstition or fear... stuff like that.

Frankly I do like the characters, and the characterisation of the Salamanders, but the series itself is kinda underwhelming. I think it's that there's alot of ideas there, but none of them ever really get fully developed.

Personally I'd wait til they release it as an omnibus.

[Simon_Jester]

David Drake, Catherine Asaro, and Alistair reynolds are my current favorite sci fi authors, I'd recommend any of those (although they're about as far form 'hard' sci fi as you can get...) David Drake's Leary series is good.. it still has some of the problems of Weber's books when it comes to math (most baen books do, honestly) but it doesnt get quite as over the top about technology.. it still retains that flavor from the first couple HV novels. (although I got into the series when the frist several books are out.. they're up to like 7-8 now). Like Honorverse its age of sail in space, but in a different manner with much fewer missiles and no gravity shields.

Oh, heavens no.

The Honorverse was never (flavor-wise) the Age of Sail in space. It was more like Victorian-era steam navies in space, with the shift in the later novels playing the role of the Dreadnought Revolution.

The Age of Sail was all about cultural context- very independent ships, a relatively loose disciplinary structure for the navy as a whole and ships dominated by the personalities of their captains rather than by the regulations, the aristocratic social structure that influenced affairs shoreside. The Lieutenant Leary series really nails that part brilliantly- probably because Weber wrote what he knew and his experience was with the US Navy, while David Drake wrote what he knew and his experience was as a student of history.

I would recommend against The Salamander's Trilogy myself. There's something in Kyme's writing about Space Marines that I just didn't like.

If the Salamanders were normal people they'd be find, but they don't quite come off like Space Marines. Unless they were space wolves. They swear, they don't show quite the same levels of superstition or fear... stuff like that.

Frankly I do like the characters, and the characterisation of the Salamanders, but the series itself is kinda underwhelming. I think it's that there's alot of ideas there, but none of them ever really get fully developed.

Personally I'd wait til they release it as an omnibus.

Well, I think the Salamanders are supposed to be like that. They're one of the founding chapters, so they have an independent identity that predates the Codex Astartes and whatnot. On top of that, their primarch was less of a top-lofty, self-righteous sort than most of his brothers, and he passed that attitude on to the legion. So I'd hardly be surprised to learn that the Salamanders were the most 'human' of the legions- with the Space Wolves a close second, mostly disqualified by the fact that they're big walking caricatures in a way the Salamanders aren't.

[DrMckay]

my ff.net rec list has some stuff you might like. (I;ve omitted the Allston Recs)

-John Biggins, the Otto Prohaska Novels (Not well known, but they should be, this series is comprised of faux-autobiographical entries detailing one man's checkered career in several branches of the Austrian Military during the First World War. Well-written, funny, heart-wrenching and historically accurate, plus the main character is more sympathetic than Flashman) Really unknown, really underrated, really good.

-David Brin: The Postman

-Ben Bova: Grand Tour Series

-Jim Butcher: Dresden Files, (Gotta love a wizard who brings a gun to a spell-fight.)

-Michael Chabon: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Yiddish Policeman's Union, Gentlemen of the Road (Genre bending and convention-defying, plus some of the best prose I've read recently.)

-Bernard Cornwell: The early Sharpe's books, (the Peninsular war and parts of the India books. Was I the only one pissed off at how many times Hakeswill was 'left to die'? )

-Roald Dahl: anything

George MacDonald Fraser: Flashman Series, Black Ajax, Mr. American, The Pyrates, McAuslan, etc.(Current Favorite Author)

-Lois McMaster Bujold: The Vorkosigan Saga. Mercenaries, aristocratic political squabbes, and enough fantastic characters and witty dialogue to fill a Dyson Sphere.

-Frank Herbert: Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune

-Stephen Hunt, The Court of the Air, The Kingdom Beyond the Waves. (one-stop shop for madcap steampunk adventure)

-George R.R. Martin: Ice and Fire series

-Naomi Novik: Temeraire Series-The Napoleonic Wars with dragons. (Even better than it sounds)

-George R. Stewart: Earth Abides (Really good post-apocalyptic book)

-Zadie Smith: White Teeth, The Autograph Man

-Studs Terkel: The Good War, Working, Race, Hard Times, your one-stop shop for Oral history.

-Leon Uris: Mila 18, Mitla Pass

-Kurt Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse Five, Cat's Cradle, etc. If you're a military history buff, go read Saughterhouse to get some damn perspective on the human cost of war.

Hope those help. Sorry for the bombardment.

[Ahriman238]

Going against the general opinon here, but I'd actually recommend the Salamanders books. The characters feel more like people than most Space Marine books I've read, they have rivalries, jealousies and bitter hatreds, but they can also set them aside and get the job done. They do have their own variation on the Cult Imperialis, the Promethean Cult, and they care deeply for the people of Nocturne.

The stories also have a just-right blend of mystery and action.

If you like 40K and for some reason haven't already, read the Ciaphas Cain and/or Gaunt's Ghosts books.

[2000AD]

Just for clarification, I'm not a sci-fi noob. While I've probably read less than a quarter of peoples big lists of recommendations I certainly recognise the names. The short lists at the end of my OP about my likes and dislikes are not the only things I've read, just what came to mind first to be used as yard sticks for people to gauge what I might like and dislike.

This goes double for WH40K, despite the vast, ever growing number of them available I reckon I've read about half to two thirds of all the 40K books, the only reason I'm not up to date on Gaunt's Ghosts and Horus Heresy is because I knew the holiday is coming so I've been saving the newer ones.
I only ask about the Salamander's books because series that focus on space marines exclusively (like the Space wolves and Ultramarines books) haven't really grabbed me, but some of the one off space marine books (Like Brothers of the Snake and the Space Marine Battles series) I've quite liked and I've heard the Salamander's books are a bit different.

In hindsight I should probably have learned from previous SD.Net threads and left off the open recomendations bit and focused on the books I was enquiring about. Then again, since I've just ordered an omnibus edition of the first three Stainless Steel Rat books at least some open recomendations have inspired a new purchase.

Going by what's been said so far I think I'll also get the 1st Mass Effect book and the 1st Salamander book, that should take me to 14 books to read which even at my rate should give me enough to read over the holiday without needing to resort to repeats.

[Connor MacLeod]

The First Salamander book is okay and kinda self contained (although there is at least one prequel story to it also). The problem with the rest is.. they are tied in with a bunch of short stories and other rstuff that happens in the anthologies (and Bolter and Chainsword magazine) that you probably would have to read to keep up on. More than that, it's not really a trilogy - the last book ends on a cliffhanger leaving it open for yet more books. In alot of ways its kinda like James Swallow's Blood Angels books.. they're really.. different in the perspective and tone from alot of other 40K novels and people are either going to like them or hate them on that basis.

[The Reaper]

Going to be going on a family holiday over christmas and holidays are normally when I devour entire books, so I'm looking to take advantage of the xmas sales to stock up on reading material. Currently I'm looking at:

Warhammer 40,000: The Salamander's trilogy (Salamander, Firedrake and Nocturne?) by Nick Kyme
I like 40K, are these any good? Are they like the Ultramarines or the Space Wolf books?

Heard they aren't all that bad, but haven't read them yet.

The Mass Effect tie in novels.
I like the games, are the novels any good?

They are good if you like the games, especially Retribution.

The Outcast Dead, Battle for the Fang, Blood Reaver and Salvations Reach (all WH40K)

Salvations Reach is good, but I hope you have read the previous like, 13 novels in the series. Same with the many on the Horus Heresy series. Battle for the Fang was awesome, a little slow at first but then it ramps up and is awesome.

If you haven't already, read the Eisenhorn series, some of, if not the best books I have ever read. Pretty much anything Abnett is Grade A.

[The Reaper]

Oh, and since I didn't remember in time, Atlas Infernal is a great book too.