If you don't mind searching around for them (various authors over the years), try the Bolo stories/novels (original author - Keith Laumer).

"The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Heinlein (pardon the spelling).

The Foundation novels of course (Asimov for most of them).

The recent 'Worlds' novels (regarding the Puppeteer Fleet of Worlds) by Niven and Lerner have been pretty interesting.

Short Stories? 'The Draco Tavern' by Niven, and just about anything from Clarke and Asimov.

a series that was just pure entertainment and fun to read ' horus heresy series '

I
The Gap into conflict: The Real Story , by Stephen Donaldson. This is book 1 of 5. The first book is the shortest of them all, but it really is the start of a roller coaster ride through space, alien hostiles and hard nasty psychological warfare. It's brilliant!

Also forgot to mention the Mars trilogy by Kim-Stanley Robinson, 3 books about the colonization of Mars using today's technology, red Mars was written in 1996 with conceivable technology for the day, the 'first 100' are trained in Antarctica and sent to Mars aboard the Ares, a ship using centripetal rotation for gravity, they are mostly Russian and American and a few Japanese, they land and begin construction of underhill, the first dwelling on Mars, as the years pass they make tent cities and tap the north pole for water, using rovers trains led by buoys, they make derrigables to move around and manufacture everything themselves, multinational greed and mass immigration eventually causes the first revolution in 2061 where they bring down the space elevator on Olympus mons causing the giant cable to come crashing down across the equator.

Green Mars is the second book, Mars now has it's own industry, terraforming has started and a whole new generation of 'locals' has been born there, the first 100 are largely still alive but quite a few were killed in the '61 revolution, they live in an underground society cut off from corporate controlled Mars and they lead the way for the second uprising, they sign a constitution called the dorsa brevia agreement and successfully revolt, Mars at this stage has a large transient population of people who live 'off the grid' in small tent towns and roving caravans of Arabs and Swiss.

Blue Mars is set across several hundred years, it deal with the colonization of other bodies in the solar system and Mars becoming an independent powerhouse of its own.

Truly a spectacular series of books, not to be missed if you like 'realistic' sci-fi as it's all very conceivable

I wish it was available in Kindle Store.

May I ask why you prefer the digital book instead of a real one?

I actually prefer real ones (as evident by a near-total lack of spacein my apartment). The problem is it's not easy to buy English books in Russia (where I am currently residing) or order them here, so I have to purchase them whenever I go abroad. In this particular case (KSR's trilogy) I actually almost bought it a few years ago in London but I literally had no room in my luggage.

Besides, I like reading on the go, and it's a bit tricky with, e.g., a Dance with Dragons hardcover.

I actually prefer real ones (as evident by a near-total lack of spacein my apartment). The problem is it's not easy to buy English books in Russia (where I am currently residing) or order them here, so I have to purchase them whenever I go abroad. In this particular case (KSR's trilogy) I actually almost bought it a few years ago in London but I literally had no room in my luggage.

Besides, I like reading on the go, and it's a bit tricky with, e.g., a Dance with Dragons hardcover.

Hopefully this question doesn't get me stoned, but I have to ask:

Why on Earth do so many people like Orson Scott Card?

I read half of the books in the Ender's Game series, including ones involving Bean. I read the entire Homecoming Saga. You can't say I didn't give him a chance.
.

The Gap series by Stephen Donaldson, as always with Donaldson great character development and superb story telling, not Sci-fi but also worth reading is his Mordant Saga, Mirror of her dreams and A man rides through. Also if you buy the Gap series now they've merged Books 1 and 2, found this out when I replaced my books after they got damaged..

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I actually prefer real ones (as evident by a near-total lack of spacein my apartment).

You say you're out of book space?
Naturally you're out of book space.
Everyone's always out of book space.
If you're not out of book space,
you're probably not worth knowing.

I have no idea where the quote is from, but a book store I used to frequent back in the 80s and 90s sold t-shirts with this on it.

You say you're out of book space?
Naturally you're out of book space.
Everyone's always out of book space.
If you're not out of book space,
you're probably not worth knowing.

I have no idea where the quote is from, but a book store I used to frequent back in the 80s and 90s sold t-shirts with this on it.

Too many books? No such thing... or is there...

So many wonderful books in this thread.

it's really hard for me to pick one piece of science fiction that I love the most (although if I absolutely had to, it would have probably been something by Robert Sheckley, Ray Bradbury or Philip K. Di-ük). The last novel I read -- and enjoyed immensely -- was Anathem by Neal Stephenson.

God dambit, Greg Bear. How the hell did he not get a mention?

Also:

Sundiver - David Brin

Jem - Frederik Pohl

Ringworld - Larry Niven

Paradox - John Meaney

[CULTURE] - Iain M Banks

Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep -- Philip K ****

The Child Garden - Geoff Ryman

Great Sky River - Greg Benford

Also forgot to mention the Mars trilogy by Kim-Stanley Robinson, 3 books about the colonization of Mars using today's technology, red Mars was written in 1996 with conceivable technology for the day, the 'first 100' are trained in Antarctica and sent to Mars aboard the Ares, a ship using centripetal rotation for gravity, they are mostly Russian and American and a few Japanese, they land and begin construction of underhill, the first dwelling on Mars, as the years pass they make tent cities and tap the north pole for water, using rovers trains led by buoys, they make derrigables to move around and manufacture everything themselves, multinational greed and mass immigration eventually causes the first revolution in 2061 where they bring down the space elevator on Olympus mons causing the giant cable to come crashing down across the equator.

Green Mars is the second book, Mars now has it's own industry, terraforming has started and a whole new generation of 'locals' has been born there, the first 100 are largely still alive but quite a few were killed in the '61 revolution, they live in an underground society cut off from corporate controlled Mars and they lead the way for the second uprising, they sign a constitution called the dorsa brevia agreement and successfully revolt, Mars at this stage has a large transient population of people who live 'off the grid' in small tent towns and roving caravans of Arabs and Swiss.

Blue Mars is set across several hundred years, it deal with the colonization of other bodies in the solar system and Mars becoming an independent powerhouse of its own.

Truly a spectacular series of books, not to be missed if you like 'realistic' sci-fi as it's all very conceivable

I forgot these series of books, i must get a copy of them.

Another trilogy i forgot was a new Dune series by Brian herbert and Kevin J Anderson. The three books are:

The Butlerand Jihad
The Machine Crusade
The Battle of Corrin.

Basically it deals with humanity has expanded outwards and occupied hundreds of worlds. A small faction and some revered people have worked out how to remove their brains into a type of stasis jar, allowing them to live for thousands of years. The faction group have gone a step further and built massive robots to control directly with their brains. They have gone and invented a very good A. I. Eventually one of the faction gives too much power to it, and it takes control. The faction are now subservient to the AI, while the rest of humanity forces a stale mate with it.

The stories themselves deal with how humanity struggles to overcome the AI with slaves, new ships, and a herb found on only one desert planet... Dune.

It is a very good series

Is it on par with the original Frank Herbert's series? (I know that Brian Herbert is his son) I've always been interested in the early days of the Dune universe, so to speak, but it'd take a really talented writer to fill Frank Herbert's shoes.

Is it on par with the original Frank Herbert's series? (I know that Brian Herbert is his son) I've always been interested in the early days of the Dune universe, so to speak, but it'd take a really talented writer to fill Frank Herbert's shoes.

**** you guys I just spend -ú200 on amazon

Always loved Niven as I popped my Sci-fi cherry with Ringworld.....

First Sci-Fi novel and first novel I read for entertainment was Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke. That book still has a place for me, because it turn me on to novels, and love of reading them.

For some reason a lot of people hate the ending in that novel. I think that it's perfect.

Rendezvous with Rama is great. After that ACC included Gentry Lee in the writing and the quality suffered.

Of course, if you are going to mention Clarke, one of my favorite boosk by him is Childhood's End. Or as I like to call it, the plot "V" stole. Not V for Vendetta, the TV miniseries/series "V".

Most of the books I would recommend were listed already.

I have no idea why Rendezvous With Rama continued after the first book as the story had finished.

I don't think that I disliked any of his stuff at all which wasn't a tacky add-on in order to make a series.

Why was there a sequel? ACC set it up that way. it has been years since i read it, but IIRC, right at the end of Rendezvous with Rama, they mention the Rama creators having a penchant for things in threes.