Fantasy, SF, and Horror books you'd recommend

[Statius]

Tad Williams, 'OtherLand' series. 4 books. Online world more real than the real world. Late 90's early 2000's. Before the Matrix and it's rip offs. Some characters are annoying, but still a good series. Besides what's mentioned above, VR, brain chips, (I think?) and if you die there you die in real life.

 

[onehitwanda]

Damn it, how do you know my ex-es?

 

[MillieDynamite]

Moving on, 1950 - 1970: with no repeats (I hope). I, Robot (1950) by Isaac Asimov: Foundational robot stories, introducing the Three Laws of Robotics. Childhood's End (1953) by Arthur C. Clarke: Humanity's evolution guided by alien Overlords. Fahrenheit 451 (1953) by Ray Bradbury: A dystopian future where books are burned. The Demolished Man (1953) by Alfred Bester, Starship Troopers (1959) by Robert A. Heinlein, A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959) by Walter M. Miller Jr.: Post-apocalyptic monks preserving knowledge.

Must-reads from the 50s: The Stars My Destination (1956) by Alfred Bester: A classic revenge tale of interplanetary travel. More Than Human (1953) by Theodore Sturgeon. The Caves of Steel (1954) by Isaac Asimov: The first robot detective novel.

Moving to the 60s, Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) by Robert A. Heinlein: A human raised on Mars experiences Earth. Dune (1965) by Frank Herbert: Epic world-building, politics, and ecology, and a difficult read, those that followed I found impossible to slog through. Flowers for Algernon (1966) by Daniel Keyes, a beautiful story with a sad, sad, sad ending (did I mention how sad it is). The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) by Ursula K. Le Guin: Explores gender and society on an alien planet.

And one from 1970, Tau Zero (1970) by Poul Anderson: A spaceship stuck in relativistic travel.

I'm worn out, taking a break!

 

[SimonDoom]

I'm not sure if people think of Kurt Vonnegut as sci fi, but I think Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse 5 qualify, and I strongly recommend them as well.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Oh, yes, they are SCI FI with big, bold capital letters.

I'm not sure if people think of Kurt Vonnegut as sci fi, but I think Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse 5 qualify, and I strongly recommend them as well.

 

[SimonDoom]

Also, if you like sci fi short stories, you MUST read the short story collection The Science Fiction Hall of Fame vol. 1 1929-1964. A great compilation of stories from the golden age of sci fi. One of my favorites is Frederic Brown's Arena, which years later inspired the Star Trek episode with Kirk fighting the Gorn.

 

[Areala-chan]

Alright - off to a room, you two.

I don't know about you, but my rooms are too full of books for hanky-panky.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

I don't know about you, but my rooms are too full of books for hanky-panky.

Babe, don't squirt on the Chuck Tingle stack.

 

[Statius]

One of them doesn't actually involve full-blown sex in the library, just some make outs... but the inherent eroticism of the library is fully intentional

Just realized. Rias Seduction' part 2 has a F/F library scene. It's only the story I'm rewriting, how would I remember that? Damn this cold is killing me. Anyway, a short hetero stroker still sounds fun to write, so maybe? As you were, all, I'm out.

Peace

 

[yowser]

600 stories tagged 'library' - take your pick.

One of mine:

"You know this part of the library?" Trina turned to face me, looking into my eyes.

"Sure, this is the area on sexual matters. Arousal, sexual pathologies, masturbation, gay sex, male and female sexual behaviors. I'm a psych major after all."

She smiled. "My favorite part of the library." She squeezed my hand.

She turned and gazed at the various titles around us. My eyes followed hers.

"See that book up on the top shelf?" She pointed. "HQ71.B351?"

I tilted my head and squinted at the title. "Sexual Deviance?" She nodded.

"Would you reach it for me?" she asked a bit breathlessly.

This was a silly request of course, she was nearly as tall as I was. I had retrieved items off top shelves when asked before, but it was mostly for the under five-foot-five crowd. But I smiled and complied, stretching up my right arm.

In a flash she was on her knees in front of me, excitedly unbuttoning my pants, fishing my penis out of my undershorts.

 

[PennyThompson]

Babe, don't squirt on the Chuck Tingle stack.

Oh noooo if someone doesn't put that line in a story I will

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Oh noooo if someone doesn't put that line in a story I will

Hopefully it'll be a running gag.

 

[onehitwanda]

Hopefully it'll be a running gag.

Depends how liquid it is...

WANDA!

 

[PennyThompson]

Depends how liquid it is...

WANDA!

More of a wet-spot-on-the-bed gag...

 

[YmaOHyd]

Babe, don't squirt on the Chuck Tingle stack.

Pounded by the Living Manifestation of Squirt on a Stack of Chuck Tingle Books, a Tingler by Chuck Tingle.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Depends how liquid it is...

WANDA!

Oh, wouldn't you love to see...

Wait, have you ever been with a domme tgirl before?

 

[MillieDynamite]

Ops-a-daisy, how could I forget, John W. Campbell Jr.'s 1938 novella "Who Goes There?," about Arctic researchers discovering a frozen, crash-landed alien that poses a deadly threat. No less than 3 (maybe 4) movies have been based on it.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Ops-a-daisy, how could I forget, John W. Campbell Jr.'s 1938 novella "Who Goes There?," about Arctic researchers discovering a frozen, crash-landed alien that poses a deadly threat. No less than 3 (maybe 4) movies have been based on it.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Sounds like The Thing...

I wouldn't be surprised. They Live is based on Eight O'clock in the Morning, a short story by Ray Nelson that, just like I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, is both SF and Horror. That story should also be on the list.

Ops-a-daisy, how could I forget, John W. Campbell Jr.'s 1938 novella "Who Goes There?," about Arctic researchers discovering a frozen, crash-landed alien that poses a deadly threat. No less than 3 (maybe 4) movies have been based on it.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I didn't mention HHGTTG because I don't think of it as SF, just a story about Brits that happens to be set in space. As they used to say about Red Dwarf, it's not a SF sitcom, it's just a sitcom that happens to be set in space (and highly recommended!)

It is very British but I'd also consider it to be genuine sci-fi.

Take the Dish of the Day: scientists solve the ethical problems of eating meat by engineering a creature that wants to be eaten and is capable of saying so, to Arthur's great horror - but why is that more horrific than slaughtering a cow? There's material for a philosophy lecture in that, and IMHO using technology to provoke thought is one of the key attributes of SF.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Sounds like The Thing...

Yep, that's exactly what The Thing is based on.

 

[billrokra]

It's a long list, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (1818 addition), The Last Man, The Mortal Immortal, all by Mary Shelly. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis (pronouced Louie like it should be) Stevenson, Dracula by Bram Stoker. And we're moving on, H. G. Wells' The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The War of the Worlds (1897), and The Invisible Man (1897). Again, we're moving on, Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), From the Earth to the Moon (1865), and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870). Edwin Abbott Abbott's Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884). Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Henry James' The Turn of the Screw (1898). W. W. Jacobs' The Monkey's Paw (1902), William Hope Hodgson's The House on the Borderland (1908), Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera (1911), and H.P. Lovecraft's The Color Out of Space (1927).

And still moving on, Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men (1930), Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932), Guy Endore's The Werewolf of Paris (1933), and Robert E. Howard's Pigeons from Hell (1938). This era also includes Isaac Asimov's I, Robot (1950), George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), and Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles (1950).

Stopping to let my fingers and brain sync again. Yes, I've read every one of these.

What excellent tastes you have.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Yes, it was the source material for the Thing, its sequels and perquills, and the 1950s The Thing from Another World.

Sounds like The Thing...

I wouldn't be surprised. They Live is based on Eight O'clock in the Morning, a short story by Ray Nelson that, just like I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, is both SF and Horror. That story should also be on the list.

Are you making fun of how I do my responses? Good job!

 

[MillieDynamite]

That's what Jo says. No wait, she says I taste excellent. Not the same thing.

What excellent tastes you have.

 

[ruddygore]

It's probably OK for people reading this forum, but be aware that Chalker really, really liked writing erotically charged sex change (and physical transformations in general, but sex change).

--Annie

His Well of Souls series and Soul Rider. Although the last series went a little to long.