SF recommendations - (updated -- read first post)

[Krista D. Ball]

I'm looking for books that fall into the below categories. This is for a reading challenge, where a list will be made of my recommendations during 2012 (alone with a list at the end of the year).

AUTHORS: If you want to recommend your book, PM me. Warning: Your book needs to actually be in the subgenre, not a "paranormal romance, but it has thriller aspects and it has robots, so it's kinda like SF thriller."

I'm looking for NOVELS and NOVELLAS for the following:

SF Thriller
SF published between 2000-2010
SF about an ecological disaster
SF about time travel
YA SF that isn’t Hunger Games
Military SF that wasn't written by Heinlein
SF dystopia
SF with an authoritarian government

I'm looking for SHORT STORIES and NOVELLAS for the following:

Cyberpunk SF
Steampunk (not romance or erotica with a subgenre of Steampunk)
Biopunk BF

I'm looking for SHORT STORIES, NOVELLAS, and NOVELS for the following:

Military SF
Lesbian SF

[SylviaLucas]

Have you read James Moore's In the Time of Man?

[nogdog~6op6ou]

I did a blog post about it (http://kristadball.com/2012/01/im-looking-for-some-sf-book-recommendations/) in case you want to see what other folks are recommending to me.

I'm looking for books that fall into the below categories. I'll cool with short novels, long novels, and novellas. No short stories, only because that's a different section of the reading challenge I'm doing

SF Thriller
SF published between 2000-2010

Halting State by Charles Stross would cover the first two.

...Military SF...

Checkout the stuff by David Drake and David Weber at the Baen Free Library.

[Krista D. Ball]

I forgot about Weber! 

[foreverjuly]

I think you'd do well with The Windup Girl. The novel isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but the world, plot, and characters are interesting.

[Krista D. Ball]

I think you'd do well with The Windup Girl. The novel isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but the world, plot, and characters are interesting.

I own it, and just never got to it. It's YA, right?

[foreverjuly]

I own it, and just never got to it. It's YA, right?

I wouldn't call it YA. I'm not sure how much adult language there is, but the characters are mostly older and the language has its complexities. It would work for your Sci-Fi Dystopia, most likely.

[Seleya]

I own it, and just never got to it. It's YA, right?

I wouldn't say so.

[The Hooded Claw]

Military SF:  David Drake, especially Hammer's Slammers or the RCN series starting with With The Lightning. Some of these are available free from Baen Books website.

Authoritarian government, try Robert Heinlein,  The Moon is a Harsh Mistress or If This Goes On.

[Krista D. Ball]

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

I haven't read that since I was a teen. I'll add it back! I don't remember it, other than remembering I liked it.

[Geoffrey]

I'll play your reindeer game ....

SF Thriller - The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
SF published between 2000-2010 - House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds
SF about an ecological disaster - Clade by Mark Budz
SF about time travel - Regression by Kathy Bell
YA SF that isn’t Hunger Games - Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Military SF - Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
SF dystopia - The Gate to Women's Country by Sherri S Tepper or Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
SF with an authoritarian government - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

[Krista D. Ball]

Ugh, not Starship Troopers.

Regression looks really interesting, however.

[Tony Richards]

Military SF? Give Joe Haldeman a look.

[The Hooded Claw]

For a time travel book, I recommend this forgotten goodie:

http://www.amazon.com/Mixed-Doubles-Daniel-Cruz/dp/B000OVHZM6/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1325892840&sr=1-1-catcorr

Mixed Doubles, by Daniel Da Cruz

Long out of print, but used paperbacks are available for a penny plus shipping.  Fun time travel story.

[Geoffrey]

I wouldn't call it YA. I'm not sure how much adult language there is, but the characters are mostly older and the language has its complexities. It would work for your Sci-Fi Dystopia, most likely.

I agree it's not really YA - It would fall more under Dystopia or Ecopunk ...

[OwenAdams]

I'd like to second Ender's Game. I don't care for Card much as a person, but his writing is exceptional.

[Krista D. Ball]

I'd like to second Ender's Game. I don't care for Card much as a person, but his writing is exceptional.

That's what is so frustrating about Card!

[JRTomlin]

Krista, let me recommend this (out in November from Whiskey Creek Press) by my good friend C. R. Daems.



I think you'd enjoy it. The young protagonist could make it YA but it also has a lot of elements that could put it into other subgenre.

[Krista D. Ball]

Thanks! Looks like it would be ok for the YA slot, too, so that's a good one to put on the list. Thanks!

[sarahsbloke]

The Travis Chase trilogy by Patrick Lee fits almost all your requirements.
The Breach, Ghost Country, Deep Sky

SUMMARY:
Thirty years ago, in a facility buried beneath a vast Wyoming emptiness, an experiment gone awry accidentally opened a door. It is the world's best-kept secret—and its most terrifying. Trying to regain his life in the Alaskan wilds, ex-con/ex-cop Travis Chase stumbles upon an impossible scene: a crashed 747 passenger jet filled with the murdered dead, including the wife of the President of the United States. Though a nightmare of monumental proportions, it pales before the terror to come, as Chase is dragged into a battle for the future that revolves around an amazing artifact. Allied with a beautiful covert operative whose life he saved, Chase must now play the role he's been destined for—a pawn of incomprehensible forces or humankind's final hope—as the race toward Apocalypse begins in earnest. Because something is loose in the world. And doomsday is not only possible . . . it is inevitable.

[Krista D. Ball]

Those are listed as normal thrillers...They are SF?

[sarahsbloke]

Those are listed as normal thrillers...They are SF?

Travis Chase series is about alien technology and artifacts, time travel, government conspiracy, end of the world, weapons of mass destruction.
I'm pretty sure that makes it SF!

You might also like Last Light and AfterLight by Alex Scarrow, what happens after the oil runs out.
Meets your ecological disaster and dystopia requirements.

[Krista D. Ball]

Second for AfterLight by Alex Scarrow today. Looks like that one has to go on the list.

[Bleekness]

John Steakley's "Armor."
You might not like it though, if you don't like "Starship Troopers."

Armor is more action oriented (when the action starts, the gas pedal gets stomped on) but it's one of my favourites.

Not that that means anything

[Krista D. Ball]

John Steakley's "Armor."
You might not like it though, if you don't like "Starship Troopers."

Armor is more action oriented (when the action starts, the gas pedal gets stomped on) but it's one of my favourites.

Not that that means anything

I think Starship Troops might have been the book where I snapped and vowed no more Heinlein, but I'm not sure. It's been a long time