[ SECRET POST #2249 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2249 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


__________________________________________________



02.
[Otoyomegatari]


__________________________________________________



03.
[Girls und Panzer]


__________________________________________________



04.
[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]


__________________________________________________



05.
[Monster High]


__________________________________________________



06.
[My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic]


__________________________________________________



07.
[Jackass 3D]


__________________________________________________



08.
[Paranatural]


__________________________________________________



09.
[Angelina Jolie]


__________________________________________________



10.
[Der Ring des Nibelungen]


__________________________________________________



11.
[Mary Shelley's Frankenhole]


__________________________________________________



12.
[Medium]


__________________________________________________



13.
[The Americans]


__________________________________________________



14.
[The Mindy Project]


__________________________________________________



15.
[5Dolls, T-ARA]


__________________________________________________



16.
[A Good Day To Die Hard]


__________________________________________________



17.
[Harry Potter]



__________________________________________________



18. http://i45.tinypic.com/2v0bjpd.jpg
[linked for porn, Spartacus: Vengeance]


__________________________________________________














Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 019 secrets from Secret Submission Post #321.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Rec me sci-fi books, pleaaaaaase?

[(Anonymous)]

Only requisite is that they are somewhat short (350 pages tops) and not part of a series of a thousand books.

Share your wisdom, F!S

Re: Rec me sci-fi books, pleaaaaaase?

[ill_omened]

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

Really any Philip K Dick that comes in under that.

Re: Rec me sci-fi books, pleaaaaaase?

[mekkio]

Chasing the Moon - A. Lee Martinez (A young woman moves into an apartment complex to learn that it's a hot spot for transdimensional beings and she is stuck being one of its custodians.) If you are a fan of books like Hitchhiker's Guide and Good Omens, then this book is for you.

Re: Rec me sci-fi books, pleaaaaaase?

[(Anonymous)]

Thirding PKD, also Valis (same author).

Ursula Le Guin, her standalone books include The Dispossessed, Lathe of Heaven and The Left Hand of Darkness. Warning, all those books are short but very very thinky.

Octavia Butler, Wild Seed.

Neuromancer. Yes it is part of a trilogy but it doesn't end on a cliffhanger so you don't need to read the following two books. (Though you should want to.)

Any of the Heinlein juveniles are good. Rocket Ship Galileo, Tunnel in the Sky, Podkayne of Mars, Starship Troopers.

Fallen Angels (Niven/Pournelle just FYI, they are far right in their politics and were at the time of the writing of the book climate change deniers) is actually not bad, but I'm a sucker for meta, so ymmv. Also Barry Malzberg but his stuff is much, much, much harder to find.

Howard Wladrop, Them Bones.

Robert Silverberg, Dying Inside.

Rudy Rucker's White Light isn't to everyone's taste but I didn't mind it. I'm not a fan of how he frames his fiction (why did everyone in the 80s have to have a manifesto, seriously).

Schismatrix, Bruce Sterling. It's not great, but it passes the time. Same with Heavy Weather, which was marginally better.

For horror, Wetbones, by John Shirley (note that this is REAl horror not the usual pablum that passes for horror these days).

Greenhouse Summer, Norman Spinrad. Climate change taken to its logical conclusion. Eerie when you consider we are actually facing this very scenario in our lifetimes.

Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut. If you read no other book on this list read that one!

That's all I can think of. Happy reading OP!

Re: Rec me sci-fi books, pleaaaaaase?

[tabaqui]

C. J. Cherryh - Downbelow Station
Merchanter's Luck
Rimrunners
Wave Without a Shore
Sunfall (collection of short stories set in future earth)

Tanith Lee - Silver Metal Lover
Don't Bite the Sun
Drinking Sapphire Wine
Day By Night

Second 'Do Androids Dream'
Also, the novelization of 'Star Wars' is really very cool, and the book that came after, 'Splinter of the Mind's Eye' has an awesome kick-ass Leah.

Re: Rec me sci-fi books, pleaaaaaase?

[sootyowl]

Seconding all the books by Tanith Lee! They might be a little hard to find, but they are so worth it.

Re: Rec me sci-fi books, pleaaaaaase?

[(Anonymous)]

For some reason I read your title as "Me-sah wants some scifi recs", Star Wars style.

Re: Rec me sci-fi books, pleaaaaaase?

[(Anonymous)]

well, these are all pretty obvious and you may have read them, but just in case you haven't.

i loved "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury.

if you're looking for something that you can pick up and put down and not get too heavily invested in, i would recommend "Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories". it's a compilation of his short stories and is quite fun to read.

"Treason" by Orson Scott Card...has some fantasy elements to it as well.

Re: Rec me sci-fi books, pleaaaaaase?

[(Anonymous)]

all the books by michael crichton!

Re: Rec me sci-fi books, pleaaaaaase?

[dethtoll]

Philip K. Dick -- A Scanner Darkly (less sci-fi than gutwrenchingly depressing drug culture drama, but still counts)

I personally found "Do Androids Dream" to be a bit overrated.

And I know you said no series but would a trilogy be okay? Because William Gibson's Neuromancer trilogy (sometimes called the Sprawl trilogy) is an easy read (and indeed, the titular first book works very well by itself.) Gibson is my favourite author and aside from a short story collection (Burning Chrome, which includes the fantastic story "Hinterlands") and an okay-ish steampunk novel he wrote with Bruce Sterling, he pretty much writes nothing but trilogies.

Re: Rec me sci-fi books, pleaaaaaase?

[ill_omened]

Yiss.

My other rec was going to be Gibson.

Neuromancer first, but of his sci-fi works I'd actually say Idoru is better. It's just not nearly as influential as the former was.

Edit: And Neuromancer was originally planned and conceived as a standalone work. Doesn't count as a 'triology' in the way they're getting at.

Re: Rec me sci-fi books, pleaaaaaase?

[evil_little_dog]

Seconding the Tanith Lee books. Almost anything by Tanith Lee is worth reading; her fantasies, her horrors, her SF, her YAs, her children books....

David Gerrold has some very cool books. I'm not sure if it's still in print, but Voyage of the Star Wolf was really enjoyable.

Ray Bradbury's books are listed as SF, and are very lyrical. My favorites are Dandelion Wine and The Illustrated Man, though Farenheit 451 is very cool.

If you like short stories, go find a collection of Harlan Ellison.

Jane Yolen has a respective collection of YA fantasy/SF novels.

Re: Rec me sci-fi books, pleaaaaaase?

[(Anonymous)]

Oh man that is a tough question. It would help a lot if you could say something about what your preferences are, or what you like, or what your taste is, or what you're looking for - in terms of subgenres, or topics, or things like that.

Other people have said Philip K Dick, and I definitely agree with that. Same with William Gibson. Also - Lord of Light, by Roger Zelazny, is a phenomenal book. The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester. Downbelow Station, by CJ Cherryh. Startide Rising, by David Brin. Stations of the Tide, by Michael Swanwick. Lois McMaster Bujold. And of course classics like Dune and Asimov's work and stuff like that.

Also you should check out short stories! Because there's a ton of great short science fiction. Check out the Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume 1, and decent collections from people like Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon, James Tiptree, and also from the usual big names and people like Ursula K LeGuin.

Man, I love science fiction. Again, if you have any specific kind of thing you're looking for, that would help out a lot.

Re: Rec me sci-fi books, pleaaaaaase?

[illiadandoddity]

I love classics like Robert Heinlein, myself. Tunnel in the Sky is one of my favorite books ever. Although you do have to keep in mind the time period, because there's a bunch of casual sexism and racism from a modern standpoint, though his writing was progressive for its time.

Re: Rec me sci-fi books, pleaaaaaase?

[ginainthekingsroad]

I would tell you to go read the Vorkosigan saga but they generally don't meet your criteria. I assume 14 books (+2 in the same universe but out of main continuity) falls under the umbrella of "a thousand". Although you could just read the first two, the Cordelia books (Shards of Honor and Barrayar) and decide from there if you want in on the series aspect. The books have gotten longer as the series goes on, my omnibus of the two (called Cordelia's Honor) is 590 pages but that's TWO novels.

Oh! The Witches of Karres by James Schmitz is very under-appreciated but it's very funny and short. I'm not 100% sure if it should be classified as fantasy or SF but there's space travel and the witches are aliens so I'll go with SF.

Re: Rec me sci-fi books, pleaaaaaase?

[(Anonymous)]

Any of Ursula Le Guin's sci-fi books. My favorite is The Lathe of Heaven, but I'm not sure if that's quite as sci-fi-ish as you'd want? The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed are more obviously sci-fi, and both are also really good.

Re: Rec me sci-fi books, pleaaaaaase?

[republicanism]

if you haven't already read it, read sirens of titan because i just finished it and it is great.

Re: Rec me sci-fi books, pleaaaaaase?

[(Anonymous)]

Have you read the Dragonback series by Timothy Zahn? 'Tis good.

Re: Rec me sci-fi books, pleaaaaaase?

[(Anonymous)]

I know a couple of people have already recced Ursula K LeGuin, but I'll just throw in another vote for her. My favourite book by her is Changing Planes, which I think is perhaps easier to read than something like The Dispossessed? (Although I liked that too.) YMMV...

Re: Rec me sci-fi books, pleaaaaaase?

[ariakas]

Thank you for asking this OP! I'm also in the market for more sci-fi and I just don't have the time/patience for 1000 page epics.

So, first off, everything everyone has said about Gibson. His short story collection, Burning Chrome, is excellent.

More short but great standalone sci-novels:

Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers. So. Freaking. Good. And tragically underrated because it was written in the USSR during the Cold War.

The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett. A fascinating look at what people in the 1950s thought a post-apocalyptic society would look like. Very different from what gets written today.

Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon. A sci-fi classic that clocks in at less than 200 pages.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Much, much better than the movie, though the movie is also good.

Armor by John Steakley. A bit longer than 350, but you'd be fine just reading Part I (I'd almost recommend it in fact, though his fans might lynch me for the suggestion). Best action scenes of any sci-fi ever written, imo.

Re: Rec me sci-fi books, pleaaaaaase?

[kluify]

I, Robot - Asimov - or any of his other story collections.

Re: Rec me sci-fi books, pleaaaaaase? - OP

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks guys, I knew I could count on F!S :D

Re: Rec me sci-fi books, pleaaaaaase?

[(Anonymous)]

China Mountain Zhang by Maureen McHugh

I just finished it yesterday and it was really fucking good. Hard to find though- I'd been looking for a copy for almost a year. I think all of my other favourites under 350 pages have already been mentioned.

Re: Rec me sci-fi books, pleaaaaaase?

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

The Everworld series by K.A. Applegate and Michael Grant. They're... somewhat patchy, let's put it that way, but more consistent than Animorphs in being a good mix of filler and actual content.

Re: Rec me sci-fi books, pleaaaaaase?

[djose]

Definitely fails your requisite, but it's a great book, so - Anathem by Neal Stephenson. There's so much detail and the world feels so real! It is.....about 900 pages, but honestly it doesn't feel like a long read at all.

I stopped reading for a while because I didn't want the story to end. :(