Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine What are you looking for in your scifi?

Lets face it, we all have things we look for in our reading. Some like eye catching covers, some like the lead on the rear or inside cover. Some go for the author.

I like a good idea with an interesting premise. If you've got something I haven't seen before, but it tells me it might be fun to find out, I'll go for it. I am choosey, I don't read anything or everything or just whatever you put in front of me.

But, honestly, a really good set of boobs helps.

No, that isn't a jerk thing. Lets face it, the protagonist has to be attractive to me as a reader. I like attractive women. Now, that said, my definition of attractive is wide ranging from Myrna Loy to Dr. Stephanie on Big Bang Theory to the Detective on Person of Interest to the hot chick from The Blue Iguana. But, Robert Asprin's Phule series, while having a kaboom lady, it wasn't the lady that hooked me. Like I said, a great looking (at least in my imagination) lady is a hook for me, typical red-blooded american male that I am. But, boobs alone ain't gonna cut it.

So, along with a good looking, attractive female lead, there needs to be something about your story that makes me go "Hmm, I like this. I'll give it a try."

If all it has to offer is a retread of Tokien with warrior, mage, hot chick, and plug in the color character, I'll pass. You better bring it.

That's why I like Legion, it changes and updates. Don't give me the same old retread.

But, that's just me. How bout you?

I could probably take a few posts to approach this from different angles. A lot of it is combined.

I’ve a soft spot for sci-fi/ horror. You get the best of two genres. The scope and wonder of the sci-fi combined with varying degrees of up close/ gore/ existential horror.

From softer ones like the implications of HAL turning on his crew and Bowman’s discovery, through to Ripley saving the important crew member, Jonesy, by having to take on the Xenomorph that has wiped out her crew.

And both those examples come from various sources. I wasn’t a massive sci-fi reader, but some of Clarke’s would have been read along the way. Dan O’Bannon lifted from every sci-fi/ horror B movie he loved, like IT! The Terror from beyond Space and Planet of the Vampires, that I’d see later on.

Over on this side of the pond, we grew up on a Doctor Who that was also mining old 50’s B Movies like the Crawling Hand, and combining it with Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass. Both Kneale and Wyndham were endless sources for some great adventures. Again, series based on books that would then lead onto other authors. But at the heart of each was a combination of that sci-fi scope/premise, varying levels of horror, and a combination with a contemporary commentary to keep them fresh.

I have a soft spot for sci-fi that combines a bit with fantasy, growing up on stuff like Andre Norton's Witch World, Anne McCaffrey's Dragons of Pern, Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover novels, Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light, Fred Saberhagen's Empire of the East, etc. (Those last two books are AMAZING, IMO!)

But for more 'pure' sci-fi, I love some David Brin stuff for the imaginative alien races and cultures, some Peter Hamilton for just great characterization, and Alastair Reynolds for just great futuristic stories. (I like a lot of older sci-fi as well from authors like Niven and Pournelle and Bear, but have been trying to catch up with more recent stuff and not just re-read stuff from my childhood.)

I'm a sucker for anything with *some* hard sci-fi (the Expanse books, for instance), franchises I already like (Timothy Zahn's written some great Star Wars novels, and I love trashy Star Trek novels, having read literally a hundred or more of them!), anything with great aliens (Jack Chalker rivals Brin in his interesting aliens, although I'm less fond of his writing), or anything with imaginative uses of psionic powers (Anne McCaffery has a book, To Ride Pegasus, which is perhaps my favorite book involving psychic characters).

Based on your stated interests, Rick, I would heartily recommend Peter Hamilton's books, beginning with the trilogy starting with Mindstar Rising, and then the Reality Dysfunction books (of which there are about five). Both have some great sci-fi, interesting worldbuilding, memorable characters and a bit more sexy time than the average 'drier' sci-fi story, which can sometimes get a little too caught up in the worldbuilding and technobabble. The Mindstar Rising books are pretty great, but seem almost breezy compared to how Hamilton mature as a writer by the time of Reality Dysfunction!

Less sci-fi, but also occasionally fun and sexy, the Harry Dresden novels by Jim Butcher, starting with Storm Front, set in Chicago, in a world where there are secret cabals of wizards and vampires and the like, operating out of sight of mundane folk, and Harry is the more-or-less-on-the-outs wizard who tries to help out where he can, working as a private investigator. Those seem like they'd be up your alley as well, but, fair warning, there are a LOT of them. He's written at least a dozen, probably more, by now. (There was even a Dresden TV show, which was nothing like the books, but kind of fun in its own way. Only eight episodes, IIRC. It didn't appeal to fans of the books, at all...)

David Brin writes some terrific stuff. I thoroughly enjoyed his "Earth" and many others. If you have read Asimov's Foundation and Robot series then David Brin and Greg Bear and Gregory Benford wrote a brilliant trilogy centred on Hari Seldon and pulling in much from the previous works while adding their own thoughtful twists.

I have also enjoyed a lot of Larry Niven's work, although I think he is better in collaboration or in short stories. His collection "The Draco Tavern" about the bartender at Earth's only bar for extra-terrestrials is great fun. His collaboration "Fleet of Worlds" series with Edward M. Lerner diving into the Puppeteers from his Known Space and Ringworld is even better than his own Ringworld books. Terrific read.

I have to admit that I tried Alastair Reynolds "Revelation Space" and bounced. Great concepts but I found the characters unlikeable and that put me off. Peter Hamilton's "Pandora's Star" and "Judas Unchained" were a wonderful read. I really enjoyed them and couldn't put them down. "Pandora's Star" has the best cold open of any book I have ever read.

A more light reading is the "The Murderbot Diaries" series by Martha Wells. The focus character is a "construct" - think cyborg but they were never a human. Instead they were constructed like a robot but with grown organic parts as well. They are a security bot hired out to various other companies etc and they take their job seriously but all they really want to do is chill out watching their favourite anime series. They call themselves Murderbot because the company erased a chunk of their memory after a mission gone wrong and for all they knew they caused it. Really interesting and fun stories.