Wow, you've definetly proved to be the coolest kid on the block with your groundbreaking post on a lame book. It's OK, though. On behalf of everyone, I forgive you for wasting our time. Anyone else is now welcome and should reply.



great, that's convincing.

I was about to promote you, but the naytch think got me. Sry.

Old Man's War is pretty good, I agree. As is the The Forever War (didn't like Forever Peace as much, however).

I would also recommend Vernor Vinge's Fire Upon the Deep as a good space opera. Charles Stross's Iron Sunrise and Singularity Sky are also good.

Dune is a classic, of course. Not sure that it really captures the feel of GalCiv2, though, except maybe for the intrigue.

Yes, ThheGreatEmperor is correct, the picture on the cover is always a great way of determining if a book will be a good read or not.
/sarcasm metre explodes

Does Endor's Game have lots of ewoks?



sorry couldnt resist.

I have read Old Man's War and while it didn't give me much of a Gal Civ vibe I did enjoy it and am looking forward to the next one.

NaytchGC – why, thank you! They’re fun to write, but take a LOT of time. Sadly Real Life has intervened to remove most of my free time **sigh**.

I read Starship Troopers ages ago and Ender’s Game (with its many sequels). Loved them both – a lot. They’re all safely tucked away in my SF library. I have a few Virge, but not Fire on the Deep. I don’t have any Stross. I’ll put both on the list, although if they’re out of print I may have to scour used book stores.

Dune was good, but it lost momentum with the many (largely forgettable) sequels. I remember picking up the series in early junior high and being totally confused. Of course, I’d picked up Children of Dune first, so there was little wonder I was a bit lost.

As for covers, if you look at the covers of the SF classics they ALL had cheesy covers that generally involved slavering aliens, scantily clad buxom women, vaguely shaped futuristic space ships, beefy men with laser rifles, or all of the above. Scali’s book covers remind me strongly of covers on Heinlein, van Vogt, Norton, and Delany I have in my cache! So, his covers are kind of retro (and undoubtedly cheaper than custom art). If that isn’t enough I can dig up a cliché: don’t judge a book by its cover.

Hydro

I'm always on the look out for a good read, keep them coming, I'm adding them to my list to look out for.

Thank you for agreeing psilontech.

There is only really one good science fiction book, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

No need to apologize Ineffble, I thought it was pretty funny too. Speaking of books check out Elizabeth Moon. Which ever series has Once a Hero in the middle is pretty entertaining. Can't for the life of me recall what it is though. Sorry.

GJD - thanks for the tips!

There are too many choices and not enough time, so I browse through the various SF awards for good SF book candidates:

Arthur C Clark SF Award:
http://www.sfsite.com/lists/award-arthurcclarke01.htm

British Science Fiction Awards
http://www.bsfa.co.uk/index.cfm/section.awrdlist

Hugo Awards
http://www.worldcon.org/hy.html

Nebula SF Awards
http://www.dpsinfo.com/awardweb/nebulas/

If there are others out there I’d love to hear about it!

Hydro

Despite the expertise of librarything.com, DO NOT pick up "Field of dishonor" to read without starting earlier in the Honor Harrington series. You will be lost in the political intrigue, without getting much of the strategic/galactic war setting. The series begins with an "incident" (as in the shooting of Archduke Ferdinand was an "incident") before the war in "On Basilisk Station", but you would probably be OK if you started with the 2nd book, "For the Honor of the Queen", or in a pinch the 3rd book "A Short Victorious War" is the real start of the galactic war.

"Field of Dishonor" is about the 5th or 6th book, and is largely political intrigue (OK, there are some cool duels, and there is always at least ONE space battle).

A Warning: For anyone who has the mind set to enjoy GalCivII, and peruse these forums, David Weber's Honor Harrington series will become an obsession, AND SUCK UP YOUR GAME TIME! You have been warned.

Drrider

Just picked up David Weber and Steve White's books, Crusade, In Death Ground...

So far pretty GalCiv like save for the FTL style.

Actually, the entire Weber / White collaborative series is based on the senarios (literally, straight out of the back of the rulebooks) of a space war game called Starfire. David Weber was the Re-Editor of the 2nd Edition (the edition that really cleaned up and reached playability) of those rules about 2 decades+ ago.

Incidentally, there are a couple of historical threads in that game melieu, well after the 3rd Interstellar War (Bug War), that would make a fine pair or trilogy of novels. In particular, there is a thread about a Battlestar-type (but more numerous) fleet of refugees from a VERY advanced but Very Regimented humanoid society. There are First Contact misunderstandings, and of course they are also being distantly pursued by their home Civ, to be 'brought back into the fold', ala Wells "1984".

If you look carefully, you can also see the bones of the Starfire game in the mechanics of the Honor Harrington universe, but DW has put many years of subsequent mulling into refining the explanations of how a 'sub-light tactics, FTL strategy' society may be rationalized.

OK, just thoroughly ID'd myself as geezer space gamer, but then I guess that puts me in company with...David Weber. Not a bad galaxy to hyper around in.

drrider