Name New and Current Sci-fi that you have found interesting.

[Zombie]

As a means to find something to read, I am starting this thread.

I don't want anything old listed. So mark off Clarke, Assimov, etc. Anything within the past 5 - 10 years is up for grabs, as well. I just want to see what kind of new Sci-fi everyone is following as well as find out what it is everyone enjoys in Sci-fi.

[Krogan]

Well right now I'm getting back into the 40K novels, right now Im reading a newer one called "Cadian Blood", which is basically a 40K Zombie novel. I also picked up the Doom books which are actually pretty good, theres two of whats supposed to be a three part trilogy out right now. Lets see what else I dont know exactly where it would fall but the Hellgate London series is pretty good. I just finished reading a Starcraft set, "The Dark Templar Saga" which was pretty good. Oh and a personal favorite is the "Vampire Earth" series, basic idea is that sometime in the not so terribly distant future life sucking aliens known as the Kurians invade and completely take over the planet using us as cattle, the story centers around David Valentine a member of the resistance fighting to overthrow the Kurians and liberate the planet.

[Zombie]

Yer, I've read the Vampire Earth series up to the current release. Waiting on the next one actually.

[Krogan]

Do you know when that's supposed to be by any chance? I haven't heard one way or another.

[Coyote]

Transmetropolitan. '97-'02 and a comic series, but probably the best "new" scifi I've read in ages.

Doktor Sleepless is another comic series by the same author (Warren Ellis), currently ongoing. I don't care what you think about comics, read these two picks. You won't be disappointed.

The WH40k Ciaphas Cain novels are fucking epic and hilarious, but it's arguable as to whether 40k is scifi in the sense you're looking for.

EDIT: Zombie, just realized you were the OP. Oops. That avatar/sig throws me the fuck off. But to anyone else, the above applies. >_>;;

[Aekiel]

Originally Posted by Tragedian

EDIT: Zombie, just realized you were the OP. Oops. That avatar/sig throws me the fuck off. But to anyone else, the above applies. >_>;;

Agreed, and Gaunts' Ghosts as a series is pretty epic as well. Didn't enjoy the Horus Heresy books so much, they dragged on a bit too much for my liking.

[Perspicacity]

A recent story I enjoyed is John C. Wright's The Golden Age trilogy.

It's epic, truly. In some ways, it's a throwback to the classics of science fiction where, despite things getting bleak, there's a prevailing sense of optimism, particularly in the central character, Phaethon. Mix in a bit of Philip K. Dick mindfuck and a modern feel to the storyline and you get the recipe for a good, thought-provoking yarn.

[Othalan]

If you're looking for military sci-fi, I personally enjoy the Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell. Set in the distant future, it centers on Captain John "Black Jack" Geary, the commanding officer of a warship that's destroyed in the opening salvo of an interstellar war between the two main human factions, the Alliance, and the Syndicate Worlds. He escapes the destruction of his ship cryogenically frozen in an escape pod with a damaged locator beacon.

A century later he awakes on a new ship to find that the war is still raging, and that he was turned into a propaganda hero whose name has been invoked to justify decades of escalating atrocities. Almost immediately, the fleet that rescues him is thrust into battle, the aftermath of which leaves a still-dazed Geary in command of a battered fleet far behind enemy lines.

The whole series is truly epic. It's got it all: politics, intrigue, backstabbing, tactics, and some of the most well thought out space battles I've read. While it isn't a true "hard" sci-fi series, the author really goes all out with the concept of how relativistic physics affect travel, communication, and combat in space.

[Perspicacity]

Originally Posted by Shadowmage

If you're looking for military sci-fi, I personally enjoy the Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell.

I second this recommendation, though I think the books get weaker after their auspicious start. They have the best relativity-aware space battles I've read.

[Krogan]

Originally Posted by Tragedian

The WH40k Ciaphas Cain novels are fucking epic and hilarious, but it's arguable as to whether 40k is scifi in the sense you're looking for.

Seconded, Ciaphas Cain is absolutely hands down my favorite 40K series ever, absolutely hilarious and very entertaining without losing that 40K feel to it. I recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in 40K.

[Vir]

What about the entire Honor Harrington series? It's like 13 books long. I've read 10 of them and I really enjoyed them. They've got a fantastic look at space battles and really awesome political systems.

[Zombie]

I'm fairly interested in high technology. Space battles is cool, but I don't like it when its the focal point of the book. Its something I can do without. Thanks for the recs though. Got some stuff to look into. I started re-reading Ciaphas Cain again.

[The Fine Balance]

These days, I'm pouring through Charles Stross in a drizzle.

I'm currently on the Merchant Prince series and have read some of his other novels. As Sci-Fi, he can be classed mostly under hard, although there are deviations into fantasy. All in all, he is absolutely amazing.

[Silens Cursor]

I'm assuming you've read Dune, right?

'Cause if you have, the House Atreides/Harkonnen/Corrino prequel trilogy written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson is good for a entertaining, albeit lulzy read.

If you haven't read Dune, I have nothing more to say to you.

[Swimdraconian]

Has anyone else come across Nick Sagan's Idlewild series? It's like a better version of what Matrix could have been, had they not gone into crazy superpowers. Instead it's about genetically enhanced genius kids created to cure the world of a fatal disease. Sounds melodramatic, but it's good. The writing style is brutally intelligent and the prose blew me away when I found out it was his first novel. Fucking awesome.

There's also Justina Robson's Quantum Gravity series; it has all of the multi-world charm of old-school sci-fi, but Robson put's a new-age twist to the whole thing by including demons, elves and futuristic technology that may or may not think for itself.

She covers all of the grey areas with a sort of dry, sardonic cynicism without getting didactic. The main character is also a hot, half-woman, half-machine, walking army with a penchant for taking names and kicking ass. Nothing better than that, IMO.

And if you like military sci-fi, there's Steven L. Kent's The Clone Republic series - which thankfully, has nothing to do with Star Wars. Set in 2508 A.D. Earth's colonies have become the Unified Authority the control's the Milky Way Galaxy with a powerful military made up almost entirely of clones. The series follows Wayson Harris through misadventures of being the only one of his kind: not a clone, but more than a clone.

It's definitely a character driven story, probably one of the best I've read in recent years. The story is delightfully complex, with incredible and realistic battle scenes and Harris delivers some truly insightful musings on the nature of man and war. This is the kind of story where you get to see the character grow and change as the story progresses. Kent is skilled at the show, don't tell part of character evolution. Fifth book in this series should be out on Oct. 27th 2009.

[Gullible]

I'm going to assume you've read the Culture books but for anyone who hasn't, read nao.

[Zombie]

Yeah, I've read both the Culture books and the Dune books. I read Dune back in middle school, and the Culture series some time in the past two years.

[Perspicacity]

Some others I've read recently (including a few couple obscure titles):

Saturn's Children by Charles Stross (2008 ). Humanity is extinct and all that remains are her creations--androids, who have spread out throughout the solar system. One of the last femmebot sextoys takes on a delivery mission from Mercury to Mars that has her fleeing hordes of chibi nastibots. A throwback space opera delivered by one of the best writers in the game.

Noir by K. W. Jeter (1998 ). Take a hard-boiled detective novel protagonist, add a heavy dose of Film Noir, and set the thing in motion in a dystopia where humanity has fought back with vengeance against "information wants to be free" silliness, where "connected" is the worst insult extant, and where a life of bad credit chases you into death and beyond. It's dark and nasty, filled with backstabbing and isolation, yet fun as well. I like this kind of novel.

Signal to Noise (1998 ) and sequel, A Signal Shattered (1999) by Eric S. Nylund. Billed as "hyperpunk," a stage of societal evolution and technology beyond cyberpunk, it's more of a futuristic human society making first contect with aliens. It's an intense, fun read, one that I blasted through in one setting, and just about as epic an ending as one can get.

Divine Intervention by Ken Wharton (2001). Dislcaimer: Ken was a classmate of mine in grad school and friend. Though a good physicist (an experimentalist who did his thesis and postdoc work on the Nova Petawatt laser), he was always more interested in writing. This is his debut novel, a coming-of-age story of a deaf kid on a human space colony. It's a hard science fiction tale-- folks like Gio will like his treatment of Bohmian quantum mechanics and time reversal--that nonetheless deals fairly with issues of religion and space travel.

[Zombie]

<3 Perspicacity.

[Spanks]

I mostly read Military scifi, so here you go . . .

StarFist by David Sherman and Dan Cragg - This is set in the 25th century and written from the viewpoint of the men of the Confederation Marine Corps 34th FIST. Each book is pretty stand alone, but follows the same characters. The Marines are called on for everything ranging from humanitarian missions to putting down rebellions to fighting totalitarian governments and so on. The action is pretty easy to follow. If you're a casual reader then this will be fine, but if you're someone who likes insane battle detail then you might want to pass.

Uplift series by David Brin - the first book was written in 1980, but I think it deserves and honorable mention (the series went on until 1998 so it could still be considered newer). A central feature of this series is biological uplift.

In the Uplift universe an intergalactic civilization called the Five Galaxies has existed for billions of years. This civilization is perpetuated by the act of Uplift, in which a patron species genetically modifies a non-sapient client species until it is sapient. Humanity is therefore a rare anomaly – a species with no apparent patron race. I'll leave it at that and let you read the series.

The Dark Wing saga by Walter H Hunt - There is an ongoing war between humanity and birdlike mystical aliens known as the Zor. The two species have been at war for over sixty years, punctuated by numerous truces, each broken by the Zor.

Semper Mars by Ian Douglas - Set in 2040, the United States finds itself among a hostile world with only Britain, Russia, and Japan as reluctant allies. The dominant force in the world today is the United Nations, which has evolved into a world government and is challenging the US as the world’s sole superpower.

The United States and Russia have set up habitats on Mars, and are researching ruins of an alien civilization near the Face on Mars. The facilities and research are being shared with UN observers. When the UN sends troops up to Mars, the US sends the Marine Mars Expeditionary Force, a 30-man weapons platoon, to protect American civilians and interests on Mars.

And Having Writ . . . by Donald R Benson - A little older, written in 1978, but I still liked it when I reread it a few months ago.

It concerns four aliens who crash-land on Earth in 1908 and then journey around the planet, trying to jump-start World War I. I thought this was an interesting idea.

*90% of summaries c/p from wiki