Ok so Im sitting here at work leafing through page after page on the internet looking for some advice when I realise Im a member of a forum thats the perfect place to ask!! Silly me.

Im a huge fan of Iain M Banks 'Culture' novels. I own and have read all of them at least twice each...well actually I leant them to a mate who probably wont give them back so I'll have to buy them all again I think. Anyway I digress.

I seached on Google for authors similar to Iain M Banks and came up with precisely squat. I tried changing the search a bit and am still no closer to finding anything.

Im looking for forcefields, lasers, nano-technology, weird alien species both nice and nasty, AI characters, super space ships, emmense and varied space habitats and all that jazz! Please can somebody recommend a one or two autors I can get started with that are sort of similar.

Maybe a series of books set in the same universe but not necessarily related to eachother in any way like the Culture novels so you get a feel for whats possible in that universe?

Im reading some Terry Pratchett Disc World novels at the moment which I've never tried before and are very good but Im feeling the urge to read some killer sci-fi again.

So over to the experts!

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You did indeed come to the right place....Here are a few of my recommendations:

1) The Honor Harrington series by David Weber. Awesome writer, this series is all about space combat. Webers writing style starts out slow, but his books keep you hooked and you have trouble putting them down when the story gets going. No Aliens, but these are the best Space Combat books I have ever read.

2) The Well World series by Jack Chalker. If you can find these books, they are awesome and the Well World is a great concept, I have been dying for someone to bring this series to the big screen. Lots of Aliens and various tech levels.

These are just off the top of my head, when I get home and I look through my libarary I can come up with a lot more.

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"All civilizations become either spacefaring or extinct." -- Carl Sagan

I'm gonna fall back to a classic: can't go wrong with Robert Heinlein. Starship Troopers & The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, his early stuff. Stay away from his later books.

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"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."
--PKD

Excellent, thanks for the advice.

I love the space combat in books like Use of Weapons where a single Culture ship engages a fleet of enemy ships. The battle goes on for a good few pages and lasts about 8 nano seconds in real time

The Well World does indeed sound like the kind of concept I enjoy and the more tech levels the better IMO!! I just bought pretty much all of the books on Amazon, not many new but second hand which I really dont mind and most came in at a whopping 1 penny a piece lol

Just about to click purchase on these:

Twilight at the Well of Souls
Exiles at Well of Souls
Return of Nathan Brazil
Midnight at Well of Souls
Echoes of the Well of Souls
Quest for the Well of Souls

If I've missed any I'll get them as part of another purchase.

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Ok so everybody on the planet has seen the film. Is the book the usual 'much better than the film' affair?

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Yeah, the book is WAY better than the film. The film neutered the story pretty badly. In the book, the Troopers were inserted onto a planet from orbit individually. Thier space suits allowed a person to go from orbit to the ground, its really pretty cool.

If you really do love space combat, the Honor Harrington series is really for you. Its full of "real" space combat not the typical Star Trek/Star Wars type combat. The Author goes out of his way to not violate any laws of physics in his combat. Thus the laws of inertia make a huge impact on overall combat tactics.

I cant wait to hear what you think of the Well World series, I really enjoyed it and have often wanted to see it transferred to film.

This series is pure, solid Science Fiction and an awesome concept that is well written. I think you will like how the Well World is put together and it purpose as well.

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"All civilizations become either spacefaring or extinct." -- Carl Sagan

Excellent. So no use of inertial dampers then? lol


Im really looking forward to reading these Well World books. Do they read in any particular order?

I'll also have a look for starship troopers too, sounds like a really interesting read and I'd love to compare it to the film.

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Oh yes, you must read them in order.

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"All civilizations become either spacefaring or extinct." -- Carl Sagan

Ok blind luck saw the first novel arrive on my doorstep the day after I paid for them. The rest of the books they have kindly taken payment for and not sent. Yet. We'll see on that one.

First impressions are excellent if you can look past the cover which depicts dinosaurs riding dolphins. lol

The opening chapter set on the planet with the abandoned city and the theories surrounding it are great to read and the future of the human race with its Birth and Death factories on certain planets with people born to do specific jobs and nothing else until they die at the age of 80 is quite chilling.

They have descended down into the well and an alien has greeted the main character and thats as far as I got so far. I must say Im enjoying it, I actually turned off the PC and the TV last night and spent a good hour reading, usually I reserve reading for my journies into and out of work which are only 20 sessions so it takes me a while to get through a book. Its been a while since I read one that I actually wanted to carry on with once I got back home.

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