Recs, anyone?

[jackluminous]

Last night was pretty good; I went to my monthly swimming group and ended up in the pub chatting with a new swimmer (Kat, I think, though I'm so crap with names I'm probably wrong) about science fiction.

She asked me for recommendations, as she's recently got into SF, and I sort of stood there slackjawed for a while as I realised that I've...not really been reading much of it, except Iain M Banks, and she already had a book of his in her backpack; she's also already read Le Guin. I ended up saying Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Octavia Butler and Julian May, because they were my intro to SF. Does anyone have any recommendations, for both of us?

esque also got me a signed poster of Guillermo del Toro, with whom the lucky bastard spent several hours last night (no, not like that). Envy~

I am really ridiculously tired, though. I don't know if it's just because I've not yet gotten used to the summer sunrise schedule yet or what. I got a normal amount of sleep last night, I just...feel like I haven't. Weird.

Comments

[seidskratti]

Lois McMaster Bujold. Space opera that's so character-driven that people who claim not to like SF have enjoyed it, but with some intriguing speculative elements, too. (She's the only person I've read who's handled a one-sex planet believably, for instance.) And in my opinion, Miles Vorkosigan is the single best protagonist from any series ever.

The Warrior's Apprentice (or omnibus Young Miles) is a good starting place. She writes fantasy, too, and has done more of it lately, but it doesn't grab me quite as much as the SF.