Any sci-fi novel recommendations - easy to read

[QUOTE=Timothy Hunter;5481464]Slaughterhouse 5
Sirens of Titans
Slapatick (personally my favorite Vonegut novel.[/QUOTE]

Thanks! Read Slaughterhouse 5 years ago... also saw the movie.

[QUOTE=Timothy Hunter;5481464]Slaughterhouse 5
[B]Sirens of Titans[/B]
Slapatick (personally my favorite Vonegut novel.[/QUOTE]

I almost put that down. Excellent choices!

[QUOTE=evolutionaryFan;5481290]Looking for sci-fi novels that are fast-paced... easy to read(to me this generally means it's light on description).

[B]I've always thought Asimov's Robot Novels were pretty easy reads because he gets a great deal of plot out of a small amount of basic ideas (3 laws of robotics). Also his prose is very clear and straightforward.[/B]

Any recommendations? Thanks.[/QUOTE]

I didn't find Asimov's Robot novels hard to read. They are in fact somewhat interesting.

I recommend L. Ron Hubbard's books especially Battlefield Earth

I read a number of 1950s Heinlein, Bester, and van Vogt novels when I was in junior high, oh so long ago, and I would consider those to be good "boys' books". For that matter, much of the stuff that was published in 1940s and 1950s sci-fi pulp magazines falls into that category, so any collection of those stories would be good reading for the younger crowd (although probably a lot of it might seem dated by now).

Fred Saberhagen's [I]Berserker[/I] series.
The [I]Riverworld[/I] series by Philip Jose Farmer.
The [I]New Sun [/I]series by Gene Wolfe.
[I]Creatures of Light and Darkness[/I], [I]Lord of Light[/I], and [I]The Chronicles of Amber[/I] by Roger Zelazny

[QUOTE=Zauriel;5481611]

I recommend L. Ron Hubbard's books especially Battlefield Earth[/QUOTE]

Cool! Thanks!

[QUOTE=ChadH;5482013]Fred Saberhagen's [I]Berserker[/I] series.
The [I]Riverworld[/I] series by Philip Jose Farmer.
The [I]New Sun [/I]series by Gene Wolfe.
[I]Creatures of Light and Darkness[/I], [I]Lord of Light[/I], and [I]The Chronicles of Amber[/I] by Roger Zelazny[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the recommendations!

[QUOTE=evolutionaryFan;5481365]Nice! Thanks. I've read some of these. I have not read Frankenstein! It is supposed to be the first sci-fi novel.[/QUOTE]

Some would say[I] Inferno [/I]owns that title. I doubt we'll ever truly know.

Frankenstein, to me, is not really scifi. Its got elements of scifi, but its really more of a typical 19th century gothic romance novel. The monster is more like elephant man than he is a monster and the central theme has to do with individual responsibility. Science is more of a bit player than the main actor.

Has anyone mentioned Wells? Read Wells. War of the Worlds, Invisible Man, Time Machine.

[QUOTE=Scott Taylor;5483674]Frankenstein, to me, is not really scifi. Its got elements of scifi, but its really more of a typical 19th century gothic romance novel. The monster is more like elephant man than he is a monster and the central theme has to do with individual responsibility. Science is more of a bit player than the main actor.[/QUOTE]

I completely disagree. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein uses the emerging science of the day, Galvanism and electricity, which was seen in the way we see atomic, particle, quantum physics today. Using the latest science as an explanation and foundation for the creation of a new being, and also the reanimation of the dead, is something that hadn't really been done in that kind of fiction.

Obviously Frankenstein was influenced by gothic novels (but then so was practically everything and everyone in the 19th Century) but being influenced by something doesn't mean Mary Shelley didn't introduce or add in stuff that wasn't done before.

Practically every major writer of science-fiction identified Frankenstein as their precedent.

The OP asked for "sci-fi novels that are fast-paced... easy to read (to me this generally means it's light on description)."

That's not Frankenstein. Its a great book, one of my all-time favorites. But its not light on description or very easy to read. Its deep.

[QUOTE=Scott Taylor;5483698]The OP asked for "sci-fi novels that are fast-paced... easy to read (to me this generally means it's light on description)."

That's not Frankenstein. Its a great book, one of my all-time favorites. But its not light on description or very easy to read. Its deep.[/QUOTE]

You said Frankenstein isn't science-fiction not Frankenstein isn't fast paced.

And I personally cleared Frankenstein in a couple of hours so I don't think it's that heavy a read.

[QUOTE=DrNewGod;5481329]I was a fan of almost all of Larry Niven's [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Known_Space"]Known Space[/URL] work. His characterization is not the strongest, and his characters are usually a bit quirky, but the plots are both fast and rich, and his world conceptualization is his main strength.

For a standalone of his stuff, [I][URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_World_Out_of_Time"]World Out Of Time[/URL][/I] is pretty good. It's a bit dated now, but his [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footfall"][I]Footfall[/I][/URL], with Jerry Pournelle is a fun invasion yarn.[/QUOTE]

I wholeheartedly agree with this. Niven is a favorite of mine from way back. He's also a mathematician so his books often include real-world physics as well.

Other recommendations are the [I]Stainless Steel Rat[/I] books and [I]Deathworld[/I] series by Harry Harrison.

This thread is making me want to dig some of my old books out of storage.

[QUOTE=Revolutionary_Jack;5483759]You said Frankenstein isn't science-fiction not Frankenstein isn't fast paced.

And I personally cleared Frankenstein in a couple of hours so I don't think it's that heavy a read.[/QUOTE]

Right. Well I figure its not science fiction in the sense the OP was looking for, which was my original comment's purpose. I still don't consider it sci fi primarily, even though it has those elements to it. For Mary Shelley, she was really inspired by Darwin's discoveries and philosophical discussions she was having with Byron and P. Shelley about the nature of life. Darwin's discoveries had quite the ripple effect on the known world of the 1800s. You are correct in that Mary Shelley was using methods of the time to write the novel, so it comes across as very 1800s. How could it not? But I still think of it more as a springboard to true scifi than scifi itself.

Heinlein's name came up already, but I didn't see [I]Friday[/I] on anybody's list, and it should be. Good, ripping adventure yarn that includes espionage, military action and space travel all in one story. Seems to me it was also one of the earlist classic Sci-Fi novels with a female protagonist.