Strangely enough, I grew up with Ryk...I remember when he pushed shopping carts and ate Prince Mac and Cheese, 'cause he couldn't afford Kraft...Played a lot of AD&D and variations.

He had a very good imagination.

You have read Enders game right?

Kim Stanley Robinson. Mars trilogy was good, as well as some of his early stuff. More recently, he's been focusing more on environmental disasters than hard SF.

Give Alastair Reynolds a look as well.

If you like stuff written by real scientists, check out Vernor Vinge and Gregory Benford.

Gary

Meh, if a book doesn't get me, I don't finish it, regardless of acclaim. I read for enjoyment; if I'm not enjoying it, why read it?

I've got to admit, Hyperion, and the whole trilogy for that matter, didn't really do it for me as much as I was expecting. Typically, the Hugo award voters get it right, but I think they missed the boat on this one. I thought Poul Anderson's "The Boat of a Million Years" should have been the winner. George Alec Effinger's "A Fire in the Sun" would also have been a better choice.

One of my all-time favorites is David Brin (another real scientist). "The Postman" was a well-deserved Hugo nominee. If it hadn't come up against Orson Scott Card and the "Ender's Game" juggernaut, it probably would have won. Interestingly enough, when the horrible movie came out, the book was immediately discounted in the minds of many. Don't let any memories of the movie keep you from giving it a try.

Gary

That reminds me of the Thomas Covenant trilogies, when I was in High School. I loaned book 2 of the second trilogy before I finished it.

Two fun reads...not a series to get sucked into..just start and finish..

Redliners by David Drake (I read when I'm stressed, the folks in this story have it so bad, it takes my edge off out of pity)

Apocalypse Troll by David Weber (not actually a post/during apocalypse story) it's kinda of time twisting, but does a better job than Terminator and can actually straighten out in your head time travel issues, Weber makes it simple in this book.

I got sucked into David Gerrold's "The War Against the Chtorr" series in the mid 80's but that SOB has left me hanging for over 20 years with a cliff hanger. And he's still alive!!!! Buy four books, as the series plays out every couple of years, then blam...nothing...lead players hurt, unfinished everything, hints of "just wait", or "I'm almost ready", and nothing for twenty years....bastard. He-He. Good series though..not often you read something about a alien ecology taking over the Earth slowly from the microbes up to mega fauna, inch by inch and us trying to stop it.'

Anywho..drove the 944 today even though it was snowing...bought sick of snow.-WW

ps. Just a bone thrown to Gerrold, I tried to write a novel last winter and its hard as hell. I can see how you authors out there have to shut out the real world and go off someplace quiet to do it. No distractions.

You need to read some Larry Correia "Monster Hunters International" fun as hell!-WW

In this instance, I was expecting a fantastic ending that would justify the critical reception it received. I was disappointed.

I liked Billiard Ball by Asimov. Short story.

Read 2001 several times. I think I felt I could understand the ending of the movie better. Decent read. On the upside there was not a 15 minute passage of Bowman traveling into the monolith.

Just saying and off topic, Forrest Gump was also an astronaut in the novel. He was the only person who could load in an alternate re-entry code into the computer fast enough. Travels with a monkey. Hilarious.

Edit: Jeez, I see you asked for recent. Never mind.

+1; what the hell is he waiting for?

Space Skimmer is another good book by Gerrold. So is the Star Wolf series. I've read quite a bit of his work, but...I'll just say that his views about how humans interact with each other are wildly biased, and leave it at that.

I'll also +1 on Larry Correia's work for "fun". Not even remotely science fiction, but fun. :)

John Scalzi pisses me off. The Old Man's War series was an enjoyable read but a complete rip-off of Forever War. Red Shirts wouldn't have existed without Star Trek, of course, and simply adds a "twist" that has been used by many better authors than him in the past. Fuzzy Nation is a rip-off of H. Beam Piper's work. I really have to wonder if the guy has a single original thought in his head. And somehow this hack became a moving force in the Hugo awards where he pushes his political agenda.

Pandora's Star and its sequel Judas Unchained by Peter F. Hamilton

A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter Miller, 1960. It's a pretty epic account of post-apocalyptic America, spanning thousands of years. It's one that I need to re-read, last read about 30 yrs ago.

Being the president of the Science Fiction Writer's Association will do that...

I do enjoy Scalzi's tongue in cheek sense of humor, but originality isn't his strong suit.

Gary

+1. Just finished Judas Unchained last week. 5 stars. Peter Hamilton is not for the faint of heart. His books are measured by the pound, not by the word. Lots of great ideas in there, though.

Gary

The kicker is that Gerrold's excuse is he adopted a child. Wow, no idea it was so draining - can't imagine how my grandparents raised TEN. Just admit you're blocked, Gerrold.

Correia is fun - my favorite is his post WW1 series The Grimnoir Chronicles. It's fantasy (with a sci-fi element) rather than sci-fi, but still a fun read.

I mentioned Steve Gould earlier, but forgot his 7th Sigma, about an infestation of nanobots in the American southwest that consume all metals and anything generating RF, throwing that area back to a frontier-type society. Interesting for the work-arounds they have to come up with using no metals or electricity.

Wanted to give a shout-out to red-beard for the Saturn Run recommendation... Really enjoyed it!

I started Old Man's War, and quit at around the mid-point. Just didn't do it for me.

I'm now reading (or rather, listening to) Fear the Sky, which is the first book of a trilogy. It's fantastic, and along the lines of Saturn Run. However, being a self-published novel, apparently the print version has a few grammatical quirks that obviously don't show up in the audio version.

Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson

^^^^^ Been in print awhile but excellent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Baroque_Cycle

the three books in the Baroque Cycle are better by him but not scifi
as the story is mid 17th century science