Off to the UK next week for a show, a little business and to catch up with old acquaintances from my previous life 10 years ago, mainly in Manchester, London and Cheltenham.
Those who know me know I hate flying and do most things to avoid it (not quite BA Baracus but close!) usually I just try and read a book; And so as a slightly different post from my usual here is my list of the top 10 kindle SciFi/Fantasy books I have recently read/re-read, guaranteed to keep you entertained during a long flight, not in any particular order.
- The Player of games by Iain M Banks – the politics of a planet and culture as a game, genius, but make sure you get at least a dozen pages in as the very start is a bit slow (ie dont just read sample!) “twists and turns like a twisty,turny thing”
- Pandoras Star by Peter F Hamilton – 2 book series, think war of the worlds raised to the power of 10, hollywood blockbuster of a series has everything violent, sexy, thought provoking and funny but definitely R18 and also quite long, you would probably have to fly to Mars to finish it (first chapter is awesome)
- The Martian by Andy Weir – Think apollo 13 on Mars (I just went to get the link and found its probably going to be made in to a film!)
- America One by TI Wade, Very up to date novel and first book is free! Set in the not too distant future, the main character must be based on Elon Musk but the author puts in a few curve balls to say no (they are mates though!) the series still has a book or two left to run.
- Hyperion by Dan Symons – All time favourite series, bit dated now and very dark for the 1980’s (he also writes some good horror)
- Public Enemy Zero by Andrew Maine, very fast paced action thriller with a nice story, you will finish it in one session in a long haul flight and only $1 on your kindle
- Ironstar by Jennifer Garstang – Another entertaining feel good scifi book about a woman from a starship stranded on a primitive planet.
- Startide rising by David Brin – novel of humans (and dolphins) versus the big bad aliens, not as cheesy as it sounds.
- The Skinner by Neil Asher, lots of violent action set on the most god-awful planet ever.
- Game of Thrones by George R Martin. Awesome series, not much to say that hasn’t been said elsewhere, I just hope the bastard gets around to finishing the series! Or watch the TV series as it is probably the first and only good novel that has made the transition without much loss of plot or quality (plenty of bad novels have been improved this way of course!)
I have a dozen more authors in my “Awesome Reads” folder in my Kindle but most are not SciFi, maybe one day I’ll get around to posting that.
