Me and Science Fiction

For years I was an avid reader of Science Fiction and Fantasy, indeed it was all I read.

I mused on this yesterday as I picked up my first pure Science Fiction novel in some time the collaboration between Arthur C Clarke and Stephen Baxter "Time's Eye: A Time Odyssey Book 1".

Why don't I read SF anymore?

I was brought up reading the likes of Asimov and Clarke and the other classics. I got into books by the likes of Orson Scott Card, C J Cherryh and David Brin and thoroughly enjoyed them, so what happened?

Did I "grow up"? Did my tastes change? Or did the new books change? I'm not certain number one is true. I'd still automatically buy a novel by the likes of Connie Willis and Kevin Anderson's romping SF The Saga of Seven Suns. I'd still pick upa Miles Vorkosigan novel so what? I think that really SF has changed. Certainly books are more bloated 500 pages is almost de rigeur now which is kind of sad since Clarke seldom if ever went over 300 pages and nor did Asimov until his return.

I can remember books that I was really looking forward to that I either struggled to finish David Brin's first novel of the second Uplift Trilogy (although 2 & 3 were better) and K'iln People and Peter Hamilton's second Night's Dawn book - I enjoyed book one but gave up on two......

I perhaps ought to go back and reread some stuff to see if I have changed but I'm perhaps a little scared that books I loved will lose there magic. So as it I read very little SF. I do read the odd fantasy novel but even here I stick to old favourites and haven't read any Eddings in ages.

Anyway 10 SF novels I would highly recommend (in nor order)
Connie Willis - Doomsday Book
Isaac Asimov - The Gods Themselves
Stephen Donaldson - Gap Series
Fred Pohl & CM Kornbluth - The Space Merchants
Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle - The Mote in the God's Eye
Arthur C Clarke - Rendevouz with Rama
Cliiford D Simak - Way Station
John Wyndham - Day of the Triffids
Ursula K Le Guin - The Left Hand of Darkness
H G Wells - The Time Machine

And for good measure 10 Fantasy novels/series
Raymond Feist - Magician and sequels
Charles De Lint - The Little Country
Stephen R Donaldson - Mordants Need
Anne McCaffrey - The Pern Novels
C J Cherryh - The Chronicles of Morgainne
Terry Brooks - Shannara Novels (ok they are derivative but great fun)
J R R Tolkien - Lord of the Rings
Tad Williams - The Dragonbone Chair
Guy Gavriel Kay - Tigana
Elizabeth Moon - The Deed of Paksennarion

I'd like to recommend Robert Jordan because the series can be so good but boy does it drag on a bit.