EE doc smith & L Ron Hubbard

I can recommend two series of books. The first is by "E E Doc Smith" The "Skylark" series, it's a series of 4 books, and it was written in the 50's. It would make Star Wars look like a B rate movie if it was made into film.
The second series of books is a Decaology (10 Books) by "L Ron Hubbard" (And no i don't subscribe to his religion or beliefs).
It is one of the most hilarious science fiction series i have read, and it called "Mission Earth".
Go give it a try you know you want to.

reply to post by Ferryman


A mate of mine is always telling me to read EE doc Smith.
I like Asimov/Lovecraft/Iain M Banks stories but I haven't read anything by EE doc Smith yet.
The Skylark series does look good,but Amazon only seem to have them in Kindle version.
Sadly I don't do kindle,so I will have to keep looking out in second hand bookshops.

reply to post by Silcone Synapse


It alls depends where you Live Silcone. the books maybe still in print Go here:

www.bookfinder.com...

Smiths best series is the Lensman series,here's a site for free downloads. I have them all in paperback, but decided to read them again. I found this site with a google search. smith

The Lensman series series is absolutely mind boggling. The scope is even wider than the Skylark series. The link has most of the books that Smith wrote.

I have Hubbards series in a mix of hardcover and paperback. My personal feeling about it is it is written sloppy and the story is elementary. Hubbard isn't a real good author and struggled to make a living until he did the dianetics thing.

If you like military scifi check out David Drake and the Hammers Slammers series. David Weber is also a good one. The honor Harrington series is great. Weber also has some other books that are very good.

I couldn't get on with the Lensman series,i tried but it just couldn't gel in my mind if you get my drift.

reply to post by Ferryman

Once you get past Triplanetary the story takes off. I found the first book to be fragmented and sort of all over the place, due to it being put together from short stories. The other books can stand on their own and aren't so fragmented.

Triplanetary sets the stage for the rest of the story. The problem with it is that Triplanetary is put together from several short stories which appeared in the pulp magazines of the day. Unfortunately they don't fit together real well. I struggled to get through Triplanetary, but once done with that book the story flowed rather well. The scope of the series is unprecidented for the time it was written.

Lots of good authors from the golden age of Science Fiction. There are a load of stories from this time that blow star wars away.

i read this authors books whne i was a kid. Yeh they kick starwars ass!

reply to post by Ferryman


I'll be completely honest, I've given L. Ron Hubbard a good go but there is just something about his style that turns me off. I've not been able to pin point just what about his style turns me off however. In all honesty, it may stem from the fact that I scoff at his religious views and that has influenced my feelings on his purely science fiction writings.

As to EE Doc Smith, he is an author that until just recently I had not read much of, but find very interesting to be honest. I've not read enough of his work to give you much of a discussion on the topic but I can tell you that I find his stories facsinating thus far.

Asimov and Heinlein remain my favorites to this day. I think that will always be the case for me simply because as I get older and look at their work with a more critical eye, I find their dedication to the craft truly admirable. In their research into the topics presented in their books they laid the ground work for modern day science. Asimov's "3 Laws of Robotics" comes to mind as does using some of Heinlein's ideas by modern inventors/scientists to create a robotic 'exoskeleton' (for lack of a better word) that allows those who have lost the use of their legs to walk again.

As for a favorite "modern" science fiction author I would have to go with George R.R. Martin. Most will know him as the author of the epic fantasy series "A Song of Ice and Fire", which is where I first heard of him, to be frank. It was not until I was left waiting for what seemed a life time for him to release his next book in that series that I found his earlier sci-fi works and was equally taken with them. His first novel, "Dying of the Light" was published in 1977 and is not exactly a 'feel good' kind of book, it's rather on the dark side, but worth the read if you are looking for something a little different than the old masters of sci-fi we know and love.

E.E. Doc Smith's Skylark books are great books. I have read all 4 of them. I have also read a few of the Lensman books, but not all of them yet.

I too enjoy the pure SF that Hubbard has written. Battlefield Earth, and his Dekology both are great reads. Battlefield Earth is a bit more pure sci-fi, and pretty imaginative to be honest. The Invaders Plan series ( I cant remember the correct name ATM ) was more of a social satire set in a sci-fi setting. I actually found it quite amuzing and very insightful as to the hows and whys of the way some of the "world" works.

My favorites are Asimov, Heinlein and Clarke. IMO you cant touch those 3

I dont know how many of you know this, but Hubbards Scientology is a direct result of a bet. He, Heinlein and Clark made a bet about who could make the most profitable religion. Clark bailed on the bet, Heinleins religion was shown in Stranger in a Strange Land of which there are actual churches, and Hubbard went all out and came up with Dianetics which led to Scientology.

Danno

Another favourite Author of mine is "Anne Mcaffery", and one book sticks in my mind "The Ship who sang". Asmimov is classic.

reply to post by Ferryman


I agree with you on McCaffery she has a wonderful writing style. The ship who sang books are really good as are the dragon rider books.

The Foundation Trilogy by Asimov was responsible for my love of SciFi. These books were the first Science Fiction I ever read.