Brain Fertilizer

This is the list of books that most affected me, stuck in my head the most. Not necessarily the ones I liked the best.

Tunnel in the Sky, Robert A. Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Robert A. Heinlein Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein Day After Tomorrow, Robert A. Heinlein The Puppet Masters, Robert A. Heinlein (the Grandmaster; what else can you say? Avoid Stranger in a Strange Land and everything written after that, which was the point Heinlein went senile and started getting obsessed with writing soft-core porn) {You know that's blasphemy --ed. I know, I don't care; it's what I think}

Brain Wave, Poul Anderson (decent)

Jumper, Steven Gould
Wildside, Steven Gould (Excellent What If? novels)

Foreigner Series, C.J. Cherryh
Pride of Chanur, C.J. Cherryh
Finity’s End, C.J. Cherryh
Rimrunners, C.J. Cherryh
Cyteen, C.J. Cherryh (she's awesome; my favorite author right now, bar none. I couldn't understand many of her novels until I was an adult, when I did, I was bowled over. She has depth, intrigue, understands alien thought and language better than anyone I've ever seen)

The Vor Game, Lois McMaster Bujold (Read everything she's written; this is just a good introduction)

Legacy of Heorot Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, & Steven Barnes
Fallen Angels, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, & Larry Flynn

Dreamworld, Larry Niven & Steven Barnes

The Burning City, Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
Lucifer’s Hammer, Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
Oath of Fealty, Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
Inferno, Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

Neutron Star, Larry Niven
The Integral Trees, Larry Niven (Read everything Larry Niven has written; if they aren't perfect, they're still all very good; sometimes his dialogue/characterization can get a little monotonous, but not often)

Wolf and Iron, Gordon R. Dickson
Dorsai, Gordon R. Dickson

Postman, David Brin
Startide Rising, David Brin (His Uplift saga get cartoonish, other novels are not professional enough for me, but these are good)

Replay, Ken Grimwood (excellent What If? novel)

The Last Coin, James P. Blaylock (only barely SF; I wanted to include it because I like it so much)

Chronicles of Amber, Roger Zelazny

Bone Dance, Emma Bull

Once a Hero, Elizabeth Moon (pretty much everything else she has written annoys me, though)

Empire of the East, Fred Saberhagen
Love Conquers All, Fred Saberhagen
Beserker, Fred Saberhagen

Mother of Storms, John Barnes (got other good novels, too; this is the best of the bunch)

War Against the Chtorr series, David Gerrold (not yet completed)

Neuromancer, William Gibson (for some reason, I think of Gibson as the Grisham of SF; keeps going back to the same well over and over, but keeps getting decent novels out of that I only want to read once, but immensely enjoy that one time)

Cobra, Timothy Zahn (never liked much else by him)

Hardwired, Walter Jon Williams (several good novels, this is just the best of the bunch)

Manifest Destiny, Barry B. Longyear
Infinity Hold, Barry B. Longyear

The Cool War, Frederick Pohl (other stuff can get a little depressing, but okay)

Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card (must-read, but I didn’t like it much; can't stand his other novels)

Decision at Doona, Anne McCaffery (good novel, but I dislike Ms McCaffery for some of the crap she's responsible, including foisting off some pretty crappy female writers on us)

Tuf Voyaging, George R. R. Martin

Johnny Maxwell Trilogy, Terry Pratchett (very loose parody of Ender’s Game)

Two Faces of Tomorrow, James P. Hogan (really good novel, but I couldn't get too excited about other novels of his)

Four-Day Planet, H. Beam Piper

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Mark Twain

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Blade Runner), Philip K. Dick (the guy was seriously f'd up...but it's a good story, and a good novel)

Star Wars/Splinter of Mind’s Eye, Alan Dean Foster

The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
There is no Darkness, Joe Haldeman and Jack C. Haldeman

First Channel, Jacqueline Lichtenberg & Jean Lorrah (the series is fascinating, but gets old after too many minor variations on the same theme for each novel)

Midshipman's Hope, by David Feintuch (gets old after about halfway through the 2nd novel)