From Dragons to the Stars: Sci-Fi book recs for Fantasy Readers

I really enjoyed the occasional flashbacksto Stefan's earlier life, filling in some of the blanks of the culture andhistory of the last city on Earth and its strange inhabitants. I reallyrecommend it and I think this would be a really great entry point into somescience fiction reading.

June is about 60 years old as a book, but still holds up remarkably well, Ithink, even now.

June along with its sequel June Messiah isthe story of Paul at Trades, the only son of Duke Leto and his consort, LadyJessica, who's also an agent of the Benesseret, a galactic sisterhood, theemin behind the throne of every great house, including the emperors himself.

I really liked theinterplay between Hrien and Valka. He's smitten from day one and she's initiallydismissive of Hadrien as just another pampered noble. But they share aninterest in the seelin the aliens of the peace and their relationship is one ofthe better ones I think in Empire of Silence.

And it's actuallymy favorite, coincidentally, of the nine novels that Banks wrote in this galacticsetting.

The world building, I think, is phenomenal. And Valentine and his new friend join up with a troop of alien jugglers.

Prince Furbin is written to be really whiny and annoying and he is at first,but his heart is more or less in the right place. Hol is an excellent andincreasingly reluctant manservant.

If you love epic scope and if you love heroiccharacters, cool futuristic military technology, spaceships, advancedcivilizations, aliens, all richly described in great detail, coupled withwidespread chaos and disorder, and yet also some very human scale stories, thenthese books, I think, could work very well for you.

If you love epic scope and if you love heroiccharacters, cool futuristic military technology, spaceships, advancedcivilizations, aliens, all richly described in great detail, coupled withwidespread chaos and disorder, and yet also some very human scale stories, thenthese books, I think, could work very well for you.

The first book could be accused of being a bit of a slow burnfor the first two or 300 pages as Hamilton sets things up. But in thecontext of a 3,000page epic, that's not that much, and things soon step up andthe plot moves right along.