rcs619 said:
I can help with some sci-fi
So... first I'd recommend David Weber's "Honorverse" series. It follows the career and adventures of Honor Harrington, a space-navy officer in a small, out of the way star kingdom in the year 4000 or so. It's harder than a lot of more mainstream sci-fi (Trek, wars, etc) without being so hard that it can't have style or flair. The ship-to-ship combat is actually reminiscent of modern naval combat. Long-range missile vollies, with electronic warfare and point-defense as the main forms of defense. If you take a hit, it's going to hurt.
The first two novels in the series are actually available in full, for free, off the publisher's site. Book 1 here: http://www.baen.com/on-basilisk-station.html and Book 2 (my favorite in the series) here: http://www.baen.com/the-honor-of-the-queen.html
I'd also recommend David Weber's "Safehold" series. It's kind of hard to describe without spoiling the entire premise, but... it's a military and political drama, set in a world with 1700-1800 level technology, with some very strong sci-fi elements hovering just behind the scenes. "Off Armageddon Reef" is the first book in that series.
I personally have a huge problem with those authors from the "Baen clique". First, Weber pissed me off something immensely with the way he shipped the latest books in the HH series without even writing a coherent plot. I am not even exagerating, there is zero catharsis at the end. Sure there is a stupendous amount of plotting about how the baddies' nation goes the way off the Soviet Union, but that's just fluff. The story consists of several dozens of characters and describes just exactly how they deliver the mercy kill to the hostile nation. But, try writing character development with that manny characters. It's impossible
The earlier stories work because they are the McDonalds of Sci-Fi. This is no even mentioning Mary Sue, because there are much greater problems with the stories. Honor Harrington is basically Dan Brown IN SPACE!!!
rcs619 said:
Not really sci-fi, but Eric Flit's 1634 series is also pretty cool. Basically, an entire West Virginia town from the year 2000 suddenly gets transplanted smack-dab into the middle of Germany during the 30 years war. "1634" is the first book of the series, and it's split off into a ton of different sub-settings and side-stories through collaborations with other authors.
Flint has managed to put himself unforgivably on my shit-list with that series. It began great by showing great inteligent rednecks who even are unionizers. That gave me hope after I heard a story about a friend of a friend who lived in Virginia (and we're talking Fairfax here), whose parents' ideas of parenting were out of the old testament. In any case, Flint really fucked up Swedish history. What he does is create a kind of narrative about a new American revolution, with Gustavus Adolphus as Washington.
Fuck, I first thought Flint was a sane guy, but his fan-fiction is about as left as president Bush rolling out his tanks. Swedish history doesn't see those kings as in the right, they just existed. There was nothing noble about one of the bloodiest wars of European history, and since Amsterdam becomes a big part of the later series, you can add the longest war to the list too. The series never even mentions the good part about Gustavus - he was a great city founder (Gothenburg, one of the cities he founded, is the second largest city of Sweden).
The only Baen author I enjoy is David Drake because he values character above plot. He is 'Nam vet who returned as a complete wreck, and that adds a certain grimness to his outlook. You should start with his RCN series, the first book is With The Lightnings and is available free here: http://www.baen.com/with-the-lightnings.html
The science in the series doesn't make any sense, and it doesn't matter one iota. All the descriptions paints a real feeling: gritty diesel engines, worn steel and small craft with foul engines in the harbour. It's Saigon, not Silicon Valley.
The best part is the protagonist Adelle. Drake saw how Patrick O'Brian created fantastic military adventure fiction by splitting the usual unbeatable hero character into two persons: one generic warfighter that drives the plot, and one interesting character allowed to be introspective. But where O'Brian's Stephen came from a man who left his home because of a broken love-life, Drake's Adele is more interesting. Her entire family was excecuted for high treason, and she clearly suffers from undiagnosed autism. How common is either of those? And no, it isn't a revenge story, it is just how things are.