Once I had children and continued to fill my life with values, it became difficult to make the time to read even though I've loved reading as long as I can remember. Then I discovered Audible and it was love of books and not music that drove me to buy my first iPod in 2005.
Today I still do most of my fiction reading using Audible since I can do it during my commute, washing dishes, or any other mostly-mindless home maintenance task. So if you aren't using Audible, I whole heartedly recommend signing up and taking advantage of their free trials.
This post is really for people who already are using Audible.
They currently are running a Super Sci-Fi Sale Through the end of the day May 10, 2014, where they have over 100 books available for $6.95 each. I paged through like I do many of their sales and found they had a number of books I want or that I've read and enjoyed and wanted to dash off something quick to recommend to others.
So here is the list, some of these I've read. Others are on my wishlist or I recognize the authors and think they might be worth looking at. Other than that grouping they are in no particular order:
Read
- Assignment in Eternity, Robert A. Heinlein: I always recommend everything Heinlein wrote, plus this was narrated by Balki
- A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter Miller: good classic SciFi, read it years ago on advice of my father and enjoyed it.
- Diplomatic Immunity: A Miles Vorkosigan Novel, Lois McMaster Bujold: The Vorkosigan saga is very enjoyable. This is book 14 in the series so you have quite a bit of work to catch up to it, but you might as well grab this one inexpensively now! This is not one of those series that I suffer from sunk costs, I liked each book.
- Frankenstein, Mary Shelley: A classic.
- Little Fuzzy, H. Beam Piper: I actually listened to the version of this that came with Fuzzy Nation, John Scalzi and I hated the Scalzi retelling of the story, but found the original Piper version to be a much better telling, where the Scalzi story was crude and obvious and pumped full of a certain political view that all corporations and any selfishness is evil, the Piper story suffered none of this and actually told an interesting story.
- Reamde, Neal Stephenson: I thankfully never got hooked on World of Warcraft, but got to enjoy machine guns and intrigue surrounding a video game world in this book. It was crazy at times, but I enjoyed it.
- The Dreaming Void: Void Trilogy Book 1, Peter F. Hamilton: I listened to the Commonwealth Saga and The Void Trilogy and recommend them both. I'd probably listen to the Commonwealth Saga first, but you can start here if you'd like. I think this is what they call a space opera, and I approve.
- The Lost Fleet: Dauntless, Jack Campbell: The Lost Fleet series was another long series that if you like space nerdery, is awesome.
Haven't Read
- Beowulf's Children, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Steven Barnes: I haven't read this, but read something else by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle called The Mote in God's Eye and enjoyed it so I think this one is probably worth a shot.
- With the Ligtnings: RCN Series, Book 1, David Drake: I think I picked this up on a reliable friends recommendation, just haven't gotten around to it yet.
- Stealing Light: Shoal, Book 1, Gary Gibson: In my wishlist and recommended to me, haven't had a chance to pick it up yet. Probably will here.
- Firestar: Firestar Saga, Book 1, Michael Flynn: Another in my wishlist and I'm not sure who recommeneded it. But I'll probably grab this one here too.