Science Fiction & Fantasy Authors - S
Layout notes: Page title is heading one. Authors are heading
two. Series titles are heading three plus indented. Books not
part of a series are at the top, just below the authors name.
Books are bulleted list. Notes are part of the individual books
bulleted entry, while author and series notes are normal style
below the author's name or series name.
Fred Saberhagen
Swords Series
I think I have read the entire series. I know I used to
own most of the books, but lost them when moving out of
Massachusetts. The series is typical fantasy, although very
much influenced by fantasy role playing. They were going to
turn the series into a computer game, but that fell through
for some reason.
-
- 4th Book of Lost Swords: Farslayer's Story
James H. Schmitz
I like Schmitz's work. Especially the way that psionics is
used and described. His works would be important if I ever start
work again on a psi campaign.
- The Universe Against Her - A teen who is psionic.
Important for my psi world campaigns since that is the
way I see psi powers being used.
- The Witches of Karres - there is also a follow on book, Wizard
of Karres, written by Eric Flint, Mercedes Lackey
and David Freer.
Susan Schwartz
- Hostile Takeover - I dont' know if I just own this book
or if I read it. I can't remember a thing about it now.
Robert Silverberg
- Time of the Great Freeze - read this in high school.
Recently picked it up used at libary book sale.
L. Sprague de Camp
- The Falliable Fiend - good standard fantasy novel.
- The Glory That Was
- The Pugnacious Peacemaker / The Wheels of If - Two
seperate novels in one volume, with the other one written
by Harry
Turtledove.
- The Undesired Princess / The Enchanted Bunny - Two
seperate novels in one volume, with the other one written
by David Drake
- Land of Unreason - Co-author with Fletcher Pratt
- Lest Darkness Fall / To Bring the Light - Two seperate
novels in one volume, with the other one written by David Drake. Lest
Darkness Fall was written a long time ago by de Camp.
Both novels are time displacement novels. In Lest
Darkness Fall, the protagionist travels from 1930's
Rome to AD 300 or so Rome. To Bring the Light
has a Roman from the late Empire travel to the beginnings
of Rome and get the city started. Lest Darkness Fall
is more important to my gaming than To Bring the
Light, for the usual reason of showing how hard or
easy it is to reproduce technology from scratch if you
are not an expert in the field.
- The Blade of Conan
Conan Series
L. Sprague de Camp took a lot of material that Robert E.
Howard had never finished and added to the Conan series. I
used to own the entire series, but lost most of it when
moving.
- Conan the Freebooter (#3)
- Conan the Buccaneer (#6)
- Conan of Aquilonia (#11)
- Conan of the Isles (#12)
-
Reluctant King Series
Typical good fantasy series. I seem to have missed book
number three. I'm not sure if I've not read it, or just don't
own it.
- The Goblin Tower (#1)
- The Clocks of Iraz (#2)
- The Honorable Barbarian (#4)
Enchanter Series
Christopher Stasheff
A Wizard In Rhyme Series
I think I've read other books in the series, but unless I
start to re-read them, I can't remember. Basic rule of magic
in this series is that poetry works, and it's very literal.
As such, magic is more of a science than an art.
Starship Troupers
Same universe as the Warlock series, but set centuries
before the Warlock books are set.
- A Company of Stars (#1)
- We Open On Venus (#2)
- A Sleight Detour (#3)
Warlock Series
An interesting series. I like the way psionics works the
way I think psi powers should, instead of like D&D. The
setting is far future where a colony from Earth has both
hidden itself from Earth, and modeled itself upon the Middle
Ages as seen from the Society of Creative Anacronism. I have
wanted to use a similar background for many of my worlds, but
have never gotten around to creating such a world. The
closests I came was Spire, but that hasn't really gotten
anywhere. The d20 system would not be a good rule set for
this. I'm thinking BESM would be better.
- Escape Velocity (#1)
- Warlock In Spite of Himself (#2)
- King Kobold Revived (#3)
- The Warlock Unlocked (#4)
- The Warlock Enraged (#5)
- The Warlock Wandering (#6)
- The Warlock Is Missing (#7)
- The Warlock Heretical (#8)
- The Warlock's Companion (#9)
- The Warlock Insane (#10)
- The Warlock Rock (#11)
- Warlock and Son (#12)
-
Warlock's Heirs
This series continues where the originial Warlock series
stopped. Instead of focusing on Ron, it shifts to the
children. Most of the books follow the eldest son after he
leaves Gramarye, and maybe that should be considered yet
another series. I think there is more to the series, but I've
lost track and haven't bought anything in a number of years.
- A Wizard In Abstentia (#1)
- M'Lady Witch (#2)
- Quicksilver's Knight (#3)
- Here Be Monsters (#4)
- A Wizard In Mind (#5)
- A Wizard In Bedlam (#6) -
- A Wizard In War (#7)
- A Wizard In Peace (#8)
Caroline Stevemer
- A College of Magics - An interesting story about a pre-World
War One Earth where a magic works, but only for a small
number of people. Besides the actual story, it is that
certain governments know about it and how they deal with
magic.
S. M. Stirling
- Conquistador - A cross time
novel. Guy comes back from World War II and accidently
discovers a gate to an alternate time line Earth where
North America was never discoverred or colonized by
Europe. Similar results as in our time line in that the
American Indians are wiped out by diseases and to a
lessor extent drive away with WWII era and later weapons.
The gate would be a cool plot device for a game.
- The Peshawar Lancers
- The Rose Sea - co-author with Holly Lisle
Brainships Series (co-authored with Anne McCaffery)
Only books that S.M. Stirling wrote are listed here. Check
out Anne McCaffery's listing for all the books in the series.
Flight Engineer Series (with James Doohan)
Yes, the late Scotty from Star Trek co-wrote a
series.
- The Rising (#1) - This is the only one of the series I've
read. It was OK, but I don't think I'd look to buy more
in the series.
Islands In Time Series
This is actually two series set in the same world. The
first three books follow what happens to the people on the
island of Nantucket when it is sent back in time about 3500
years. The next books deal with collapse of civiliazation in
our time that resulted from the alien energy used to send
Nantucket back in time. The first three books would be
classified as Time Displacement, while the follow on ones
would be post-apocalypse with no gunpowder or similar.
- Island In the Sea of Time (#1)
- Against the Tide of Years (#2)
- On the Oceans of Eternity (#3)
- Dies The Fire (#4)
-
Raj Whitehall Series
A very interesting series written around a super computer and
it's choosen human agent who tries to bring civilization back to
a number of planets after the fall of an interstellar empire. The
first set of books were co-authored with David Drake. The Tyrant
was co-authored by Eric Flint
and David Drake.
- The Forge (#1)
- The Hammer (#2)
- Warlord (#1 & #2) - This is compilation of The
Forge and The Hammer.
- The Anvil (#3)
- The Steel (#4)
- The Sword (#5)
- Conqueror (#3, #4, & #5) - This is a compilation of The
Anvil, The Steel, and The Sword.
- The Chosen (#6) - Raj (as a computer spirit) and Center
help a world based upon S.M. Stirling's Draka series.
- The Reformer (#7) - First book in a two book set of a
spin off of "The General" series. Another
alternate Roman Empire is shaken up by Raj Whitehall and
Center. For gaming, it's specifically useful in it's
discussion of how society moves from a Roman type tech
level to more advanced levels. The discussion takes place
over both books though.
- The Tyrant (#8) - Follow on book to "The Reformer".
Charles Stross
- The Family Trade (#1) - Book one in a new series. There
is an group of people, refered to world walkers, who are
able to cross from our Earth to another Earth. The other
Earth is midieval tech, with a very different history.
Apparently the America's was settled by Vikings on the
east coast, and Chinese or Japanese on the west coast.
The world walkers are an extended inter-bred clan that
has been doing cross world trading for almost 300 years.
The world walking ability is genetic, so they have a
strangle hold on the trade. This could make for a neat
fantasy or even science fiction cross time gaming set up.
Even if you didn't want to use the exact alternate world,
the concept of a select family that could move between
two worlds for the past few hundred years could be a
great basis for a game.
- The Hidden Family (#2) - Book two in the series. Without
giving away any of the plot details, it does raise the
question about how to make money from interworld travel.
The old way of the clan has been to move goods that are
cheap or legal in one world to the other where they are
not. Examples would be our medicines and tech products
for their drugs such as cocaine. The new way is to move
intellectual property ideas (patents, etc) and make money
in that world. Question then becomes how to move the
actual wealth between worlds.
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