Any good, little known, Sci Fi books?

I really like Stephen Baxter

His Destiny’s Children Series is especially good.

Not sure it really counts as little known though. I also read The Riverworld Series many years ago and really enjoyed them too.

Dan Simmons’ Hyperion Cantos are pretty amazing.
Does that count as little known?

I read this one quite a while ago. Don’t think this author is well known in the U.S. Watchstar

Sheri Tepper is my absolute favorite sci-fi/fantasy author. She has a feminist/humanist/environmentalist perspective that raises all sorts of interesting questions about human nature.

Stephen Donaldsons Gap series is pretty good.

Try Sylvia Engdahl.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Engdahl

Children of the Star is her best novel in my opinion.

Here are my recommendations

old Charles Sheffield: The Mind Pool*, The first three books of the Heritage Universe
Alan Dean Foster: Flinx series, Cyber Way*, Codgerspace
Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald: the Mageworld series*
Carol Severance: Reefsong**

That is what I can remember off the top of my head.

Note:
”*” These are some of the best books/series I have read
”**” One of my favorite books ever

I’m loving all the suggestions – making notes for future reading!

I have added several of these to my running list of good books.

FYI, I am not into fantasy (wizards, spells, trolls, dragons). Just Science Fiction.

Thanks for the ideas and keep them coming.

not sure how known it is, but the ringworld series is good. by larry niven. although i don’t think it’s actually a series. there’s ringworld and then ringworld engineers, but i’m not sure who wrote the latter and am clearly too lazy to look it up :]

Speaking of Niven, most of what I’ve read by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle is extremely good. Specifically, I’ve read and enjoyed “Footfall”, “A Mote In God’s Eye” and “The Grasping Hand”. Though not Sci-Fi, “The Burning City” is fantasy, and one of my favorite books of all time.

Also, I second the Baxter recommendations. If you’re looking for really hard sci-fi his “Manifold” series is excellent (Manifold: Time, Space, and Origins).

I will go with Frederic Pohl, try also this french Writer called Rene Barjavel, he is great.

@Urban , The Ringworld Engineers was indeed authored by Niven, but it was written in response to fans who’d ripped the first book because of its inattention to the realities of orbital mechanics. As sequels go, it’s pretty disappointing. It isn’t a bad novel, but the first one was so good it should have stood alone. Niven should have just stood up at the Con and told those idiots the whole idea behind Science Fiction is to suspend disbelief. I can’t understand why an author of his stature would cave into that kind of pressure, and considering how stinking rich the guy is, I don’t know why he would even care.

If you read The Integral Trees and its sequel The Smoke Ring, you’ll get a better idea of how well Niven can write sequels. Likewise, The Mote in God’s Eye and The Gripping Hand, which he wrote with occasional collaborator Jerry Pournelle.

Niven is hardly an obscure author, though. @phoenix13, same goes for Frederick Pohl, but if you haven’t read them, start now. Pohl’s Gateway series is particularly engaging.

Let me second Sheri Tepper. She kind of straddles SF and F, as do Michael Swanwick (The Iron Dragon’s Daughter), Walter Jon Williams (Metropolitan and City on Fire). However, I also highly recommend almost anything by Neil Stephenson. I just finished Anathem, which is thoroughly enjoyable. I think you’d especially enjoy Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon which has a lot of interesting information about codes and cyphers.

@daloon thanks for the info. I have read all of Neal Stephenson’s books. Snow Crash is one of my favorites of all time. I have Anathem on my night stand, but I can barely lift it.

@PerryDolia You’ve read the Baroque Cycle, too!!! It took me a little while to get into the first one, but after that, I couldn’t get enough. It’s been forever since I read Snow Crash. Do dive into Anathem. It may be upwards of 800 pages, but they will fly by! Of course, I did have the advantage of starting it while on vacation.

Agreed with @Urban the “gateway” series is amazing, we could have called these novels “Russian roulette space exploration” :-)