Since I was a boy, fantasy and science fiction was my favorite type of stories. I was fascinated with what might be possible, rather than the reality of everyday life. As I read and began to create my own stories within my mind, it was a simple jump to writing them down for others to enjoy. I became an engineer and used computers to design everything from nuclear reactors to conveyor belts. So, I soon was writing entire books and publishing them on Amazon.com. I have sold thousands of books and most who read them, appreciate and enjoy my tales of fantasy and science fiction.
Dune was the first science fiction book that I read cover to cover in my teens. Its story and character development fascinated me. The book concentrated on a teenage boy, Paul Atreides. He was born at the end of a centuries-long genetic breeding program which was designed to develop a super being. Paul and his family move to the world of Dune where the Spice is harvested. The Spice is a natural compound that extends life and causes humans to develop additional physical and mental powers. The Spice begins to change Paul sending him into an unknown future. This book captured my imagination and the characters possessed my mind. The novel caused me to envision my own characters and stories both on Dune and worlds that I created within my imagination. This led me to write my first short story.
Before The Matrix, before Star Wars, before Ender's Game and Neuromancer, there was Dune: winner of the prestigious Hugo and Nebula awards, and widely considered one of the greatest science fiction novels ever written.
Melange, or 'spice', is the most valuable - and rarest - element in the universe; a drug that does everything from increasing a person's lifespan to making interstellar travel possible. And it can only be found on a single planet: the inhospitable desert world of Arrakis.
Whoever controls Arrakis controls the spice. And whoever controls the spice controls the universe.
Dragonflight is the first book I read that combined dragon fantasy and science fiction. I eventually read all twenty-five novels of the Dragons of Pern Series. This book created a new world with a unique cooperation between dragons and humans. Humans came to the world of Pern to find new lives. They became cut off from the rest of humanity and lived an agrarian lifestyle. They live in peace until a natural phenomenon causes the humans to genetically adapt a local species to deal with a devastating repeating blight. The Dragons of Pern books pulled me into the world of dragons. I began to create dragon stories because of these books. They gave me an appreciation of well-constructed plots and how to build a world with a unique nature and set of characters. I highly recommend these books for an enjoyable read with thought-provoking plots.
Volume I of The Dragonriders of Pern®, the groundbreaking series by master storyteller Anne McCaffrey
On a beautiful world called Pern, an ancient way of life is about to come under attack from a myth that is all too real. Lessa is an outcast survivor—her parents murdered, her birthright stolen—a strong young woman who has never stopped dreaming of revenge. But when an ancient threat to Pern reemerges, Lessa will rise—upon the back of a great dragon with whom she shares a telepathic bond more intimate than any human connection. Together, dragon and rider will fly . . . and…
Although this book is not science fiction or fantasy, I have included it because of its rich assortment of characters and how they are woven into their own world. This novel taught me how to create complex characters and bring them together in a world that not only make sense, but seems truly real. John Steinbeck was a master of character development and in Cannery Row he brought all his skills to bear. The novel focuses on an area of closed canneries and the odd set of remaining inhabitants. I loved how the characters interacted with each other creating a beautiful low-key storyline. Even though the plot is quite simple the characters far and away make up for it. It was a wonderful and relaxing read, and I highly recommend it to anyone, especially beginner writers.
In the din and stink that is Cannery Row a colourful blend of misfits - gamblers, whores, drunks, bums and artists - survive side by side in a jumble of adventure and mischief. Lee Chong, the astute owner of the well-stocked grocery store, is also the proprietor of the Palace Flophouse that Mack and his troupe of good-natured 'boys' call home. Dora runs the brothel with clockwork efficiency and a generous heart, and Doc is the fount of all wisdom. Packed with invention and joie de vivre CANNERY ROW is Steinbeck's high-spirited tribute to his native California.
This was written by Robert A. Heinlein, one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time. It is a delightful story of a boy and his off world pet. It describes the adventures that the two go through, and in the end, is one a pet or are they simply caring friends? I have read most of Heinlein's novels, but this one hit a cord with me. Perhaps, it does so, because it reminds me of my boyhood with my dog or that it shows the love humans have for their animals. Whatever the reason that it stays with me, it showed that you don't need a complex story to capture someone's imagination and emotions.
Lummox had been the Stuart family pet for years. Though far from cuddly and
rather large, it had always been obedient and docile. Except, that is, for the
time it had eaten the secondhand Buick! But now, all of a sudden and without
explanation, L
The Wee Free Men is a book of the Discworld novels created by Terry Pratchett. The Discworld is a flat disc carried on the backs of four massive elephants who stand on the back of the great turtle Atuin. The Discworld has humans, wizards, witches, and all manner of other creatures, including the tooth fairy and the luggage with a thousand tiny feet. It is a marvelous and imaginative, humorous series of books. I was most attracted to The Wee Free Men novel, which follows the life of a young witch that discovers a group of two to three-inch tall men in kilts near her home. The book showed me how to use humor in my writings. It also helped me to understand that not all fantasy and science fiction has to be about life and death situations, but can be humorous and uplifting.
A nightmarish danger threatens from the other side of reality . . .
Armed with only a frying pan and her common sense, young witch-to-be Tiffany Aching must defend her home against the monsters of Fairyland. Luckily she has some very unusual help: the local Nac Mac Feegle - aka the Wee Free Men - a clan of fierce, sheep-stealing, sword-wielding, six-inch-high blue men.
Together they must face headless horsemen, ferocious grimhounds, terrifying dreams come true, and ultimately the sinister Queen of the Elves herself . . .
A boy grows to manhood without a father, in a future of galactic wide corporate corruption. Sam Quartermax's father was killed in a space collision when Sam was only ten years of age. The government reported it as an accident, but the boy could never bring himself to believe this lie. Finally, in college, he discovered the truth, his father was murdered. To find the killers he will travel to the far ends of the galaxy and beyond. The search will require the boy to become a ruthless hunter. In the end, he will have to make a choice. Either kill those who murdered his father and rid the galaxy of the corruption that caused the death of millions, or walk away from his lifelong search for revenge.
Historical fiction inspired by the story of Mary Leakey, who carved her own path to become one of the world's most distinguished paleoanthropologists.
It's 1983 and seventeen-year-old Grace Clark has just lost her mother when she begrudgingly accompanies her estranged father to an archeological dig at Olduvai Gorge on the Serengeti plains of Tanzania. Here, seventy-year-old Mary Leakey enlists Grace to sort and pack her fifty years of work and memories.
Their interaction reminds Mary how she pursued her ambitions of becoming an archeologist in the 1930s by sneaking into lectures and working on excavations. When well-known paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey…
Historical fiction inspired by the story of Mary Leakey, who carved her own path to become one of the world's most distinguished paleoanthropologists.
It's 1983 and seventeen-year-old Grace Clark has just lost her mother when she begrudgingly accompanies her estranged father to an archeological dig at Olduvai Gorge on the Serengeti plains of Tanzania. Here, seventy-year-old Mary Leakey enlists Grace to sort and pack her fifty years of work and memories.
Their interaction reminds Mary how she pursued her ambitions of becoming an archeologist in the 1930s by sneaking into lectures and working on excavations. When well-known paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey…
