Suggestions for Vacation Reading?

Gearing up for holiday, 17 relaxing days in the tropics. Looking for reading (and music) suggestions for the long airplane ride and lazy days on the beach. I have some nonfiction in the bag already, so I guess I'm mostly looking for sci-fi. It needn't be anything contemporary, as I'm sure there are still some great classics I've missed.
 
And yes, before you recommend it, Blithering Genius is already loaded into the Kindle, where it has been sitting dormant for months awaiting just this trip.

Oh, wait, your Kindle can't hold that much.
 

I'm just now getting around to Neal Stephenson's Seveneves. Enjoying it so far.

Not science fiction but if you like historical fiction try Bernard Cornwell's "Last Kingdom" series. Set around the time of the birth of England he weaves a well researched and detailed fiction around the sketchy historical facts of the period.
 
I have found them a compelling read.

Just because it's on my mind and apparently a movie is about to me made out of it...
 
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
 
I've never read it and am not quite sure what it's about but I used to work at Ms. Atwood's house as a grunt and she's a very interesting character and an acclaimed writer and I want to read it before I see the film.
 
What I HAVE read by her (because she gave me and some of the other grunts a signed copy for X-Mas shortly after it was published) is "Oryx and Crake" which actually kind of sci-fi/dystopic future type stuff with a really twisted love story AND some seriously oddball societal commentary bordering on the satirical.
 
For some reason I think you'd like it... but maybe not the pure sci-fi yer looking for.
 
Yanno... I should have probably just said Oryx and Crake... but I still want to read Handmaid's Tale.
 
/hasn't had the luxury of "reading" fiction for ages
//needs a Kindle or to figure out how to read e-books on my lappy
///they come in threes... always in threes

Not SF, but very good...........
 
 
 

 
 
 

Good suggestions, everyone. Sadly, the reason I am able to say that is because I have read almost all of them. Station Eleven is not among them, so that'll be my first download, based entirely on Mr. Baer's recommendation. From past conversations our tastes seem to be pretty much in sync.
 
Not sure I want to be reading the hashish smuggler's memoir while visiting a country where that'll get you life - if you're lucky. Maybe when I get back.

As somebody once said.......and now for something completely different..
 

Just know that, like the Lord of the Rings books, the Dune books might need to be read more than once to catch all the intricate references in them!
 
I haven't read anything by his son either, but I think he had to step in and help finish the final Dune book after his dad passed away...
 

https://www.amazon.com/Do...-Atheist/dp/1581345615

Yo BF,
I am about 2/3's through this one and its already one of the best books about music I have ever read:
 
https://www.amazon.com/Rest-Noise-Listening-20th-Century/dp/B00115MOUC
 
It has enriched me.
 
Happy New Year and thanks for your service, here,
 
Bert
 
 
 

I'd recommend the Chtorr series by David Gerrold (who wrote the Trouble with Tribbles Star Trek episode) but, as far as I know, he still hasn't finished the series!  He's working on book 5 of the "trilogy" so far - lol!  I actually used to email him and he wasn't really sure how to end things (however the 5th, and supposedly last, book may be published next month).
 
Actually, a really good single book by him is When Harlie Was One.
 

Fantasy rather than sci-fi, but "Engraved On The Eye" by Saladin Ahmed is good. It's a collection of short stories, including tales of the aging Doctor Adoulla Makhslood "the best ghul hunter in the city of Dhamsawaat" who finds he has acquired a young apprentice from the order of Dervishes who has a more puritanical approach to life than the good Doctor and has much to learn and unlearn. It's a nice change from the usual run of fantasy that has Medieval Europe as its inspiration.

A couple of more good fantasy series are Brent Week's "Lightbringer" series which are long and complex, and Ben Aaranovitch's series of very readable modern London based novels that commence with "Rivers of London".

For sci-fi Ian M Banks' Culture novels take some beating.

Oh my, so many interesting suggestions! Sadly, I will have grandchildren along on this trip who'll expect to be entertained with reef snorkling, boating and ziplining, so I won't be able to spend as much quiet time under the mango tree as usual. I may have to stay the whole month.

Good choice bit, it is my go to book to introduce people to the genre, Both my son and nephew got it as a present and both loved it.
 
I also stood in line a few years ago to get a copy of "the colour of magic" by Terry Pratchett signed for my son. A great introduction to humour and fantasy