Reddit reviews Eon

• Neuromancer - William Gibson
  
• Dune - Frank Herbert
  
• Gateway - Frederik Pohl
  
• Halting State - Charles Stross
  
• Eon - Greg Bear
  
• Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke
  
• Solaris - Stanislaw Lem

I was actually going to suggest the entire Old Man's War series. It's very good. Actually, all of Scalzi's books are great. Just finished Lock In for the 4th or 5th time. And Forever War was amazing.

I'd also suggest Eon by Greg Bear if you're into high scifi concepts.

And I haven't seen it on the comments, but I'm sure it's there. The Expanse Series by James S.A. Corey. The Syfy series is doing a wonderful job adapting it to the small screen.

I finally got around to reading Greg Bear's Eon and Eternity this week, and they were wonderful. I don't know how I missed them before, but I'd recommend them (and looking at the Amazon page, apparently now I've got to get Legacy this week as well).

I'd also recommend David Brin's Uplift series.

Eon by Greg Bear

Maybe Neverness by David Zindell. Though the "mysterious artifact" in it isn't exactly an artifact. Still, it's a crime that this novel has been out of print for over a decade.

Frederik Pohl's Heechee series, beginning with Gateway. Pulpy, but enjoyable.

Ringworld of course, but I'm sure you've already heard of that one.

edit: Whoops. You mentioned Pohl already.

Books: Eon by Greg Bear. Not the typical first contact story but saying more than that would give it away.

Agreed. And I'm not going to name names, but I've read some of those.

Eon is very good

Try The Passage by Justin Cronin.


For a series, consider Eon by Greg Bear, it continues with Eternity and Legacy, since you like the Flood/Ark set.

You might like Greg Bear's EON, too.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - on reading and education as the door to escaping poverty. Might be a little young for them.

The Grapes of Wrath - on the humanity and the inhumanity humans and industry are capable of in harsh times. Might be a little long/dry/boring.

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Basically any science fiction novel by Greg Bear, because they are probably mind-blowing in vision to a teenager who hasn't had exposure to ideas of such scale (at least, they were to me. But I don't know how the parents would react to them, or if these girls like science fiction)

Blood Music- themes of nanotechnology and perception changing humanity

The Forge of God- on the destruction of earth once it becomes noticeable enough to aliens. And its sequel

Anvil of Stars- on whether revenge can be justified, how libertarian/cooperatives groups break down or are usurped, and an unusual alien race.

Queen of Angels- on psychology, consciousness, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and the beginnings of an internet (before there was an internet).

Eon- an asteroid suddenly appears in orbit, and its unusual history and construction destabilizes earth during the Cold War, but opens the door to alien technologies and civilizations. And its sequel

Eternity- the far future of humanity, conflict with an alien race, travel in space and time.

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But to be honest two books that would give them a fundamental understanding of how the world actually operates, if they aren't being exposed to it, would be:

Campbell and Reece's Biology

and

Chemistry: A Molecular Approach

They don't require too much math other than algebra, and though they're kind of expensive, they're worth it. The utter logic of how scientific thinking is done can be easily introduced with biology and an understanding of the atomic framework chemistry teaches is invaluable because it explains so many behaviors in our world. Maybe in e-book format or something, so they're not as obvious.

If you want some "mind blowing" scifi, definitely look into the works of Greg Bear. He has a flair for writing stories that will make your jaw drop. Blood Music and Eon are good starters. Even tho both books do center around technology (nanotech and space travel, respectively), the writing is not tech heavy.

Two other books I strongly recommend are both collections of short stories that Orson Scott Card put together from various authors. The books are called Future on Fire and Future on Ice, and no the stories have nothing to do with temperature. Fire is supposed to have stories that get you fired up, Ice is supposed to be all stories that chill you to the bone. It's worth mentioning that Future on Ice contains the original Greg Bear story that Blood Music came from.

For something lighter hearted, my wife loves the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy books and, even tho it's more Fantasy then SciFi, you can't go wrong with the Discworld series. The early books can be a little rough, but the later novels are simply excellent writing. The city watch books are particularly thrilling reads.