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My friend Ed asked me to recommend him some science fiction and fantasy novels based on my earlier claim to some level of expertise in that area. He put his request in a novel way. In exchange for $600, I am to send him $50 worth of SF and fantasy books a month from Amazon. Two weeks ago, I sent his first selection. I've tried to keep a balance each month between SF and fantasy, as well as between classic and modern novels. Also, I'm avoiding books he's already read, since that would defeat the point. Some of these choices are also targeted towards what I know of Ed's tastes, but they should all be enjoyable for anyone. Each month I'll describe here the books I sent him and a short blurb on each.

Hyperion and the Fall of Hyperion: A particularly literary take on the fall of a galactic civilization. The first novel is a SF version of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. A group of seven pilgrims sets out to visit the Shrike, a mysterious being known to either grant wishes or impale your body on a branch of his Tree of Pain. On the way, each tells their story as to how they arrived on a pilgrimage. Interestingly, each story covers a different subgenre of science fiction. There is an "alien anthropology," a cyberpunk, a military SF, a Hawthornesque mysterious illness, and a space opera. The second volume abandons the Canterbury Tales structure and finishes the story, but not without bringing in a cloned John Keats.

The Curse of Chalion: Kim would call this one of the best theological fantasy novels. Very loosely based on events in 15th century Spain, the real meat of the story comes from its explorations of the world's family of 5 gods: Father, Mother, Brother, Sister and Bastard. They are very active in the world, but primarily work through chosen champions, or saints. This story concerns a veteran soldier who has managed to escape his prison and now finds himself in charge of the education of the royal princess. He becomes an active agent of the Sister and adventure ensues.

The Forever War: Another entry into the long history of SF coming-of-age war novels also known as re-interpretations of Starship Troopers. This novel tells the story of the Vietnam war through a SF lens. Particularly meaningful to Joe Haldeman is the feeling of alienation that soldiers had upon returning from that conflict. To emphasize this, Haldeman's war is many light-years from Earth and thus the soldiers experience time dilation while on tour. The world they return to is one with vast societal change and all their loved ones old or dead. However, it isn't all depressing. There is no lack of humor and action.

Consider Phlebas: This is a straight-up space opera and Iain Banks is a master of the genre. He crafts interesting characters, fantastic settings, and an engrossing backing mythology. But where his novels really shine is in the prose. His action scenes are intense and awe-inspiring at the same time. His novels also have the best names for spaceships EVER.

Perdido Street Station: There's been a movement among some contemporary fantasy authors to write epic stories in the Tolkien tradition without invoking the Tolkien mythology. Mieville achieves both goals here. He invents a detailed world, Bas-lag, and populates it with his own selection of fantastic races. He also breaks wildly from Tolkien's themes. His creatures inhabit a gritty urban world resonating with Marxist themes where Tolkien's elves and hobbits lived in a wild world full of the ruins of glorified lost monarchies. Tolkien's villains are savage, almost beastly evils while Mieville's villains have designs familiar to our modern world: organized crime, political corruption, and capitalist oppression.