Sci Fi reading recommendations

So the wife and I are heading off to Cuba next week (yay!) to a nice relaxing resort to unwind, looking at bringing on some reading material.

Anyone have any favourites in the Sci-Fi genre (never been much for swords & sorcery etc..) that wouldn't be too deep or heavy, not looking for any depressing end of the world type of stories, just some light stuff for the beach .

Ender's Game and the series that follows it. Though It's a little on the deeper side, so it might not go with what you're asking for. It's not bad enough that it puts you in a funk, though.

I also like the Alex Rider series, though It's for a younger audience(But still an enjoyable read), but the main character gets pretty depressed in the last few books, but it only goes at face value and doesn't put you in a similar depression.

Though it's not Sci-Fi(It's more on the 'Sword' side) I recommend the Rangers Apprentice'series, but again, it's young adult fiction. But this time it's is very light, while still dealing with combat and war.(Don't judge me, YA stuff is fun-er!)

The fiction part of my little library might not be for you...
But I do recommend this stuff highly, if you run out of stuff to read.

For Sci-Fi I'd recommend some of the Star Wars novels. The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn is very good.

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


For something non sci-fi, I'd highly recommend The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. I'm reading through the series now and I'm very much enjoying all the books.

I've actually read the three Enders books (not the Enders shadow however). Enjoyed them greatly though my opinion of Orson Scott card is diminished a bit now as our world views are greatly opposed.

I'm not against deep or heavy Sci Fi, hell I read through all of Tad Williams Otherland series (and damn did that go on too long) and most of the William Gibson "cyberpunk" novels. Lately I'm actually on a hard sci-fi trip with Clarke. But I figure for this trip I'll have a bit of trouble getting deeply entrenched in a novel.

Don't hate the YA stuff either...I was actually going to ask about the Hunger games books, never really considered them until now. I know they're dark but I figure they'll be a bit easier to go through while distracted by Bikini's

EDIT: Thanks Fore, I've been through the Thrawn trilogy in comic book form, awsome story.

If you like the Halo games, the books can be good, in particular Ghosts of Onyx. Halo: Cryptum is set during the time of the Forerunners and is an interesting read.

If you have any interest in the Warhammer 40k books, the Gaunt's Ghosts series (starts with The Founding omnibus), Eisenhorn omnibus, and the Ultramarines omnibus are good reads.

For more a fantasy-side read, you could try the Death Gate cycle (7 books) by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. It's about two factions of wizard-y type peoples that split Earth into four different realms (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) and one of the groups was imprisoned in a magical, ever-shifting, murderous Labyrinth.

There's Peter F. Hamilton's Confederation series. It's split into two sections, The Reality Dysfunction and The Neutronium Alchemist (can't recall which was the first). There might be more books, but can't recall.

David Brin's Uplift books. Two trilogies. The first is Sundiver/Startide Rising/The Uplift War. The second is Brightness Reef/Infinity's Shore/Heaven's Reach. They're set in a universe where every sentient species is "uplifted" to sentience by an older species, but humanity has bucked the trend by bootstrapping itself to spacefaring. The galaxies (five of 'em) are bound together with an all-encompassing Library that contains pretty much every technology imaginable. A lot of races are hostile to humanity and want them either wiped out or forced into modification by an older race.

Finally, there's the Endymion/Hyperion books by Dan Simmons. Don't recall too much about them as it's been a while since I've read 'em.

I just read The Hunger Games and it was pretty good. I haven't read the others in the series though.

There are other Star Wars novels that are pretty good, but there are so many out there now that I don't really know what to recommend. I'm not really that into sci-fi novels even though I enjoy many TV shows and movies that are sci-fi.

I think it was brought up on the forums several months ago, but After the Golden Age is an enjoyable superhero novel, as well as a quick read (this is the only book I've read so quickly that I tried to figure out exactly how long it took me to finish; I think it was around 6 hours).

Vampire Earth series, by E. E. Knight.

The first book, Way of the Wolf is easily one of my favorite books.
It's so god in fact, that whenever a new book comes out, I practically reread the series.

Now that I'm at home and not work, I can add more.
Here's the synopsis, blatantly stolen from wikipedia.

The story begins in 2065 in a post-apocalyptic American setting. Forty-three years ago, in 2022, an alien race known as the Kurians triggered a series of natural disasters (as well as artificial ones) that enabled them to gain control of the planet and subjugate humanity. A plague has reduced the world population to 25% of its pre-cataclysm level; nuclear explosions have created a mild form of nuclear winter, cooling the earth, and smaller events everywhere have added to the chaos. In America, the New Madrid fault let go, destroying much of the Midwest. Major rivers such as the Mississippi have been unleashed.


Plot

In the year 2022 CE, a seemingly immortal extraterrestrial race called "Kurians" has wrested control of the Earth from its inhabitants. The Kurians derive their endless lifespans from draining the "vital aura" of other life forms. To facilitate this addiction to life energy, the Kurians employ avatars known as "Reapers".
Following the Kurian takeover, many humans made the decision to serve the new overlords. These traitors, known as Quislings, are set up as members of the police and supervisory government for the Kurian Order. Nearly every other human who is not a Quisling is known as a Territorial, and is either a slave scratching out a living in various trades, or fighting with rebel organizations such as the Southern Command.
After a time, the Kurian Order reduced Earth to a technological and social Dark Age, with only the few remaining pre-2022 machines and transportation networks surviving, with most of these under Kurian control. As an incentive to good and loyal service to the Kurian Lords, Quislings are awarded bonds of various lengths of years (3, 5, 10), which protect the wearers from the Reapers. Even more sought after is the "Brass Ring". A Brass Ring ensures that one never has to fear being randomly taken by the Reapers at night, although it can be revoked and cannot be passed to one's children.
Pockets of resistance do exist, however. The main rebel group fighting the Order at the beginning of the series is known as Southern Command. A formal military (though classified by the Order as terrorists) is charged with the defense of the Ozark Free Territory; Southern Command would be doomed were it not for the Hunters.

Hunters are seperated into castes.

Wolves: Wolves are long-range patrollers, able to run almost tirelessly for hours on end, and possessing the ability to "harden" their senses to the sensory ability akin to a wolf. Wolves engage in guerrilla warfare against the Kurian Order; killing Reapers to weaken the Kurians, smuggling out humans, destroying resources of the Order, and fighting in rapid hit-and-run engagements with the Grog and human soldiers of the Order.

Cats: A smaller and slightly more elite caste than the Wolves. They are not part of the formal military hierarchy, although they are considered captains as a courtesy. They receive agility and reflexes comparable to a feline, as well as incredible balance and cat-like night vision. Cats do not often travel in groups, working as solitary spy-saboteurs, gathering information and destroying assets deep within the Kurian-controlled areas.

Bears: These are the near-unstoppable shock troops of the Human resistance. When modified by a Lifeweaver to become a Bear, a human soldier becomes "a walking tank", fighting like a berserker of old and possessing tremendous strength and power. Bear physical capabilities are actually on par with the Reapers themselves, able to fight and even kill Reapers in single combat. They also possess an incredible faculty for healing, to the point of regenerating nerve damage and internal organs that have been lost. Lost & Found, a Bear introduced in Valentine's Rising, actually revives from beyond clinical and physical death. Bears induce a trance-like state called "going Red", which seems to induce the berserker rage for which the Bears are famous.

Thanks for the Suggestions all .

Iain Banks' The Culture novels are amazing.

The novels vary a bit from epic action to political intrigue to weird sci fi exploration. They're always a bit thoughtful and emotional though, without being preachy or melodramatic.

Cheers!

The Tripods trilogy by John Christopher is geared towards YA, so it's not a deep read. I enjoyed them when younger.

The Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson are also good reads, but a little deeper.

The Night's Dawn trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton are good reads, but pretty deep and long. There are about 1000 pages each.

One of my favorites, If you know anything about Garak From Star TrekS9, is "A Stitch in Time" By Andrew Robinson. Wonderfully fleshes out his character from the series, and explains a lot of loose threads about his character... Well written.

Ann Rice has a new book out about Werewolves called "The Wolf Gift" I swear it reads more like a superhero novel than what she has written in the past.

The E.E. Knight books are great books, but they are not what I would call light reading.

Exheroes is a great book about Superheroes post zombie apocalypse.

Really though if you want a super fun read that is hard to put down I suggest the Monster Hunter International books. I have read each of the three books 3-4 times each.

http://www.amazon.com/Monster-Hunter...2372042&sr=8-1

My 15 yo who had only ever tackled young reader books even fell in love with them and read all three. I just can't rave enough about these books.

Old Man's War trilogy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man%27s_War

Amazing, very reminiscent of Heinlein but with a more modern take.

Anathem - Neal Stephenson - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anathem

Very hard sci-fi, no blasters or silly rocket ships, probably the best sci-fi book I've ever read in my life.

If you want a cheerful upbeat boot try "How to serve man". I don't want to spoil it for you but it has a tasty ending.

Also I tend to read very few female writers (they tend to have a bit more grafic sex than I care for), however the Patrica Briggs werewolf novels are great reads.