PROBABLY THE LAST SCIENCE FICTION POST, though email continues to pour in. What about Lois McMaster Bujold? Lots of people asked that.

I like her a lot. She’s best known for her Barrayar stories, which start with Shards of Honor and The Warrior’s Apprentice. I like those stories a lot, but I realize that I was thinking of her as a fantasy writer because of her excellent Chalion novels, starting with The Curse of Chalion.

Somebody asked about Frank Herbert, but he’s really a 1970s writer. My colleague Becky Jacobs claims that the most recent books in the Dune franchise are actually good, but he lost me with Refrigerator Repairmen of Dune or somesuch, many years ago.

There was some outrage that I didn’t mention Neal Stephenson, but actually I did in the linked recommendations post. But he rocks

Doug Weinstein, a fan of out-and-out space opera, loves Elizabeth Moon’s Heris Serrano books, and I think they’re pretty good. (Weirdly, he doesn’t like David Weber’s Honor Harrington books, which I think most people regard as superior).

As noted before, I’m a big fan of Charles Stross. So I should note that he’s made his new book, Accelerando, available for free download with a Creative Commons license even before it appears in bookstores. Did I mention it’s free? What are you waiting for?

UPDATE: Continuing the science fiction theme, check out this Neal Stephenson column on Star Wars.