Hyperion, Endymion
I recently re-read Dan Simmons' Hyperion and Endymion series. Brilliant books if you get the chance... Somehow Simmons manages to tie together typical sci-fi ideas such as space travel, time travel, teleportation, and artificial intelligence with religion, poetry, evolution, politics and the emotions of being human. And then he addresses the ultimate question: the purpose of life, the universe and everything... only his answer isn't 42, it's a lot more interesting :-).
What still amazes me is the depth & believability of his characters, especially those in the Endymion series (presumably because there are fewer characters). You know you're reading a good book when you can relate to and empathize with the lead characters. I went off sci-fi years ago for a number of reasons, a key one being because while many books I used to read presented interesting ideas, they had paper-thin characters. When I first read Dan Simmons' books, they were a breath of fresh air - years later, I'm relieved to find they still are.
What still amazes me is the depth & believability of his characters, especially those in the Endymion series (presumably because there are fewer characters). You know you're reading a good book when you can relate to and empathize with the lead characters. I went off sci-fi years ago for a number of reasons, a key one being because while many books I used to read presented interesting ideas, they had paper-thin characters. When I first read Dan Simmons' books, they were a breath of fresh air - years later, I'm relieved to find they still are.