Forum menu
Off on holiday on sat, can’t find any of the historic threads of this nature so recommendations for sci-fi novels.
Have read all of the SA Corey
Expanse series which is my kind thing really.
I enjoyed Great North Road by Peter Hamilton though I was less taken by the ‘Void’ trilogy.
Nothing to dark/weird, couldn’t really get in to Revelation Space (Alastair Reynolds) and The Stars are Legion (Kameron Hurley). I.e less organic/psychological weirdness
Have read Wool which was ok, but not such I immediately sought out the sequel.
Anything that might have passed me by?
Worked my way through most of the Strgatsky’s catalogue...
Thanks in advance.
Children of time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Dan Simmonds ilium/olympos & Hyperion
Ian banks Culture books
I just finished The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber it was brilliant.
I have recently enjoyed the Vattas War series by Eliabeth Moon - space opera really. I love my SF and this is one of the best I have read in a while. Its proper old skool hard SF - interstellar trading, rebellion and war
I also love the megapack series of golden era SF and in particular recently read the collected works of Brian Aldiss which I think is a different series.
John Scalzi Old mans war is another good series.
Alastair Reynolds is my favourite sci-fi author, you might find some of his other books more readable than Revelation Space. Chasm City is really good, detective novel more than space opera. He also has a few short story compilations.
Blindsight by Peter Watts is free on his website. I should read some of his other books sometime.
A Canticle for Leibowitz is brilliant post apocalypse fiction.
Anything by Vonnegut, though he's more loosely sci-fi.
Not sure if you'd like PK Dick if you don't want weirdness but I can't not recommend him. Dr Bloodmoney is one of my favourites but he wrote a lot.
Lots of classic sci-fi, try looking up the SF Masterworks collection and take your pick. Some of it can be amusingly dated but usually worthwhile still.
Culture novels are pure brilliance, I've not found anything as good. However I would not suggest Consider Phlebas as a starter as it's just a normal good novel rather than outstanding. Player of Games should get you off to a fine start. Some of the others are a deep, abstract and existential, a bit like I would imagine a scifi novel written by Proust to be. But they are essentially utopian, which as far as I am aware is unique in scifi.
Otherwise, for absolutely spectacular genius try Neal Stephenson, specifically Anathem or Seveneves. The former in particular is literally staggering in scope. Needs to be read at least twice tho and once more with some notes and reference work.
Having said all that, these may not be suitable for holiday reading as you may end up forgetting about your holiday altogether and spending your time staring at the skies whilst ignoring those around you...
For easier stuff but still charming and with content, maybe try some Jules Verne classics?
Charles Stross has some good stuff. His Laundry series is fun, in a not too serious horror/IT consultant style.
Seconding the Adrian Tchaikovsky recommendation, Dogs of War is also far better than its premise would seem to allow. Ted Chiang's short stories are mostly excellent. Lem's Fiasco or His Master's Voice are good starting places for his less silly and less mind-bending material.
Just bought 3 of the Culture series.. Thanks to whoever 🙂
If they're rubbish at least i know where to come to sell them 🙂
Neal Stephenson, specifically Anathem or Seveneves
I'd probably start with snowcrash or the diamond age. Didn't get on with Seveneves and the sheer length of anathem is intimidating.
If you like hard sci-fi the Three Body Problem trilogy is good and I've just started re-reading Dune which is excellent.
Also starship troopers is brilliant - nothing like the film
Blade Runner?
Iain M Banks - Goes without saying.
Another recommendation for the SF Masterworks collection.
One of my favorite "old school" SF is Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore, really entertaining alt history.
I enjoyed scalzi's Old Man's War a lot, not so much some of the sequels, just finished the second book in his Interdependency series, which is quite fun.
For lighter holiday reading, you could do worse than give John Birmingham's Axis of Time books a go- a modern day Naval taskforce accidentally sent back to WWII.
Richard Morgan has a new book, Thin Air.
It's harder buying SF these days. Go into the bookstore and it's mixed in with the magic fairy with a sword stuff. It's hard enough separating it out from the cowboys and indians in space.
Can't be arsed looking for a diamond amongst that dross.
Some good recommendations up there. I'll add a vintage one - Eric Frank Russell - some of his work is very subversive, plus some is funny, and some did not age well, but still worth a read.
Any of the 'classic sifi' stuff, Alldis Huxley, AC Clarke etc.
Stephen baxter - but only stuff written in the last 10yrs. his early stuff is filled with interesting concepts and sifi but the characters are week. Having said that Ring and Moon are both good.
Richard Morgan just for altered carbon, his most resent book, thin air, is good but not amazing.
The Feed by Nick Clark Windo, a slow burner but great story
Anything by Stanislaw Lem and anything by Philip K Dick
[img]
The "Red Rising" trilogy.
Booked mark for later.
Another recommendation for Iain M Banks' Culture novels, there really is no better sci fi and I am consistently sad every time I'm reminded there won't ever be another one.
For more hard sci fi, Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy is very, very good. Start with Red Mars, all about the colonisation of the planet and everything that goes along with it.
The Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer is worth a go if you like your Sci-fi a bit "dream like"
the newest stuff i've enjoyed a lot is the 'dark eden' trilogy by chris beckett
heres a review of the first in the trilogy
THEGUARDIAN.COM older stuff though, much of the above. masterworks for sure. i really liked william gibson around the neuromancer/burning chrome era, and still read his stuff
also, a guy i went to college with has a few self published books out now. they're more fantasy than sci-fi but really good. the fourth is due soon.
AMAZON.CO.UK Recently I've really enjoyed Ian W Sainsbury's books. First the World Walker series, and then the Half-Hero books.
+1 for John Scalzi and Charles Stross books
The Awakened Series by Jason Tesar.
Predator Cities (Mortal Engines) by Phillip Reeve
Spinward Fringe Series by Randolph Lalonde, think there are around 15 books now
Phoenix Conspiracy Series by Richard Sanders (more space drama)
Ark Royal Series by Christoper Nutall (7-8 books)
The Redemption Trilogy by Mike Smith
Battle for the Solar System Series by Stephen Sweeney
Second vote for Macleod, the Star Fraction series was great. I really need to find my box of books that went missing when we moved (three years ago) and re-read those.
SNOW CRASH
Iain M Banks culture novels are my favourite - just finished reading them all for the second time.
Agree that Children of time (Adrian Tchaikovsky) is excellent - really different perspective from other SciFi I've read.
I like some of the stand-alone novels by Peter Hamilton, like Fallen Dragon, but didn't enjoy the Nights Dawn trilogy so much (too much Psuedo-religious crap for my liking).
I've just finished the "Field" series of books by Simon Winstanley (Field 1, Field 2, Boundary and EVA). Another interesting concept, and well written.
Also enjoyed The World walker and Half Heroes mentioned above - easy reading and fast paced.
If you enjoyed The Exapanse, you might want to try some of Paul MaCauley's stuff - "The Quiet War" etc. Similar but different.
Just beeen dipping my toe into The Laundry series. Not really SciFi, more fantasy in my eyes. Like a Tom Holt book with more computer jokes.
Big plus 1 for Snow Crash and if you like that then The Rise and Fall of DODO is worth getting.
On a classic front I'd recommend The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. That is the teleportation story that should have been filmed NOT Jumper.
Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear is excellent as is Heavy Weather by Bruce Sterling.
Didn’t get on with Seveneves and the sheer length of anathem is intimidating.
Yeah but you get your money's worth 🙂 Seveneves is slow at first, but I loved the hyperrealism of it - it's a story that starts with a single concept and just follows through what would happen, which appeals to me. But then there's a page about 3/4 of the way through that you turn and BOOM! Brilliant.
The problem I have with so much scifi is that it's dystopian, and consequently such a massive cliche. War, backward technological progress, cliches from either colonial era Earth, WWII or the Wild West etc etc. I have had an Alastair Reynolds on my Kindle about 1/3 of the way through for a couple of years.
N K Jemison.
I've read the Broken Earth trilogy and the inheritance trilogy.
I really enjoyed them.
Also the 'ship' novels by Anne Mccaffrey.
I always recommend the Red/Green/Blue Mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson - hopefully hasn't dated too badly!
I don't think anyone's mentioned Vernor Vinge yet. Worth reading if you like space opera. A Deepness in the Sky would be my recommendation, 2 rival ships arriving at a strange star and making first contact with the pre- space age aliens that live there.
No mention of Neal Asher yet?
His Polity stuff is in a similar vain to Iain M Banks Cluture universe (maybe a bit darker)
Smashed my way through the 'Expanse' series (next book ti due soon) and now doing the same with the 'Field' series.
Surprised no one has suggested the murderbot diaries by martha wells yet.
They're only novella length but very entertaining
Seconding the Adrian Tchaikovsky recommendation, Dogs of War is also far better than its premise would seem to allow.
Another vote for both these books. Great reading. If it’s action packed you’re after I’d recommend Richard Morgan’s Altered Carbon series, Black Man and Market Forces.
I thought I'd manage some suggestion that no one else has mentioned, and boom SOY and FM get in there first.. Richard Morgan & Martha Wells, both very good.
I really enjoy Scalzi's humor so would suggest trying his Fuzzy Nation and Agent to the Stars, alongside the Old man war series (Sagan diaries is a bit 'deep' but the only one I struggled with)
As most of the modern classics have been mentioned hows about:
Andy Weir - The Martian, though not so keen on his follow up Artemis
Marko Kloos - Frontline series, though it seems to be trailing on now, I'm sure he'll sort it
Craig Alanson - Expeditionary Force, I love this but it could be seen as repetitive (ala Laundry files)
Ann Leckie - Ancillary Series, warms up as you go, though the setting is weird.
and Dennis E. Taylor's 'The Bobiverse Trilogy' is by far my favorite of late.
The forever war
Babel 17
I can second the broken earth trilogy, got through them I’m short order earlier in the year.
I’ve also enjoyed Ann Leckie’s ancillary justice (and the rest of that series) and Becky Chambers’ the Long way to a small angry planet (and the rest of the wayfarers books).