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New sci-fi book recommendations?
Whenever I hear sci-fi being discussed it’s usually in the context of the classic titles, and there’s nothing wrong with that but I wanna read sci-fi of the now! One series I just picked up is the Terra Ignota series by Ada Palmer - the first book is called Too Like The Lightning, it’s a really rich and dense text that - and it’s hard to describe without spoiling anything - manages to discuss a lot about human nature in the past, present and perhaps in the future through a really well told narrative. It’s mysterious and a thrilling read as more and more of the world is revealed to you.
Does anyone have any cool sci-fi published recently that they’re reading?
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee is pretty recent (the third book is out this month) and very enjoyable. It's pretty weird but it's good.
I've been recommending Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time to anyone who will listen, that's a few years old now though, but it's a really great story based on an interesting premise.
Not actually published yet but I'm excited to pick up, later this month, Hannu Rajaniemi's latest - Summerland. I loved his previous books, the Jean Le Flambeur trilogy.
I could go on. At great length. I read a LOT of sci-fi. :)
Woah, some of these sound really interesting - especially Summerland i’ll have to keep my eye out for that. What draws you to sci fi and keeps you reading?
I like sciencey/techie stuff and I like reading and I like escapism, I suppose. I do read other genres sometimes but generally I end up with sci-fi.
Damn I love Rajaniemi so much. Quantum thief sucked me in so good, got any recommendations for similar stuff? Loved the world-building in the trilogy.
Similar to Rajaniemi is tricky, because he's so (wonderfully) weird. Yoon Ha Lee, as I mentioned. Maybe Jeff Noon, who I absolutely love. Possibly Meiville's New Crobuzon series, which starts with Perdido Street Station. Fellow Finn Emmi Itäranta is worth checking out but she's not very sci-fi.
There are three series I've been keeping up with as they come out
I second the Expanse books! Great stuff!
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet has sequels? Guess that's another thing to add to the list. Right now I'm reading more fantasy and weird fiction, but that will probably top the list once I get back into sci-fi.
"A Closed and Common Orbit" came out last year, and follows Pepper and Lovey after the first book, including a lot of Pepper's backstory.
"Record of a Spaceborn Few" is due out next month!
Read TLWTASAP based on this, wonderful book, totally different to what I usually read on Sci-fi.
Whoa! Somebody listened to me on the internet!
But, yeah, TLWTASAP did feel like a refreshing change of pace for me. I think because it has an optimism about the inherent goodness of sentient beings, even in a difficult universe, that a lot of other science fiction lacks these days.
Did you post this thread twice? Here's my previous reply.
Peter Watt's The Freeze-Frame Revolution (DRM-free link) comes out this month. I highly recommend checking out his 3 (1, 2, 3) short stories in the same series.
My latest completed scifi read was Neal Stevenson's Seveneves. Highly recommended if you're into orbital mechanics and Big Engineering. Not recommended if you find the idea of 7 billion people dying depressing or, on a more serious note, long technical descriptions.
Schild's Ladder is probably my favorite Greg Egan book, but maybe because it was my first. I mean come on, just look at that plot summary! I also recommend checking out Diaspora if you're in for a good mind melt.
Bonus: The Things
Yeah I did, surprised you got to it so fast 'recommendations' was spelt wrong so i deleted it right after posting it. the freeze frame revolution sounds really interesting, i'll definitely check that out!
Read the short stories! (At least the first!)
The Expanse is a great book series that most people know about already.
One of my favorite space opera series is Peter F Hamiton's "Night's Dawn". It's a trilogy but each book is so long they're usually split into two parts. The basic premise is that this is far into our own future where we've developed FTL tech and colonized a large part of the galaxy, discovered other mostly friendly aliens, and are just generally doing okay as a species. But on one of the newer colony worlds, a satan worshiping prisoner manages to accidentally open a portal to the afterlife and the souls of the dead come back to possess people. It brings up a lot of interesting existential questions and has a hugely entertaining cast of characters (including Al Capone!) It has some of the coolest technology integration in the series that I've read, the alien species are all super interesting, and the action is well written.
Also if you haven't gone back and read some classic sci-fi, I would strongly suggest picking up a collection of Philip K Dick stories. There are a lot of short ones and they do a great job of showing off what traditional sci-fi was all about - ask an interesting "what if" question set in the future and run with it for a bit.
The Bobiverse Trilogy by Dennis E. Taylor is a brilliant read about a software engineer turned Von Neumann probe who is sent out to explore the universe to find a new home for humanity. I feel like saying too much would be a spoiler, considering there's a twist half-way through the first book that basically defines the trilogy, but it's a real interesting look at things like identity, transhumanism, how life can grow on other planets, and all that fun speculative stuff that just feels so real!
I've been meaning to read this one. Thanks for the reminder!
The Three-Body Problem trilogy (technically called Remembrance of Earth's Past)
Incredible science fiction from Chinese author Liu Cixin. You can really see how books like Asimov's Foundation trilogy influenced its structure and scope, but I feel that it approaches many problems from a very different cultural context than western sci-fi, and it seeps into the whole story. Highly, highly recommend
I'll second that one. Also The Martian which you may have read.
I liked the Three-Body Problem book, but really was not a fan of the sequels. I think it was the writing style and structure, but they just weren't to my tastes.
Interesting. I think the second book's translation was lacking, but I actually... it was my favorite because of it's ending? But I acknowledge that the third book may have been the best in terms of scope and ambition.
I think the first one gives me, interestingly, the most shades of how Milan Kundera opens his books. I feel that the similarities between what they went through with some of their governments might affect how they frame the opening of their books?
I am just about to start the Tained Realm series. While I haven't started reading it just yet, it looks really interesting. Here is a link to the book.
I can wholeheartedly recommend Bleeding Edge, which while not strictly sci-fi, gives great early 2000's vibes despite requiring far too much knowledge of 2001 New York yuppie culture.
Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky is a really interesting read. It's a little different than a lot of the recommendations here, but I think its pretty neat.
The Frontlines series by Marko Kloos is nice, if you're into military scifi.
Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson is fantastic.
One phenomenal series that hasn't been mentioned yet is the Luna series. It's about families vying for control of resources on the moon in the near future. Very fun, very gritty, and pretty realistic as far as sci-fi goes.
Peter Watts just released a new novel/la called The Freeze Frame Revolution, which is about a crew that builds star gates while traveling at relativistic speeds. I enjoyed the book, and have enjoyed everything Watts has put out, he can get pretty out-there in his concepts and it's definitely worth looking into his works if hard scifi is in your interests. Blindsight is the book of his that is most often trotted out in scifi discussions.
I like books by Adam Roberts. I particularly enjoyed Salt and New Model Army. I haven't read the most recent books, so I don't know if they're any good.
Salt's blub says "Two narrators tell the story of the simmering tensions between their two communities as they travel out to a new planet, colonise it, then destroy themselves when the tensions turn into outright war."
New Model Army's is about a truly democratic army that uses modern communication techniques as part of their civil war.
Some people are disappointed, frustrated, by his endings so watch out for that. The books are more about concepts and ideas than hard SF.