[Closed] Annual what Sci-Fi book thread

Massive Banks fan here too.

I absolutely loved Becky Chambers, "The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet".

By no means classic Banks-esque space opera, rather small-scale and character driven. But what characters! Before I was a third through I'd already ordered the two sequels.

APF

The Forever War is an absolute classic.

I must be the only one who found Banks tedious I tried "Consider Phlebas"

I rarely don't finish a book, I had to put this on the back burner I might go back to it but it really was a struggle.

Also, listen to gobuchul. The Forever War is a classic.

APF

I quite enjoyed A Memory Called Empire recently. Pretty dense, high concept, all about the ideas of language and memory. Not the most action packed.

The Last Emperox trilogy by John Scalzi of Old Man's War fame is great if you want bombastic space opera.

Just finished The Three Body Problem, which I didn't really enjoy to be honest. It maybe lost something in translation, and it had some interesting ideas but overall I found it a bit dull and didn't really care about any of the characters.

The Southern Reach trilogy (Jeff VanderMeer) might be worth a look if you enjoyed Wool.

Aroura by Paul Grzegorzek, for a dystopian, ‘action’  sci-fi read.

If you havent read (or seen) the Expanse series read that. Multiple novels & short stories.

Realistic (as can be), engaging, great characters and superb plot.

Nothing compares with Iain M Banks for me too, but Adrian Tchaikovsky comes close for imagination. Try Children of Time

Tchaikovsky is brilliant. Also check out Dogs of War which is fantastic.

Children of time, to me is the best book I've read over the last couple of years, just stomps on every trope going, and is great for it. Really enjoyed (far lighter but very engaging with the character) Andy Wiers the Martian and am currently reading Project Hail Mary, good stuff (if a little far fetched), not so much his Artemis book.

I didn't mind Artemis - It was smaller in scope than the Martian, but his characters were no less fun and his description of the settings were equally as good.

I must be the only one who found Banks tedious I tried “Consider Phlebas”

Nope, not the only one. Didn't get through it either. Loved his early non-scifi stuff too.

Anyone read Doggerland by Ben Smith? Such an unusual book. Really stuck in my head for ages afterwards, wanted more of it.
. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07J2CHLPD/ref=pe_385721_48721101_TE_M1DP.

Try the Themis trilogy by Sylvain Neuvel. Unusual style.

Pretty much anything by Peter F Hamilton, but have recently enjoyed the Humanity's Fire trilogy by Michael Cobley (starts with Seeds of Earth).
Also thoroughly enjoyed Children of Time, and also A Memory Called Empire, as mentioned by others here.

Try the Tadeshi Kovacs trilogy by Richard K Morgan. Altered Carbon, Broken Angels and Woken Furies.
I also enjoyed Black Man (renamed Thirteen), This Air and Market Forces.

Im a huge William Gibson fan and found Black Man/Thirteen to have a very similar feel to the Sprawl trilogy.

I found The Three Body Problem to be excellent - worth a read of the entire trilogy.

Tchaikovsky is brilliant. Also check out Dogs of War which is fantastic.

Agree with this. The sequels to both books mentioned are great too, Bear Head and Children of Ruin. Cage of Souls is really good too.

Robert C Cargill’s Sea of Rust is worth a read.

Great folks some orders going in for proper books.

Oh yeah, Sea of Rust is great! Good shout on that. Robopocalypse is surprisingly good too, despite the title.

I know a lot of people loved The Three Body Problem, I just didn't get into it. Not a massive fan of Hamilton either, I've enjoyed some (something about a dragon was one of them) others less (Pandora's Star maybe? That might be the second in the series though). Always feel like he needs a really brutal editor, and his writing style bugs me a bit.

Beneath the World, a Sea is amazing if you want something slower paced. Also The Book of Strange New Things. Really long and dense, but brilliant.

Another vote for Children of Time/Ruin.

I’m a big fan of M Banks too.

For something from a different perspective try Octavia Butler.

I’ve just finished Lords of Light by Roger Zelanzy. Not your usual sci-fi, but pretty good.

Expeditionary Force (series) by Craig Allanson “I mean, your species is responsible for Windows Vista.”

Cory Doctorow has some excellent books: Walkaway and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom are good. Unauthorized Bread is good too, but maybe a little less sci-fi.

I’ve just finished Lords of Light by Roger Zelanzy Zelazny

FTFY

A lot of Zelazny's stuff is more fantasy than SF, but I like all of it. Roadmarks is a particular favourite.

Ancilliary Justice series by Ann Leckie is good
Red Rising series by Pierce Brown (Hunger games crossed with Dune crossed with Game of thrones crossed with Brave new world)
Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe (Alex White (Scavengers trilogy) is a fun, mindless, space opera with magic The sequals don't quite live up to the promise of the first book.

Also Becky Chambers Wayfarers & Adrian Tchaikovsky Children of Time as above.

Just started reading a Kate Elliott sci fi series starter. I like her fantasy books and hoping for something good here. Very light so far.

Just finished The Three Body Problem, which I didn’t really enjoy to be honest. It maybe lost something in translation, and it had some interesting ideas but overall I found it a bit dull and didn’t really care about any of the characters.

I'm almost a half the way through and despite a promising start I'm starting to wonder why it ever got a Hugo. The writing is poor - really poor in some places. (Several location descriptions read like wikipedia entries.) The main character isn't actually a character, just a device to move the story along, via stereotypical 2D characters (fat, smoking policeman; kindly grandmother; remote, unworldly scientist) who send him from place to place with a bit more evidence each time. But my main problem with it so far is that having decided that the world is going to end in about 40 days he spends loads of time in a (boring) VR game convinced that the answer is in there. Why? He only had a glimpse of someone else playing the game. The poor writing may be a translation thing, but the poor pacing, cardboard characters and trail of crumbs plot are the fault of the writer. And this is only the first of 3 books. I can't see myself reading the others.

My positive contribution to this thread.... Jack Vance. I've recently finished the Planet of Adventure series, which were excellent. The Dying Earth series is even better. I've rarely read a mediocre Vance book.

I read too much and forget the good stuff, but additionally, alongside Craig Alanson's Expeditionary Force Series (great quote Russell), some ppl find too repetitive, but I just want more of the same (& more missile thoughts), I'd suggest Dennis E Taylor Bobiverse series

Just finished The Three Body Problem

I've picked it up and put it down again twice now, I doubt there'll be a 3rd time (Is this the three body problem of the title?) I've a rule that if a book hasn't grabbed me by 50 pages, it probably never will, I've tried a couple of times with this, as other friends have recommended it as well.

 I’m starting to wonder why it ever got a Hugo

Me too. can't say I think it deserved it.

I get that Three Body Problem trilogy isn't for everyone but I thought it was amazing. Some of the concepts are insane and the last book has really changed the way I think about the universe. Not many books can do that. There are periods in the first two books especially which are a bit slow, but wow it picks up something fierce.

Rosewater by Tade Thompson

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro was a good one I read recently. Much smaller scale than the Iain M Banks space operas but interesting nonetheless.

To make things a bit more lowbrow (is that possible on a sci-fi thread 😉 ? ), the Games Workshop Horus Heresy series will be reaching its thrilling denouement this year or next. You've only got 59 books to catch up on so far...

Haha, I read my first 40k book the other month, actually quite enjoyed it. Not sure I'm up for 60 books worth though...

Perfect timing!

I've got a week in hospital coming up in a couple of weeks time and will need a LOT of post-op reading material. I love sci-fi, and reckon I've read most of the classics that I'm aware of, which is why, at the moment, I've switched to fantasy and am thoroughly enjoying The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie and might invest in more of his work.

I've got Dogs of War sitting on my kindle and really liked Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet novels, so more like that would keep me occupied.

Keep the suggestions coming, and thanks to the OP for posting this up, I appreciate it!

Read a v good one recently - The Etched City by KJ Bishop (although it's a few years old). Shares a lot of the Viriconium influences you see with China Mieville - defo recommend if you like the Bas Lag novels.

Her only novel thus far, which is kinda hard to credit given how good it is - when there's armies of hack writers working like beavers to bury us all in terrible SF books.

I get that Three Body Problem trilogy isn’t for everyone but I thought it was amazing. Some of the concepts are insane and the last book has really changed the way I think about the universe.

This is so often the problem with SF. A writer can have a brilliant idea but can’t write for toffee, or vice versus. It’s so rarely both. Anyway, 1500+ pages may be too much poor writing for me just for good ideas.

BUUTT.... reading it at lunch he followed the Raymond Chandler* model - when it gets boring a man with a gun walks in! 😂

*was it Chandler?

Very hard core but totally excellent - anything by Peter Watts

https://rifters.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Watts_(author)

Blindsight: The novel has been described by Charles Stross as follows: "Imagine a neurobiology-obsessed version of Greg Egan writing a first contact with aliens story from the point of view of a zombie posthuman crewman aboard a starship captained by a vampire, with not dying as the boobie prize."[4]

Oops, forgot to post Blindsight homage site:

https://blindsight.space/

+1 Jack Vance - his Demon Princes series are my favourites. I always feel sad when I go to a bookshop with a large scifi/fantasy section and the is no Vance, Moorcock or Gene Wolfe volumes on the shelves.

I'd heard that Phoebe Waller-Bridge was doing a screen adaptation of Consider Phlebas, but apparently I'd misheard.

I’ve switched to fantasy and am thoroughly enjoying The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie and might invest in more of his work.

Going a bit OT here sorry. I’ve read all the Abercrombie books that are set in the First Law world and really enjoyed them all. I have Half a King sat on my Kindle whilst I wait for the third book in the second First Law trilogy. I keep getting distracted by James Lee Burke novels so haven’t started it yet.

Red Rising series by Pierce Brown (Hunger games crossed with Dune crossed with Game of thrones crossed with Brave new world)

I'd agree with this. I've never been so into a series of books as this. Its been a couple of years since I read them so might do it again. I'd absolutely love them to make these into a series of films...

Stormblood by Jeremy Szal

Prob the best book I've read so far this year. Similar to altered carbon or along that ilk.

Also read the Revenger series recently by Alister Reynolds - which is a great 'pirates of the Caribbean, but set in space' trilogy and good fun read.

+1 for Joe Abercrombie if fantasy is more your thing.

@funkmasterp

Going a bit OT here sorry. I’ve read all the Abercrombie books that are set in the First Law world and really enjoyed them all. I have Half a King sat on my Kindle whilst I wait for the third book in the second First Law trilogy. I keep getting distracted by James Lee Burke novels so haven’t started it yet.

Half a King is good, but bear in mind that it's a young adult book so a bit less, er, visceral than his other stuff.

Excellent thread, thanks chaps.

Again, big Iain m banks fan.

I've enjoyed the old man's war series by John scalzi which are well written with some really good ideas.

But the best thing I've read in ages was the name of the wind by Patrick rothfuss. I was gripped from the start

The only problem is it's the first book of a trilogy but it doesn't look there will be a third novel as it's been 10 years since the second.

On the fantasy side, there's a really good blog series that charts the history of epic fantasy with all (most) of the key titles:

https://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2015/12/a-history-of-epic-fantasy-contents-link.html

Easy reading but the bloke evidently knows the field inside-out - has some nice insights on why some stuff from back in the day was successful, even if it reads formulaic nowadays.

A lot of Zelazny’s stuff is more fantasy than SF, but I like all of it. Roadmarks is a particular favourite.

Well done you for discovering Roadmarks! I adore that book, but I’m a huge fan of Zelazney anyway, and have been for more years than I care to think about; I still have all my original paperbacks, most are early 70’s, my copy of Roadmarks is an American import, but amazingly it hasn’t succumbed to the usual blight of American SF paperbacks - they’re deciduous! It’s a crying shame that much of his work doesn’t seem to be in print any more, apparently something to do with his estate, but I’ve managed to acquire lots of his back catalogue as ebooks, slightly hooky ones, but if his estate can’t be arsed, what can you do…
The Amber series is great fun, and there’s a continuation series, which I actually enjoyed very much. Zelazney also wrote a book with Alfred Bester, often referred to as the father of CyberPunk SF.

At the moment I’m re-reading Kate Griffin’s ‘Matthew Swift’ urban magic series, having not read them for some years, and it’s like discovering them all over again! I thought I remembered them pretty well, but I clearly haven’t, it’s like I’ve never ever read them, which is great.
I definitely recommend them, starting with ‘A Madness Of Angels’.
Once those six books are finished, the series of unconnected books she’s written as Claire North are also well worth looking out too.