[Closed] Something Sci Fi to read

Something out of left field - Early Rider, by Jasper Fforde.

Not everyone digs it, but I loved Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice.

Also always recommend The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, and Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny, for batshitness.

For military space opera Elizabeth Moons trading in danger series. Very good as is her other series Serrano connection.

Peter Hamiltons early books are good - SF ( not sci fi unless you are an american geek) detective stories MIndstar rising etc

If yo haven't yet read Gibsons Neuromancer trilogy you should

Old Skool - lensman series.

Recently I have been reading loads of golden era / pulp SF shorts. I love them

Edit - Ann Lekie I enjoyed

I've been re-reading quite a bit of Gene Wolfe since the great man passed earlier this year, God Damn he was some writer. Book of the New Sun his SF masterpiece but also extremely good in the short form 'Book of Days', 'Endangered species' etc. If you enjoy Delany BotNS will probably work for you. He wrote plenty of other novels but his later stuff is not the place to start.

Stars in my pocket like grains of sand is my favourite Delany book if you've not read that one - absolute top drawer, fair to say there's nothing else like it. He's promised a sequel for 25 years, but think his interests have long since moved on.

SF fans - I have around a thousand SF books that have to go. Anyone? Ranging from a full set of lensman to everything by Iain M Banks

Just read Neil Asher’s “The Soldier” and “The Warship”. Quite enjoyable space opera/sci-fi, not as good as The Reality Dysfunction or The Neutronium Alchemist by Peter F Hamilton.

Sargasso of Space, Plague Ship and Post Marked the Stars by Andre Norton are good old school 50’s science fiction (no computers/good old fashioned blasters and the terror of deep space travel)

Amtrak Wars by Patrick Tilley is a great read with unpleasant twists and turns.

Illium/Olympus & Hyperion by Dan Simmonds

Revelation Space berries by Alistair reynolds, obvs

Children of time by Adrian chaikovsky, just one book, but it's ace

CyberStorm by Matthew Mather is currently free on Kindle.

N K Jemisin's Broken Earth Trilogy is good.

The Expanse series by James SA Corey, starting with Leviathan Wakes is very very good indeed, full on space opera/political saga/interplanetary war etc.

Another series to get into is "Three Body Problem" by Liu Cixin: v. good Chinese SciFi all about what to do if you know there is going to be an alien invasion in 400 years time...

SevenEves by Neal Stephenson is full on end of the world stuff. Actually pretty much all of Neal Stephensons work is awesome, try the "baroque cycle" books as well.

The latest books from William Gibson are worth reading, quite a step on from his original cyber-punk works, try "The Peripheral" which is near future or " Pattern Recognition" set a few years after 9/11

Not very long but I really enjoyed Roadside Picnic.

A few books have piqued my interest in this thread.👍

Sassinak. by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Moon, published by Baen Books in 1990. It is the first book in the Planet Pirates trilogy. I read them many years ago and think they were ahead of their time.

I really enjoyed Ancillary Justice and the subsequent books, by Ann Leckie.

Snowcrash, by Neal Stephenson was great fun.

It’s not sci-fi but I’m going to recommend Chickenhawk by Robert Mason for being utterly unputdownable.

Adrian Tchaikovsky has written some great sci-fi. Children of Time, Children of Ruin and Dogs of War are all good reads. Not to everyone’s tastes, but some of Richard Morgan’s books are worth a read too. C Robert Cargill’s Sea of Rust is also pretty good.

Children of time by Adrian chaikovsky, just one book, but it’s ace

Just seen this. Children of Ruin follows it and is also a great book

Bruce sterling's Schismatrix plus for some grungy space-based cyber punk.

He was a big influence on Alistair Reynolds, who does good space opera, and in some ways is IMBs successor.

Charles Stross has some good stuff. Some full space opera, some not so serious. His Laundry Files series is fun, kind of IT consultants with monsters from another dimension.

Eric Frank Russell is a greatly under appreciated author from the Golden Era.

I read Dune for the first time recently and was amazed at the influence it's obviously had on other sci-fi. I must get round to reading the rest of the series.

As above, Expanse series is good.

And if we're going off topic with Chickenhawk, which is fantastic, I'll suggest Lonesome Dove

TJ - I'm happy to take some off your hands, I'd maybe try the Elizabeth Moon stuff you recommended?

quite a few of the Sci Fi masterworks series.

this is what I was going to recommend when I read the thread title.

I like some of the older "classic" stuff. Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore, The Forever War by Joe Haldeman are definitely worth a read if you haven't done them.

I really wanted to like Hyperion. It’s the Ulysses of the Sci-Fi genre. I know I should finish it but it just beats me every time 😉

I’ve really enjoyed Craig Alanson 12 book (I think he’s just finished 8) Expeditionary Force. It’s a proper space opera, some interesting concepts, funny in parts although there is a bit of ‘waiting for the next crisis to happen’.

If you like fantasy SF then the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series by Stephen Donaldson might be worth a look.

I found Hyperion completely unreadable

Not really a natural sci-fi reader.

I've read a few of the culture series just because I'd finished off all of Banks' 'normal' books. They were OK but not sure I'll go back for more.

This summer I listened to the audible HG Wells collection because I thought I ought to - weirdly Sci-Fi and a historical perspective the thoughts of 100 year ago.

Also read all of John Wyndham partly because of it's historical context plus he also lived in the village I live in now and the subtle references are fun to find.

Of more recent stuff I would recommend the bobiverse series by Dennis E Taylor. I'd describe it a holiday reading or the Sci-Fi equivalent of chick lit; very unchallenging. A pleasant read nonetheless.

I read Dune for the first time recently and was amazed at the influence it’s obviously had on other sci-fi. I must get round to reading the rest of the series.

I'm reading that at the moment, and am finding it quite similar to the Ancillary series in that it mainly seems to focus on the people, their conversations and their thoughts' rather than the 'action' of what's happening (so to speak).

I am a broken record.
So I will post what I always post.
Spook Country by Bill Gibson (and yeah the Blue Ant stuff) which isn’t strictly sci-fi but is cyberpunk.
Anathem by Neal Stephenson. This book has recently gained a new (Nd) significance to me. Pretty much anything by Neal I like.
American Gods by Neil Gaimen I’ll add (although not really SF...) but I am a broken record...

Currently rattling through the series of these:

and this:

And yes, it’s he of Alien fame..

IHN Member
I read Dune for the first time recently and was amazed at the influence it’s obviously had on other sci-fi. I must get round to reading the rest of the series.

I tried a number of them, and going my own and by other ppl reaction's, don't bother. Dune was the best and only one worth reading
Hyperion is excellent but then I audiobook, so make 'reading' (or following) stuff a lot easier.
As alway I'm going to continue to recommend John Scalzi, his stand alone and old man series are great (& skippy/the bobiverse series mentioned above for amusing easy listening, that I wouldn't be without).

I really enjoyed Christopher Ruocchio's "Empire of Silence" Book number 2 in the series, "Howling Dark" was released recently.

If amusing, fun, albeit not the best written pulpish mil-sci-fi is your thing then I highly recommend "Columbus Day" by Craig ALanson (first part of the ExFor series) although enjoyable in written form the audiobooks are better. Skippy the Magnificent is my favourite asshole beer can in all of literature.

Not Sci-Fi but the author Will Wight gave away nearly all of his titles on 4th July. "Bought" them and have just finished piling through all 6 "Cradle" novels which are a kind of psychedelic Japanese fantasy RPG. Read if you like to power up. Can't wait for book 7.

Thanks for those, I will work my way down through the list which should keep me going for several years.

TJ - am interested in your offer.

I read a lot of sci-fi including many of the excellent recommendations given above. I’m currently working my way through the works of Octavia E. Butler - she tells a great story, well written.

I thought The Expanse book Leviathan Wakes by James SA Corey was fairly poor. Something about the writing style just put me in mind that they* had written it with the deliberate aim of selling the film/ TV rights later. It didn't read very well to me. Couldn't really put my finger on it, but just a bit writing by numbers. *The fact that James SA Corey is two people irrationally put me off as well. Why not just put both your names on the cover? Definitely not in the same league as Iain M Banks.

Anyway, some recommendations for book series:

Someone else mentioned John Scalzi. I enjoyed Old Man's War , but not enough to read the related series. I would heartily recommend the Interdependency series by Scalzi though - The Collapsing Empire and The Consuming Fire. Funny, a little bit sweary, political plotting and a decent amount of action. Won't take you long to read each one, mind. Book 3 is out next year I think.

Becky Chambers, The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet, and the follow up A Closed And Common Orbit. Celebrates people's interactions with each other (human, alien and machine), but still properly science fiction with good plots to drive the narrative along.

Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs series of Altered Carbon, Broken Angels and Woken Furies. Bit violent, good plotting.

Ian banks wrote violence really well in his books, thinking about the Skaffen Amtiskaw massacre in Use of Weapons, the ending of Look to Windward and Djan in the early parts of Matter.

It’s interesting to get different takes on the same books, gives you more of a feel than a critics review.

has anybody read any Kameron Hurley? She has come up on book searches.

roger_mellie

Subscriber

Becky Chambers, The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet, and the follow up A Closed And Common Orbit. Celebrates people’s interactions with each other (human, alien and machine), but still properly science fiction with good plots to drive the narrative along.

Aye, good shout. It took the first one a bit too long to stop being a Firefly fanfic but I loved the second one.

Slightly left-field, but I'm just starting on the Long Earth series (Terry Pratchett & Steven Baxter). They're definitely not the normal Pratchett Discworld stuff, very good so far.

Becky Chambers, The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet, and the follow up A Closed And Common Orbit.

I really enjoyed the first one, enjoyed the second slightly less and tbh the third one (Record of a Spaceborn Few) is a bit of a plod. It's still probably better than 90% of the SF out there though!

Wool trilogy by Hugh Howey, good Fallout-esque vault living saga

Osiris Project series by EJ Swift was excellent. Left a lot unexplained which made a refreshing change

Didnt click with the 3 body stuff, might need another go. Found Becky Chambers a bit simplistic

Currently enjoying Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Loads of classics available on Kindle via the SF Masterworks collection, now finally includes Asimov's Foundation Trilogy

Vernor Vinge - A Fire Upon the Deep

+1 Neal Asher - Start with Gridlinked and work through, it's quite a journey.
Also Richard Morgan including the fantasy books - they are related to Kovacs.
I'm pretty sure the Expanse was written as a pre-screenplay but it works (for me) in both media.
I didn't like Anne Leckie.
Dune still holds it's own whereas I found the Foundation quite dated.
Heinlein wrote some crackers - Starship Tropers, Friday and some stinkers.
I liked Red Rising - Pierce Brown, in a teenage rebel way but didn't like the sequel and won't bother with the end.

Thanks to the other posters, enough to keep me going for a while. As for the 1000 book offer, yes please (actually, I haven't got room for another 1000 books)

I started hyperion after a previous sci fi book thread from here but never finished it. Just felt like hard work.

@supernova - another Octavia Butler fan here, currently working my way through the 'Parable' series.

Also just finished 'Rosewater' by Tade Thompson, a really interesting new perspective from Nigeria.

Cool - I’ll look out for it.

Becky Chambers, The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet, and the follow up A Closed And Common Orbit. Celebrates people’s interactions with each other (human, alien and machine), but still properly science fiction with good plots to drive the narrative along.

Sometimes the less is more approach with SF works well to prevent the setting overwhelling the story. I like Inversions alot for that reason.

Feersum Endjin

I don’t think I ever finished that just found it too much effort.

Do like Richard Morgan stuff like altered carbon and his sword an sf stuff
and Neal Asher

Miss Ian Banks his culture stuff he was a great writer.

Harry Harrison may be worth a look for some old school A stainless steel rat.

Stephen R Donaldson's "Gap" series is good SF.

Chris Beckett's Dark Eden was good, the other two in the trilogy also worth reading

Peter F Hamilton's Great North Road

Anne McCaffrey's more known as a fantasy author, but has written some good SF

Julian May's Rampart Worlds series, or her Pliocene exile series

For a non-SF recommendation, I've just been introduced to the works of Mick Herron. His Jackson Lamb series starting with "Slow Horses" is excellent. HIGHLY recommended

Feersum Endjin

I don’t think I ever finished that just found it too much effort.

I'm finding I have to read the sections written phonetically out loud to understand them!!

All books are subjective, but for my 2p worth:

Roadside picnic is awesome

Annihilation and the southern reach trilogy are very good

Currently two thirds through childhoods end and enjoying it a lot.

Oh yeah I'd second rosewater. That was very good.

Peter F Hamilton the nights dawn trilogy
The commonwealth saga
The Great North Road was also good as a stand alone

Nights Fawn, my favourite trilogy/sequence ever. If you've never read them you are missing out on an absolute jewel of SF.

Not come up yet (?) but the Rendezvous with Rama series (Clark) is fantastic. First book is old school in a great way, then the books really get going on expanding the first books encounter with Rama.

Easy reading and engrossing stuff.

Oh, the Uplift books are fantastic too, anyone else read those??

Iain m Banks’ works are brilliant. Have you looked at some of his other not so sci-fi works? Check out transitions, a good read and fun concept, and since it’s by him the execution of the story is the familiar style of his culture and space based spin-offs. Sort of sci-fi but not the space bound sort.
Of similar vein I highly recommend works by Claire North, start with ‘the first 15 lives of Harry August’, I went on to read ‘touch’ and have a few more lined up. Engaging stories and in the realm of sci-fi.
If you want a touch of realism in your space opera find the Martian by Andy Weir (they made a Matt Damon film based on it). Enjoyed the book. One step on and I’m reading ‘an astronauts guide to life on earth’ by Chris Hadfield, and have another ‘Endurance’ by Scott Kelly lined up...
For a laugh read ‘ready player one’

I enjoyed Sundiver, Startide Rising and the Uplift War.  A well crafted universe and I love the idea that when we get out there we find that the big boys are maniacal environmental zealots.

Larry Niven for more old school, RingWorld, an Inconstant Moon, Protector are all a good read. Mote in Gods Eye and The Gripping Hand as well.

+1 For Harry Harrison, The Stainless Steel Rat series (love his description of time travel).

Nights [D]awn, my favourite trilogy/sequence ever. If you’ve never read them you are missing out on an absolute jewel of SF.

Not sure I'd call it a jewel, but it's certainly entertaining. The follow up trilogy was pretty awful, though - he needs a better editor.

The SF Masterworks series is a good call, there's some great stuff there that you might not otherwise consider.

And a non-fiction science suggestion: Grunt, by Mary Roach. All about military science, but no guns or bombs. Her writing style is a bit marmite, but the subject matter is fascinating and I enjoyed it. Review here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/13/grunt-mary-roach-review-military-science

@shiato storm - I’ve read a few of his other works, but not Transitions, I’ll give it a go. I did wonder after reading Use of Weapons if The Vanguard organisation gave him the idea for The Business.

+1 Larry Niven just for the sheer scale of the Ringworld and the known space series.
Also really enjoyed N.J.Jemison and although not Sci-Fi, Patrick Rothfuss 'Kingkiller' chronicles was a good read, although you may want to wait till he finishes the third book before you start.....

I have just read The Themis Files trilogy whilst on holiday. It made a boring poolside holiday more bearable.

Aliens and giant robots! what not to like!

If you like diamond-hard science fiction that’s almost impossible to read sometimes (and I do), check out Greg Egan. Permutation City wormed a permanent place into my mind.

I think Ian M Banks’ The Culture is the society we should be working towards, but can’t help but wonder if we should go via Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed on the way. Collaborator Johnson will probably take us to The Hunger Games though...

I really enjoyed the Troy Rising series by John Ringo. It is at the slightly lighter end of the scale for reading when compared to Iain M Banks, similar to John Scalzi's Old Mans War in that sense.

Troy Rising Series:
1: Live Free or Die
2: Citadel
3: The Hot Gate

Lots of recommendations for Peter F Hamilton, good to see, I only recently found his books after a friend recommended as an alternative to Ian M Banks. I have spectacular enjoyed the Commonwealth Saga, and then also the Void Trilogy.

They are not short, or even medium sized, books (!!!), but great character driven stories with some wonderful mind bending future ideas that I found easy enough to grasp, and cool enough to make me love.

Superb

Stuff I have liked recently:

Adrian Tchaikovsky - Children of Time, Dogs of War
Marina J Lostetter - Noumenon
Michael Faber - The Book of Strange New Things.

I think Ian M Banks’ The Culture is the society we should be working towards

I would disagree with this, obviously.

Why’s that then?

Socialism!

User name.

Ahh! You considered phlebus 😀

Socialism!

TJ - Are you calling me a Tory?

I’ve just finished the Ancillary trilogy (which I enjoyed).

Thanks for the rec.

Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed

^^^^^^^^^

might not suit those who prefer their sci-fi to read like a 900-page technical manual, but I loved it 🙂

If you want a touch of realism in your space opera find the Martian by Andy Weir

Ah yes, the "realism" of the Chinese ruining their space program for years to come to recuse a corn fed farm boy...