Your Sci-Fi suggestions

I haven’t had any luck in finding sci-fi books recently. I’m looking for a longer story that takes its time to establish the world/universe and the characters living in it. I like the idea of exploring space or futuristic cities/landscapes and being on a journey together with the protagonist. The story doesn’t have to have a happy end or flawless characters, but I also don’t like it when everything is hopeless/dystopic and all the characters stumble from one flawed decision to the next one. Some examples of what I enjoyed so far are:

If you enjoyed some of these stories and have any similar suggestions, feel free to share them here. If not, maybe consider checking out the list above… I highly recommend each of these entries.

bbbhltz ,
@bbbhltz@beehaw.org avatar

Here are a few more…

“True Names” by Vernor Vinge (1981)

  • Themes: Hackers, NSA, Privacy concerns, VR, social network, “true death" is what we call “doxxing” today.

“Daemon” [Series] by Daniel Suarez (2006,2010)

  • Themes: Artificial Intelligence runs amock.

“Children of the New World” by Alexander Weinstein (2016)

  • Themes: Social Media, VR, robotics, dependance on technology.

“Cumulus” by Eliot Peper (2016)

  • Themes: Tech giant (Social Network) with too much power.
SeaOfTranquility OP ,
@SeaOfTranquility@beehaw.org avatar

This looks a lot like hard scifi and cyberpunk to me and I’m not sure if they fit the “exploring new worlds and places” part I was looking for. When I eventually come back to those genres, I’ll have a great list of recommendations though. Thanks!

OceanSoap ,

I haven’t read a lot of science fiction recently, but if you like adventure and world building, then March Upcountry is a great read. The books are short, but it’s a series, so all together it makes up a thick book. :)

cyberdecker ,

I’ve been plowing through Three Body Problem series by Cixin Liu recently and it’s been really great. I’m on the home stretch of the last book and so excited to finish it.

All about space exploration, first contact, invasion, advancement and philosophy. A really great thinking book and leaves me with lots of uncomfortable feelings to ponder over. The pacing of the book took a little bit to get used to but it does well to help grapple with the time and space scale it is working with.

SeaOfTranquility OP ,
@SeaOfTranquility@beehaw.org avatar

I’ve read the first and parts of the second book and I think it has one of the best antagonistic characters. I didn’t put it on this list because I was looking more for stories, that explore new worlds and places. Its definitely on the list of books I want to finish at some point. Idk what it is, but it needs to be the right time and place for me to be able to appreciate books like those.

conciselyverbose ,

Recently: a friend bugged me until I finally got around to Red Rising

I haven't actually read the series, because it's heavy and I wanted to let it breathe a little. It's dark, and the first one has kind of a feudal setting for most of the book I can't explain without spoiling it, but it's a ride. I always listen to audiobooks at 2x and had to go back and listen to the closing song at regular speed to get the full impact of the emotion.

ErisShrugged ,

You’ve got some moderately highbrow and transhumanist stuff in there; have you tried Greg Egan? The two starting places I like to recommend are the Clockwork Rocket books (natives of a universe with alternate physics explore it and figure out what’s going on, kind of Flatland turned up to 11… and then up to 121…), and Permutation City which I think will meet your “some very interesting ideas” and then keep accelerating.

SeaOfTranquility OP ,
@SeaOfTranquility@beehaw.org avatar

I haven’t heard of any of those books and especially Permutation City sounds interresting to me, thanks!

ystael ,

Another vote for Cherryh - pretty much anything by Cherryh. And in the “journey” department, perhaps also look at John Varley’s Gaia trilogy (Titan, Wizard, Demon)? (Probably falls into your “excessive violence and some smut” category)

You might also try the “far future/dying Earth” genre as a way of getting the exploration without necessarily being tied to the space/hard sf milieu. I think the most awarded member of this subgenre (and I liked it quite a bit) is Gene Wolfe’s three Sun series (Book of the New Sun, Book of the Long Sun, Book of the Short Sun).

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