Sci-Fi Book Recommendations

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#1

Sci-fi is an extremely large and varied genre so sweeping generalizations are hard to make.

However, here are my personal top 3 books:

  • Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
  • iRobot by Issac Asimov
  • Anathema by Neil Stephenson

Sci-fi can be broadly divided into two categories ‘hard’ sci-fi and ‘soft’ sci-fi. I tend to like ‘hard’ sci-fi.

‘Hard’ sci-fi is characterized by a focus on how a civilization will be affected by a technology. For example, in iRobot we are given the technology of robots with human and beyond human level intelligence but required to follow the three laws. All of the stories in iRobot and other hard sci-fi books are built on an internally consistent technological foundation and seek to explore the limits of the technology and how it will impact civilization.

‘Soft’ sci-fi not really concerned with how a technology works or even what a technology’s limitations are. An example we can look at is Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. In Hitchhiker’s Guide we are introduced to countless technologies that are usually unexplained and always vastly under utilized. However, given the point of the book is to tell a wonderful story about a person not a civilization, the reader is happy to just go along with it.

This said, most sci-fi books tend to be some mix of ‘Hard’ and ‘Soft’ sci-fi elements.

Given this here is a list of my favorite ‘Hard’ sci-fi:

  • Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
  • iRobot by Issac Asimov
  • Anathema by Neil Stephenson
  • The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke
  • Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson
  • Foundation Trilogy By Issac Asimov
  • Diamond Age by Neil Stephenson
  • Hyperion by Dan Simmons
  • The Mote in God’s Eye by Niven & Pournelle
  • The Culture by Iain M. Banks
  • Edit: Children of Time series by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Here is a list of my favorite ‘Soft’ sci-fi:

  • Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
  • Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick
  • Starship Troopers by Robert A Heinlein
  • Dune by Frank Herbert
  • Ringworld by Larry Niven ( I don’t actually like this book but it deserves to be on the list given how influential it has and on the pop culture zeitgeist.)

What are some of your favorite Sci-Fi book? What do you recomend?

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What books do you normally read
#2

I found The Integral Trees and The Smoke Ring by Larry Niven to be satisfying reads.

I’ve read a number of Greg Bear’s books that I also enjoyed: The Way novels - Eon, Eternity, Legacy - as well Quantum Logic novels - Queen of Angels, Slant, Moving Mars.

Edited to add: all of the aforementioned novels address one key aspect of good sci-fi: how would people react to or live in truly game-changing circumstances relative to those we presently understand? Niven’s books are set in the titular smoke ring - a gas free-fall gas torus - centuries after it was colonized by accident. The Way novels are set in a near-ish alternate future where a pocket universe of our descendents’ making centuries from now has materialized within our own. The Quantum Logic novels explore the near-future possibilities of re-engineering consciousness itself, with its various positive and negative implications.

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#3

Eon was really good. I think top of my list is the Bobiverse series by Dennis E Taylor. Ready player one by Ernest Cline, Perfect State by Brandon Sanderson, 14 by Peter Clines, and you cant go wrong with anything William Gibson.

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#4
  • The Crystal Singer (1982) trilogy by Anne Mccaffrey Great female protagonist and intro into Sci-Fi, not overly technical. Was one of the first Sci-fi’s to incorporate entanglement theory.
  • The Foundation (1951 - additions to series up to 1983) series by Issac Asimov. His Robots of Dawn (1950) series also great, includes I, Robot.
  • Code of the Lifemaker (1983) if you are into AI. James P. Hogan
  • Foreigner***and *** Jaded Sun C J Cherryh … wish she’d write faster, 2 books a year is too little!

The scariest Sci-Fi I’ve ever read is The White Plague (1982) by Frank Herbert. Terrifying because it could happen today. Relevant to Coronavirus today.

Great authors:

  • Niven
  • Asimov
  • Sanderson (also fantasy)
  • Herbert
  • Bradbury
  • Heinlein
  • Lots of others listed above

My preferences tend towards series - good stories shouldn’t end.

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#5

Bobiverse is great!

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#6

I read a TON of Sci-fi and Fantasy on my goodreads lists, so if anybody wants to follow/friend me there here is the link.

I don’t personally classify books between hard and soft sci-fi because I feel like a lot of newer sci-fi is a bit of both.

  • Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky - Haven’t quite finished this one yet, but I’m honestly so enamored with this book. There are sentient spiders in this book, so fair warning to anybody for whom that might be a problem.

  • A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White

  • The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers - This whole series is fantastic. I would call it a “slice of life” sci-fi.

  • Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie - This book explores a lot of the idea of what is human, what isn’t, the potential mental health of AIs with fragmented personalities, etc.

  • All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries) by Martha Well - LOVE this series. Murderbot is my favorite, and Wells is a local (Fort Worth) author!

  • Old Man’s War by John Scalzi (Anything by John Scalzi, actually) - Old people go to space and fight epic battles. Like Starship Troopers meets Star Trek.

  • Head On by John Scalzi - Virus comes through and kills a bunch of people. A bunch more are locked into their bodies with fully functioning brains but no ability to move or communicate. Science comes to the rescue by creating neural interfacing, but there are some people in society who think that these human/technology hybrids are wrong.

  • The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi - Really awesome space opera with some kickass characters.

  • Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant (Anything by Mira Grant, actually) - We go explore the Mariana Trench looking for mermaids. Turns out they eat us. Don’t go into this expecting it to be hard sci-fi. Go into this expecting it to be like a campy B-movie and you’ll love what you get.

Not included because I’m not sure if its Fantasy or Sci-fi:

  • The Broken Earth series by N.K. Jemisin. This book is terrific, but I’m not going to say anything more about why it fits in both categories for risk of spoiling.

There’s a ton more, but that’s all I have time to list now. I get most of my recommendations from authors I admire on twitter, reddit threads, and most of the “Best of” lists during awards season. A lot of my recommendations above won or were nominated for Hugos.

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#7

Did you see book 4 is slated to come out this summer?

#8

I hadn’t! That’s exciting!

#9

I like the Sprawl trilogy (Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive) by William Gibson. Classic cyberpunk schlock.

another sci-fi series I really enjoy is the Confluence series by Jennifer Foehner Wells. Fluency is the first book of that one. I think there’s five books so far.

I do want to check out Ancillary Justice, I’ve heard a lot about it. Long Way to a Small Angry Planet sounds interesting.

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#10

Quite a few already mentioned are on my “love this” list.

Also Children of ruin, the second book in the series.

SEVENEVES by Neal Stephenson
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson - beware the ending…
Expeditionary Force by Craig Alanson
The Fold by Peter Clines

I loved Ender’s Game and HATED EVERY BOOK THEREAFTER in the series.

I think the Search for Bender is being split into two books.

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#11

I found Long Way to a Small Angry Planet really refreshing. There is an overarching plot that keeps the action moving, but along the way you get these scenes that show you what it might be like to have a small ship full of people from different backgrounds, different species even, together in one place.

The next book in the series takes off from the point of view of a character on the ship who leaves to start a new life on a planet that is a major interstellar port, as well as several characters she meets there.

The third book is from the point of view of some peripherally related people on a generation ship full of humans who left Earth but have settled in the galaxy and just live their lives on the ship.

I just find the whole series fascinating, if you can’t tell.

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#12

That was the other one I couldn’t remember of his. Its basically part 2 to the one “14” I mentioned.

cool, I was just going off what goodreads was saying. If he has enough content for 2 books, then even better.

Oh and I forgot Dark Matter by Blank Crouch.

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#13

I believe that’s same world, but not part 2. A couple years ago I was on a sci-fi kick and blew through a bunch of books. Several not good ones. I’m going back through Expeditionary Force (Skippy the magnificent) again because apparently I missed like 3 or 4 books in that series.

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#14

Really!? I loved the Ender’s Shadow books and Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide are great too if very different than Ender’s Game. The concept of the “Hierarchy of Foreignness” is really powerful if a bit unsettling.

#15

Does Julian May, in particular the Galactic Milieu stuff and Pliocene Exile stuff, count as (soft?) Sci-fi? Worth reading no matter what, but wasn’t sure if it qualified.

She’s written a lot of other stuff that is certainly sci-fi…really good author, in general, rather a one/two hit wonder.

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#16

I have to agree with him on that sentiment. Don’t start a series with an action book, then make all 32 of the sequels explosion on social issues.

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#17

Yes, but that’s me. I got through maybe … 3 or 4 books and regretted the time spent on them. I kept hoping it would get better and it didn’t. For me. I know I have issues.

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#18

Have y’all read the Ender’s Shadow books? They tend to be more action oriented than the later Ender books.

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#19

Loved the Saga of Pliocene Exile series.

An interesting 10 x 10 series might be objects from Sci-Fi or Fantasy we like.

Edit. When people asked me what was the best thing about being retired was: Having time for recreational reading again! Probably 30+ hrs a week now.

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#20

I read any OSC book just on general principle. It’s a problem as he a pretty prolific writer…