Any recommendations for books.
Must not be older than 2015.
Any classics I may already have read. I'm looking for recent publications.
Searching for good sci-fi recommendations on the net is pointless as so many books are trash / excessively formulic or oriented to the young adult audience.
I like hard sci-fi with a soul. Also 'space opera' of the kind Iain M Banks did do well and I also remember liking Peter F Hamilton.
Furter indication of my tastes: The Vagrant and The Malice, both surpirsed & delighted with their birazze word building and characters. Also comicwise, big fan of Saga and Prophet.
Ta
The Expanse series is very good - enjoyed the TV series so read the books. Both good in different ways.
Black Science by Rik Remender fits your description. 9 volumes; pricey but really enjoyed it.
Low by the same author is equally as good, if not better.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky is superb, if you haven’t read it already.
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North is a belter
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson - not to everyone’s tastes but I loved.
All smart, but very readable, books that expect the reader to be able to think a bit.
Enjoyed "The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet" by Becky Chambers but 2014 and she's written some more recent stuff which I haven't read.
The Expanse is the best sci-fi thing on at the moment, it makes things like discovery painful to watch. I hear the books are even better.
How about Saga of the Seven Suns, I found it really hard going getting into the first book then great.
Cheap stuff online:
Fatal Boarding by E R Mason, simple space adventure but upon reading it I knew the author new his stuff and knew risk, looked him up, pilot, worked for nasa. At 99p or free for the first book well worth it. They are stand alone easy reading.
No Honour In Death, kind of submarine type warfare and suspense in space, loved these.
Quantum Tangle, Chris Reher, good ideas and universe.
The Plague Wars Trilogy, goes on into space and was epic, epic, David Vandyke.
Outlaw by Edward W Robertson great set, 6 in all.
Enjoy, wish I could forget some of these and read them again.
Cheers
Toby
Wildcard.... The Atlantis Grail set... probably written for teenage girls but.. the swooning and romance was bearable as it had some great ideas and story telling.
All this stuff is cheap or free new author stuff I’ve found on iBooks but available across platforms.
Annihilation - not sure I think about 2015
> Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky is superb, if you haven’t read it already.
A sequel was released in 2019 - Children of Ruin Not read it yet as it’s on a already too large ‘to be read’ list
The Soldier by Neill Asher, fairly solid sci fi series
unfortunately Ian m Banks has ruined sci fi for so many, he set such a high bar for intelligent and engaging sci fi that it’s left so many fruitlessly trawling for something similar since his tragic departure.
The expanse is an engaging read
children of time also recommended
I lost out on eBay bidding for the first two seasons of that! On my radar. Ta
Image Comics. A good sign!
> unfortunately Ian m Banks has ruined sci fi for so many, he set such a high bar for intelligent and engaging sci fi that it’s left so many fruitlessly trawling for something similar since his tragic departure.
I think Alastair Reynolds has easily equalled Iain M Banks at his best, but not since 2015.
(Personally I don't think the 'Revenger' series are his best work.) The 'Revelation Space' books are superb though, and unusual in that he has 'space opera' going on in a universe where faster than light communication and travel are impossible. Ooh - I just googled, and apparently he's going back to the big 'Revelation Space' story arc in his next book. That's quite exciting - it's a bit like Iain Banks going back to the Culture.
I don't read much SF any more, but I really liked Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson. From 2015 so just squeezes in.
I’d second the recommendations for Neal Asher and Alistair Reynolds, though with the same proviso with regards Revenger (trash, as if written by someone else entirely) Richard Morgan is also well worth a spin.
Edit: I don’t think Reynolds has equalled Banks by a fair stretch. I don’t think anyone has.
I've read his stuff before. Not all but enough to know I like him but also I can no longer remember what I read!
Certainly Revelation Space.
_The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind_ (Jackson Ford) is a fun, and sarcastic, tale set about 20 minutes into the future, with superpowers.
_All The Birds In The Sky_ (Charlie Jane Anders) is a tale of two cultures (one technological, the other mystic), and two geniuses, and how maybe working together is a good plan.
_The Ninefox Gambit_ (Yoon Ha Lee) is space-opera battle stuff with a novel background and some interesting ethical questions.
_On the Edge of Gone_ (Corinne Duyvis) is a surviving-the-end-of-the-world story with a comet impact and what happens for our characters after. It's a bit YA, and is more about the people than the physics, but it has a very engaging narrator and a fast-paced plot.
Anne Leckie's _Ancilliary Mercy_ does fit in your time limit and is a lot of fun, but isn't quite as stong as the earlier _Ancilliary Justice_ (which is a rather cool space opera meets Raymond Chandler narative, but is from 2013)
Try 'Gnomon' by Nick Harkaway. Not hard sci-fi, more weird and trippy, but it's a belter. If you like the wonkier end of Iain M. Banks or Philip K. Dick it'll be right up your alley.
Not the best thing I read last year, but definitely the most entertaining.
... And I managed to miss out _All Systems Red_ (Martha Wells) and sequels (_Artificial Condition_, _Rogue Protocol_, Exit Strategy_, _Network Effect_) which are lightly space-opera with a lot of action and a bit of mil-sf, but first-person narrated in a very sarcastic and cynical style.
On the Ann Leckie front, there's also _Provenance_ which has a multi layered plot about working a scam and feels very Iain Banks in doing it
Death's End - Liu Cixin was published in english within that timeframe I think. You'd have to read the first two books before getting to this one: no hardship, but this is my favourite. If you've got the patience for hard sci fi it's something special.
Agree with others that Adrian Tchaikovsky, Ann Leckie and Yoon Ha Lee are good.
Yes I was going to mention Alistair Reynolds, he doesn’t however have the dark humour of Banks.
house of suns is a good stand alone
Dan Simmonds Hyperion is also worth a read
Greg Bear: War Dogs Trilogy (first book from 2014, the other two make your cutoff).
Ken McLeod: The Corporation Wars. Another trilogy that offers an unusal take on the philosophical problem of consciousness.
CB
The three-body problem.
Cixin liu
Trilogy, translated, good to have a slightly different cultural perspective.
> I think Alastair Reynolds has easily equalled Iain M Banks at his best, but not since 2015.
I'm not a Sci fi fan at all but happened upon an animation series on Netflix called Love, Sex and robots which had two of his short stories in there. Beyond The Aquila Rift and Zuma Blue. Wow, loved them and bought a collection of his short stories. Great stuff. Might keep an eye on this thread for other recommendations
Children of Time is cracking. Great choice.
I loved children of time. Loved the ideas. One of the most inventive and let addictive books I’ve read in a long time
> an animation series on Netflix called Love, Sex and robots
I'll look that up - Reynolds short stories sound like they should be more approachable than the chunky novels
2001 A Space Odyssey
I wouldn't advise anyone who likes their books to have an actual ending to read anything by Neal Stephenson. I reckon that the opening to Snowcrash is one of the best things I've ever read/ listened to (it was an audiobook in my case), however the two books of his I've read have both left me wondering what happened to the rest of the story (basically the same feeling as watching Firefly).
Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky is excellent
Children of Time is great, Children of Ruin not quite as good but still worthwhile.
Bizarre world building would point me in the direction of China Meiville's New Crobuzon books, Perdido Street Station is good.
Paradox Bound and 14 by Peter Clines are both great
The Humans by Matt Haig had me in agony laughing.
I was recommended that and really enjoyed them.
the ones I liked the best were the silly ones. They had the best ideas. I won’t have yoghurt in the house any more
N K Jemisin has written some good books over the last few years.
Also Infinite Detail by Tim Maugham.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25155958-gentleman-jole-and-the-red-que...
The latest in a series - you may be aware of them already
> They had the best ideas. I won’t have yoghurt in the house any more
Children of Time is a great choice - as has been said above, the follow-up was not quite as good.
China Mieville as also mentioned above: agree that Perdido Street is brilliant, but would also suggest working your way through his whole back catalogue, as there are some real gems in there. The Scar in particular, and EmbassyTown if you can cope with your Sci Fi being pretty weird
Children of Time is a phenomenal read!
Another excellent and recent sci-fi is Semiosis (and its sequel) by Sue Burke; if you're a fan of Children of Time you'll love this one too
Ian W Sainsbury's books are all pretty good. British SciFi.
Am I the only sci fi reader who doesn't rate Banks so highly. I've enjoyed it, I really liked Dark Matter but I don't get why the Culture novels are rated so highly. I've read them in order and I'm stuck about halfway through Use of Weapons on my 2nd attempt. Just not that interesting. I find that I don't really engage with his characters and don't really care what happens to them.
As an honorary weegie I wondered if you'd read any of Gary Gibson's (not THAT Gary Gibson) stuff? He's a Glaswegian who writes fast paced space opera with a touch of hard sci fi. The Shoal sequence is a good place to start.
Cheers all by the way: ordered a couple of books off the back of recommendations here
Another vote for Revelation Space and all the related books/short stories in the universe.
One out of left field though and older than requested, a short story by Stephen King called The Jaunt- I think it’s in Skeleton Crew- was one of my favourite sci fi stories since in ages
> Am I the only sci fi reader who doesn't rate Banks so highly. I've enjoyed it, I really liked Dark Matter but I don't get why the Culture novels are rated so highly. I've read them in order and I'm stuck about halfway through Use of Weapons on my 2nd attempt. Just not that interesting. I find that I don't really engage with his characters and don't really care what happens to them.
It is a mix for me. Interesting ideas, a lot of times poor storytelling. Like the infinite-walking-through-tunnels-plot in Consider Phlebas. That said, I really enjoyed Player of Games and a lot of Use of Weapons (I think the best part of UoW is the title, the second best part the intro poem ).
The expanse is a dire read - it's not bad on telly but I think that's more a comment on the quality of the rivals. It's a semi-manufactured series cooked up between a game designer and a writer and surely deserves a bad sex in fiction award (thankfully this and the inner dialogue and exposition of the characters is muted a lot in the tv version). It reminds me of "Beast Quest" - we'll eventually get to Expanse series 134, "Gargantua the Silent Assassin".
I enjoyed The Stone Man by Luke Smitherd (published in 2015, I think), which I bought on a whim on Kindle. It's not perfect, but it has a compelling central idea, and some genuine tension and build-up. Worth a go for a couple of quid...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stone-Man-Science-Fiction-Thriller-ebook/dp/B00AHJ...
Will look into him but won't be swayed by where he lives! Quality over provenance.
Agreed! I thought the first series of the TV adaptation was fun, but lost interest in the second. Read the first two books and ended up thinking it was thin and too trashy - have the third on the shelf but never bothered with it.
Another vote for cixin liu. The translations can be a bit ropey, but the storeys are off the wall and make you think. Not just "shoot em ups in space" either (yah boring!)
My local library has his stuff in their downloadable reader app. Worth joining up. His short story collection was fun and a bit wacky. Hard core near future sci-fi that you can almost imagine being true. I'm pretty fed up with deliberate three book storey arcs written to generate cash rather than explore possible future ideas and societies.
I thought The Three Body Problem was fantastic, one of the best books I've read in years. I found the sequels much weaker and disappointing by comparison, with some really, really weird and implausible stuff in them (e.g. "the perfect woman" thing....nope).
Have you read The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F Hamilton? That sets the bar for a bad sex in fiction award! It definitely manages the weird part with the satanic rituals and Al Capone running an interplanetary criminal gang though...
Apparently the expanse partly started as a joke about how much of a nuisance it would be to have a Lawful Good Paladin (Holden) as the main character of a space opera. I listened to one of the audiobooks but didn't find it very engaging.
Depending on OP's academic background they may feel utter disgust at the Sophons described at the end of The Three Body Problem and refuse to pick up anything else by the author ever again (my personal experience, it's a fairly arbitrary hill to die on given how much handwaving I am willing to allow for FTL travel but there we go!).
No, the best part of UoW is when Zakalwe refuses to discuss is back story with the two other guys awake on the bridge. Quite pertinent for our post truth societies:
<i>“Most people are not prepared to have their minds changed," he said. "And I think they know in their hearts that other people are just the same, and one of the reasons people become angry when they argue is that they realize just that, as they trot out their excuses."
"Excuses, eh?" Well, if this ain't cynicism, what is?" Erens snorted.
"Yes, excuses," he said, with what Erens thought might just have been a trace of bitterness. "I strongly suspect the things people believe in are usually just what they instinctively feel is right; the excuses, the justifications, the things you're supposed to argue about, come later. They're the least important part of the belief. That's why you can destroy them, win an argument, prove the other person wrong, and still they believe what they did in the first place." He looked at Erens. "You've attacked the wrong thing.”</i>
also:
<i>“There has seldom if ever a shortage of eager young males prepared to kill and die to preserve the security, comfort and prejudices of their elders, and what you call heroism is just an expression of this simple fact; there is never a scarcity of idiots.”</i>
For definitely hard sci fi: Peter Watts. Freeze-Frame Revolution was published in 2018, so that's definitely in scope. Massive scope in space and time, and also completely claustrophobic.
Firefall was published in August 2014 so it nearly makes it, and it's probably better. I think probably the hardest of hard sci fi (physical and biological and philosophical) but at the same time there are "vampires" and "zombies" and "Golem". A real eye opener that has stuck with me.
Don't read any of them if you want cheering up, though!
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