EastEnder
Brixton Barnacle
Banks is the epitome of hard sci-fi, maybe there's hope for you yet!
Modern Sci Fi Book recommendations?
- Thread starter jusali
- Start date
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
He doesn't bang on too much about how anti-gravity or FTL works though. He's more about deeper philosophical issues imo - the Culture novels are a great examination of left accelerationism.
Dom Traynor
Kill all fascists
I loved Seven Sisters by Neal Stephenson
dervish
if you flibble when you wibble, don't wobble
I've read all of these previously and enjoyed them, I was looking for something similar and found Redshirts and Agent to the Stars which are standalone novels. Read both over the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed them, nice to have a story in a more compact form than a 7 book epic, both start from a good premise and grow from there, even if it's a bit predictable the story is fun, also Agent to the Stars has nice non shooty, genuinely likable aliens who don't want to suck anyone brains out or probe anything which is a nice change.
Anyone know of anything in a similar style?
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
getting on a bit but David Brins 'Uplift' books might fit.
May Kasahara
take me to the feeling
My husband had the same reaction to Death's End. I haven't read it yet but have read and enjoyed the first two.
Currently reading Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky, the follow up to Children of Time which I recommended earlier in the thread - it's good. Also really liked his Dogs of War, which is a much briefer and more thriller-y excursion into bioengineered weaponry and the rights of sentient beings.
Also read and loved the Rosewater trilogy by Tade Thompson.
anything by british author alistair reynolds
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
China Dream: Ma Jian
Paolo Bacigalupi has some fab books and short stories.
Paolo Bacigalupi has some fab books and short stories.
SpookyFrank
Don't swallow the cap
Tried to read Bacigalupi's 'Windup Girl' but his grasp of genetics is poor and that seemed to be what the entire book was going to be about. If you're going to do 'genetic engineering has changed everything' it's better to do it in a magic realist style like Jeff Vandermeer's Borne rather than a hard sci-fi approach rooted in sci you don't understand.
stereotypical
hospitality king
Parable of the Sower - Octavia E. Butler.
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
Given recent events in the USA- the murder of a Black American by police- I was reminded of this excellent collection of short stories:
Friday Black.
Its dystopian sci fi imo. It was not marketed as sci fi.
As sci fi to my relief is still not regarded as proper literature.
American - most of the the stories are satires on present day America. Its near future sci fi talking about present day.
Consumerism, racism covered in the collection.
The first story is about the experience of being Black in a White dominated society. Another story, set in near future, is of a real life game where people are allowed to vent there aggression. Both stories cover violence against Black people.
What comes across in the stories is the violence/ aggression simmering away in societies just under the surface. Or on the surface but supposedly dealt with in "civilized" way.
I actually thought these stories say more how racism operates in clear fashion than some more academic books Ive read. Partly as the writer uses some humour in the "absurd" situations he sets up.
I say absurd not as criticism. He sets up situations that show how society now operate which is worse than absurd.
Imo his collection shows why sci fi is the writing genre to discuss the ills of present day society.
Friday Black.
Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! A piercingly raw debut story collection from a young writer with an explosive voice; a treacherously surreal, and, at times, heartbreakingly satirical look at what it’s like to be young and black in America.
www.hmhbooks.com
Its dystopian sci fi imo. It was not marketed as sci fi.
As sci fi to my relief is still not regarded as proper literature.
American - most of the the stories are satires on present day America. Its near future sci fi talking about present day.
Consumerism, racism covered in the collection.
The first story is about the experience of being Black in a White dominated society. Another story, set in near future, is of a real life game where people are allowed to vent there aggression. Both stories cover violence against Black people.
What comes across in the stories is the violence/ aggression simmering away in societies just under the surface. Or on the surface but supposedly dealt with in "civilized" way.
I actually thought these stories say more how racism operates in clear fashion than some more academic books Ive read. Partly as the writer uses some humour in the "absurd" situations he sets up.
I say absurd not as criticism. He sets up situations that show how society now operate which is worse than absurd.
Imo his collection shows why sci fi is the writing genre to discuss the ills of present day society.
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krtek a houby
Saoirse don Phalaistín!
Can the first book be read as a standalone?
Yu_Gi_Oh
天天好心情
Sure.
bmd
Island in the stream.
After reading the Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer and becoming convinced that it was his interpretation of the journey through mental illness, I am now reading Dead Astronauts and getting similar vibes. I find his words so evocative and they chime so much with me but I don't really understand why. I mean, I have had quite a long think about whether I'm going nuts again due to how much his books send me out into space. Like, I'm reading his words but I have a completely different story going on in my head. It's s driven by his words but there's so much emotion pouring out of me.
A380
How do I change this 'custom title' thing then?
John Scalzi
Almost anything by him. But start with his first. Agent to the Stars and then go to his most recent Kaiju Preservation Society. Then any order. ETA, actually after the first two read the ‘Old Man’s War’ series.
Andy Weir -Project Hail Mary. Probably the best fictional alien ever. Artemis was not so good but obviously the Martian is great, but PHM is better.
Dogs of War and it’s sequel Bear Head by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Almost anything by him. But start with his first. Agent to the Stars and then go to his most recent Kaiju Preservation Society. Then any order. ETA, actually after the first two read the ‘Old Man’s War’ series.
Andy Weir -Project Hail Mary. Probably the best fictional alien ever. Artemis was not so good but obviously the Martian is great, but PHM is better.
Dogs of War and it’s sequel Bear Head by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
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Chilli.s
mingling jets and statuettes
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
I liked Redshirts-one joke but a good joke spun into a good yarn. Also enjoyed his contributions animated for Love Death and Robots.
I recently enjoyed Tom Toners Amaranthine Spectrum trilogy. Also Tade Thompson's Wormwood trilogy, set in Nigeria. Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time series is well worth a go- I'm reading the final book Children of Memory right now
e2a just going through my phone for things I read this year and Robert Charles Wilson is a sold recc (not to be confused with Robert Anton Wilson). The 'Spin' Trilogy
kalidarkone
Bringing YOU round.....
Love Octavia E Butler!
Dom Traynor
Kill all fascists
Finally got round to reading The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North. The perfect follow up to Touch and Harry August. I would describe the 3 as a thematic trilogy.
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
It is beyond shit, it's so deeply shit that it transcends shit to become the Ur shit, a shit diamond if you will. Concentrated shit distilled with a heady aroma of incel adjacent gatekeeping, sexism, poor writing, terrible plotting and a bucket of mindless trivia.
Supine
Newt Member
I want to read it now
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
It’s a kid’s book and not even a good one
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
There are some extracts in the thread on it
Ready Player One
Can't find an existing thread on this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ready-Player-One-Ernest-Cline/dp/0099560437 Just finished it this morning after staying up past midnight for a couple of days because I couldn't stop reading. If you're a bit geeky and grew up in the 80s you have to read it...
www.urban75.net
