I'd recommend anything by Yahtzee Crowshaw, but Sci-Fi specifically his two Jaques McKewon books; 'Will Save the Galaxy For Food' & 'Will Destroy the Galaxy for Cash' are both a lot of fun. I'd suggest getting the audiobook versions however as they're read by Yahtzee himself. Then there's Sandy Mitchell's Caiphas Cain books, set in the Warhammer 40k universe but with a lighter than usual tone and concerning an Imperial Commissar doing anything humanly possible to not find himself on the front-lines yet still somehow being perceived as a hero to his men. The Bobiverse books are really good once it gets going, but the protagonist is insufferable for the first few chapters so you just need to stick with it initially.
Murderbot Diaries, a fun sci-fi series from the point of view of the security droid rather than the humans. :D also the star cat series by Andrew Mackay. I am just starting the Robot Empire series by Kevin Partner. He has done some really good sci fi shorts so really looking forward to it. His Eldorado short was a good look into his writing style if you want to try him without getting into a full series!
murderbot is fun but the way they separated a single long book into like 6 or so smaller ones makes it horrendously expensive to read what should be a single book.
Usually lurk but I'll always recommend some sci-fi books. My favorite book and what I recommend everybody read is Hyperion by Dan Simmons. If it keeps your attention then read the sequel as well.
Weird, interesting, and fun. The Bobiverse series by Dennis E Taylor. Software engineer because a Von Neumann probe and goes to explore the universe. The name of the series belies how good the series is.
The Perfect Run by Maxime J. Durand. Post-post apocalyptic sci-fi adventure with time travelling and amazing story telling. Characters are exceptionally fleshed out, the humor is great, and the story itself is memorable and riveting. Character growth and relationship developments are phenomenal as well. Highly recommend.
expeditionary force is amazing, been following the series in audiobook format for years. highly suggest it that way as well as the narrator does an absolutely amazing job.
I grew up reading Anne McCaffrey books and her Brainship series, while not as well known as the Dragonriders of Pern series, has always held a special place in my heart.
It would fit the game super well to have much of the story hidden behind voluntary radio calls with one of the coworkers, but you also get charged like $500.000 per minute of conversation so you are incentivised to listen to these people but you are also making your life harder through in-game rules that fit the general setting.
not sure if you've read it or someone's already suggested but the expanse books are really good. the first one is Leviathan Wakes Im pretty sure. there is also a show on Amazon prime which is incredible.
Daniel Suarez: Daemon and especially Freedom™ are awesome books that sometimes hit a little too close to home nowadays...But showing a possible happy ending to the future
If web serials are also good, I'd recommend Deathworlders. It currently has 87 chapters with 1 given every month and while I found the first half much better, it's still good. And the prologue chapter "The Kevin Jenkins Experience" even has a bunch of official and unofficial spin offs.
I have been reading the kevin Jenkins universe (all the ([un]official) spinoffs, and haven't even gotten to the first chapter of the Deathworlders series.
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. The Honor Harrington series by David Weber. The Dahak Trilogy also by Weber. Path of the Fury, also by Weber. The Lt. Leary/RCN series by David Drake. The Brainship series by Anne McCaffery. The Crystal Singer series by McCaffery. The Planet Pirates series by McCaffery (with Jody Lynn Nye and Elizabeth Moon). The Mode series by Piers Anthony. Apprentice Adept series and Incarnation of Immortality series also by Piers Anthony.
Just remembered another one... Permanence by Karl Schroeder... great book if you're interested in the concept of sub-light interstellar travel. Also, for old-school hard science fiction I would suggest looking up the author Larry Niven.
ooh, and if you want a sci fantasy drug trip, read The Iron Dragon's Daughter. I cannot remember the author but it is one hell of a book from start to finish. basic premise: orphan gets into co dependent psychologically abusive relationship with an Elven fighter jet.
Light reading: the entire gamelit genre Medium reading: Everything by Charles Stross. He does fantasy, soft and hard scifi. Heavy reading: Blindsight by Peter Watts Hard scifi first contact, focuses on neurodivergent characters. Ended up being recommended reading for neuroscience graduate students. Bonus: Red Sister by Mark Lawrence Seems like grimdark fantasy/magic school slice of life but actually is a new depth of grimdark sci-fi.
Of Men and Dragons by Steve Hayden is my latest sci-fi obsession. There's a second book being published in the near future, and at least a third planned. I love it
A good series that I've been enjoying, and is available on audible, is The Fixer series. The first book is "Ordinance" and it covers PTSD and healing from trauma as well as having really good intrigue and scifi cyborg times.
There's a subreddit called HFY, full of sci-fi short stories and long space epics. And some fantasy too. All about humans interacting with aliens, most of which think we are crazy.
Scifi books I'd recommend: Radio Freefall by Matthew Jarp - it's a sci-fi techno thriller with a heavy rock and roll theme. Found it one day while out on deployment, the rock and roll immediately stuck out to me, and this book has stuck with me. Titans by Edward R Robertson - I can't really remember much about it, but it was free at the time on kindle years ago. I do remember enjoying it quite a bit. Non-scifi recommendation: Fool by Christopher Moore - another deployment find that I absolutely fell in love with. It's a modern take on Shakespeare that is absolutely amazing. And if you're in the mood for trashy sci-fi romances, I have a few authors I could recommend.
Best sci-fi I’ve ever read is the Vorkosigan Saga. It’s a 14 book series, but you can read it in any order, the books are all pretty self contained. The story follows Miles Vorkosigan from when he’s 16 and accidentally forms an interstellar mercenary armada to his late adulthood. Honestly I’m not a big fan of sci-fi, but I loved this series. Miles is one of the best written characters I’ve ever read.
The Integral trees. Bunch of humans who live in a gas torus around a neutron star but have regressed back to essentially the Stone Age really cool book really cool and unique concept. Heart of the comet. I think this one skirts the not dour line but it’s genuinely one of my favorite sci-fi books. This is because it doesn’t rely on quantum magic technology to solve every problem. Essentially a large group of people are sent to colonize and mine a comet but they find it is already populated by simple but robust life forms things evolve from there.
I just finished book one of Beware of Chicken by Casualfarmer on Kindle which is about a Xiaxian Protag deciding to run off to be a farmer and the slice of life shenanigans that follow. The second book is in editing and hopefully will be released later this year or early next year.
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. It's a sci-fi series of love letters written by competing nearly immortal, time travelling, shape-shifting spies. Each character was written by one author who would complete a chapter, email it to the other author, and they took turns like that until the book was finished. Very unique experience. The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells are an absolutely delightful set of short stories and a book. It's a series about a security cyborg that hacked it's "Asimov's Laws" module that just wants to watch soap operas all day. Otaku by Chris Kluwe. Pretty solid cyberpunk novel by a former NFL pro. While most pro sports players blow their money on sports cars and bars, Kluwe bought magic cards and ran WoW raids. The WoW experience really comes through in the book. The other two are strong recommends. This is more along the lines of "if your library has it and you like cyberpunk, check it out." When in doubt, just grab a Hugo/Nebula finalist. I really dig short story anthologies. Just finished The New Voices of Science Fiction and it was quite good.
Im currently reading through "Sentenced to war" by J.N. Chaney and Jonathan P. Brazee. On book 5/9, I'm really enjoying the series so far and looking forward to the next books. If you're looking for really long series, Honor Harrington is like 19 books and really well written, almost all the sci-fi bits are based on one single "magic" mechanism being used in different ways. Genuinely a really fun read and lots of reading to do. Also, check out Rendevous with Rama, and Isaac Asiimov and Arthur C. Clarke both wrote a bunch of really good Sci-fi books back in the early to mid 1900s.
More of a webseries than a book, but 17776 aka What Football Will Look Like in the Future by Jon Bois is really good. Might not be as Sci-Fi as other stories that will get suggested (the nanos are by far the most Sci-Fi thing in the story) but still a great read.
Here's a book series suggestion that is mostly just dumb fun, but also an interesting read in my opinion: The Hard Luck Hank series by Steven Campbell. Its about a guy with a mutation that basically makes him a walking tank and all the hijinks that he gets caught up in as a result.
Sci fi Space-Related book suggestion, quite cheap and first book of over 15 books currently is free on amazon (audiobook also free for first book): Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins: A Collected Trilogy One of my favorite space book series. Family friendly, action packed, and pretty unknown.
I have two book recommendations for you and I'd recommend them in the order I've listed them: 1st - Will Save the Galaxy for Food by Yahtzee Croshaw 2nd - Master of Formalities by Scott Meyer I'd be interested to know if you've heard of them and what you think of them.
For Sci-Fi stuff, I'd recommend Sword of Dawn, which is kinda a science fantasy set in a magical world and the theme is more about civilization development through technological revolution (and killing gods, by the way). The only catch is, it's in Chinese. But with how popular it gets in China maybe there'll be an English version in the future.
Book suggestion: Consider Phlebas and the Culture series in general. Its a bit of a tricky read, but its got great characters and has Fully Automated Luxury Stoner Space Communism, whats not to love?
I completely recommended The Culture series, and depnding on if you want an action start or just a straight jump in to the Culture either being Consider Phlebas or Player of Games. And The Murderbot Diaries, starting with All Systems Red.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, a look at human life from the perspective of uplifted animal intelligence humanity seeded throughout the galaxy.
The Alcantarans- i will ALWAYS reccomend this. A slaver species(bugs) takes a human in a pre-alien contact earth, and through a series of very fortunate experiences, (as well as the bugs ignoring the fact that the human might just be smart enough to plan with other aliens), to take an ancient civilization's super advanced ship and start a trading agency/bug raider raiders. staring: Ron, a middle-aged metalworker human. Tik(Tic, I forget the exact) a cat-based technology expert. and Gus, a fairly smart Sandstone brute.
Books recommendations: Fantasy: The Warded Man (Painted Man in USA) by Peter V Brett {Book 1 in Demon Cycle series} The Furies of Calderaan by Jim Butcher {Book 1 in Codex Alera series} Steam punk fantasy: The Aeronauts Windlass by Jim Butcher Sci-fi naval-esque Honor Harrington series
Thank you for recommending *the aeronauts windlass* I bought it due to this comment as I know of very little steampunk (or any similar genres) literature, I would argue that it's probably more accurate to call it something like aetherpunk doe to the lack of much of any steam powered stuff, but eh that's semantics
@@snyparaustralis540 glad to hear, also I find it funny that the thing I was most hyped about during the last section of the book was that there was actually finally technobable of some kind
You should read "Binti" by Nnedi Okorafor for some Nigerian sci-fi, and "Sinopticon" edited by Xueting Christine Ni which is a collection of amazing Chinese sci-fi short stories.
Crater by Homer Hickman. I'll describe it as long-haul trucking on the moon I haven't read it in awhile but I remember enjoying it, has small details in it that add realism here and there.
Anything John Scalzi. Also look into the audiobooks. Several of them are read by Wil Wheaton who reads them with a snarky sarcastic tone that is perfect for Scalzi’s books.😁
A bit late to the party, but The Illuminae Files is hands down my favorite book series. To completely upfront, it *is* a young-adult series, but it steers clear of most cliches that the niche is known for, and when the cliches do show up, they almost always get overshadowed by the unique way the books are formatted. A good part of the storytelling is visual in nature- I’m certain that the two authors had to get a graphic designer to help them with stuff, and it works so well. Also, every single swear word is blacked out army-mail-censorship style because in-universe “professionalism,” which is honestly just a hilarious running joke considering how intense the cussing gets at times and the thinly veiled sex jokes some of the characters text to each other.
If you're into military science fiction, I would definitely recommend both the 'Looking Glass' series and the 'Troy Rising' series both by John Ringo. They're both near future Sci-fi settings with some cool first contact stuff and both series that take some new spins on the old sci-fi tropes in a neat way.
Lois McMaster Bujold (anything). Richard Morgan (also anything, but of course the Altered Carbon Universe)Matthew Woodring Stover (Heroes Die and The Blade of Tyshall to start) John Ringo (either start with A Hymn Before Battle and go through the Posleen War, or read the Troy Rising trilogy, or read his zombie series which starts with To Sail a Darkling Sea, I think) also The Mote in God's eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournell. and lastly War Day by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka.
There is an author named David Brin. Great author. Wrote a series called the uplift series, dealing with giving sentience to non-sentient species. Space travel, galatic politics.
I can recommend the well known answer of *hitchhikers guide to the galaxy* as well as a random more contemporary book by Christopher Paolini (the author of Eragon) *to sleep in a sea of stars* a book that if I remember correctly is somewhat decent if not necessarily amazing, unfortunately I've been reading a lot of fantasy recently a large percentage of which is written by Sanderson whom I remember you mentioning that you didn't especially care for so I can't give many recommendations in that area TLDRish (including my own replies and some extras) *hitchhiker's guide* (obviously) *To sleep in a sea of stars* (Christopher Paolini author of Eragon) *mechanical failure* (Joe Zieja, quite silly) Andy Weir (probably already know, author of *the Martian* and *project hail Mary* ) William Hertling (author, near future sci-fi dealing with AI and sort of "optimistically dour?" Iirc, where the tone isn't necessarily ideal for what you want) Daniel Suarez (author, also nearish future and definitely not the tone you requested but quite good)
*Mechanical failure* by Joe Jieja was also entertaining and definitely fits a similar niche to hitchhiker's (sillier sci-fi) albeit with notably less skill and a largely different sense of humor
Bit late but if you've never heard of them before the Perry Rhodan series is a ridiculously long running Sci Fi story with a surprisingly enjoyable plot. Basically the One Piece of Sci Fi with how much of it there is out there.
the moon is a harsh mistress in my opinion may be the PERFECT sci fi book. I know everyone is like "stranger in a strange land is so good" but heinlein hit his absolute peak with The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
I particularly enjoyed chrysalis by beaverfur on reddit. Dust also did a reading of it on their podcast if you prefer it in audio form. One of the best tales of revenge and redemption in my opinion. Not bad for what started as a reddit post
Book suggestion. Spinward Fringe by Randolph Lalonde. A multi-book series and the first 3 ‘Broadcast’ are free to download. An easy read with some fantastic characters.
Book: Webmind by Robert Sawyer. One of my favourite near-future sci-fi books. Follow it by Scythe and the similarities are a little creepy. If you enjoy speculative fiction I'd recommend some of his other books too like Game Changer. Although now I am getting off topic.
Yeah, love death and robots does often overdo it in some pretty downer ways. Same way as black mirror I feel significantly worsens the country's tech paranoia, as if we needed more lol
I recommend The Moon Trilogy by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The same author behind Tarzan and John Carter but I don't think many people know that collection.
BioWar by Paolo Baccigalupi (I think that's the English title) kinda bleak throughout but a good ending. And The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by... err, one of the SF grandmasters. Good look into orbital mechanics and using these for strikes to get back at The Man.
Neuromancer. It’s credited for popularizing the cyberpunk genre and is the inspiration for the Matrix. At the same time though it’s far enough away from the matrix that’s it’s a completely fresh experience. I could not put it down
Book: “Nest of Worlds” by Marek S. Huberath (a Polish physics professor). Ir has a very intriguing metafictive premise, books (worlds) being nested inside other books which somehow lead to a mathematical equation for God…
Sifi book suggestions: Eric Flint Ring of fire series First book title: 1632 An entire small town in the US dissappears and is transported to the year 1632 in Germany. Right in the middle of the 100 years war. Now the town has to survive with all of today's knowledge and none of its resources except those that where in the town.
My time has come. You'll want to read Martha Well's Murderbot Protocols, Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice series, pretty much everything from Andy Weir (The Marian, Artemis, etc), The Binti series by Nnedi Okorafor is pretty good. I've heard good things about Annihilation Aria, Children of Time, The Three-Body Problem, and The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.
Expanse is really great sci-fi, show is great except really first two episodes though only goes up to roughly book 6 but does have some of if not the best VFX to date, at least by season 6 and was top tier throughout. That’s one of the reasons it was not renewed past the original 6 season contract, was getting too expensive, and I’ve heard really great things about books too
The Alchemists of Loom is a good book, more fantasy than sci-fi, but still really good. It's the first book of a 3 part series, found it in some tiny little random book store in... i wanna say Denver. I've read the first 2 books so far and I love them i know the second book has a spicy scene, not sure if the first one does, so just fair warning if that's not your cup of tea. Really cool world building and a great ideas, i would recommend it 100 times over
If you're looking for indie authors specifically, there are a few websites out there that are kind of post as you write. They also tend to be free. My favorite is royal road, which primarily does fantasy, but has some scifi as well.
I'm specifically using that website for exactly one (likely abandoned unfortunately) web novel called spellgun that is Really solid, I hope it's continued because it was headed (logically slowly) to some really fun artifice
It's been a couple of decades, but I suggest the Stainless Steel Rat series by Harry Harrison. I don't remember anything problematic about the story or author, but it was a long time ago. I do remember that it made me laugh when I read it, so it stuck with me.
one of my fav boos series is the Young Wizards set. its 10 book i think? and the auther screen wrote for star trek. its not scifi. but its set in the modern world and so much fun to read. the first book in the set is called "So You Want To Be A Wizard" and there are 2 versions of the first 5 books. the auther rewrote them to better suite modern times and modern readers and also suit the time frame the books are set in
I would recommend boy at the end of the world. I don't remember the author but the book brought me many fun reads when I was too poor to afford anything internet.
![I Cut This Ship WAY TOO CLOSE - Hardspace: Shipbreaker [Full Release]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/-7h4aA3Zhv8/mqdefault.jpg)
![I Cut This Ship WAY TOO CLOSE - Hardspace: Shipbreaker [Full Release]](/img/tr.png)
The Bobiverse series, beggining with We Are Legion can get a bit grim sometimes, but is mostly just fun. Also has a unique central concept.
easily my favorite modern Scifi.
literally listening to this series for like my 5th time right now, absolutely incredible, the audiobooks are so so good
Oh i loved that
I'd recommend anything by Yahtzee Crowshaw, but Sci-Fi specifically his two Jaques McKewon books; 'Will Save the Galaxy For Food' & 'Will Destroy the Galaxy for Cash' are both a lot of fun. I'd suggest getting the audiobook versions however as they're read by Yahtzee himself.
Then there's Sandy Mitchell's Caiphas Cain books, set in the Warhammer 40k universe but with a lighter than usual tone and concerning an Imperial Commissar doing anything humanly possible to not find himself on the front-lines yet still somehow being perceived as a hero to his men.
The Bobiverse books are really good once it gets going, but the protagonist is insufferable for the first few chapters so you just need to stick with it initially.
Book suggestion: Snow Crash. Awesome story, amazing characters, overall a great read. Like an adult Ready Player 1
oh yeah I remember that one
Murderbot Diaries, a fun sci-fi series from the point of view of the security droid rather than the humans. :D also the star cat series by Andrew Mackay. I am just starting the Robot Empire series by Kevin Partner. He has done some really good sci fi shorts so really looking forward to it. His Eldorado short was a good look into his writing style if you want to try him without getting into a full series!
Wholeheartedly agree.
murderbot is fun but the way they separated a single long book into like 6 or so smaller ones makes it horrendously expensive to read what should be a single book.
The Expanse is pretty good, but Bobiverse is more fun. Highly mood-dependant which one i prefer on a given day.
WHAT do you mean "where is the enemy gate?"
The enemy gate is down Bean. It is always down.
Usually lurk but I'll always recommend some sci-fi books. My favorite book and what I recommend everybody read is Hyperion by Dan Simmons. If it keeps your attention then read the sequel as well.
Weird, interesting, and fun.
The Bobiverse series by Dennis E Taylor.
Software engineer because a Von Neumann probe and goes to explore the universe.
The name of the series belies how good the series is.
The Perfect Run by Maxime J. Durand. Post-post apocalyptic sci-fi adventure with time travelling and amazing story telling. Characters are exceptionally fleshed out, the humor is great, and the story itself is memorable and riveting. Character growth and relationship developments are phenomenal as well. Highly recommend.
Oh I liked that one a lot, very enjoyable.
expeditionary force is amazing, been following the series in audiobook format for years. highly suggest it that way as well as the narrator does an absolutely amazing job.
Also read all of Discworld. I personally recommend publication order. But there are flowcharts
I grew up reading Anne McCaffrey books and her Brainship series, while not as well known as the Dragonriders of Pern series, has always held a special place in my heart.
It would fit the game super well to have much of the story hidden behind voluntary radio calls with one of the coworkers, but you also get charged like $500.000 per minute of conversation so you are incentivised to listen to these people but you are also making your life harder through in-game rules that fit the general setting.
when I get my scifi manuscript published into a proper novel, I'll let you know.
not sure if you've read it or someone's already suggested but the expanse books are really good. the first one is Leviathan Wakes Im pretty sure. there is also a show on Amazon prime which is incredible.
also vicious by VE Schwab is a really fun read. not space sci fi but still cool. bit more dark though
@@noahg8868 can agree with both of these
There is a series called Battletech, with space travel and mech fights
Daniel Suarez: Daemon and especially Freedom™ are awesome books that sometimes hit a little too close to home nowadays...But showing a possible happy ending to the future
I can concur with that
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky! The best sci-fi book I have ever read.
If web serials are also good, I'd recommend Deathworlders. It currently has 87 chapters with 1 given every month and while I found the first half much better, it's still good.
And the prologue chapter "The Kevin Jenkins Experience" even has a bunch of official and unofficial spin offs.
Wait its on 87 now? Jeeze I dropped of around 65 or so. Looks like I have some catching up to do.
I have been reading the kevin Jenkins universe (all the ([un]official) spinoffs, and haven't even gotten to the first chapter of the Deathworlders series.
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.
The Honor Harrington series by David Weber.
The Dahak Trilogy also by Weber.
Path of the Fury, also by Weber.
The Lt. Leary/RCN series by David Drake.
The Brainship series by Anne McCaffery.
The Crystal Singer series by McCaffery.
The Planet Pirates series by McCaffery (with Jody Lynn Nye and Elizabeth Moon).
The Mode series by Piers Anthony.
Apprentice Adept series and Incarnation of Immortality series also by Piers Anthony.
Just remembered another one... Permanence by Karl Schroeder... great book if you're interested in the concept of sub-light interstellar travel.
Also, for old-school hard science fiction I would suggest looking up the author Larry Niven.
ooh, and if you want a sci fantasy drug trip, read The Iron Dragon's Daughter. I cannot remember the author but it is one hell of a book from start to finish. basic premise: orphan gets into co dependent psychologically abusive relationship with an Elven fighter jet.
What... that description sounds terrible and ridiculous and I'm not sure whether I like it or hate it
Light reading: the entire gamelit genre
Medium reading: Everything by Charles Stross. He does fantasy, soft and hard scifi.
Heavy reading: Blindsight by Peter Watts
Hard scifi first contact, focuses on neurodivergent characters. Ended up being recommended reading for neuroscience graduate students.
Bonus: Red Sister by Mark Lawrence
Seems like grimdark fantasy/magic school slice of life but actually is a new depth of grimdark sci-fi.
Recently finished Blindsight. It's an awesome book.
"There's just so many layers of things you need to do to do the next thing" I've never felt anything harder in my life
Of Men and Dragons by Steve Hayden is my latest sci-fi obsession. There's a second book being published in the near future, and at least a third planned. I love it
A good series that I've been enjoying, and is available on audible, is The Fixer series. The first book is "Ordinance" and it covers PTSD and healing from trauma as well as having really good intrigue and scifi cyborg times.
When I was younger I always liked a series of books called 'The Stainless Steel Rat' by Harry Harrison. Quick reads, lighthearted, always fun for me.
There's a subreddit called HFY, full of sci-fi short stories and long space epics. And some fantasy too. All about humans interacting with aliens, most of which think we are crazy.
I've been watching a youtuber that gets permission to narrate those stories.
@@manitobanmisanthrope2495 Net narrator?
@@oliver5461 Agro Squerril
Wander if you see this I second HFY as a whole and suggest the quarantine series for its incredibly fleshed out universe and its premise.
Scifi books I'd recommend:
Radio Freefall by Matthew Jarp - it's a sci-fi techno thriller with a heavy rock and roll theme. Found it one day while out on deployment, the rock and roll immediately stuck out to me, and this book has stuck with me.
Titans by Edward R Robertson - I can't really remember much about it, but it was free at the time on kindle years ago. I do remember enjoying it quite a bit.
Non-scifi recommendation:
Fool by Christopher Moore - another deployment find that I absolutely fell in love with. It's a modern take on Shakespeare that is absolutely amazing.
And if you're in the mood for trashy sci-fi romances, I have a few authors I could recommend.
Best sci-fi I’ve ever read is the Vorkosigan Saga. It’s a 14 book series, but you can read it in any order, the books are all pretty self contained. The story follows Miles Vorkosigan from when he’s 16 and accidentally forms an interstellar mercenary armada to his late adulthood. Honestly I’m not a big fan of sci-fi, but I loved this series. Miles is one of the best written characters I’ve ever read.
wait for the title are you saying to read or to write? if the latter then why not do a diary style book from the cutters perspective?
Highly suggest Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Silly feel good sci-fi but really well thought out and the audible is incredibly voice acted.
The Integral trees. Bunch of humans who live in a gas torus around a neutron star but have regressed back to essentially the Stone Age really cool book really cool and unique concept.
Heart of the comet. I think this one skirts the not dour line but it’s genuinely one of my favorite sci-fi books. This is because it doesn’t rely on quantum magic technology to solve every problem. Essentially a large group of people are sent to colonize and mine a comet but they find it is already populated by simple but robust life forms things evolve from there.
When you said where’s the enemy gate was that a Enders game reference?!?! I love that book lol
I just finished book one of Beware of Chicken by Casualfarmer on Kindle which is about a Xiaxian Protag deciding to run off to be a farmer and the slice of life shenanigans that follow. The second book is in editing and hopefully will be released later this year or early next year.
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. It's a sci-fi series of love letters written by competing nearly immortal, time travelling, shape-shifting spies. Each character was written by one author who would complete a chapter, email it to the other author, and they took turns like that until the book was finished. Very unique experience.
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells are an absolutely delightful set of short stories and a book. It's a series about a security cyborg that hacked it's "Asimov's Laws" module that just wants to watch soap operas all day.
Otaku by Chris Kluwe. Pretty solid cyberpunk novel by a former NFL pro. While most pro sports players blow their money on sports cars and bars, Kluwe bought magic cards and ran WoW raids. The WoW experience really comes through in the book. The other two are strong recommends. This is more along the lines of "if your library has it and you like cyberpunk, check it out."
When in doubt, just grab a Hugo/Nebula finalist. I really dig short story anthologies. Just finished The New Voices of Science Fiction and it was quite good.
Im currently reading through "Sentenced to war" by J.N. Chaney and Jonathan P. Brazee. On book 5/9, I'm really enjoying the series so far and looking forward to the next books.
If you're looking for really long series, Honor Harrington is like 19 books and really well written, almost all the sci-fi bits are based on one single "magic" mechanism being used in different ways. Genuinely a really fun read and lots of reading to do.
Also, check out Rendevous with Rama, and Isaac Asiimov and Arthur C. Clarke both wrote a bunch of really good Sci-fi books back in the early to mid 1900s.
Warformed: Stormweaver by Bryce O'Connor and Luke Chmilenko
More of a webseries than a book, but 17776 aka What Football Will Look Like in the Future by Jon Bois is really good. Might not be as Sci-Fi as other stories that will get suggested (the nanos are by far the most Sci-Fi thing in the story) but still a great read.
Juice, my beloved
Here's a book series suggestion that is mostly just dumb fun, but also an interesting read in my opinion: The Hard Luck Hank series by Steven Campbell. Its about a guy with a mutation that basically makes him a walking tank and all the hijinks that he gets caught up in as a result.
The Unincorporated Man. Pretty interesting read, never really got into the sequels but I remember enjoying it
Sci fi Space-Related book suggestion, quite cheap and first book of over 15 books currently is free on amazon (audiobook also free for first book):
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins: A Collected Trilogy
One of my favorite space book series. Family friendly, action packed, and pretty unknown.
Also, the Confluence series is quite great as well! (Also on amazon)
I have two book recommendations for you and I'd recommend them in the order I've listed them:
1st - Will Save the Galaxy for Food
by Yahtzee Croshaw
2nd - Master of Formalities
by Scott Meyer
I'd be interested to know if you've heard of them and what you think of them.
For Sci-Fi stuff, I'd recommend Sword of Dawn, which is kinda a science fantasy set in a magical world and the theme is more about civilization development through technological revolution (and killing gods, by the way). The only catch is, it's in Chinese. But with how popular it gets in China maybe there'll be an English version in the future.
Book suggestion: Consider Phlebas and the Culture series in general. Its a bit of a tricky read, but its got great characters and has Fully Automated Luxury Stoner Space Communism, whats not to love?
I completely recommended The Culture series, and depnding on if you want an action start or just a straight jump in to the Culture either being Consider Phlebas or Player of Games.
And The Murderbot Diaries, starting with All Systems Red.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, a look at human life from the perspective of uplifted animal intelligence humanity seeded throughout the galaxy.
The Alcantarans- i will ALWAYS reccomend this. A slaver species(bugs) takes a human in a pre-alien contact earth, and through a series of very fortunate experiences, (as well as the bugs ignoring the fact that the human might just be smart enough to plan with other aliens), to take an ancient civilization's super advanced ship and start a trading agency/bug raider raiders. staring: Ron, a middle-aged metalworker human. Tik(Tic, I forget the exact) a cat-based technology expert. and Gus, a fairly smart Sandstone brute.
Books recommendations:
Fantasy:
The Warded Man (Painted Man in USA) by Peter V Brett {Book 1 in Demon Cycle series}
The Furies of Calderaan by Jim Butcher {Book 1 in Codex Alera series}
Steam punk fantasy:
The Aeronauts Windlass by Jim Butcher
Sci-fi naval-esque
Honor Harrington series
Thank you for recommending *the aeronauts windlass* I bought it due to this comment as I know of very little steampunk (or any similar genres) literature, I would argue that it's probably more accurate to call it something like aetherpunk doe to the lack of much of any steam powered stuff, but eh that's semantics
@@bookreaderman6715, I'd say that's fair, and I've learnt a new genre name today
@@snyparaustralis540 glad to hear, also I find it funny that the thing I was most hyped about during the last section of the book was that there was actually finally technobable of some kind
You should read "Binti" by Nnedi Okorafor for some Nigerian sci-fi, and "Sinopticon" edited by Xueting Christine Ni which is a collection of amazing Chinese sci-fi short stories.
I've been feeling the allergy "I can't exist today" blues. Oregon has so much damn pollen right now.
Crater by Homer Hickman. I'll describe it as long-haul trucking on the moon I haven't read it in awhile but I remember enjoying it, has small details in it that add realism here and there.
Anything John Scalzi. Also look into the audiobooks. Several of them are read by Wil Wheaton who reads them with a snarky sarcastic tone that is perfect for Scalzi’s books.😁
A bit late to the party, but The Illuminae Files is hands down my favorite book series. To completely upfront, it *is* a young-adult series, but it steers clear of most cliches that the niche is known for, and when the cliches do show up, they almost always get overshadowed by the unique way the books are formatted. A good part of the storytelling is visual in nature- I’m certain that the two authors had to get a graphic designer to help them with stuff, and it works so well. Also, every single swear word is blacked out army-mail-censorship style because in-universe “professionalism,” which is honestly just a hilarious running joke considering how intense the cussing gets at times and the thinly veiled sex jokes some of the characters text to each other.
God, my mind was blown by the formatting in those books, it was brilliant.
A neat sci-fi book is Seveneves, by Neal Stephenson. A funky Sci-fi/science fantasy is Lord of Light, by Roger Zelazny
vatta's war by elizabeth moon is probably one of my favorite storys
Have you read the series, Red Rising? It starts of a little depressing, but changes quickly. I love that series.
If it's something different you're looking for, C.S. Lewis's space trilogy might be worth a look
Interesting recommendation
Have you read the hyperion saga. That is some good sci fi books
Book suggestion: The Lazarus War by Jamie Sawyer.
Imagine a war against a Tyranid-like enemy using clone soldiers with a dash of Star Wars.
I like the way the tell you how much each item is worth as you salvage it or destroy it now
If you're into military science fiction, I would definitely recommend both the 'Looking Glass' series and the 'Troy Rising' series both by John Ringo. They're both near future Sci-fi settings with some cool first contact stuff and both series that take some new spins on the old sci-fi tropes in a neat way.
totally on board with both. I love his logistical approach to military sci fi. also I really enjoyed The Last Centurion
Lois McMaster Bujold (anything). Richard Morgan (also anything, but of course the Altered Carbon Universe)Matthew Woodring Stover (Heroes Die and The Blade of Tyshall to start) John Ringo (either start with A Hymn Before Battle and go through the Posleen War, or read the Troy Rising trilogy, or read his zombie series which starts with To Sail a Darkling Sea, I think)
also The Mote in God's eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournell.
and lastly War Day by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka.
There is an author named David Brin. Great author. Wrote a series called the uplift series, dealing with giving sentience to non-sentient species. Space travel, galatic politics.
I can recommend the well known answer of *hitchhikers guide to the galaxy* as well as a random more contemporary book by Christopher Paolini (the author of Eragon) *to sleep in a sea of stars* a book that if I remember correctly is somewhat decent if not necessarily amazing, unfortunately I've been reading a lot of fantasy recently a large percentage of which is written by Sanderson whom I remember you mentioning that you didn't especially care for so I can't give many recommendations in that area
TLDRish (including my own replies and some extras)
*hitchhiker's guide* (obviously)
*To sleep in a sea of stars* (Christopher Paolini author of Eragon)
*mechanical failure* (Joe Zieja, quite silly)
Andy Weir (probably already know, author of *the Martian* and *project hail Mary* )
William Hertling (author, near future sci-fi dealing with AI and sort of "optimistically dour?" Iirc, where the tone isn't necessarily ideal for what you want)
Daniel Suarez (author, also nearish future and definitely not the tone you requested but quite good)
*Mechanical failure* by Joe Jieja was also entertaining and definitely fits a similar niche to hitchhiker's (sillier sci-fi) albeit with notably less skill and a largely different sense of humor
Wow I saw your question and decided "but what if unnecessarily verbose" huh
And I hit play again and was immediately called out about Sanderson, entirely fair I'm very guilty of that
If anyone is still reading at this point Andy Weir and William Hertling are also both quite good authors
Now I feel like I've adequately defended my choice of username sorry for being so messy about it
Bit late but if you've never heard of them before the Perry Rhodan series is a ridiculously long running Sci Fi story with a surprisingly enjoyable plot. Basically the One Piece of Sci Fi with how much of it there is out there.
If you haven’t read the Red Dwarf books i highly recommend them, incredibly funny but also quite heartwarming in places.
'The moon is a harsh mistress' is good so is 'Trading in danger'
the moon is a harsh mistress in my opinion may be the PERFECT sci fi book. I know everyone is like "stranger in a strange land is so good" but heinlein hit his absolute peak with The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
I particularly enjoyed chrysalis by beaverfur on reddit. Dust also did a reading of it on their podcast if you prefer it in audio form. One of the best tales of revenge and redemption in my opinion. Not bad for what started as a reddit post
Loved that one
Book suggestion. Spinward Fringe by Randolph Lalonde. A multi-book series and the first 3 ‘Broadcast’ are free to download. An easy read with some fantastic characters.
The Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold, the Spiral Wars by Joel Shepherd, the Exordium series.
Book: Webmind by Robert Sawyer. One of my favourite near-future sci-fi books. Follow it by Scythe and the similarities are a little creepy. If you enjoy speculative fiction I'd recommend some of his other books too like Game Changer. Although now I am getting off topic.
Yeah, love death and robots does often overdo it in some pretty downer ways. Same way as black mirror I feel significantly worsens the country's tech paranoia, as if we needed more lol
I recommend The Moon Trilogy by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The same author behind Tarzan and John Carter but I don't think many people know that collection.
Timothy Zahn and Jack Campbell were writers whose sci-fi books I enjoyed
Those little red lights can also be sent to the barge.
BioWar by Paolo Baccigalupi (I think that's the English title) kinda bleak throughout but a good ending.
And The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by... err, one of the SF grandmasters. Good look into orbital mechanics and using these for strikes to get back at The Man.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is AMAZING so, bump.
The Perfect Run by Maxime J. Durand. Crazy time loop shenanignens and post apocalyptic super powers.
Fantastic webnovel. Read it weekly for the whole run and loved every chapter.
Neuromancer. It’s credited for popularizing the cyberpunk genre and is the inspiration for the Matrix. At the same time though it’s far enough away from the matrix that’s it’s a completely fresh experience. I could not put it down
A really good sci-fi book is Gunpowder Moon by David Pedreira. It’s about what will happen if the first murder on the moon occurs
Book: “Nest of Worlds” by Marek S. Huberath (a Polish physics professor). Ir has a very intriguing metafictive premise, books (worlds) being nested inside other books which somehow lead to a mathematical equation for God…
Sifi book suggestions:
Eric Flint
Ring of fire series
First book title: 1632
An entire small town in the US dissappears and is transported to the year 1632 in Germany. Right in the middle of the 100 years war. Now the town has to survive with all of today's knowledge and none of its resources except those that where in the town.
My time has come. You'll want to read Martha Well's Murderbot Protocols, Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice series, pretty much everything from Andy Weir (The Marian, Artemis, etc), The Binti series by Nnedi Okorafor is pretty good. I've heard good things about Annihilation Aria, Children of Time, The Three-Body Problem, and The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.
I would argue that Artemis is a weaker link in Wiers writing but still decent (also your time has come? Lol)
@@bookreaderman6715 look, someone asks me for book recs, I go feral. I enjoyed Artemis but not as much as The Martian. It's not bad for a heist book!
@@FreyaPlaysGames oh yeah I get that, have you read *Project Hail Mary* yet? It's Andy Weir's newest book, and it's at least on par with the Martian
@@bookreaderman6715 It's on my list, my mom says it's great, but I'm making myself read more of the books I already own before I buy it
@@FreyaPlaysGames yeah fair, that makes sense
I think you mentioned you're near Arlington. I'm not far from there myself, allergies have been *horrible* this month
Book suggestions: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie and Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Expanse is really great sci-fi, show is great except really first two episodes though only goes up to roughly book 6 but does have some of if not the best VFX to date, at least by season 6 and was top tier throughout. That’s one of the reasons it was not renewed past the original 6 season contract, was getting too expensive, and I’ve heard really great things about books too
Ringworld by Larry Niven, I've been listening to the audiobook on RUclips
Here you are... Commonwealth saga, Old Man's War, Lucifer's Hammer, Wool-Silo series, Revelation Space. (old school situation :p)
Book suggestion - Kevin J Anderson's The Saga of Seven Suns. Really good space opera.
The Alchemists of Loom is a good book, more fantasy than sci-fi, but still really good. It's the first book of a 3 part series, found it in some tiny little random book store in... i wanna say Denver. I've read the first 2 books so far and I love them
i know the second book has a spicy scene, not sure if the first one does, so just fair warning if that's not your cup of tea.
Really cool world building and a great ideas, i would recommend it 100 times over
Dungeon crawler Carl, is a mix of sci/fi and fantasy author is Matt Dinniman
If you're looking for indie authors specifically, there are a few websites out there that are kind of post as you write. They also tend to be free. My favorite is royal road, which primarily does fantasy, but has some scifi as well.
I'm specifically using that website for exactly one (likely abandoned unfortunately) web novel called spellgun that is Really solid, I hope it's continued because it was headed (logically slowly) to some really fun artifice
SW true canon lore: Expanded Universe series. Best ones IMO are DeathTroopers, Millenium Falcon, Unifying Force and Rogue/Ghost Squadron trilogies.
Check out Austin Grossman. "Soon I will be Invincible!" And Redshirts, by John Scallazi (can't remember the spelling of his name)
Foreigner series by CJ Cherryh, Polity series by Neal Asher, just as a start
It's been a couple of decades, but I suggest the Stainless Steel Rat series by Harry Harrison. I don't remember anything problematic about the story or author, but it was a long time ago. I do remember that it made me laugh when I read it, so it stuck with me.
one of my fav boos series is the Young Wizards set. its 10 book i think? and the auther screen wrote for star trek. its not scifi. but its set in the modern world and so much fun to read. the first book in the set is called "So You Want To Be A Wizard" and there are 2 versions of the first 5 books. the auther rewrote them to better suite modern times and modern readers and also suit the time frame the books are set in
Book Suggestion: Hardback Bookbreaker. You really need to dismantle it page by page to get to the real core of the book
Book suggestions Aeon 14 series can be fun and the kutherian gambit series is absolutely hilarious
A Memory Called Empire, and it's sequel, A Desolation Called Peace are both great, both by a relatively new author Arkady Martine
I would recommend boy at the end of the world. I don't remember the author but the book brought me many fun reads when I was too poor to afford anything internet.