Soliciting scifi/fantasy book recommendations to read while traveling this week.
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@Mayobrot been keeping up with these, big fan
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Some specific recommendations from these authors, to give back a bit
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge is a book I've read three times and consider essential reading for any sci-fi fans and in particular hackers -- it has space usenet! It's an epic space opera with an incredible setting and a gripping conflict on a galactic scale which many sci-fi novels promise but few deliver on.
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@drewdevault I have recently felt a strong need for my escapism to let me escape into a cozier, friendlier world rather than into a more exciting and action-packed one, and Travis Baldree's "Legends & Lattes" (and its prequel "Bookshops & Bonedust") was great for that. What if a mighty orc barbarian ... decides to retire from adventuring and open a coffee shop?
A more conventional sf recommendation: Frank M. Robinson's "The Dark Beyond The Stars".
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A fire upon the deep is the best. If you like that you may like house of suns.
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From Alastair Reynolds, I recommend Revelation Space and A House of Suns; the former is better known but the latter is a personal favorite. Revelation Space is a sci-fi novel that you don't realize is actually a horror novel until you're gripping your seat. House of Suns is a story which is mostly reliant on a cool premise, but the premise is really interesting and an intriguing setting emerges from it.
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@32e1827635450ebb3c5a7d12c1f8e7b2b514439ac10a67eef3d9fd9c5c68e245 I finished writing my recommendation of House of Suns just as your post came in
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Hart of the Wudreplied to Drew DeVault last edited by
@drewdevault Ursula le Guin - "The Word for World is Forest"
als le Guin - "The Dispossessed"
Thomas McMahon - "Loving Little Egypt"
Roy Underhill - "Calvin Cobb Radio Woodworker"
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Drew DeVaultreplied to Drew DeVault last edited by [email protected]
From Tchaikovsky I recommend The Final Architecture trilogy. The first book opens with a moon-sized alien ship appearing in the solar system and turning the Earth into a giant, esoteric sculpture, then disappearing. No, they didn't have time to evacuate. The human diaspora scatters throughout the galaxy, regroups... and then a similar ship appears over another populated world.
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Drew DeVaultreplied to Hart of the Wud last edited by
@praxeology have read both le Guin's -- the Dispossessed and the Left Hand of Darkness are two of my favorite books
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Brian :python: :flask: :html5:replied to Drew DeVault last edited by
@drewdevault I enjoyed Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson. It's about the people aboard a generation ship.
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- Octavia Butler might be for you.
- N.K. Jemisin, pick anything but if you ask for specific recs. start with the "Great Cities"-Books or her short stories collected in "How long 'til black future month"
- "This is how you lose the time war" by Amal El Mohtar & Max Gladstone, had some buzz last(?) year and is great
- Martha Wells, The Murder Bot Diaries.
Her other stuff is good to great as well, esp. her most recent, Witch King. -
Someone reminded me to recommend Ursula le Guin. She wrote two of my all-time favorite books. The Dispossessed is a fascinating and honest look into an anarchocommunist society exiled to a planet neighboring a capitalist society.
The Left Hand of Darkness is the most fascinating and affecting tale of masculinity and gender that I've ever read.
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Drew DeVaultreplied to Brian :python: :flask: :html5: last edited by [email protected]
@brianb oh nice, Kim Stanley Robinson isn't one of my favorite authors but I've always enjoyed his books. Will pick this up
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Credit where it's due, the "someone" who reminded me of le Guin is @praxeology
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Brian :python: :flask: :html5:replied to Drew DeVault last edited by
@drewdevault I liked it more than the Mars trilogy (admittedly, I never finished the Mars series). It's a good look at what it might _actually_ be like to live on and maintain a ship that needs to survive hundreds of years.
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@einsiedlerspiel thanks! I've tried Butler but found it hard to get into, I think probably because Imago is not a great place to start. I have "time war" on my shelf waiting to be read!
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Drew DeVaultreplied to Drew DeVault last edited by [email protected]
And a lesser known recommendation: Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh. Not sure how to explain why I like it without spoiling it, but if you like sci-fi and you're a feminist take a look
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@drewdevault I only know le Guin from the first Earthsea novel which is easily one of my favorite fantasy stories
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@datarama @drewdevault Ohh, I loved the cosy feels of Legends & Lattes and Bookshops & Bonedust. For similar cosiness but more scifi you might want to take a look at Becky Chambers' Wayfarers series and Monk & Robot duology.
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@petrichor @drewdevault I liked Wayfarers a lot, but for some reason Monk & Robot didn't really do much for me, unfortunately.
