Soliciting scifi/fantasy book recommendations to read while traveling this week.
-
@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".
-
A fire upon the deep is the best. If you like that you may like house of suns.
-
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.
-
@32e1827635450ebb3c5a7d12c1f8e7b2b514439ac10a67eef3d9fd9c5c68e245 I finished writing my recommendation of House of Suns just as your post came in
-
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"
-
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.
-
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
-
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.
-
- 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.
-
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
-
Credit where it's due, the "someone" who reminded me of le Guin is @praxeology
-
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.
-
@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!
-
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
-
@drewdevault I only know le Guin from the first Earthsea novel which is easily one of my favorite fantasy stories
-
@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.
-
@petrichor @drewdevault I liked Wayfarers a lot, but for some reason Monk & Robot didn't really do much for me, unfortunately.
-
checking in to make sure you've read the greatest science fiction novel: A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M Miller Jr
-
@khm I have not, added to list
