Reply With QuoteStephen Baxter.
I used to love reading sci-fi but haven’t really read much for years. I enjoy fantasy but really prefer the space travel/ inter galactic war/ adventure side with a string scientific base - Dune etc. I used to love Asimov and Heinlein - who writes similar stuff in the modern era?
What would you recommend to get me restarted in the genre?
Many thanks.
Stephen Baxter.
So clever my foot fell off.
In case you haven’t read all the classics I would suggest Iain M. Banks and his Culture series. Starts with ”Consider Phlebas”
I’ve always enjoyed the Iain M Banks Culture series.
Edit - Too slow typing!
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The trilogy that started with Ann Leckie's 'Ancillary Justice' is very good and deals with machine intelligence where Asimov left off. Becky Chambers is very good and Charlie Stross is very clever but a bit marmite. I reckon all of these count as 'new' science fiction as they are actually responding to the future that has happened before extrapolating, rather than being stuck in a conception of 'The Future' that has changed little since the fifties.
If you have been out for ages, then Neal Stephenson has moments of genius, but even Tolkein would despair at the length and complexity of his later books. Try The Diamond Age to get you started. Nick Harkaway's 'Angelmaker' is superb and is one of the the very few books that might qualify as horologypunk. I agree with everyone else that the Culture novels are excellent, and The Player of Games is a good place to start, especially if you have read The Glass Bead Game.
The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons.
The best Sci fi books I've ever read. Dune was always up there for me but I absolutely loved this series.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_Cantos
Also the SF masterworks is a good list to work through.
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/6228.SF_Masterworks
Isaac Asimov - Foundation series.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
Funnily enough I re-read those last year for the first time since the 70’s. They haven’t aged well.Originally Posted by number2
Another vote for Iain Banks. Just don’t start with Feersum Endjinn. It’ll probably give you a headache.
Complete agreement on Hyperion - among the best. I also agree that Dune has aged well, Asimov less so.
Big fan of Nick Harkaway's work...not strictly, really sci fi, but Tigerman is a brilliant read, his new one Gnomon on AI and surveillance in near future Britain, so more on theme, is terrific.
imho few can touch Mr Banks AND Neal Stephenson is almost always thought provoking, currently reading his latest , Termination Shock...excellent, on the theme of climate catastrophe and one man's radical solution.
Last edited by Passenger; 31st July 2022 at 11:41.
Greg Egan books have strong scientific background ,incandesense and quarantine might be what you are looking for
Blindside by Peter watts also pretty good
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Maybe not what the OP was looking for, but I liked The Traveller by John Twelve Hawks.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
Alastair Reynolds' "Revelation Space" is great if you like harder sci-fi, Peter F. Hamilton or Neal Asher if you prefer balls to the wall, over the top space opera with a cast of thousands :)
Stephen Baxter’s NASA trilogy is particularly good, especially Voyage and Titan - first manned missions to Mars and Titan respectively, using NASA era technology.
Eon by Greg Bear was good enough to read twice many years ago.
Robert Sheckley is my favourite SF author and very hard to beat for short stories.
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Last edited by stefmcd; 31st July 2022 at 17:18.
Peter f Hamilton. Fallen dragon is great, commonwealth saga is good spin-offs are also good but veer into fantasy kind of. Honourable mention for the Greg Mandel series too.
Richard k Morgan. Altered carbon books. Far better than the ok tv series. Market forces is kind of fun. Black man is superb as is its sequel.
I’ll also mention 2 past greats.
The godfather Robert Heinlein, yes he can be a little controversial but the moon is a harsh mistress is a stone cold classic and if you can get into his Lazarus long and world as myth books they are fun to read although where a lot of the controversy lies. Starship troopers and his other stand alones are good if you can separate the politics.
Larry Niven. His shorts and known space books are where he shines. Ringworld is good as is his leshy circuit? Which started with the short rammer and expanded, also protector is good too. His other full novels I find a bit meh…
Iain M Banks without a doubt. Any of his "The Culture" books.
Stephen Baxter is good for a sense of awe, like Niven or Arthur C Clarke, but not so good for character building. The Xeelee are remarkable for a super advanced alien species. Though they are really only touched on in many of his Xeelee series books.
I am at a loss, since the passing of the late great, Iain M Banks, for sci fi. The closest I got to was a sort of Culture lite couple of books by Charles Stross, called "Singularity Sky" and "Iron Sunrise."
I remember now that I did read some Iain Banks years ago.
Many thanks to everyone for these suggestions, I was standing in front of the SF shelves in Waterstones really not knowing what to choose - I've now got a great list to try.
I'll second the Alistair Reynolds "Revelation Space" series, plus "The Prefect + Elysium Fire" are good if you liked Asimov's 'science-fiction/detective' crossovers (much like Altered Carbon, for that matter)
You may struggle to find them now, but it is hard to beat David Brin's "Uplift" sextet.
Ian M Banks, of course -- Excession was my favourite...
Peter Watts -- Blindsight and Echopraxia -- fantastic! Why do Canadian scientists write such bleak SF/Fantasy? I'm looking at you, Steven Erikson!
The Expanse (The whole 9 Books) - James S.A . Corey. Top draw
If you can get a copy of the paperback "Blakes 7" by terry Nation & Trevor Hoyle you should. Yes we all know the story and the book is essentially just a novelisation of the TV script for the first series. But it is an absolutely cracking read.
Adrian Tchaikovsky - Children of Time. Not quite hard sci-fi, but rooted in a lot of science about insects, AI, evolution etc. Absolutely stunning book. Plot from Wiki
"The book's plot involves a planet inhabited by evolved spiders (Portia labiata) uplifted by human scientist Avrana Kern, and their much later discovery by the last humans alive in the universe. The work plays off the contrast between the societal development of the spiders and the barbaric descent of the starship crew of the last humans."
We read it for our Sci Fi book club and it was loved by all. Quite long, so enough to get your teeth into.
Follow up Children of Ruin also excellent. He's also published a couple called Dogs of War/Bear Head about experimental work bio-engineering animals for war.
He's won the Arthur C Clark award, and I've not read anything bad by him. He does some fantasy, but I've not really any interest in that.
Fantasy fiction not science fiction though.
Agreed AT's Children of Time was hugely enjoyable...also liked Dog's and Bear Head, Honey is a terrific character.
Red Mars / Green Mars / Blue Mars Kim Stanley Robinson
The colonisation of Mars in the near future and the decline of Earth. Scientific and believable with great descriptions of life on Mars.
How about a bit of Brandon Q Morris? More of your hard science sci fi compared to Banks, but a great read nonetheless.
Maybe not exactly what you are looking for, but I enjoyed Dark Eden by Chris Beckett
When you've read all of the above suggestions give The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin a go, if you haven't read it before.
Lots of good recommendations already on this thread: second Asher, Banks, Chambers, Corey and Reynolds for sure.
I don’t think I’d class any of the following as “hard” Sci-Fi necessarily, but still very enjoyable with well thought out universes.
One author who doesn’t appear to have been mentioned yet is John Scalzi - his Old Man’s War and Interdependency series are definitely worth a read: some interesting ideas and a dark sense of humour. His other works are well worth a read too.
Collie Willis’ To Say Nothing of the Dog, Doomsday Book and Blackout/All Clear - which follow time travelling Oxford historians are a good read.
I found Anne E Currie’s Panopticon series very enjoyable.
I’ve yet to read the final part of the trilogy, but Cixin Liu’s The Three Body Problem trilogy is well regarded. It’s a little harder to read, as the translation from its original Chinese has to introduce a certain amount of cultural context, but it’s worth the effort.
The top one for me!
Second The Long Earth series by collaborators Stephen Baxter and Terry Pratchett
I always find it curious that sci-fi is not more popular. If you've read much of the huge amount available during your life then the current world situation isn't so much of a bizarre surprise.
Loved this.
Joe Haldeman - The Forever War - and its sequels: Forever Free, Forever Peace.
Once again, many thanks to all - I've a few years of reading suggestions here.
Really enjoyed reading this:
The Time Ships
by Stephen Baxter.
Highly recommend it =)
If you've got a kindle some of the SF Masterworks are on sale for 99p.
https://www.hotukdeals.com/share-deal-from-app/3978010
Great heads up.
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You could try French writer Réné Barjavel's La Nuit des Temps (translated into English as The Ice People). A French antarctic expedition discovers a 900,000 year-old civilisation under the ice.
Ravage is another good one.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Not modern but Harlan Ellison springs to mind. The Beast Who Shouted Love at the Heart of the World is superb. It's a short story but the rest of the collection is as good.
I've just checked Amazon and someone thinks the same Pan edition I have is worth £22. I think it cost me 65p in a Heart Foundation shop.
+1
After haranguing the local library for months they've finally bought in 'Memory's Legion' which is a collection of short stories from the Expanse series by James S A Corey. There's something je ne sais quoi about getting a virgin book from the library.
Not usually keen on SciFi but that looks interesting. Unfortunately doesn’t seem readily available in English - unless someone knows differently!
You're right it seems, I hadn't realised. Apparently out of print in English. I had a quick look on Amazon UK - just a couple of ridiculously overpriced second-hand copies and nothing on Ebay UK, no e-book versions I can find either. Perhaps ask at your local library.
It's not really a science fiction book per se, SF was just a way for Barjavel to approach themes like reliance on technology, the fall of civilisations and the futility of war. The latter resulting from his experiences during WW2.
Worth finding if you can.
Thanks for looking, I'll keep a look out!
BTW I find the term 'science fiction' bit of a misnomer - just a label for novel perhaps set in the future with not really any science involved.
Iain Banks “Culture” series has been mentioned numerous times above, is there a particular order the books should/ought to be read? Start with the first book (“Consider Phlebas”) and work one’s way through?
Thank you
(Hope I’m not hijacking the original thread, happy to remove if follow-ups are against forum rules)
Last edited by DanielBB; 14th August 2022 at 11:15.
Don’t quote me on this, but they are all pretty much standalone in terms of the plots. I wouldn’t have thought you need to read Consider Phlebas first. OMMV.
I think of all of the Culture novels, Excession is my favorite, followed perhaps by Matter.
"Consider Phlebas," is a great start, but it reads like a fast paced space opera, which it is. Many say that the best way of getting into Iain's style of prose and story telling is "The Player of Games," and to read the others from there, as his style really develops from there. They require a fair bit of concentration. "Consider Phlebas," is a great book, but I feel personally that Iain begins his particular way of storytelling in "The Player..." Either way enjoy yourself with them.
Thank you, ordered them both now to start. Holiday coming up so this is perfect timing for me.
Came here to learn about watches, serendipitous to find out about good SF novels as well.
The Player of Games is a great place to start.
Was going to suggest the same, although I understand some of the ideas are somewhat frowned upon these days, so perhaps buy it while you can...
M
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