I have read a TON of contemporary SciFi authors. I really enjoy
Stuff I like
Iain M. Banks
I liked the Martha Wells Murderbot books.
I loved We Are Legion, We Are Bob and have read all the books by him.
I like Alastair Reynolds. I liked the Poseidon’s Children trilogy better than Revalation Space Series (but I liked that too).
I really like G. S. Jennsen - even though she’s cheesy. I think I like her because of her progressive attitude and powerful female characters.
I like Charles Stross, but I didn’t like Accelerando. I like his other books a lot.
I liked A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine.
I like Corey Doctorow, sometimes. Walkaway was good.
I like Daniel Suarez, most of the time for similar reasons.
I REALLY liked the Nexus series by Ramez Naam.
I liked the Red Rising books by Pierce Brown and I’ve really been enjoying the Sollan Empire books by Christopher Ruocchio, which I think are similar and even better.
I like Adrian Tchaikovsky and really liked The Final Architecture books and Doorways to Eden.(I didn’t get that into Children of Time though).
I usually like Neil Stephenson. (The Fall or Dodge In Hell is quite a tedious book).
I’ve liked everything I’ve read by Verner Vinge.
I liked Hyperion like everybody else. Unlike everybody else, I think I liked the Endymion books even better.
I read some Ken MacLeod (the first Corporation Wars book) and it was fine… but I haven’t felt like going back.
I REALLY enjoy John Scalzi, though I found the Old Man’s War books started to get stale after a while. It’s high calorie, low nutrition brain candy, but I know that going in and it passes the time.
I really liked Derek Kunsken’s Quantum Magician books. And started reading his prequel series, set on Venus, and I couldn’t really get into it.
I enjoy Space Race books like Erik Flint / Ryk Spoor’s Boundary series, Saturn Run by John Sanford and Delta V by Daniel Suarez.
I love the Expanse.
I find Kim Stanley Robinson hit or miss. I really enjoyed the Mars books and The Years of Rice and Salt was fun (though a little tedious). 2312 drags and drags and nothing happens and Aurora is the same AND also sad.
I liked Permanence by Karl Schroeder. It could have used a little more… conflict? I had this same problem with Becky Chambers. The characters are all too well intentioned and the dramatic tension suffered a little.
I read all the Star Kingdom books by Lindsay Buroker. I thought they were a super fun adventure that just kept delivering from the beginning of the series to the end, even if it was clearly aimed at a more YA demographic.
I REALLY liked Velocity Weapon and the sequels by Megan O’Keefe. I found her Steam Punk series much less impressive. I’ve been meaning to try her galactic empire series, but I haven’t quite been in the mood to start it.
I read Sue Burke’s Semiosis Duology. I wasn’t expecting to like it but I really did! The physical science aspects were a little softer than I would have liked, but the biological science was really cool, as was the anarcho-pacifist political philosophy.
I read Yoon Ha Lee’s Ninefox Gambit and the sequels. I thought they were really fun, I wish they’d explored Calendrical technology more.
I thought the Neo G books by KB Wagers (A Pale Light in the Black and sequels) were good. Her characters are great. But again, very light on the sciences and technology. I’m in the mood for something harder. Also, not realistic that the champion hand to hand fighter in the entire Earth space military is a 110 pound woman, but I just pretended she’s cyber enhanced.
I just finished the Wormwood trilogy (Rosewater and sequels) by Tade Thomson. They were great.
Stuff I Don’t Like
Orson Scott Card did not age well, unlike Timothy Zahn, who’s gotten a lot more progressive in his story telling in the last two decades.
I don’t like Niel Asher. His in your face Libertarianism and conservative ideology annoys me, which is too bad because other than that he’s a good story teller.
I find Peter F. Hamilton hit or miss for the same reason. But I really liked Pandora’s Star.
I find AG Riddle hit or miss. I like his thought experiments, but he doesn’t really care if his stories / characters are logically consistent. Ramez Naam and Daniel Suarez do what Riddle does but WAAAY better.
I didn’t like Blindsight. I know, this makes me some kind of heretic. I just didn’t find the idea of such a dysfunctional crew being entrusted with such an important mission believable.
I couldn’t get into Ann Leckie. I WANTED to like it, but I just didn’t find her writing very engaging. I’ve put the physical book down once AND turned the audio book off on a road trip.
I did not like Tamsyn Muir.
I did not like the Three Body Problem, although I see the appeal and it’s nice to read something by a non western author. I found the pro Chinese politics a little too heavy handed.
I cannot get into Greg Egan. I find his writing style way too obtuse. Reading is Egan is like having a PHD in mathematics and a PHD in quantum physics, then going to Burning Man and doing 16 hits of acid.
I finally got around to trying The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet and I could NOT get into it. I agree with reviewers who complain nothing interesting ever happens.
People keep recommending Mary Robinette Kowal, but something about the alternate history just doesn’t grab me.
People keep recommending Ted Chiang. But I don’t want short stories (Murderbot somehow managed to be an exception). The longer the better.
People have recommended the Last Watch by J. S. Dewes, but others have told me things about the book that makes me think I won’t like it. Standing guard at the edge of the universe makes zero sense, I think by proposing it’s possible you lost me. Edge of the galaxy… Maybe, with 10 septillion robotic war ships. But edge of the universe? I think I’m out. If you know something I don’t about this book, feel free to say so.
I got you comrade.
Luna: New Moon by Iain McDonald. It’s most often described as “Game of Thrones in space”, which does convey the general tone of warring families well enough. But to a sci-fi fan, a better description would be “A deconstruction of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.” McDonald basically tears apart the libertarian politics of Heinlein’s book by imagining what a purely libertarian society would actually look like; the conclusion being, it would be fundamentally feudal. Hence, the Game of Thrones style politics of warring great houses / corporations.
What makes the books a worthy recommendation though is that they’re just incredibly well written. As well as constantly interrogating social and political questions, they’re note perfect character studies, with a huge cast of characters, every one of whom is richly drawn with layers upon layers of depth and complexity. It’s the kind of book where it’s hard to even figure out who the “villains” are because every characters’ worldview, intentions and desires are so well thought through. Instead you simply have a group of believable human beings cast into a complex situation, as the reader watches conflict inevitably arise from their differing goals and intentions.
And if all of that sounds very dry, the remarkable part is that it really isn’t. McDonald has plenty of fun with his premise, giving us a world of genetically engineered assassin flies, combat drones, dust bikers, werewolves, free-running water thieves, PhD ninjas, courtroom duels, and giant dicks drawn in lunar regolith.
(Yes, I am basically now just the guy who recommends this one book series every time, but I’m gonna keep doing it until more people know about it, because they’re just that damn good).
You sold that really well! Thank you.
A lot of sci Fi fans also get on well with Terry Pratchett. The audio books are really good, although I prefer Stephen Briggs who did the 2nd half to Nigel Planer. You can’t go wrong with Going Postal, it doesn’t rely on much from the earlier books, or Men at Arms if you wanted an earlier book in the discworld series.
If you wanted to stick to sci-fi, The Stars my Destination is one of my favorites, it’s a modern count of Monte Cristo. Speaker for the dead is also one of my favorites, the sequel to enders game.
I agree the Stephen Briggs and Nigel Planer audio versions of Discworld are very good, but the newer ones with Colin Morgan/Indira Varma/Sian Clifford, Peter Serafinowicz and Bill Nighy are over the top good. I generally steer clear of “full cast narration” but this isn’t that at all. Colin, Indira or Sian do the main narration, depending on if it’s a Witches book (Indira), Death book (Sian) or Wizard, etc. book (Colin), the author’s asides are Bill Nighy and Death is Peter Serafinowicz who absolutely nails the role.
Also- Terry Pratchett’s Bromeliad series is technically (very soft) sci-fi.
Sorry, not much help as you’ve read more widely than me, but you like the stuff I like and don’t like stuff that I don’t like, so you’ve given me a lot of books to add to my list :)
I align very much with your tastes, here are some you didn’t mention that I thoroughly enjoyed.
- Frontlines by Marlo Kloos. Military Sci-Fi, IMO better than both Old Man’s War and Expeditionary Force
- Palladium Wars, also by Kloos. More good military sci-fi
- Frost Files by Jackson Ford. Rollicking good time.
- Doors of Sleep by Tim Pratt. Superb portal sci-fi/fantasy. Skip the follow up.
- Mickey7 series by Edward Ashton. Clone hijinks.
- The Passage by Justin Cronin. Post apocalyptic sci-fi vampires.
- 14 by Peter Clines. I don’t want to say anything more than sci-fi apartment building. Give it a try.
Thank you! This is exactly the kind of response I was looking for!
14 is a page turner, perfect for traveling
The passage I had recommended to me by a friend who reviews books for a well known paper. It’s very well written and I also recommend the entire trilogy.
Andy Weir
I’m half way through the Martian from like a year and a half ago. I forgot it’s in my Audible. I could restart it. If I don’t finish something, there’s usually a reason and I don’t often go back. But I don’t remember why I switched away.
Project Hail Mary is really good
*Project Hail Mary is better!
Artemis is fun too
Bobiverse - I’ve just consumed these non stop worth the read. Expeditionary force - its 15 books !
For something outside your comfort zone but we’ll worh it Dunfeon Crawler Carl
Bobiverse - It’s up there on my list. I’ve also read Taylor’s other work.
Expeditionary Force - I started it… it would make a better Amazon Prime / Netflix series than book series.
Dungeon Crawler Carl - WTF?! Lol, how did I not know this exists! OMG! Hahaha… amazing. Maybe this is it.
If you end up liking Dungeon Crawler Carl, I’d also recommend the Completionist Chronicles by Dakota Krout, the first book is Ritualist. Based on what I know of DCC, they are both fairly silly LitRPGS.
I’ve been doing LitRPG (the realityTV of fantasy) for a while now, if you’re into it:
Just started Battle Mage Farmer, less stats and more proper fantasy story, not as meta. But engaging, and a unique way to cap MC overpowering.
He Who Fights With Monsters, on the sillier side but it has a lot of heart and 80s movie references.
Primal Hunter, about at textbook LitRPG as it comes, but I like most of the characters, I guess. Slow build, I think it’s on book 10 and nowhere near Max level.
Fifth Era Apocalypse. Most likely to stem directly from a DnD campaign rather than SNES JRPG.
System Universe. Most OP protagonist, it has a very popcorny Fast and Furious just go with it style.
Mayor of Noobtown, I think it was my first, and still lots of fun.
Kingmaker. My most recent, not as good as the rest but it’s still early. Has time to find it’s way.
Nope. Ascend Online, more mmoLitRPG, and also reminds me that I dabbled in more haremy LitRPG stuff before, mostly stuff by Harmon Cooper. Kinda feel dirty about those.
Have you read the Foundation series yet? I found the first book (chronologically written, not the universe timeline) a challenge to follow initially, but once I got into Asimov’s style I found the whole series quite enjoyable.
I just re read Foundation and it was better that I remembered. Heinlein and Asimov were going to be my recommendation. I Robot and the Caves of Steel books were great. Heinlein’s earlier works are so much fun. Have Spacesuit, Will Travel was the first scifi I ever read. Podkayne of Mars, Citizen of the Galaxy, all the pulp serial releases I love. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is one of my favorites. Stranger in a Strange Land was his last book that I really enjoyed, then he got weird and creepy. Time enough for love was just… Just no
I’ll recommend David Wong’s Zoey Ashe books, similar to Scalzi in style, and I would say similar to Snow Crash in world build, but way less formal. Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits was terrific. Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick less so but still grand. And now I see a third one that escaped my attention and I’ll have to get on my phone for this week’s travels.
His John Dies at the End series is also incredible, but not quite the scifi you’re looking for. More Buffy/Supernatural style, well, in a Trey Parker/Matt Stone vein of Buffy, lots of dildo jokes.
And though it’s not scifi I’ll recommend the Gentleman Bastards series by Scott Lynch. Oceans 11 conmen caper in a LOTR world with dialogue by Quentin Tarantino. I recommend it to everyone, whenever I am given an opportunity.
Edit: And Peter Clines Threshold and EX series are both great. EX is a superhero spin on zombies, and threshold is a nice scifi-eldritch romp.
I didn’t see you mention these authors, but maybe because your cutoff date looks to be around 1989:
- Wild Seed- Octavia E Butler
- The Left Hand of Darkness- Ursula K LeGuin
- Dhalgren- Samuel Delaney
- Book of the New Sun- Gene Wolfe
- A Scanner Darkly- Philip K Dick
- Cat’s Cradle- Kurt Vonnegut
Not exactly always considered sci fi, but maybe sci fi adjacent:
- The Terror- Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, seems to be free of his politics
- The Yiddish Policemen’s Union- Michael Chabon
- Gravity’s Rainbow- Thomas Pynchon
- Fictions- Jorge Luis Borges
- Machine of Death- collection of short stories from various authors
- Infinite Jest- David Foster Wallace
Thank you for this list, I just finished the sun symbol audiobooks by Scott Sigler (loved Ray Porter’s narration) and was looking for more suggestions.
You are indeed well-read, and I’m finding it difficult to give you an entire list, based on your tastes (which are remarkably close to mine). The two authors that come to mind, whom I haven’t seen on your list are
- Greg Bear. Anything from him, but I particularly like the The Forge of God and Anvil of Stars duology. You complained about sad books, and these may be depressing, but it’s some of the best writing that’s still missing from your list.
- China Mielville. Wonderfully weird and inventive books, in particular The City & The City and Perdido Street Station.
And since you mentioned Timothy Zahn, in comparison with Card, I take it you already read his The Icarus Hunt? If not, it’s also highly recommended for its unabashed fun and good plot.
Can I just say thank fuck I found someone else who doesn’t like three body problem.
It’s not just the heavy handed politics. It’s literally everything about the book. Narrative devices used are absolutely garbage. Oh there’s a video game for some reason, and people LARP as Newton and Qin Shih Huang down to their exact personalities. Why the fuck?
In the second book there’s an entire section dedicated to the protag’s fantasies. A woman should have at most a Bachelor’s so she’s smart but not smart enough (paraphrased). What the fuck? And don’t get me started on the suicide bomb strat that immediately saw the Muslims and Japanese roped in.
The characters are incredibly dull. They just do one thing, but they don’t even do that well. Oh here’s Mr. Army guy; personality: army salute-y pragmatic unfeeling. The only character that has an added dimension would be Da Shi the policeman, but adding one more dimension to a point simply results in a plane.
People claim he had innovative ideas for sci-fi. They do realise that the Dark Forest Hypothesis was proposed by someone other than cixin, right?
This turned out to be a rant – could you tell I hate-read this book cause it pissed me off to no end?
Yeah, maybe not talking about more of what happened during the Cultural Revolution? I thought he did a good job, portraying the awfulness without getting off-topic. Or the reader may have been expecting something less banal? I’ve read propaganda works with a strong bend against a country’s before, like Heart of Darkness, or in a more light-hearted manner, Catch-22. I’d be curious what the OP felt was too pro-china, as it was something that went completely by my radar.
I thought Liu Cixin portrayed the US quite favourably in the second book, I was pleasantly surprised. Really took a ‘equal but different’ approach to other cultures I feel.
Trisolarians suck though, except for that one cool one.
I’m with you, I thought it came off as decidedly anti-China. I was actually surprised they got away with it!
Yeah reading what happened (outside of the book) the same vibes are there. It really made me think the endorsement on the cover from obama was genuine lol
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While you’re listing a ton of authors, for those of us (🙋) less well read it unfortunately doesn’t convey much about which styles or what content you like.
So I’m going to take a few shots in the dark here.
Have you read many online novels? I would recommend Worm (parahumans.wordpress.com) for its sheer length as well as its very different take on what a world with super powers might look like. I would also recommend Ra (qntm.org) for its very interesting approach of treating magic as an established branch of engineering. Both get sorta wild near their ends, but imho they are very well written.
Worm is awesome! There’s a fan created audiobook that’s MOSTLY quite good (a couple of the readers are hard to listen to). It got me through a big move where I spent a month driving 2,000 miles every weekend.
If you’re open to trying fantasy (not far off from sci-fi), the Redwall series might be of interest.
Although it was originally aimed at young teens, it’s a very enjoyable series for adults too. Some of the best writing I have ever come across.
Good luck with your search!
I devoured Redwall 30 years ago. I remember they started feeling pretty repetitive and I read one in my early 20s where there was a weasel who was MAYBE good, but then he turned out to be bad and I was like “OK, I’m done.” I know he’s written a bunch since then, but I feel like as I’ve aged I’ve gotten less interested in fantasy and MORE interested in SciFi. Not 100% sure why. I read a fantasy book every year or so.
Consider giving Steven Erikson a try. Malazan Book of the Fallen is huge and time-consuming, but his style of writing is worth the effort in terms of story and character development. His Willful Child series is Sci-Fi and might provide a way of sampling his very unique style without diving into Fantasy.
I’m a big fan of Jack Campbell’s Lost Fleet series. There are like 30 books now. The audio books on audible are pretty good.
They are made/broken by if you like how he describes space battles though. A number of people I have suggested them to hated them, while others liked it.
There is also at least one place where he breaks the in universe rules of physics that really annoys me. (Information travelled in system faster than light)
I enjoyed the Lost Fleet series. This is spot on – it’s a series for the space battles.
The politics are okay, the exploration is interesting, but the romance…ugh, I almost think Campbell should have lost his writing license there.
Oh is there? When did that happen? I assume it was a mistake.
its in the syndicate side story - when they are doing their (first?) expedition outside of their home system (Midway?) they react to a reaction before the light of what they are reacting to arrives - or something like that.
I think I remember that scene. It annoyed me, too. If you can see the reaction, you can see the event that triggered the reaction! There’s no horizon in space, only “that’s too far away for our telescopes to resolve”.
He gets it right everywhere else, no idea why he gets it wrong there
Ill have to re-read and keep an eye out!
