Book Recommendations?

This quick list of "The Most Mind-Bending Science Fiction Books You’ll Ever Read" is pretty good. The only one I haven't read is Hyperion, so I guess that's going on my list.

Has anyone read the Iconoclasts Trilogy by Mike Shel? Curious if its any good and would love to hear opinions!

Recently finished book 2 (of 2 so far) in the Alex Stern series by Leigh Bardugo (author of Shadow and Bone). It's a fantastic series of urban fantasy verging into horror. Alex can see ghosts, which does not at all improve her horrible life that is quickly going down the tubes, until she is unexpectedly offered a way out via a full ride to Yale, on the condition that she join Lethe House, which oversees the other, more public, Yale Societies (Skull and Bones, Scroll and Key, Berzelius, etc.). She is quickly plunged into both a college career she is unequipped to handle, a life that is desperately better than any she could have wished for but filled with people who have done little to earn it, and a brutal learning curve into the world of magic and, yes, the dearly departed.

The differentiator here is that Bardugo has made Yale and New Haven full characters in the books. She attended the school and joined one of the 8 Societies, so she is writing from a position of knowledge, but also love. Her language is beautifully crafted and the characters well-developed and changing with the events. These are gems of the genre.

Note that unlike the Grishaverse and the Six of Crows series, these books are for adult readers. Massive triggers for anyone who is watching for those (although, really, it's horror, so...). Caveat lector but they are not exploitative reads.

Mixolyde wrote:

This quick list of "The Most Mind-Bending Science Fiction Books You’ll Ever Read" is pretty good. The only one I haven't read is Hyperion, so I guess that's going on my list.

The only 2 books in that list I haven't read were already on my reading list. "The Book of the New Sun" is the name of the series though, the first book is "The Shadow of the Torturer".

I haven't read any Gene Wolfe in 30 years, and barely remember The Book of the New Sun aside from how weird it was and how beautiful it is written. Definitely need to revisit it one of these decades.

I had to put Dark Money down for a bit, because it was too depressing and feeding my doom spiral about the US.

So, I picked up Hyperion from that list I posted earlier and am a couple of chapters in. Does anyone remember that quote image from the cranky author that was like, "Sci-Fi is so bad, it all sounds like this:" and writes two paragraphs of pulp sci-fi that sounded like Indiana Jones with Atom Hammers and most of us were like, yes, please, more of that? That's what Hyperion feels like and I am here for it.

As an aside, Quantum Thief is a really good, modern version of this style.

I will be fascinated to hear what you make of Hyperion. I bounced off of it pretty hard-- the deets are upthread somewhere if you care enough to search them out-- and I sometimes wonder if I gave it enough of a fair shake, but not quite enough to go back to it. Please keep up updated on your thoughts, in spoiler tags as necessary.

I found the first Hyperion book completely enthralling. I was on a long flight and I just devoured it.

I loved all 4. Apparently Dan Simmons is a sh*t, but I loved those books(at the time that I read them, at least).

You know that sense of surprise when you learned that JK Rowling or Orson Scott Card were pieces of sh*t, and then you re-examine their books and realized, okay, yeah, there are some good positive themes but there are also some really problematic ones if you scratch even a little beneath the surface?

Maybe it's just that I read him for the first time as an adult, but based on a little bit I read of him, it does not give me that same sense of surprise to learn that Dan Simmons is a piece of sh*t. In fact, it explains a lot about the little bit I read.

I do not mean that to cast judgment on folks who enjoy Hyperion (I still sometimes revisit my favorite Card novels, problematic themes and all) or to discourage Mixolyde from reading it, and I remain fascinated to hear another perspective on it.

I sometimes get a sense of deep satisfaction that POC and non-New England living white people enjoy the works of H.P. Lovecraft. He didn't write his stories for them. If there is a hell, his must be watching a non-stop loop of Lovecraft Country.

I don't feel the same way about Rowling. I am in an honest quandary about what to do regarding Harry Potter stuff. The books and movies were bought years ago. Burn? Ban starting now? Separate art and artist? I don't know the right play yet. For now, I'm trying to get my nephew hooked on the Percy Jackson series. I really hope Rick Riordan hasn't done anything terrible. Is that so much to ask?

Grenn wrote:

I really hope Rick Riordan hasn't done anything terrible. Is that so much to ask?

He's a human, so the answer is most likely 'yes'.

I still give thanks every day that goes by without nasty stuff coming out about Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett.

bbk1980 wrote:

I still give thanks every day that goes by without nasty stuff coming out about Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett.

I recently read Pratchett's biography (which incidentally I also recommend, although it is obviously quite difficult reading about his final years). It seems that he really was a decent person.

MikeSands wrote:
bbk1980 wrote:

I still give thanks every day that goes by without nasty stuff coming out about Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett.

I recently read Pratchett's biography (which incidentally I also recommend, although it is obviously quite difficult reading about his final years). It seems that he really was a decent person.

One of the things I love about discworld is as well as being brilliantly written I always took fundamentaly kind and inclusive themes from them. I really hope he is remembered as the Jonathan Swift of his time and remains in print for 100s of years

Grenn wrote:

I sometimes get a sense of deep satisfaction that POC and non-New England living white people enjoy the works of H.P. Lovecraft. He didn't write his stories for them. If there is a hell, his must be watching a non-stop loop of Lovecraft Country.

I don't feel the same way about Rowling. I am in an honest quandary about what to do regarding Harry Potter stuff. The books and movies were bought years ago. Burn? Ban starting now? Separate art and artist? I don't know the right play yet.

I think it's a very different issue to unpack with an author that's still living. I don't recall if I've seen you there so apologies if this is old news, but if you're interested, there is a very interesting (and occasionally fraught) thread on this exact topic right now.

Lovecraft did indicate in his letters and conversations, in the last few years of his life, that he regretted the racism of his stories, but he never revised the stories and I think he still had social issues with POCs, even after realizing that yes, they were actual humans. So... sort of a half-turn in the right direction?

hbi2k wrote:

I think it's a very different issue to unpack with an author that's still living. I don't recall if I've seen you there so apologies if this is old news, but if you're interested, there is a very interesting (and occasionally fraught) thread on this exact topic right now.

I lurk there.

billt721 wrote:
Grenn wrote:

I really hope Rick Riordan hasn't done anything terrible. Is that so much to ask?

He's a human, so the answer is most likely 'yes'.

Rick Riordan seems pretty great. I havent read his stuff but he actively promotes POC authors.

So that’s the expanse series wrapped up. I have read all the novels and short stories and I loved it. Heartily recommended for anyone looking for some science fiction. I held off on the last book as I wanted to savour it and am very pleased to say they stuck the landing. Just not sure what to move onto next now.

How about "Luna: New Moon", from Ian McDonald? Or "The Atrocity Archives", by Charles Stross?

Robear wrote:

How about "Luna: New Moon", from Ian McDonald? Or "The Atrocity Archives", by Charles Stross?

And why not! Downloading a sample of the Atrocity Archives now.

bbk1980 wrote:

So that’s the expanse series wrapped up. I have read all the novels and short stories and I loved it. Heartily recommended for anyone looking for some science fiction. I held off on the last book as I wanted to savour it and am very pleased to say they stuck the landing. Just not sure what to move onto next now.

Some additional suggestions - you could look at the blurbs and see if any tickle your fancy:
Children of Time - High concept story about the evolution of intelligent spiders
We Are Legion - 20th C guy gets uploaded as the intelligence in a Von Neumann machine
Project: Hail Mary - sort of like The Martian (same author) but in Spaaace
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet - vaguely Firefly-ish transport does stuff in a unvierse full of aliens
All Systems Red - A security bot hacks its own governor module and tries to gain self-determination
Gideon the Ninth - science fantasy, so nothing like the others: I just recommend it to anyone and everyone as a matter of course because I love it so much

plus there are tens of series of more Military Sci-fi if you fancy that kind of thing

I have really like The Spiral Wars by Joel Shepherd though it seems to be suffering a little from scope creep seeing as how it was supposed to be like 5 books and number 8 is out now. There was a bit of a delay between books 7 and 8 while he transitioned to self publishing, but generally he has maintained a one book a year cadence.

The Cassandra Kresnov series by the same author is also really good. A bit more cyberpunk/post-human than the military sf/space opera of The Spiral Wars. It has the benefit of being a finished series (well more like 2 series of the 3 books each).

If you want something even more cyberpunk then the Bruna Husky books by Rosa Montero are really good. They are heavily inspired by Bladerunner (the first book is called Tears in Rain). Sadly there are only two books but they are both self contained stories.

All Systems Red! Yes! That's a wonderful series.

But the Atrocity Archives becomes a truly amazing set of story threads over time.

Adrian Tchaikovsky has a new-ish sci-fi series called the Final Architecture that’s really good, the final book comes out in May. It’s very Mass Effecty- humanity is uplifted by first contact only to discover that all other intelligent life in the galaxy is either at war with or trying to hide from a race of moon-sized living Death Stars that randomly appear in solar systems and rip apart planets using unknown, unstoppable weapons.

While not as hard sci-fi as The Expanse, I'll recommend (because I'm currently reading book 11) Craig Alanson's Expeditionary Force. Sci-fi space opera with humor. Starts with Columbus Day.

Also like the Frontlines series by Marko Kloos which is included in Kindle Unlimited. Similar to Expeditionary Force in that it's about alien invasion/conflict at the start, but it's more serious in tone.

Or John Scalzi's Old Man's War.

Another space opera that's a fun read (authors admit they're doing their own version of Star Wars)

Galaxy's Edge Series by Jason Anspach, Nick Cole

They're about to drop their 17th book in the series next month (some are short stories and not required reading). It also doesn't hurt that the audio version is narrated by RC Bray.

ranalin wrote:

Another space opera that's a fun read (authors admit they're doing their own version of Star Wars)

Galaxy's Edge Series by Jason Anspach, Nick Cole

They're about to drop their 17th book in the series next month (some are short stories and not required reading). It also doesn't hurt that the audio version is narrated by RC Bray.

I just noticed a new prequel that was on Audible Plus last night. I liked the first one in that series but haven't gone any farther. Forget Nothing 2. Forget Nothing I think is also free with Plus. I have it in my account but haven't listened yet. There is also a really short one called Tin Man. Might do those soon.

MannishBoy wrote:

While not as hard sci-fi as The Expanse, I'll recommend (because I'm currently reading book 11) Craig Alanson's Expeditionary Force. Sci-fi space opera with humor. Starts with Columbus Day.

Also like the Frontlines series by Marko Kloos which is included in Kindle Unlimited. Similar to Expeditionary Force in that it's about alien invasion/conflict at the start, but it's more serious in tone.

Or John Scalzi's Old Man's War.

I usually enjoy similar books to you but I recently finished Columbus day and I think Expeditionary Force is just too silly for me. I put it on the Star Wars end of science fiction. For example alien races, that look like human animals, that just happen to wear the similar (sometimes the exact same) types of clothing that humans do on earth.

Spoiler:

alien, bipedal, farmer hamsters wearing overalls really had me rolling my eyes

The audiobook narrator's terrible "New England" accent just put over the top.

The draw of The Expanse, for me, is the hard sci-fi combined with the cutthroat politics from all points of view. Similar to what GoT does for fantasy. I think I still have only read three books though so I have a bit more to go.

I just finished the latest book in the Children of Time series, Children of Memory, and man those books are getting weird but they have me sucked in. The latest one is more like an episode of Black Mirror but involving alien planets & technology.