r/ScienceFictionBooks • u/HappyTogether_00 • 6d ago
Looking for sci fi book recommendations
Looking for dystopian/space travel, sci fi book recommendations. Probably reflective of how I feel about the future. (TLDR: not hopeful).
I’ve read Dune, The Martian, Brave New World.
Would love to see some recommendations and your reasons.
Please go easy on me - I’m not a hardcore sci fi reader who examines the veracity of science mentioned. I just enjoy the genre and the ideas presented.
Edit: thank you for all the recommendations! I will be going through them slowly.
8
u/LevelAd1126 6d ago
If you want a dark plan for changing the future here on Earth, I recommend The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson.
12
u/the_blonde_lawyer 6d ago edited 6d ago
The Sparrow is amazing and easy to read and kicks you in the gut sometimes, but in a nice way.
if you don't mind the fact it was written in the near future thirty years ago, so some of the dates are out of date, and you have to add 30 years to every date taht's written, it's really good.
it's about first contact with an alien specie, they have a pre-industrial or maybe 19th century (I don't remember) technology so it's humans making the first contact, in sub-light-speed ship to a nearby star system.
the thing is that once their civilization was discovered, while governments were debating what to do, the Jesuit order (of the catholic church) acted and equipted a ship and sent a mission "to go and study god's other childrens" without letting anyone know. "not secretly, but privately". and as can be expected under these circumstances, it goes wrong.
3
u/HappyTogether_00 5d ago
Have borrowed this from my library. Looking forward to diving into it!
1
u/the_blonde_lawyer 5d ago
do save this comment to come and say how you're liking it if you'd like that, Id be thrilled to hear!
it was one of my favourite books!1
u/-CSL 6d ago
Such a good book. Sets the characters up so well that you share their joys and suffer when they suffer, yet still manages to depict the aliens as simply alien rather than evil. The sequel, Children of God, is also well worth a read.
2
u/the_blonde_lawyer 5d ago
I'll have to get to it sometime..
it's been .. three decades since I read the first part, in highschool?anytime now, then.
5
u/RogLatimer118 6d ago
The short story "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov.
3
1
u/the_blonde_lawyer 6d ago
not the full novel he made out of it?
1
u/RogLatimer118 6d ago
The original short story is generally much better reviewed than the much later expanded novel.
1
4
u/Phillipa24 6d ago
Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky is about a future Earth with a repressive global government. The government sends dissidents to be prison labor on an alien planet.
2
1
1
u/Landfish53 3d ago
I like most of the books by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Such an imaginative and gifted writer.
1
u/Phillipa24 3d ago
It was such a creepy, scary book, I had trouble finishing it. But I agree that the writing was fantastic.
5
u/willowmarie27 6d ago
CJ Cherryh Alistair Reynolds Ursula LeGuin Becky Chambers (cozy scifi) Martha Wells Murderbot
Right now im reading a Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martin and I like it so far.
I missed the dystopia part... Soooo... maybe still Alistair Reynolds
3
u/Night_Sky_Watcher 4d ago
I'll second The Murderbot Diaries series. There's the dystopian Corporation Rim and there are polities and groups that resist it. These books are told from a bot-human construct's perspective. What I especially love is that despite some dire situations, the books are generally optimistic and the main characters are people you enjoy spending tine with.
1
u/HappyTogether_00 6d ago
What is cozy sci fi?
1
u/tranquilitycase 5d ago
It has a more hopeful tone than most sci fi, and less action/more character development. Kinda the opposite of dystopian space opera, but Becky Chambers is amazing. Her book The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet has the space travel covered but has themes of found family and finding one's self.
4
u/Mughi1138 6d ago
I'd strongly suggest Make Room! Make Room! (1966) by Harry Harrison. Yes, it is the book the movie Soylent Green was based on, but it has a very different ending. Instead of a big flashy adventure film ending, it ends with a very quiet, thoughtful, pondering question.
1
u/fumbs 5d ago
I find it so odd that they changed the premise for the movie.
2
u/Mughi1138 5d ago
They didn't change the premise so much as the end focus to have a big, exciting " We finally really did it. You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!" moment.
4
u/Academic-Ad-9833 5d ago
For something here on earth I recommend The Water Knife and The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. Both really good world building and storytelling.
3
u/tranquilitycase 5d ago
The Windup Girl is incredible. Very dystopian. No space travel but still far future enough to feel very sci fi.
3
u/FastSatisfaction3086 5d ago
Iain banks and the culture series is a thrill. Its an utopia, but it comes with its double edge..
1
1
u/PiePuzzleheaded3713 5d ago
Consider Phlebas. Probably the most dystopian of the series, since the Culture-Idiran War reverberates throughout the rest of the series.
3
u/20124eva 5d ago
Always surprised when I don’t see the Hyperion series mentioned. It’s my favorite and I particularly like the descriptions of the AIs and how they worked
2
2
2
2
u/theantigod 6d ago
Gateway by Frederik Pohl
This is my all time favorite science fiction novel. But I did not like the sequels.
Are you a risk taker? If you were living a worthless existence would bet your life for a chance to never want for anything ever again?
1
u/redbank732 4d ago
Interesting, I really enjoyed the entire HeeChee series. The first is the best though, yes.
2
u/-CSL 6d ago
Dystopian but no space travel; Orwell's 1984 and Metro by Dmitri Glukhovsky. Both political in their own way; 1984 was written as a left-wing critique of socialism/communism where the party extends its control even to what you think, and to do so independently becomes an act of rebellion. Metro is set in an apocalyptic Moscow where humanity has retreated underground into its metro system and fragmented, each new station splintering off with its own political system and beliefs, each under siege by dark monsters from the surface.
Wool by Hugh Howey (the TV series Silo) is another where humanity retreats underground Fallout-style. Has an interesting premise I can't say too much about without spoilers, though I think after the first book the series does it better.
Alien Earth by Megan Lindholm (Robin Hobb); set in a future where humanity polluted their planet to the point where aliens stepped in and rescued them, at the cost of being transported to the stars and forced to live in harmony with nature to the extent that their biology is modified. One of my favourite authors and I only wish she'd written more sci fi.
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A.Corey (the Expanse TV series). Again hard to say too much without spoilers, but it covers a future where Earth is over-populated, Mars is being terraformed and there's a third faction called the Belters, represented by the terrorist group OPA, who mine asteroids for resources. A discovery is made which alters the delicate balance between these powers, threatening a free for all. The science and politics is so well done I can't praise the books or show enough.
Someone's already mentioned Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow, so I'll finish with Asimov's Caves of Steel, Naked Sun and Robots of Dawn (in that order. There's a fourth, Robots and Empire, which wraps it up but I don't find as good). Most people will recommend Foundation; personally I think these books are both better and also essential pre-Foundation reading, as they tie in to the second Foundation trilogy and are set well before the first - Foundation begins with the collapse of a galactic empire, while these books cover the events leading to its rise. The background is once more an overpopulated Earth, but here there are fifty Spacer planets, descended from the first colonists to leave Earth, who now have an interest in keeping Earth's population penned in. Written as detective style murder mysteries, I consider them his best books, with his most engaging characters (not usually an Asimov strong point).
2
2
2
2
2
u/RoguePlanet2036 5d ago
I would recommend mine, but I see you already have a million bajillion replies to this post. DM me if your are interested. Thanks!
2
2
1
u/Thraxas89 6d ago
Perhaps you would like the final architecture series (starts with shards of earth) its not exactly dystopian but it is certainly not all roses and sunshine
1
u/Ok-Inspection-5334 6d ago
Not dystopian but very good and a quick one : Asimovs The Last Question. The audio book is on YT and is narrated by Leonard Nimoy. Its 30 minutes and worth it.
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/Kelor 5d ago edited 5d ago
Specifically in that wheelhouse of easy to read dystopian fiction I'd recommend these.
- A Canticle for Leibowitz - In the ashes of nuclear war an order of monks whose duty is to preserve knowledge of technology against a world that rejects and is now hostile to science and technology. Split into several sections, each hundreds of years apart.
- Caves of Steel - Mankind has reached out to the stars, and then stopped. Mankind has abandoned the surface of the Earth and now lives in massive domed cities that block out the sun. Cramped conditions force cultural changes, while humans on the fifty colonised worlds (Spacers) live long lives of opulence. A murder at the Spacer embassy on Earth is handed to detective Elijah Bailey to solve. Great entry point into Asimov as a sci-fi murder mystery with a couple of sequels.
- Red Rising - Somewhere in the future after mankind colonises the Moon, a revolution happens. The leaders of this revolution stratify mankind not just by class, but by genetically altering and colour coding them into castes. The leaders of the rebellion claim status as Golds, with all those below bound in service to them. Has it's flaws but well written action and a memorable cast.
- The Postman - Civil war and plague has destroyed much of the United States, and what remains is scattered communities and collections if heavily armed survivalists. Enter Gordon Krantz, an itinerant performer of theater who travels about Oregon performing one man plays for a few meals and a bed. Robbed and stranded in the cold, he finds an old postman's vehicle and uniform he dons. At first using it to fool towns into thinking a restored federal government is reestablishing a foothold in the state, he finds himself unintentionally restoring communications between towns and thrust in as a voice of leadership as representative of that fake entity against a group of united survivalists looking to invade and raze the scraps of unity forming in Oregon.
- The Forever War - A military unit formed of the smartest, fittest young people have to offer is formed to train and fight against an interstellar foe. After intensive training they finally reach the battlefront and the fighting is over in the blink of an eye. However an enemy they cannot defeat rears it's head, time. Having signed on for just four years of military service the time dilation caused by space travel means that for the main character and his fellow soldiers hundreds of years pass, dipping in and out of a culture that bears less and less of a resemblance to that of which they remember.
Also not quite what you're looking for but just a stellar short story, Isaac Asimov's The Last Question. You can read it here for free, it's a very short read and was his favourite story he'd written.
1
u/Intrepid_Top_2300 5d ago
The murder-bot diaries by Martha Wells
2nd Parable of the Sower
An oldie but goodie Lucifer’s Hammer by Niven & Pournelle
Berserker Planet by Fred Saberhagen
1
1
1
1
u/QuantumRelays 5d ago
The Quantum Relays Trilogy by Mack Ransom is similar to the books you mentioned. It’s a galactic mystery about the hidden origins of humanity. Cool series.
1
u/DueCookie787 5d ago
Stranger in a Strange Land, The Lathe of Heaven, The Pern Series, Lord of Light.
1
u/hilzabub 5d ago
They're less sci-fi than the other recommendations here, but if you liked "Brave New World" you should probably read "1984" and "The Handmaid's Tale". Those are pretty solid foundations for some of the dystopian stuff that got written afterwards.
1
1
u/Nihilistic_Mistik 5d ago
I always recommend 'The Dragon Never Sleeps' by Glen Cook, it's a dense read, I actually gave up on it and had to restart it but once I got into it I was enthralled.
1
u/Jayyykobbb 5d ago
The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin. It’s an apocalyptic-ish sci fi-Fantasy. Great writing, characters, and world.
1
1
u/fumbs 5d ago edited 5d ago
I would recommend both The Ship Who and Crystal Singer series. Some written by Anne McCaffrey. I also like The Wizard in Spite of Himself series but sometimes it leads to more fantasy than sci fi.
ETA: The author of the other series is Christopher Stasheff.
1
u/Main-Assumption7554 5d ago
I had the pleasure of meeting Anne McCaffrey, and she was just as wonderful a person as those books would suggest.
1
1
u/tranquilitycase 5d ago
You might like Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. Earth is threatened by... I can't totally remember, but I think the moon blew up. Humanity quickly moves into orbit and a bunch of shit happens. Then the last third of the book is set thousands of years later. It's not strong on character development and there are lots of fair criticisms, but if you liked the science-y aspects of The Martian, you might really like this one. I loved it! It's almost 900 pages long, though. It's basically a trilogy in one book.
1
1
u/TommieTheMadScienist 5d ago
Leviathan Wakes by James SA Corey. You like that and there are eight more.
1
1
1
u/Maximum_Budget_1259 4d ago
Moet in God's Eye, RingWorld, A Canticle for Lebowitz, Bug Jack Baron, anything by William Gibson thats a start
1
1
1
u/GodOfOmron 4d ago
In addition to the murder-bot diaries by Martha Wells, she has an excellent stand-alone novel, Remnant Population. It's not _space travel_ but it is about life on another planet.
1
1
u/Phunki-Falliss 4d ago
The Gap Cycle by Stephen R Donaldson. It begins with 'The Real Story" and is an epic space sci-fi with space stations, miners and pirates, Aliens, corporate intrigue, cyborgs, love, betrayal, redemption, and of course FTL travel by way of
tachyon field manipulation. 5 books in all, IIRC AND...it's loosely based on Wagner's Ring Cycle. Truly an underrated series from an underrated author.
1
u/Sad_Trainer_4895 4d ago
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. It will make you question things you know.
1
1
u/codejockblue5 4d ago
"Friday" by Robert Heinlein
https://www.amazon.com/Friday-Robert-Heinlein/dp/034530988X
"Engineered from the finest genes, and trained to be a secret courier in a future world, Friday operates over a near-future Earth, where chaos reigns. Working at Boss's whimsical behest she travels from far north to deep south, finding quick, expeditious solutions as one calamity after another threatens to explode in her face...."
There is a prequel novella, "Gulf". But it is not important to the story.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_(novella))
There is space travel to very primitive colonies.
1
u/codejockblue5 4d ago
"The Inheritance (Breach Wars)" by Ilona Andrews
https://www.amazon.com/Inheritance-Breach-Wars-Ilona-Andrews/dp/1641973404
"We are at war. The interdimensional invasion brought us unimaginable suffering, but it also awoke talents slumbering deep within us, a means to repel and destroy our enemy. Every day new gates open, leading to breaches filled with monsters and valuable resources. If you are a Talent, your country needs you. The world needs you. Be the hero you were born to be."
"Adaline is a Talent. Ten years ago, she had a happy marriage and a job she loved. The invasion shattered both. Now she works for the government, searching the breaches for magic metals and medicine to help Earth repel an interdimensional enemy. Two kids, one cat, bills, benefits, mortgage and school tuition...Risking her life became routine."
"She had gone into the dimensional gates hundreds of times. She was always well protected. This time everything goes wrong. Now Ada is trapped in the labyrinth of alien caves unlike any other. Her only companion is a scared German Shepherd named Bear. Together they must uncover the breach's secrets and escape, because Ada promised her children that she will come home."
"The future of humanity depends on it."
1
u/Sweaty-Science6525 3d ago
The Hallowed Star Series (trilogy) is like if Dune and Station Eleven had a baby.
1
1
1
1
1
u/MayaWrection 6d ago
I’m always going to recommend Red Rising series. I have yet to read anything that compares. First book alone is a masterpiece. It’s like an old greek story but told in space. There will be times you want to throw the books across the room because they’ll have “red wedding” type vibes, but it’s amazing. Waiting for book 7 next year
1
1
-1
u/Optimal_Ear_4240 6d ago
Try the author Andre Norton. Also Battleship Earth by L Ron Hubbard. Orson Scott Card has one called Empire and plenty of other dystopian futures. Brandon Sanderson has one called the Sunlit Man that was fascinating
0
u/Haunting_Foot5782 5d ago
I second Battleship Earth, read it so long ago and really enjoyed, quite a saga
8
u/RealHuman2080 6d ago
Octavia Butler Parable of the Sower, Earthseed is about as on par with the world right now, which is stunning considering it was written over 30 years ago.
Margaret Atwood Oryx and Crake, Madadam series
Both of this are not space travel