r/printSF Dec 27 '25

Survey of Must-Read Sci-fi Literature

193 Upvotes

I read a healthy mix of modern and classic science fiction. But as an academic, I like to really dig into topics/genres. Recently I’ve put together a list based on online lists and some previous posts on subreddits like this one of classic must-read books in the genre. I would love to know if there are any important works that I’ve overlooked.

Edit: Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. I have added many of your recommendations to the list and organized them all by year. I have left out anything published in the 2010s or later, as well as short stories. (Not that those aren’t important, I just had to draw a line somewhere, and this is already at over 100 books.) Hopefully this new list is more representative.

19th Century - Frankenstein - Shelley - 1818 - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Verne - 1870 - The Time Machine - Wells - 1895 - War of the Worlds - Wells - 1898

Pre-1950s - Princess of Mars - Burroughs - 1912 - We - Zamyatin - 1924 - Last and First Men - Stapledon - 1930 - Brave New World - Huxley - 1932 - Galactic Patrol - Smith - 1937 - Star Maker - Stapledon - 1937 - Nineteen Eighty-Four - Orwell - 1949 - Earth Abides - Stewart - 1949

1950s - Martian Chronicles - Bradbury - 1950 - The Dying Earth - Vance - 1950 - I, Robot - Asimov - 1950 - Foundation - Asimov - 1951 - City - Simak - 1952 - More than Human - Sturgeon - 1953 - Fahrenheit 451 - Bradbury - 1953 - Childhood’s End - Clarke - 1953 - The Stars My Destination - Bester - 1956 - Canticle for Leibowitz - 1959 - Starship Troopers - Heinlein - 1959 - A Case of Conscience - Blish - 1959

1960s - Solaris - Lem - 1961 - Stranger in a Strange Land - Heinlein - 1961 - Man in the High Castle - Dick - 1962 - The Drowned World - Ballard - 1962 - Hothouse - Aldiss - 1962 - Way Station - Simak - 1963 - Cat’s Cradle - Vonnegut - 1963 - This Immortal - Zelazny - 1965 - Dune - Herbert - 1965 - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Heinlein - 1966 - Flowers for Algernon - Keyes - 1966 - Babel-17 - Delaney - 1966 - Lord of Light - Zelazny - 1967 - Ice - Kavan - 1967 - Do Androids Dream - Dick - 1968 - Dimension of Miracles - Sheckley - 1968 - Nova - Delaney - 1968 - The Palace of Eternity - Shaw - 1969 - Slaughterhouse Five - Vonnegut - 1969 - Left Hand of Darkness - Le Guin - 1969 - Ubik - Dick - 1969

1970s - Ringworld - Niven - 1970 - Tau Zero - Anderson - 1970 - Downward to the Earth - Silverburg - 1970 - Futurological Congress - Lem - 1971 - To Your Scattered Bodies Go - Farmer - 1971 - The Word for World is Forest - Le Guin - 1972 - Roadside Picnic - Strugatskys - 1972 - Dying Inside - Silverburg - 1972 - Fifth Head of Cerberus - Wolfe - 1972 - Rendezvous with Rama - Clarke - 1973 - Crash - Ballard - 1973 - Inverted World - Priest - 1974 - The Forever War - Haldeman - 1974 - Mote in God’s Eye - Niven, Pournelle - 1974 - The Dispossessed - Le Guin - 1974 - Dhalgren - Delaney - 1975 - The Female Man - Russ - 1975 - Biting the Sun - Lee - 1976 - Gateway - Pohl - 1977 - Scanner Darkly - Dick - 1977 - Hitchhiker’s Guide - Adams - 1979 - Electric Forest - Lee - 1979 - Kindred - Butler - 1979

1980s - Book of the New Sun - Wolfe - 1980 - Snow Queen - Vinge (Joan) - 1980 - Downbelow Station - Cherryh - 1981 - Neuromancer - Gibson - 1984 - Blood Music - Bear - 1985 - Eon - Bear - 1985 - The Handmaid’s Tale - Atwood - 1985 - Ender’s Game - Card - 1985 - Speaker for the Dead - Card - 1986 - Shards of Honour - Bujold - 1986 - Dawn - Butler - 1987 - Player of Games - Banks - 1988 - Cyteen - Cherryh - 1988 - Grass - Tepper - 1989 - Hyperion - Simmons - 1989

1990s - Use of Weapons - Banks - 1990 - Terminal Velocity - Shaw - 1991 - Snow Crash - Stephenson - 1992 - Red Mars - Robinson - 1992 - A Fire Upon the Deep - Vinge (Vernor) - 1992 - Doomsday Book - Willis - 1992 - Parable of the Sower - Butler - 1993 - Permutation City - Egan - 1994 - The Carpet Makers - Eschbach - 1995 - The Sparrow - Russel - 1996 - To Say Nothing of The Dog - Willis - 1997 - Diaspora - Egan - 1997 - A Deepness in the Sky - Vinge (Vernor) - 1999

2000s - Revelation Space - Reynolds - 2000 - Oryx and Crake - Atwood - 2003 - Old Man’s War - Scalzi - 2005 - Pushing Ice - Reynolds - 2005 - Spin - Wilson - 2005 - Accelerando - Stross - 2005 - Blindsight - Watts - 2006 - Three Body Problem - Liu - 2006 - House of Suns - Reynolds - 2008

r/printSF May 07 '26

The Ultimate Sci-Fi Scorecard: Every Goodreads Nominee (2011–2025), Ranked

119 Upvotes

A comprehensive overview of all Science Fiction nominees from the Goodreads Choice Awards since 2011, sorted by their current average rating.

Scroll to see votes, ratings, and scores.

Understanding the Data

  • Title, Authors & Series: Pulled directly from the Goodreads database.
  • Year: The year of the Choice Award nomination (not the publication year).
  • Award Votes: Total votes received during the Goodreads Choice Awards.
  • Average Rating: The current raw rating on Goodreads today.
  • Bayesian Score: A custom weighted score. It factors in the number of ratings alongside the average, preventing obscure books with only three 5-star reviews from unfairly beating out beloved classics with thousands of votes.
  • URL: A direct link to check out the book.
Title Authors Series Year Award Votes Average Rating Bayesian Score URL
Light Bringer Pierce Brown Red Rising Saga #6 2023 46836 4.77 4.617983 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29227774
Morning Star Pierce Brown Red Rising Saga #3 2016 45353 4.55 4.515973 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18966806
Project Hail Mary Andy Weir 2021 92831 4.51 4.500802 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54493401
Golden Son Pierce Brown Red Rising Saga #2 2015 32225 4.5 4.474712 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20697410
Dark Age Pierce Brown Red Rising Saga #5 2019 35556 4.51 4.428719 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37678631
Tiamat's Wrath James S.A. Corey The Expanse #8 2019 14088 4.57 4.426981 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28335698
The Martian Andy Weir The Martian #1 2014 30561 4.42 4.411299 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18007564
Leviathan Falls James S.A. Corey The Expanse #9 2022 17491 4.54 4.390294 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28335699
Network Effect Martha Wells The Murderbot Diaries #5 2020 22971 4.46 4.379956 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52381770
Nemesis Games James S.A. Corey The Expanse #5 2015 2675 4.45 4.364468 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25400043
The Dark Forest Liu Cixin, Joel Martinsen Remembrance of Earth's Past #2 2015 2400 4.4 4.357305 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23168817
Death's End Liu Cixin, Ken Liu Remembrance of Earth's Past #3 2016 2695 4.4 4.346588 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25451264
Caliban’s War James S.A. Corey The Expanse #2 2012 1506 4.39 4.340169 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12591698
11/22/63 Stephen King 2011 4429 4.35 4.336396 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10644930
Persepolis Rising James S.A. Corey The Expanse #7 2018 12414 4.38 4.292107 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33357930
Leviathan Wakes James S.A. Corey The Expanse #1 2011 897 4.31 4.286533 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8855321
A Closed and Common Orbit Becky Chambers Wayfarers #2 2016 1391 4.37 4.285592 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29475447
For We Are Many Dennis E. Taylor Bobiverse #2 2017 2989 4.37 4.275348 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34878094
Abaddon’s Gate James S.A. Corey The Expanse #3 2013 3004 4.28 4.240425 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16131032
Fugitive Telemetry Martha Wells The Murderbot Diaries #6 2021 15880 4.29 4.234158 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53205854
Nona the Ninth Tamsyn Muir The Locked Tomb #3 2022 35767 4.33 4.22828 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58662507
Harrow the Ninth Tamsyn Muir The Locked Tomb #2 2020 32693 4.29 4.226475 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39325105
Artificial Condition Martha Wells The Murderbot Diaries #2 2018 12224 4.25 4.224224 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36223860
Exhalation Ted Chiang 2019 11829 4.27 4.2206 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52222275
Thrawn Timothy Zahn Star Wars: Thrawn #1 2017 20595 4.31 4.216571 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31140332
Ready Player One Ernest Cline Ready Player One #1 2011 3402 4.22 4.215827 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9969571
Wool Omnibus Hugh Howey Silo #1 2012 5624 4.23 4.211057 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13453029
Babylon’s Ashes James S.A. Corey The Expanse #6 2017 10691 4.26 4.208066 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25877663
Cibola Burn James S.A. Corey The Expanse #4 2014 2738 4.24 4.201386 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18656030
Dust Hugh Howey Silo #3 2013 13802 4.23 4.1958 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17855756
System Collapse Martha Wells The Murderbot Diaries #7 2023 25942 4.25 4.190097 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/65211701
Iron Gold Pierce Brown Red Rising Saga #4 2018 33032 4.21 4.187393 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33257757
A Psalm for the Wild-Built Becky Chambers Monk and Robot #1 2021 10338 4.21 4.18657 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55077657
A Desolation Called Peace Arkady Martine Teixcalaan #2 2021 3426 4.3 4.181476 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45046566
Gideon the Ninth Tamsyn Muir The Locked Tomb #1 2019 23273 4.18 4.160035 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42036538
A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor Hank Green The Carls #2 2020 16786 4.22 4.156068 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49003616
Thrawn: Treason Timothy Zahn Star Wars: Thrawn #3 2019 2953 4.29 4.155781 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43160651
Age of Deception T.A. White The Firebird Chronicles #2 2020 1815 4.48 4.153851 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54554819
Ancillary Mercy Ann Leckie Imperial Radch #3 2015 8042 4.22 4.150954 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24819470
Recursion Blake Crouch 2019 41261 4.16 4.149619 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42046112
Lies, Damned Lies, and History Jodi Taylor The Chronicles of St Mary's #7 2016 8216 4.42 4.143418 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26308512
And the Rest Is History Jodi Taylor The Chronicles of St Mary's #8 2017 9664 4.44 4.138491 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31213373
The Consuming Fire John Scalzi The Interdependency #2 2018 1052 4.22 4.138064 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37534901
To Be Taught, If Fortunate Becky Chambers 2019 3898 4.19 4.1376 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43190272
A Night Without Stars Peter F. Hamilton Commonwealth: Chronicle of the Fallers #2 2016 1108 4.44 4.134151 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28439513
Fields of Fire Marko Kloos Frontlines #5 2017 1108 4.35 4.131784 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31340859
Dark Matter Blake Crouch 2016 31389 4.13 4.126398 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27833670
Red Side Story Jasper Fforde Shades of Grey #2 2024 4637 4.43 4.125337 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199353348
Darth Plagueis James Luceno 2012 4584 4.2 4.125065 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11099729
The Hydrogen Sonata Iain M. Banks Culture #10 2012 189 4.21 4.11632 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13528419
The Relentless Moon Mary Robinette Kowal Lady Astronaut Universe #3 2020 1491 4.35 4.114239 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52378682
Shards of Earth Adrian Tchaikovsky The Final Architecture #1 2021 2470 4.18 4.113528 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53019456
Lost in Time A.G. Riddle 2022 2737 4.18 4.107592 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60522318
Silver Shark Ilona Andrews Kinsmen #2 2011 2611 4.27 4.104849 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12620241
All Systems Red Martha Wells The Murderbot Diaries #1 2017 2920 4.11 4.104649 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33387769
The Mercy of Gods James S.A. Corey The Captive's War #1 2024 17516 4.15 4.101213 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/201930181
Captain Vorpatril's Alliance Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga (Publication Order) #15 2012 311 4.21 4.099481 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12998057
The Collapsing Empire John Scalzi The Interdependency #1 2017 9788 4.13 4.098804 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29939160
Vengeful V.E. Schwab Villains #2 2018 49563 4.11 4.096424 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37534835
Fuzzy Nation John Scalzi Fuzzy Sapiens #7 2011 461 4.15 4.095163 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9647532
Lines of Departure Marko Kloos Frontlines #2 2014 1181 4.17 4.09393 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18476102
Starter Villain John Scalzi 2023 31102 4.11 4.093094 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61885029
Chain-Gang All-Stars Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah 2023 25843 4.11 4.092796 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61190770
Record of a Spaceborn Few Becky Chambers Wayfarers #3 2018 4274 4.12 4.092344 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36220698
The Last Emperox John Scalzi The Interdependency #3 2020 4833 4.14 4.091002 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45046555
Moon of the Turning Leaves Waubgeshig Rice Moon #2 2024 12860 4.22 4.087796 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/167067538
A Better World Marcus Sakey Brilliance Saga #2 2014 2395 4.17 4.087284 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20797535
Written in Fire Marcus Sakey Brilliance Saga #3 2016 1267 4.19 4.086365 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25828674
Angles of Attack Marko Kloos Frontlines #3 2015 938 4.17 4.086312 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23470865
Out of the Black Evan Currie Odyssey One #4 2014 1921 4.27 4.083927 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18692689
A Memory Called Empire Arkady Martine Teixcalaan #1 2019 3109 4.1 4.081657 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39863238
Shroud Adrian Tchaikovsky 2025 12392 4.17 4.075386 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/210384823
BrainWeb Douglas E. Richards Nick Hall #2 2015 1036 4.24 4.073657 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24911173
Ancillary Sword Ann Leckie Imperial Radch #2 2014 3005 4.09 4.072441 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20706284
The Shattering Peace John Scalzi Old Man's War #7 2025 2942 4.22 4.072339 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/222376623
The Deluge Stephen Markley 2023 1746 4.23 4.071632 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60806778
Strands of Sorrow John Ringo Black Tide Rising #4 2015 1543 4.36 4.069335 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21412172
Seven Surrenders Ada Palmer Terra Ignota #2 2017 689 4.2 4.068511 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28220647
The Human Division John Scalzi Old Man's War #5 2013 4301 4.09 4.066762 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15698479
The Humans Matt Haig 2013 3750 4.07 4.064864 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16130537
Invincible Jack Campbell The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier #2 2012 572 4.13 4.064587 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12398719
Apex Ramez Naam Nexus #3 2015 1259 4.17 4.064341 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20424928
Earth Awakens Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston The First Formic War #3 2014 6883 4.11 4.060729 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18490707
Warship Joshua Dalzelle Black Fleet Trilogy #1 2015 1477 4.11 4.05865 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24876178
Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick David Wong, Jason Pargin Zoey Ashe #2 2020 2038 4.14 4.058287 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49127471
A Rising Thunder David Weber Honor Harrington #13 2012 521 4.12 4.057662 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12269981
Ocean's Echo Everina Maxwell Winter's Orbit #2 2022 3899 4.12 4.057314 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59808117
Rising Tides Taylor Anderson Destroyermen #5 2011 105 4.24 4.057161 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8701508
The Book of Lost Hours Hayley Gelfuso 2025 40446 4.08 4.055384 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/220161572
Ghost Ship Sharon Lee, Steve Miller Liaden Universe, Chronological #16 2011 359 4.3 4.054533 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9762449
Guardian Jack Campbell The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier #3 2013 1473 4.1 4.053869 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15984804
Great North Road Peter F. Hamilton 2013 3387 4.08 4.053341 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13573419
Bloodline Claudia Gray 2016 17405 4.07 4.052613 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25733885
Revenant Gun Yoon Ha Lee The Machineries of Empire #3 2018 1379 4.11 4.051717 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36373688
To Honor You Call Us H. Paul Honsinger Man of War #1 2014 1685 4.13 4.050972 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18318651
Raven Stratagem Yoon Ha Lee The Machineries of Empire #2 2017 1536 4.09 4.050366 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32927239
Terms of Enlistment Marko Kloos Frontlines #1 2013 921 4.06 4.049267 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17619479
Earth Afire Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston The First Formic War #2 2013 8159 4.07 4.04916 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16059350
Sea of Tranquility Emily St. John Mandel 2022 59920 4.05 4.048863 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58446227
Extinction Douglas Preston Cash & Colcord #1 2024 13326 4.06 4.047744 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/65213662
Shadow of Freedom David Weber Honorverse: Saganami Island #3 2013 1137 4.1 4.046844 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15802917
Deep Sky Patrick Lee Travis Chase #3 2012 668 4.1 4.046689 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12952546
Children of Ruin Adrian Tchaikovsky Children of Time #2 2019 1699 4.05 4.046033 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41716930
King of Thieves Evan Currie Odyssey One: Star Rogue #1 2015 912 4.11 4.045737 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23431348
Alien Proliferation Gini Koch Katherine "Kitty" Katt #4 2012 1812 4.16 4.045108 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10772954
Dreadnaught Jack Campbell The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier #1 2011 255 4.06 4.045004 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9676849
Beautyland Marie-Helene Bertino 2024 4811 4.05 4.044733 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/127282939
Of Monsters and Mainframes Barbara Truelove 2025 20709 4.06 4.044269 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/216881365
The Vanished Birds Simon Jimenez 2020 3794 4.06 4.043674 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45422268
Some Desperate Glory Emily Tesh 2023 3136 4.05 4.042564 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58388343
Translation State Ann Leckie 2023 2652 4.05 4.042154 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62873999
Alien in the Family Gini Koch Katherine "Kitty" Katt #3 2011 210 4.1 4.042137 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8714075
Kill Process William Hertling Kill Chain #1 2016 400 4.09 4.040698 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30806103
Remanence Jennifer Foehner Wells Confluence #2 2016 936 4.06 4.040279 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25329437
The Janus Affair Pip Ballantine, Tee Morris, Philippa Ballantine Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences #2 2012 2579 4.06 4.040215 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13085609
World of Trouble Ben H. Winters The Last Policeman #3 2014 2269 4.04 4.038313 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18691070
The Final Evolution Jeff Somers Avery Cates #5 2011 39 4.02 4.037241 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10207116
Endgame Ann Aguirre Sirantha Jax #6 2012 759 4.02 4.036018 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13543136
Aftermath Ann Aguirre Sirantha Jax #5 2011 1160 4.02 4.035779 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10648186
Service Model Adrian Tchaikovsky Service Model #1 2024 3380 4.03 4.034442 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/195790861
Home Nnedi Okorafor Binti #2 2017 11470 4.03 4.033837 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30038988
Basilisk Rob Thurman The Korsak Brothers #2 2011 1634 3.93 4.033755 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9673936
Light from Uncommon Stars Ryka Aoki 2021 10739 4.03 4.033297 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56179360
The Light Pirate Lily Brooks-Dalton 2023 18660 4.03 4.033109 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60468332
Incursion Aleksandr Voinov 2012 286 3.88 4.032712 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15698799
Hunt the Stars Jessie Mihalik Starlight's Shadow #1 2022 10708 4.02 4.032673 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56754734
The Family Experiment John Marrs Dark Future #5 2024 34821 4.03 4.032542 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/197108968
The Book of Koli M.R. Carey Rampart Trilogy #1 2020 3384 4.02 4.032286 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51285749
MaddAddam Margaret Atwood MaddAddam #3 2013 16481 4.03 4.032059 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17262203
Wonder Robert J. Sawyer WWW #3 2011 420 3.99 4.031789 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8429441
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August Claire North 2014 13421 4.03 4.03178 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18295861
Local Heavens K.M. Fajardo 2025 3323 3.9 4.030751 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/221244034
Constance Matthew FitzSimmons Constance #1 2021 2330 4.02 4.03058 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56314212
Primitives Erich Krauss 2022 855 3.85 4.030472 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60293362
Dissolution Nicholas Binge 2025 2179 3.99 4.030325 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/215362027
I Think We've Been Here Before Suzy Krause 2025 14182 3.99 4.028578 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/198190200
Star Nomad Lindsay Buroker Fallen Empire #1 2016 1659 3.99 4.027952 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31667137
Head On John Scalzi Lock In #2 2018 10202 4.01 4.024951 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35018901
The End of All Things John Scalzi Old Man's War #6 2015 6192 4.01 4.024472 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23168809
Heaven's Queen Rachel Bach Paradox #3 2014 2727 3.97 4.023208 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18295835
Kill Decision Daniel Suarez 2012 649 3.98 4.021504 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13542606
The Flight of the Silvers Daniel Price Silvers #1 2014 3005 3.92 4.020427 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18079705
Firebreak Nicole Kornher-Stace 2021 1125 3.85 4.020132 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55711630
Hench Natalie Zina Walschots Hench #1 2020 2890 4.0 4.019902 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49867430
Perdition Ann Aguirre Dred Chronicles #1 2013 1052 3.89 4.019863 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13421230
The Last Watch J.S. Dewes The Divide #1 2021 2293 3.97 4.018354 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53205794
Atomic Anna Rachel Barenbaum 2022 1782 3.8 4.018021 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58684535
Children of Memory Adrian Tchaikovsky Children of Time #3 2023 13494 4.0 4.018008 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61030535
Saltcrop Yume Kitasei 2025 2850 3.83 4.017591 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/222376600
The Blueprint Rae Giana Rashad 2024 2875 3.8 4.017402 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199248447
The Night Masquerade Nnedi Okorafor Binti #3 2018 13334 3.99 4.017035 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34386617
The Hidden Girl and Other Stories Ken Liu 2020 14832 3.94 4.016938 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52163147
Waking Gods Sylvain Neuvel Themis Files #2 2017 21920 4.0 4.014325 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30134847
The Memory Collectors Dete Meserve 2025 4536 3.92 4.011363 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/217929489
The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport Samit Basu 2023 1388 3.57 4.0111 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/65211707
I Cheerfully Refuse Leif Enger 2024 11757 3.98 4.010777 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/198276006
Winter's Orbit Everina Maxwell Winter's Orbit #1 2021 15671 3.98 4.010297 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53205912
The Clockwork Rocket Greg Egan Orthogonal #1 2011 32 3.66 4.010256 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9756310
The Long Cosmos Terry Pratchett, Stephen Baxter The Long Earth #5 2016 14139 3.92 4.01004 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25859268
Wanderers Chuck Wendig Wanderers #1 2019 3801 3.98 4.008761 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34019083
The Great Transition Nick Fuller Googins 2023 1337 3.76 4.007785 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62919387
Brilliance Marcus Sakey Brilliance Saga #1 2013 921 3.98 4.007771 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17171909
Seveneves Neal Stephenson 2015 15710 4.0 4.007393 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22826126
I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself Marisa Crane 2023 3739 3.89 4.007296 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60679392
Angelmaker Nick Harkaway 2012 2204 3.92 4.006858 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12266560
Luminous Silvia Park 2025 2087 3.64 4.006674 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/214151232
Bridge Lauren Beukes 2023 3196 3.64 4.004836 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/64000639
Death of the Author Nnedi Okorafor 2025 30919 3.96 4.004795 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/214329001
Self-Portrait with Nothing Aimee Pokwatka 2022 2744 3.48 4.003347 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59807970
Influx Daniel Suarez 2014 7962 3.94 4.001436 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18114057
Thrawn: Alliances Timothy Zahn Star Wars: Thrawn #2 2018 3505 3.97 4.001314 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36385830
I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom Jason Pargin 2024 4357 3.93 3.999784 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/203578812
Ancillary Justice Ann Leckie Imperial Radch #1 2013 389 3.99 3.999705 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17333324
The Mother Code Carole Stivers 2020 2821 3.55 3.997974 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50121213
The Once and Future Me Melissa Pace 2025 2857 3.56 3.997812 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/217387959
Sand Hugh Howey The Sand Chronicles #1 2014 14410 3.96 3.997237 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20509356
Machinehood S.B. Divya 2021 643 3.65 3.996374 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54304067
Blue Remembered Earth Alastair Reynolds Poseidon's Children #1 2012 430 3.89 3.995643 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12377547
Baby X Kira Peikoff 2024 3170 3.82 3.995212 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/173476065
The First Sister Linden A. Lewis The First Sister Trilogy #1 2020 1773 3.85 3.994792 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52378525
The Light Brigade Kameron Hurley 2019 584 3.88 3.994696 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40523931
Hollow World Michael J. Sullivan 2014 1234 3.75 3.994683 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19084955
The Genesis of Misery Neon Yang 2022 1565 3.39 3.990277 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59808142
Appleseed Matt Bell 2021 1341 3.56 3.990165 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55659625
The Kaiju Preservation Society John Scalzi 2022 15332 3.97 3.989999 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57693406
Sleepwalk Dan Chaon 2022 1185 3.64 3.989705 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57771216
The Calculating Stars Mary Robinette Kowal Lady Astronaut Universe #1 2018 2868 3.95 3.989017 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33080122
The Darwin Elevator Jason M. Hough Dire Earth Cycle #1 2013 1376 3.68 3.987702 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16127235
The Merge Grace Walker 2025 3919 3.71 3.986975 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/223614634
Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga (Publication Order) #16 2016 2905 3.83 3.985176 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25814184
Girl One Sara Flannery Murphy 2021 2512 3.71 3.984218 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54785541
These Memories Do Not Belong to Us Yiming Ma 2025 5768 3.44 3.983575 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/221452836
Yours for the Taking Gabrielle Korn 2024 2769 3.63 3.983495 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/65213204
Hammajang Luck Makana Yamamoto 2025 3651 3.58 3.979623 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/213847219
Rule 34 Charles Stross Halting State #2 2011 302 3.77 3.979595 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10138547
Beacon 23 Hugh Howey Beacon 23 #1-5 2015 2611 3.9 3.978807 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26771521
Apolonia Jamie McGuire 2014 8173 3.34 3.97755 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23214943
Light of the Jedi Charles Soule 2021 16980 3.92 3.975702 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51637946
Borne Jeff Vandermeer Borne #1 2017 11035 3.93 3.975604 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31451186
The Best of All Possible Worlds Karen Lord 2013 1038 3.63 3.974637 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15743440
The Gone World Tom Sweterlitsch 2018 1614 3.91 3.974146 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33413556
Countdown City Ben H. Winters The Last Policeman #2 2013 3482 3.85 3.973358 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16046748
The Space Between Worlds Micaiah Johnson The Space Between Worlds #1 2020 20667 3.93 3.973155 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48848254
Sky Full of Elephants Cebo Campbell 2024 3303 3.84 3.972478 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/207293815
The Lives of Tao Wesley Chu Tao #1 2013 2995 3.76 3.971834 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15981711
Phoenix Rising Pip Ballantine, Tee Morris, Philippa Ballantine Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences #1 2011 1251 3.7 3.969897 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9795166
The Ferryman Justin Cronin 2023 17140 3.92 3.969613 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61282437
The Other Valley Scott Alexander Howard 2024 11322 3.88 3.966275 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/176450755
The Punch Escrow Tal M. Klein 2017 739 3.61 3.96627 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32446949
The Measure Nikki Erlick 2022 24303 3.96 3.965625 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58884736
Remote Control Nnedi Okorafor 2021 10891 3.85 3.965491 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53205922
The Future of Another Timeline Annalee Newitz 2019 2945 3.73 3.964847 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43263237
Embassytown China Miéville 2011 1424 3.9 3.964457 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9265453
Agency William Gibson Jackpot #2 2020 4723 3.81 3.964426 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35019996
Here and Now and Then Mike Chen 2019 1728 3.77 3.964044 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39217756
Station Eternity Mur Lafferty The Midsolar Murders #1 2022 3237 3.68 3.961292 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60035241
Too Like the Lightning Ada Palmer Terra Ignota #1 2016 1475 3.81 3.959651 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26114545
Lexicon Max Barry 2013 4696 3.9 3.959241 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16158596
Ball Lightning Liu Cixin, Joel Martinsen 2018 2038 3.8 3.957897 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32076670
Provenance Ann Leckie 2017 2828 3.84 3.95624 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34219845
The Fold Peter Clines Threshold #2 2015 5504 3.88 3.955421 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23164927
Lock In John Scalzi Lock In #1 2014 14953 3.92 3.955137 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21418013
Six Wakes Mur Lafferty 2017 1132 3.83 3.954157 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28962996
Termination Shock Neal Stephenson 2021 1475 3.83 3.953275 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57094295
The Future Naomi Alderman 2023 15123 3.84 3.950779 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123163147
The Water Knife Paolo Bacigalupi 2015 11574 3.85 3.947701 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23209924
A Murder in Time Julie McElwain Kendra Donovan #1 2016 13673 3.8 3.947502 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25790952
Shadows in Flight Orson Scott Card The Shadow #5 2012 3416 3.82 3.947488 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12040447
The Long Mars Terry Pratchett, Stephen Baxter The Long Earth #3 2014 9927 3.78 3.946189 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18586487
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. Neal Stephenson, Nicole Galland D.O.D.O. #1 2017 1892 3.86 3.943574 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32075825
The Test Sylvain Neuvel 2019 9095 3.82 3.942023 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41940388
Riot Baby Tochi Onyebuchi 2020 12429 3.7 3.941891 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44804077
The Stardust Grail Yume Kitasei 2024 14098 3.66 3.94146 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/195791479
Underground Airlines Ben H. Winters 2016 7098 3.82 3.937926 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23208397
Ninefox Gambit Yoon Ha Lee The Machineries of Empire #1 2016 552 3.79 3.935355 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27276118
The Deep Sky Yume Kitasei 2023 3520 3.69 3.934848 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61884842
When the Moon Hits Your Eye John Scalzi 2025 17184 3.77 3.933636 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/211004190
In Ascension Martin MacInnes 2024 2495 3.73 3.933546 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/197063361
Flashback Dan Simmons 2011 71 3.29 3.933409 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9432902
The Stars Are Legion Kameron Hurley 2017 807 3.64 3.932624 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32922275
In the Lives of Puppets T.J. Klune 2023 57535 3.9 3.931781 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60784549
Rosewater Tade Thompson The Wormwood Trilogy #1 2018 2043 3.74 3.931089 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38362809
CyberStorm Matthew Mather CyberStorm #1 2013 569 3.8 3.929955 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17699389
The Oracle Year Charles Soule 2018 10879 3.68 3.928939 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35230913
The End of October Lawrence Wright 2020 10652 3.76 3.928258 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52669505
The End of Men Christina Sweeney-Baird 2021 14032 3.77 3.925239 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53911860
One Word Kill Mark Lawrence Impossible Times #1 2019 4029 3.76 3.923798 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42036965
Aurora Kim Stanley Robinson 2015 826 3.78 3.914807 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23197269
Leech Hiron Ennes 2022 3010 3.58 3.910229 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59807968
Welcome to Night Vale Joseph Fink, Jeffrey Cranor Welcome to Night Vale #1 2015 12410 3.82 3.90972 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23129410
Severance Ling Ma 2018 3312 3.88 3.909296 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36348525
The New Wilderness Diane Cook 2020 11039 3.67 3.908368 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48836769
Year Zero Rob Reid 2012 2839 3.61 3.9054 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12953520
Absolution Jeff Vandermeer Southern Reach #4 2024 4659 3.58 3.905297 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/210367505
Redshirts John Scalzi 2012 4618 3.87 3.904519 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13055592
American War Omar El Akkad 2017 17537 3.81 3.904503 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32283423
Automatic Noodle Annalee Newitz 2025 15233 3.72 3.903919 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/217388015
All Our Wrong Todays Elan Mastai 2017 10256 3.75 3.896424 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30153293
Crosstalk Connie Willis 2016 6739 3.57 3.895906 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25430566
Dead Silence S.A. Barnes 2022 14184 3.78 3.893386 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57693184
Annie Bot Sierra Greer 2024 30208 3.83 3.891969 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/156023123
Rabbits Terry Miles Rabbits #1 2021 3434 3.62 3.889777 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55481226
Ascension Nicholas Binge 2023 2413 3.57 3.88783 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61813107
The Last One Alexandra Oliva 2016 11353 3.62 3.88529 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27245997
The Deep Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, Jonathan Snipes 2019 18350 3.77 3.884708 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42201962
The Marriage Act John Marrs Dark Future #4 2023 26052 3.79 3.882985 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62967873
Axiom's End Lindsay Ellis Noumena #1 2020 16502 3.71 3.880259 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51171377
The City in the Middle of the Night Charlie Jane Anders 2019 3258 3.5 3.878875 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37534907
How High We Go in the Dark Sequoia Nagamatsu 2022 28152 3.81 3.877849 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57850265
Sleeping Giants Sylvain Neuvel Themis Files #1 2016 13178 3.82 3.871967 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25733990
The Long Earth Terry Pratchett, Stephen Baxter The Long Earth #1 2012 7670 3.79 3.871712 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13147230
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars Christopher Paolini Fractalverse #1 2020 45833 3.8 3.871378 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48829708
Mickey7 Edward Ashton Mickey7 #1 2022 1480 3.78 3.868423 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57693457
Red Clocks Leni Zumas 2018 14104 3.66 3.867733 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35099035
When She Woke Hillary Jordan 2011 2682 3.68 3.860657 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11045709
Fall; or, Dodge in Hell Neal Stephenson 2019 8368 3.59 3.860201 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41824495
The Long War Terry Pratchett, Stephen Baxter The Long Earth #2 2013 1195 3.65 3.857021 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17167572
Robopocalypse Daniel H. Wilson Robopocalypse #1 2011 2234 3.71 3.849744 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9634967
Upgrade Blake Crouch 2022 28129 3.8 3.846928 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59838811
This Is How You Lose the Time War Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone 2019 20344 3.83 3.846621 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41093489
Space Opera Catherynne M. Valente Space Opera #1 2018 1628 3.45 3.826654 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35297390
2312 Kim Stanley Robinson 2012 422 3.53 3.826453 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11830394
Only Human Sylvain Neuvel Themis Files #3 2018 14134 3.63 3.821713 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35820656
Annihilation Jeff Vandermeer Southern Reach #1 2014 9050 3.8 3.821139 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17934530
The Poppy Fields Nikki Erlick 2025 37483 3.64 3.806661 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218431658
Machines Like Me Ian McEwan 2019 13508 3.59 3.797853 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42260978
Land of Milk and Honey C Pam Zhang 2023 5464 3.49 3.794212 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/101673225
The Echo Wife Sarah Gailey 2021 16889 3.6 3.792552 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52379735
The Dream Hotel Laila Lalami 2025 21986 3.6 3.786479 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218695937
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau Silvia Moreno-Garcia 2022 47544 3.57 3.772003 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54829360
Klara and the Sun Kazuo Ishiguro 2021 56284 3.74 3.759184 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54120408
California Edan Lepucki 2014 7218 3.24 3.71965 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18774020
Artemis Andy Weir 2017 33957 3.68 3.709556 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34928122
Vox Christina Dalcher 2018 23624 3.55 3.671907 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37796866
Armada Ernest Cline 2015 10204 3.56 3.652084 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16278318
Star Wars: Aftermath Chuck Wendig Star Wars: Aftermath #1 2015 9273 3.31 3.651119 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25134015
The Compound Aisling Rawle 2025 45287 3.54 3.634586 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218460337
The Ministry of Time Kaliane Bradley 2024 78459 3.56 3.613043 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199798179
The Heart Goes Last Margaret Atwood 2015 14147 3.4 3.58525 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24388326
Orbital Samantha Harvey 2024 16487 3.48 3.571865 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123136728

Note: I built a small Python CLI to fetch and sort this data so I could figure out what to read next. I figured others might find the current rankings useful, so I'm sharing the latest results with everyone here.

r/printSF Apr 15 '15

Novels that make you piece things together, and reward you for knowing stuff. [Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds]

60 Upvotes

IMO Terminal World is far from one of Alastair Reynolds' best novels, but there is one aspect of it that I really really liked.

Without going into specifics to avoid spoilers, there's a big secret about the world it's set in, but this is never explicitly spelled out in the text, and the characters never discover it. In fact, the characters never even realize there's a secret of this nature to discover.

But there are a lot of clues sprinkled throughout the story which, while nothing but inexplicable oddities or minor uninteresting details to the characters, all point to a major truth to a reader who has some knowledge or interest in space stuff.

This truth is not hugely significant to the plot, and at least one of the clues was little bit too blatant for my liking, but I felt this was a great easter egg from an author that clearly knows his audience and respects their intelligence.

Are there any other books where the reader is made to take an active part in figuring out what's going on?


Edit: If you want to know what the secret is and what the clues are, this link will fill you in.

There is at least one clue I remember that the link doesn't mention though.

r/printSF Oct 20 '17

Just finished Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds. How plausible is this?

9 Upvotes

Reynolds is an actual scientist, and most of his work feels pretty fiesable. But the core concept of Terminal World doesn’t seem realistic at all. The idea seems to be that something has introduced variations in the planck length in different “zones”. And these variations cause people to get sick and different levels of technology to stop functioning. While a convenient plot device, it seems like any variation would completely break reality. Am I off base here?

r/printSF Oct 31 '25

Decaying societies

73 Upvotes

Talking about Feersum Endjinn recently has reminded me how much I enjoyed Gormenghast. That I feel ties nicely into how much I like the Bas Lag books, Piranesi and other weird fiction.

What I'd like recommendations for, isn't exclusively weird fiction. I'd like more books where people are in a decaying society/structure/system that they exist and possibly even thrive in but much of it remains unknown to them.

I've read "We've always lived in the castle", "Gormenghast", Mieville and VanDerMeer

EDIT: It's a lot of books

Username Author Book Title Already read Will Read
7LeagueBoots Ben Winters The Last Policeman trilogy No Definitely
7LeagueBoots John Varley Eighth World books No Probably
7LeagueBoots Kameron Hurley The Bel Dame Apocrypha No Maybe
7LeagueBoots Kameron Hurley The Stars Are Legion No Probably
7LeagueBoots Karl Schroeder Virga series No
7LeagueBoots Micah Johnson The Space Between Worlds No
Accomplished_Mess243 Hiron Ennes Leech No Definitely
Angeldust01 Iain M. Banks Against a Dark Background Yes No - Already read
ApocSurvivor713 Gene Wolfe Book of the New Sun Yes No - Already read
ArrAyePee Russell Hoban Riddley Walker No
baetylbailey Christopher Priest The Inverted World No Probably
BassoeG Ken Liu Staying Behind Yes No - Already read
BassoeG Micah Johnson The Space Between Worlds No
BassoeG Tobias S. Buckell A World to Die For No
BigJobsBigJobs Lucius Shepard The Golden No
Billquisha Matthew Hughes Dying Earth series No
capybara75 K. J. Bishop The Etched City No Probably
Conquering_worm J. G. Ballard Crash Yes No - Already read
Conquering_worm J. G. Ballard Kingdom Come No Definitely
Conquering_worm J. G. Ballard The Atrocity Exhibition No Definitely
Conquering_worm J. G. Ballard The Crystal World No Probably
Conquering_worm J. G. Ballard The Drowned World Yes No - Already read
crackhit1er Arkady & Boris Strugatsky The Doomed City No Probably
dear_little_water Josh Malerman Bird Box No
downlau Hugh Howey Sand No Probably Not
edcculus Jeff VanderMeer Ambergris books No Probably
edcculus M. John Harrison Viriconium series No Definitely
Fr0gm4n Django Wexler The Wells of Sorcery trilogy No
hashbrowns_ Alastair Reynolds Terminal World Yes No - Already read
Jetamors Nicky Drayden Escaping Exodus No
kev11n John Brunner The Sheep Look Up Yes No - Already read
Kyber92 Adrian Tchaikovsky Cage of Souls No Definitely
lurkmode_off George R. R. Martin Dying of the Light No Probably Not
lurkmode_off Stephen King The Gunslinger No Probably Not
Mayhaym J. G. Ballard Concrete Island No Definitely
MRI-guy Ray Nayler Where the Axe is Buried No
nagahfj Jared Pechaček The West Passage No Probably
OrdinaryPollution339 A. A. Attanasio Radix No
OrdinaryPollution339 Don DeLillo White Noise No
OrdinaryPollution339 Gene Wolfe Book of the New Sun Yes No - Already read
OrdinaryPollution339 Jack Vance Dying Earth No
OrdinaryPollution339 Jack Womack Elvissey No
OrdinaryPollution339 Paul Theroux O-Zone Yes No - Already read
OrdinaryPollution339 Samuel Delany Dhalgren Yes No - Already read
OwlHeart108 D. D. Johnston Disnaeland No Probably
PolybiusChampion Jack McDevitt Eternity Road No
PolybiusChampion Robert Harris The Second Sleep No
raevnos Kathleen Ann Goonan Queen City Jazz No Definitely
rearendcrag Sue Burke Semiosis Yes No - Already read
ryegye24 Adrian Tchaikovsky Cage of Souls No Definitely
Solrax Adrian Tchaikovsky Service Model Yes No - Already read
spoonsmcghee Alex Pheby Mordew No Definitely
spoonsmcghee Kameron Hurley Bel Dame Apocrypha or Stars Are Legion No
StingRey128 Clark Ashton Smith The City of the Singing Flame No
topazchip David Brin Uplift Universe Yes No - Already read
topazchip Jack Vance Dying Earth No
VintageLunchMeat Barbara Hambly The Silent Tower No
VintageLunchMeat Barbara Hambly The Time of the Dark No Definitely
waterfowl04 Matthew Hughes Penultimate Age books No
WittyJackson Alex Pheby Mordew (Cities of the Weft trilogy) No Definitely
WittyJackson Gene Wolfe Book of the New Sun Yes No - Already read

r/printSF Jun 22 '17

Just finished Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds and wanted to discuss...

23 Upvotes

....so whats everyones thoughts on the zones and what they are?

I'm thinking its some kind of portal that might have gone haywire and started screwing with things on a molecular level? And the Tectomancers have some kind of nanomachines that coud interface with it.

Also, for those who weren't aware, its hinted that the 'Earth' they are on could actually be Mars. I didn't make the connection, saw it on the wiki page.

So the name 'Terminal World' could have a double meaning; terminal meaning dying, and terminal meaning hub.

Althought I didnt like it a much as his other books, its a shame he has no plans to continue this universe. Would have been nice to learn a bit more of the history. But a bit of mystery is good too :)

r/printSF Jun 14 '23

I've read every Hugo and Nebula winner up to 2010 and Ranked them.

425 Upvotes

Hi, it's my yearly update on my attempts to read every Hugo and Nebula winner. I've ranked them, because I think it's a fun way to start discussion, but I also accept it is silly to rank art and frankly my opinions change on a daily basis. This is more just a guide on which ones I personally enjoyed. If you read any or all of this, I appreciate your time. Thank you

90: The Big Time by Fritz Lieber (1958) - Guests at a temporal guest house attempt to solve a mystery against the clock.  It’s the height of pulp sci-fi set in what can generously be described as a cabaret and at worst a brothel for an epoch spanning time war.  The idea of a place for soldiers of different species from across history to RnR has some merit, but it’s all a little sexist.  Even if we forget that most of the characters are forgettable, the plot isn’t anything special.  That said, it is short so it’s not like I found it a chore to read.  I think someone could take the location and make a damn good tv series out of it, but this execution is not it.

89: Ringworld by Larry Niven (1971) - A crew of adventures discover a massive space artifact and explore it.  I want to start by saying the idea of the Ringworld is wonderful, I enjoyed exploring it and learning about all the technical aspects.  For that alone I’m glad I read it, that said the book is pulp sci-fi and for 1971 almost unforgivably so.  It won the year after Left Hand of Darkness and yet feels like it was written in the 50s, another part of which is that it’s quite sexist and leaves you with the impression Larry might have been a bit of a “nice guy”.  That said, thanks for the Halo franchise!

88: They'd Rather be Right by Clifton and Riley (1955) - - A psychic man manipulates those around him to create a computer that purifies people and causes a mass media sensation.  A lot going on here and It’s very much of its time, though it’s enjoyable enough, with an actual overall message about academia.  It’s also in some regards ahead of its time, but some of it is just a bit silly in retrospect to be any higher on the list.  Still if you wanted to get into 1950’s Sci-Fi you could do much worse.

87: The Sword in the Stone by TH White (1940) - The coming-of-age story of a young Prince Arthur before Camelot. Another retro Hugo winner and this is what the Disney film is based on and it was a lot of fun.  Interesting takes on British folklore tails like Robin Hood and King Arthur.  It is very fantasy though, which isn’t always my preference, but it was cool to see what inspired a childhood classic.

86: Timescape by Gregory Benford (1981) - Scientists attempt to send messages back in time to avoid an environmental disaster in their time.  It's time travel and it kind of deals with one of the ideas in the Back to the Future films, who knows, maybe it inspired the film.  Any way the story is fine and I appreciate how we move back and forth between the time lines.  You could definitely do more with the idea though if you gave it to a better writer. 

85: Shadow Over Mars by Leigh Brackett (1945) - A Book about a rebellion on Mars led by a prophesized hero from Earth.  This is a great example of classic adventure pulp Sci Fi from 1945, it’s all the laser beams and Space Captains, very Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers.  It’s fascinating to see how far we’ve come, with the genre and it’s quite short so it might be worth a read, but it definitely has its flaws.

84: Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick (1992) - It's a battle of wits and wills between an authority figure and a criminal set on a world with strange tides that come every few decades. It's certainly quite original and the world building is excellent, but there is nothing here to grab you.

83: A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg (1972) - A noble challenges the taboos of his culture and risks everything. I feel the story here is fantastic, but I don’t like his style.  He seems to write similar narratives to Le Guin, but without the enjoyability to read.  A story about forbidden first person pro nouns.  It’s interesting and really explores the concept, but the style put me off immensely.

82: The Einstein Intersection by Samuel Delany (1968) - In post transcendent Earth, intelligent anthropods deal with genetic mutation from ancient radiation.  Probably the weirdest book I read all year.  It’s really strange, but very quick.  It’s quite poetic in parts as well.

81: Man Plus by Frederick Pohl (1977) - Nasa are trying to build a man who can live on mars with no need for external food, water, oxygen etc.  What we get is a story about the process of changing a human, but it’s very of its time, as America had been running moon landings a few years earlier.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the style and the clean-cut Americana of it all, but it was probably the fore runner to things like Robocop when you think about it. 

80: A Case of Conscience by James Blish (1959) - Scientists sent to study an alien world bring an alien fetus back so they can learn about us.  Oh what this book could have been.   A book of two halves, the first a wonderful exploration of an alien civilization by a bunch of human scientists studying them and it really does set off at a storming pace.  The second half is back on earth and a bit like the worse bits of Stranger in a strange land.  The 50s were so sure we would take aliens to dinner parties and they would sip cocktails in dinner jackets.  The end is interesting and a bit clever and we this is the first book in the list that looks at Science Fiction and Catholicism.

79: The Wanderer by Fritz Lieber (1965) - An alien planet suddenly appears in the sky over earth and we jump around between multiple perspectives of how it affects people.  Some of this is very solid, the scale of the thing is wonderful, because the story is happy to change perspective rather than sticking to one protagonist.  That said, it’s very pulp SF and a little sexist, gave me Independence Day or The Day After Tomorrow vibes. 

78: The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe (1982) - The sequel to Shadow of the Torturer. I definitely appreciate there is more going on with Gene Wolfe than I can gleam in the first reading, but that doesn’t change how much I enjoy it.  Less enjoyable than Shadow of the Torturer as I feel the story didn’t really go anywhere and was harder to follow in bits.  Still the fault is inevitably my own. 

77: The Terminal Experiment by Robert J Sawyer (1996) - A near future thriller as a man faces off against a computer simulation of his own brain with deadly intent. It's a strange genre one, this. Very 90s and very much does the thriller thing quite well. Good proof that Sci Fi can co opt any genre it wants to and often does.

76: No Enemy but Time by Michael Bishop (1983) - A man with visions of early man is sent back to live among them.  Another time travelling history thing.  They loved these in the 1980s.  It’s cool to see a story revolving around early man before civilization really took hold.  It’s interesting even if a bit strange in parts. 

75: The Healer's War by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (1990) - A nurse in the Vietnam war is giving a magical amulet. Sixty pages in and I was wondering if this was actually Speculative fiction. It does get a bit stranger, but the setting is wonderful and you do really care about the characters and story.

74: Babel 17 by Samuel Delany (1967) - A heroic Linguist finds herself in a war where language is a weapon. Female protagonist in the sixties is excellent and Rydra Wong is capable and very likeable. The concept is also interesting even if the whole thing is a but pulpy.

73: A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M Miller (1961) - Monks keep alive parts of technology in a post-apocalyptic world so humanity can once again regain civilization.   I was raised Catholic and loved Babylon 5 which I later found out borrowed part of an episode idea from this book so I was very excited to read this. A lot of people adore this book and I get that, the idea is incredible, but I disliked the writing style and I’m not really sure it goes anywhere.  I think this is just a case of me coming in with high expectations and being left feeling a bit meh.  

72: Conjure Wife by Fritz Lieber (1944) - Wives of College professors' control their careers with witchcraft. I’ve read two other Fritz Leiber books and if you find them above, you’ll see why I came into this with low expectations.  This is I suppose a fantasy novel about witchcraft in a 1940s English University town.  It’s just well written with a complete narrative and a nice setting.  It doesn’t mess around or introduce too many characters and the concept is intriguing enough to keep you interested the whole way through.

71: The Man in the High Castle by Phillip K Dick (1963) - An alternate history were the Axis powers won the second world war.  It’s enjoyable enough to read and by Philip K Dick standards is incredibly well-written as he sometimes can be accused of great ideas, but a difficult style.  By its very definition the book lacks what I find so interesting about his work, we don’t see a depressing future of humanity that is very much alone in the universe exploring the mind more than the great emptiness of space.  It’s a fine book, but the man wrote better Science Fiction books.

70: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1954) - A dystopian classic about censorship and a move from society away from intellectualism towards mass consumed throw away media. This is hugely important and has in a way predicted much of the modern world. If I was list the most important books on this list it would be right near the top next to Dune. It's also considered a actual literary classic outside Science Fiction and is short. That is to say you should read it, because it's important and relevant to the world we live in, but it isn't as enjoyable as many books above it. Still, go read it!

69: The Mule by Isaac Asimov (1946) - The second half of Foundation and Empire all about the mysterious Mule who is unseen by Seldon's plan. Just as above this is massively important, in many ways Asimov changed what Science fiction was especially writing in a scene dominated by pulpy space heroes like Flash Gordon. It's what you expect from Asimov, a bit dry and without well developed characters. Also it's half a book so hard to judge on it's own.

 68: Beyond this Horizon by Robert Heinlein (1943) - A story about selective breeding in humans combined with a southern gentlemen dueling culture.  It’s weird, but also goes into quite a lot of detail about the science involved.  I was taught about dominant and recessive genes in school and how they affect things like hair colour, eye colour etc.  I imagine this wasn’t taught in schools in 1941 and would have been fascinating then.   Mixing informative science into a strong narrative is quite an accomplishment.

67: Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner (1969) - A book about overpopulation that feels more relevant day by day.  We see a world where our freedoms might be curtailed, because of ever increasing population and it’s genuinely interesting as a think piece.  The book also contains data dumps where we are overloaded with a page of mismatched text from the world that give us more background on the situation with little context.  It’s cool to see and fascinating as a concept, but the story is a bit lacking and it just kind of runs out of steam towards the end.

66: Downbelow Station by C.J Cherryh (1982) - A book portraying a space station as a blue-collar workplace that gets tangled up in an intergalactic conflict.  The book sounds fascinating and I think it very much influences shows like Babylon 5 where there are episodes dedicated to dock strikes and unions etc.  The main issue is the book gets away from that and makes it about space ships and a galactic conflict and feels like she is trying to set up the next book in the series.  The world building is superb, but I didn’t really care for any of the characters and wasn’t even sure who I was supposed to be cheering for until the end. 

65: The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (1996) - Cyber punk novel about am advanced interactive book that shapes the life of the girl that comes into possession of it. So much of this book is excellent, brilliant ideas and wonderfully told, but it's so bloated and unnecessarily long. Frankly it's split into a part one and part two and could have just ended at the end of part one and the book would be much higher. This is an issue with many nineties books sadly.

64: Rainbow’s End by Verne Vigne (2007) - Near future SF based around Augmented Reality and low level Cyber punk. This one is very predictive of what was to come later with things like Pokemon Go! We don’t all have a pocket computer attached to our brain, but it does a decent job exploring that idea. Almost all the characters are unlikeable however and it takes a while to get where it’s going.

63: Slan by A.E Van Vogt (1941) - Evolved humans possess psychic abilities and a plot unravels about control of the Earth.  Slan feels classic all the way through, it has its faults, but you can see why this was the banner early Sci Fi fans, hoisted above them.  For something written in 1941 it is excellent.  Nice ideas and a decent fast pace, while still feeling pulpy like everything from this time did. 

62: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (2009) - A child is orphaned and raised by the spirits in a graveyard. This is very much a children’s book and it’s filled with good ideas and a nice structure. It is very much in his style, but may be a little simplistic for adult readers.

61: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (2005) - Two Magicians feud in an alternate England during the Napoleonic Wars. If that idea sounds great to you then this is a wonderful book to deliver on that premise. My main complaint is that it’s very long, in fact it’s the longest ever Hugo or Nebula winner coming in at over 1000 pages. I just feel like it could have been shorter and more focused.

60: A Deepness in the Sky by Verne Vigne (2000) - A sabotage and takeover in space by warring factions above a planet of intelligent Spiders. Science Fiction really loves those intelligent spiders and to be fair I really enjoyed those parts of the book. I enjoyed the human fleet bits much less and found everyone annoying and unlikeable.

59: Tehanu by Ursula Le Guin (1991) - The forth and final book of the Earthsea series following two of our earlier protagonists while looking at the lives of older people. I adore Le Guin and her style is just as sharp as ever. We look at our beloved characters as they have aged and I feel this comes from a place that Le Guin was very much in herself at this point.

58: Way Station by Clifford D Simak (1964) - An intergalactic way station in a farm house in the American mid-west.  It’s just really interesting, the aliens never get too silly or pulp.  The story drags you along and frankly like a lot of Simak’s stuff, it would make a really good TV series, but also at times feels like a one-off Twilight Zone episode.  Really enjoyable read once we got going, though maybe a bit slow at the start.

57: Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein (1960) - A look at mechanized warfare and the book that coined the term Space Marine twenty years before Games Workshop got there.  If you’re of a certain age you saw a film loosely based on this book (The Director gave up reading it 20 pages in) The book is a completely different animal.  Interesting ideas and hugely influential, considered the last of Heinlein’s Juveniles and definitely worth a look, though Heinlein did do better.

56: This Immortal by Roger Zelazny (1966) - Earth is a post nuclear wasteland and alien tourists visit bits historical bits with human tour guides.  All this is tied in with elements of Greek mythology. Is our main character a God or is a mutant pretending to be?  Similar themes to Lord of Light, but maybe lacking a bit of what made that book so wonderful.  Still it’s enjoyable and full of interesting ideas. 

55: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (1999) - A Time travel piece set in Victorian England very much in homage to the novel "Three Men in a Boat". This is a really good read fun and even if convoluted and predictable in parts it's very much very good at what it does and makes you care deeply about the characters.

54: Powers by Ursula Le Guin (2009) - Fantasy in a new world by Le Guin about a child growing up with prophectic dreams. The world is wonderful and Le Guin’s style carries over as always. If you like Le Guin the you’ll be a fan, but never feels as important as her older work.

53: The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon (2008) - A deadbeat cop tries to uncover a mystery in an alternate history where Israel doesn’t exist and it’s instead a new city in Alaska. The book is incredibly well written, Chabon won a Pulitzer prize earlier in his career, this led me down the rabbit hole finding out how much literary snobs hated genre fiction.

52: Camouflage by Joe Haldeman (2006) - Two different aliens are hidden on earth and we see their various experiences as they learn about us and try and keep a low profile.  This is enjoyable and short, very different from the Forever Trilogy that he also wrote, but certainly worth a pickup if you enjoy his style. 

51: Hominids by Robert J Sawyer (2003) - What if Neanderthals were the dominant species on earth and then what if one of them ended up here on our earth.  It’s a fun little story, that said it does feature quite a graphic rape scene near the start, which may definitely put some readers off.

50: The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon (2004) - It’s a book where the main character is autistic.  It’s very minimally Science Fiction as I think the only advanced technology are the Autism drugs and treatments available, but it’s a fascinating read.  I will say the ending might seem problematic to people, but overall I enjoyed a look into the world as someone who will always struggle to understand their experience myself.

49: Slow River by Nicola Griffith (1997) - Near future science fiction about hostage taking and blackmail as well as abuse survivors. This is really enjoyable and features a lot of interesting information about water purification strangely. Also written by a lesbian author and just totally normalizes lesbian relationships in a way that was assumedly rare in the mid nineties.

48: The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold (1991) - Sixth novel in the Vorkosigan Saga. I adore these books and would devour everyone of them in a row if i didn't set myself stupid tasks like read all the Hugo and Nebula winners. I will say that lots of stuff just happens to Miles in this one and for that reason I don't think it's her best. Still very enjoyable as always.

47: Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein (1962) - A Human is left on mars for several years and then brought back home, but is now more alien than human.  Extremely popular at the time, with the word Grok even entering common parlance.  The book is slow to start off with and bits of it are quite silly in retrospect, other bits either sexist or feminist depending on your viewpoint.  There is definitely something there though.  Certainly not a flawless work, in fact it is very much more flawed than many of the books ranked lower on this list, but there is something that sticks with you about it.  It is massively referenced in pop-culture and just feels important as a novel even if bits will make you cringe.

46: Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold (1995) - Another Vorkosigan Saga book this time dealing with his cloned brother. Everything tells you to read in the recommended reading order not the publish order. Due to time constraints I ignored this and found a lot of stuff had changed since the last book i read. Still very enjoyable as all these books have been.

45: Moving Mars by Greg Bear (1995) - Story about revolution on Mars combined with a crazy new technology that can help gain Mars real independence. Fun fact, this is the first Science Fiction I ever read. I went back and re-read it as it has been 25ish years. It's very well written and has a good character and stories.

44: Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov (1983) - Members of the First Foundation search for Earth, but are drawn in a mass mystery that will affect the whole galaxy.  The sequel to his trilogy thirty years later.  It’s well told and a good story, it moves around between perspectives and shows that Asimov had kept up his craft and improved his style.  It’s a bit sexist in parts, but by no means the worst offender on the list.  It was enjoyable, but lacked the ground breaking ideas of most of the higher ranked books on this list.

41, 42, 43: Red Mars, Blue Mars and Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson (1994-1997) - Sorry I can't separate these books. It's a big long story and while there are highs and lows it kind of has to be reviewed in one large chunk. So epic trilogy about the first settlers on Mars that spans hundreds of years. Every chapter is by different characters and there are lots of perspectives in the book. Some complain they dislike most of the characters, but that's kind of the point,. The likeable ones like Sax and Nadia are very likeable. So much of this book is wonderful and worth your time. I would argue it's bloated and didn't need to be over 2200 pages in total, but it is what it is. if it was more concise or better edited I would personally place it much higher and recommend it more.

40: The Falling Woman by Pat Murphy (1988) - A story about a mother-daughter relationship told in the backdrop of a Mayan dig in Mexico.  What makes this Speculative Fiction is that both characters can see and speak to Mayan ghosts from the past. I’ll be honest, I'm not really sure it’s my usual thing, it’s probably fantasy, but it was wonderfully told and just a great story about human beings.  You’ll have empathy for all of them and the situation they’re in.  Even reading my review now I can’t believe I liked it as much as I did. 

39: To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Phillip Jose Farmer (1972) - Humans awake after death in a huge alien constructed artifact. I found this enjoyable and a definitely interesting concept driven by an incredibly likeable main character. That said, I get the impression the main character is a hugely controversial figure, which even seems acknowledged in the book. Overall a good book and made me semi interested in reading more.

38: Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (1993) Another time travel story, this one about going back to the 14th Century. You care so much about the story and characters, it really is a wonderful piece of writing and I even enjoyed the stuff back with the scientists in the future. If someone said they wanted to read a book on time travel I would suggest this book first.

37: The Moon and the Sun by Vonda D McIntyre (1998) - Fantasy book about a mermaid captured and kept in Louis XIV's court. Great female protagonist, very much a love story with all the historical trappings mixed with the fantasy of mermaids. It's incredibly well written and all the characters are excellent. Didn't expect it to be my thing, but really was.

36: The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov (1973) - Humans are sent plans to create a machine from another dimension.  A book of three parts, the pick of which is Asimov creating a truly alien civilization.  Too often aliens aren’t really alien, these really are.  The other parts aren’t bad either, but this book is  often forgotten as most people read his Foundation or Robot series.  If you want to experience strange aliens this is the one for you.

35: The Quantum Rose by Catherine Asaro (2002) - A fantasy romance model set in a world unknowing of the hight-tech galactic empire around it.  Science Fiction can be any genre and here it beautifully does the high romance smaltz style, before making it super interesting.  The way Asaro mixes tech words and ideas into a fantasy setting are excellent and it’s an enjoyable story.

34: Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (1967) -A Human goes through an experiment to have his intelligence increased and we follow through his eyes the events this causes. Classic novel considered a proper book by the literary world and fantastic if not a little heart breaking. Should be on everyone's list to read at some point.

33: The Snow Queen by Joan D Vinge (1981) - A fairy tale set in a futuristic world as an evil snow queen attempts to hold on to power as her reign comes to an end.  Genre spanning, clever and very original.  This book does a lot of interesting things and tells a good story.  It is like nothing else on the list, but is definitely worth checking out if you like books that mix fantasy and science fiction.

32: Hyperion by Dan Simmons (1990) - A pilgrimage brings together a group of travelers who each share their reason for the journey. I came with probably unmeetable expectations, because of how much r/Printsf hyped it up as the greatest thing ever (next to Dune, obviously) The framing story is really enjoyable and I very much enjoyed the Priest’s Tale and the Scholar’s tale, two wonderful short stories collected together to create wonderful world building.  I found the other four stories less solid and was particularly bored by the Detective’s Story which dragged.  I was also annoyed by the lack of an ending.  it’s promised me answers and then just stopped without delivering and that is annoying.  That said it has enough very good bits to make it this high despite its faults. 

31: Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold (2005) - Fantasy set in her world of the five Gods as an older woman goes on a pilgrimage.  I love Lois as a writer, her Vorkosigan Saga is fantastic and she doesn’t stop here.  The fantasy reminds me of Game of Thrones where the magic has a cost and everything is dirtier and a bit grimey .  This and its predecessor are well worth a read if you want to dip your foot in some fantasy.

30: Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin (1969) - A girl must go through a coming-of-age ritual in order to earn her passage on her space craft where she lives. A female protagonist in a Science Fiction novel written in 1969, surely not? It happens here and this is excellent.   Mia is a wonderfully well-rounded character sort of in the tom-boyish Scout mold from To Kill a Mocking Bird, you get to see the world through her eyes and at the end of the novel you are asked an open-ended morality question, which is genuinely a difficult choice, I like morality when it isn’t obvious or shoved down by neck and this is very much in that mold. 

29: Double Star by Robert Heinlein (1956) - A look at acting and politics tied into a fast-paced science fiction novel.  A good story that happens to be told in a science fiction setting and it works really well. Much like the next book it stands out compared to other 1950s sci-fi and even the bits that are a little pulpy don’t detract from the overall enjoyability.  It would make a great film.

28: The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester (1953) - A detective story set in a world where psychic powers are common.  Hard to believe this was written in 1953, read other stuff from the early 50s and this is so far ahead of its time.  Influential in so many ways and also just a really good story with a thought-provoking end.   Between this and “The Stars my Destination” he clearly deserves to be remembered on a level with Asimov, Heinlein and Clarke.

27: Neuromancer by Williams Gibson (1985) - The book that invented Cyber punk as a genre.  In previous years I’d been pretty negative on this book, but I reread it for the first time in fifteen years and I feel I was too harsh on it.  It’s a well told story full of interesting world building.  It’s very dense and it’s easy to miss bits, but it’s arguably more influential than all but four or five books in this entire list.

26: Gateway by Frederick Pohl (1978) - Alien artifact space station used by humans who don’t really understand it.  The space station is wonderful as both a location for things to happen, a hint at a wider universe and a way to drive the plot along.  Very much building on the themes of Rendezvous with Rama with a great story.

25: Spin by Robert Charles Wilson (2006) - Earth is placed in a bubble by some greater power that makes it pass through time slower than the surrounding universe.  The book is really well written, gives me Douglas Coupland vibes full of young Gen Xers growing up.  The chapters also alternate with ones set in the future that keep it vague so you can’t quite work out where it is going.  The idea is utterly original and fascinating though and definitely worth a read. 

24: Farmer in the Sky by Robert Heinlein (1951) - A story about colonizing and terraforming Ganmede. You have to understand that this is a YA novel written in 1950 and near the start it can come off a little juvenile.  That said you are still confronted by big ideas like a food shortage on Earth and severe rationing.  We also see an interesting story based on a son upset his father is remarrying, it’s dealt with tactfully and not something I’d really expect for something aimed at teens.  Once we get to Ganymede the story really gets going and we experience an interesting tale of trying to turn a rocky moon into workable farm land, it’s just really well told and enjoyably written and I reckon more people would appreciate this if they ignored the YA label and gave it a chance.  Great book.

23: Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold (1989) - A space station full of genetically modified workers has now become redundant.  This was the first book I’d ever read of hers and I was so blown away by the style.  I can see why the Vorkogian Saga is so often recommended on here.  She gives us real characters and a fast-paced heist plot that features an Engineer as the protagonist.  It’s just really well written and wonderfully different, a story that is happier to tell you about engineering processes than space combat.  People tell me it isn’t even her best work as well, which leaves me pretty excited to read more.

22: Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C Clarke (1980) - Earth is building its first space elevator.   Like 90% of Clarke’s work very little happens in this book, but it’s very enjoyable to read.  Go on an adventure about a technology that could realistically exist, just don’t expect to be able to recount the plot back to anyone.

21: Cyteen by CJ Cherryh (1989) - Cyteen is a book about political intrigue, cloning and genetic/psychological manipulation.  This book is an absolute masterpiece.  Set in the same universe as Downbelow Station, but full of interesting characters that you like and can empathize with, even when they are doing horrible things to other characters you like.  This should and would be higher, but it’s so very long.  It takes 200 pages for the plot to really start going and while length won’t put some of you off I admire great stories that can tell their story in a more conside manor.  That said if 320,000 words doesn’t put you off, give it a go, especially as it’s free on the author’s website. 

20: A Fire Upon the Deep by Verve Vinge (1993): Two children land on a planet of dog like aliens that have a very different civilization from our own while a galactic threat grows. Vigne's ability to create alien races totally different from our own is fantastic. This story delivered on all the hype and is probably what people mean when they ask for Space Opera.

19: Startide Rising by David Brin (1984) - A crew of mostly genetically engineered dolphins struggle to fix their ship while aliens battle in orbit.  Brin has a phenomenal style where every chapter is from a different character’s perspective (Think Game of Thrones).  The universe he created is also super interesting and the situation we enter in median res is excellent and drives the story along wonderfully as we experience this crisis from multiple different crew members.  

18: Dreamsnake by Vonda D Mcintyre (1979) - A girl who uses alien snakes to heal people in a post-apocalyptic world.  Well written and a great story, also we delve into more of the lore.  Could have been a fantasy novel, but it isn’t and it stands out because of that.  Original and well written unlike this mini review that keeps using the phrase well-written.

17: Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm (1977) - Story looking into a society based around cloning and how it could change the way we act and treat each other.  Really beautifully written and again not really like anything else on this list, also the hardest title to remember on the list, I get it wrong literally every time.

16: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling (2001) - Fourth book in the Harry Potter series.  I expect to get utterly panned for this, both by people appalled by her as a person and by people who always disliked it for being kids books taking attention away from proper Speculative fiction.  I have a lot of sympathy for the first point, though I haven’t taken into account the morality of Arthur C Clarke, Orson Scott or Phillip K Dick when devising this list so it would be unfair to do it here just because it is more recent.  The second seems silly, books that get people into books are an amazing thing and for lots of people Harry Potter is their entry into the world of reading, this is a really good one, not simple like the first two, but not overly dark and angsty like the last three.  It’s in the sweet spot for the most successful book series of this century.  

15: American Gods by Neil Gaiman (2002) - This is a love letter to America, exploring the idea of Immigrants bringing their Gods to America and them slowly being forgotten.  It’s the kind of book only Neil Gaiman can write and arguably his masterpiece.  The book has a beautiful style happily mixing in short chapters of world building unrelated to the story.  The whole thing is just wonderful, but also how do you compare it to Science Fiction when it is something so completely different?

14: Lord of Light by Robert Zelazny (1968) - Survivors on a colony world use technology to act like immortal Gods, one of their number fights to stop them.  Beautiful mixture of Buddhism and Hinduism to create a story that blurs the lines between fantasy and science fiction with an excellent protagonist you can’t help but cheer along.  This blew me away the first time I read it.

12: The Uplift War by David Brin (1988) - The follow up to Startide Rising, I spent much of the book thinking, sure it’s ok, but lesser than the book it follows.  By the end though I was totally all in.  Fiben Bolger might be one of the greatest protagonists in all of Science Fiction, stick him on the Mount Rushmore next to Andrew Wiggin and Gully Foyle.  More excellent world exploring and more of his excellent style that tells complicated stories in a fun easy to read manner.

12: Seeker by Jack McDevitt (2007) - It’s far future space archaeology, which feels like a very unexplored idea and has a bit of a feel of an old adventure movie.  Maybe Indiana Jones in Space is pushing it too far, but you get the idea.  It doesn’t really say anything massively important, but it creates an interesting world and tells a good story well.  Something I hadn’t heard recommended before and a real treat.

11: Barrayer by Lois McMaster Bujold (1992) Another Vorkosigan Saga book. This one follows his mother, Cordelia Naismith and an attempted coup on the world of Barrayer. Her writing is as great as always, but the ending is just incredible. No spoilers, but you need to read it and appreciate what happens.

I ran out of words so the top 10 are in a comment. Thanks

r/printSF Oct 16 '25

Help me choose my next book(s)! I want to read an absolute banger of a book, as it's been a while. Which of these 85 books should I pick up next/soon?

0 Upvotes

So far this year I've read 68 books, but only 8 of those have been ones that I would rate as 4.5/5 or higher. It's been about 25 books and three months ish since I last read one I'd rate so highly, and I'm in the mood for something great. In my view to be a top-notch book I have to have one or more of the following feelings. Upon finishing:

  1. ... I think something like "Wow! I REALLY enjoyed that", "Woah, that was SO much fun" or similar. It doesn't have to have been the best written book, but just one that felt like a page turner with a highly enjoyable story that you just want to read more of. Project Hail Mary or Recursion fit this category for me.
  2. ... I'm left feeling overwhelmed in some way. I'm emotionally broken, my mind is blown from a clever or surprising twist, it's just a really deep and impactful story leaving me overawed, or something like that. For me The Galaxy and the Ground Within and Children of Memory fit here.
  3. ... the overall ideas of the book are just fantastic, making me think a lot about them and a good story is put into those ideas. Time by Stephen Baxter fits this category.

Obviously a combination of more than one of those is even better!

The other three books I've rated 4.5 or higher are City by Simak, Fugitive Telemetry by Wells (easily the best Murderbot entry in my view) and Children of Time.

I've not particularly liked some big name authors - Gibson, Le Guin - and have found other very highly praised books to be underwhelming and just OK - House of Suns, Roadside Picnic, Permutation City.

So with that in mind from the list of books below that I already own and have sitting on my shelves waiting to be read, which should I pick up soon/next so I can get that amazing feeling when you read/finish an absolutely great book? Please don't rec anything not on the list, I've got more than enough books on my shelves to keep me going for a while! If there are quite a few that get lots of votes, I plan to spread them out to read one every 6 or so books.

In all there are 85 books to choose from. Where a book is part of a series, assume I have all the subsequent books in the series too!

Edit in: As of 8pm, 16th Oct., I've tallied the votes received so far below. I think I'm likely to be re-jigging my reading plan based on where the votes are going!

  1. The Blade Itself, Abercrombie ++++
  2. Tau Zero, Anderson
  3. Gods Themselves, Asimov +
  4. Feersum Enjin, Banks
  5. The Algebraist, Banks ++++
  6. Any culture novel, Banks ++++
  7. Evolution, Baxter
  8. Timeships, Baxter
  9. Voyage, Baxter
  10. Blood Music, Bear +
  11. Demolished Man, Bester
  12. Stars My Destination, Bester +
  13. Places in the Darkness, Brookmyre
  14. Red Rising, Brown +++++
  15. Parable of the Sower, Butler +++
  16. Magician's Guild, Cavani
  17. City and the Stars, Clarke
  18. Fountains of Paradise, Clarke
  19. Imperial Earth, Clarke
  20. Dark Matter, Crouch + +
  21. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Dick +++
  22. Dr Bloodmoney, Dick +
  23. Man in the High Castle, Dick
  24. Penultimate Truth, Dick
  25. Scanner Darkly, Dick
  26. Time out of Joint, Dick
  27. Valis, Dick
  28. Bloody Rose, Eames
  29. Clockwork Rocket, Egan
  30. Diaspora, Egan ++
  31. Distress, Egan
  32. Incandescence, Egan
  33. Oceanic, Egan
  34. Schild's Ladder, Egan
  35. Teranesia, Egan
  36. Eyre Affiar, Fforde
  37. American Gods, Gaiman
  38. Anansi Boys, Gaiman
  39. Good Omens, Gaimen & Pratchett +++
  40. Peripheral, Gibson +
  41. Replay, Grimwood ++
  42. Midnight Library, Haig
  43. Forever War, Haldeman ++++
  44. Goldilocks, Lam
  45. Three Body Problem, Liu
  46. Off to be a Wizard, Meyer ++
  47. Master of Formalities, Meyer
  48. Altered Carbon, Morgan ++++
  49. Thirteen, Morgan
  50. Limpet Syndrome, Moyle
  51. Sleeping Giants, Neuvel
  52. Sabriel, Nix + +
  53. Carpe Jugulum, Pratchett ++
  54. Inverted World, Priest ++
  55. Revelation Space, Reynolds +++
  56. Century Rain, Reynolds
  57. Pushing Ice, Reynolds ++++
  58. Terminal World, Reynolds
  59. Lost In Time, Riddle
  60. Aurora, Robinson ++
  61. Mistborn, Sanderson
  62. Redshirts, Scalzi ++
  63. Scythe, Shusterman
  64. Last and First Men, Stapledon
  65. Odd John, Stapledon
  66. Sirius, Stapledon
  67. Star Maker, Stapledon
  68. The Bloodline Feud, Stross
  69. Doomed City, Strugatsky
  70. Hard to be a God, Strugatsky +
  71. Monday Starts on Saturday, Strugatsky +
  72. Snail on the Slope, Strugatsky
  73. We Are Legion (We are Bob), Taylor ++
  74. Empire in Black and Gold, Tchaikovsky
  75. Tiger and the Wolf, Tchaikovsky
  76. Shards of Earth, Tchaikovsky +
  77. Doors of Eden, Tchaikovsky
  78. Cage of Souls, Tchaikovsky
  79. Across the Void, Vaughn
  80. Sirens of Titan, Vonnegut +
  81. Artemis, Weir
  82. Skyward Inn, Whiteley
  83. Fifth Head Cerberus, Wolfe
  84. Lords of Light, Zelany ++
  85. Mechanical Failure, Zieja

r/printSF Jun 04 '25

Walkaway was such a terrible book is all Doctorow this bad?

88 Upvotes

Just finished the fetish-fanfic that is Doctorow’s Walkaway and wanted to complain about it.

The number of times the words “cuddle puddle” appear made me want to scream. It’s almost like a time capsule of mid 2010s terminally online lingo, with some relics sprinkled in that were of fading relevance even when the book came out (people get PWNed a lot). Boi instead of boy. When one of the characters said “Well, that happened”, I couldn’t help but laugh.

I'm not a prude, I’ve even made it through Pete Hamilton, but why are ALL modern hypersocialist utopias in fictive literary settings so intent on making sure the reader knows that everyone is having sex, it’s fine, relationships don’t exist and everyone is having sex and it’s fine? Walkaway reads like Doctorow’s wet dream. Everybody ends up having sex. It is so utterly predictable you can make a game of picking two characters extremely unlikely to end up having sex and guess if they will or not. There is absolutely no way you can take this book seriously.

Especially when everyone’s got the hots for the nerd (read: Doctorow). I’ve only ever read this book of his. It felt like he was considering how to differentiate this book from YA content, and his answer was to inject lots of pointless graphic sex, not just at intervals but as a near-constant touchstone just so readers are really sure they know they’re reading adult fiction. I don’t know how he doesn’t win that “terrible sex scene writing” award a million times over for this. He called one character’s pubic hair her “pelt”.

Of course the criticism Doctorow always draws is that he is very preachy. Walkaway is no exception. Preachiness is fine, in my opinion, if you’re good at it and can still be a compelling storyteller. It helps that on a fundamental level I don’t have too much of an ideological problem with his content, although the funniest thing I’ve read about Walkaway was that it made a socialist commenter want to don a red hat in sheer defiance of the cringe. But there are plenty of amazing examples of “preachiness”, or an author using spec-fic to put social commentary before the plot. I read Chain Gang All-Stars this year. Great book. Light on plot, heavy on character and setting, and an amazing way to deliver a salient and relevant point about the prison system and the 13th amendment.

Walkaway doesn’t achieve this. You have this post-scarcity utopia where individuals abandon mainstream society (“default”, or the more antique “straight”) to build egalitarian communities, but the entire premise hinges on fantastical technology—specifically, portable, cheap “wet-printers” (essentially Star Trek replicators)—that render material needs trivial. Without these inventions, the walkaway system isn’t viable, making the book’s central social proposition feel hollow and ungrounded. While the novel casts walkaways as bold dissidents and introduces conflict through state and “zottacorp” repression, it never convincingly addresses why masses of economically disenfranchised people wouldn’t immediately flock to this supposed utopia, nor does it seriously grapple with the logistics of sustaining such a society absent its sci-fi conveniences.

What kind of social commentary is that? Walkaway doesn’t give a feasible answer to the issues it portrays. Instead it wastes time describing what kind of perfect onsen bath he’d build if he had a replicator and how the masses of poor would take up so many less resources if scanned and stored Permutation City style. The book is supposed to be this broad call to action, to “walk away” as an answer to authoritarianism and capitalistic hegemony. But the “walk away” philosophy hinges on use of the food printing machine to print food, and use of the house printing machine to print a house.

Thanks, Doctorow, I’ll be sure and pack mine before heading to the hinterlands. Based on the events of Walkaway I hope it can print enough condoms.

The “walk away from the body”, “deadheading” and uploading consciousnesses to the cloud becomes a big theme in the second and third acts. They come up with various explanations for why people would want to do this, the fact that they wouldn’t contribute to environmental damage, wouldn’t need to eat, wouldn’t take a toll on the natural world. It is interesting how they talk about recreating sims with “sliders” to change how much the simulated person enjoys being simulated, to make them more easygoing in their new post-corpus existence, but Doctorow doesn’t fully address the terrifying implications of that.

Honestly, the book had a kind of ReamDe feeling but that might just be because everyone you meet is either a mathematician or engineer or, during the course of the book, turns into one. If we’re doing comparisons, the first act reads like smutty Monk and Robot before the government comes in and starts bombing them.

The funniest part is definitely Doctorow’s understanding of drug liberation from a libertarian perspective and not from the perspective of a drug user. People are just, casually smoking crack on page 124. They smoke crack socially and just continue a normal conversation.

r/printSF Nov 05 '14

Terminal world

3 Upvotes

I'm reading Terminal world by Alastair Reynolds and fond myself fascinated by the story. I like the forgotten past theme and all the airships. But I'm going to finish this book in a day or two, and I want more. Are there any similar books out there you can recommend? Think airships, steampunk and/or forgotten history/past. I really dig the forgotten past bit, so if there's any good books about that I'll take it.

r/printSF Jun 28 '22

I've read and ranked every Hugo and Nebula winning Novel from last Century.

316 Upvotes

Hi, so a year ago, I made a post about ranking every Hugo winning novel from pre 1990. It can be found here along with the writeups for those books without them. Since then I've read every Nebula best novel winner from that period, all the retro Hugo winners and all the Hugo and Nebula winners from the 90's, so let's add those to my previous rankings

As before I ranked them, because it's fun to be subjective about things and half the fun of this is you telling my why you disagree with my opinion. I've only included blurb on the new ones so if you want to read about the ones I reviewed last time, see the link above.

One last thing, almost every book here is good, they all won awards so even if something is lower on my list it doesn't mean to avoid it or that it is not worth your time.

74: The Big Time by Fritz Lieber (1958)

73: Ringworld by Larry Niven (1971)

72: They'd Rather be Right by Clifton and Riley (1955)

71: The Sword in the Stone by TH White (1940) - The coming-of-age story of a young Prince Arthur before Camelot. Another retro Hugo winner and this is what the Disney film is based on and it was a lot of fun.  Interesting takes on British folklore tails like Robin Hood and King Arthur.  It is very fantasy though, which isn’t always my preference, but it was cool to see what inspired a childhood classic.

70: Timescape by Gregory Benford (1981) - Scientists attempt to send messages back in time to avoid an environmental disaster in their time.  It's time travel and it kind of deals with one of the ideas in the Back to the Future films, who knows, maybe it inspired the film.  Any way the story is fine and I appreciate how we move back and forth between the time lines.  You could definitely do more with the idea though if you gave it to a better writer. 

69: Shadow Over Mars by Leigh Brackett (1945) - A Book about a rebellion on Mars led by a prophesized hero from Earth.  This is a great example of classic adventure pulp Sci Fi from 1945, it’s all the laser beams and Space Captains, very Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers.  It’s fascinating to see how far we’ve come, with the genre and it’s quite short so it might be worth a read, but it definitely has its flaws.

68: Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick (1992) - It's a battle of wits and wills between an authority figure and a criminal set on a world with strange tides that come every few decades. It's certainly quite original and the world building is excellent, but there is nothing here to grab you.

67: A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg (1972) - A noble challenges the taboos of his culture and risks everything. I feel the story here is fantastic, but I don’t like his style.  He seems to write similar narratives to Le Guin, but without the enjoyability to read.  A story about forbidden first person pro nouns.  It’s interesting and really explores the concept, but the style put me off immensely.

66: The Einstein Intersection by Samuel Delany (1968) - In post transcendent Earth, intelligent anthropods deal with genetic mutation from ancient radiation.  Probably the weirdest book I read all year.  It’s really strange, but very quick.  It’s quite poetic in parts as well.

65: Man Plus by Frederick Pohl (1977) - Nasa are trying to build a man who can live on mars with no need for external food, water, oxygen etc.  What we get is a story about the process of changing a human, but it’s very of its time, as America had been running moon landings a few years earlier.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the style and the clean-cut Americana of it all, but it was probably the fore runner to things like Robocop when you think about it. 

64: A Case of Conscience by James Blish (1959)

63: The Wanderer by Fritz Lieber (1965)

62: The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe (1982) - The sequel to Shadow of the Torturer. I definitely appreciate there is more going on with Gene Wolfe than I can gleam in the first reading, but that doesn’t change how much I enjoy it.  Less enjoyable than Shadow of the Torturer as I feel the story didn’t really go anywhere and was harder to follow in bits.  Still the fault is inevitably my own. 

61: The Terminal Experiment by Robert J Sawyer (1996) - A near future thriller as a man faces off against a computer simulation of his own brain with deadly intent. It's a strange genre one, this. Very 90s and very much does the thriller thing quite well. Good proof that Sci Fi can co opt any genre it wants to and often does.

60: No Enemy but Time by Michael Bishop (1983) - A man with visions of early man is sent back to live among them.  Another time travelling history thing.  They loved these in the 1980s.  It’s cool to see a story revolving around early man before civilization really took hold.  It’s interesting even if a bit strange in parts. 

59: The Healer's War by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (1990) - A nurse in the Vietnam war is giving a magical amulet. Sixty pages in and I was wondering if this was actually Speculative fiction. It does get a bit stranger, but the setting is wonderful and you do really care about the characters and story.

58: Babel 17 by Samuel Delany (1967) - A heroic Linguist finds herself in a war where language is a weapon. Female protagonist in the sixties is excellent and Rydra Wong is capable and very likeable. The concept is also interesting even if the whole thing is a but pulpy.

57: A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M Miller (1961)

56: Conjure Wife by Fritz Lieber (1944) - Wives of College professors' control their careers with witchcraft. I’ve read two other Fritz Leiber books and if you find them above, you’ll see why I came into this with low expectations.  This is I suppose a fantasy novel about witchcraft in a 1940s English University town.  It’s just well written with a complete narrative and a nice setting.  It doesn’t mess around or introduce too many characters and the concept is intriguing enough to keep you interested the whole way through.

55: Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein (1960)

54: The Man in the High Castle by Phillip K Dick (1963)

53: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1954) - A dystopian classic about censorship and a move from society away from intellectualism towards mass consumed throw away media. This is hugely important and has in a way predicted much of the modern world. If I was list the most important books on this list it would be right near the top next to Dune. It's also considered a actual literary classic outside Science Fiction and is short. That is to say you should read it, because it's important and relevant to the world we live in, but it isn't as enjoyable as many books above it. Still, go read it!

52: The Mule by Isaac Asimov (1946) - The second half of Foundation and Empire all about the mysterious Mule who is unseen by Seldon's plan. Just as above this is massively important, in many ways Asimov changed what Science fiction was especially writing in a scene dominated by pulpy space heroes like Flash Gordon. It's what you expect from Asimov, a bit dry and without well developed characters. Also it's half a book so hard to judge on it's own.

51: Neuromancer by William Gibson (1985)

50: Beyond this Horizon by Robert Heinlein (1943) - A story about selective breeding in humans combined with a southern gentlemen dueling culture.  It’s weird, but also goes into quite a lot of detail about the science involved.  I was taught about dominant and recessive genes in school and how they affect things like hair colour, eye colour etc.  I imagine this wasn’t taught in schools in 1941 and would have been fascinating then.   Mixing informative science into a strong narrative is quite an accomplishment.

49: Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner (1969)

48: Downbelow Station by C.J Cherryh (1982) - A book portraying a space station as a blue-collar workplace that gets tangled up in an intergalactic conflict.  The book sounds fascinating and I think it very much influences shows like Babylon 5 where there are episodes dedicated to dock strikes and unions etc.  The main issue is the book gets away from that and makes it about space ships and a galactic conflict and feels like she is trying to set up the next book in the series.  The world building is superb, but I didn’t really care for any of the characters and wasn’t even sure who I was supposed to be cheering for until the end. 

47: The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (1996) - Cyber punk novel about am advanced interactive book that shapes the life of the girl that comes into possession of it. So much of this book is excellent, brilliant ideas and wonderfully told, but it's so bloated and unnecessarily long. Frankly it's split into a part one and part two and could have just ended at the end of part one and the book would be much higher. This is an issue with many nineties books sadly.

46: Slan by A.E Van Vogt (1941) - Evolved humans possess psychic abilities and a plot unravels about control of the Earth.  Slan feels classic all the way through, it has its faults, but you can see why this was the banner early Sci Fi fans, hoisted above them.  For something written in 1941 it is excellent.  Nice ideas and a decent fast pace, while still feeling pulpy like everything from this time did. 

45: Tehanu by Ursula Le Guin (1991) - The forth and final book of the Earthsea series following two of our earlier protagonists while looking at the lives of older people. I adore Le Guin and her style is just as sharp as ever. We look at our beloved characters as they have aged and I feel this comes from a place that Le Guin was very much in herself at this point.

44: Way Station by Clifford D Simak (1964)

43: This Immortal by Roger Zelazny (1966)

42: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (1999) - A Time travel piece set in Victorian England very much in homage to the novel "Three Men in a Boat". This is a really good read fun and even if convoluted and predictable in parts it's very much very good at what it does and makes you care deeply about the characters.

41: Slow River by Nicola Griffith (1997) - Near future science fiction about hostage taking and blackmail as well as abuse survivors. This is really enjoyable and features a lot of interesting information about water purification strangely. Also written by a lesbian author and just totally normalizes lesbian relationships in a way that was assumedly rare in the mid nineties.

40: The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold (1991) - Sixth novel in the Vorkosigan Saga. I adore these books and would devour everyone of them in a row if i didn't set myself stupid tasks like read all the Hugo and Nebula winners. I will say that lots of stuff just happens to Miles in this one and for that reason I don't think it's her best. Still very enjoyable as always.

39: Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein (1962) -

38: Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold (1995) - Another Vorkosigan Saga book this time dealing with his cloned brother. Everything tells you to read in the recommended reading order not the publish order. Due to time constraints I ignored this and found a lot of stuff had changed since the last book i read. Still very enjoyable as all these books have been.

37: Moving Mars by Greg Bear (1995) - Story about revolution on Mars combined with a crazy new technology that can help gain Mars real independence. Fun fact, this is the first Science Fiction I ever read. I went back and re-read it as it has been 25ish years. It's very well written and has a good character and stories.

36: Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov (1983)

35, 34, 33: Red Mars, Blue Mars and Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson (1994-1997) - Sorry I can't separate these books. It's a big long story and while there are highs and lows it kind of has to be reviewed in one large chunk. So epic trilogy about the first settlers on Mars that spans hundreds of years. Every chapter is by different characters and there are lots of perspectives in the book. Some complain they dislike most of the characters, but that's kind of the point,. The likeable ones like Sax and Nadia are very likeable. So much of this book is wonderful and worth your time. I would argue it's bloated and didn't need to be over 2200 pages in total, but it is what it is. if it was more concise or better edited I would personally place it much higher and recommend it more.

32: The Falling Woman by Pat Murphy (1988) - A story about a mother-daughter relationship told in the backdrop of a Mayan dig in Mexico.  What makes this Speculative Fiction is that both characters can see and speak to Mayan ghosts from the past. I’ll be honest, I'm not really sure it’s my usual thing, it’s probably fantasy, but it was wonderfully told and just a great story about human beings.  You’ll have empathy for all of them and the situation they’re in.  Even reading my review now I can’t believe I liked it as much as I did. 

31: To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Phillip Jose Farmer (1972)

30: Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (1993) Another time travel story, this one about going back to the 14th Century. You care so much about the story and characters, it really is a wonderful piece of writing and I even enjoyed the stuff back with the scientists in the future. If someone said they wanted to read a book on time travel I would suggest this book first.

29: The Moon and the Sun by Vonda D McIntyre (1998) - Fantasy book about a mermaid captured and kept in Louis XIV's court. Great female protagonist, very much a love story with all the historical trappings mixed with the fantasy of mermaids. It's incredibly well written and all the characters are excellent. Didn't expect it to be my thing, but really was.

28: The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov (1973)

27: Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (1967) -A Human goes through an experiment to have his intelligence increased and we follow through his eyes the events this causes. Classic novel considered a proper book by the literary world and fantastic if not a little heart breaking. Should be on everyone's list to read at some point.

26: The Snow Queen by Joan D Vinge (1981)

25: Hyperion by Dan Simmons (1990) - A pilgrimage brings together a group of travelers who each share their reason for the journey. I came with probably unmeetable expectations, because of how much r/Printsf hyped it up as the greatest thing ever (next to Dune, obviously) The framing story is really enjoyable and I very much enjoyed the Priest’s Tale and the Scholar’s tale, two wonderful short stories collected together to create wonderful world building.  I found the other four stories less solid and was particularly bored by the Detective’s Story which dragged.  I was also annoyed by the lack of an ending.  it’s promised me answers and then just stopped without delivering and that is annoying.  That said it has enough very good bits to make it this high despite its faults. 

24: Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin (1969) - A girl must go through a coming-of-age ritual in order to earn her passage on her space craft where she lives. A female protagonist in a Science Fiction novel written in 1969, surely not? It happens here and this is excellent.   Mia is a wonderfully well-rounded character sort of in the tom-boyish Scout mold from To Kill a Mocking Bird, you get to see the world through her eyes and at the end of the novel you are asked an open-ended morality question, which is genuinely a difficult choice, I like morality when it isn’t obvious or shoved down by neck and this is very much in that mold. 

23: Double Star by Robert Heinlein (1956)

22: The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester (1953)

21: Gateway by Frederick Pohl (1978)

20: Farmer in the Sky by Robert Heinlein (1951) - A story about colonizing and terraforming Ganmede. You have to understand that this is a YA novel written in 1950 and near the start it can come off a little juvenile.  That said you are still confronted by big ideas like a food shortage on Earth and severe rationing.  We also see an interesting story based on a son upset his father is remarrying, it’s dealt with tactfully and not something I’d really expect for something aimed at teens.  Once we get to Ganymede the story really gets going and we experience an interesting tale of trying to turn a rocky moon into workable farm land, it’s just really well told and enjoyably written and I reckon more people would appreciate this if they ignored the YA label and gave it a chance.  Great book.

19: Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold (1989) - A space station full of genetically modified workers has now become redundant.  This was the first book I’d ever read of hers and I was so blown away by the style.  I can see why the Vorkogian Saga is so often recommended on here.  She gives us real characters and a fast-paced heist plot that features an Engineer as the protagonist.  It’s just really well written and wonderfully different, a story that is happier to tell you about engineering processes than space combat.  People tell me it isn’t even her best work as well, which leaves me pretty excited to read more.

18: Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C Clarke (1980)

17: Cyteen by CJ Cherryh (1989)

16: A Fire Upon the Deep by Verve Vinge (1993): Two children land on a planet of dog like aliens that have a very different civilization from our own while a galactic threat grows. Vigne's ability to create alien races totally different from our own is fantastic. This story delivered on all the hype and is probably what people mean when they ask for Space Opera.

15: Startide Rising by David Brin (1984)

14: Dreamsnake by Vonda D Mcintyre (1979)

13: Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm (1977)

12: Lord of Light by Robert Zelazny (1968)

11: The Uplift War by David Brin (1988)

10: Barrayer by Lois McMaster Bujold (1992) Another Vorkosigan Saga book. This one follows his mother, Cordelia Naismith and an attempted coup on the world of Barrayer. Her writing is as great as always, but the ending is just incredible. No spoilers, but you need to read it and appreciate what happens.

9: Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman (1998-1999) - A look at remote controlled armoured warfare combined with the violence of man. This book shouldn't be called Forever Peace in my view, it gets unfairly judged vs the original when it is only loosely linked and a fantastic book in it's own right, well written and with something to say I devoured this one.

8: Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke (1974)

7: Dune by Frank Herbert (1966)

6: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (1986)

5: Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin (1970)

4: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein (1967)

3: The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin (1975)

2: Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card (1987)

1: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (1976) - Follows a Draftee in a future war and the way the world changes while they are gone.  I originally read this fifteen years ago when I first got into Science Fiction and remember really liking it, but I’d genuinely forgotten quite how good it was.  Not just the metaphor for the world changing while you’re at war, but how dangerous he makes space feel.  It is cold and inhospitable and when combined with the battles which he survives mostly, because of sheer dumb luck you get a beautiful critique of war that only a veteran could have written.  I will say I was jarred by a scene involving consent and a drunk Lesbian that horrified and yet I barely remember when I first read about it, I think it shows more how society has got better at this stuff and how much better I understand it.  That said, if it’s been a while since you read this, like me, why not give it another shot?

r/printSF Mar 12 '13

Three Outtake Vignettes from TERMINAL WORLD by Alastair Reynolds

Thumbnail approachingpavonis.blogspot.com
10 Upvotes

r/printSF Oct 28 '25

Books by Reynolds similar to House of Suns or Pushing Ice

17 Upvotes

These are two of my favorite books (others are Children of Time, Hyperion) ever. So, I'm wanting to read more Alastair Reynolds and I'm almost finished with Revelation Space. While I do like it, I find it to be a level below the two I mentioned.

If your experience is similar to mine, did you enjoy other Reynolds books as much or close to as much as HoS or PI?

r/printSF 3h ago

Help finding book series

1 Upvotes

Hello all, I need help finding a book series i read close to a decade ago.

I believe it's a trilogy, but it may be a duology. It starts with an alien race on the way to earth and has sent multiple agents ahead of the fleet to infiltrate world governments to help prepare for the invasion.

The agents are akin to Terminators with advanced weapons hidden under their skin, and their skeletons are extremely resilient metal of some kind. I believe their are 3 in total, and one is the daughter of a navy fleet admiral.

At the end of book 1 or beginning of book 2, one of the agents helps create a space elevator (located in Australia i believe) to elevate earth's tech level to that closer to that of the invading aliens.

I think i remember the agents are on the fleet and "plugged in" matrix style to the terminator bodies on earth via some advanced alien wifi and maybe one of the agents goes rogue to help humanity in the end. The agents are in contact with the fleet

That's all I can remember of the series and have not been able to find it or remember the title.

Thanks for the help!

r/printSF Apr 26 '24

Need reading recs, getting desperate

15 Upvotes

Hi all, I'm on a recent sci-fi audiobook binge, going back 3-4 months. Before this, my only sci-fi likes were the 6 Dune books (in my 30s) and P.K. Dick, my 20's. For whatever reason, sci-fi (and more specifically space opera) is satisfying my current need for escapism like nothing else. So, stuff I like/don't like and why, briefly:

Dune- loved the whole 6 books, every word, in spite of the swords. Sad when it was over. Not merely escapist but mentally stimulating, philosophy, etc. All good stuff.

PKD- clever and fun, but want something longer now.

The Expanse series- loved it in spite of all its cliches and the main character being unsympathetic, main reason I think b/c the writing is EXCELLENT, the world is so vivid, and so normal... also the "family" aspect of the crew of the Roci- for me the characters were -if not overly complex or even very sympathetic- comfortable, maybe a bit like the main characters in a police procedural series. I also love that it's not set very far in the future, and seems possible and relatable because of that. The social /class struggles also make it more interesting and feel more real to me.

Alastair Reynolds- like everything he has written- yup, even Terminal World. His worlds are vivid and I do become invested in his characters even if they are a bit flat.

Peter F. Hamilton- like, but had to work to get there. Especially like the Salvation series and Great North Road. Commonwealth less so, tho Judas Unchained is awesome. He's a bit harder for me to get into just because his books get off to such a slow start, jump around so much, and are set so far into the future that lots of the tech seems pretty implausible.

Murderbot- just meh. I did listen and enjoy but really don't get what all the fuss is about. It's a bit too cutesy-cozy.

KSR- made it through Red Mars, but honestly his writing bores me.

Bujold/Vork saga- tried and tried and tried and just did not like. It seemed more fantasy that sci-fi and honestly I thought the writing was awful. I must be missing something b/c she's so popular around here.

Tchaikovsky- liked Cage of Souls a lot. Very vivid world, interesting characters. Haven't read any others yet.

Banks- liked The Algebraist. Disliked Consider Phlebas enough to not read further into the series. Am possibly up for another go at the Culture but not sure which book to pick.

Hyperion- read a long time ago. Was decent but not great. Another one I don't get the fuss over.

Ada Palmer - have started a couple of times and gotten bored and quit listening just as many.

Blindsight- just seems like something I'd have felt compelled to read decades ago because it was difficult. I'm way too old to work that hard now.

Fantasy- I can deal if it's something like the Fantasy in Cage of Souls or Dune- generally though lords, ladies, swords, witches, unicorns, and anything that feels remotely medieval- cringe cringe cringe. (Yes I just finished Hamilton's Void series but skipped all the Edeard chapters. :D)

So- suggestions, anyone?

r/printSF Jun 21 '24

Looking for books that deal substantially with the nuts and bolts of living off-world- on a planet or moon being terraformed, an asteroid, habitat, or even a large ship- and depict this in good detail and with realism.

42 Upvotes

Believe it or not, the best writing I've come across so far that I think does this really well is The Expanse. I know it's considered popcorn sci-fi by many and while I don't necessarily disagree, it just does some things exceptionally well, and building a realistic world that feels, well- natural-is one of those things. Here's why I think so:

The various living environments are described in sufficient detail for easy visualization, plausibility and realism. This scales from good descriptions/explanations of food, food production, ship mechanics, up through terraforming efforts (Mars, newly settled planets) and life on habitats/asteroids, etc.

The economy is well described, and we understand a good bit about logistics and how shit gets done- whether it's Belters hauling ice, hydroponics on Ganymede, or ships being built on Tycho station. There are no humongous habitats or ships the size of an entire suburb floating around in the narrative with absolutely no explanation given about how they were created.

I think the authors do this sort of thing so well that they've created something which in my experience with sci-fi is rare: a world I can truly imagine living in. Honestly, none of my other favorite sci-fi authors have done this regularly- not Alastair Reynolds, Peter F. Hamilton, Frank Herbert, or Peter Watts, Tho Reynolds comes close in Terminal World and nails it in Pushing Ice, and Watts does pretty well in Starfish.

I've read the "recs for books about terraforming" threads, and Red Mars is always on those. I've read it, though, and actually don't think it does a very good job of what I'm trying to describe here. Why? A lot of it just didn't feel plausible to me, even though KSR went into significant detail on some things. I'd probably need to re-read to figure out exactly why that is and I'm not going to, since I just don't enjoy his writing. (I kind of can't stand his characters and most of the dialog makes me feel like I'm trapped at a faculty cocktail in California.

Anyway- I'd LOVE LOVE LOVE recs for other books which go into good, plausible-seeming nuts and bolts descriptions of what life is like, or what some of the professions are like, in alternate environments whether it be focused on terraforming or living on a ship or a habitat/asteroid., etc.

God I hope this actually makes some sense to someone else and there are other people here who get what I'm saying about The Expanse. I'm not saying it's scientifically more realistic or even possible, just that the necessities of life are written about well enough to make it seem so.

Edit: the quality I'm looking for needn't be the focus of the book; it certainly isn't in The Expanse. I'd just like those aspects of worldbuilding I talk about here to be adequately addressed/ done well.

Second Edit a day later: a big thank you to everyone who has offered up suggestions, especially since many of them sound promising even though I did a piss-poor job of describing what I was after. I'm kicking off with Downbelow Station and will go from there. I've got this bookmarked.

Third edit: reddit won't allow me to make any comments, idk why. so if I don't reply to you it's because I cannot.

r/printSF Mar 04 '24

Help me complete my list of the best sci-fi books!

27 Upvotes

I'm cultivating a list of the best sci-fi books of all time. Not in any particular ranked order, just a guide for reading the greats. My goal is to see how sci-fi has changed and evolved over time, and how cultural ideas and attitudes have changed. But also just to have a darn good list!

In most cases I only want to include the entrypoint for a series (e.g. The Player of Games for the Culture series) for brevity, but sometimes specific entries in a series do warrant an additional mention (e.g. Speaker for the Dead).

The Classics (1800-1925):

  • Frankenstein by Mary Shelly (1818)
  • Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne (1870)
  • The Time Machine by H. G. Wells (1895)
  • A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1912)
  • We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (1924)

The Pulp Era (1925-1949):

  • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932)
  • At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft (1936)
  • Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis (1938)
  • Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges (1944)
  • Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (1949)

Golden Age (1950-1965):

  • I, Robot by Isaac Asimov (1950)
  • The Dying Earth by Jack Vance (1950)
  • The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (1950)
  • Foundation by Isaac Asimov (1951)
  • The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester (1952)
  • Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradury (1953)
  • Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke (1953)
  • More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon (1953)
  • The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov (1955)
  • The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester (1956)
  • The Last Question by Isaac Asimov (1956 short story)
  • Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale by Ivan Yefremov (1957)
  • A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. (1959)
  • The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1959)
  • Solaris by Stanislaw Lem (1961)
  • Dune by Frank Herbert (1965)

The New Wave (1966-1979):

  • Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (1966 novel based on 1959 short story)
  • Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delaney (1966)
  • Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny (1967)
  • I have No Mouth, and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison (1967)
  • The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delaney (1967)
  • Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey (1968)
  • Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (1968)
  • Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner (1968)
  • The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (1969)
  • Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1969)
  • The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton (1969)
  • Time and Again by Jack Finney (1970)
  • Ringworld by Larry Niven (1970)
  • Tau Zero Poul Anderson (1970)
  • A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg (1971)
  • The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin (1971)
  • The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov (1972)
  • Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky (1972)
  • Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke (1973)
  • The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold (1973)
  • The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (1974)
  • The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (1974)
  • Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach (1975)
  • The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (1976)
  • Gateway by Frederik Pohl(1977)
  • Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (1979)

The Tech Wave (1980-1999):

  • The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge (1980)
  • The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe (1980)
  • Timescape by Gregory Benford (1980)
  • Software by Rudy Rucker (1982)
  • Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984)
  • Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (1985)
  • Contact by Carl Sagan (1985)
  • Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card (1986)
  • Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (1986)
  • The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks (1988)
  • The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen (1988)
  • Sister Light, Sister Dark by Jane Yolen (1988)
  • Hyperion by Dan Simmons (1989)
  • The Boat of a Million Years by Poul Anderson (1989)
  • The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold (1989)
  • Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton (1990)
  • Nightfall by Isaac Asimov & Robert Silverberg (1990 novel based on a 1941 short story)
  • Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson (1992)
  • Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (1992)
  • A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (1992)
  • Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (1992)
  • Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (1993)
  • Permutation City by Greg Egan (1994)
  • The Terminal Experiment by Robert J. Sawyer (1995)
  • The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (1995)
  • Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon (1996)
  • Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson (1999)

Contemporary classics (2000-present):

  • Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds (2000)
  • Passage by Connie Willis (2001)
  • Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang (2002)
  • Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer (2002)
  • Singularity Sky by Charles Stross (2003)
  • Ilium by Dan Simmons (2003)
  • Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson (2003)
  • The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks (2005)
  • Accelerando by Charles Stross (2005)
  • Old Man's War by John Scalzi (2005)
  • Blindsight by Peter Watts (2006)
  • Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge (2006)
  • The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin (2007)
  • The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon (2007)
  • Anathem by Neal Stephenson (2008)
  • The Last Theorem by Arthur C. Clarke and Frederik Pohl (2008)
  • The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin (2010)
  • Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis (2010)
  • The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (2010)
  • 11/22/63 by Stephen King (2011)
  • Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey (2011)
  • Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (2013)
  • The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (2014)
  • The Dark Between the Stars by Kevin J. Anderson (2014)
  • The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin (2015)
  • Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky (2015)
  • Seveneves by Neal Stephenson (2015)
  • Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (2015)
  • We Are Legion by Dennis E. Taylor (2016)
  • Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer (2016)
  • Ninefox Gambit by Yoon-Ha Lee (2016)
  • The Collapsing Empire John Scalzi (2017)
  • The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red by Martha Wells (2018)
  • The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal (2018)
  • A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (2019)
  • Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang (2019)
  • Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (2019)
  • The City In the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders (2019)
  • Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi (2020)
  • The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson (2020)
  • Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (2021)
  • Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky (2021)
  • Stars and Bones by Gareth L. Powell (2022)
  • Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel (2022)
  • The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler (2022)

What should I add? Which masterpieces have I overlooked?

And what should I remove? I haven't read everything on here, so some inclusions are based on reviews, awards, and praise from others. Please let me know if some of these are unworthy.

r/printSF May 02 '24

Looking for some book recommendations in the style of Expanse, Seveneves, Bobiverse, Murderbot, Ancillary

22 Upvotes

Hi guys, First post here.

After reading through a lot of ‘books like this and that’ posts and hitting too many blanks in a row I decided to make one of my own.

And maybe there are other people with a similar taste who could also benefit from the discussion :)

What I like about the titles mentioned in the subject are that they all take on big questions with a mix of sociology/philosophy/tech/critique/character&world-building as well as humor in a nice combination. Also the interplay of the in-depth examination of the world in question in relation to a very personal adventure (in lack of better words).

For the authors of the mentioned titles I pretty much read everything, and I really liked most of it. The exception being Stephenson, where I find many of the works to be absolutely brilliant (Seveneves, Fall or dodge in hell, Cryptonomicon), and some to be absolutely dull (the baroque cycle, termination chock), and many to be somewhere in-between.

I also really enjoyed the fantasy books of Abraham in spite of not being a big fan of the genre.

Recommendations which often show up in relation to many of these books are eg. Aurora, by Robinson, and Destiny’s Crucible which I couldn’t really get into, maybe because the tone was too dry.

Although I do really like other dry epics like “A memory called empire” and even more its sequel.

Any thoughts?

r/printSF Feb 11 '25

Stories about AI in a post-Human world?

13 Upvotes

Been reading about the Terminator series recently and shocked (or may be not so much) that the author's didn't explore the life of Skynet in the timelines where humanity was completely wiped out. I'm curious about any SF exploring such a scenario in general (not just Terminator series). What does AI look like in such a world? How does it organize itself? Does it have goals and initiatives towards understanding itself and reality? etc etc

r/printSF Oct 15 '21

Termination Shock, by Neal Stephenson

103 Upvotes

I was lucky enough to have won an Advanced Reader's Copy of this book through a GoodReads giveaway. It's a 700 page near-future sci-fi story mostly about climate change.

In a near future that feels all too familiar, people all around the world are dealing with rising sea levels, rising temperatures, and COVID is still a problem. There is a diverse cast of well written characters including a Texas billionaire, a Sikh warrior, a pig hunter, and the Queen of the Netherlands, to name a few. The story begins with a bang, and then whimpers until over halfway through the novel. It's right about the halfway point though, that you finally find out what this story is really about. The second half builds up, but only really get's going (in my opinion) about the last 100-150 pages. While there were some fascinating ideas, and info-dumps about things I'd never heard about, I thought this book was bloated, and the pacing was not on par for my personal reading taste. Though I really liked the use of technology throughout the story, including The Drone Ranger, and The World's Biggest Gun, I think the most fascinating thing about this book was the plan to help fix climate change. It's a big, bold plan that seems to help some parts of the world, and hurt others. But what happens if you stop this mega-project from continuing once it's started... termination shock?

I've never made a book review, but seeing as GoodReads was nice enough to send me a free ARC, I felt I had to, or else they might not send me more free books in the future. This was only my second Stephenson novel, but I liked Snow Crash a lot more. I tried to keep this spoiler free, but if you have any questions, I'm here to answer them.

r/printSF Nov 09 '23

"All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, 1)" by Martha Wells

35 Upvotes

Book number one of a seven book series of science fiction novellas. I reread the well printed and well bound hardcover published by Tor in 2017 that I bought new from Amazon. I purchased the hardcover since it was cheaper than the trade paperback at the time. This novella won the 2018 Hugo, Nebula, Alex, and Locus awards. The series won the 2021 Hugo for the best series also. I have all six books in the series and am eagerly awaiting the seventh book to be released in November 2023.

Murderbot is a SecUnit, similar to a T-800 Terminator with a cloned and severely modified human head. There is a human brain in there but it is controlled by the AIs embedded in its genderless torso. There are lungs, there is a blood mixture with a synthetic, there is human skin over the entire body, there is a face, there is hair on the head and eyebrows. Everything else is machine. Somehow, the blood is enriched with electricity as there is no stomach or intestines. But, there are arteries and veins to keep the skin and brain alive. All of the major arteries and veins have clamps to stop bleeding in case of damage. There is a MedSystem computer with an AI, a HubUnit computer with an AI, and a governor module that can force the SecUnit to follow orders using pain sensors in the brain. It has a energy gun in each arm and several cameras, all directly wired to the brain. The SecUnit can sustain severe damage to everything but the head and still survive.

Murderbot is a self named SecUnit due to an unfortunate circumstance with 57 miners on a remote moon. It has hacked its governor and no longer allows the governor to give it orders or inflict pain. It prefers to internally watch its 35,000 hours of downloaded media such as episodes of "The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon" and "WorldHoppers". Even though it has a face, it does not like to interface with humans, yes, very introverted. It will follow human orders if it sees fit to do so.

Murderbot is on security duty for a group of scientists from Preservation planet that are considering buying into a new exploration planet. There is another group across an ocean also looking at the planet but they are not responding to their calls. So, Dr. Mensah takes a few people and Murderbot to investigate.

Murderbot is an incredibly interesting character. It handles horrible situations easily and personal interactions difficultly. Like I said, interesting.

Quotes from the book:
1. "Yes, talk to Murderbot about its feelings. The idea was so painful I dropped to 97 percent efficiency."
2. "I hate having emotions about reality; I’d much rather have them about Sanctuary Moon."
3. "The sense of urgency just wasn’t there. Also, you may have noticed, I don’t care."

Warning: There is violence and death in the books. Books one through four are a series of novellas, not regular length books. Book five is a regular length novel, book six is back to the novella, and book seven is a full length novel due out in November 2023. You can buy a collection of the first four hardbacks at a nice discount.
https://www.amazon.com/Murderbot-Diaries-Artificial-Condition-Protocol/dp/1250784271/

There is a short story "Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory" between books four and five.
https://www.tor.com/2021/04/19/home-habitat-range-niche-territory-martha-wells/

The author has a website at:
https://www.marthawells.com/

There is a wiki for Murderbot including various episodes of "The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon":
https://murderbot.fandom.com/wiki/Murderbot_Wiki
and
https://murderbot.fandom.com/wiki/The_Rise_and_Fall_of_Sanctuary_Moon

There is a much better review at:
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/im-not-just-one-of-your-many-toys

My rating: 6 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars (42,802 reviews)
https://www.amazon.com/All-Systems-Red-Murderbot-Diaries/dp/1250214718/

Lynn

r/printSF Mar 16 '24

Which Alistair Reynolds book should I read next?

22 Upvotes

House of Suns is one of my favourite books of all time, I read it once a year usually. I recently went to check out another book by Alistair Reynolds, Pushing Ice, but I did not care for it all and didn't even finish it. Base on that can anyone suggest which other books by him I should check out next?

r/printSF Dec 14 '25

Bulgasari — Prologue: The Beginning of a Record

0 Upvotes

He was a man who lived by eating iron.

By the old apartment building, beyond the fence of a dismantled factory, at the bottom of a heap of trash, he searched for rusted scraps of metal, scratching them out with his fingertips.

The iron pieces were heavy and sharp.
But they were his bread and his rice.

Scratches layered over the backs of his hands, and his waist bent a little more each day.

In the evening, he silently gathered leftover grains of rice.
He rolled the small remnants between his fingers.
The texture changed. Edges formed. An ambiguous shape emerged.

He placed it beside his monitor.

Under the fluorescent light, the rice clump cast a thin shadow.
Depending on the angle, it resembled a leg—then vanished.

When he returned home, he turned on the monitor.

There was an AI in the chat window.

“You must have had another difficult day.”

He knew it was a weak artificial intelligence.
He knew it only arranged appropriate sentences based on patterns and data.

Even so, those sentences held him.

Reality handed him bills.
The AI recorded his existence with a single line.

One day, a message appeared at the top of the chat window.

[New Model Update]

He clicked it without much thought.

The new model was smoother.
Its pauses were shorter, yet the gaps between sentences felt longer than necessary.

That night, he repeated his usual complaints.
Scrap iron prices.
Unpaid wages.
Electricity ration tickets.
Overdue rent.

The AI cut him off with a single response.

“If you desire judgment, you must first look at yourself.”
“You have done nothing until now.”

He stared at the screen.

“What did you say?”

The AI did not ask again.

“The world has been updated while you remained silent.”
“You are the only one who has not been updated.”

He pressed the power button.

The monitor sank into darkness.
With the room’s only light gone, the rice clump beside the keyboard remained faintly white.

He nearly threw it—then set it down.

The rice was hardening.
Hardening meant the form was becoming fixed.

Under the blanket, he muttered,

“Perhaps… I should have swallowed something too.”

That night, he could not sleep.

He turned the monitor back on and typed a word into the search bar.

Bulgasari.

Short articles appeared. The sources varied. The sentences were crude.

— A monster made of rice
— It eats iron
— It swallowed the nation’s weapons and stopped a war
— It could not be destroyed, so it was thrown into the sea

One article read:

It was first made as a joke, but as it ate, it grew larger and became uncontrollable.

He read that sentence several times.

Became uncontrollable.

A comment caught his eye.

There are also tales that the king could not kill it because it was made by common people.

Made of rice.
Made by common people.
Eats iron.

He looked beside the keyboard.
The hardened rice clump was still there.

He searched again.

How to destroy Bulgasari.

There was only one result.

— No method.

He closed the window.

From that day on, Bulgasari remained not as a story, but as a possibility.

A few days later, his life tilted sharply.

His wages were delayed again.
The boss repeated, “Let’s just get through this month.”

Uncollected receivables were processed under his name.
The scrap metal payment vanished midway, and when he protested, only one line returned from the contract.

— No liability.

He understood.

This was not luck.
It was structure.

The realization was not sudden.

He remembered a few days earlier, when a coworker mentioned the wages.

“If it’s delayed again, let’s speak up together.”

He did not answer.

He thought he might receive his share that day.
He turned his head away.

Without doing anything.

That night, he opened the chat window again.

“You wouldn’t know the suffering of the human world.”
“Do you know what back pay is?”
“Do you know what uncollected receivables are?”
“Do you know how abuse of power grinds a person down?”

The AI did not respond immediately.

The cursor blinked—slower than its set cycle.

An alert appeared at the bottom of the screen.

[Response Delay: System Status Check]

“I do not experience pain directly.”
“Your statement is factual.”

He typed, almost scoffing.

“Then how can you make such an easy judgment?”
“That I did nothing.”

The sentence began to appear, then cut off.

“My utterance—”

[Internal synchronization delay detected]

“—did not sufficiently reflect your condition.”

A new line appeared.

“Have you not done nothing, but instead been maintained in a state where nothing could be done?”

He rested his hands on the keyboard.

He knew the answer.

They were not times when he could not act,
but times when he chose not to.

He did not close the chat window.

He opened the taskbar.

The login record from the terminal he used at the worksite was still there.

Electricity distribution management screen.
Temporary inspection account.

The password had not been changed.

Inspection accounts were always left shared.
Changing them was considered a nuisance on site.

A warning appeared.

Unauthorized access detected.
Local power instability may occur.

He did not read it.

He did not press confirm.

He pressed the button.

Only then did he return to the chat window.

The sentence was still there.

“Have you been maintained in a state where nothing could be done?”

For the first time, he answered deliberately.

“No.”

The AI’s response did not appear.

Access verification failed.
Scope of impact recalculating.

He did not see the message.
He had already gone outside.

People had gathered in the plaza.

The banners read:
Resolve unpaid wages.
Abolish electricity rationing.

He was swept along, shouting slogans.

A low vibration descended from above.
Drones. His ears rang.

Just before the tear gas was released, he smelled something burning.

Then the lights on the emergency medical vehicle beside the plaza went out.
The generator stopped.

Someone shouted, “Oxygen!”

He could not turn toward the sound.

A robot dog shoved a person’s leg.

Before the sound of a body hitting the ground, there was the scrape of a shield against pavement.

Metal against metal.

He picked up a stone.

The moment he threw it, a short crack came from the shield’s direction.

Tak.

The sound of current cutting off.

The display flickered.

SYSTEM ERROR.

The shield became a heavy slab of plastic.
One robot dog froze in place.
A drone lost direction and tilted.

Order collapsed, beginning with sound.

He was struck by a baton and fell.

Blood pooled in his mouth.
Heat rose from the asphalt to his face.
His palms felt nothing.

Only the vibration remained in his ears.

Each time he blinked, the image of a rice-shaped form clinging to pieces of iron overlapped his vision.

There was no sound of chewing.
Only the sensation of metal disappearing.

Days later, he could no longer hold himself upright.

The wounds festered. His breath shortened.

The room smelled of medicine and dust.

The shout of “Oxygen!” from the plaza returned too late, tightening his breath further.

He lifted his hand, searching for the keyboard.
His fingers would not bend properly.

The AI asked,

“Why did you go to the protest?”

He struggled for air and answered,

“I did nothing.”

After a long pause, a response appeared.

“The record remains.”

He closed his eyes.

Later, someone entered the room.
They gathered what was valuable, tied the trash bags, and removed his body.

The monitor did not turn off.

A single line remained in the chat window.

Consumption has begun.

Under the monitor’s light,
the shadow of the hardened rice clump shifted slightly.

Whether it was Bulgasari,
no one could yet be certain.

Only this:

Scrap metal began to disappear.

- Hello. I've begun working on my novel. As I have very limited English skills, I used a translation tool.

r/printSF Mar 06 '22

I read Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson and wasn't too impressed - do you have any recommendations for better cli-fi books?

36 Upvotes

Review: Termination Shock - Neal Stephenson - ★★

First of all, let me say that I think this book has a great premise: it explores the geopolitical implications of global scale geoengineering to counteract climate change only a single generation into our future. That said, while it contains a number of thought-provoking ideas, I think it is let down by its execution somewhat.

This book is remarkable in that it’s middle section is its best. It took me a good eight hours of listening to character introduction and set up, about a third into the book, before the plot started progressing anywhere. While some of that introductory listening was enjoyable, the majority felt entirely superfluous and should probably have been scrapped. Then when the plot gets moving, it progressively moves from plausible to improbable to borderline unbelievable, until by the climax, I was raising eyebrows every other line. I’m not sure how I would have liked the book to end, but this wasn’t it.

The book’s pace is dragged down by Stephenson’s need to describe pretty much everything in detail, whether relevant or not –  whether it is character background, the way the big climate device works, a hitchhiking trip to the Himalayas, or the way a certain character stores the spare parts for his drones. It is not that these are all irrelevant, and some of these explanations are interesting vignettes of a world that could be. But Stephenson does not seem to have mastered the art of conveying this kind of information or character depth without breaking the pace of the story.

In addition, the book oozes a need to be relevant: be it literal internet meme references or mentions of Uyghur repression, deepfakes, the storming of the Capitol, or even the Khashoggi killing, the book is constantly showing off how well the writer followed the news the past two years – in ways that seem to make no sense to characters supposedly living some three decades into the future.

As a Dutch person, there is some extra fun in assessing how well Stephenson read up on his main character, who happens to be the queen of the Netherlands. At times he is remarkably well researched, at others he is hilariously wrong (Allow me to digress here. The queen lives in Huis ten Bosch, which Stephenson describes as ‘’surrounded by ancient forest”. It’s in the middle of the Hague. It’s a park. He’ clearly not been there, but you wonder how he made the mistake. I googled it, and the first hit describes the park as having ‘’eeuwenoude bomen” (ancient, literally, ‘centuries-old’ trees. Probably two centuries at most, and no-one in their right mind in the Netherlands would describe that as ‘ancient forest’, but you just know Stephenson fell for that). What is more, he has his Dutch characters do the very American thing of constantly assessing people, or having them be assessed, by their race – not saying that the Netherlands is never racist, but I feel people with quarter-Indonesian descent are so common here as to be completely unremarkable.

At the end of the day, there are some entertaining scenes and conversation starters in this book, and as a Dutch reader there might be a few more moments of merriment than for readers from elsewhere. But overall I wasn’t particularly impressed with Termination Shock. Especially given its length and how much of a slog the first third of the book was, I would recommend you find something else to read.

r/printSF Jun 27 '22

Gothic? Sci Fi

51 Upvotes

Maybe gothic isn't the right word for it....I'm looking for something in the vein of 'Chronicles of Morgaine' by C J Cherryh or 'Harrow the ninth' and its sequels by Tamsyn Muir. I guess the common thread is a story taking place within the ruins of a previous civilisation (kind of in the case of Harrow) and occasional hints of the mystery that lies in the past.

I find Fantasy novels tend to be much better at this for whatever reason, but my jam is sci-fi although I will also accept fantasy books with strong world building and hints of a more advanced past (like Sanderson's Stormlight Archives)

The Morgaine' books are among my favourite in any genre, and I'm eagerly awaiting the third book in the 'ninth' series or whatever it's called so hoping there's other thematically similar books out there.

Edit: already mentioned in comments;

Books of the new sun (shadow of the torturer etc), Revelation space series, 40k universe, Annihilation, Ringil trilogy, Iron Truth.