UKC

Until a couple of years ago, I resisted getting into science fiction novels. 'Into that worm hole I shall not go', said the productive part of me. Then a couple of years ago I thought 'bollocks to that'.

My Top 10 Thus Far

Neal Stephenson - Seveneves

Ann Leckie - Ancillary Justice

Adrian Tchaikovsky - Children of Time

Cixin Liu - The Three Body Problem

Williams Gibson - Neuromancer [+ Count Zero + Mona Lisa Overdrive]

Margaret Atwood - Oryx and Crake

M. John Harrison - Light

Ken MacLeod - The Start Fraction

Claire North - The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

Dan Simmons - Hyperion

Honourable Mentions

Iain M. Banks - Excession

China Mieville - The City and the City

But I'm hungry for more. Recommendations, please!

Everything by Iain M Banks, that'll keep you going for a while

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem should be in there.

Frank Herbert - Dune

I just can't get on with him, unfortunately. I liked Excession enough overall, and it is really very clever, but I didn't like the weird 'comedy aliens' stuff he has going on. It's a bit too whacky for me in parts. Started reading Consider Phlebas but couldn't get beyond the first few chapters.

Probably a bit "left field", but if you like post apocalypse stuff, "The Pelbar Cycle", 7 novels bt Paul O Williams is one of my favourites which I'm currently re-reading. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_O._Williams 

Here’s a few that I’d recommend to dip in to various authors’s works.

Greg Bear - Blood Music, Darwin’s Radio

Robert Heinlein - Double Star, The Red Planet

Iain M Banks - Feersum Enjine (if you can read the dyslexic chapters, it’s a much lighter and clearer read than many of his other books, and far more rewarding and standalone).

Arthur C Clark - The City and the Stars

There's so much out there. I tend to stick with Arthur C. Clarke because most of his stuff is good in my opinion

If I had to pick on Iain Banks novel it would be "The Algebraist", even though I do also like the Culture stuff.

My absolute favourite piece of SF is a short story anthology called Extreme Science Fiction. Some of the stories are so extreme in their narrative POV, narrated time, etc. that I have never seen anything like it in novel format. One story called "Judgement Engine" by Greg Bear stands out in particular.

CB

A couple of suggestions:

Dave Hutchinson's Fractured Europe series was very enjoyable - an interesting portrait of what a broken Europe might look like, plenty of humour with self-deprecating protagonist and some great characters. The Guardian described the first one as being Kafka meets Le Carre, which isn't a bad summary. 

Emily St John Mandel's Station Eleven is very topical - maybe a bit too much so!

I found Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy to be quite diverting.

U. Leguin. The dispossessed, Left hand of darkness, The word for world is forest.

S. Donaldson. The real story (very dark though).

G. Wolfe. Book of the new sun.

J. Brunner. Stand on Zanzibar.

M. Doria Russell, The sparrow, Children of god.

R. Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451.

Neal Asher writes excellent space romps.  Less high brow than the stuff on your list, but good action-packed page turners.  Try Brass Man, or The Skinner.

For old school (1950s) fun and frolics, Eric Frank Russell's Next of Kin and Wasp are engaging and funny.

Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash.  Super-intelligent satire presented as cyberpunk sci-fi.  Fast, furious, funny, and absolutely crammed with startling ideas and images.

Ted Kosmatka, The Flicker Men.  Sinister and intriguing, and a bit more in line with your high brow picks.

I know you asked for novels, but there's some real gold in short stories.

Ted Chiang's short stories are very quirky and refreshingly different.  They're Made of Meat is a corker.

Also quirky are the stories by Exurb1a.  Try The Bridge to Lucy Dunne or The Fifth Science.

Pat Cadigan's Patterns has a stunner of a story called The Power and the Passion.

Have fun 

I enjoyed The Long Earth series by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. 

Never read a bad William Gibson book so there's a few more to go at there.

Julians Mays Many Coloured Land is excellent and unlike so many other magnum-opus, kept getting better for 6 books straight.

Ann Leckie's other books are also fantastic, including the Raven Tower if you're inclined to fantasy.

SF wise, some of my favs in descending order are:

Michael Marshall Smith - Only Forward 

Peter Watts - Blindsight

Neal Stephenson - Anathem (his best IMO)

Ada Palmer - Too Like the Lightning 

Richard Morgan - Altered Carbon

Jeff VanderMeer - Finch

Jeff Noon - Vurt

Gosh yes, Stories of Your Life and Others by Chiang should have been on my list!

keep em coming, folks. 

A little soft and left field, but what about King's "The Tommyknockers" if you like his horror/fantasy writing?

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep has already been mentioned. I've read  a lot of Phillip K Dick and he can certainly be variable, but any of the following is up there with the best SF I've read:

Ubik

Valis

Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

The Man in the High Castle

But if you want a recommendation for just one, I'd go for: A Scanner Darkly. In my opinion, his best. As a portrayal of drug culture it's up there with Burroughs.

I'd forgotten about Dick, that's a great recommendation - seriously whacky sci-fi.  My preference from that list would be Palmer Eldritch, but they're all good.

I would think Excession is a bit hard to grasp as a first Culture book

I would recommend "player of games" but then I love the massive space opera of the Culture

but if it's not your thing.... mebbe Terry Pratchett for cartoony fantasy with deep satire and puns

I really enjoyed (recently) The Saga of the Seven Suns - Kevin J Anderson

Joe Haldeman (1974) The Forever War.

A treat! 

Try the Wool trilogy by Hugh Howey

Lord of light - Rodger Zelazny

Superb  

I agree.  It's brilliant, but not the best place to start with the Culture.  Against a Dark Background is another nice stand-alone Iain M Banks.

Alastair Reynolds has not been mentioned so far.  Along with Ken Macleod, essential reading for fans of Iain M Banks I would say, starting with Revelation Space.  (Or perhaps Chasm City.)

Peter F Hamilton. If you like intelligent sci fi this guy's the Don. He's done a couple of different series, some better than others but all good. Get on it.

Ann Leckie is excellent - the rest of that trilogy are great as well, as is the sort of stand-alone extra in the same universe (Provenance) and as someone else mentioned, The Raven Tower if you like fantasy.  

Any of Ursula le Guin's sci-fi really, but The Dispossessed and The Left Hand Of Darkness are particularly good.  I also have a soft spot for The Telling and the Rocannon's World pseudo-trilogy.  Her fantasy is also excellent if you like that kind of thing.

If you aren't too fussed by Iain M Banks, you might still like Transition - it's credited using his non-sci-fi naming convention IIRC, but personally I would still consider it to be sci-fi.  Either way it's good.

Finally, the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells are really good - All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol and Exit Strategy, plus Network Effect which is due to be published sometime soon I think.

start with Mindstar rising and on from there.

I find A Quantum Murder quite fun to read as I spent a weekend on a confirmation retreat in Launde Abbey, in the very place in which the story is set, back in the 70s.  It makes it seem quite real.  Plus all the local villages etc turning up as planets that have been colonised.

John Meaney is worth a look - not least for the one armed climbing hero in some books.

Nulapeiron Sequence - 'Paradox/context/resolution' and the related 'to hold infinity'

CJ Cherryh

Foreigner series - quite long now but the first three are cracking

Cuckoos egg

Exiles gate series - technically scifi but could be read as fantasy - either way its great

I enjoy Hamilton - good red blooded capitalist riposte to Banks and MacLeod, although the edenists spoil his general approach.

The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajniemi is awesome. Great characters and the tech is so inventive you really have to ponder where he came up with the stuff. First of the trilogy.

I like Robert Heinlein eg stranger in a strange land. 

How about dune?

i loved The Man in the High Castle And A Scanner Darkly, but found Do Androids... a slog (maybe because I love Blade Runner so much?)

Didn’t really rate Wool. Thought it was a cool concept but ultimately not well executed. You can tell the guy self published it before it became a hit. 

Yep read Transition about 10 years ago - really enjoyed it, but I suspect that’s precisely because he ostensibly wasn’t writing in sci fi mode. 

So Dune is an interesting one. when it came out it must have been so ahead of its time and revelatory. But reading it a few years ago, the fact that it has been relentlessly copied - and also that Jihad doesn’t seem as weirdly exotic as it probably used to - left me rather underwhelmed. 

This sounds amazing! 

"City" by Clifford Simak is rather lovely. As is "Way Station"

Kim Stanley Robinson's "Aurora" - a wonderful generation ship there and back again story. I almost cried when the ship.... [no spoilers!]

Player of Games was the sci-fi book that changed the mind of a friend who had previously been completely dismissive of the genre.  So, it's where I'd recommend someone start with Iain M Banks.  Probably helps that unlike many of the series, the Culture and its AI minds aren't the focus, rather the eponymous game is. It's the Culture novel I've read by far the most, even if I think Consider Phlebus, Excession, and Use of Weapons are as good and possibly better - more of a comfort read.

Anything by Charles Stross, I'm really enjoying his Laundry Files sequence of books at the moment.

Binti trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor

Roadside Picnic by the Arkady brothers

Early Bruce Sterling books are good if you enjoyed William Gibson's early stuff.

Anything by Jeff Noon

Edit: forgot my all time favourite - The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester.

I can't remember name and author of most of the SF books that I've enjoyed. Lots of books in this thread have reminded me to read again or sound great to try.

A few that I think haven't been mentioned yet;

Philip K Dick  Galactic Pot Healer and Clans of the Alphane Moon

Kurt Vonnegurt  Sirens of Titan

Piers Anthony   Prostho Plus ( a far pleasanter book about dentistry than Marathon Man, involves dynamite to fix an alien leviathan's tooth etc)

Becky Chambers  The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (first pub'd on net)

Non Stop    Brian W Aldiss

I don't think Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy has been mentioned, can't say I enjoyed it much though. 

I used to enjoy Jack Vance's books, written in a rather unique style....can't remember any of the titles.

If you like Gibson and Stephenson then have a look at The Ware Tetralogy by Rudy Rucker.

Neal Asher’s transformation trilogy is a good one to start with a bit more mature than his previous stuff. I’m going to have to disagree strongly on the Ian M Banks 😏

Piers Anthony   Triple Detente (a novel way to solve global problems when the solutions are politically unacceptable)

It isn't quite finished yet (the final novel's due later this year), but I'm absolutely loving the Expanse series by "James S. A. Corey" (actually Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck).

The TV series is near-perfect too, and different enough that the books don't give you all the spoilers.

...

Do you mean "They're made out of meat" by Terry Bisson, or something else? If the former, you may like this:

youtube.com/watch?v=7tScAyNaRdQ&

You're right, it's Terry Bisson.  I've seen the video, it's great 

I found the Expanse books really underwhelming though they were recommended to me. Just found them very simplistically written maybe? I dunno, just didn't really rate them at all. 

I'm sure it was the way they were written that rubbed me wrong as the series is excellent. 

Not been mentioned yet are the Altered Carbon series by Richard K. Morgan and the Otherland series by Tad Williams. 

Was it the second Dune you read? While mentioned te Jihad wasn't a huge part of the first book.

I think the first Dune book is exceptional. Utterly brilliant. 

The second book is just plain bonkers and tedious. 

It really is. Mind bending stuff.

I read the whole Mars trilogy in one go (over the course of many months as I didn't get much time to read and they are very long), and I thought it was fantastic. I once started reading it at Blue Mars (the last one), and I couldn't get past the tedious descriptions of alpine flora, but by the time I got there again from the start, my deep investment in the characters involved in those descriptions, and the amazing levels of research that had gone into it turned it into a joy.

Someone mentioned Hyperion, but I think the thing that really makes it is the series as a whole. There's also Ilium and Olympos when you find yourself missing Simmons' writing too much!

For Peter Hamilton, try Fallen Dragon as a standalone story with many of his ideas well presented. I loved The Night's Dawn Trilogy, too, and the associated short stories in a Second Chance at Eden (but I know some people who didn't). Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained were great, again, but then the Void trilogy set in the same universe but a thousand years later I found to be just badly-written fantasy (literally swords and magic, with a scifi excuse), and they've put me off Hamilton almost completely... I'm reading Salvation now - it's going ok so far.

Alastair Reynolds' Chasm City was the best of that the Revelation Space stories I thought, and basically standalone.

Time, Space and Origin by Stephen Baxter are interesting forays across, er, time and space.

Larry Niven's Ringworld and its sequel are something of a classic I think.

Terry Pratchet wrote an actual sci fi story called Strata which is along not dissimilar lines, and very funny with it. His collaboration with Stephen Baxter on the Long Earth brought out the worst of both writers I thought (I'm obviously in a minority here) - try reading Joe Haldeman's The Accidental Time Machine for the same story, told quicker and better.

David Brin's Uplift sequence (Sundiver, Startide Rising, The Uplift War, Brightness Reef, Infinity's Shore, Heaven's Reach) are really brilliant.

Ursula Leguin's The Left Hand of Darkness is brilliant. The Dispossed also for an interesting set of ideas.

Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon - quite different novels but they foreshadow much that has happened in computing and technology. The Diamond Age is just great fun. I've just read Quicksilver which is science fiction only because it is about the birth of science in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

Peter Watts' Blindsight and Echopraxia are now available as a single book called Firefall. They are great: hard scifi, interesting stories... possibly very, very depressing. I think, from having read other stories of his, that he's not one for positivity.

John Wyndham: The Day of the Triffids, and various others.

Also to add further votes for Hannu Rajaniemi The Quantum Thief etc; Ann Leckie Ancillary Justice etc (stupid name, great book); Roadside Picnic by the Arkady brothers (it's the basis of so many scifi tropes)

I’d endorse many of the above (anything by Banks, Altered Carbon) but you’re missing tons of classics.  These spring to mind.

Dickson’s ‘Dorsai’ series - classic military sci fi

A mote in God’s eye - Niven & Pournelle - brilliant first contact stuff 

the Foundation series - Asimov - inter planetary sociology in a multi book universe 

Only Forward is brilliant!

Fair enough, we can't all like the same stuff.

Complex plot, well-fleshed-out characters, gradually mounting dread as humans carry on repeating their old mistakes and fighting each other while existential but poorly-defined alien threats mount, simply written - works for me!

Plus, Amos. What's not to love?

Also “Tales of Pirx the Pilot” and “More Tales of Pirx the Pilot” by Lem 

I don’t know if it counts as sci-fi, as the sci-fi is really a rather minor backdrop to what is essentially a masterful tale about fate and free will, but I’ll give a shout out to Kazuo Ishiguro’s “Never Let Me Go” (although actually I think the film adaptation, which is virtually a perfect film, slightly IMPROVES on the novel)

I don't know if I've just had spectacularly bad luck with Clarke but in adulthood I've been finding a lot of his stuff to be terrible. 

Remember that 2001: A Space Odyssey was basically created in tandem with the film (and only very loosely related to "The Sentinel") and is essentially a novelisation of the film. It is well written though. I rather liked 2010: Odyssey Two although the physical impossibility/thoughtlessness of its conclusion seemed to go against Clarke's usual endeavours to keep things physically sensible. 
2061: Odyssey Three (?) was awful even when I read it at 14. I didn't touch the next one. 

I really liked the sort of minimalism of Rendezvous With Rama, but Rama II was over-the-top lurid fantasy. I didn't continue with that saga. 

The Songs of Distant Earth was appalling. Cradle, written with Gentry Lee, is one of the worst books I've ever read. I read a fair few of the stories in Of Time and Stars, which seemed to be smarmy, judgemental, too short, and quite childish (e.g. An Ape About the House). I used to like his stuff when I was about 12 because, at 12, the science seemed intriguing (Islands in the Sky, Dolphin Island...). 


HOWEVER. 
I have not read Childhood's End or The City and the Stars, which I gather are both genuine classics, and looking at his bibliography there a lot that I have not read. I'm not feeling inclined to give him a chance though!

Am I being way way too harsh?

As a reference point, I LOVE Ray Bradbury's short stories. 

Childhood's End really is worth reading. It's extremely imaginative and original, even by present standards. Strongly recommend - not least as it's short so you can power through it without a huge commitment.

Gosh yes, Never Let Me Go is superb. I guess it is sci fi, really. I remember reading it about 7-8 years ago. I finished it one Sunday afternoon in my room in Cambridge, and just sat there, numb, for a good 15 minutes afterwards. Come to think of it, that may have been the most a single book has ever impacted me in terms of raw emotion. 

Never watched the film because how could it possibly live up to the book. Also, Keira Knightley.

I hated that book. It read like a half assed rehash of ideas that had been going around for decades. Didn't care what happened to any of the characters by the time I was halfway through which is never a good sign.

I was also very underwhelmed by the Expanse books. Read the first two, couldn't be bothered with the third even though there is a copy on my shelf.

Liked the first season of the TV adaptation a lot, but totally lost interest in the second season after a couple of episodes.

I've been put off the books by the AWFUL Netflix adaptation. How can something that starts so well, with such an amazing premise, and that looks so good, end up being such utter lowest common denominator, by-numbers, shite?!

You're wrong, sir! Wrong!

On Kim Stanley Robinson:

I found the first Mars book utterly boring. Just didn't care. At. All.

I think I just struggle with his writing style though. The one exception is Shaman, which is sort of a sci fi novel in that it's about an utterly alien world we can barely conceive of - except that this one is 100,00 years ago during the ice age. Really very good indeed.

That's my first post lockdown duel sorted anyway.

Pretty much exactly the same as me. Read the first couple when I had a broken leg and literally nothing to do for a year. Even though my brother gave me all the ones that he had I just cba with them after the first two. 

The series is very good though. I think its that the characters feel a bit more rounded maybe? Genuinely a bit puzzled if I'm honest as normally books are way better than films/tv in my experience.

So many people have an utterly irrational dislike of Keira Knightley. You are cutting off your nose to spite your face. At least you get to dislike her character in Never Let Me Go. 

It is one of those films where I can't imagine the director being dissatisfied with any element of it. The screenplay, casting/performances, editing and the "milieu" (it captures the period perfectly, I even think the computer technology of circa 1994 when the story closes, is bang on). 

Pistols, or sabers? I presume you are not so cowardly as to name a Second!

It's not irrational in my case - I just think she is the most wooden actor still getting work (now that Kevin Costner seems permanently retired). I can't believe anything she is in, because all I see is Keira doing Keiracting.

There is a hint of fantasy about it too.  It's subtle but there is a little bit of magic - alchemy works, it's possible to become immortal and there's a rare heavier allotrope of gold (which doesn't/couldn't really exist).

Cannon!

Yes, although I found it difficult to find it published in a readable form at the moment.  Printing and typography so bad as to detract from the reading. 

It strikes me that psychohistory (Asimov's usage, not the deMause parenting thing) seems an increasingly relevant concept in the era of nudge and Big Data.  

I'm with you on the Long Earth.  I'm a fan of both Baxter and Pratchett and really wanted to like The Long Earth, but ultimately found it a bit disappointing after a while.  Iain Banks (without the 'M') had a go at the something similar too with Transition.  (Well worth a read, it's still Iain Banks, but it wasn't his best work either imo.)

Noting that the OP put Neal Stephenson's 'Seveneves' at the top of the list - I'm currently half way through re-reading Alastair Reynolds's 'Pushing Ice'. 

It has a similar theme* of near-future human astronauts, with only slightly more advanced technology than ours suddenly finding themselves having to survive in space long-term with limited resources.  Against a background of artefacts left by bafflingly advanced aliens (hints of Stephen Baxter's Xeelee).  One of the advantages of a piss-poor memory - I can't for the life of me remember how it ends, no spoilers please.

(*Similar theme to the first half of Seveneves anyway, I enjoyed that immensely but was a bit underwhelmed by the 'return-to-earth' second half after the plot skips forward a few thousand years.)

Weren't first three a sort of planned trilogy? The first book does not really end properly. 

Or are you talking about the first TRILOGY vs. the second trilogy? I never bothered to get far into the second trilogy (as in, tried three times to get past the first 50 pages of "God Emperor" and found it plain bonkers and tedious). 

The first trilogy - Dune, Dune Messiah, and Children of Dune - seemed fine when I was 15. I have not revisited them 

I really liked the BBC radio series Earthsearch and Earthsearch II back in the 80s.  It was described at the time as a bit like "The Archers in Space" but Follett keeps the story within the bounds of what is scientifically possible, generally and it has a vast story-timescape.

I've listened to it since, as have our kids more than 20 years later and it still stands up to listening.   The one thing all those early stories get wrong of course is how intolerable touch controls that make electronic sounds would be in real life.  Sometimes a bit clunky by modern standards but it is nearly 40 years old at the dawn of popular computing, looking ahead to "Free Will" computers.  Sometimes turns up on BBC4 Extra.  Likewise the fantasy series "Hordes of the Things" from the same era as the definitive Lord of the Rings with Michael Hordern as Gandalf.

Not great literature but I have quite a liking for James Follett's books - fairly easy reads on topics as far apart as science fiction, accounts of U-boat rescue of passengers during WWII or fighter het parts being acquired by the Israelis in Switzerland that are based on true events.  Picked up a lot of them in The Works I seem to remember, dirt cheap.   Engaging and entertaining.

Dune remains amazing, and the sequels are also fascinating.

I was one of the few who was underwhelmed by the Three Body Problem. No idea why, the concept was superb.

You must read Childhood's End. It is still stunning.

Couple of my favourities,

Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts - a great, rather odd, take on a first contact scenario

Voyage and Titan by Stephen Baxter are both fascinating examples of 'grounded' sci-fi. Flood and Ark are also worth a check.

Blindsight by Peter Watts

Diaspora by Greg Egan. Also his short story collection Luminous.

Light by M John Harrison

China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh

Childhood's End by Arthur C Clarke

-----

+1 for Children of Time. Really very good.

I read Seveneves and found it over-long, frustrating, and quite depressing. Anyone else have the same reaction?

I don't know whether anyone has said this already, but "The Stars My Destination" by Alfred Bester is a remarkable piece of work, written in 1956. It's a must-read that has informed many novels since.

Not too harsh! All very much a matter of taste, or preferences. (For example I don't like DUNE at all and struggled/ failed to read it, whereas others swear by it)

PS nice thread

There is an amount of that in a (too) high proportion of her work but it's worth getting over it for the gems. She was very good in last year's "Official Secrets", for example. 

Costner's making a low-key comeback. 

 

Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer is great and seriously creepy.

Asimov for some great oldies.

well thats pinched my suggestions Asimov wonderful plus a mote in Gods eye maybe the greatest sci-fi novel ever!

Earth Abides by George Stewart is good.

I know what you mean about the ending of the first book. A fair few loose ends. But It was all satisfactory enough. 

But the second book was complete nonsense, he'd clearly been imbibing too much spice. I got tired of reading the words "Prescient nature" which was used to describe every situation. 

Anyways, I cannot wait for the Dune film release, hopefully, this year. 

Arg I'm reading Peter f Hamilton from a friends recommendation and it certainly proof that different people like different things. Reading it feels like wading through treacle, wooden characters and it's all a bit "wish fulfilment for middle aged middle managers" right down to the endless hot women falling for older men....and quite a few seem to be the older men's junior work colleagues which makes me speculate if workplace sexual harassment policies still exist in the far future. Also a bit disappointed to find that the far future apparently resembles a team building awayday  in Surbiton,  but with aliens. In fact, given how irritating and self satisfied most of the human characters are, I'm gonna root for the cartoon evil aliens.

Lol, fair play. I've read 2 different sets and enjoyed both but as you say, different strokes and all that!

Which Hamilton books have you read?

Let's talk about Ringworld.

I thought it was utter shite. I persevered with it purely because everyone told me it was a classic and I was expecting it to get good at some point, but then it ended and I realised I'd never get the time I'd spent reading it back. I thought the characters were shallow, irritating and unrelatable, and the writing was ridiculously sexist. 

Has it just not aged well? Am I missing something?

Snow Crash on the other hand -- fantastic book!

I really enjoyed it when I was about 14, but I think you're right.  Ditto anything by Robert Heinlein (who I thought was a bit creepy even then)  and EE 'Doc' Smith.

Dune, I think, is in a different league, but I agree with Paul Sagar's points that a lot of the most imaginative characterisation was imported directly from Islamic culture and seems a lot less exotic and otherworldly now than it did when it was written.  On the other hand, I think the idea that the Guild Steersmen could enable interstellar travel not by faster-than-light drives but by bending space-time seems a bit less bonkers now than it did then though. 

I've read the Reality Dysfunction trilogy and pretty much felt the same as you. That and the fact it could have easily fitted into a 500 page novel rather than 3000+ page trilogy.

To be fair he did wrap the ending up a lot better than I was expecting with 50 pages left to go.

Each to their own I guess, he's sold a lot of books so maybe it's just me.

So, this is why I haven't read any Peter F Hamilton and don't plan on doing so - a friend, on the way back from Portland a couple months ago, said pretty much exactly the same!

There is some really dodgy Heinlein. The Day after Tomorrow is quite unpleasant

The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (Even better than Snow Crash)

The 'Sprawl Trilogy' William Gibson.

UK LeGuin The Dispossessed, Left Hand of Darkness and The Wind's Twelve Quarters (Short Stories but magnificent)

I think the rule is: beware of anything he wrote from 1970 onward although the one you mention is an early one so... He's done some good ones!!!

Vernor Vinge - A Deepness in the Sky

Mary Doria Russell - The Sparrow / Children of Time

Stanislaw Lem - Solaris

H G Wells - War of the Worlds

William Gibson - Neuromancer

All fantastic in my opinion... Great thread, thank you!!

One that deserves a mention: Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game.

He's a fairly unpleasant individual but in that one his sexism mostly stays at bay and there's no homophobia on display, and the story is really well done. The twists are excellent, too. Never read the rest, and the film was woeful, but this one definitely worth a read.

It is! I reread it every year and love it every time. 

One I forgot earlier: Gnomon by Jonathan Harkaway. Dense and clever and mind bending - if Cloud Atlas had been written by Umberto Eco and Peter Watts...

​​​​Edit: there's a handy list of recent SF award winners and nominees in the print SF sub reddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/comments/fcrfon/the_best_science_fiction_b...

Rendezvous with Rama 2+  

Re-read some of his stuff recently and it feels very dated/sexist now 

Speaking of Orson Scott Card, his “novelisation” of James Cameron’s original screenplay for The Abyss, is really good and fleshes out a few character and story aspects that don’t come across clearly enough in the film 

I really liked the Broken Earth series by N. K. Jemyson. ..also Elizabeth  Bears series Hammered/Scardown/Worldwired

Yes I enjoyed the Broken Earth books although by the end I wasn’t really sure what was going on anymore. 

Ooh. Vernor Vinge. A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky. Great. They might just appeal to me because I'm a software developer though... I have found it difficult to find his other books unfortunately.

I genuinely didn't see any evidence that alchemy actually works in Quicksilver. Newton really did study alchemy for many years as far as I know. I also don't recall anything about heavy gold... Maybe that's all in the later books. Obviously Enoch was in Cryptonomicon, so I get the immortality bit, although I don't think there's any suggestion that is possible to become immortal, per se.

Fallen Dragon. Then you only have to read 600 pages or whatever, but you still get the full PFH experience. I dunno why I'm trying to convince you though, you might enjoy it and go on to try reading the Void series and I'd never forgive myself.

I had mixed feelings about this trilogy. I felt the stuff he got right was brilliant (realisation of the universe, story concept and ending and the physics of space/battle action was the best I've ever read, the Edenists the depiction of future earth) but at least one storyline should have been excised completely and some of the others were far too padded out. Overall, happy I read it.

In a weird way some of what you describe is a 'strength' of his storytelling. I'm Afraid humans are a bit crap and the future he shows being created is done by those crap humans in an exploitative business driven way. It's already happening (Elon Musk). I think he's had some flak for being 'in favour' of this when I think he's just trying to be a realist or even warning against where we are headed. I found his depiction of the over-populated future earth in the Night's Dawn Trilogy, both impressive and horrifyingly believable. 

You should definitely try to get your hands on Across Real Time, IMO even better than Deepness in the Sky and A Fire up the Deep.

The only other one I know, Taja Grimm's World, is much weaker than either.

CB

That could be it, I read the whole trilogy one after the other (and don't have the sharpest memory anyway).  The 'impossible' gold is quite important.  If you haven't read The Confusion and The System of The World you must, you must.  I found the first half of Quicksilver a bit of a slog to be honest, the rest of the trilogy after that was much more fun.

I don't disagree with what you said though.  Give or take the odd bit of impossible gold, the philosopher's stone and the unpronounceable island nation of Qwghlm (it's St Kilda isn't it?), it's much more historical fiction than science fiction.

When I read Cryptonomicon I found the idea of an island nation near Britain, that I'd never heard of, incredibly jarring and off-putting.  The main reason I didn't get onto Quicksilver (the copy is on the shelf unopened) is that I couldn't take any more of that sort of thing.

If you live in the US it might be fine I guess.

Do you have to read the trilogy in order? I'd been planning to read Cryptonomicon soon, but maybe I should start with Quicksilver?

Oh wait, it's a different trilogy (the Baroque cycle)? 

The 'Baroque Cycle' trilogy consisting of Quicksilver, The Confusion and The System of the World - yes you do.

They were written after Cryptonomicon, as a prequel.  (I think the trilogy was originally intended to be a single book, but it all got a bit out of hand.)  I don't think it would matter at all whether you read Cryptonomicon before or after the other books.

Cool. I’ll start with Cryptonomicon as planned and then likely progress. 

Fair enough. 

I didn't find it that hard to swallow as a bit of "alternative history".  I think of Qwghlm as a sort of St Kilda if the islanders had had better luck.  (And, I suppose, a more obscure language than a dialect of Gaelic.)  Especially as I just googled it now and read that Qwghlm had a unique breed of sheep and a small rodent that didn't exist anywhere else.  The sheep sound like Soay sheep, and there was a species of house mouse on St Kilda that became extinct after the last of the islanders left.

I think it was inspired by the US military's use of Navajo and other native American people as 'code talkers' during WW2.  A plot device to give the British similar exclusive access to a group of people with an obscure and impenetrable native language.  Hm..  I don't actually remember that much of Cryptonomicon, I'm half tempted to dig in out and give it a re-read, hard to say how much of a spoiler it would be remembering how it ends. 

I have a second-hand copy of Reamde that I haven't opened yet, I should probably just dive in to that instead.

I really liked reamde, even though it's impossible to type with predictive text. Apparently the sequel is quite a bit...weirder.

The baroque cycle is interesting, though I found it quite chewy

I bought it after it was recommended on the other 'essential reading' thread - currently sitting on the top of my tsundoku pile.  I almost started it the other day, but inspired by this thread I ended up re-reading something else instead.

I know what you mean about the Baroque Cycle being chewy, I found it much easier going after the piratey swashbuckling kicked in.

I have to say I found Three-Body Problem hugely disappointing as well. I was really looking forward to it after all the acclaim I'd heard, but I found it clumsily written (perhaps in part a translation problem) and thought the story was a bit...flat? I've absolutely no desire to read the other two books.

I'd not thought of that angle. Maybe it was that peculiar mix of feeling very real-world but with this one thing that I knew to be made up. I found Reamde to be the only book of his that I have been properly disappointed with.  (but don't let me put you off). 

Yes it is definitely hampered by the translation. But I thought the story original and intelligent and really interesting. Do not bother with the sequels though - advice i would give even to somebody who enjoyed the first one! They are even worse in terms of translation (insofar as they are markedly less readable - god knows what they’re like in Chinese) and the story is a boring mess. 

Ah, sci-fi! Where did it all go wrong (for me)? Forty years ago I'd be listing all the fantastic novels, short stories anthologies, series and collections I'd devoured. All the giants (and a few dwarfs) of the genre. Then it all came to a screeching halt - I don't know why - perhaps reality just got in the way? As well as sci-fi, I used to read lots of fiction, quite a few classics too but then stopped all that as well. I still read lots but it is invariably factual. A few months ago I picked up a second-hand copy of one of Arthur C Clarke's collections and got stuck in. After one or two tales I gave up. I just couldn't stand it. I hoovered him up back in the day and 2001 has always been one of my favourite films since I saw it aged 9. I did actually read a fiction book just recently, the first in decades, but that was a murder mystery and it was set in the Lune Valley so of local interest to me. Reality (whatever that is) is strange enough, perhaps.

The expanse books have their flaws. I think the writing is pretty good though nothing fancy. It does the job of communicating the ever expanding (lol) world, the characters, action, political machinations etc. It doesn't guide the reader as beautifully as say, NK Jemisin but many less capable authors seem to go overboard inserting gimmicks and overly florid prose which just gets in the way of the story.

My main problem with the first two Expanse books is the reliance of coincidences to bring plotlines together. This is fixed in the TV series though this has some added filler and weaker characterisation. The third book is more 'solid' and a great redemption story but the constant grinding carnage and violence starts to drag.

The story arc over book 5 and 6 is outstanding and its only real weakness is the need to be invested in the universe already.

Season 3 and 4 of the show are pretty much flawless but have a similar problem in that parts of season 2 are slow enough to lose viewers. (edit: Mainly due to the choice to finish the first and second books halfway through a season)

The main thing I like about the series (both books and TV) is it embraces the (relatively) realistic implications of space travel rather than trying to find ways to ignore them like the vast majority of other sci-fi. That and the strong worldbuilding and character arcs.

I love the idea of them adapting this for TV and just having two characters scowling intently at each other while nothing much happens. Then one of them falls to pieces or freezes into a statue. A lot of the 'magic' action is somewhat abstract but I think the author did a brilliant job of handling it.

It may also be a bit too traumatising for reading during isolation IMO. Though it may help with making people want to keep away from each other.

I have mixed feelings about it. I really like the harder sci-fi elements and where it does introduce more magical technologies (for the Humans, not the aliens, which is refreshing) it still does it imaginatively and intelligently, taking account of the implications for the universe and the plot. This seems rare in the genre. However the pacing is ponderous in places and the human characters are all thoroughly unlikable and one dimensional. Many are just national stereotypes copied from a "carry on" film. The authors also expend a great deal of effort forcing the plot to support an illiberal, patriarchal worldview. The plausibility of the alien and human societies gets thrown under the bus to accomplish this.

I enjoyed this, depends if you like short stories?  

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_of_Death

I enjoyed this, depends if you like short stories?  

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_of_Death

I loved it but mainly because i’m A fan of science fiction becoming science fact.  It may have been the second book where they sit down for a meeting and they’re using their handheld terminals which when they don’t have information query the library computers wirelessly to get it!  When was it written.  I also love the foundation series even more now having sat through a lecture by a colleague in maths who does big data, predicting outcomes based on large numbers of humanity.

Cheers

Toby

Ive not read the entire thread, but how about, The Star Diaries, Stanislaw Lem. Starship Troopers, Robert Heinlein. Annihilation, Jeff Vandermeer, I thought this trilogy was amazing. 

Didn’t get much out of Annihilation - not sure if it was mostly because I read it one February when I was really depressed, though. 

Haven't had time to read through all the comments but off the top of my head -

China Meiville - Embassytown

One of my favourite books ever, a real study of language and metaphor. Also really enjoyed the one you listed, and also Perdido Street Station (the latter two in that series were less good).

Alfred Bester - The Stars My Destination, The Demolished Man

I find his writing style very easy, both of these were proper page turners, they have a great and somewhat frenetic energy to them

Joe Haldeman - The Forever War

By far the most well accomplished multi century space opera style story I've read, a real thinker beneath it all

Ramez Naam - Nexus Trilogy

Some of the best modern sci fi I've read, properly well researched hard sci fi which offers both a bleak and wonderfully optimistic outlook for the future of AI etc

Daniel Keyes - Flowers for Algernon

Quite simply one of the most wonderful stories ever. Wonderfully executed when it could have totally missed the mark, this is a relatively unknown masterpiece which aught to be read by everyone. Really made me rethink my attitude to a lot of things

Ursula Le Guin - The Dispossessed 

And the rest of them too. I love all her writing, but particularly this one

Sue Burke - Semiosis 

A fascinating study on our relationship with our food, our environments, and how eco systems work. Really different and refreshing, I really enjoyed this one

I also recently listened to Dune on audiobook and enjoyed it a lot more than when I read it a few years ago. Not sure why but it totally missed the mark back then. Enjoyed the 2nd one too this time

Cheers!

i didn’t get on with Perdido Street Station - probably because I hate steam punk and couldn’t believe in a man who was shagging a giant cockroach or a dragon that shits LSD tabs. 

Does The City and The City count as sci fi? Its certainly an interesting conceit 

I put it in my Honourable Mentions. It really is an excellent book - thought i probably enjoyed it as much for the whuddunit noir procedural elements as the “sci fi” (if so it be) ideas 

You’ve expressed zero interest or response to Lem 

Come again?

Ha! Yeah I'm not the biggest steam punk fan either but managed to maintain interest for the duration of that one. Less so the other two.  Embassytown really is fantastic though - some of the most alien aliens I've read about

I think he meant that someone suggested a book(s) by Stanislaw Lem and you haven't said whether you are interested or not.

Ahhhh

Never heard of these - will check out.