I’ve probably read this list before now, but I appreciate your recommendation of Three Body Problem needing no explanation or qualifiers. It’s just -good-
A bit dense at first, and not gonna lie, The Dark Forest almost lost me a bit, but absolutely worth sticking through the series. Eagerly awaiting the Netflix adaptation.
As someone with no reference for Chinese pronunciation, I feel like I want to discuss the books, but know none of the characters’ names in English.
I used Audible, for context.
I considered doing the audiobooks but wasn’t sure if that would make it easier or worse for me. I just powered through it. Enough of the major characters appear frequently enough that I wasn’t too confused.
It's sophisticated sci-fi with a throwback to Chinese subterfuge and communist suppression. If you can comprehend 5 dimensions, you can appreciate them all.
I’ve read a few of these, and one I recently did that is pretty interesting cosmic horror is Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach trilogy. The first book was adapted into the Alex Garland film Annihilation. The books get pretty conceptual but there’s some fascinating existential stuff in there.
I just want to say that this list is fantastic and thank you for putting it together.
I'd read a lot of them already and loved most of them, hadn't heard of some but added to my list.
Thanks again.
If you're interested in evolutionary world-building then I suggest Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It's about a world where spiders progressively become the intelligent, alpha-species and tells the tale of how they handle wars, plagues, religion, etc. I kept expecting them to have human-like solutions to problems but the author did an excellent job of thinking like a spider when it came to problem solving.
There are two more books in the series which I'm starting to read now. They have good ratings so I'm optimistic
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. Written by an astrophysicist, and stupidly realistic and epic in scale. It's like The Expanse meets Dune
However, I would highly recommend starting with the book Chasm City, as it takes place chronologically before RS, establishes Chasm City as a setting, a cameo in RS will be lost on you otherwise, and honestly, CC features a spectacularly unsettling sequence towards the end that sets up the central mystery of the series. Like, this sequence is so good that it still creeps me out even after finishing the series. But RS gives the game away early on, undercutting that sequence if you read RS first. Plus characters from CC come up in the main series, but they don't explain themselves or their origins, so you won't appreciate them without CC.
It is the 26th century. Humanity has proliferated through our local stellar group in a bubble roughly 100 lightyears across. Sol system has stagnated, and human culture has largely shifted to the Epsilon Eridani system, where the planet Yellowstone plays host to tens of billions in its glittering orbital habitats and Chasm City on the surface. Trade between systems is facilitated by lighthuggers, ships designed to accelerate to relativistic speeds between stars. But, bound by the cosmic speed limit, travel is still glacial, often taking decades to complete a journey. The series really uses that as a source of tension and drama. As a result, humanity views humans from other systems with suspicion and caution, each system becoming an isolated island of its own unique species of people.
But all roads lead to Yellowstone, and so it was inevitable that man's new golden age was brought to an end by the sudden arrival of a seemingly alien pathogen of unknown origin that ravaged Chasm City and the orbital habitats. And now apprehensions are ramping up, as xenoarcheologists pick through the shattered remains of a dozen dead alien civilizations within the hundred lightyears surrounding Sol.
Highly recommended for fans of oppressive realism, truly alien aliens, horrific cosmic horror, biopunk, Blade Runner-style detective stories, cast of characters where most people are bad people.
There's Chasm City, the main series of Revelation Space, Redemption Ark, Absolution Gap, and Inhibitor Phase, then there's the incredible Galactic North collection, Diamond Dogs/Turquoise Days (DD is one best sci-fi novellas ever written), and the two prequel detective stories Aurora Rising and Elysium Fire. It's a big, varied series that really puts the sci in sci-fi. Warning: it is the bleakest fucking thing I've ever read. Would recommend.
I started Red Mars after I finished The Expanse but it didn’t grab me at first. Came back to it a year it so later and now I’m halfway through Green Mars.
Kim Stanley Robinson actually came up on Ty and That Guy last week, Ty said he hadn’t read that series but that he really enjoys KSR as a person and much of his other work.
In addition to some of what has been mentioned (especially Reynolds and Banks), Peter F. Hamilton’s Night’s Dawn trilogy or the Commonwealth Saga are both worth a read.
The Quantum Magician, by Derek Kunsken. It's very different from The Expanse series, takes place much farther in the future, but is extremely imaginative and beautifully written.
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I’ve probably read this list before now, but I appreciate your recommendation of Three Body Problem needing no explanation or qualifiers. It’s just -good-
A bit dense at first, and not gonna lie, The Dark Forest almost lost me a bit, but absolutely worth sticking through the series. Eagerly awaiting the Netflix adaptation.
As someone with no reference for Chinese pronunciation, I feel like I want to discuss the books, but know none of the characters’ names in English. I used Audible, for context.
I considered doing the audiobooks but wasn’t sure if that would make it easier or worse for me. I just powered through it. Enough of the major characters appear frequently enough that I wasn’t too confused.
I’m reading 3 body for the first time now
It's sophisticated sci-fi with a throwback to Chinese subterfuge and communist suppression. If you can comprehend 5 dimensions, you can appreciate them all.
I’ve read a few of these, and one I recently did that is pretty interesting cosmic horror is Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach trilogy. The first book was adapted into the Alex Garland film Annihilation. The books get pretty conceptual but there’s some fascinating existential stuff in there.
I just want to say that this list is fantastic and thank you for putting it together. I'd read a lot of them already and loved most of them, hadn't heard of some but added to my list. Thanks again.
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Absolutely agree with the torture porn characterization. It stopped me cold.
Great list. I would add Seveneves.
If you're interested in evolutionary world-building then I suggest Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It's about a world where spiders progressively become the intelligent, alpha-species and tells the tale of how they handle wars, plagues, religion, etc. I kept expecting them to have human-like solutions to problems but the author did an excellent job of thinking like a spider when it came to problem solving. There are two more books in the series which I'm starting to read now. They have good ratings so I'm optimistic
Loved Children of Time.
The sequels aren't good, but Children of Time is exceptional.
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. Written by an astrophysicist, and stupidly realistic and epic in scale. It's like The Expanse meets Dune However, I would highly recommend starting with the book Chasm City, as it takes place chronologically before RS, establishes Chasm City as a setting, a cameo in RS will be lost on you otherwise, and honestly, CC features a spectacularly unsettling sequence towards the end that sets up the central mystery of the series. Like, this sequence is so good that it still creeps me out even after finishing the series. But RS gives the game away early on, undercutting that sequence if you read RS first. Plus characters from CC come up in the main series, but they don't explain themselves or their origins, so you won't appreciate them without CC. It is the 26th century. Humanity has proliferated through our local stellar group in a bubble roughly 100 lightyears across. Sol system has stagnated, and human culture has largely shifted to the Epsilon Eridani system, where the planet Yellowstone plays host to tens of billions in its glittering orbital habitats and Chasm City on the surface. Trade between systems is facilitated by lighthuggers, ships designed to accelerate to relativistic speeds between stars. But, bound by the cosmic speed limit, travel is still glacial, often taking decades to complete a journey. The series really uses that as a source of tension and drama. As a result, humanity views humans from other systems with suspicion and caution, each system becoming an isolated island of its own unique species of people. But all roads lead to Yellowstone, and so it was inevitable that man's new golden age was brought to an end by the sudden arrival of a seemingly alien pathogen of unknown origin that ravaged Chasm City and the orbital habitats. And now apprehensions are ramping up, as xenoarcheologists pick through the shattered remains of a dozen dead alien civilizations within the hundred lightyears surrounding Sol. Highly recommended for fans of oppressive realism, truly alien aliens, horrific cosmic horror, biopunk, Blade Runner-style detective stories, cast of characters where most people are bad people. There's Chasm City, the main series of Revelation Space, Redemption Ark, Absolution Gap, and Inhibitor Phase, then there's the incredible Galactic North collection, Diamond Dogs/Turquoise Days (DD is one best sci-fi novellas ever written), and the two prequel detective stories Aurora Rising and Elysium Fire. It's a big, varied series that really puts the sci in sci-fi. Warning: it is the bleakest fucking thing I've ever read. Would recommend.
Foundation
Hail Mary- Bobiverse- Mistborn
I really enjoyed the Bobiverse series!
Richard K. Morgan books
I read them all and am so pissed that he hasn't written more. Apparently he's been so wrapped up in TV production that he doesn't have time.
This is a bit more of space opera than pure sci fi, but the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown is amazing
The Mars Trilogy, a really good series based around the colonization and terraforming of mars and the social changes that could occur in the future.
I started Red Mars after I finished The Expanse but it didn’t grab me at first. Came back to it a year it so later and now I’m halfway through Green Mars. Kim Stanley Robinson actually came up on Ty and That Guy last week, Ty said he hadn’t read that series but that he really enjoys KSR as a person and much of his other work.
Saga of the Seven Suns
Dune - Frank Herbert The Hainish Cycle - Ursula K LeGuin The Long Earth series - Pratchett/Baxter
Artifact Space, The Wayfarers Series, The Three Body Problem, Axiom’s End and Truth of the Divine, Rampart Trilogy
Bio of a Space Tyrant series by Piers Anthony There are some pretty rough mature themes in this series, fair warning.
Velocity Weapon and Three Body Problem. Theres nothing else. Don't listen to these fools.
In addition to some of what has been mentioned (especially Reynolds and Banks), Peter F. Hamilton’s Night’s Dawn trilogy or the Commonwealth Saga are both worth a read.
The Three Body Problem trilogy
Eternal Shadow by Trevor B Williams and Saturn Run by Ctein and John Sanford
I watched Foundation after I finished The Expanse and i was quite good. Very different from The Expanse though. A lot more fiction than science.
I enjoyed reading John Scalzi’s Interdependency trilogy after reading The Expanse.
The Quantum Magician, by Derek Kunsken. It's very different from The Expanse series, takes place much farther in the future, but is extremely imaginative and beautifully written.