I read the first 3 Dune books after seeing the movie and hearing about the challenges of getting that story on the screen. Love the first 2, the ending of the 3rd was ok.
I’m 3/4ths through the 4th and final Hyperion books. Absolutely incredible, I’m disappointed knowing I’ll be done with it soon. I highly recommend it if you’re at all curious. The author does an excellent job sneaking deep references into the colorful narrative; Keats and Ancient Greek mythology among them. The characters are vivid, varied, and somehow all relatable.
When I was younger I liked Vonnegut, specifically Galapagos, cats cradle, and slaughter house 5. I recently read Philip K Dicks “do androids… electric sheep” and wasn’t a fan. I loved the film blade runner, but the book kind of trudged on for me with, what I felt was, a let down of an ending. Asimov’s foundation was ok, but it lacked action and the characters seemed thin; I do like the concept a lot, it was just missing something for me.
So what’s next? I read a few classics in school and wasn’t terribly moved by most of them. I’ve considered giving Philip K Dick another chance, and possibly exploring the Dune books not authored by Herbert. I’m not a big fan of fantasy- at least in the horse riding, sword wielding, magic and sorcery vein.
Thanks for any suggestions
Roadside Picnic is awesome. It inspired the film stalker. I loved it.
While nothing like Dan Simmons, The Three Body Problem is the only one that has knocked my socks off in the last 10 years. If you want to stick with Simmons I recommend Song of Kali.
You read the expanse series?
The second Hyperion book. Immediately followed by Consider Phlebas by Iain Banks. It has the same approachable writing style, doesn’t overstay it’s welcome, has similar deliciously out-there sci-fi, and I think may also be inspired by touchstone poetry.
Ursula K. LeGuin’s Always Coming Home is an intriguing approach to novel writing. Some can’t get into it because it looks more like an ethnologist’s report, but there is a story there (and I don’t mean the segments with Stone Telling: the entire novel has a story that rewards those who pay attention).
Wraeththu Chronicles by Storm Constantine.
Very surprised I haven’t seen Red Rising mentioned.
The Book of the New Sun (really 4 books) gave me the feeling of reading Dune, Hyperion, and Lord of the Rings kind of wrapped into one.
I would also recommend the 4th Dune book (God Emporor), as it wraps up where the first 3 books were going with the Golden Path. After that, he starts a new trilogy, which doesn’t get finished, so results may vary.
Second The Book Of The New Sun - it’s dense and really rewards re-reading.
There’s also the Urth Of The New Sun, which sort-of concludes the story.
I liked Urth of the New Sun, but I can also see why it is separate from the others. For me it felt like a step back for the main character.
I second the finishing of the quatrology. I think one could stop at the first book, maybe even the second, but if you’re in for the third you should be in for the fourth.
If you’re wanting a break from the serious sci-fi, take a look at Expeditionary Force, it’s hilarious.
- Octavia Butler
- Ursula K Le Guin
E: Markdown
Immediately thought about Le Guin. Probably my all time favourite author. So many great novels and short story collections to choose from. Even her YA novels are thoughtful, wise and the prose is pretty much flawless. OP, let me know what you’re in the mood for and I’ll recommend a few books.
Did you read The Word for World is Forest?
Cuz damn_son.jxl
Edit: I haven’t read all of it (i.e., all of her work), but I think The Left Hand of Darkness is my favorite, if I had to pick
Yes. Both are brilliant and although I’m not sure, I feel like the former had a big influence on Cameron’s Avatar (much more so than Pocahontas tbh). Hard to pick a favourite but I really like the Western shore trilogy.
I’ve heard of Le Guin, thanks for the recommendations
The Dispossessed is a really interesting look at anarchism in practice
Also may I recommend the Culture series by Iain M Banks.
People, please. Don’t sleep on Butler either. A truly visionary artist. She’s incredible. I hate how late in life I heard of her. Genuinely alien aliens. And she cooked up Make America Great Again for her neofascist fiction party decades before their lizard brains could copy it. It’s literally in the books. She predicted the future with basically 100% accuracy. The series is Earthseed.
Btw this is not a criticism of your UKLG rec, I love her too and have read many of her books. She’s incredible. I wanted to rec some non-male, non-white authors as well as the other good recs in this thread. Both authors are incredible
Edit: Got Le Guin’s initials wrong 😓
I recommend you start with the Hainish series’s trilogy (Rocannon’s world, planet of exile, and city of illusions). The Left Hand of Darkness is better, and it doesn’t require any of them, but those books will do a lot of world building so you can just focus on the story rather than ask what the hell the Ekumen is.
City of illusions is also just hard-core payoff and that made it really interesting
Maybe Iain M. Banks’ Culture series, if you’re not familiar with his work already. The books are generally standalobe stories, but there are some recurring side characters and references to earlier books. Consider Phlebas is the first one I think.
Honestly, I tell people to pass on Consider Phlebas a lot of the time. The first book is worth reading, but The Player of Games is a much better book and is a better introduction to the series.
I’ve only read Consider Phlebas so far. If OP is looking for action then this is a good choice.
I don’t usually read sci-fi for laser fights and starship chases, but it feels justified in this one.
If you liked the first book, you’re going to absolutely LOVE the second one. It’s so much better. I’ve been reading sci-fi for 25 years now and nothing has topped The Player of Games for me.
I’m just starting this series now. Looking forward to it
They are absolutely amazing books.
I suggest the Commonwealth’s saga by Peter F. Hamilton (Pandora’s star, Judas unchained).
Been on a Peter Hamilton binge since I started Pandora’s Star about 4 months ago, and have since gone through all 7 of the Commonwealth books (Commonwealth duology, Void trilogy, and Chronicles of the Fallers duology) Exodus: Archimedes Engine, and am almost done book 1 of the Salvation trilogy.
So far my favourite is probably the Commonwealth duology, followed by Exodus. All of the books I’ve read have been amazing IMO, this is the first time I’ve read based solely off the author rather than recommendations. He can be pretty horny at times which is the main thing about his books that annoy me, but the world building is top tier IMO and the ideas he presents are fascinating.
Highly recommend giving the Commonwealth duology a try, it’s a bit slow going at first but once it gets going, I found it hard to stop. Amazing books.
Great books, I recently re-read and they don’t stand up as well as I remember, some characters in particular, but still good.
The Nights Dawn series is good too. Love his stuff.
I fucking did not like that book. I did not like any of the characters. Grrrr to that book. That is all. I guess in saying I wouldn’t go more Hyperion. Do Revelation Space Series. Much better.
I’m with you. I was pretty close to giving up on it several times, but slugged through it at first because so many people said it was so great, and then because the next book was meant to be better, and then because I was over halfway so I may as well finish it. I wish I hadn’t.
I felt the Culture books by Iain Banks were a similar tone and style, but I found them much more enjoyable.
Yeah revelation space is what I’m reading now. The series is great
I gave Hyperion about 200 pages and they were STILL world building and offering leading secrets the author didn’t think the reader needed to know. So I just gave up.
Couldn’t agree more. I guess what baffled me was all the years it was pushed on me. Canterbury Tales in space. Got it. Didn’t much care for the thing when Mrs. Baker was pushing allegorical shit and what not and I’m not digging it now that everyone is nothing I’m interested in rooting for. Harumph!
Yeah, if there’s not a character I can relate to, sympathize with, or cheer for within 200 pages, I’m not going to keep reading.
It really comes together at the end in an amazing way. However it’s such a chore to get there. Simmons doesn’t ever write characters I care about.
I loved the first two books, it felt like an adventure and a puzzle piece. Then the last 2 are 😬
I liked the series until the point OP is at. The third book was okay but I just could not like Raul Endymion no matter what.
The ending fourth of Rise felt like Disney wrote it. “Oh but you see it’s bittersweet and–” okay but ::: spoiler plot spoilage Anea fucking died and now she’s back in Disney “everything’s okay!” fashion for like 2 years or whatever, yeah she’ll be gone but the book doesn’t bother making even an ounce of progress towards that happening. “And Earth is back, and no one is allowed to visit it while it’s just you and I and then and then and then”. It’s like a fucking 8 year old wrote the ending. :::
Same. Simmons fucks up a landing. Idk what it is. I like Ilium and hated Olympos.
I also didn’t like Hyperion. Just couldn’t get into it for whatever reason and I gave it a fair whack. Thank you for the recommendation. I’ll check it out.
If you’re into a rich narrative and deep references, don’t miss Cryptononicon and the whole Baroque cycle by Neal Stephenson.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is fine, but it’s not Bladerunner so yeah it might be jarring. It’s also not even close to his best work imo.
Some of my favorite Dick novels: The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and A Scanner Darkly. I think those are his two best imo. The Man in the High Castle is pretty good, but not at all indicative of his other work.
Now Wait for Last Year, and Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, are also pretty good. I liked what I read of UBIK, but didn’t finish it. I have a friend that swears by it though.
Some people swear by his latter stuff (e.g. VALIS), but I was never able to get into it. You can kind of see his mind starting to slip as you read his stuff (which leads to some incredibly mind bending shit in his early-mid works), and by the end, it’s kind of nonsensical imo.
It’s kind of tragic to read about his life at the time he was writing. The afterword of A Scanner Darkly goes into some detail, including listing the names of friends that “didn’t make it” (usually due to drugs). Later, during the VALIS years, he was having full-own psychotic breaks and hallucinatory events where he thought he was Thomas from the Bible, living in ancient Rome or some shit. And his writing started to reflect all of this.
I’ve only read the first Hyperion book (and fucking loved it), but keep in mind, Dick wrote a different kind of sci-fi that was more about exploring consciousness, existence, the concept of self, psychedelic drugs, etc. as opposed writing space epics or whatever. Not to say that they don’t sometimes take place in space, but just don’t expect the kind of grand narratives you’re gonna get with someone like Asimov. Completely different type of sci-fi.
That said, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is his hidden gem imo. If you know, you know.
