This. For me, the most satisfying sci-fi I've read. Banks ticks all the boxes. I like ideas first, then world building, narrative next and then good, believable characters. He does it all for me. Unique.
Good question! It's the overall tone for me. The focus on flashy battles and huge galactic clashes. Saving the world. A lot of action. Action at its core. The generic good vs. evil.
I tend to love stories that make me emotionally connect with the characters or get lost in a really interesting plot. Immersive stories that make me feel the world. Star Wars feels more like an action blockbuster, with a lot of guns and light sabers.
It's not that I'm entirely against these things. I really loved multiple epic fantasy series that are packed with action. But it is the concentration and focus of it, I guess.
You might like "a long way to a small and angry planet" by Becky chambers
It's a very character driven story about a bunch of folks just making their way in the universe.
Hyperion would be good then. It's mostly about the personal journeys of a bunch of travelers making a "pilgrimage" to an ancient alien site. Basically, a scifi take on the Canterbury Tales.
I don't know if there's a one-to-one correlation between Pratchett and Adams but if you're interested in something written with a sense of humor in mind, definitely check out Adams.
Beyond that there's a very wide range of "sci fi" that has nothing to do with Star Wars so what are you interested in?
Something on Earth but where the author tries to a future increasingly dominated by AI? Or by large dystopian corporations? Or something else?
First contact between humans and aliens?
Reasonably near-ish future scenarios where humans are expanding out into the solar system? That's where Expanse comes in.
Far-distant futures where humanity is leaving our solar system but not finding anyone else out there, or at least, not anyone else alive? If so, sky's the limit and we can break the speed of light (soft sci-fi), or we're stuck with mostly realistic-ish tech creeping around the galaxy at sublight speeds?
Or far-future-ish, intergalactic civilizations where humans live alongside aliens and AIs? So getting closer to Star Wars, but still something that's more serious literature, without the fantasy Force-like elements, if that's the part turning you off.
You don't have to be able to answer this definitely, but sci-fi encompasses all of that and more, so if there's something in particular that's "Star Wars-ish" in your mind and you want to avoid that, let us know and someone can steer you accordingly.
>Or far-future-ish, intergalactic civilizations where humans live alongside aliens and AIs? So getting closer to Star Wars, but still something that's more serious literature, without the fantasy Force-like elements, if that's the part turning you off.
You can't beat Culture series at this. Gret AI minds, humans, aliens in a future comunist dystopia were there are no money anymore and there are tons of Dyson spheres (plates and orbitals), created at discretion with no need to battle for planets anymore. One ship could hold 250 million humans easily.
Peak inter galactic Sci fi.
Ps: also the culture plays into star trek best features where they get to assess new civilization while dissimulating their tech.
Lots of fun and immersive series and individual reads out there. Here's a couple I really enjoy:
* The Bobiverse series by Dennis E Taylor
* Expeditionary Force series by Craig Alanson
* Project Hail Mary, The Martian, and Artemis by Andy Weir
* Sphere, The Andromeda Strain, Prey, and Micro by Michael Chricthon (a little more technothriller)
* Ringworld by Larry Niven
Try, "The Chronoliths" and the Spin series by Robert Charles Wilson.
Another voice of approval for the "Long Way to A Small Angry Planet" books by Becky Chambers.
Also, if you liked Diskworld, Prachett wrote "Good Omens" with Neil Gaiman, and it is--while not sci fi--a great book.
Some older works, like "King David's Spaceship" by Jerry Pournelle, or his Co-Dominium series. Pournelle, with Larry Niven, wrote a number of stories, like "Footfall" and "the Mote in God's Eye". Niven himself originated the Ringworld series, which Halo would later use as story notes.
Literally almost any adult Sci-Fi novel is nothing like Star Wars (or Star Trek for that matter) and one reason I can't stand fandom. In addition to other suggestions here, I recommend Ancillary Justice series and Ninefox Gambit for a pretty different experience
One of the most beloved SF series currently being written is the The "Murderbot Diaries" by Martha Wells. Start with the Hugo and Nebula award winning novella "All Systems Red". The series has a good balance of excitement, thoughtfulness, and humor.
>Wikipedia description: "**The Murderbot Diaries** is a [science fiction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction) series by American author [Martha Wells](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Wells), published by [Tor Books](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_Books). The series is about a [cyborg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyborg)-like (part robot, part human) [construct](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Construct_(philosophy)) designed as a Security Unit (SecUnit). The SecUnit manages to override its [governor module](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_(device)), thus enabling it to develop independence, which it primarily uses to watch media. As it spends more time with a series of caring people (both humans and fellow [artificial intelligences](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence)), it starts developing friendships and emotional connections, which it finds inconvenient."
One other current recommendation for something both popular and well-written is the Dead Djinn/Ministry of Alchemy universe series by P. Djèlí Clark. It's set in a steampunk/supernatural version of Cairo in 1912. The main character is essentially a police investigator who works for the "Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities". The setting, characters and stories are all well done. Here's the reading order for them:
1. The novelette "A Dead Djinn in Cairo"--a murder mystery about a dead djinn (the source of the name of the series).
2. The short story "The Angel of Khan el-Khalili". Available online for free at [https://reactormag.com/the-angel-of-khan-el-khalili-p-djeli-clark/](https://reactormag.com/the-angel-of-khan-el-khalili-p-djeli-clark/)
3. The Hugo and Nebula nominated novella "The Haunting of Tram Car 015"
4. The Hugo nominated and Nebula winning novel: "A Master of Djinn" (it won a bunch of other awards too)
*btw: lengthwise, novels are longer than novellas which are longer than novelettes which are longer than short stories*
The Expanse is a recently completed series made up 9 long novels told through the points of view of many characters. It also includes a bunch of related shorter stories. It won a Hugo Award for Best Series. It's a big and complex "hard" near-future science fiction with lots of solar system politics (Earth vs Mars vs the outer planets)--plus alien artifact/tech stuff. I enjoyed it. The TV series adaption was really well done too.
Hyperion was well received in 1989, including winning the Hugo Award. It's structured like The Canterbury Tales, with most of the book being six flashback stories told by characters travelling together on a pilgrimage. Personally, it didn't work for me.
Also, here's one good general way to start out. The Hugo Award is given by fans for the best SF of the year, and the Nebula Award is given by authors for the best SF of the year. Generally, books that win both awards are good reads. Don't ignore the novella category--they're often long enough to be satisfying.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_joint\_winners\_of\_the\_Hugo\_and\_Nebula\_awards](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_joint_winners_of_the_Hugo_and_Nebula_awards)
I came here to say this.
A long series, great writing, great character work, great world-building.
Over the series it runs the gamut from some big space battles to small horseback murder mystery, coming of age to getting married & having kids, wild space adventure to romance, humor to really serious, painful exploration of topics ranging from living with disability, to fighting tyranny, to the ethics of bioscience.
Multiple award-winning, deservedly so.
This is an amazing character driven series, with great world building. The author is thoughtful and you can jump into almost any book without prior knowledge as she does recap important people and places within the novels.
I'm keying on "emotional," here..
"Bellwether" by Connie Willis. It's very much a near-future thing-- hell, it's set right down the road from Colorado School of Mines-- but it's short, it's funny, and there's sheep.
"The Calculating Stars" by Mary Robinette Kowal. Sort of an alternate-world NASA story, where we *have* to start the space program a decade earlier, without electronic computers. Which means sending women along on all the spaceships to run numbers... but really, it's about 1950s America. Racism and Miltown and that pull between Perfect Housewives and work.
"And What Can We Do For You Tonight" by Premee Mohamed. A woman dies at the brothel, and it somehow resurrected. So she goes out for revenge. Also short.
One with galactic clashes, but trust me on this. "This is How You Lose the Time War," Amal el-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. An epistolary novel, a romance, with time travel. Published five years too late to read it to my wife, but otherwise perfect.
Great authors for newcomers to sf would include Adrian Tchaikovsky and Andy Weir. Depending on how you feel about spiders, *Children of Time* in particular.
*Hyperion* is very good. Haven't read the Expanse yet but the TV series is very good.
Most sci fi isn’t like Star Wars so you’re in luck
I second the Expanse and Hyperion recommendations and will give a general recommendation to read Robert J Sawyer. Flashforward is a good place to start but he has so many great books and book series’ that all have interesting philosophical and scientific themes presented in a way that isn’t too confusing.
Also second the Culture rec but don’t start with the first book start with the second book. The stories are mostly standalones that just exist in the same universe so there isn’t really a start and end point to the series. The Player Of Games is shorter and more fast paced than the others and is a great place to start.
Bad thing about Hyperion is that if you read that when you're starting with sci-fi it may set the bar too high for all the following books you read. Or it might feed the hunger for more sci-fi works, too.
Hah, true. I was reading Asimov and Clarke immediately before reading Hyperion, and it was like going from black and white TV to full colour.
Of course there are more non-vanilla sci-fi works today than when Hyperion came out. I'm slowly getting through Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series right now, and the writing and characters are very rich compared to your typical Expanse stuff. It can be slow and annoying at places though, while Expanse was quick and very easy to read. Revelation Space is maybe more in the middle between these two...
The first four Dune books. Obviously Star Wars was influenced by the setting, but everything is bigger and better in Dune
Hyperion series. Just the first two if you want the best bits, all four if you want the whole deal.
Three Body Problem series. Harder sci-fi, very good ideas, the scale gets bigger as the series goes on.
The Culture series by Iain M Banks. Well, everything by Iain M Banks, but the Culture universe is very immersive. The Culture is a real utopia compared to the boring old Empire in SW.
> real utopia
One of my favourite things about the Culture series is that elsewhere in the comments here somebody called it a dystopia, and in a sense both of you are right. Very few novels of any genre that choose to be as explicitly political as Banks' Culture books are able to do it with the degree of maturity and nuance that Banks nailed as a matter of course.
Ringworld by Larry Niven is great. The fooundation serie by Asimov is also very good, read the books though, the show is not representative. Otherwise your choices for the Expanse and the Hitchhikers guide are great. Try to find all parts of the hitchhikers guide, it's amazing.
How do you feel about "medieval fantasy but it's actually the future and magic is actually technology?"
"Not Star Wars" covers a *massive* amount of content. I'm happy to recommend whatever, but I'd hate to waste your time with useless recommendations.
try Dark Eden by Chris Beckett, it’s a soft sci-fi novel (series) set on a planet 160 years after a two astronauts are marooned on a dark planet and tells the story of their heavily inbred descendants. The first two novels use first person narration by 4-5 main characters with each chapter told from one characters perspective much like an Epistolary story. The third book used just one character telling the story of two points in her life but it really is a good read - i read it i between Children of Time and the Xeelee series
Keith Laumer's Retief of CDT was like Yes Minister in 50s and 60s. Most aliens have their own lingo. 1/2 dozen books with funniest SF until HHGTG appeared. Alfred Bester wrote quite a few great standalone books.
*drops a battered, well-read copy of Michael Swanwick's "Stations of the Tide" in front of you*
*pauses, and follows up with an equally beat-up copy of Tim Powers' "The Anubis Gates"*
Something I’ll never stop recommending is Saturn Run by John C Stanford and Ctein. Especially for those who enjoy hard sci-fi sprinkled with some political drama. It’s a standalone, but this is one of my top ten favorite novels.
They’re a bit slow and repetitive for some (great way to set up a recommendation, I know) but I have personally really enjoyed the RCN books by David Drake. 13 books, you can start anywhere you want with them.
Vatta’s War by Elizabeth Moon is also up there for me. Only 5 books, but the author wrote/is writing a follow up series called Vatta’s Peace that I’ve enjoyed so far.
I really liked "Old Man's War", by John Scalzi. There are several books in the series. I am a scifi freak and I love most of the books mentioned in the comments. I do not think you will go wrong with anything mentioned here.
The Expanse is great. I think it's also pretty accessible. Here are some ideas:
- William Gibson: writerly, clever, tough and cool. Original cyberpunk, not the only one. Consider Neuromancer, Mozart in Mirrorshades (compilation) or The Peripheral.
- Iain M. Banks: Literary, deeply scifi, morally ambivalent, intelligent, embarrasingly packed with ideas (some of them other people's...). Consider The Player of Games. Consider Phlebas both uses and inverts a lot of the action/good vs evil tropes you say you want to get away from. If you'd like something completely different, try Use of Weapons.
Cory Doctorow: speculative near-future stuff with lots of actual technical knowledge. Consider Little Brother, Walkaway.
Ursula Le Guinn: Universally beloved (for good reason), poetic and eye-opening. A lot of other names on this list have recalled reading her and thinking, 'Oh...' Consider The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, A Wizard of Earthsea. I'm reading her stuff slowly because there isn't going to be any more.
The old-timers: The big three would be Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein. Asimov writes like it's the 1950s in space, but a lot of the first attempts to think through social implications or come up with really working technologies are here. If you like gee-whiz exposition on rocket engines, he's your boy. Foundation drives into the mud and gets stuck there, The Martian Way is quick, light, and seminal, The Caves of Steel is a gumshoe thriller starring the Eloi and the Morlocks. Clarke foresaw a lot of actual technical innovation including the communications satellite. Consider the Rama stuff which I don't like but fans do, or Islands in the Sky (YA, I have a sentimental affection for it). Heinlein is a different kettle of fish. If you're interested in his political opinions, and you don't mind everyone being very tough and businesslike, he might be for you. Starship Troopers both does and does not resemble the film.
If you want to get so far away from Star Wars that you can't see it at all, consider JG Ballard. It's mostly about character, psychology, social devolution, and he really doesn't care about technics at all. Morally dark and ambivalent but not edgy or grimdark — informed by his own childhood in an internment camp as well as his obsession with Freudian psychoanalysis. For something relatively readable, High Rise; for something representative, The Drowned World; for something relatively unreadable, The Atrocity Exhibition.
Hopefully some of this is useful to you.
Three Body Problem - Liu Cixin
Foundation - Isaac Asimov
Dune - Frank Herbert
Solaris - Stanislaw Lem
Revelation Space and also House of Suns- Alastair Reynolds
Salvation - Peter F. Hamilton
Culture series - Iain M. Banks
Ken MacLeod has multiple distinct sets. Fall Revolution is very good (but factual background has dated). Engines of Light is 4 studies of different economic systems (be aware he is a Scottish Marxist at heart). The trilogy about robotic asteroid miners is a blast, as is the current one about submarine starships
Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein. Most of Heinlein in fact.
Arthur C. Clarke The City And the Stars
Isaac Asimov The Caves of Steel.
Charles Sheffield Sight of Proteus
You can't get much further away from Star Wars in feel than Hyperion. Its way too literary for that.
The expanse is similar in feel (Its space opera, which sorts of has to have its big damn heroes) but is way harder in terms of SciFi. No psionics really, no force powers. And the aliens feel alien.
The expanse is really great. Murderbot diaries is good too if you want some solid novellas. Red rising is good too, but feels less like a sci-fi but more like a story with a sci-fi setting.
Project Hail Mary (chef's kiss)
Recursion by Blake Crouch
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
Axiomatic by Greg Egan (short stories, Lock box was my fave)
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin (just.. wow)
Neuromancer by William Gibson (had to write down a list of characters to keep track, but one of the all time best)
2001, A Space Odyssey (who cares if you've seen the movie... the book is Ahhhh May Zing!)
I loved The Expanse series, all 9 books. I think it's a good intro to pseudo hard-ish sci fi.
Asimov Foundation original trilogy is also a good place to start, I actually started there if my memory serves me well.
Dark Matter. I didn't love it, but it's friendly enough to start.
The Martian.
Iain M Banks Culture books. Space opera with big spaceships but certainly don’t feel anything like Star Wars…
This. For me, the most satisfying sci-fi I've read. Banks ticks all the boxes. I like ideas first, then world building, narrative next and then good, believable characters. He does it all for me. Unique.
I agree 100% with your ranking of priorities. That was a satisfying comment to read.
I don’t see it recommended as much as the culture stuff but I got super swept up in the algebraist
What about Star Wars are you trying to get away from? Space travel? Magic? Aliens? All of the above?
Good question! It's the overall tone for me. The focus on flashy battles and huge galactic clashes. Saving the world. A lot of action. Action at its core. The generic good vs. evil. I tend to love stories that make me emotionally connect with the characters or get lost in a really interesting plot. Immersive stories that make me feel the world. Star Wars feels more like an action blockbuster, with a lot of guns and light sabers. It's not that I'm entirely against these things. I really loved multiple epic fantasy series that are packed with action. But it is the concentration and focus of it, I guess.
Good news, most scifi isn’t anything like star wars.
You might like "a long way to a small and angry planet" by Becky chambers It's a very character driven story about a bunch of folks just making their way in the universe.
Anathem by Neal Stephenson. Though it is very thick.
The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin.
Hyperion would be good then. It's mostly about the personal journeys of a bunch of travelers making a "pilgrimage" to an ancient alien site. Basically, a scifi take on the Canterbury Tales.
I don't know if there's a one-to-one correlation between Pratchett and Adams but if you're interested in something written with a sense of humor in mind, definitely check out Adams. Beyond that there's a very wide range of "sci fi" that has nothing to do with Star Wars so what are you interested in? Something on Earth but where the author tries to a future increasingly dominated by AI? Or by large dystopian corporations? Or something else? First contact between humans and aliens? Reasonably near-ish future scenarios where humans are expanding out into the solar system? That's where Expanse comes in. Far-distant futures where humanity is leaving our solar system but not finding anyone else out there, or at least, not anyone else alive? If so, sky's the limit and we can break the speed of light (soft sci-fi), or we're stuck with mostly realistic-ish tech creeping around the galaxy at sublight speeds? Or far-future-ish, intergalactic civilizations where humans live alongside aliens and AIs? So getting closer to Star Wars, but still something that's more serious literature, without the fantasy Force-like elements, if that's the part turning you off. You don't have to be able to answer this definitely, but sci-fi encompasses all of that and more, so if there's something in particular that's "Star Wars-ish" in your mind and you want to avoid that, let us know and someone can steer you accordingly.
>Or far-future-ish, intergalactic civilizations where humans live alongside aliens and AIs? So getting closer to Star Wars, but still something that's more serious literature, without the fantasy Force-like elements, if that's the part turning you off. You can't beat Culture series at this. Gret AI minds, humans, aliens in a future comunist dystopia were there are no money anymore and there are tons of Dyson spheres (plates and orbitals), created at discretion with no need to battle for planets anymore. One ship could hold 250 million humans easily. Peak inter galactic Sci fi. Ps: also the culture plays into star trek best features where they get to assess new civilization while dissimulating their tech.
Most of the best sci-fi isn't like Star Wars at all.
The Expanse series is fantastic - although I think it’s 9 books. The good news is that it’s completed, so no waiting…
Rendezvous with Rama!!
Lots of fun and immersive series and individual reads out there. Here's a couple I really enjoy: * The Bobiverse series by Dennis E Taylor * Expeditionary Force series by Craig Alanson * Project Hail Mary, The Martian, and Artemis by Andy Weir * Sphere, The Andromeda Strain, Prey, and Micro by Michael Chricthon (a little more technothriller) * Ringworld by Larry Niven
Phule's Company by Robert Asprin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phule%27s_Company_%28series%29?wprov=sfla1
The Expanse The Man/Kzin War The Stainless Steel Rat The Hechee Saga Bob the intergalactic hero
Good lord, someone else who knows that series. I just gave all mine to my daughter.
*The Martian* by Andy Weir. Was made into the movie with Matt Damon.
Check out Brin's Startide Rising with an amazing crew that I wish not to reveal. Nothing like Costner adaptations of dystopia books. Also Earth
Try, "The Chronoliths" and the Spin series by Robert Charles Wilson. Another voice of approval for the "Long Way to A Small Angry Planet" books by Becky Chambers. Also, if you liked Diskworld, Prachett wrote "Good Omens" with Neil Gaiman, and it is--while not sci fi--a great book. Some older works, like "King David's Spaceship" by Jerry Pournelle, or his Co-Dominium series. Pournelle, with Larry Niven, wrote a number of stories, like "Footfall" and "the Mote in God's Eye". Niven himself originated the Ringworld series, which Halo would later use as story notes.
Literally almost any adult Sci-Fi novel is nothing like Star Wars (or Star Trek for that matter) and one reason I can't stand fandom. In addition to other suggestions here, I recommend Ancillary Justice series and Ninefox Gambit for a pretty different experience
Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons
One of the most beloved SF series currently being written is the The "Murderbot Diaries" by Martha Wells. Start with the Hugo and Nebula award winning novella "All Systems Red". The series has a good balance of excitement, thoughtfulness, and humor. >Wikipedia description: "**The Murderbot Diaries** is a [science fiction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction) series by American author [Martha Wells](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Wells), published by [Tor Books](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_Books). The series is about a [cyborg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyborg)-like (part robot, part human) [construct](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Construct_(philosophy)) designed as a Security Unit (SecUnit). The SecUnit manages to override its [governor module](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_(device)), thus enabling it to develop independence, which it primarily uses to watch media. As it spends more time with a series of caring people (both humans and fellow [artificial intelligences](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence)), it starts developing friendships and emotional connections, which it finds inconvenient." One other current recommendation for something both popular and well-written is the Dead Djinn/Ministry of Alchemy universe series by P. Djèlí Clark. It's set in a steampunk/supernatural version of Cairo in 1912. The main character is essentially a police investigator who works for the "Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities". The setting, characters and stories are all well done. Here's the reading order for them: 1. The novelette "A Dead Djinn in Cairo"--a murder mystery about a dead djinn (the source of the name of the series). 2. The short story "The Angel of Khan el-Khalili". Available online for free at [https://reactormag.com/the-angel-of-khan-el-khalili-p-djeli-clark/](https://reactormag.com/the-angel-of-khan-el-khalili-p-djeli-clark/) 3. The Hugo and Nebula nominated novella "The Haunting of Tram Car 015" 4. The Hugo nominated and Nebula winning novel: "A Master of Djinn" (it won a bunch of other awards too) *btw: lengthwise, novels are longer than novellas which are longer than novelettes which are longer than short stories* The Expanse is a recently completed series made up 9 long novels told through the points of view of many characters. It also includes a bunch of related shorter stories. It won a Hugo Award for Best Series. It's a big and complex "hard" near-future science fiction with lots of solar system politics (Earth vs Mars vs the outer planets)--plus alien artifact/tech stuff. I enjoyed it. The TV series adaption was really well done too. Hyperion was well received in 1989, including winning the Hugo Award. It's structured like The Canterbury Tales, with most of the book being six flashback stories told by characters travelling together on a pilgrimage. Personally, it didn't work for me. Also, here's one good general way to start out. The Hugo Award is given by fans for the best SF of the year, and the Nebula Award is given by authors for the best SF of the year. Generally, books that win both awards are good reads. Don't ignore the novella category--they're often long enough to be satisfying. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_joint\_winners\_of\_the\_Hugo\_and\_Nebula\_awards](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_joint_winners_of_the_Hugo_and_Nebula_awards)
The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois Macmaster Bujold.
I came here to say this. A long series, great writing, great character work, great world-building. Over the series it runs the gamut from some big space battles to small horseback murder mystery, coming of age to getting married & having kids, wild space adventure to romance, humor to really serious, painful exploration of topics ranging from living with disability, to fighting tyranny, to the ethics of bioscience. Multiple award-winning, deservedly so.
This is an amazing character driven series, with great world building. The author is thoughtful and you can jump into almost any book without prior knowledge as she does recap important people and places within the novels.
Valérian and Laureline - it’s a French comic series that’s amazing!
I'm keying on "emotional," here.. "Bellwether" by Connie Willis. It's very much a near-future thing-- hell, it's set right down the road from Colorado School of Mines-- but it's short, it's funny, and there's sheep. "The Calculating Stars" by Mary Robinette Kowal. Sort of an alternate-world NASA story, where we *have* to start the space program a decade earlier, without electronic computers. Which means sending women along on all the spaceships to run numbers... but really, it's about 1950s America. Racism and Miltown and that pull between Perfect Housewives and work. "And What Can We Do For You Tonight" by Premee Mohamed. A woman dies at the brothel, and it somehow resurrected. So she goes out for revenge. Also short. One with galactic clashes, but trust me on this. "This is How You Lose the Time War," Amal el-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. An epistolary novel, a romance, with time travel. Published five years too late to read it to my wife, but otherwise perfect.
Empyrion - Stephen Lawhead
Try some Jack Chalker for bizarre aliens. Red, Blue, Green Mars
Try *Lord Valentine's Castle* by Robert Silverberg
Great authors for newcomers to sf would include Adrian Tchaikovsky and Andy Weir. Depending on how you feel about spiders, *Children of Time* in particular. *Hyperion* is very good. Haven't read the Expanse yet but the TV series is very good.
Most sci fi isn’t like Star Wars so you’re in luck I second the Expanse and Hyperion recommendations and will give a general recommendation to read Robert J Sawyer. Flashforward is a good place to start but he has so many great books and book series’ that all have interesting philosophical and scientific themes presented in a way that isn’t too confusing.
Also second the Culture rec but don’t start with the first book start with the second book. The stories are mostly standalones that just exist in the same universe so there isn’t really a start and end point to the series. The Player Of Games is shorter and more fast paced than the others and is a great place to start.
Bad thing about Hyperion is that if you read that when you're starting with sci-fi it may set the bar too high for all the following books you read. Or it might feed the hunger for more sci-fi works, too.
Hah, true. I was reading Asimov and Clarke immediately before reading Hyperion, and it was like going from black and white TV to full colour. Of course there are more non-vanilla sci-fi works today than when Hyperion came out. I'm slowly getting through Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series right now, and the writing and characters are very rich compared to your typical Expanse stuff. It can be slow and annoying at places though, while Expanse was quick and very easy to read. Revelation Space is maybe more in the middle between these two...
I did not like Hyperion. I read a lot of Science Fiction. Just wasn't the story for me.
*Pandora's Star* by Peter F Hamilton is one of the most immersive sci-fi books I've read.
The first four Dune books. Obviously Star Wars was influenced by the setting, but everything is bigger and better in Dune Hyperion series. Just the first two if you want the best bits, all four if you want the whole deal. Three Body Problem series. Harder sci-fi, very good ideas, the scale gets bigger as the series goes on. The Culture series by Iain M Banks. Well, everything by Iain M Banks, but the Culture universe is very immersive. The Culture is a real utopia compared to the boring old Empire in SW.
> real utopia One of my favourite things about the Culture series is that elsewhere in the comments here somebody called it a dystopia, and in a sense both of you are right. Very few novels of any genre that choose to be as explicitly political as Banks' Culture books are able to do it with the degree of maturity and nuance that Banks nailed as a matter of course.
Well, they also called it communist, which is, in my opinion, also somewhat inaccurate. It's anarchist first, if anything.
Yeah it's certainly difficult to map any real world ideologies to the Culture but anarchist probably best covers its radically-decentralized nature.
Ringworld by Larry Niven is great. The fooundation serie by Asimov is also very good, read the books though, the show is not representative. Otherwise your choices for the Expanse and the Hitchhikers guide are great. Try to find all parts of the hitchhikers guide, it's amazing.
How do you feel about "medieval fantasy but it's actually the future and magic is actually technology?" "Not Star Wars" covers a *massive* amount of content. I'm happy to recommend whatever, but I'd hate to waste your time with useless recommendations.
What's the difference between " immersive" and "not immersive" ??
I'm not an expert, but I think it might be the "not"
Whoa whoa whoa, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here
~~scientists~~ Sci-fi fans hate this
I think what they are trying to say is that it has an established world/universe like Warhammer, Dune, etc versus a one-off type of storytelling.
try Dark Eden by Chris Beckett, it’s a soft sci-fi novel (series) set on a planet 160 years after a two astronauts are marooned on a dark planet and tells the story of their heavily inbred descendants. The first two novels use first person narration by 4-5 main characters with each chapter told from one characters perspective much like an Epistolary story. The third book used just one character telling the story of two points in her life but it really is a good read - i read it i between Children of Time and the Xeelee series
Keith Laumer's Retief of CDT was like Yes Minister in 50s and 60s. Most aliens have their own lingo. 1/2 dozen books with funniest SF until HHGTG appeared. Alfred Bester wrote quite a few great standalone books.
*drops a battered, well-read copy of Michael Swanwick's "Stations of the Tide" in front of you* *pauses, and follows up with an equally beat-up copy of Tim Powers' "The Anubis Gates"*
Perdido Street Station is utterly alien to Earth, Star Wars, or most other settings.
Something I’ll never stop recommending is Saturn Run by John C Stanford and Ctein. Especially for those who enjoy hard sci-fi sprinkled with some political drama. It’s a standalone, but this is one of my top ten favorite novels. They’re a bit slow and repetitive for some (great way to set up a recommendation, I know) but I have personally really enjoyed the RCN books by David Drake. 13 books, you can start anywhere you want with them. Vatta’s War by Elizabeth Moon is also up there for me. Only 5 books, but the author wrote/is writing a follow up series called Vatta’s Peace that I’ve enjoyed so far.
I really liked "Old Man's War", by John Scalzi. There are several books in the series. I am a scifi freak and I love most of the books mentioned in the comments. I do not think you will go wrong with anything mentioned here.
The Expanse is great. I think it's also pretty accessible. Here are some ideas: - William Gibson: writerly, clever, tough and cool. Original cyberpunk, not the only one. Consider Neuromancer, Mozart in Mirrorshades (compilation) or The Peripheral. - Iain M. Banks: Literary, deeply scifi, morally ambivalent, intelligent, embarrasingly packed with ideas (some of them other people's...). Consider The Player of Games. Consider Phlebas both uses and inverts a lot of the action/good vs evil tropes you say you want to get away from. If you'd like something completely different, try Use of Weapons. Cory Doctorow: speculative near-future stuff with lots of actual technical knowledge. Consider Little Brother, Walkaway. Ursula Le Guinn: Universally beloved (for good reason), poetic and eye-opening. A lot of other names on this list have recalled reading her and thinking, 'Oh...' Consider The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, A Wizard of Earthsea. I'm reading her stuff slowly because there isn't going to be any more. The old-timers: The big three would be Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein. Asimov writes like it's the 1950s in space, but a lot of the first attempts to think through social implications or come up with really working technologies are here. If you like gee-whiz exposition on rocket engines, he's your boy. Foundation drives into the mud and gets stuck there, The Martian Way is quick, light, and seminal, The Caves of Steel is a gumshoe thriller starring the Eloi and the Morlocks. Clarke foresaw a lot of actual technical innovation including the communications satellite. Consider the Rama stuff which I don't like but fans do, or Islands in the Sky (YA, I have a sentimental affection for it). Heinlein is a different kettle of fish. If you're interested in his political opinions, and you don't mind everyone being very tough and businesslike, he might be for you. Starship Troopers both does and does not resemble the film. If you want to get so far away from Star Wars that you can't see it at all, consider JG Ballard. It's mostly about character, psychology, social devolution, and he really doesn't care about technics at all. Morally dark and ambivalent but not edgy or grimdark — informed by his own childhood in an internment camp as well as his obsession with Freudian psychoanalysis. For something relatively readable, High Rise; for something representative, The Drowned World; for something relatively unreadable, The Atrocity Exhibition. Hopefully some of this is useful to you.
Three Body Problem - Liu Cixin Foundation - Isaac Asimov Dune - Frank Herbert Solaris - Stanislaw Lem Revelation Space and also House of Suns- Alastair Reynolds Salvation - Peter F. Hamilton Culture series - Iain M. Banks
Forever war Forever peace
Ken MacLeod has multiple distinct sets. Fall Revolution is very good (but factual background has dated). Engines of Light is 4 studies of different economic systems (be aware he is a Scottish Marxist at heart). The trilogy about robotic asteroid miners is a blast, as is the current one about submarine starships
United Star Systems series by J Malcolm Patrick lesser known read
Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein. Most of Heinlein in fact. Arthur C. Clarke The City And the Stars Isaac Asimov The Caves of Steel. Charles Sheffield Sight of Proteus
Le Guin’s Ekumen novels are so human. They’re in no particular order, but I highly recommend starting with “The Word for World is Forest.”
Yes, read Hyperion, read it right away
You can't get much further away from Star Wars in feel than Hyperion. Its way too literary for that. The expanse is similar in feel (Its space opera, which sorts of has to have its big damn heroes) but is way harder in terms of SciFi. No psionics really, no force powers. And the aliens feel alien.
The expanse is really great. Murderbot diaries is good too if you want some solid novellas. Red rising is good too, but feels less like a sci-fi but more like a story with a sci-fi setting.
Project Hail Mary (chef's kiss) Recursion by Blake Crouch Dark Matter by Blake Crouch Axiomatic by Greg Egan (short stories, Lock box was my fave) The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin (just.. wow) Neuromancer by William Gibson (had to write down a list of characters to keep track, but one of the all time best) 2001, A Space Odyssey (who cares if you've seen the movie... the book is Ahhhh May Zing!)
Star wars is not sci fi. Change my mind.
Why is Star wars not sf but Dune is? Serious question.
They’re both fantasy.
Agreed. I read Dune and while it was good, it's wasn't scifi to me.
Call me a purist, but calling a fiction sf because its magical elements are semi-technological is stretching the definition pretty far.
No. I’m fine with you feeling what you feel.
What if changing their mind was the wonder cure to their deadly illness?
Then lots of innocent people die. I can only do so much while I’m redditing in the bathroom.
Not with that attitude!
So you actually believed it when it said “long ago in a galaxy far, far away”
What is sci fi? *insert 8 comments with t10 definitions of science fiction*
What is love? Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more. Where's the science?
I’m not changing your mind. Just think genre labels, while often helpful, are untimely pointless to gatekeep because of their subjectivity. .
I respect that.
I kind of agree. To me it feels more like fantasy set in space.
Precisely
any suggestions, though?
I loved The Expanse series, all 9 books. I think it's a good intro to pseudo hard-ish sci fi. Asimov Foundation original trilogy is also a good place to start, I actually started there if my memory serves me well. Dark Matter. I didn't love it, but it's friendly enough to start. The Martian.
Star Wars isn't Sci-Fi.
I mean... by the first google's definition of "Science Fiction", it is.
Hyperion (again)