Hi, I don't read much from SciFi genre but would like to. I'd like to get some recommendations for great books, perhaps published within the past 5 years or so. Thanks.
Generally, sci-fi stories are considered to go from Hard: realistic with lots of research and detail (20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, 2001 A Space Odyssey...) to Soft: basically magic with numbers and gizmos instead of spells and wands (Star Trek, Marvel comics...) and not everybody likes both extremes. Do you think that you would have a preference, or do they both sound good?
Dan Simmons - more recent Octavia Butler - more recent Neither of those two are 5 years new. Believe it or not, L Ron Hubbard before he turned into a quack (read Battlefield Earth and ignore John Travolta's travesty of the movie). It's not new either and older than the other two. I'm not a fan of Terry Pratchett but a whole slew of his fans are. And I've not read any Ring World yet, but it also has a fan following.
Would need you to answer Simpson17866's question before I could recommend anything. SF is such a wide genre.
Some recommendations: Frank Herbert's Dune Heinlein's The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress or Starship Troopers Joe Haldeman's The Forever War Isaac Asimov's Foundation books. Niven and Pournelle's Ringworld or The Mote in God's Eye C.S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy Tanya Huff's Valor books (military scifi) John Steakley's Armor Scalzi's Old Man's War Mike Resnick's Santiago David Brin's Sundiver James S.A. Correy The Leviathan Wakes (pen name of fantasy author Daniel Abraham) As mentioned above, Octavia Butler and Dan Simmons are both good (Simmons more recently has been writing what is more like historical fantasy, but you could look at the Hyperion books).
It is not spaceships and lasers, but I am a few chapters into The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. Pretty cool world he has laid out and so far an interesting build up of characters. His writing flows very well from chapter to chapter without too much breakup (or hangup) with the nitty gritty science in the fiction. I prefer it this way most of the time, and I think it is a better place to start if you are not normally into SciFi.
I can't believe noone's mentioned this yet: the The Hunger Games trilogy, consisting of The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay. Amazing characters, plot(s) and setting. It's easily in my top five reading experiences of all time.
Can't point you away if your original direction is unknown But, five or less years old, and not the usual thing, try : David Weber's "Safehold" series. Dan Abnet's "Embedded" Daniel O'Malley's " The Rook" series (a bit of urban fantasy) Mel Odom's "Hellgate London" trilogy Larry Correia's "Monster Hunter International" series Bryan Romer's "Vampire-Tech" (SF/Horror) - my book, heh, heh. Michael Z. Williamson's "Freehold" series. The last in the series is just past 5 years old. David Sherman & Dan Cragg "Starfist" series. The latest in the series is just 5 years old. Warhammer 40000 "Space Marines Battles" series All very different and not quite mainstream
Anything by Abnett is good. I like what I've read of Odom in the past, but I haven't read that trilogy. Funny thing that you mention Safehold, because I almost bought the first one last weekend and ended up leaving with the first Kris Longknife book and Karen Traviss' Glasslands instead. If you like WH40K I recommend that Gaunt's Ghosts books as well.
Gaunt's Ghosts, have 'em all. Several still on the pending pile Plus the entire "Horus Heresy" sequence. I read the first two (I think) of Kris Longknife. Not bad, but not so compelling that I wanted to go through the entire series in one go. But that's just me. Hope you enjoy. The Odom books are not actually a favourite of mine, and are based on a PC game. But they do have a complex and very unusual story, told from three different viewpoints in each book of the trilogy.
That's kind of my feeling on it so far. Not bad, but I'm not going to be stampeding toward the next book in the series. I don't usually like game tie-ins outside of a few Warhammer authors, but Glasslands is pretty good (A Halo tie-in). I picked it up because I've read Karen Traviss before and liked her. I'm going to get the Safehold series and give that a shot!
@Fitzroy Zeph Very well: Ender's Game: not much focus on the technical details (FTL communication is possible, for instance). A very brutal look at the psychology of raising child soldiers, and a very good look at why an alien race would declare war against humanity instead of settling on the "they're Evil because they're Evil" cop-out. The author might be notoriously homophobic in real life, but in spite of his best efforts, the book he wrote ended up presenting a very effective message on tolerance and understanding. World War Z: some focus on the technical details, with Max Brooks looking at which military tactics and/or equipment would or wouldn't work. It is told as an anthology, the literary conceit being that the author has survived the zombie war, interviewed other survivors, found that all of the humanizing details were taken out of his official report to make room for the numbers and figures, and was told to write his own book if he wanted to tell people about the human side of the war. I found the anthology style to be more compelling than if it had been just one or two people who only saw a small slice of the war. Blindsight (available for free on the author's website): so much focus on the technical details that the author included extensive notes and citations - written as humorously as the actual story had been - in the afterward to prove that he wasn't making (most of) it up. After a First Contact scenario where 65536 alien probes scan us, don't do much of anything else really, and then self-destruct, Earth sends a crew to intercept the alien ship that had sent the probes, hopefully to find out if the "Fireflies" had been an act of war. The captain is a vampire (Peter Watts come up with what I thought was an amazing explanation for why houses and crosses are a weakness), the physicians are cyborgs, the linguist has multiple personalities (4 minds sharing one brain can share the mental workload more efficiently than could 4 people who have to talk to each other out loud to share with each other), and the narrator has suffered brain damage/surgery that makes him better with theoretical constructs than he is with real people.
Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series, Tom O'Bedlam by Robert Silverberg, the Heechee series by Frederick Pohl. All older but good. And Greg Bear can be amazing. Once I find a author I like I usually read anything by him/her I can get my hands on. Oh, and Nancy Kress. Bon voyage!.
Do you like reading short stories? I've found several very good science fiction anthologies on Amazon. The best collection I've read so far is The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 1: 1929-1964. That's where I recommend you start.
James Tiptree Jr is a fantastic SF author. Try Brightness Falls From The Sky or the short story collection 10,000 Light Years From Home. I've not read anything else remotely like her stuff.
I don't remember when it was published, but "Empire from the Ashes" by David Weber is amazing. Anyway, who cares when a book was published? The story and writing quality is far more important.
I would seriously suggest that you do not restrict yourself to anything that has been published in the last 5 years. In doing so, you are excluding some of the greatest works of fiction ever written, SciFi or otherwise. H.G. Wells The War of the World is a must read if you have not already done so. The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton is also an excellent read. Verne, Assimov and Arthur C Clarke also offer an abundance of good material to read.
I recently read James S.A. Corey's Expanse books, starting with The Leviathan Wakes. Those were good. Corey is the pseudonym of fantasy author Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, who works with George R.R. Martin apparently.
