NK Jemisin's Broken Earth Trilogy (each of which won a Hugo award) is phenomenal; it has more of a fantasy flavor, but plot/character-wise is amazing.
Ask HN: Modern Sci-Fi Book Recommendations?
11–20 of 42 posts
Re: Ask HN: Modern Sci-Fi Book Recommendations?
#12Blindsight by Peter Watts, it's available for free [1] (CC-License on his website), he releases all his books like that, except for the most recent one, which is only available through publishers.
You can also download it on the site as epub or PDF.
Edit: Also, it's one of the few Sci-Fi books I know (all from Watts) that cites scientific literature and has a bibliography, to make an argument for plausability and give explanations in an afterword. Watts worked as a marine biologist before writing scifi, IIRC.
Re: Ask HN: Modern Sci-Fi Book Recommendations?
#13The Expanse Series,
Murderbot Series
Re: Ask HN: Modern Sci-Fi Book Recommendations?
#14Try "The Three-Body Problem". It opened my eyes when I first read it, and every re-read still mesmerized me. The original text is in Chinese but the translation to English was done very well.
It's a trilogy in three books. If you are not sure, just purchase the first one. But I bet you would regret about only purchasing the first one.
Re: Ask HN: Modern Sci-Fi Book Recommendations?
#15Try "The Three-Body Problem". It opened my eyes when I first read it, and every re-read still mesmerized me. The original text is in Chinese but the translation to English was done very well. It's a trilogy in three books. If you are not sure, just purchase the first one. But I bet you would regret about only purchasing the first one.
I've been meaning to read this, but I've been struggling with reading since "the virus" came. I think I'll give it another go, it's right there by my bed.
Re: Ask HN: Modern Sci-Fi Book Recommendations?
#16Terminal Boredom, Izumi Suzuki
Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation, Ken Liu
Re: Ask HN: Modern Sci-Fi Book Recommendations?
#17Try "The Three-Body Problem". It opened my eyes when I first read it, and every re-read still mesmerized me. The original text is in Chinese but the translation to English was done very well. It's a trilogy in three books. If you are not sure, just purchase the first one. But I bet you would regret about only purchasing the first one.
I'm a bit conflicted about these books. The ideas are super interesting but the characters seem very "cardboard-like". Also they are bit too long and by the 3rd book I didn't care anymore... Still, pretty interesting on their own.
Re: Ask HN: Modern Sci-Fi Book Recommendations?
#18Blindsight by Peter Watts, it's available for free [1] (CC-License on his website), he releases all his books like that, except for the most recent one, which is only available through publishers. You can also download it on the site as epub or PDF. Edit: Also, it's one of the few Sci-Fi books I know (all from Watts) that cites scientific literature and has a bibliography, to make an argument for plausability and giv…
Love Peter Watts' work but be warned that his writing is super depressing (in a good way), specially his Rifters Trilogy. My favorites are still Blindsight and it's follow-up, Echopraxia. The ideas on those books about sentient life are eye opening and something I still think is heavily debated in the scientific community.
Re: Ask HN: Modern Sci-Fi Book Recommendations?
#19Try "The Three-Body Problem". It opened my eyes when I first read it, and every re-read still mesmerized me. The original text is in Chinese but the translation to English was done very well. It's a trilogy in three books. If you are not sure, just purchase the first one. But I bet you would regret about only purchasing the first one.
I see this recommended a lot. Nonetheless I hated these books. The opening of the first book is excellent, it set up a decent exciting mystery, but about halfway through it dissolved into paper thin borderline fantasy-physics. The characterizations also declined sharply.
Re: Ask HN: Modern Sci-Fi Book Recommendations?
#20The one that sticks in my head the most (and which I did not think I would enjoy based on the book jacket blurb) is "Children of Time" by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I highly recommend to anyone who listens. I also recently encountered "The Fifth Science" by someone named 'Exurb1a' and enjoyed it so much that I am now reading another of his books named "Geometry for Ocelots"
Andy Weir's "Hail Mary" is an imaginative and fun read, as is "The Startup Wife" by Tahmima Anam. Oh! And "The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet' (or almost anything else) by Becky Chambers.