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Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read

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Re: Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read

#81

Post by tialaramex »

berkes wrote: post #16
hnmullany wrote: post #11

These are all painfully mid reads. (The alien in Hail Mary is about as alien as a rival fraternity brother.) If you want real alien aliens, read Blindsight (Peter Watts).

> the alien in Hail Mary is about as alien as a rival fraternity brother You put that as critique, and I understand that. But for me, this was actually the strength of the story. By making the differences smaller, they are more focused, stronger, and give opportunity to explore them in depth. Same thing I like about many of the Black Mirror stories: often they tweak, or magnify, just one parameter of our realistic, c…

But Black Mirror is about us whereas the frustrating thing with depictions of aliens is that they're not us, that's their defining feature.

Re: Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read

#82

Post by tialaramex »

woleium wrote: post #80
hnmullany wrote: post #11

These are all painfully mid reads. (The alien in Hail Mary is about as alien as a rival fraternity brother.) If you want real alien aliens, read Blindsight (Peter Watts).

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem is the most alien alien i have ever read. I read the old translation, but there is a new one now (2011 by Bill Johnston ) direct from polish rather than via french first

Golem XIV also gets at the fact that an artificial intelligence needn't be anything like us either. The titular Golem is capable of communicating with us but finds the experience very frustrating because we're so very stupid, while the perhaps even more intelligent Honest Annie doesn't communicate with humans and is postulated to treat them the same way we treat flies, a nuisance deserving no great thought.

Re: Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read

#83

Post by berkes »

tialaramex wrote: post #81
berkes wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the alien in Hail Mary is about as alien as a rival fraternity brother You put that as critique, and I understand that. But for me, this was actually the strength of the story. By making the differences smaller, they are more focused, stronger, and give opportunity to explore them in depth. Same thing I like about many of the Black Mirror stories: often they tweak, or magnify, just one parameter of our realistic, c…

But Black Mirror is about us whereas the frustrating thing with depictions of aliens is that they're not us, that's their defining feature.

Stories about aliens aren't meant to describe aliens as theoretically correct as possible. Obviously.

Aliens are hardly ever more than a tool to get a perspective. To look at humans, societies, structures etc. They are also stories _about us_.

Re: Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read

#84

Post by wazoox »

eatonphil wrote: post #71
wazoox wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found it not as good, and somewhat predictable. Its quirky humour didn't work on me, that's probably why I didn't like it as much.

Fair enough! It was my intro to the Strugatsky brothers and I was hooked.

On the other hand it's not as soul crushing as the other two mentioned :)

Re: Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read

#85

Post by ms_katonic »

nicolas_t wrote: post #32

Let me throw my hat in the ring. I'd recommend Grass by Sheri S Tepper. It felt fresh and original in a way few science fiction books are, the characters are really well done and it just stays with you. Despite being the first book of a trilogy, it works well on its own.

Yes!!! I would also recommend anything by Zenna Henderson.

Re: Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read

#86

Post by mnky9800n »

Actually I made a website that’s mostly sci-fi books I’ve read

https://mnky9800n.github.io/booklist/

It uses a google spreadsheet as a database so you just need to update the spreadsheet and it adds a book to the website.

I have a life goal to read every thing written by Phillip k dick as well as every book on David Pringle’s 100 best sci-fi list. Some of the books are hard to find though. Like I’ve been searching for years for the peoples republic of Antarctica.

I would suggest the following novels if you haven’t read them yet

Gene wolfe shadow of the torturer series aka book of the new sun

A scanner darkly by pkd, this, imo, is his best book even though all his books are compelling. But I think also, yes we can build him, its amazing because it really shows off pkd ability to come up with a wild premise but that’s simply the universe the characters live in and they don’t really care about that premise they have other problems.

Herovits world by malzburg, this book is hilarious and about how you must be a terrible narcissist to believe someone should read your fiction especially science fiction

The Brian Daley series about Han Solo, these are super interesting because they were written in 1979 so before empire strikes back came out. So Daley basically only had Star Wars to go on to create a whole trilogy of novels starring Han Solo. I think these are probably my favourite Star Wars novels because they have such little constraints.

Re: Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read

#87

Post by mariusor »

hnmullany wrote: post #11

These are all painfully mid reads. (The alien in Hail Mary is about as alien as a rival fraternity brother.) If you want real alien aliens, read Blindsight (Peter Watts).

If you're able to look past the "hard-sci-fi" vampires. I know I wasn't.

Re: Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read

#88

Post by mariusor »

After I finished the two Frank Kittridge novels from S.J. Morden I was surprised I haven't heard of him until now.

They start as a "The Martian" cribbed story, but the development arc takes in better places. It was less geek/efficiency porn and more character development and required less strain on my suspension of disbelief overall.

Re: Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read

#89

Post by mariusor »

closewith wrote: post #20
_s_a_m_ wrote: post #15

The problem with Project Hail Mary is that the audio book is good but the book is not. First read the book and then listen to the audio book and you know what I mean.

That's interesting. I found Project Hail Mary to be once of the most disappointing second novels ever written and am surprised at its reception. Is the audiobook meaningfully different?

For pedantry's sake, "Project Hail Mary" is not Weir's second novel. I think "Artemis" followed after The Martian. It's a story set on the Moon with a strong female character, but I can't remember much else about it. :D

Re: Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read

#90

Post by therealdrag0 »

lynx23 wrote: post #19
hnmullany wrote: post #11

These are all painfully mid reads. (The alien in Hail Mary is about as alien as a rival fraternity brother.) If you want real alien aliens, read Blindsight (Peter Watts).

Beware, you'll also get Vampires in space, which is so silly, it kills the book.

I found suspension of disbelief very easy, just like most SF.
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