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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

#151
post #97

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Nice, I like the photos, classic covers are so beautiful :) Added the Brian Daley series about Solo to my list, I'd never heard of those!

I should reread them. They are so much fun. I’m the only person I know who has ever read them. Although that’s not saying much I suppose haha.

One of my hopes for the website is I could help books that are lesser known get noticed and "pop." Working on getting more to help in that capacity as there are so many good books that don't get enough notice. Aiming to come out with some features this Winter to help around that.

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

#153

I recommend The Tripod Trilogy by John Christopher. As a kid I read The White Mountains blind and the story unfolded in a fantastic way for me. It is YA sci-fi and a lot of the themes are well-trodden at this point, but the story is strong and clear, kind of a coming-of-age-amongst-aliens.

The audiobook is excellent.

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

#154

Dungeon Crawler Carl is a rare gem that I've come across lately, very unique, paces well and I couldn't put it down - https://www.goodreads.com/series/309211-dungeon-crawler-carl The audiobook is also really well narrated.

I was so skeptical when my recommended the series. It sounds so juvenile and low brow but is actually SO GOOD. Both funny and genuinely well written and structured. Love that it's doing as well as it is

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

#155

One of "you may never heard of" sci-fi books I can recommend is The City & the City by China Miéville. Perhaps not traditional science fiction, but so original and strange, it's beautiful.

My thing about Miéville is that all the books of his I've read (Embassytown, Perdido street Station, and the one about trains that I didn't realize was pretty YA) felt like the endings dissol into B grade action (IMO Stephenson has the same problem). Everything starts off surreal and philosophical and beautiful and then just fizzles into stuff blowing up

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

#156
Shipwreck by Charles Logan.

Magnificent hard sci fi about an astronaut crashed on a distant world after their colony ship suffers a catastrophic accident as it reaches a distant star system.

https://www.amazon.com/Shipwreck-Panther-science-fiction-Cha...

You will never feel more bleak and alone.

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

#157
I'd throw in The Saga of Exiles by Julian May. Excellent exploration of psi power, set in Pliocene Europe (by way of time travel). Sounds mad, but May both grounds her characters and casts them archetypes, and it's fantastically dramatic.

One of the first books I read where the cumulative trauma and psychologies of the main characters inform their actions.

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

#158

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Thanks! I really like it when authors shock my neurons with ideas they never even came close to entertain. Alien aliens are always rare in sci-fi books. Although I really struggled with the octopodes in Children of Ruin, so I'm not sure if I'm ready yet. Can someone please suggest books with novel, really alien forms of life, social structures, etc.?

Check out Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

We’re going on an adventure!

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

#160
post #100
post #30

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Yeah I also didn't like the book at all, it read like a cash grab. However, just listen to a sample of the audio book, it's just hilarious how much effort Ray put into making the characters become alive. Certain significantly improving the lack of writing, of course it can't fix the writing.

Please be kind; being an author is an incredibly hard career, and people do it for the love of creating and sharing a story. It is not a cash grab, and if you don't like his writing style, just don't read his books. Books are deeply personal and no reason to make a personal attack because it isn't a match for your desired book style.

The great thing about opinions, as youve pointed out with books, is that you can disregard them. Personally, I agree that PHM was not particularly good compared with The Martian, but to each their own.
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