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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

#161

Post by hhhAndrew »

Greg Egan. Agree with others in this thread that Permutation City is the most important. But Diaspora is not to be missed either. Egan's unique value prop is: crazy-thought-experiment sci fi (2D world with 2 time dimensions is his latest and is typical) but hard, harder than you can believe. Sci fi so hard, you don't find any cracks and are left thinking wait a minute ... This must be true then?

Gene Wolfe. Book of the new Sun. Wolfe's unique value prop is, create an interesting sci fi or fantastical setting, and tell it through special narrators (unreliable, liar, child, amnesiac, etc) with wonderful skill, producing a puzzle with a lovely solution (that you will only partially solve).

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

#162

Post by block_dagger »

marliechiller wrote: post #159

No mention of Peter Watts' Blindsight? That book changed all sorts of notions of first contact and consciousness for me. I'm still thinking about it to this day. Absolute must read for anyone concerned with such things

And evolutionary vampires!

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

#163

Post by rsynnott »

stevekemp wrote: post #147
orbisvicis wrote: post #125

Here are some which, though perhaps not the best, haunt my memory through unique nostalgia. Glory Season , David Brin. Ok, this is one of the best. A heartrending saga of epic scale. Carve the Sky , Alexander Jablokov. Scifi feudalism. All of an Instant , Richard Garfinkle. Vita Nostra , Marina & Sergey Dyachenko. Though very different, it somehow reminds me of Roadside Picnic . Spin , Robert Charles Wilson. Schismat…

Interstellar Pig, was an unexpected addition there. I remembered that book immediately from hearing the title! (On that note I remember a book I read at a similar time, some kids took off in a hollow asteroid, for reasons, and there was a home-made aiming system for their weapon(s) which involved using a cat. I've no idea what it was called or who wrote it. But I guess similar young-adult fiction.)

> and there was a home-made aiming system for their weapon(s) which involved using a cat

Truth is, of course, sometimes stranger than fiction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon

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

#164

Post by xeonax »

codetheweb wrote: post #145
xeonax wrote: post #142

The Wandering Inn [1], Stories of an alternate world somehow connected to a certain innkeeper of the said inn. Features extensive world building, character building, Lots of fleshed out characters, contains humour as well as serious stuff, has dragons, fae, aliens, time travel, hiveminds, automatons, cute pets, cosmic horrors, history lessons, magic, alchemy and steampunk engineering. It's a bit longish and not finis…

I love the Wandering Inn but calling it “a bit longish” is quite an understatement.

Ok it's a bit longer, only a little bit.

See for yourself https://www.reddit.com/r/WanderingInn/comments/wil9pi/word_c...

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

#165

Post by strofocles »

daoboy wrote: post #50

The Bobiverse Series by Dennis Taylor. These books aren't anything that will change your life, but they're well written and a lot of fun.

I wonder how much "well written" is a matter of taste (I thought it wasn't that much). I found "We Are Legion" very poorly written although I loved the premise and really wanted to read it but couldn't go any further then maybe a quarter of it. It also happened to me with Murakami's Kafka On The Shore but I blame that on the translation or some cultural impedance mismatch.

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

#166

Post by dahauns »

marliechiller wrote: post #159

No mention of Peter Watts' Blindsight? That book changed all sorts of notions of first contact and consciousness for me. I'm still thinking about it to this day. Absolute must read for anyone concerned with such things

It used the Chinese Room better than Searle ever managed to do.

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

#167

Post by stormking »

freetonik wrote: post #3

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.

A book that was even made into a TV miniseries does not fit my definition of "you may never heard of".

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

#168

Post by Vecr »

dahauns wrote: post #166
marliechiller wrote: post #159

No mention of Peter Watts' Blindsight? That book changed all sorts of notions of first contact and consciousness for me. I'm still thinking about it to this day. Absolute must read for anyone concerned with such things

It used the Chinese Room better than Searle ever managed to do.

B. F. Skinner got there first.

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

#169

Post by _yb2s »

hhhAndrew wrote: post #161

Greg Egan. Agree with others in this thread that Permutation City is the most important. But Diaspora is not to be missed either. Egan's unique value prop is: crazy-thought-experiment sci fi (2D world with 2 time dimensions is his latest and is typical) but hard, harder than you can believe. Sci fi so hard, you don't find any cracks and are left thinking wait a minute ... This must be true then? Gene Wolfe. Book of t…

> Sci fi so hard, you don't find any cracks and are left thinking wait a minute ... This must be true then?

Egan must be one of the most intelligent people alive… or if not, is at least the highest level I am personally capable of recognizing. I am genuinely curious which is the case. Anyways, I haven’t read Diaspora yet so will do so, thanks!

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

#170

Post by justusthane »

block_dagger wrote: post #162
marliechiller wrote: post #159

No mention of Peter Watts' Blindsight? That book changed all sorts of notions of first contact and consciousness for me. I'm still thinking about it to this day. Absolute must read for anyone concerned with such things

And evolutionary vampires!

I loved that about this book. For the first like 75% of the book you're thinking, "Okay, these vampires must just be a metaphor or a name they've given to something else." Nope, just actual vampires.
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