Ask HN: What is the best sci-fi you read this year? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What is the best sci-fi you read this year?

#41

Post by brudgers » Wed, Dec 07, 2016, 4:28 AM UTC

elevensies wrote: post #32

Three books I enjoyed this year: this census taker , China Mieville To Say Nothing Of The Dog , Connie Willis The Possibility of an Island , Houellebecq If you enjoy science-fiction, it is quite possible that you wouldn't enjoy any of the books above or even classify them as science-fiction (I would though) -- so definitely look them up or try the kindle sample to see if they appeal to you. Also, I see Ann Leckie's A…

To Say Nothing of the Dog won the Hugo for best novel in 1999. That probably makes it science fiction.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best sci-fi you read this year?

#42

Post by pavel_lishin » Wed, Dec 07, 2016, 11:56 AM UTC

anotherevan wrote: post #37

The Wayfarers books The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and A Closed and Common Orbit were quite good. Fantastic world building and characters, although the plots seem to meander about with not too much purpose. https://www.goodreads.com/series/170872-wayfarers Recently ploughed through The Expanse series. https://www.goodreads.com/series/56399-the-expanse Dark Matter was a good read if you like parallel universes.…

Seconding Barsk, and just about anything by Robert Sawyer; I would recommend his Neanderthal Parallax series, which begins with Hominids: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/264946.Hominids

Re: Ask HN: What is the best sci-fi you read this year?

#43

Post by rajacombinator » Wed, Dec 07, 2016, 1:15 PM UTC

joeclark77 wrote: post #38

John C Wright's "eschaton sequence": Count to a Trillion The Hermetic Millennia Judge of Ages Architect of Aeons The Vindication of Man (and one more to come) It's a combination of hard sci-fi and space opera, based around one essentially immortal character (and his rival, and his girl) carrying out a mission over tens of thousands of years. Mind-blowing scale and yet there's a romance to it.

Sweet so glad to hear this is continuing. When I finished Architect it seemed it could have been an end to the series.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best sci-fi you read this year?

#44

Post by joeclark77 » Wed, Dec 07, 2016, 3:27 PM UTC

rajacombinator wrote: post #43

joeclark77 wrote: post #38

John C Wright's "eschaton sequence": Count to a Trillion The Hermetic Millennia Judge of Ages Architect of Aeons The Vindication of Man (and one more to come) It's a combination of hard sci-fi and space opera, based around one essentially immortal character (and his rival, and his girl) carrying out a mission over tens of thousands of years. Mind-blowing scale and yet there's a romance to it.

Sweet so glad to hear this is continuing. When I finished Architect it seemed it could have been an end to the series.

It was a long wait, without the benefit of a cryo-chamber, but worth it. Vindication is far and away the best of the series for me. I suppose it'll be another year or so before the next is out.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best sci-fi you read this year?

#45

Post by elevensies » Wed, Dec 07, 2016, 7:23 PM UTC

brudgers wrote: post #41

elevensies wrote: post #32

Three books I enjoyed this year: this census taker , China Mieville To Say Nothing Of The Dog , Connie Willis The Possibility of an Island , Houellebecq If you enjoy science-fiction, it is quite possible that you wouldn't enjoy any of the books above or even classify them as science-fiction (I would though) -- so definitely look them up or try the kindle sample to see if they appeal to you. Also, I see Ann Leckie's A…

To Say Nothing of the Dog won the Hugo for best novel in 1999. That probably makes it science fiction.

It is a really great book, and I highly recommend it, but IIRC you could tear out about 20 pages and it would become historical fiction.