Suggestions for sci-fi fantasy books?
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My SO currently has me loving A Deepness in the Sky and was wondering if anyone has some favorite sci-fi, they would like to suggest!
I've already read through most of the hitch-hikers guide series and am hoping to EVENTUALLY finish it.
Even if it's just plain old fantasy feel free to suggest as well, I'm all for it!
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I heard Pierce Brown's series was really good. Red Rising being the first book in said series.
As for Fantasy, that I can help more with! Hmm are there any types your more into than others? (high fantasy, epic, urban, etc.)
xe/they/she
Gonna be honest I'm not that well versed in what genres are what and the specifics of them outside of general categories. I can say that a few of my favorites are classics by H.G. wells (The time machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau, War of the Worlds [which I forgot to finish because library book]). I'm currently reading the Midnight Library as well and am enjoying it despite the subject matter hitting a little deep with the main character. I get gripped by a meaningful story a lot too and that's what midnight library is kinda doing. Cover looked cool and the "What if you could live a life where you made a different choice at every pivotal moment" type of deal and the protag is deeply hurt and depressed by her lack of drive and giving up on things time and again (absurdly relatable).
Another book I dug into but didn't finish was a weird one called Flatland. Exploring the Logistics of an entire world that exists solely in 2 dimensions from our perspective in 3 dimensions and it makes my head hurt.
I'll look into some of your suggestions! I'm definitely a fan of puns lmao XD My normal username these days is ThePunLexicon for a reason. Was considering changing my username to it on here but I feel conflicted because well the old one is in my heart from goofy teen me.
By the way do you have any resources for free audiobooks? I know lots of old books have Audiobook recordings done on some podcast sites. I love physical books, but don't always have the time to be reading especially when working. I wish my B&N subscription also gave me Audible points or something.
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As for audiobooks, I don't listen to them myself, but I DO know a couple resources! If you have a valid library card, I recommend checking what digital resources your library has on offer, all of the libraries I have cards to use CloudLibrary or Libby (both, in some cases) and there's quite the selection of audiobooks available for lending (though the selection is dependent on your library's resources, so some have better catalogs than others). You might also try... whatever Google's book service is called these days, I know I have it on my old phone as just "Google Books" but it didn't come preinstalled on my newer phone. (A quick app store search indicates it's now known as "Google Play Books & Audiobooks," what a mouthful.) I know they at least used to offer a bunch of classics for free as ebooks, and they may have something similar for audiobooks. Libby and CloudLibrary are my go-tos, though, CloudLibrary even has a bunch of stuff from, like, independent authors with no lending cap. Not sure if they're quality reading (or how many of them have audio versions), I've not been adventurous enough to try them yet (and am a stubborn "tree killer" reader because reading digitally gives me headaches), but I thought it was a neat thing for them to do.
xe/they/she
No kidding its hard! I hate when there's no labeling of any kind and occasionally Ill be searching up a new book just to check if it IS part of a series because its not labeled as such with no 1 2 3 or anything just different titles. Luckily for A Deepness in the Sky the other books are set within the same universe rather than a continuous story so yeah you could really read any of them separately.
I can appreciate any kind of series that's several stand alones though. I cant tell you how excited I got when I went into Barnes & Noble and saw the first 4 books or so of Hitchhikers guide together on its own display shelf! Then later I found one of the last ones in another store.
Also on the point of numbers and titles I literally have to keep checking the first page of the hitchhikers books to see the book order because they aren't numbered since it IS a continuous story and would be more confusing than it is on its own if read out of order. They really should number series like that as if they were manga when doing reprints or something since I know the writer doesn't always know if it'll turn into a series or not.
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Untense yourself
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Ooh, that would be really nice! I think Barnes & Noble are usually good about putting series together in order, or they have been for all the authors I look out for, like R.A. Salvatore. I wish my library would put series together in order like that, but they go strictly by author, then title, and for any prolific authors, especially those with more than one series under their name, it's painful trying to find the right book, makes me want to cry sometimes, honestly.
I've only read The Guide from the Hitchhikers books so far, but I plan to eventually read the rest! I know my library has a big volume that has most of the books bound together in order, so I'll probably go for that rather than trying to keep track of which individual book I need next. Beats trying to haul all of them home individually, too, and I won't have to worry about someone checking out the next volume I need before I can get to it. Because boy do I hate when that happens. I'm still waiting on a specific book from one author to come back in, and it's been over a month. Like, please, just return it, anonymous stranger, it's the last one in the series I need to read, I want it so bad.
xe/they/she
I agree with the suggestion of Red Rising. It's a great space opera series. The first book is very YA and Hunger Games-adjacent, but it moves past that in subsequent books. The 6th and final book is due out this year, so it is as of right now an incomplete series if that matters to you.
I read way more fantasy than sci-fi, but I've heard good things about Adrian Tchaikovsky's sci-fi books. The Final Architecture trilogy (Shards of Earth, Eyes of the Void, Lords of Uncreation) and the Children of Time trilogy (Children of Time, Children of Ruin, and Children of Memory) are both on my TBR. He also writes more traditional fantasy novels if you are interested in that as well.
These two are more "weird fantasy" than sci-fi, but take a look at The Library At Mount Char by Scott Hawkins and Vita Nostra by Marina & Sergey Dyachenko.
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Haha at the very least many of the reprints of the hitchhikers series DO actually list the books in the series in order in the first or last pages of the book.
I did see Tchaikovsky in passing in B&N and it grabbed at me for a minute. Maybe Ill pursue those once I get through some of my backlog.
Drink some water
Untense yourself
Get up and stretch your legs
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May I suggest A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan ) by Arkady Martine! It's wlw and has some of the most interesting world building I've seen in a long time, I absolutely adored it!
The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir is obv super popular rn, but it's also wildly interesting with its worldbuilding and lore, and it really brings out the fantasy aspect of sci-fi. ... idk why i've mostly been reading abt lesbians in space lol.
I also really liked The Three-body Problem by Liu Cixin , but it does require a lot of thought when reading, it's not necessarily a light read.
Some recent fantasy favourites, in no particular order:
- She who became the Sun , by Kelley Parker-Chan (wlw, takes place during the red turban rebellion in china)
- A Marvellous Light + A Restless Truth, by Freya Marske (mlm + wlw, takes place in england during edwardian era)
- Who Fears Death, by Nnedi Okorafor (set in dystopian sudan )
- Babel; or the necessity of violence, by R.F Kuang (set in georgian england)
- The Priory of the Orange Tree, by Samantha Shannon (wlw, full on fantasy world)
An absolute gem of a mix between sci-fi fantasy that I don't see enough people talking about is The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. Also highly recommend To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers for a short, character-driven sci-fi that will stay with you forever. I have also heard really cool things about the A Natural History of Dragons series by Marie Brennan.
If you like action, the Stormlight Archive is amazing and incredibly rich.
The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, if you haven't already. It's my favourite so hey, I have a positivity bias towards it :) but I would describe the series as fantasy with a sci-fi edge to it. The lore is full of fantasy tropes and archetypes, but the ways in which it is described is done in a similar way to sci-fi stories.
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I really love A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet and the murderbot diaries. probably two of my favorite series
seconding the following authors: Becky Chambers, HG Wells, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett (my favorite of all time). I would say Neil Gaiman is pretty fantasy-flavored as well. always enjoy his stuff.
not mentioned above: Yume Kitasei (specifically The Deep Sky - dunno if they've written others), Arthur C Clarke, Olga Ravn (The Employees - absolutely AMAZING).
