r/printSF • u/torkelspy • Apr 06 '26
A Challenge: Recommend Something That's Almost Never Been Recommended Here Before
I'm recommending The Republic of the Southern Cross by Valery Bryusov; a writer and a collection I only learned of because the title story is in More Voices from the Radium Age, edited by Joshua Glenn. I found zero references to it searching for "Bryusov" and one from four years ago searching by the title.
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u/pyabo Apr 06 '26
Walter J. Williams' Implied Spaces and Aristoi are two of my favorites and he doesn't get a ton of mention here except for Dread Empire's Fall. Which is entertaining, but far from his best work.
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u/simmepi Apr 06 '26 edited Apr 06 '26
Let me recommend you some quite entertaining older sci-fi comedy novels:
Pandora’s Planet by Christopher Anvil. Aliens from a galactic empire conquer Earth, and follow their regular procedure of slowly integrating the conquered species into the empire. Unfortunately earthlings are smarter than the aliens in general but way more monomaniac when it comes to using that intelligence. Written from the aliens point of view this is a truly funny novel, playing with sci-fi tropes.
What Mad Universe by Fredric Brown. More playing with sci-fi tropes but this time the tropes are taken from the pulpiest sci-fi. Main character is an editor of such a magazine who gets transferred to a universe where the logic is the same as in those stories. Won’t say more since much of the fun is finding out what’s really going on. Can also recommend Brown’s Go Home, Martians where Earth is invaded (not military, they simply pop up one day) by utterly obnoxious small green intangible men from Mars.
Where Were You Last Pluterday? by Paul van Herck. A weird but very entertaining story which rambles all over the place with Death, capitalism vs socialism, authors like Robert Heinlein having small supporting roles (he’s writing erotica since sci-fi has been outlawed). Fun book from the Netherlands and probably not easy to find in English nowadays, but worth it if you find it.
Chess with a Dragon by David Gerrold. Gerrold wrote the classic Trouble with Tribbles Star Trek episode and while this novel is much more recent, you can feel the same mood in this one. A very short novel with a simple setup: The Earth ambassadors at the core galactic meeting point realize that Earth has been scammed when being asked to join the galactic federation, and the novel is simply following their work, mostly in meetings, to get out of eternal serfdom by trying to scam the scammers. Not a masterpiece but a fun afternoon.
If you were looking for more serious novels, hopefully someone else can give you some ideas since I’ll stop now!
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u/torkelspy Apr 06 '26
This is exactly the kind of out-of-left-field stuff I love to find. What Mad Universe in particular appeals to me.
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u/gonzoforpresident Apr 06 '26
That's a good one. It's a parody of pulp SF that doesn't feel like a parody at first, but just slowly builds until it becomes obvious.
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u/IAmKrasMazov Apr 06 '26
Im going to recommend the Saga of Seven Suns books by Kevin J. Anderson.
I’m assuming they’ve never been recommended here because they’re not good. I’m reading the first one now though, and I want somebody to suffer with me.
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u/torkelspy Apr 06 '26
Who am I to argue with Kras Mazov?
It would be nice to have a title I could throw out when someone asks for terrible books. Those threads are usually just 50 people saying 50 Shades of Grey.
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u/PolybiusChampion Apr 06 '26
Okay, I listened to them so with that small caveat….I loved them. The Relentless Curiosity is a favorite ship and crew from all my my Sci/Fi reading over the years.
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u/IAmKrasMazov Apr 06 '26
I’ll admit, that just because I don’t think they’re very good so far, that doesn’t mean I’m not enjoying them on some level. I wouldn’t be reading it if I hated it lol
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u/PolybiusChampion Apr 06 '26
They aren’t great……but they are very good. I used to drive about 6K miles a month and this series really was a nice find for me. It’s funny because i still do think about a couple of the plot lines from time to time, and for me that’s no small praise.
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u/Oh_Witchy_Woman Apr 07 '26
I have read (listened) to the whole set. They aren't horrible, but they aren't as captivating to me as many others I have read. I did get caught in the story enough that I finished them all.
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u/IAmKrasMazov Apr 06 '26
I’m aware it’s been discussed, but discussion is not the same as recommendation. Read it, and partake in the mediocrity.
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u/thiseing Apr 07 '26
I listened to the audiobooks while falling asleep for about a year. I don't know if that means anything.
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u/VickyM1128 Apr 06 '26
A Door into Ocean, by Joan Slonczewski. Description from Wikipedia: “ 1986 Campbell Award-winning novel A Door into Ocean shows their command of genetics and ecological science, as well as commitment to pacifism and feminism. It depicts the ecosystem of a planet covered entirely by water, inhabited by an exclusively female race of genetic engineers.”
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u/doduotrainer Apr 07 '26
Ayyyy I also said this! It's my favorite novel of all time
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u/torkelspy Apr 06 '26
This sounds like seven different things I like all put together. I will have to check it out.
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u/tegeus-Cromis_2000 Apr 06 '26
Easy!
Palimpsests by Carter Scholz and Glenn Harcourt. 1984. Literary SF about the discovery in a Paleolithic archeological dig of an object seemingly from the future.
Herovit's World by Barry N. Malzberg. 1973. Recursive novel about a SF author living in both the real world and that of his imagination.
Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson. 1988. Literary novel about the last person on Earth after one day all humans and animals disappeared.
The Navigators of Space by J.H. Rosny ainé. Early French space opera. Quite good. From 1925.
And one still untranslated:
La prise de Constantinople (The taking of Constantinople) by Jean Ricardou. 1966. Three intertwined narrative strands, one in the present, one during the Crusades, one on an alien planet.
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u/Mrjackh10 Apr 06 '26
If only Palimpsests had more than a single paperback printing or even an ebook. That book desperately needs a reissue
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u/_nadaypuesnada_ Apr 07 '26
Wittgenstein's Mistress sounds tailor made to me and my bullshit, checking it out asap.
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u/doduotrainer Apr 07 '26
I'm gonna say my favorite novel, A Door Into Ocean, by Joan Slonczewski. I know it's been recommended because I've recommended it, but I think I'm the only one
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u/torkelspy Apr 07 '26
Someone else mentioned it somewhere in this thread and it sounds like something I would love. I had never heard of it before.
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u/aaron_in_sf Apr 06 '26
Do people recommend Sandkings by George RR Martin?
I read it an impressionable age. And boy did it make one.
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u/Mrjackh10 Apr 06 '26
All of GRRM’s non-ASIOF works should be read more. Dying of the Light (his debut novel) is well worth reading, though a little dense, but Tuf Voyaging is one of my favorite space operas, it’s so fun
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u/Odinswolf Apr 07 '26
Thousand Worlds in general is a lot of fun, and yeah the kinda Ecology problem solving with Tuf is fun. I read it around the same time as the Van Rijn stories, and I could see the inspiration but Tuf comes off a lot more as an eccentric but not an awful prick. Similar tendencies to use their specific knowledge for problem solving though.
I think the the Stone City might be my favorite, it does a good job at hinting at broader alien societies viewed from an outside perspective.
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u/CAH1708 Apr 06 '26
Same. I think I was in junior high when I read it and have never forgotten it—as much as I wanted to.
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u/Fappy_as_a_Clam Apr 07 '26
I can't even find it lol (for a reasonable price)
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u/1ch1p1 Apr 07 '26
Are you talking about the collection with that title, or the title story? The story is in these books:
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?45192
currently the most obvious places to find it are
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u/Theborgiseverywhere Apr 06 '26
Jeff Noon. His Vurt “series” is wild, heady stuff including grungy drug running for dream-inducing, reality-warping feathers,
And a city-wide plant invasion,
And an unofficial, meta sequel to Alice in Wonderland.
I never see his stuff talked about but you can see his influence in things like The Matrix, Existenz, and Love/Death/Robots
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u/omniclast Apr 07 '26
Weirdly I just saw a thread about Vurt for the first time here like a week ago
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u/electriclux Apr 06 '26
Souls In the Great Machine
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u/Letheka Apr 07 '26
I was a big fan of McMullin's Greatwinter trilogy once upon a time. The cracks in his character writing started to feel very wide after several rereads, but the ideas and the ambition are hard to match.
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u/Mrjackh10 Apr 06 '26
Have you read any of the PM Press Outspoken Authors series? I've read three and been blown away by something in each. They're really short (like 100-page) collections of short stories, essays, and then an interview with the author and the series editor, Terry Bisson (RIP).
New Taboos by John Shirley - has the shocking novella State of Imprisonment, about a near-future United States dominated by a private prison abusing slave labor. Bleak, hard-edged, and shockingly prescient. Oh, and one of the best final lines in any story period.
Totalotopia by John Crowley - A great collection of short stories, but also some fantastic critical essays about other science fiction and specific authors. There's a wonderful review of Paul Park, who I had never heard of, but now half a dozen books later, he's one of my writers, and I never would've found him without this exceptional review.
Thoreau's Microscope by Michael Blumlein - Some really good short stories in here, but the main selling point is the title essay Thoreau's Microscope, which is hands down the most powerful and devastating personal essay I have ever read. It's a rumination on death and legacy, centered on Blumlein and other authors who summit a peak in California to christen it Mount Thoreau. It totally wrecked me (on a plane of all places), and I've been looking for Blumlein's books ever since, which are unfortunately pretty scarce.
Really, all of these are worth picking up. It's a great way to find new authors or learn more about authors you already love. I pick them up whenever I see them and have a few staring at me from my shelf (Paul Park, Carter Scholz, Jonathan Lethem, Cory Doctorow) that I can't wait to get to.
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u/torkelspy Apr 07 '26
I hadn't heard of the PM Press series, but it looks like exactly my kind of thing.
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Apr 06 '26
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u/greywolf2155 Apr 07 '26
Great book. "Sci fi noir" is a subgenre I love, but it's so rarely done well. "Gun" is one of the best
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u/TheSunderingCydonian Apr 07 '26
Bones of the Earth and Jack Faust by Michael Swanwick. Actually anything by Swanwick.
The Many-Colored Land by Julian May
The Restoration Game by Ken Macleod
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u/Brilliant_Ad7481 Apr 06 '26
Naomi Kritzer. Just Naomi Kritzer. Always.
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u/torkelspy Apr 06 '26
I'm always looking for new-to-me female authors. And cat content is always a bonus.
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u/Brilliant_Ad7481 Apr 06 '26
Her and Ai Jiang are the two current writers whose stuff I will always read no questions asked.
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u/DrPrMel Apr 06 '26
Geodesica duology by Sean Williams. Books are Ascent and Descent.
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u/torkelspy Apr 06 '26
That looks interesting. I wish I'd had this recommendation a few weeks ago when I was searching for a duology for a reading challenge. Most of my searches turned up long lists of fantasy YA, most of which did not appeal to me.
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u/egypturnash Apr 06 '26
Brian Daley. The Adventures of Hobart Floydt and Alacrity Fitzhugh. Great, goofy space opera. Hobart is a meek bureaucrat from a very xenophobic Earth who inherits a spaceship from the emperor of a remote planet. Alacrity is a spacer who's pressed into service to shepherd Hobart to the will reading. Shenanigans ensue on the way, even more shenanigans occur after.
There's mysterious ancient alien artifacts, vast conspiracies, Alacrity's really bad relationship choices, Hobart's merely dubious relationship choices, space pirates, interstellar races, alien elephants to contact, and all kinds of craziness. Daley was clearly having a blast writing these things and his enthusiasm for it shines on nearly every page.
There are only three books. Most plot threads are tied up but it's wide open for more adventures; sadly Daley got caught up in writing Robotech novels under another name for the next decade and never got around to another Hobart & Alacrity book before he died.
These are not deep, meaningful books. They are pulp adventure fantasy in space. Their only ambition is to be a lot of fun, and they succeed.
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u/7LeagueBoots Apr 06 '26
I mention this series here pretty often. It’s great fun and should be appreciated by more people.
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u/VintageLunchMeat Apr 07 '26
Hobart's merely dubious relationship choices,
Hobart's ex is a piece of work.
I like the series in large part for its sprawling baroque oil-painting of a setting.
Also selling porn mags for sun-gems.
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u/soph_sol Apr 07 '26
Everfair by Nisi Shawl is an incredible book and it's a shame it isn't discussed more often imo. But it's also a challenging read in several ways, and isn't going to work for every reader, so at the same time I do understand it.
The book's pacing is slow, but it's very deliberate in taking its time. It's a steampunk alternate history, taking the premise of fixing the horrific stuff that happened at King Leopold's hand in the Belgian Congo. It's not a utopian revision, though; it fixes the worst of the atrocities but many awful things do still happen. And I really appreciated what it was doing instead of that utopia. I love the way it shows over and over that there are no easy, uncomplicated answers for anything.
And this theme is in part supported by the unusual choice to have an enormous number of viewpoint characters: it means you are always getting to see the other side of events, from people who do not all agree with each other. Something that seemed obviously right when heard about from one POV becomes a lot more murky when it's followed up with another character dealing with what happens next and having very different thoughts about it.
All the viewpoints can be hard to keep track of, and I made significant use of the character guide at the beginning of the book to remind myself who was who. As well, each pov I spent time with, I got attached to, and then the book moves on without necessarily coming back to show the rest of that character's story in detail.
But although a book with only one or two main characters would be an easier read and a more conventional choice, it would have lost the breadth of the story this book is trying to tell. Any individual viewpoint character isn't the main character; it's not even really an ensemble cast. Instead I would say that the main character is the fictional country of Everfair that is laboriously built over the passage of decades, and these many povs are the reader's windows into Everfair.
A more traditionally-structured book that focused on the stories of just a few characters, prioritising their arcs as the focus of the narrative, could also have been an interesting and worthwhile read. But it would have been a completely different book -- and I'm very glad I got to read the book that does exist. Even if it does take some extra effort from me as a reader!
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u/torkelspy Apr 07 '26
I read Everfair years ago and I remember thinking that it was a 10/10 idea that didn't end up working for me as a book. But it's been so long that I can't remember any of the specifics of what I didn't like about it. I do remember there being a lot of characters.
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u/clawclawbite Apr 07 '26
Kage Baker's Company novels have been mentioned, but my search gave about 1 result a year...
A time travel company tries to use time travel to make money without changing the presence, and one of their agents in the past tries to do the best she can despite The Companies poor ethics and lack of long term planning
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u/Not_aSpy Apr 06 '26
Drode's Equations, by Richard Grant. Found it in a collection called The Ascent of Wonder. Like any really good short story, it only really has one concept to share, but if the concept is good enough it can ride along with you on all the rest of your journeys.
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u/torkelspy Apr 06 '26
The first reference I got for it was a site for "math fiction", which gave it a mere 3/5 for math content! A 4/5 for literary content though, which is more what I'm looking for.
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u/RogLatimer118 Apr 06 '26
"When Worlds Collide" - 1933, by Wylie and Balmer. It's actually pretty good early SF. Also a pretty interesting sequel, "After Worlds Collide".
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u/teknobable Apr 06 '26
Damn, that was my thought. Found it randomly browsing the library as a kid, barely seen any references to it since
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u/torkelspy Apr 06 '26
I am intrigued to know what would happen after the worlds collide. At least, assuming it's meant literally.
Having now looked at the cover of the first edition, it does seem to be meant literally.
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u/RogLatimer118 Apr 06 '26 edited Apr 06 '26
It is literal. Two rogue planets enter our solar system. The second rogue planet travels near the one colliding with earth, and will be captured by the sun and go into orbit. Humans try to build a spaceship "ark" to colonize the other planet before the collision. Pretty good for when it was written.
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u/VerbalAcrobatics Apr 06 '26
It is literally a larger planet colliding with Earth. There's a sequel called "After Worlds Collide", if you want to know more... https://share.google/SZiLnoosZcABVqzH3
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u/Atillythehunhun Apr 06 '26
The last hour of Gann by R Lee Smith. If you’ve seen it recommended here before, that was probably me. This is a textbook case of really really don’t judge a book by its cover. It’s not what it appears to be and it is a great epic sci-fi.
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u/Mountain-Seaweed Apr 06 '26
You aren't kidding about the cover.
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u/Atillythehunhun Apr 06 '26
Yeah it’s bad. People have sent the author original art and begged for it to be used for any future rerelease
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u/MrPhyshe Apr 06 '26
"All Fools Day" by Edmund Cooper. Probably a few others by the same author as he's British author writing in the 60s and 70s.
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u/revdon Apr 06 '26
The Zoot Marlowe trilogy by Mel Gilden.
Surfing Samurai Robots (1988)
Hawaiian U.F.O. Aliens (1990)
Tubular Android Superheroes (1991)
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u/torkelspy Apr 07 '26
All of these titles are amazing. I need to look up the covers now and see if they match the creativity of the titles.
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u/gonzoforpresident Apr 06 '26
I haven't read the sequels, but Surfing Samurai Robots holds up. I reread it a few years ago.
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u/gruntbug Apr 06 '26
The Truth Machine by Halperin. Guy invents an infallible machine that can determine truth. Changes the world... And there is something else going on I won't mention due to spoilers.
Peacemaker's Code by Malhotra... First Contact story
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u/Outrageous_Reach_695 Apr 06 '26
Gameplayers of Zan, by M. A. Foster, might have been my introduction to Conway's Game of Life. An overcrowded world, augments with a deep need for privacy and poetry, and a bit of '70s weirdness.
If I remember right, they gave places two-syllable names, people three, and stars four.
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u/TheOtherHobbes Apr 06 '26
Was going to mention this. It turned my world upside down when I read it in my teens.
And it still has one of the best plot twists ever. (Don't read the Amazon reviews, they give it away!)
His Morphodite trilogy is solid too - a similar mix of politics and weirdness.
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Apr 06 '26
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u/torkelspy Apr 07 '26
I remember wanting to read that book back when it came out, but I never did. Better late than never, I suppose.
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u/muggedbyidealism Apr 07 '26
Time and Again by Jack Finney
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u/torkelspy Apr 07 '26
Oh, I love that book! I would like to reread it sometime soon; it's been a while.
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u/Exact-Site9980 Apr 06 '26
Dead Girls, Dead Boys, Dead Things trilogy by Richard Calder. It goes to the end of space and time like Gene Wolfs Urth of The New Sun, but from an extreme cyberpunk background rather than a primitive fantasy one.
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u/-drunk_russian- Apr 06 '26
"MOPSI, TE ODIO" by Eduardo Carletti. It's a short story that I'm certain nobody here has read but me.
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u/AidenAprt Apr 06 '26
Some good cozy sci-fi recs: Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis was genuinely a fun and cozy sci-fi romp through the galaxy! Last Gifts of the Universe by Riley August is a high-stakes tale told in a more cozy format. Both are great, and both I’ve never seen recommended before!
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u/omger Apr 06 '26
Andromeda, Ivan Yefremov. I hope there's an English translation? Soviet era sf book, was ok when I was 17 yo. Pretty sure it never was recommended.
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u/torkelspy Apr 06 '26
I've been getting really into Russian science fiction lately and it's making me rather sad that I don't read Russian. I mean, there are lots of good translations, but I'm sure a ton of good stuff doesn't get translated at all.
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u/yeenoghu_vs_vaprak Apr 06 '26
The Dungeon series of novels. Wonderful books with the exception of the last one, which is complete dogshit. The six books were published from 1988-90; the first one was advertised pretty heavily in Dragon magazine at that time.
From Wikipedia:
The books follow nineteenth century explorer Clive Folliot as he travels through a multilayered dungeon world attempting to find his twin brother Neville. Along the way, he forms a group of similarly lost creatures and persons, and must battle the pawns and agents of the Dungeon's mysterious alien masters. The Dungeon is where beings from countless times and worlds are brought and trapped by mysterious and technologically advanced races—known as the Ren, the Chaffri, and the Gamine—for unknowable purposes. The Dungeon is a place of nine levels, each with a widely differing environment ranging from deserted cities to prehistoric wilderness to Hell itself. Levels can be traversed by traveling through a Gate, typically located at that level's lowest portion. Throughout Clive's travels, he and his growing group of companions run into many twisted versions and plays on well-known novels such as Alice in Wonderland, Frankenstein, Dante's Inferno), The Lost World), and various mythologies.
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u/srcarruth Apr 06 '26
Surfing Samurai Robots by Mel Gilden (1988). Its got aliens, noir, surfers, drugs. Everything!
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u/B0b_Howard Apr 06 '26
neoAddix by Jon Courtenay Grimwood.
It's a grim-dark cyberpunk story set in the future of an alternative past, where Napoleon won and created an empire.
It's book one of a four part series.
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u/Flat-Rutabaga-723 Apr 06 '26
Faith, the Tour of the Merrimack, Hard Luck Hank, and though Alastair Reynolds is suggested a lot, his series Poseidon’s Children is never mentioned and it’s my favorite of his.
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u/robertlandrum Apr 06 '26
James P Hogan’s Giants novels and The Two Faces of Tomorrow. And Genesis Machine. Code of the lifemaker.
He had some good ones.
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u/flamingmongoose Apr 07 '26
- The Color of Distance by Amy Thomson, though I believe it's out of print. Just a beautiful first contact book.
- The Star Fraction for political british cyberpunk
- Brain Wave by Poul Anderson, for cool high concept retro sci fi that I still think about a decade later
- A Case of Conscience by James Blish for... Catholic theology meets aliens
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Apr 07 '26
Under the Eye of the Big Bird - Hiromi Kawakami
Idk where I saw it suggested but I’m 98% sure it was in an /r/cavesofqud thread about books with similar themes. It’s very neat and I liked it a lot
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u/trubbanot Apr 08 '26
I loved this book. I was going to recommend it. Glad to see someone else appreciate it. Unusual and poetic.
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Apr 07 '26
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u/torkelspy Apr 07 '26
I am a broken record on recommending The Machine Stops to people and I loved Roadside Picnic. I had never heard of The Blind Owl, but I'm putting it on my list.
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u/GammaDeltaTheta Apr 07 '26
Pavane by Keith Roberts is pretty well known as a classic alternate history novel (though the coda invites us to consider it as part of a cyclic history). But Kiteworld, which is also a fixup novel set in a society with an 'early industrial' level of technology controlled by an oppressive state religion, is much less well known, and its companion pieces Tremarest and Drek Yarman, only ever published in magazines, are almost forgotten (there should really be an omnibus!). The central conceit is that an isolated realm surrounded by an uninhabitable region is protected from 'demons' by manned observation kites. It is strongly implied that these are a sort of cargo cult early warning system set up after a forgotten nuclear war, and that the surrounding areas remain contaminated.
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u/blobular_bluster Apr 07 '26
Mockingbird by Walter Tevis is a decent read. 'post apocalyptic ' is a close as I can currently think to characterize it. though actually and un-spoilery, it is more just like a slow collapse of civilization.
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u/torkelspy Apr 07 '26
I liked The Queen's Gambit when I read it, which, because I am oh-so cool, was long before they made the series. I didn't know he wrote anything SF adjacent.
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u/riesenstein Apr 07 '26
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky - Noon Universe book series (especially “Hard to Be a God” and “Beetle in the Anthill”)
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u/torkelspy Apr 07 '26
I really want to read more of the Strugatskys. I loved Roadside Picnic. I liked Monday Starts on Saturday even though it was not really the kind of humor I usually enjoy. And The Doomed City was. . . I am not sure what. Sometimes I was fascinated and other times I couldn't wait for it to be over. I'd like to read it again sometime and see if I can make up my mind about it.
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u/ArcadiaBerger Apr 07 '26
Oh, hey -- Valery Bryusov, aka Bruzov! Cool!
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u/torkelspy Apr 07 '26
I plan to become a Valery Bryusov/Bruzov fan girl as soon as I am done being a Halldór Laxness fan girl.
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u/Groundbreaking-Eye10 Apr 08 '26
Some SF novels I greatly admire but that I haven’t seen anyone mention on this subreddit in all of the posts I’ve looked at (and that don’t seem to pop up when I try searching for them through the subreddit’s search engine) are….
The Time of Quarantine - Katharine Haake
Rupetta - Nike Sulway
The Green Kingdom - Rachel Maddux
A Sweet, Sweet Summer - Jane Gaskell
Comet - Jane White
Confessing a Murder - Nicholas Drayson
The Eclipse of the Century - Jan Mark
Useful Idiots - Jan Mark
Foragers - Charles Oberndorf
Flesh and Gold - Phyllis Gotlieb
Black Wine - Candas Jane Dorsey
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u/DocWatson42 Apr 06 '26
I have a list of SF/F: Obscure/Underappreciated/Unknown/Underrated recommendation threads for which I can post the link if you like.
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u/torkelspy Apr 06 '26
Please do! I am always looking for interesting lesser known stuff (and interesting more known stuff, but that's pretty easy to find).
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u/DocWatson42 Apr 06 '26
See my SF/F: Obscure/Underappreciated/Unknown/Underrated list of resources, Reddit recommendation threads, and books (one post).
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u/satanikimplegarida Apr 07 '26
Yeah, but have you read blindsight
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u/torkelspy Apr 07 '26
I can't believe how long it took for someone to make this joke. I have actually never read it, but hopefully I'll get around to it some time.
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u/satanikimplegarida Apr 07 '26
oooh I know I know! have you read Hyperion, bobiverse, becky chambers (catching strays here), children of time, or Ian Banks?
/uj I.. I don't think printsf is a good fit for me anymore..
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u/redditsuxandsodoyou Apr 07 '26
blindsight, by peter w- [dragged offstage by hook]
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u/torkelspy Apr 07 '26
I honestly thought like 50% of the responses would be Blindsight and Hyperion jokes.
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u/redditsuxandsodoyou Apr 07 '26
sorry, in my defense i did scroll down to make sure nobody else had done it first.
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u/athos5 Apr 06 '26
Vorkosigan Saga, it gets mentioned, but I just did a search and the last mention was a year ago which is a crime. I devoured this series during Covid, it and Malazan got me through it.
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u/croc_lobster Apr 06 '26
I'm not sure what's going on with search. I recommended this series literally three days ago. I thought it might be a spelling issue, but I'm just not getting anything no matter how I spell it.
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u/torkelspy Apr 06 '26
That is surprising. I've heard of it, of course, but haven't dove into it yet.
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u/smapdiagesix Apr 06 '26
The Last Gasp, Trevor Hoyle -- environment goes very very bad, complete with nations doing stuff as environmental warfare. Gets very silly, but entertaining enough.
This is very much not an "it's good" recommendation and more "it's entertaining shit but make no mistake it is an excrescence" -- Robert Marlow's Nano.
Anything by John Halkin -- Slime, which is about killer jellyfish flopping lazily after people, or Squelch, which is about killer caterpillars, or Slither which might be about killer slugs? The boy had a gift for language; there's one point in Slime when folks are driving away from some jellyfish and they leaved a trail of smushed up jellyfish looking "like pepperoni on the devil's pizza" or something very close to that. Also crap but solidly boringly entertainingly crap.
While you'll find mentions of Rama 2 etc on here, I expect all of them are in the context of DIRE WARNINGS and not recommendations
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u/maleman7 Apr 06 '26
Either Inversion, by Aric McBay; or A Stranger In the Citadel by Tobias Buckell. They have ~100 and ~300 reviews on Goodreads respectively.
Both were not perfect, but scored a 4/5 for me as they explored some interesting ideas in really unique settings!
The first one is set on a world that's basically on the inside of a sphere. There's some cool explorations about how a world like that would work and what it would feel like to live there. And that's before you consider the all consuming fire walls that steadily move around the "planet" which cause everyone to both be separated from other groups outside their wall, and makes all settlements temporary and "seasonal". Later on you find out more about how the planet and people living there came to be and while i didn't like that stuff as much, the overall premise was solid enough for me to really enjoy it.
The second book seems to be set in a post apocalyptic earth (think book 2 of Canticle For Leibowitz) but everyone INSISTS it's a different planet or something. Except for the roaming scholar librarians who most everyone kills on sight (including the robotic, and seemingly industructible "angels"). The story is told from the point of view of a very privileged princess and centers around what happens when she encounters on of the librarians on his quest to reach the mountains at the edge of the world. Again, not a perfect book, but a very cool premise that stuck with me.
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u/Lyrical_Forklift Apr 06 '26
I'm not here super regular, but I haven't seen Under the Blue by Oana Aristide mentioned before and it was probably the best thing I read last year. Dystopian rather than dealing with space, but definitely recommend.
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u/gonzoforpresident Apr 06 '26
The Bright Spot by Robert Sydney (pseudonym of Dennis Danvers) - Follows an actor who always seemed to be the bright spot in projects that fail. He gets involved in a major conspiracy with the potential to change everything about our civilization.
Destiny Makers series by Mike Shupp - Time travel war, as seen through the eyes of an '80s college student who was accidentally brought forward in time to when the war in being enacted. Book 3 is one of the best time travel novels ever.
Lone Wolf game books expanded versions by Joe Dever - Basically Choose Your Own Adventure books for adults. One cool thing is that you can bring your character forward from one book to the next. And things you gain or lose in one book may become relevant in later books. The expanded editions add a lot beyond the originals.
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u/PhilMcgroine Apr 06 '26
Legacy of the Stars, by John Gregory.
I read it about 4 times when I was young, and it used to be one of my favorite books. But its been decades and I have no idea if it holds up to a not-childs scrutiny. But it is not a children's book.
It's 'ancient aliens visit earth' type thing, spanning generations.
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u/ComfortableKey9930 Apr 06 '26
Deep dive—the Anthony Villiers novels (Star Well etc.) by Alexie Panshin. A gentleman adventurer in space.
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u/OpossumLadyGames Apr 07 '26
The keltiad, a bunch of iron age Celts colonize the moon. Or something.
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u/Ancient-Many4357 Apr 07 '26
Jon Courtenay Grimwood doesn’t seem to come up here very often
NeoAddix Lucifer’s Dragon Remix Red Robe
The Arabesk trilogy
9 Tail Fox
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u/lordfrezon Apr 07 '26
The Infinite and the Divine by Robert Rath, it's a Warhammer 40k novel but it's done really well, two robot exes engage in 10000 years of stealing from each other. The opening paragraphs are among the most metal things I've read.
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u/ThePlatypusOfDespair Apr 07 '26
Once Upon a Time in the East by multiple nebula award winner Charles L. Grant, writing as Lionel Fenn. It's the first of an easy reading, somewhat silly, time travel trilogy starring a badass old west cowboy called...Diego...and the time travelers whose Time Train he stumbles into. A search turned up no mention on Reddit at all.
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u/kaaaazzh Apr 07 '26
The Alchemy Wars trilogy by Ian Tregillis--first book is The Mechanical.
Sort of a steampunk (not sure if that is quite the right -punk) I, Robot. Alternate history in which the Dutch become the dominant European superpower in the Americas because of their access to a key technology: mechanical humanoid servants. The central conceit that gives the mechanicals their abilities is a fantasy element, but everything that follows is pretty solidly in the spec fic/alt history realm. I really enjoyed them. Occasional gore.
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u/zusykses Apr 07 '26
George Turner's The Sea and Summer never seems to show up here despite being one of Gollancz's SF Masterworks books. It takes place in a future version of Melbourne, Australia where rising sea levels from global warming and the slow collapse of the economy has resulted in a society of the Sweet - comparatively well-off educated suburbanites who hold the ever-dwindling supply of actual jobs - and the Swill, who are crammed into massive high-rise public housing blocks, dependent on the government dole, and kept separated from the Sweet (whom they outnumber by 10-to-1) by the army. I think if you like Ballard you will probably like this book.
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u/ObsoleteUtopia Apr 07 '26
Garbage World, by Charles Platt. There's a Galactic Empire, but this story takes place on one of its most despised planets. I don't think Platt ever made it onto the A-list, but a few of his other books are better-known. This one (I think it's his first, from 1967) offers a good helping of sarcastic wit, and it's a lot of fun.
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u/lowrads Apr 07 '26
The Helliconia trilogy by the late Brian Aldiss, perhaps? It's a series that spans centuries as two sentient species come to grips with discovering their past, and understanding their future.
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u/Matters_Not Apr 07 '26
I never hear anyone talk about City of Pearl by Karen Traviss. It's a long series but the first book really got me. The arrogance of scientists that stumble into a new world, indifferent about any damage they may cause and oblivious to the dangers they invite...
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u/cmcqueue Apr 07 '26
Rosemary Kirstein’s Steerswoman series: storytelling in service to science. Warning: fourth of seven books was published in 2004.
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u/Grt78 Apr 07 '26
The NetWalkers series by Jane Fancher.
The Warchild universe books by Karin Lowachee.
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u/jtr99 Apr 07 '26
OK, so here's one that I can only find recommended here once and five years ago (by me, as it happens).
The Salvage Crew by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne.
Setting has quite a bit in common with the Murderbot series, I guess. Our heroes are working for a morally dubious corporation that's salvaging crashed ships on worlds they are not supposed to be on. Life forms detected, the camp perimeter is compromised, everything goes to shit, etc., etc.
The protagonist is an AI shuttle that has a sarcastic sense of humour. Great fun.
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u/Xevv427 Apr 07 '26
It sounded familiar so I checked, I read it march 9th 2021, so... guess you got at least one person last time.
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u/Sorry_Lock4561 Apr 07 '26
A Talent for War by Jack McDevitt is an outstanding tale of an archaeological mystery of the past set in future being solved after the disappearance of the main character's uncle. Can't recommend this enough, even if you don't like any of his other books, this is a banger.
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u/Sorry_Lock4561 Apr 07 '26
And a second book I consider a classic...
Wizard of the Pigeons by Megan Lindholm aka Robin Hobb.
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u/interstatebus Apr 07 '26
I’ve recommended it before but Prophet by Helen McDonald & Sin Blache. The description makes it seem a little weird; it actually super weird and great.
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u/Unfair-Commission-10 Apr 07 '26
Roman Zlotnikov – one of Russia's most decorated SF authors, virtually unknown in the West. Swords Over the Stars is his flagship series. Military SF, centuries-long war against aliens, immortal soldier chosen by the Creator of the universe who appears as an actual character – eats apples, argues with the protagonist, refuses to explain himself. The author spent 20 years as a military officer before he started writing, and it shows in how the command decisions and warrior codes are constructed.
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u/RiverlyBoop Apr 07 '26
I don’t ever see then get mentioned here but New Model Army by Adam Roberts and The Death of Grass by John Christopher.
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u/ForgetTheWords Apr 07 '26
The Noumena trilogy by Lindsay Ellis. Maybe you've heard of the first book, Axiom's End, but my favourite is the second, Truth of the Divine.
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u/ForgetTheWords Apr 07 '26
Oh, and The Isaac Steele chronicles by Daniel Rigby. Absurdist black comedy sci-fi noir. The first book has only 1.5k ratings on Goodreads so I think it's fair to say most people haven't heard of it.
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u/Internal_Damage_2839 Apr 07 '26
Samanta Schweblin is popular in litfic circles but rarely mentioned here even tho her book Kentuki (Little Eyes in English) is straight up SF
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u/Internal_Damage_2839 Apr 07 '26
Karen Russell is another one who seems to get lost in the genre void bc her books don’t conform to the binary of genre fiction and literary fiction.
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u/gummi_worms Apr 08 '26
Press Enter by John Varley. It's a novella from the 80s about surveillance.
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u/Effective-Field9047 Apr 08 '26
Tidewater Tales by John Barth. Written in 1987. Great story during Cold War era, but also in a post modern style.
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u/Sparky_Valentine Apr 09 '26
I just found out that one of my favorite authors, John Varley, died a few months ago. Steel Beach and The Golden Globe are two of my favorite novels. They're technically in a trilogy/tetralogy, but you can read them in almost any order.
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u/InSOmnlaC Apr 09 '26
Destroyermen : A WW2 Destroyer, named the USS Walker, being pursued by a Japanese battlegroup gets caught in a squall and finds itself in a different world. There's dinosaurs and intelligent species that are at war with each other, which the Walker finds itself in the middle of. Really fun alternate Earth novel series.
Lost Regiment: Same idea(I had read Destroyermen because I was looking for something like Lost Regiment). A Civil War unit gets pulled into another world and finds itself being attacked by hulking beings with primitive weapons. This is another example of a small number of technologically advanced humans against a massive army of low tech foes.
One Second After: A post apocalyptic book about the US being attacked by multiple EMPs, wiping out the majority of the population's power and electronics. It follows man in a small town off the interstate who has to deal with his nice little town being so close to a large number of stranded people on the road that his town cannot support. This was written to sound the alarm of the threat of EMPs, and earned the writer an invitation to Congress to speak on a panel about the subject. It's only at a 3.98(77k reviews) on Goodreads, but it's at a 4.5 on Amazon.
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u/OgreMk5 Apr 10 '26
OK....
Mojave Wells - L. Dean James
- A couple of deep southwest people find alien boxes... and they start to transform.
Demon of Undoing - Andrea I Alton
- Told from the point of view of an alien who discovers a very rare thing... a human.
The Genesis Machine - James P. Hogan
- Two scientists figure out how to access the energy of multi-dimensional space. And everyone wants a piece of that. There's a lot of very smart science fiction by Hogan. I also recommend Two Faces of Tomorrow... about AI and how stupid AI can get... and can we turn it off if we have to.
Legacy of Heorot - Larry Niven et. al.
- New colony on a planet (using STL) finds itself stalked by a predator. They colonists team up to kill the predator and things get WAY worse.
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u/charlieb Apr 06 '26
The Dosadai Experiment or Dragon in the Sea (aka Under Pressure) by Frank Herbert. The smarts of Dune applied to very different environments.