Sourdough, a near-future SF novel by Robin Sloan
Replay is weirdly hard to get - I think there’s an audio book version, but not an ebook
Life After Life
Well, now comics have been brought up, let’s recommend some more. Watchmen is a classic, as are Maus and Persepolis, if you haven’t read them already. For a new universe to jump into, there’s the epic sci-fi/fantasy space opera Saga, although it’s sometimes pretty graphic. (Also I haven’t read the latest few volumes.)
On the prose side of things, two Borges-esque books to check out are The Organs of Sense, about mathematician Gottfried Leibniz, eclipses, and the invention of the telescope, and Einstein’s Dreams, which Einstein, working on the theory of relativity, keeps having dreams about worlds where time works differently.
The OP has similar tastes as my own. I am going to suggest getting weird with the Sci-Fi and recommend Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. It’s science fiction about an alien presence, but published in 1972 in the Soviet Bloc it has loads of current political commentary and cultural differences from the greater Western World. There are also creepy aspects of the story that will play out at in real life at Chernobyl in 1986.
Interesting story, fascinating cultural artifact.
Thank you so much everyone! I’m going to start putting together my Christmas order next week, so I’ll write down the recommendations and try to narrow it down a little, pick up some more through the year.
I checked the beginning of Sense and Sensibility. I vaguely remember watching and liking a tv series based on it (A&E show maybe). Like Charles Dickins David Copperfield, the sentences are LONG. Sometimes a full paragraph for one sentence, separated by many, many commas.I can get used to it, but if I’d used that many commas in one sentence in school, I would have gotten a smack down from the nuns.
Making this list and talking about female authors made me think of Barbara Hambly and the Time of the Dark series, so I got that out again and am halfway through the first book. It’s a really cool fantasy/horror series. Two people from earth (California) wind up going to a medieval fantasy world, where these creatures known as the Dark Ones are wiping everyone out. The desperate struggle to survive, find the wizards place far to the west, and the fanatic takeover by the church (blaming the whole mess on magic) is a really different and it’s a great read.
She also wrote Dragonsbane, which has this bit:
Tardy guy finally shows up to an important meeting about the dragon
Everyone: You’re late!
Mr. Tardy: Better late than never!
Main Char: That’s what dad said at grandad’s wedding!
I’ve used this a few times when someone said better late than never at company meetings. Sometimes I got a “lemme think about that” look for a min or two, then they laughed. Most of the time I just got a blank stare.
You might like V.E. Schwab. She has a variety of stories, all with a fantasy (or mild sci Fi) twist. Some are more set in “the real world” like The Villains trilogy (third book not out yet) and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue or Bury our Bones in the Midnight Soil.
Others are much more magical right out of the gate, like the Darker Shades of Magic series and the Near Witch.
Her stories often have 2SLGBTQ+ characters and themes about identity and how people fit into the world.
I very much enjoy her books.
I may have missed it, but you might also like Brandon Sanderson. He’s written a lot of books, and there are some l didn’t really get into but others that I loved (just read Tress of the Emerald Sea and loved it!).
And I’ll recommend James Islington on the strength of one book “The Will of the Many”. I haven’t read the sequel yet but it’s on my Christmas list! I also loved his Licanius Trilogy.
Ok, I narrowed it down and made up my Christmas list. Added the same set of 8 books to a cart in the Barnes & Noble site and the Amazon site. Amazon is a lot cheaper, so I went with that. Tried to get a good mix of various types of books, and a lot of suggestions here that I picked were the first in a series so I’ll be set for a while. I’m already starting a spring/summer list, and will go through this thread again. I’d love to own every book posted here, thank you so much for giving me new doors to other worlds that will exercise my brain!
- The first book in the MaddAddam trilogy
- Protector (Foreigner)
- The Left Hand of Darkness: 50th anniversary editon
- The Murderbot Diaries vol. 1
- Paranesi
- Screwtape Letters - This has been mentioned a lot from various sources, and I wanted to check it out.
- Stranger in a Strange Land - Read it so long ago that I don’t remember too much, Can’t find my copy, so I picked it up again.
- Dracula Deluxe Hardbound Edition - Never read this before, and it was only a few bucks more than the paperback.
The Murderbot Diaries has the first 2 books. Read the first one and I liked it. Interested to know how the murderbot managed to override his programming and filter out things that it deemed irrelevant. Its obsession with television shows is funny. I’m wondering if there’s human bits in its processor.
This does remind me of Austin Grossman’s Soon I Will Be Invincible, half of which is told by a Robocop-like cyborg newcomer to the superheroes, and the other half is told by the Supervillian. Highly recommended!
Piranesi - Wow. Its not that old so I don’t want to put up any spoilers, but once you realize what’s going on…damn! When I first started reading this, I thought it was a sort of mythology or fable type story. I can’t imagine doing that to someone.
Left Hand of Darkness - Oh this is interesting. Love the concept of a genderless society, but there is just as much drama as anything involving humans. I’m not too far into it yet, I’m pretty sick and having trouble concentrating on a learning a whole new vocabulary.
Screwtape Letters - I think I’m going to start this next. I know C.S. Lewis was friends with Tolkien (this book was dedicated to him) and they used to bounce ideas off of each other.
MaddAddam - It turns out the book I got is the third one in the series. I’ll probably read 30-40 pages and if I like it, then pick up the first books.
3 of the paperbacks were taller than I’ve seen in that format. They’re about 1&1/2" taller than all my other paperbacks, but the same width. Minor thing, but I don’t think I like this, it seems to require constant pressure to hold the book open. I think I’m going to stick to the softcovers (or whatever the nicer, larger paperbacks are called).
Seconded, it’s a good read.
Checking, I see nobody’s recommended Roger Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber series, which is excellent.
Get all the Library of America volumes for Philip K. Dick, Kurt Vonnegut, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Octavia E. Butler:
Do you know about the Library of America? It does hardcover editions where each volume contains several novels. They are cheap for hardcovers but are very durable.
There are also two two-volume sets of Library of America (one for the 19502 and one for the 1960s) with several authors in each of those four volumes:
And there is a Library of America set for Ray Bradbury:
And one for Madeleine L’Engle:
So that’s $564.50 for 69 novels and some short stories if you buy all the Library of America books. That’s just over $8.18 for each novel. That’s well under what most hardcore novels cost these days. It’s even below what most trade paperbacks cost. For that amount of money you can spend at least several months reading what some people consider the standard classics of science fiction. You can then put them on your shelves and come back regularly over the next few decades and re-read them frequently and have them in good condition after that time.
I read this as a teenager. I liked it well enough and some parts of it resonated with me as a would-be Christian (which only lasted a few more years). I think some of it might feel a bit dated, though (e.g. about relationships between men and women).
Although they look like large, heavy books that aren’t physically fun to read. I always preferred the little “mad market” paperbacks to big “trade” paperbacks when i mostly read physical books. (Now i mostly read ebooks.)
I’ll have to check it out.
I’m not sure how to quote multiple posts.
Wendell_Wagner - That sounds great, I’ll have to check it out. I know my goal to read everything ever written is not achievable, but it’s the journey and not the destination that’s important!
hogarth - Yes it does seem dated with the way female characters are referred to. That was one of the things that I really liked about Issac Asimov’s Foundation series. For being written in the late 40s/50s Foundation was pretty revolutionary. No June Cleaver vacuuming in pearls and heels, the female characters are equal or superior. Bayta saves the galaxy in the second book and the third book has references to her being regarded as a heroine with statues and songs.
Since you’re casting about for classics, I’d suggest Moby Dick. I’ll caution you that at times it can be a grind, with off-the-cuff literary references to late antiquity and the Bible, as was common in 19th-century lit. But it’s a cultural touchstone, and you’ll learn more about whales than you though possible.
It’s very obvious that Melville intended to entertain, educate, amuse, and impress. Clearly he poured his blood, sweat, and tears into this book, and that intensity of effort is what made it for me. It’s on my mind because I finished it recently, actually it was a new year’s resolution to finally push through. Just be aware that despite the density & intensity, it’s quite funny in spots, and it’s easy to overlook if you’re not expecting it. Melville is not a joke-explainer.
Also since you mentioned sci-fi and dystopian, I notice you didn’t mention China Mieville who created some interesting work in this area.
If you’re looking for modern fiction (non-scifi) I have a small bucket of recommendations there, but I didn’t sense the OP headed in that direction.
I loved those. I read them a long time ago, but I bet I’d still like them.
I read it on vacation in europe, when I knew I would want a big chunk of English, since I was traveling alone most of the time. I really enjoyed it. The pace is slower than usual in modern books, but it’s dense and rich and well worth giving it a try.