I just finished Adrian Tchaikovsky’s new one, “Shroud”. It was quite good, a tale of corporate humanity exploiting the resources of other star systems and encountering unexpected complex life on a very unusual moon. I do enjoy Tchaikovsky’s works.
John Scalzi’s Redshirts - starts out kinda humorous but gets a fair bit deeper later on.
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge, set in his Zones of Thought setting where intelligence and the transfer of information are limited according to one’s distance from the Galactic Core. Earth is in the Slow Zone, where nothing smarter than humans can exist and FTL is impossible; the novel takes place mostly in the Beyond outside that where FTL is possible. and past that is the Transcend, inhabited by godlike superintelligences.
This along with the prequel A Deepness in the Sky are some of my favorite epic sci fi books. Those where the characters and the reader are tiny against the vastness of space and unfolding events. I was less thrilled with the third book The Children of the Sky, and unfortunately no more will be coming.
I can enthusiastically recommend the first two, but there are mysteries left that will never be explained, unless Brandon Sanderson has Vinge’s notes.
I found Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers books both a lot of fun and very thoughtful
Becky Chambers’s books are delightful. They’re character studies more than plot-driven.
Martha Wells, the Murderbot series. Great fun.
Dangit, isn’t that always the way? You’re about to add something to a long thread, and discover that the poster right before you just said it. Well, I’ll second the Murderbot books. The main character is a security unit, who’s hacked its governor module, so it can’t be controlled any more, but who keeps on doing security work because it’s really good at it. Lots of action, but also lots of musing on the nature of personhood.
The rest of the Old Man’s war series are great, also. I like Stephenson, but couldn’t stand Seveneves. I will recommend Termination Shock, just skip over the whole “Line of actual control” bit. Also, Forever War rightfully won its Hugo and Nebula awards.
I like to point out The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach.
On many planets, the sole economy is making carpets out of human hair. No one is sure why, or why the Galactic Empire buys them, or what eventually happens to them.
If the first chapter doesn’t hit you in the gut, nothing will, and the book is filled with gut-wrenching moments to the very end.
I really, really enjoyed Gun, with Occasional Music.
It’s “future noir” - a weird, fanciful blend of science fiction, social commentary, and detective work.
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders. I’m just finishing it, and it’s pushed its way into my top five list. I can’t really sum it up in a way that will do it justice, as it’s the writing that makes the thing, but it’s a story of conflict between magic and technology in a collapsing world. The protagonists (One on each side) are compelling characters with deeply intertwined stories.
Seconded!
Thirded. Also the next Scalzi Old Man’s War book is scheduled for fall.
Yeah. It’s a wild ride
I second that motion. I came here to recommend the Hyperion Cantos, a tetralogy consisting of: Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, and The Rise of Endymion. No ordinary novels, they take you on quite a journey of the imagination. The first book is patterned after The Canterbury Tales, with several individuals on a journey taking turns narrating their backstories. It also originated the name Siri, the name of a woman character. I read that shortly before they rolled out “Siri” the machine and immediately caught the reference.
If you haven’t read Ilium and Olympus by Simmons, then I highly recommend them. Same type of mind-bending theses with a not so subtle horror subtext.
OP–If you have not read Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow I cannot recommend them highly enough. They are canon, no matter what you think of Orson Scott Card’s politics.
Murderbot.
What happens when a killer cyborg hacks its governor module?
a) Free Will; b) PTSD; c) Wry commentary on Why Humans Act Like They Do.
And it has great world-building (planets are colonized by corporations), and action.
As author Martha Wells says:
“Come for the pew-pew, stay for the soap opera.”
The Murderbot Diaries:
“All Systems Red”
“Artificial Condition”
[At least read those first two books! They’re short, and the second introduces a really unique character: a sentient spaceship named ART… the A stands for Asshole.]
“Rogue Protocol”
“Exit Strategy”
“Network Effect”
“Fugitive Telemetry”
“System Collapse”
The audiobooks are wonderful, and there’s a full-cast version of each of them as well.
I was so excited when I heard of Ender’s Shadow.
A … “side-quel”?
A series of books set at the same time as the original series, but focusing on a minor-but-favorite character (“Bean!”) and showing things from his perspective.
L. Sprague De Camp’s Rivers Of Time.
Very clever time travel short stories.
https://www.amazon.com/Rivers-Time-L-Sprague-Camp/dp/067172195X/ref=sr_1_14?crid=3JF6EGX931H15&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.PR2Cz6QY3ONY1ewqBOYXSajySJIGRm6R2SeyBuMZDlq90OnV0bSz2GxzDKi9lqaDbrwL-I6Z0MbsnlFXarB0ilw7ZFNoR6i7ey4hH_RYae8vC2ZRdzaV26G_zrZIRWWuMOxwiKjPWLpwFxDhUherzTTAKqEssTrSIf35qqpU9qgv594e_cx2sZ2Z4hkZHo9sbjfDsBhCl3BXsF5iOd4XASeeh2AqheOnpkGhSiWIx38K1VEfvki2DQZBhrZAdfnNbrz9h-EId08UNenLbtndF-ns4YpwltIWR2HW9qTuhVU.4vJ9xI2lowxRkqIJbQiehkT5dQltCV7rbKY03xjFq-8&dib_tag=se&keywords=l+sprague+de+camp&qid=1750208777&s=books&sprefix=de+camp%2Cstripbooks%2C140&sr=1-14
His Krishna series is witty & engaging.
1 The Queen of Zamba (1977)
2 The Hand of Zei (1963)
3 The Hostage of Zir (1977)
4 The Tower of Zanid (1958)
5 The Prisoner of Zhamanak (1982)
6 The Bones of Zora (1983) (with Catherine Crook de Camp)
7 The Swords of Zinjaban (1991) (with Catherine Crook de Camp)
The Mote in God’s Eye
The Night’s Dawn Trilogy
- The Reality Dysfunction
- The Neutronium Alchemist
- The Naked God
Rapture of the Nerds
Series
- Expeditionary Force
- Honorverse