# Science Fiction--Newer Books! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 19, 2009, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-newer-books/514271 "2009-10-19T01:33:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-newer-books/514271/61 "2009-10-22T18:55:40Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Michael Flynn’s “The Wreck of the River of Stars”, about a bunch of washed up failures on an obsolete spaceship. Flynn’s novel \*Eifelheim \*is very good, too. An alien first-contact novel that takes place in a medieval German village. I also like his \*Firestar \*series, which is realistic near-future science fiction (rapidly becoming alternate history) about the development of a private space program. It’s set in the same universe as _Wreck_ but takes place about 100 years earlier. It will leave you a little depressed about our sluggish real-life space program. Nice thread! I’ve read a lot of the books mentioned here, but I’m glad to get some more recommendations. I do think I’m the only person on the planet who doesn’t like Scalzi. I feel like I’m missing out on something. Maybe I need to re-read Old Man’s War to see if perhaps I was in some kind of bizarre mental state when I read it that blinded me to its virtues. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-newer-books/514271/62 "2009-10-23T07:01:32Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > Don’t agree: the _Baroque Cycle_ (not strictly science fiction) and most recently _Anathem_ have perfectly adequate endings. The major Stephenson offender in this regard was _The Diamond Age_. Promise? Cross your heart and hope to die? I think that I was really mad because I got caught up in the stories, and I wanted some better resolutions. I’ll try another book or two. Maybe. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-newer-books/514271/63 "2009-10-23T07:22:38Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Promise? Cross your heart and hope to die? I think that I was really mad because I got caught up in the stories, and I wanted some better resolutions. I’ll try another book or two. Maybe. Hehe… I too recall the Diamond Age as the worst offender. I’m not prepared to go as far as to claim he’s great at endings, but the others I’ve read (Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash, Baroque Cycle) all seemed OK in that respect. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-newer-books/514271/64 "2009-10-23T07:25:13Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > I thought Spin was wonderful, but I can’t figure out if I would want to read a sequel. I’m very keen to read \*Axis \*-- I felt \*Spin \*ended just as it was getting interesting. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angel_of_the_lord/32/2949_2.png) [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-newer-books/514271/65 "2009-10-23T14:12:18Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > This is one of my go-to SF recommendations. I don’t read that much SF, so I don’t tend to be able to recommend much, but the other one is > [In the Garden of Iden](http://www.amazon.com/Garden-Iden-Novel-Company-Book/dp/0380731797), by Kage Baker. First in a series of books about a future corporation that is able to travel back in time and create immortal cyborgs from children who would have died, who then live forward and collect valuable artifacts that would otherwise have been destroyed. The main character is Mendoza–a child rescued from the Inquisition and turned into a cyborg botanist. > > It sounds dumb, but I really loved it. I’ll add that the series is really, really good for the first five books. But then, you should just make up your own ending, 'cause _damn_. That was kinda crap. But yes. This book. Very this book. If you’re into sci-fi-that’s-not-traditional-sci-fi, try _The Blind Assassin_, by Margaret Atwood. It’s. . .well, kinda-sci-fi, but very, very good. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-newer-books/514271/66 "2009-10-23T16:40:32Z")
> [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](#): > > If you’re into sci-fi-that’s-not-traditional-sci-fi, try _The Blind Assassin_, by Margaret Atwood. It’s. . .well, kinda-sci-fi, but very, very good. In the same vein, her \*The Handmaid’s Tale \*would qualify under the dystopic future category of sci-fi. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-newer-books/514271/67 "2009-12-10T18:55:18Z")
Another enthusiastic vote for John Scalzi. _Old Man’s War_ is the first book in the series, with humanity fighting a number of hostile alien races. It’s right up there with Heinlein’s _Starship Troopers_ and Haldeman’s _The Forever War_ for page-turner hard-military sf, mixed with a generous dash of wry humor. Good, good stuff. I’m a big Haldeman fan. His recent short-story collection, _A Separate War and Other Stories_, is definitely worth a read. The title story and “For White Hill” are almost masterpieces, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-newer-books/514271/68 "2009-12-10T19:21:14Z")
I second _Little Brother_, Charles Stross, _Snowcrash_, and _The Diamond Age_. In fact, I heartily recommend everything Cory Doctorow has written, including _A Place So Foreign_ and _Overclocked_. It’s almost all available for free download [here.](http://craphound.com/) Here are my favorite quotes from _Makers_\*\*: \*\* “And the bad people and the potential chaos were what he loved about the place, too. He’d grown up in the kind of place where everything was predictable and safe and he’d hated every minute of it. The glorious chaos around him was just as he liked it. The wood-smoke curled up his nose, fragrant and all-consuming.” “Now he contemplated his face in the mirror and told himself he’d get used to this, he’d come to like it, it would be a trademark. It would make him gothier than goth, for life, always an outsider, always one of the weird ones, like the old-timers who’d come to Disney with their teenaged, eye-rolling kids. Goths’ kids were never goths, it seemed–more like bang-bangers or jocky-looking peak-performance types, or hippies or gippies or dippies or tippies or whatever. But their parents were still proudly flying their freak-flags, weird to the grave.” “One had gills. One glowed in the dark. One was orange and claimed to photosynthesize.” Meanwhile, my favorite kind of SF is cyberpunk, or whatever it’s evolved into. I don’t much like neo-detective or vampires-in-alternate-San Francisco type stuff. (I saw one about a vampire **who is** a detective in San Francisco!) Does anyone have any specific recommendations for me, apart from the stuff already mentioned? (and thanks for that.) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-newer-books/514271/69 "2010-07-01T17:46:53Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > I don’t think any of mine fall under the 10-year guideline, but they might be things you haven’t read. > > [Snow Crash](http://www.amazon.com/Snow-Crash-Bantam-Spectra-Book/dp/0553380958/) and its semi-sequel [The Diamond Age](http://www.amazon.com/Diamond-Age-Illustrated-Primer-Spectra/dp/0553380966/) by Neal Stephenson are two of my favorite (and, I believe, most plausible) visions of the future. This does: [_Anathem_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anathem) (2008). Set on a planet similar to Earth, where for millennia (literally), philosophers, mathematicians and scientists have lived in what amounts to monasteries, isolated from the outside world. And it’s a **lot** more exciting than it sounds from that description. Well, that’s very YMMV, I realize; you need a high tolerance for philosophical digressions, which are crucially not digressions at all in this story. See discussion on the [TVTropes page.](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Anathem) > [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Don’t read anything by Stephenson if you need an ending to the story. Stephenson can’t write a decent ending to save his life, so apparently he just doesn’t bother. The books I read by him were GREAT…until the last few pages. I need a resolution, or I’m not happy with the book. I’m not going to read any more of his books until I hear that he’s learned how to write a satisfying ending. I don’t demand a happy ending, just one that resolves the story. And _Anathem_ **does** have a definite and decent ending, all tied up in a bow and resolving (practically) all plot threads. ---
**Author:** ![Mrs.Cake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@Mrs.Cake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrs.Cake)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-newer-books/514271/70 "2010-07-01T18:01:41Z")
Another vote for _Soon I Will Be Invincible_, and right now I am enjoying the hell out of Jasper Ffordes’ latest, _Shades of Grey_, which is (or seems to be) more sci-fi than the Thursday Next series, which I also loved. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-newer-books/514271/71 "2010-07-01T18:13:34Z")
Since this thread has reawoken, I’ll second the recommendation for Robert J. Sawyer as a currently-working author of accessible, entertaining science fiction with lots of interesting ideas. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-newer-books/514271.md?page=3)