Print SF

I've recently found that I really enjoy military fiction, but certain personal political beliefs can make it difficult for me to just enjoy it straight, as it's intended to be taken, without a speculative or historical (WWII or earlier) element to it. I'm looking for something like this:

• Human or humanoid protagonists facing human or humanoid threats - nothing cosmic.

• Folowing a single relatively small military unit, either an ultra-mobile infantry unit, based on a starship or using magic for transport, or one that engages in insurgency, counter-insurgency, or guerilla warfare.

• The characters do the kinds of bad things such units are typically associated with, but are easy to like anyway.

• Our protagonists are subordinates, with officers present but secondary characters - perhaps the MC is an NCO with the ear of his commanding officer.

• Two-thirds downtime, one-third action.

• If sci-fi, spaceships look like planes and act like boats.

In terms of comparisons, the ideal book would be: (sorry that most of these are games - I'm new to print science fiction, and not much of my experience of print fantasy is at all what I'm looking for)

A Song of Ice and Fire but focusing more on enlisted soldiers, less on politics or officers.

The Black Company but with fewer horror or epic fantasy elements.

Warhammer 40,000 but less so.

Mass Effect but smaller in scope

Traveller

I very much appreciate any suggestions.

I love books that present plausible uses of emerging tech in the future. Have any favorites? Here are some of mine: Biotech: Upgrade by Blake Crouch; Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood; the Neutronium Alchemist by Peter Hamilton

AI: the Hierarchies by Ros Anderson; the Culture Series by Ian Banks

Nanotech: the Diamond Age by Neil Stephenson

Catch All: Accelerando by Charles Stross; Ready Player One by Ernest Kline

I’m especially looking for books about lethal autonomous weapons systems ( I see you Martha Wells) and AI.

Thanks!

I love when I'm reading a story that's so good I can't stop thinking about getting back to it while I go about my day.

Been a while since I found something that fits this description. What's the last book that did this for you?

I just finished The Dying of the Light and Fevre Dream by George RR Martin. I'd love to read another book that features a melancholy tone where hope seems distant fragile but still precious.

I'd appreciate any and all recommendations!

“Literary icon Cormac McCarthy, the author of No Country for Old Men, dies of natural causes at age 89 at his home in Sante Fe”

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12191325/Literary-icon-Cormac-McCarthy-dies-natural-causes-age-89-home-Sante-Fe.html

I have read one of his books ("The Road") and seen two of his movies.
https://www.amazon.com/Road-Cormac-McCarthy/dp/0307386457/

Gnomon is a book that kept me turning the pages breathlessly late at nights and early in the mornings, and it’s been a very long time since any book has given me such excitement. It’s literally a layered novel, and somehow each layer was both individually satisfying to read and fit the mystique surrounding the larger narrative.

The story is set in London in a somewhat near-future, and at its centre is an inspector who is tasked with the investigation of an unexpected and mysterious custodial death. The futuristic setting involves an omnipresent, omniscient ‘System’ which is in charge of all administration and law keeping, and which seems to be working very well.

Within this ‘main’ story, there are subsumed four ‘sub’ narratives - stories-within-the-story - involving a middle-aged woman in medieval Rome, a genius banker from the late 2000s, an ‘old geezer’ from a contemporaneous period, and a super-mind from the far future.

Each of these tracks reads like a novella that works well in isolation, but the magic of Gnomon lies in how all the threads have commonalities that emerge in unexpected ways, and how they all come together beautifully at the end.

The overarching theme of Gnomon is that systems running our lives is no utopia; in fact, is something we should exercise enormous caution with, for any system is only as safe as the integrity of the human beings controlling it, and systemic abuse is inevitable sooner or later. The point is made rather emphatically towards the end, and as I mention the end, I’m reminded of the one disappointment I had in this otherwise enjoyable read.

I mentioned that everything comes together beautifully at the end of the book, but for some reason, the ending did not give me the kind of payoff that I had expected. For all the complexity that the novel wore from the very beginning, the ending felt a tad too.. simple, perhaps. And a little rushed too.

This is however, only a minor nitpick in a novel that is brimming with intrigue, interesting characters, and layers of mystery throughout its (large) span. The destination left me a little underwhelmed, but the journey was well worth my while.

"The Witch of Hebron: A World Made by Hand Novel" by James Howard Kunstler
https://www.amazon.com/Witch-Hebron-World-Novel-Novels/dp/0802145442/

Book number two of a four book apocalyptic fantasy series. I read the well printed and well bound trade paperback published by Grove Press in 2011 that I bought new on Amazon. I have bought the third and fourth books in the series.

In this alternate reality, oil well fracking was not invented and the world started running out of crude oil in 2008. Then somebody popped off a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles and somebody popped off a nuclear bomb in Washington DC. And the world slowed down and the USA moved back to the 1800s over the next several decades. We were back to times that the flu and encephalitis killed significant portions of the population. This series is set roughly in 2030 or 2040. The books are page turners with short three to five page chapters.

The town of Union Grove, New York has decayed significantly over time. No cars, either buy a horse or walk where you are going. No electricity and the farms are worked by hand now. The population is maybe 20% of what it was at the turn of the century so there are houses standing empty all over town. All of the older people remember cars, airplanes, antibiotics, and air conditioning but the young people don't.

It is fall now and the kids are back in school after the farm harvests came in. Eleven year olds Ned and Jasper are out fishing and then walking home. On the way home, Jasper's three month old puppy runs in to the Brother's horse pasture and starts barking and jumping at Brother Jobe's stallion. The stallion ends up stomping the dog. Jasper comes back in the middle of the night and feeds the stallion opium balls covered with oats, killing him. He stole the opium balls from his doctor father. Jasper then takes off to become a doctor in the town down the way. But, Jasper runs into Billy Bones, a thief and a murderer on the road. Billy Bones is determined that Jasper will become his protege.

The author has an active website at
https://kunstler.com/
Warning, the author's website is fairly crude.

My rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars (616 reviews)

I've been looking to get into scifi book, and ive been looking for good space scifi epics and I just can't seem to find anything that looks interesting.

Halo, Mass Effect, and the Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare campaign all really scratch this itch. Star Wars and the Expanse (Since ive seen the show, I dont want to read the books) are really good. Legend of the Galactic Heroes and Cowboy Bebop are great anime.

I'm really looking for that "lots of adventure happening in space" vibe. Spaceships, action, futuristic soldiers, politics, bounty hunters, whatever.

What I don't like is philosophy, lots of scientific explanations for everything, slow pacing, parody or comedy. I don't want something really weird and out there either, just cool and fun things happening to realistic characters in a space setting.

So many books I've seen either have really weird or comedic premises or spend too long explaining mechanics or philosophy.

Sorry if I'm too picky, but there's tons of good space scifi games, movies, shows, and anime. Any books like this that yall can recommend?

I read this whole book thinking Alaistar Reynolds was Peter Hamilton. Don't ask me why they just in my mind merged into the same person for some reason. (And as I read it, I thought it was much faster paced than his other stuff. )

I thought this was a great book. Then I was checking Reynolds wikipedia (that's when I realised he was a completely different guy) and i recall the title "revelation space" I attempted to read it once but many years ago and never got into it. Now I'm thinking of giving it another try.

I was surprised there was only one other short story set in the House of Suns universe. It is such a well crafted timeline I think it deserves more books!

​

This unofficial series follows human progression into the solar system. Starting from putting a base on the moon and going all the way to discovering ancient alien ruins outside our solar system.

I think it's pretty neat how optimistic and diverse it is. There's a prominent Native American character. Fantastic!

Caveat, some women get thrown in fridges pretty suddenly and for seemingly no narrative reason. Not all women though, so kind of weird.

Two things that I just came across that I’m wondering if anyone would weigh in on (spoiler free hopefully):

There is No Antimemetics Division by qntm.

Paradise-1 by David Wellington (I see his other books get some love around here).

So I just picked up books 1+ - 13 of his RCN series , last one was from 2019.

I was curious if more books were planned and checked out his website and it seems he is no longer writing:

Dave’s Retirement

Due to health issues, Dave will no longer be writing novels.

Since I haven't read these books yet..is the series closing in a satisfying way?

Hello, I hope you are all doing well, as I stated in the title, I am attempting to find a novel about an artificial intelligence with no physical body falling in love with a human. Thank you for your suggestions, and I hope you all have a great day.

I've asked the same question in r/suggestmeabook. But I only get Space Ship books in the answers.

Can anyone suggest books that are NOT sentient space ships?

I mentioned Robot Dragon because I also want something similar to The Iron Dragon's Daughter series. But it's just an example.

The title sorta says it all, but curious what books you’d pick if you got to choose the high school reading list. Obviously, for this subreddit, I’m thinking SFF and speculative fiction oriented… albeit entirely reasonable if you wanna also pull from related genres like magical realism and such, authors like Vonnegut, Murakami, Zafon, Ishiguro, etc. in order to get a more “balanced” curriculum. Keep in mind, in theory you’d have to discuss and teach to the book… not just read it. So would be fun to hear why you chose something.

Hi everyone,

I would appreciate some help in determining the next SF series I hop into. I am currently rotating between SF, Fantasy and Horror with each book and my next SF book is Desolation Called Peace by Martine (I liked but didn’t love the first book in this series btw but want to see where the story goes enough to continue).

Based on research and browsing around this sub I was considering the following options as my next SF series:

Children of Time trilogy by Tchaikovsky

Imperial Radch trilogy by Leckie

All Systems Red series by Wells

The Broken Earth trilogy by Jemisin

I am open to other suggestions as well just curious to hear people’s opinions based on if they have read one or more of these series.

If it helps some of my favourite SF books/series are the Hyperion Cantos, The Forever War, Flowers for Algernon, Ender Quintet (only read first 4) and A Deepness in the Sky.

Thanks a lot!

Obvious spoilers ahead.

I recently finished The Forge of God and while overall I enjoyed it, I can't help but feel like some of my time was wasted with useless information and plot points.

The most obvious one was the alien the Americans found vs the aliens in Australia. What was the point of all that? It's obvious that the planet eaters didn't need to confuse the humans in any way, so what's the deal with those robots that just explode? Is that explained or relevant in any way in the sequels?

What about the bogey they bomb and the way the soldier who carried the bomb could not exit it? Was that just out of spite? Is there more to it?

Is it worth it to pick up the sequel just to get the answers to a few of these questions? I found the first book a bit slow at times, is the sequel the same?

Books that are very recent, but have sequels already announced work as well. I've read several of the classics, but the only recent series I've read are the peripheral and the expanse due to curiosity from the tv adaptions. Looking for well written, character driven novels with strong sci-fi elements that take place at least 30 years from now but preferably much later. It doesn't need to be hyper-realistic but I like authors that put a lot of thought and make things at least plausible.

I'm looking for space opera books where the plots include parts and flashbacks to when humanity first left Earth to find other planets for colonization. I really enjoy books where humans left either as part of a joint gov't effort or from corporations. Also prefer books without alien presence unless it's akin to the Expanse series or the Protectorate series where they're very much removed physically and we were able to explore more systems with their technology.

Here are examples of books I finished and really enjoyed:

• The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
• The Expanse series
• The Protectorate series by Megan O'Keefe

Thanks in advance!

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I remember reading within the last decade a short story, perhaps part of a collection, about future generations of Martian humans restoring power to Opportunity and then going to look at her continuing her roving as a sort of rite-of-passage. Does anyone have any ideas what this might be? I’ve been wracking my brains and I can’t remember and it’s killing me!

I recently realised that I adore this trope. You know, like>! killing a npc surgeon!< in The Last of Us and its consequences in Part 2. Or >!the bagel!< in the recent Spiderverse movie. Or even Jason Momoa character in Fast X.

Are there the same ideas in any book series, where a character does something slightly noticeabale in the first book but it has long-range consequences and becomes the main plotpoint?

I'm depressed after finishing the Three Body Problem series a second time. I love it. Probably my favorite books of all time.

Other things I've liked

• Bobiverse series
• Hyperion series
• Project hail Mary

I want to try dune but I've heard bad things about the audio book with multiple people reading parts.

Please recommend me something!

Update:

Thank you all for the suggestions! I'm starting Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. And also going to look into Aurora, Ted Chiang, Philip K Dick, and Arthur C Clarke.

I’m on the hunt for this book edited by Donald Wollheim specifically a hardback edition (I can find the original paperback no problem) The Science Fiction Bookclub has published hard cover versions of this collection but seemingly skipped 1979. I can’t find a record of it or even a record of why. Does anyone have any idea of what happened or if it exists somewhere?

It was a post-apocalyptic story. The protagonist was a young teenage girl who comes out of some kind of a bomb shelter and has to deal with a world where almost everybody seems to have died. She was written as very bright and into martial arts I think. I seem to recall it was written in an odd style. Any ideas?