Sci-fi books | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Sci-fi books

GermaricanMix

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 8, 2014
Ya I was thinking I should give it a try in English. It feels a bit like giving up something, but reading things in the original language is probably better anyway.
 

LRK

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 13, 2012
Douglas Adams: "Life, the Universe and Everything" - The third book in the series, which picks up where the second left off: with Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect stranded on prehistoric Earth. They are rescued by the appearance of a "velvet paisley-covered Chesterfield sofa" (I'm not sure what kind of sofa that is, but I suppose in the circumstances one wouldn't be too picky;)), and are brought back to the 1980s - unfortunately two days before Earth is due to be destroyed by the Vogons. And that's before they find out about the threat to the Universe...
 

Interspectator

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 25, 2012
Listening to "Android's Dream" byJohn Scalzi. It is a fast-paced multi-species adventure involving politicians ruining trade negotiations via farts, and the overthrow of an alien planet's monarchy through the sudden and mysterious death of genetically modified sheep.
It's absurd and delightful. :thumbsup:
 
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TGee

Record Breaker
Joined
Sep 17, 2016
Some longstanding series that maintain high quality throughout...if you haven't discovered them, strongly suggest you give them a try.

C J Cherryh's Foreigner series....which continues to have arguably the most authenticly different aliens, and provides suspenseful but rich imagining of humans with another intelligent species with different biological imperatives..

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller's Liaden novels and short fiction.... they say that they write SF space opera as entertainment. But they are excellent at their craft. She's been on the SF writers assn board at one point, and he's been a curator of a university library SF collection.

And another pitch for Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series.....so much deep thought below the waterline of her frequently hyperactive space opera.
 

LRK

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 13, 2012
Douglas Adams: "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish" - In the fourth book in the series, Arthur Dent returns to Earth, which is pretty much back to normal after having been destroyed by the Vogons in the first book (people believe this to have been a hallucination). Except, of course, that there are no dolphins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojydNb3Lrrs
 

Interspectator

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 25, 2012
I just finished Rosewater by Tade Thompson. It was unlike any other sci-fi book I'd read before. The voice, experiences and setting are all Nigerian and therefore gives a flavor to the book that made me instantly fascinated. Loved it.
 

StitchMonkey

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 31, 2014
Ender's Game is my favorite adult sci-fi book series but I can't actually recommend it to anyone because the author is a terrible person and I don't want him to get any money. If you're able to borrow it from a friend or the library check it out! But please don't buy it, seriously, the guy is a total jerk.

SUPPORT your local LIBRARY!

Or just buy used.

But yeah... don't buy his books new without doing your research.

... but totally worth a read if you can do it for free!
 

mercybuckets

Rinkside
Joined
Aug 13, 2019
None of my irl friends read sci-fi so I'll pass on some recommendations here.

Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey - Space opera, huge books but read quick, like a movie, very good tv series version with 4th season about to come out on Amazon Prime

Blackfish City by Sam Miller - Kinda SF kinda fantasy, post-apocalyptic near future environmental dystopia, one of the best books I read in 2018

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers - Interplanetary war as a backdrop but tightly focused on the relationships between the crew of a small space ship, very domestic, not action-packed but very emotional, antidote to overly technical SF

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee - I love this book, it blew my mind but I won't lie it's a hard sell, if you like hard SF, confusing math, explorations of gender as a concept, and more ethical dilemmas than you can shake a stick at, this is one of the best SF series I have ever read
 

clovertree71

Rinkside
Joined
Oct 19, 2019
None of my irl friends read sci-fi so I'll pass on some recommendations here.

Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey - Space opera, huge books but read quick, like a movie, very good tv series version with 4th season about to come out on Amazon Prime

Blackfish City by Sam Miller - Kinda SF kinda fantasy, post-apocalyptic near future environmental dystopia, one of the best books I read in 2018

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers - Interplanetary war as a backdrop but tightly focused on the relationships between the crew of a small space ship, very domestic, not action-packed but very emotional, antidote to overly technical SF

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee - I love this book, it blew my mind but I won't lie it's a hard sell, if you like hard SF, confusing math, explorations of gender as a concept, and more ethical dilemmas than you can shake a stick at, this is one of the best SF series I have ever read

None of my friends read sci-fi either. I enjoyed Leviathan Wakes--the series is huge!

Ninefox Gambit sounds super interesting.

I would also recommend Ancillary Justice by Anne Leckie--super fascinating book, about a former spaceship/now human (or maybe still not human), a drug addict frozen through time, a ruthless empire, history repeating itself (or not repeating itself), and does any of your choices really count in the grand scheme of things? Loved it. Broke my heart. Blew my mind. The sequels are not as good, though, in my opinion.
 

Nachi

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 11, 2018
I'm totally drawn into the Enderverse. I wasn't really that much into sci-fi but the quartet was on sale so I just bought it. It took me quite a while to get used to the style. I also didn't read that much in English until that point. Now I just wanna read more and definitely want to have the formic war books as well! (please let it rain money!) And I really have to say that the movie trailer of Ender's Game looked terrible and I was livid at what they did to the story. I haven't watched it but everybody who did said that it's just another teen movie with a teen hero like Hunger Games. Thus I'm glad I didn't watch it because it would have damaged my love for this series!

I also started The Wandering Earth by Cixing Liu and really want to start with Remembrance of Earth's Past. Chinese names are still quite difficult for me to distinguish but the way the first mentioned book was written made me curious. Some mentioned it just got hyped because of "China bonus" but I think if that was the case it should have been noticable in The Wandering Earth as well. I found the scenery very relatable but well...taste.

Right now I need to finish something not so sci-fi xD. I'm so slow when it comes to reading books even though I like the story a lot...except for the Maze Runner series. I more or less detested that series and was done with all four books in about a month >.<.
 
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