SciFi and Fantasy Novels

[Orlando Smooth]

I've been on a serious non-fiction kick for the past couple years or so and wanting to get back into fantasy (and maybe some sci-fi) for a while, but struggling to do it. I just can't seem to find anything that manages to scratch the itch. I've put some of the books and series that I've read over the course of my life that left an impact on me below, to give some background and hopefully elicit some "if you like this, you'd probably like that" responses. I'd love to hear what you all think about these books/series and hear your recommendations of what else is worth reading.

Harry Potter
The first series I read (unless you count The Magic Treehouse books). I would buy the books as they came out, back before the movies and before Rowling turned herself into such a controversial individual. I was a young kid reading about other young kids going to magic school, it was great and definitely the origin of my love for reading. I still feel nostalgia for these books, so it makes me sad that the fandom become known for shitty tumblr fanfic, the movies that dragged out until Daniel Radcliffe was like 37, and now we basically can't talk about it at all because Rowling is such a... well I don't even know what to call her anymore.

Redwall
For many years I'd come home after school at watch Redwall on TV (PBS ftw). When I found out it was a book series I asked for the first one as a birthday present, got it, and read the whole book in a matter of days. No small feat for me at that age - and definitely the first time I ever binged a book. Continued reading some of the other books throughout childhood and would definitely read them to kids.

The Barcode Tattoo
Pretty much my only jaunt into YA. It's been a very, very long time since I read this book so I have absolutely no idea how it holds up, but I do credit it for being the origin of so much of my skepticism of technology and hatred of surveillance.

The Tolkien Legendarium
As usual, it started with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but I loved both so much that I eventually moved on to The Silmarillion. From there I went further into the Unfinished Tales and other posthumously published works. To this day, Tolkien is my absolute favorite author due to the beautiful prose, simple yet powerful story, and themes that align with my own view of the world. As I like to say, the only problem with Tolkien is that he didn't publish more before he passed away.

A Song of Ice and Fire
I was very late to the game on these books. I'd heard people talking about both the books and the show for many years before I ever picked it up myself because at that point in my life I was busy enough that TV wasn't an appealing way to spend my free time and I spent so much time reading for work/school that the idea of reading for pleasure was laughable. Anyways, when I finally started reading I simply could not stop. Wound up reading all five books in about three or four months despite my busy schedule. However I'll admit this series is permanently tainted for me by the horrific ending of the show (which I watched after reading the books) and the fact that Martin seemingly wrote himself into a hole he cannot get out of. Mark my words; he'll die before that series is finished, likely even before The Winds of Winter is released.

The Expanse
Eventually I got a job that had normal hours and I once again had free time. I'd been burned out on reading and had just fallen out of the habit when a new coworker insisted I read the series. "Yeah, sure, I'll check it out." She then asked me at least twice more over the course of that week if I had gotten it, when I politely said no and that I would eventually she'd change the topic but only after insisting that I read it. The following Monday she came in and put her paperback copy of Leviathan Wakes on my desk and said I needed to read it. That night I took it home, and within the first 50 pages I knew for certain that I would be finishing the entire series. I loved those books so much that I felt a genuine sense of loss when the series ended. I will reread them some day once enough time has passed to make the details fuzzy in my memory. No, I haven't watched the show, and knowing how it ended I wouldn't recommend anyone else watch it either.

Dune
In between Expanse books (I had caught up to the release cycle for the last few) I tried reading other sci-fi, and this was my first attempt since it has such legendary status - but I couldn't finish it. Far too deep in the "chosen one" trope for my liking. Also, I really cannot stand woke SJW nonsense, but damn tell me this book is old and of its time without telling me this book is old and of its time. There's a cult of women who exist for no purpose other than to wait for a man to come and save them? The bad guy is a fat, gay, drug using pedophile?! I supposed I'll give this one another try some time, but is a little rough. I recall the exposition being a little rough too, but perhaps I'm wrong on that.

Foundation
Another one I read in the off times of The Expanse. It was good, and a very interesting concept, but not good enough for me to feel like I needed to read the rest of the series. I recall feeling that while the massive time skips were really interesting, they were a little rushed and an entire book could've been devoted to each.

The Wheel of Time
What I'm currently reading - The Great Hunt (book 2), to be specific. I started this series because people whose opinions I trust (both in real life and online) have suggested it and some have said it's their favorite series. I can understand the appeal, but it draaaaags. I'm not at all put off by big books or long series, in fact I'd like a huge new world to get totally immersed in. But Jordan seems to take an extremely long time to say anything at all, and not in an eloquent Tolkien-esque kind of way. This is especially bad in the non-dialogue portions of the writing. For instance, I'm about 15% of the way through this book and all that has been said is that Rand needs to get out of the city because the Amerilyn Seat is arriving and he thinks she's going to kill him or gentle him or whatever for being the dragon reborn. Like, okay, I got it. I got it the first time, in the first 5 pages of the book. Why are you dwelling on this for so long? I really want to like this series because it has all the elements of things that I like, but it's rough to get through.

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Those are all the major titles/series I've read and my opinions on them. I'm somewhat intrigued by this "grimdark" genre I hear so much about nowadays, but it also sounds ripe for edgelord bullshit that I don't want to waste my time on - please prove me wrong with some good recommendations, if possible. I'd love to hear what you all think about any of these or anything else you've read over the years.

 

[s0ren]

I was never into Science Fiction, was always more of a Fantasy loser growing up. I wanted to learn about the history of the genre so I've started with short stories and am currently working through Dangerous Visions, an anthology first published in '67 which is considered one of the greats.

In terms of fantasy, you might want to give the Kingkiller Chronicle a shot. A lot of people jumped on the Rothfuss train in like 2011 once the TWOW wait started. Funnily enough though, I think we'll probably get TWOW before we get the end of Rothfuss' trilogy lol. Based on his recent comments, I'm predicting 2024 for TWOW btw

 

[zalaz alaza]

i like the prose of Neuromancer and the subject matter is pretty good. Its quite a superficial tale but gibson is so good w his verbosity that it becomes its own sort of visceral pleasure to read.
the Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock scratched my itch when i was a teen, I have a plan to re-read it soon I just have to track the series down at my fathers house. it falls short of tolkien by a good bit but each novel is quite short. crossover sci-fi/fantasy. wonder how i feel about it now

 

[lemows]

I really liked Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and kinda liked Neuromancer as well as Jonnhy Mnemonic after rereading them.

 

[manpaint]

Hmm I can think of two book series that you might enjoy:

Bobby Pendragon series by D. J. MacHale: This one is a mix of fantasy and sci-fi. It's about some early 2000s American teenage boy being suddenly told by his uncle that he must become a "traveller" and help save what is essentially 7 different parallel versions of Earth from a "demon". He is naturally like "um wtf no". But he gets corned by the demon and need to jump into a world-travelling gate to survive. As a result, he becomes stranded on a snowy medieval world and he is forced to accept his "fate" which he totally despite.

I won't say much details about the world visited, but there's lot of variety.

The Spook / The Last Apprentice series by Joseph Delaney: This one is pure medieval fantasy. It has a somewhat similar vibe to Lord of the Rings but slighlty darker. I guess you could quality those book as "low grim-dark" but they are not that edgy. The story is about a farm boy that become the apprentice of a Spook (an exorcist basically). They travel the world killing bad things. The world is somewhat unique has it has a lot of grey / morally ambiguous characters bound by a "good and evil' system ordained from a higher power. The protagonist side supossedly represent the "good" (or light) side, but it turns out that think are a lot more complicated in this world.

The books near the end of the series are somewhat strange, but nothing that ruins the story per say, there just a slight tonal shift.

 

[Orlando Smooth]

The Spook / The Last Apprentice series by Joseph Delaney

This definitely sounds up my alley, thank you.

I guess I should have clarified that the ones I originally listed are what stood out to me (either good or bad) throughout my life. I've read many other books like Neuromancer and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? but while I enjoyed them and could see how they influenced later works, they didn't leave that strong of an impression on me. Additionally I'd really be interested in more modern works, not just the classics, but have had trouble finding stuff that "sticks" for the reasons mentioned above.

 

[darth shart]

I prefer scifi with a darker edge ideally but in terms of scifi that reads more like a fantasy story or a literary classic can't go wrong with Hyperion. It's very good, highly recommend.

If you like A Song of Ice and Fire but want to read someone capable of wrapping up a series, Joe Abercrombie is good. Start with A Little Hatred or The Blade Itself.

Dune
Far too deep in the "chosen one" trope for my liking.

I finished Dune but I also didn't love it or feel like I totally got whatever others are getting out of it. That being said I wanted to point out this specific complaint you had because I really disagree with it; one thing I think Dune actually does manage to do successfully is subvert the chosen one trope very creatively.

Spoiler

Multi-century eugenic planning by deep state matriarchs with politically motivated fake missionaries specifically seeded a cult among the Fremen that Paul exploits. But he isn't magic - he's not even doing something noble, really.

 

[№56]

Dune
In between Expanse books (I had caught up to the release cycle for the last few) I tried reading other sci-fi, and this was my first attempt since it has such legendary status - but I couldn't finish it. Far too deep in the "chosen one" trope for my liking. Also, I really cannot stand woke SJW nonsense, but damn tell me this book is old and of its time without telling me this book is old and of its time. There's a cult of women who exist for no purpose other than to wait for a man to come and save them? The bad guy is a fat, gay, drug using pedophile?! I supposed I'll give this one another try some time, but is a little rough. I recall the exposition being a little rough too, but perhaps I'm wrong on that.

If you ever re-read Dune, do yourself a favor and read Dune: Messiah immediately afterwards. It concludes Paul Atreides' story far better than the first book and makes him a more interesting and more tragic character in the process. Frank Herbert evidently started work on the book before the original Dune was published, and in my opinion the two need to be read together for the story to really make sense. Children of Dune and God Emperor of Dune are also worth reading if you're interested in more and can handle some really out-there psychedelic stuff (I couldn't.) Heretics and Chapterhouse are supposed to be good as well, but they were meant as the beginning of a new arc to the story that was left unfinished after Herbert's death. Avoid anything written by or involving his son Brian like the plague.
You're right about the exposition being rough. Herbert had an incredible imagination, but objectively speaking he wasn't that great of a writer. The Bene Gesserit, on the other hand, are about as far from being damsels in distress as possible and Paul is definitely not the infallible "chosen one" the other characters make him out to be.

 

[Drevius]

For fantasy, I'm a big fan of Joe Abercrombie's First Law books. I started with the standalone novel "Best Served Cold" and worked my way back through the original trilogy afterwards.

Ted Chiang's short story collections are excellent. I'd recommend this in any sci-fi thread, but will say that the ideas/concepts take precedence over the characters.

 

[Pacing Tape]

I've been on a serious non-fiction kick for the past couple years or so and wanting to get back into fantasy (and maybe some sci-fi) for a while, but struggling to do it. I just can't seem to find anything that manages to scratch the itch. I've put some of the books and series that I've read over the course of my life that left an impact on me below, to give some background and hopefully elicit some "if you like this, you'd probably like that" responses. I'd love to hear what you all think about these books/series and hear your recommendations of what else is worth reading.

---

Those are all the major titles/series I've read and my opinions on them. I'm somewhat intrigued by this "grimdark" genre I hear so much about nowadays, but it also sounds ripe for edgelord bullshit that I don't want to waste my time on - please prove me wrong with some good recommendations, if possible. I'd love to hear what you all think about any of these or anything else you've read over the years.

I've dabbled a bit in both genres, and while my tastes lean a bit away from exposition heavy stuff like LotR or Dune, I've massively enjoyed a few hand me down Fantasies from my dad.

Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Tad Williams that follow a pretty simple and standard formula of "Chosen One is launched into a war by some mentor/artifact." It's been years since I read the series, so it may be a little less high quality than I remember.

The Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin is amazing, though I haven't seen the series. I recommend the first three books, (A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, and The Farthest Shore) but I don't remember much of the rest of the series.

I'm a little more into science fiction, and one of my favorite authors is the Satirist James K. Morrow. His short story collection Bible Stories for Adults is great, but is mostly a criticism of Judeo-Christian religion. His novella, City of Truth, is also quite good. I highly recommend Exurb1a, who is primarily a weird science/physics youtube guy, has also written quite a few good science fiction stories. I'm a big fan of short stories, and finished his collection The Fifth Science, which serves as a historical anthology of humanity's short lived empire in the galaxy and tells a number of exceptionally interesting stories, taking advantage of the sci-fi setting to establish dimly explained, nearly magical technology that actually has a great impact on the stories and the ultimate fate of humanity.

 

[nakadashi]

I never got into genre literature for some reason, so the only recommendations I can give for fantasy or science fiction are as follows:

Kentaro Miura's Berserk: The thing with Berserk is that it is almost its own thing. As for manga goes it skips the whole wackiness that pervades this art form for the most part. It is heavily inspired by Go Nagai's Devilman, which also inspired Nenon Genesis Evangelion, so it drags along those lines, if you liked those two pieces. It is Dark Fantasy, with a heavy mood which reminds me to the works by Junji Ito, while at the same time being very very medieval. In this regard, it inspires me with some Burzum vibes.

Stanisław Lem's Solaris: I think that it was Philip K. Dick who said that science fiction was more than simply doing Hamlet in space. As such, I've personally been not so drawn to read many of the so-called science fiction classics. This is the reason why Solaris is one of my favorite books since it is what I would regard as mathematical fiction. To me, it is akin to the metaphysical works by Jorge Luis Borges. There is a movie, directed by the great Andrei Tarkovsky, but I don't think it captures the geometrical essence of the book at all.

 

[RussiaSushi]

For sci-fi books, I would go with the Stargate SG1 novels, or if you prefer to watch a series, you can do that too; however, this is only because I am a massive fan of the series! Roswell is definitely one of the best, in my opinion, but the first novel, Trial by Fire, is great as well. If you are not familiar with Stargate, its science fiction adventure television series where they travel to other planets through a device called the stargate and explore different worlds. During this, they keep the fact of the device hidden from the general public and are in a continuous battle with multiple alien races.

Another recommendation, however, I am not actually sure if this fits sci-fi or fantasy. That would be Jericho comics, which again has a great but not well known TV series as well that sadly ended on series two, but brought out a comic book for seasons three and four. However, to understand what is going on, you would have to watch the first two seasons of the series. Like I said, this is not really sci-fi, just a good read!

I'm not sure if this is what you were really looking for, but I thought I could contribute.

 

[LostintheCycle]

Foundation
Another one I read in the off times of The Expanse. It was good, and a very interesting concept, but not good enough for me to feel like I needed to read the rest of the series. I recall feeling that while the massive time skips were really interesting, they were a little rushed and an entire book could've been devoted to each.

I've been reading Foundation And Earth, the only of the Foundation series I have read so far. It is quite unlike anything else, I get the sense sometimes that I am a passenger alongside Trevize, Pelorat and Bliss as they travel in the gravitic ship, and I quite like that sensation.
What is it about Foundation you did not like? Regarding your last comment, I've heard that the other Foundation books were written as seperate short stories originally which would explain it, but F&E is one story throughout, so you might enjoy that story?
Anyway would love to see more science fiction suggestions, especially which aren't the usual suspects like Asimov or Frank Herbert. My secondhand bookstore has a huge sci-fi section and I'd like to plunder it.

 

[Orlando Smooth]

I've been reading Foundation And Earth, the only of the Foundation series I have read so far. It is quite unlike anything else, I get the sense sometimes that I am a passenger alongside Trevize, Pelorat and Bliss as they travel in the gravitic ship, and I quite like that sensation.
What is it about Foundation you did not like? Regarding your last comment, I've heard that the other Foundation books were written as seperate short stories originally which would explain it, but F&E is one story throughout, so you might enjoy that story?
Anyway would love to see more science fiction suggestions, especially which aren't the usual suspects like Asimov or Frank Herbert. My secondhand bookstore has a huge sci-fi section and I'd like to plunder it.

It's been a while so I won't be able to remember the exact details, but I seem to recall feeling that it was more of an extended thought experiment with discrete characters than an actual narrative. It was intellectually fascinating but not compelling to me.

 

[bnuungus]

Personally, I very much enjoy Brandon Sanderson's cosmere books. He has multiple different series that are set on different worlds but are part of the same universe, with the Stormlight archives being the backbone series of the collection. I'd say start out with the Mistborn books though if your interested because starting off with Stormlight is a bad idea. From there just do a little research into what other books he has and decide on how you want to read them