I have soon finshed all of The Expanse (which I have enjoyed immensely) and last month I finished Peter F Hilton’s Pandoras Star. While I enjoyed the second half of Pandoras Star, they (it’s a trilogy) are such heavy books with rather slow pace. One of my favorite reads last year was Recursion by Blake Crouch - it’s fast paced and just a plain joy to read. The same goes for The Martian and Project Hail Mary.
Given this, do you have any recommendations for what to read next?
The Hyperion saga is very enjoyable. If you didn’t read them already The Martian and Project Hail Mary by andy Weir are outstanding.
Hyperion is definitely on my todo list. I’ve heard so many good things from so many sources!
The Hyperion series is the best scifi I have ever read to be honest… It has the adventure of something like Ringworld or maybe Ender’s Game, politics like Foundation or Dune, philosophy like Childhood’s End or The Left Hand Of Darkness. The first book is structured like The Canterbury Tales too… Like a loosely connected group of short stories instead of the modern style 600 page slog… It makes it really easy to get in and out of.
I honestly can’t imagine anyone not liking that book. There are so many layers it’s super easy to find something to love.
It is amazing. One of the coolest, most ambitious, wackiest series I have read.
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I read Solaris recently and was genuinely blown away. Anything from Ursala le Guin is also an excellent choice although I would suggest “the Dispossessed”.
> I read Solaris recently and was genuinely blown away.
Stanislaw Lem was a genius. I recommend also ‘Fiasko’. ‘Ichon Tyhchy’ is also great, it’s a collection of humoristic sci-fi short stories. I’ve been contemplating learning polish just to be able to read Lem, it’s been said a lot of his word play gets lost in translation. Although I have to admit the descriptions of the geometrical forms in the ocean in Solaris where just too much and I skipped those pages entirely.
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Really? I read that book because it’s so highly rated and didn’t enjoy it at all. I couldn’t wait for it to end and was glad it was a short book. What did you like about it?
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I really enjoyed the novel Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. As someone who also thoroughly enjoyed the Expanse this definitely gave me some similar vibes even though the stories aren’t similar at all.
Children of Time is a must-read IMO
OP, I came here to recommend this as a quick, stand-alone, amazing book. Read it!
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The Expeditionary Force novels are solid and even better if you like audio books. We Are Legion (We Are Bob) and the follow up books by Dennis E Taylor, if you like project Hail Mary these have a similar tone. Hyperion is a classic, but is fantastic!
I forgot about the We are Bob series, but I also really enjoyed them.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Bobiverse books. The first one was my favourite but they were all enjoyable. I listened to them and the narration was very well done.
Asimov is really good. If you are hesitate you can read I, Robot. Which is a collection of short stories to give you an idea of his writing style.
His books are pretty quick reads and high quality.
Iain M Banks’s Culture novels. User name is relevant.
A couple of standard favorites of mine:
The Fuzzy books by H. Beam Piper. First of three is even public domain:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18137
These others may be harder to find… Steve Perry is known for his Star Wars and Aliens books, but he also has his own shared universe which is a good read:
The Matador Novels:
The Man Who Never Missed (1985)
Matadora (1986)
The Machiavelli Interface (1986)
The Omega Cage with J. Michael Reaves (1988)
The 97th Step (1989)
The Albino Knife (1991)
Black Steel (1992)
Brother Death (1992)
The Musashi Flex (2006)Stellar Ranger series:
Stellar Ranger (1994)
Lone Star (1994)Venture Silk series:
Spindoc (1994)
The Forever Drug (1995)Standalones:
Trinity Vector (1996)
The Digital Effect (1997)If you haven’t read the Bobiverse series yet, you’re in for a treat. The first book is called We are Legion (We are Bob). The books are easy to read, and somewhat light-hearted, while tackling serious philosophical questions. The first 3 books are right at the top of my all-time favorite sci-fi.
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I really enjoyed all the Polity novels by Neil Asher. They are more fantasy leaning than the Expanse and Pandora’s Star but fit your bill for fast moving and fun to read.
Asher is currently my favorite living sci-fi author
Not sure but maybeprobably the raw shark texts.deleted by creator
Infinity Gate by M. R. Carey while definitely not his best work (see The Book of Koli trilogy which is outstanding but more dystopian), is a fun multiversal sci-fi romp.
I’m enjoying To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Paolini. Though it is a bit long, it has lots of character development and I thought had a similar vibe to the Expanse. Also available as an audiobook which is excellent.
On the lighter side there is The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Chambers (1st of a series) which I think are all excellent Adult/YA Space Opera and more in line with the Weir books.
I would usually recommend some Alastair Reynolds to anybody into science fiction. I always suggest starting with House of Suns because it’s a stand-alone novel that is really good and will give you a pretty good idea of what to expect from his writing. But his Revelation Space series is where the bulk of his writing is. However, I wouldn’t call his work fast paced. So you might not get into it.
I have recently been reading the Murderbot Diaries. They are extremely easy and enjoyable reads. Could definitely give those a try.
If you enjoyed Recursion, you would probably like another book by Blake Crouch, Dark Matter.
Thanks! Yeah I really enjoyed Dark Matter :)
I’ve been on a real Alistair Reynolds kick lately and just finished House of Suns, which I think is his best. But a good entry point for him is definitely Revelation Space. Good space opera with some gothic elements that I wasn’t expecting.
