The Evolution of Science Fiction discussion

I haven't participated here much lately. I haven't read any science fiction since the world changed.

I'm looking for a book to read, an audiobook that is available from my library (which means it must be fairly popular).

I'd like a fairly recent space opera. I've enjoyed and read everything I could by Martha Wells, Becky Chambers, and Ann Leckie. Any suggestions?

Hi Buck, maybe you would like to give Skyward a try. Sanderson = fantasy, but this is #1 of an SF series. Very high ratings.
And a writer I see you haven't read is Peter F. Hamilton, I myself would like to read Pandora's Star.

Buck, I recently found the "Vatta's War" series (5 books) on audio at my library & I really enjoyed them. The first book is Trading in Danger.

Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series is usually fully available, too. It's got over a dozen books in it.

The Honor Harrington series by David Weber is good. It starts with On Basilisk Station. It's basically a female Horatio Hornblower in space, but I love the character.

Zero-G by William Shatner & Jeff Rovin was surprisingly good. I don't expect much from Captain Kirk, but his ideas with Rovin writing made for a great story. I gave it a 4 star review. Rovin is an author to watch. I see he's also writing books with Gillian Anderson.

Thank you for those suggestions, Jim and Leo. Now I've got a list to get back in the groove with.

I've read quite a few of the Vorkosigan series, and enjoyed them. I almost selected one to hear now, instead I'm hearing To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers. It's not bad but I'm nearing the end and it hasn't hit a climax yet. So, a whimper or a bang? I'll see.

I liked the first of Chambers' books, but couldn't make it through that one. All jabber, nothing happens.

It doesn't look as if you've read any of the Murderbot books by Martha Wells. They start with All Systems Red & the first few (4?) are short. Only the latest is a full length novel. They're really good.

The Donovan trilogy by W. Michael Gear is a good trilogy. Gear's background in archaeology gives his books a lot of depth. I read his Spider trilogy over a decade ago & remember really liking that, too. I haven't seen it in audio, though.

Jim wrote: "I liked the first of Chambers' books, but couldn't make it through that one. All jabber, nothing happens.

It doesn't look as if you've read any of the Murderbot books by Martha Wells...

I'm almost done with this latest Chambers book It's short but it doesn't seem to be building to anything, so I'm hoping for a big finish.

I did read the first four Murderbot Diaries. I had recommended Network Effect to my library not long ago and they notified me this morning that they now have it for me. I'll read it next. I have a good library :).

Leo wrote: "And a writer I see you haven't read is Peter F. Hamilton, I myself would like to read Pandora's Star. "

Jim wrote: "The Donovan trilogy by W. Michael Gear is a good trilogy. Gear's background in archaeology gives his books a lot of depth. I read his Spider trilogy over a decade ago & remember really liking that, too. I haven't seen it in audio, though."

I've now got these audiobooks on my library wishlist:
Outpost the first of the Donovan series by Gear;
The Dreaming Void by Hamilton;
and Trading in Danger by Moon

I haven't read anything by these authors.

Thanks guys.

You're welcome. Hope you enjoy them.

Hi guys. Since I'm pretty new into the Sci-fi book world, i would appreciate some recommendations what to read in the near future.
First Sci-fi book that I read, was a long time ago and I liked it very much, so that I had to read the complete series. It was The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but more serious Sci-fi works I started to read recently (since 2020).
I know I have a lot to make up to, but I started with the most popular classics. I read H.G. Wells most popular novels, which I liked a lot and figured out that I love Soft Sci-fi which is focused on more of a psychology and social criticism. So I intend to finish most of Wells' bibliography later.
I love Dystropian themes very much, so I first read of course Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, A Clockwork Orange and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Yesterday I finished 2001: A Space Odyssey, which I liked a lot as well and will continue on the series later.
I also read Roadside Picnic and Solaris, since these books were recommended a lot as non-english Sci-fi.
Today I started to read the group read Babel-17, which is good, but I figured out that I don't like the Space opera that much.
Of course, because it's a must read I will start to read very soon the Neuromancer, 1984 and something from Isaac Asimov (probably Foundation).

All suggestions are welcome.
Thanks :)

You might want to glance through our group reads, Armin. Most are pretty popular as well as influential. You can find the titles on our group bookshelves or look through the folders. There's a folder for each year of group reads. There are also folders for each period. In those folders, the "What's this folder for?" topic that has a list of the books we've read with links to the discussions as well as a list of authors published during the period.

I recently read The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and really enjoyed it.

Thanks for the information Jim, I will certainly take a look on the bookshelf.
And thanks for the recommendation, Rosemarie :)

Armin, what I also think is a good place to start is here on GR, on my screen it's under "Browse":
goodreads.com/list/tag/science-fiction
Here you find all kind of best-of-lists. You can choose just SF but there are also genre lists, just take a look.

Thanks Leo. At first I did that, I checked the most popular books there, but these lists are huge and I was looking more for a summary of must-read SF books.
I think the bookshelf of this group is a perfect starting point for beginners, since it's nicely categorized to the SF sub-genres and has hand-picked titles among them :)

Yes there are huge listst, but that's what I like about it. Sometimes I check them for books I missed. But great that the results of our group work out that good. Thanks to our very organised mods for creating law and order :-)

Good luck, Armin. There are a lot that folks say should be read. From a scholarly standpoint, they're certainly right, but many are slogs for me. Others haven't aged well, especially if a person is touchy about race, women's rights, & such or some of what passes for science. Some are really influential & should be read so that references in newer books & movies can be understood, though. Animal Farm / 1984, Dune, & Starship Troopers are a few off the cuff.

Hi Armin, I'm also a fan of sci fi which explores culture and the human condition. Some big-hitters for me in the past few years have been:

- Philip K Dick's short stories. To slightly exaggerate, once you've read Do Androids Dream... then you've read all his longer novels. That said, if you enjoy dystopias then they're all on that theme; they develop a unique kind of "dystopia but with hope for the determined individual".
- "The Disposessed" and "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula Le Guin.
- "Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
- "Hard to be a God" by the Strugatsky brothers
- The "Heechee" saga by Fred Pohl
- "The Forever War" by Joe Haldeman
- "The Stars My Destination" by Alfred Bester (bit of a stretch but I really enjoyed it)

Thank you guys, now you gave me some homework to do. I read "Animal farm" as a teen and it was thought provoking, but a scary experience back then :) I will have to re-read it and will definitely put the other recommendations on my TBR list.

Animal Farm! Still a scary book, IMO. Sadly, tyrants are still among us....

Yes, I think so, too.

This is such a good group.

When I cranked up my reading a few years ago, I thought, "why waste time reading crap when there's so many classics to read?". I searched for SF top 100 lists and compiled my own to read from. The closest thing to it is "The Classics of Science Fiction" list on the Worlds Without End web site:
https://www.worldswithoutend.com/list...

If you've never been there, check it out. I find the site to be a great complement to GR. It has dozens of different lists by awards, genre, author, etc. You can set challenges for yourself & mark books you've read and want to read. I use GR & WWE in conjunction to guide my reading (though of course there are always new finds to add). The coolest thing is looking at a screen full of the book covers, kind of like looking at your own annual Reading Challenge here on GR.

Sabri wrote: "Hi Armin, I'm also a fan of sci fi which explores culture and the human condition. Some big-hitters for me in the past few years have been:

- Philip K Dick's short stories. To slightly exaggerate,..."

Hi, Armin! I'm a huge fan of Philip K. Dick and love his short fiction. Do you have a favorite of his short stories?

Brandi wrote: "Sabri wrote: "Hi Armin, I'm also a fan of sci fi which explores culture and the human condition. Some big-hitters for me in the past few years have been:

- Philip K Dick's short stories. To slight..."

I think I've been through all five volumes of the collected short stories and it's hard to pick. It might actually be The Eyes Have It, which was the monthly short story on here a while ago. It's very short and on the surface quite whimsical, but that belies a surprising depth and efficiency of writing. Almost every sentence packs a punch and is thought-provoking.

Allan wrote: "When I cranked up my reading a few years ago, I thought, "why waste time reading crap when there's so many classics to read?". I searched for SF top 100 lists and compiled my own to read from. https://www.worldswithoutend.com/list... "

That's... Not a bad list. I'd have a different one -- but I've been reading SF for, hrm, 50+ years now? Yikes! It is heavy on the old stuff, but hey, just what it says on the wrapper:
"The Classics of Science Fiction"
Thanks!

For Allan, & anyone else interested:
My 100 (or so) Best Ever list, always changing:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Not all SF, and heavy on the shorts, which in my view are the heart of the genre. If you are looking for a Good Read, you could do a lot worse than to pick up a random, new-to-you Years Best SF anthol from your library. The most consistently good were edited by the late Gardner Dozois, who published 35 of these before his untimely death. Dozois, if you are new to him, also edited Asimov's SF magazine for many years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardner...
He died in 2018, at age 70. RIP ♰

Brandi wrote: "Sabri wrote: "Hi Armin, I'm also a fan of sci fi which explores culture and the human condition. Some big-hitters for me in the past few years have been:

- Philip K Dick's short stories. To slight..."

Hi Brandi. I'm not really in a position to tell, since I have read only few short stories from PKD (I have so much to read yet :). But there are 5 volumes of collected stories of Philip K. Dick, which I see as a good starting point.

Want a mind blower? Try The Library at Mount Char. It is both excellent and will leave you amazed.

A true piece of literature? Read Never Let Me Go. when you finally realize what is actually happening, you will be horrified because it all seems so normal.

Papaphilly wrote: "Want a mind blower? Try The Library at Mount Char. It is both excellent and will leave you amazed...."

I'm with you on that one.

Peter wrote: "That's... Not a bad list. I'd have a different one -- but I've been reading SF for, hrm, 50+ years now? Yikes! It is heavy on the old stuff, but hey, just what it says on the wrapper:
"The Classics of Science Fiction"

Agreed, that version is heavy on old classics, but in GR groups, I've branched out and read a lot more recent stuff, though for some random reason I've not read a lot in the 90's.

Your list is interesting and eclectic; I don't think I've read very many of those books or shorts. I do keep a GR list of favorites, but I reserve that lofty status for very few absolute choices. Maybe I need a broader "best of" shelf.

Just notice that All Flesh is Grass by Clifford D. Simak is on sale for $1.99 at Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Google, and Kobo. I highly recommend this book. It is quite inventive and I loved it.

Here is list of my own favorites:

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
A Canticle for Leibowitz- Walter Miller jr.
House On the Borderland - William Hope Hodgson
Day of the Triffids (complete & unabridged) - John Wyndham
The Alien - L.P. Davies
I, Robot- Isaac Asimov
Childhood’s End - Arthur C. Clarke
Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein
City - Clifford D. Simak
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series - Douglas Adams
Stainless Steel Rat series - Harry Harrison
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Crash - J.G. Ballard
Victim/Hunter series - Robert Sheckley
Alone Against Tomorrow- Harlan Ellison plus other books by him!

Steven: Excellent list.