Started reading 10 years ago with Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson and haven't stop. But I realised recently, that although I read plenty of non-fiction, every fiction book I've ever read has been sci-fi or fantasy.
To some degree it's been a conscious choice as these stories are so appealing to me for world building and lore, but the realisation was a surprising one.
Stories that aren't sci-fi fantasy just seem boring to me. What books would prove me wrong? I like philosophical themes, examination of complex characters, and mystery/intrigue with satisfying pay offs.
Will stress the "fiction" point as I'm not interested in any biographies, true crime or history as I prefer these in other mediums.
by 6AM-Mimosa
12 Comments
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You could go to horror with a Stephen King short story collection or historic fiction with Bernard Cornwell. If you want action, Lee Child’s Reacher books are fun.
Mysteries. Start with Agatha Christie. Sherlock Holmes actually sucks. Skip.
Also historical fiction like the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian. Wooden Ships. Iron Men. Napoleonic Wars. Excellent.
also read a lot of SFF. have you done much multi-genre as a branching point? horror is an easy transition if you want to stay in spec fic (i’d class most of stephen king under urban fantasy tbh). romantasy is huge right now, as is cozy fantasy. plenty of sci-fi mysteries and existential horrors out there too.
if you want to stick to the real world, mystery novels are a great place to start. a lot of agatha christie is in the public domain now, for example.
Of Mice and Men. Great story. Easy enough to read. Not a long book. I normally read fantasy and Steinbeck is my main ‘go to’, outside of that genre.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Stephen Hunter Bob Lee Swagger series,
James R. Benn Billy Boyle series,
Douglas Preston& Lincoln Child
Jane Eyre – Jane Austen books. She is such a wonderful writer! The stories just flow and the conversations are wonderful. My favorite Jane Austen book is Persuasion
I feel like horror, mystery/thriller, and historical fiction could be up your alley from what you’re saying.
The Reformatory by Tananarive Due is historical horror with supernatural elements set in a reformatory in 1950s Florida.
Lone Women by Victor Lavalle is also a historical horror with supernatural elements set in 1910s Montana.
The Old Woman With the Knife by Gu Byeong-mo is a Korean thriller about an old lady assassin.
The Silence of Bones by June Hur is technically YA but very readable as an adult, even if YA isn’t typically your jam. It’s a dark historical mystery set in Korea in 1800.
The Alewives by Elizabeth R. Andersen is a historical mystery set in medieval Europe after the Black Death.
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice is a literary post-apocalyptic horror/thriller set in northern Canada just as the power goes out.
Read some Kurt Vonnegut. Some of his stuff is sci fi-ish but a lot isn’t.
{{Catch-22}}
{{Infinite jest}}
{{brave new world}}
{{blood meridian}}
Anything by Chuck palahniuk- {{invisible monsters}}
{{the adventures of huckleberry Finn}}
{{battle royale}}
{{between two fires}}
Sometimes, a fantasy or sci-fi author will branch out and do a regular fiction book. One recent book that I enjoyed a lot was Jason Pargin’s I’m Starting To Worry About This Black Box of Doom, a contemporary comedic thriller with no fantasy or sci-fi involved, just our modern technology. The author’s fantasy/sci-fi books include the John Dies at the End series (written under the pseudonym David Wong) and the Zoey Ashe series.