Hello all! I’m looking for favorite books that are genre through and through, and contain basically none of the lit fic energy that many love but I do not (introspective characters who are less action-oriented, metaphor-heavy prose, open ended narrative threads, someone is probably depressed). I’m instead constantly in a search for great mysteries, sci-fi, fantasy and other books where the plot progresses and definitely ends with information shared. Ideally books where absolutely no one is depressed. Thank you!
by targaryenmegan
7 Comments
You might like these! These are mostly pulp sci fi:
* Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany. This author’s earlier books are much less literary. His later books are extremely literary. Babel-17 is my personal favourite. If you like this author, consider his earlier books.
* Any of the books by Alan E. Nourse. Some of them are [in the public domain.](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/25579)
* Plague Birds by Jason Sanford
* The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport
* The Sector General series by James White. This is an old series that very much feels like original Star Trek.
* Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle. A sci fi comedy mystery.
* Bang Bang Bodhisattva by Aubrey Wood. A cyberpunk comedy
* Dragon’s Egg by Robert L. Forward. This is very similar to the current massively popular sci fi novel Project Hail Mary.
Voyage of the Damned by Frances White is “a magical gay murder mystery cruise” and is exactly what you’d expect from that description. It’s fun fantasy and doesn’t take itself too seriously, but is still very engaging to read.
You could also try How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler – be warned, it’s quite smutty in places.
Starship troopers by heinlen
The Planet of Adventure quadrilogy by Jack Vance
Roadmarks by Roger Zelazny. It’s about travelers on a highway that goes through time, and the tough guy protagonist has to survive multiple attempts on his life. Kinda trashy, but smart and fun, one of the few books I’ve read three times.
Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart.
Literary fiction is a fake anyways, but you are probably looking at something like Project Hail Mary