I've been wanting to read new books and give a chance to new fiction, but whenever I try to find suggestions, I end up with teenage love stories or furry romance, which is really not my cup of tea.
I usually enjoy reading sci-fi (Ender's Game and Asimov's Robot Series are some of my favorites) or horror (Stephen King or Poe, mainly), but I'm open to all kinds of themes. Can anyone help me?
by ariannecarneiro
9 Comments
How new is new? Here’s some from the past few years I have liked:
* The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes
* Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto
* Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
* Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman
* Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle
* The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
* Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White
* The Tyrant Philosophers series by Adrian Tchaikovsky
* Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh. A lot like Ender’s Game.
Why not try one of King’s non-horror books, like ROADWORK?
I really loved Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir! Bit of a sci-fi/fantasy blend, good writing and great characters
Tales from the Gas Station Volume One by Jack Townsend
Will Save the Galaxy for Food by Yahtzee Croshaw
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Dungeon crawler Carl sucked me into its world and made me fall in love with the characters.
It broke my 10 year reading slump, and you will not find a better narrator for the audiobook series either.
It’s recommended all over here for a good reason.
It’s a sci-fi book series, it’ll be 10 in total, 8 books are out now (book 8 in a few days). It’s hard to describe in a way that doesn’t sound unhinged but I’ll try.
For the tone of the books, book 1 feels kind of silly, and by book 7 it’s insane action and heavy narrative.
Book 1 also leans heavily on video game jargon but that really falls away quickly, and I know a TON of non-gamers that are as obsessed with it as I am.
My favorite things about the book series is the character development, it’s absolutely incredible. I’ve laughed and also genuinely cried because of how compelling the characters are. The author does a great job of discarding tropes too which I love, and writes honest and complex characters.
It’s often compared to hitchhikers guide meets hunger games meets maze runner but it’s definitely of its own thing.
I’d highly recommend the audiobooks, a single voice actor does an incredible range of voices, easily exceeding 30-40 voices across the series.
In short, it’s about an alien corporation that seizes earth to mine its mineral resources, and gives the survivors a chance to regain control of earth by completing a challenge course called the world dungeon. The course is 18 floors and is televised to the galaxy which drives profits for the corporation. The protagonist Carl enters the dungeon with his cat who Gains human level intelligence and fights alongside him.
It’s a cool mix of sci-fi – aliens taking over earth, and fantasy – the characters use magic, etc.
Ive listened to the series easily 10 times. The fan base is amazing and the author is kind and engaging. It’s very cool.
I also love this persons take on the author and series:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DungeonCrawlerCarl/s/NjyFFPXFHC
Here’s a list of some of my all time favorites:
Top of the list is “John dies at the end” super weird totally unhinged and will make you laugh and then ask yourself what is wrong with me for laughing at that?
Next is more of an honorable mention cause I assume pretty much every fiction lover has probably read it “Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy” in a word peak but I assume youve probably seen it before.
Next up this book blew me away because its actually something different never been done before and it’s not like anything else you’ve read “there is no antimemetics division” read this it’s good I assure you.
The silmirillion if you enjoyed lord of the rings you WILL enjoy this I actually think it’s better its my favorite of Tolkeins works hands down.
“The amulet of Samarkand” it’s witty it’s charming good for a lazy afternoon.
I don’t know if you’ve been introduced to the Warhammer universe but they have the largest collection of books all connected to the same lore bigger even than what your probably thinking I started with the Fabius Bile trilogy you can sample around the black library collection and just dip your toe in, see if you feel like getting in the water.
If you like a good mystery with some otherworldly/ creepy undertones you may like “diary of the displaced”.
If you like sci Fi space Operas then you will definitely like “Perelandra” (you might wonder why I recommend the second book out of the trilogy before the first it’s because the beginning of the first book is kind of slow).
If you like magic based books try “the choice of magic” I really enjoyed the character development in this one and maybe it’s strongest feature is the dialogue it really adds alot to the story.
If you like magical systems try “sufficiently advanced magic” it has thee most complicated magical systems I’ve ever seen put together it really goes into a lot of detail about it.
If you like books about the dark depressing reality of what happens if people really had magic in the modern day try “the magicians” by Lev Grossman there is also a tv show if you want to get an idea of what the books are like the books are always better but the show did a pretty good job of staying true to the source material.
Last and final book I’m going to recommend on this already probably too long list is “the walls of the universe” by Paul Melko I don’t know if your a fan of multiverse theory it’s been done many times and a lot of it is lazy writing or just not done well. Paul Melko does it right, its hands down the best book I’ve read where the protagonist travels to multiple different universes check this one out for sure! 👍
26 Marks by Scott Beckwith
So this is where Google will help you. Just google best sci fi of a specific year, or best new fiction, or whatever genre you want to branch out to. Guaranteed there’s no furry romance on those lists unless that’s what you’re googling.
There are tons of lists on Goodreads as well. That’ll really allow you to drill down into exactly what you want to read.
The reason I suggest this rather than give you titles is because the same books are going to get recommended. u/Hatherence actually lists books i haven’t seen listed before (well done lol) but everyone will recommend Dungeon Crawler Carl, everyone will recommend King, someone will not read your brief and recommend old as shit books.
I’m going to recommend a sci fi trilogy starting with Nophek Gloss by Essa Hansen. There’s intrigue and politics, fighting, a ship that’s almost sentient, bubble universes some of which are huge and some of which are only a few feet across. Giant ravenous hyena-dog like animals. I really enjoyed this trilogy. It was fun.
Also a quadrilogy? First book is Finder by Suzanne Palmer. Sci fi, main character is a FInder, he literally finds things for people. Intrigue, mystery, found family, aliens. Also lots of fun
Children of Time