My favorite authors are Iain Banks and Alastair Reynolds. Effinger, Gibson, Stephensen, Stross and sometimes Doctorow. So I have pretty high standards for authorship style.
But I go on amazon and view page after page after page of books arranged solely by sales figures. So many books that are only arguably scifi at all, (romance/military/horror) or else they are tiresome tropes cranked out in multiples. Or else I’ve read them lol.
I’m starting to get a little desperate for a good book. Help? (also, not big on fantasy fwiw)
by djinnisequoia
5 Comments
I am failing to understand what Amazon has to do with it. A good book is a good book regardless of where it can be sold. “not available on Amazon” is no more a sign of quality than ” only available on Amazon”
Do you want to find something that is specifically not available at all on Amazon?
I’m not sure I understand what you’re going for here but Amazon has so many sellers on it that you’re unlikely to find something with any acclaim that isn’t some new or used on Amazon.
Maybe you’re trying to find a better place to browse for new book recommendations? I’d agree that Amazon isn’t great for book discovery.
That’s what I use reviews, Goodreads and Reddit for.
I highly recommend your local library. Or literally any book retailer that isn’t Amazon. Literally any of them. You can just go to google and type “Books” and you’ll get millions of results.
Oh, wait, here’s an opportunity to remind folks that [OpenLibrary.org](https://OpenLibrary.org) is a free, online public lending library available to anyone, anywhere in the world. You can read books online for free or sign up with an email to download books for offline reading. They also have tons of audio books for the visually impaired and folks who otherwise cant read the scans on a screen. They have millions of titles including new releases, it’s not just old stuff in the public domain. They are an actual library.
Have you read In Ascension by Martin MacInnes? It was Booker short listed so has a literary style but is properly ‘sciency’ science fiction. I thought it was good.
I find if you Google Best Science Fiction and read the lists made by newspapers, magazines and other book sites, and avoid Amazon and Goodreads, you get a wider sense of what’s out there and can discover some new titles. I don’t know what country you’re in but The Guardian (UK) had a list of top SF for 2023 that looked interesting.
I am not a massive scifi/fantasy reader but when I am in the mood, I like checking out Hugo or Nebula awards then skimming down to few options. I have enjoyed a fair bit of especially Hugo’s selection, which also includes a lot of your favourites as well. (My recent favourites are N. K. Jemisin and Cixin Liu/Ken Liu’s books)