I have always hated sci-fi, but I’m trying to change this. Although I can’t quite get past an intense hatred for artificial intelligence focused stories.
I have liked Gideon The Ninth and This Is How You Lose The Time War. I think I prefer queer stories, romance or not. I also like horror aspects, but haven’t been finding that genre super compelling lately either. As a teenager I liked the Illuminae series. I’m not trying to get into a long series right now, stand alones or duologies preferred! Let me know if any more info would be helpful! Thank you!
by FicusTree1103
8 Comments
Wild seed by Octavia Butler (in theory loosely connected to other seed to harvest books but not a series)
The long way to a small angry planet (there are three books in the same universe but they aren’t sequels)
Ender’s game by Scott Card (okay there is a series but I’ve only ever read this one and it’s complete in itself many people read only this)
The host by Meyer
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Never let me go by Ishiguro
Winter’s orbit by Everina Maxwell
The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders is queer and beautifully written. It got me into sci-fi enough to try the Locked Tomb, which are one of my favorite series easily.
Maybe a comedy would work better for you. The Jacques McKeown series by Yahtzee Croshaw – An unemployed star pilot tries to get by in a universe where transporters are a thing. The first book in the series is Will save the galaxy for food.
You might enjoy *Blundsight* by Peter Watts. It’s hard science fiction that gets pretty deep into some pretty deep and dark philosophical questions.
Might be useful to clarify what/why you’ve hated in sci-fi previously. It’s a rather wide genre.
Some books mainly explore unique concepts and future visions, without much story or character development (or rather, the story is there to highlight some interesting/horrifying aspect of that concept/technology). This is especially common in short stories of course, but also Nevula or Hugo award winners.
Other stories are just regular literature, but randomly placed in a space-setting. (Think Star Wars)
I’m guessing that one or the other of these rub you the wrong way.
Short and zero AI? *Flowers for Algernon* or *Little Fuzzy*(Scalzi version) or *Roadside Picnic* might hit for you. That’s a wide net.
Try ‘Old Man’s War’, by John Scalzi
I love Illuminae as a fifty-year-old adult. I would recommend anything from the Grand Masters – Clarke, Asimov, and Heinlein – but if you are preferring stand-alones, I’d recommend Heinlein, in particular Expanded Universe, and The Past Through Tomorrow. These are collections of his short stories he wrote back in the late 40s and early 50s for magazines of the day. Several of the stories are in both books, but both books have stories that are not in the other.
ETA: if you can find copies, the Danny Dunn books are the YA sci-fi of the 60s and 70s and are the books that taught me to love sci-fi as a genre.