So a little bit of back story first. My wife and I are currently in 2 separate time zones for the next little bit due to work obligations. It’s already been awhile and trying to watch tv shows together at the same time has been successful but difficult. Lately we decided to start reading the same books together and discussing them at night. It has been great and like our own little book club. Here is the only catch…I like sci-fi and history books mainly, and she likes mystery and romance books. Also, buying two copies of each book is expensive so we use the local libraries (yes…they still have those lol). However, since we are using the library selection is a little more limited than Amazon.
I let her pick the last two books and it’s finally my time to pick something sci-fi but she doesn’t like sci-fi that much. So I wanted to find something that was a gentle introduction. I was thinking Kurt Vonnegut because it’s not really Science Fiction, it just has some elements of Science-Fiction. Which should I suggest for her to read? It’s been around 20 years or so since I’ve read a Vonnegut book myself so it will be nice for the refresher for me as well. Or is there another sci-fi book that I should suggest?
by MajorPotential6468
8 Comments
I’m not a sci-fi fan, but read Ready Player One with my teen and really enjoyed it. If your wife doesn’t like video games-then maybe not. Just throwing it out there.
Project Hail Mary. I am not a sci-fi fan and this book is one of my all time favorite reads. I have encouraged many people to read it and everyone loves it.
I am not much of a Sci-Fi reader, but I read the Murderbot Diaries recently and loved them so much. I recently just started Ancillary Justice and I am really liking it so far. I don’t think either series is anywhere close to Kurt Vonnegut in style, then again of his works I only read Slaughterhouse Five.
Maybe literary sci-fi
Station 11
Semiosis
Cloud Atlas (fun read too)
The Book of Strange New Things
Under the Skin (fun read too)
Never Let Me Go
Themis Files series by Sylvain Neuvel might work for you. There’s a lot of mystery/thriller elements. Excellent writing.
The Martian is a good one, it reads a lot like a castaway story.
The Lord of Light by R. Zelazny could tickle her ‘mystery’ nerve — and if you haven’t read it, become your new all time favorite.
Cat’s Cradle might be the Vonnegut to go with.
I run an indie imprint and our debut novel is a romance-grounded scifi blend. It’s A Million Tomorrows by Kris Middaugh and it’s free on KU and it should be available on some of those library apps. Ebook version is pretty cheap and available pretty much everywhere — Amazon, B&N, Apple …