Hello there!
I love fantasy and sci-fi books that is set in unique worlds that's completely different to our own with very weird cultures and peoples/creatures. I'm looking for something similar to works from China Mieville (Perdido Street Station), Martha Wells (The Books of the Raksura), Kameron Hurley (Worldbreaker Saga, The Stars Are Legion), and Ursula K. Le Guin (The Left Hand of Darkness).
by EssyTheSlug
19 Comments
Have you heard of Pandora’s Star, by Peter F. Hamilton?
The Wandering Inn Pirate Aba
The Broken Earth Series by NK Jemisen
*The Library of Broken Worlds* by Alaya Dawn Johnson!
Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone starts out mundane but takes a hard left into weird.
The Realm of the ELderings, Robin Hobb
Lifelode by Jo Walton is set in a world where if you travel in one direction time speeds up and magic gets stronger, but if you go in the other direction time slows down and magic gets weaker.
The Darkangel Trilogy by Merideth Ann Pierce is set on the moon with an entire fantasy culture.
Piranesi by Susannah Clarke is set in the House which is probably infinite and stuffed full of white marble statues, fish, seaweed, an ocean that has unpredictable tides that sweep through the House, and birds.
Not entirely convinced that this is what you’re looking for, but I am going to suggest ‘A Canticle for Leibowitz’ by Walter M. Miller Jr
Set in a Catholic monastery in the desert of the southwestern United States after a devastating nuclear war, the book spans thousands of years as civilization rebuilds itself. The monks of the Albertian Order of Leibowitz preserve the surviving remnants of man’s scientific knowledge until the world is again ready for it.
It is considered a classic of science fiction and won the Hugo award for best novel in 1961.
The Sparrow, Diamond Age, Tress of the Emerald Sea, Roots of Chaos
A Fisherman of the Inland Sea by Ursula LeGuin has some very unusual worldbuilding, such as a society where people live under giant domes.
Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council are all great.
**The Vorrh** by B. Catling. If you really want weird, surreal, myth-soaked, non-human, and dreamlike, this is the closest you can get to Mieville. Hope this helps!
The Lilith saga/Xenogenesis by Octavia Butler!
titus groan
The Elantra series by Michelle Sagara
Have you come across Larry Niven’s Known Space? It’s a bunch of short stories from around the 70s set in a shared world with some interesting creatures. Neutron Star is a good starting point!
Ilium
&
Olympus – Dan Simmons
Heroes Die – Matthew Stover
The Fire Dancer series by Anne Maxwell. Unfinished but still worth reading.
*Dhalgren* by Samuel R. Delany.
Someone mentioned *Diamond Age.* I think Stephenson’s books *Snow Crash* and *Anathem* fit the bill, too.
Max Gladstone’s *Craft Sequence* series is excellent. Starts with *Three Parts Dead*.
Dan Simmons’ *Hyperion Cantos* books are quite good, with an unusual setting.