Hi everyone!
I recently got into sci-fi and honestly had no idea what i was missing
I want a book that takes a big crazy idea and just runs with it completely. The kind where you're reading and thinking wait this could actually happen and it scares you a little. I've read.. Dune ,The martian, Ready player One
Now I need something that goes deeper. Something that messes with my head a little. Something I'll still be thinking about a month later. Drop your favorites below.. Open to anything
by Odd_Choice9642
9 Comments
Blindsight by Peter Watts
The Three Body Problem trilogy by Cixin Liu.
Since you loved **The Martian**, why not continue with Andy Weir’s other work? **Artemis** was merely alright IMO, but I think anyone who liked **The Martian** will also like his **Project Hail Mary**.
I have a few other suggestions if you’re keen on branching out:
The **”Three-Body Problem” series by Liu Cixin (3 books)**: It opens as an exploration of would happen on Earth if we found out that in a few hundred years, aliens will arrive here and basically conquer or exterminate humanity. He goes over some incredibly interesting (if also idealistic) ideas of how all humanity would coordinate and prepare a defensive response to such a threat. But then on book 2 (the weakest, but still has some interesting parts), and especially on book 3 (genuinely mind-blowing), you truly *feel* that the universe is unfathomably vast and incomprehensibly old. The ideas he explores in book 3 are just astounding.
The writing isn’t very good, and the characters are mostly flat as cardboard, and yet I found myself completely hooked, and would recommend it to anyone just on the strength of the ideas he so ably explores.
His short story collection **”The Wandering Earth”** was also really good, and I quite liked his standalone novel **”Ball Lightning”**.
**”The Thing Itself” by Adam Roberts**: If we had been born with orange-tinted glasses, we’d think that the universe is orange-tinted. What if we are born with time- and space-tinted glasses, and what we think is real, absolute time and space, is actually just a layer standing atop *actual, absolute* reality? *The Thing Itself*?
There is a kind of adventure/thriller part of this that I personally didn’t quite appreciate, but again, the ideas explored here are just *fascinating*, as is the rich prose (there is even a Ulysses-like soliloquy thrown in). Incredibly original, thought-provoking stuff that will have you scratching your brain for some time after.
**1984 by George Orwell**: Oldie but goldie. I read it in 2009 and still think about it all the time today. Orwell describes a totalitarian society, with several echoes that you’ll find in the real world today. A great story set in an utterly horrifying dystopian world, where he describes the actual mechanisms by which a State might oppress its people, and indeed by which people may inadvertently oppress each other. One of my all-time favourite books, and in my view one of the most important books ever written.
**”Exhalation: Stories” by Ted Chiang**: A short-story collection by a true master of the form. Ted Chiang writes sci-fi with a wonderful human touch. To me, sci-fi isn’t about robots and lasers, but about human nature. Ted Chiang poses the most fascinating “what ifs”, and explores them beautifully. What if you could have true, perfect memory? What if we knew for a fact that God, Heaven, and Hell were real? What if you could see the world that *wasn’t*, but for some small change, like if you had taken this job instead of that one, or married instead of breaking up with someone?
How would *people, humans* behave in such situations?
His other collection, “Stories of Your Life and Others”, is also excellent, I personally just happened to like this one more. But it’s basically a toss-up, can’t go wrong with either.
**”The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.” by Nicole Galland and Neal Stephenson:** A hilarious time-travel story, told through diary entries, internal corporate chats and emails, and similar devices. There’s a backbone of hard sci-fi, as the characters must grapple with the actual mechanics of time-travel, how it affects the future, how to protect oneself in the past… and it’s just so funny and entertaining. A sadly overlooked gem!
Happy reading! Let us know what you end up picking up.
Six Times H – a collection of short stories by Robert Heinlein
Most of Ursula LeQuin and Philip k. Dick books.
LeQuin is basically a philosopher and uses sci-fi (and fantasy) as an outlet for this. She has really unique perspective and all her book
My favs:
Lathe of Heaven,
The Left Hand of Darkness,
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
Philip k Dick: I think he is the intellectual source for Black mirror. Really fucks up your reality
My favs:
The Man in the High Castle,
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
Any of Ted Chiang’s short story collections! He is SO good at this.
*The Vanished Birds* by Simon Jimenez also lodged in my brain and my heart. Gorgeous, huge, sad. About a spaceship captain travelling at relativistic speeds and leaving the world behind every time she does, and a boy with a strange power that could alter reality.
*Too Like the Lightning* by Ada Palmer thrives on crazy big ideas.
“Bloodchild” by Octavia Butler is chilling and classic.
Live Suit by James SA Corey (The authors of The Expanse, which is a must read).
It’s a short novella as part of their new series and it stuck with me for weeks after reading about it.
Solaris
*The Mote in God’s Eye* by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle