Science Fiction

Dune is my favorite novel ever.

Most people outgrow their fascination with fantasy and imagination in adolescence.

I really like science fiction as well but tend more toward the fantasy end of it. Favorites include Bablyon 5 (some awful acting and dated special effects but great stories) and Farscape (Ben Browder's ass in leather pants alone is worth the price of admission). The Expanse, both the books and the television show rank up there for me as well.

Unfortunately I never got into the more realistic (speculative fiction) side of sci fi, The Expanse aside, though maybe some good recommendations will come from this thread.

Just finished the four novellas that make up The Murderbot Diaries so far - fantastic!

The first won the Hugo and nebula and a few other awards for best novella - and they’re just great!

The protag is a corporate security bot - an AI - whose governance module is malfunctioning - but it’s not letting on about that to anyone - just yet. It’s assigned to protect a team doing a geosurvey on a frontier plant when all sorts of stuff starts going wrong. Oh - and just what is the bot’s history exactly? The stuff that’s been deleted from memory...?

It’s great stuff! Just binged all four - one each night! - and will the-read shortly. Such a well-realised universe, cracking pace & plot - cool tech! - and fantastic characters!

By vetaran writer Martha Wells. Can’t recommend highly enough!

I enjoyed The Murderbot Diaries 1&2 a lot. Haven’t read the other two yet as they are oriced absurdly high on Kindle in the UK for some reason. I go through patches of reading sci fi now in my thirties. I tend to prefer the short story anthologies though.

R3 I read the first Expanse novel and liked but didn't love it. I was thinking of trying out the Sci fi series. You might like the Collapsing Empire, that novel reminded me of the Expanse.

If you're looking for good speculative fiction, Foundation is the classic.

Also Ender's game is pretty great

R6 I will check out Collapsing Empire, thanks! Not sure why I avoided Asimov. Time to remedy that.

I liked Ender's Game as a kid and went through the entire series. Speaker for the Dead changed the way I look at funerals and remembering the dead. That said, I will never read or re-read anything from Card again. His deranged and very public anti-gay statements soured me on all of his works.

Ray Bradbury. The master. The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Fahrenheit 451...the list goes on. Also Azimov - I, Robot and the Foundation Trilogy.

I love everything Star Wars. Such rich characters.

Murderbot fan here from earlier -

Agree with the collapsing empire series! At least - loved the first -and about to start on the second. It’s a thinly veiled metaphor on climate change - so good!

A word of warning tho - one of the protagonists curses a lot. A lot. When a friend warned me about this - I thought he was being a bit of a prisspot. But the character is supposed to be this rich heiress - and she’s smart - rebellious - young and beautiful - and full of hormones. She shags and swears and behaves like a stereotypical rich young playboy. Fair enough! But after a couple of chapters of F-bomb overkill - I felt it was too much and like I was under assault. Seeing it CONSTANTLY on the page was ultimately tedious - but after those initial chapters, once he’s established her character - it calms down a lot - and she goes on to become my favourite player.

The author - John Scalzi - his first book - Old Man’s War is great too - recommended! (and as a great view on how American’s post WW2 view of warfare, politics and society - read Heinlein’s Starship Troopers - then Haldeman’s The Forever War - then Scalzi’s Old Man’s War. Militaria Americanum - a perspective through the decades, on various sides of the political spectrum - and through the prism of SF!)

R7 - I know what you mean about Card - loved his early books - and Ender’s Game of course! - but his religious views and opinions on gay people have put me right off...

However - I wonder how we’d have felt if Asimov was still around now. He’d totally have been Metoo-ed with his gropey vile behaviours over the years at sf cons and the like - and suspect that would make a lot of is think differently about consuming his work too.