Anyone have some really good Science Fiction Book recommendations?

Kim Stanley Robinson: Red, Green, Blue Mars

Each to their own, but personally I'm not sure that I would recommend this trilogy to someone looking for well written action. The first book is certainly good but I found the second and particularly the third to be rather less gripping.
 
To combine 2 genres, sci-fi and crime, I can wholeheartedly recommend Asimov’s Elijah Bailey/R. Daneel Olivaw books. The Caves of Steel; The Naked Sun; The Robots of Dawn; Robots and Empire.

Also to combine sci-fi and nautical I can also wholeheartedly recommend The Mote in God’s Eye.
 
If you haven't read them already then it sounds as though David Feintuch's Midshipman's Hope (The Seafort Saga) would be right up your street. I read them some years ago and found the series to be a page turner. Would second the recommendation for Peter F Hamilton and also to check out some Niven/Niven and Pournelle (e.g. Ring World, Footfall, Mote in God's Eye). Another author I used to like was Philip José Farmer, such as the Riverworld series.
Spot on with the Seafort saga recommendation. I have read them on paperback, also have the set on the kindle wishlist for a while too, but the prices don't shift so not re acquired yet.

Have a fair amount of hamilton and read the niven / pournelle dyson ring books.

Not familiar with Philip José Farmer, do will check that out.
 
That's more of a testament to R C Bray, he can make any audio book sound good :)

You've obviously never listened to this then..

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Audible-In...swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1658063111&sr=8-1

Not even the mighty R C Bray can rescue this steaming pile of hot garbage..It was so bad I had to stop after a couple of hours, and I've never heard R C Bray sound so bored and disillusioned as he so obviously was, narrating this. I can only assume he was contractually bound to do it.
 
Ok, gonna dump a load from my kindle list, ignoring those already mentioned.

Orson Scott Card: Ender's Game
James S. A. Corey: The Expanse series
Evan Currie: Odyssey Series
Hugh Howey: Wool Trilogy
Marko Kloos: Frontlines Series
Cixin Lui: The Three-Body Problem
Richard Morgan: Altered Carbon
Alastair Reynolds: Revelation Space series
Kim Stanley Robinson: Red, Green, Blue Mars

Some great books in here. I've read most of these (love the Marko Kloos books, Evan Currie is good pulp). Looked into the wool series and while the ratings are good, there are a few that didn't like it - do you know how many stars you gave it?

Each to their own, but personally I'm not sure that I would recommend <red, green, blue mars> trilogy to someone looking for well written action. The first book is certainly good but I found the second and particularly the third to be rather less gripping.

I appear to own red mars, but don't recall having read it, so will give that a go, but maybe not worth the getting the rest of the series.

It may be worth trying some of the Peter F Hamilton books, possibly try "A second chance at Eden" first as it's short stories with a link to his first big Trilogy (the Confederation/Nights Dawn Trilogy which starts off with The Reality Dysfunction), whilst his Commonwealth books are from memory a standalone prequal type thing, a duo (Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained), then a trilogy set later, then another duology.

They can take some getting into, but they are very good imo.

I've read quite a bit of Peter f Hamilton, although probably 15/20 years ago now. I have grabbed some of his stuff again as ebooks, so could re-read the void trilogy, commonwealth saga and salvation series among a few others.

Have also wishlisted the following from the recommendations:
  • The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
  • Spinward Fringe by Randolph Lalonde
 
Each to their own, but personally I'm not sure that I would recommend this trilogy to someone looking for well written action. The first book is certainly good but I found the second and particularly the third to be rather less gripping.
I wasn't recommending action, I was recommending scifi as requested.
 
Some great books in here. I've read most of these (love the Marko Kloos books, Evan Currie is good pulp). Looked into the wool series and while the ratings are good, there are a few that didn't like it - do you know how many stars you gave it?

  • Spinward Fringe by Randolph Lalonde
I really liked Wool, I'd have given it 4 or 5 stars, but I am quite easy to please lol, Spinward Fringe is a good shout too, don't be put off by the errors in the first book (maybe they've been fixed since I read it last?) though.
 
My decent reads:-

Hell Divers

Peace and War / The Forever War

Bobiverse

The Silo Saga, and it's spin-offs.

The Nexus Series

Old Man's War
 
Agree with the Seafort Saga reccomendation (even got a signed copy of Fisherman's Hope), but IMHO they get considerably weaker in the last 2-3 books.
The entire religion / duty thing also gets a little wearing if reading the whole lot in order.

Peter F Hamilton is also a good shout, but he can have an awful lot of wheels spinning at any given time, which sometimes makes things somewhat confused. The latest lot (Salvation Sequence) has this problem in spades- basically he's getting too clever for his own good :)

Cixin Lui isn't at all bad, but all his work really suffers from translation / cultural issues, which push it from great to just good in my eyed.

Other thoughts-
Try the Crystal Singer trilogy by Anne McCaffrey. This is self-contained, and is IMHO some of her better work. Closer to light reading, but very good.

Elizabeth Moon's Vatta series is another one to try- Again I think some of her better work.
Wouldn't necessarily rank her close to Hamilton, Asimov etc. but rather decent light reading.

Really offbeat / less known would be the Song of Phaid the Gambler by Mick Farren (Doesn't even appear to be available as an eBook), but absolutely worth trying, although may be marmite.

Probably read *everything* in this thread and a lot more ranging from utter dross to quite decent.
At the end of the day though, best thing I can say is experiment.
Something I've read and liked might be nowhere to your tastes, but restricting yourself never gets you anywhere :)
 
Other thoughts-
Try the Crystal Singer trilogy by Anne McCaffrey. This is self-contained, and is IMHO some of her better work. Closer to light reading, but very good.

Elizabeth Moon's Vatta series is another one to try- Again I think some of her better work.
Wouldn't necessarily rank her close to Hamilton, Asimov etc. but rather decent light reading.
Crystal Singer and it's sequels hold up really well, better in some regards than many of the better known classics.*

Elizabeth Bear's White Space books are very good although, Ancestral Night being about a small ship with a salvage/rescue crew whilst Machine is set in the same timeframe/universe is about basically a rescue/ambulance type ship that rather amusingly dealt with a sort of outbreak and was published in 2020 (pure coincidence, I think I'd had it on pre-order for a year). I'm really looking forward to the next book.



*I was going through a stage of rereading a lot of McCaffrey's works a few years back.
 
Asimov's Foundation series is a must at some point.
Alfred Bester's Tiger! Tiger! (also later called The Stars My Destination)

Both are old books now so may seem quite dated. But the stories are considered classics.

Kim Stanley Robinson: Red, Green, Blue Mars
Also this.
 
Yeah Dune is okay. But it does go on and on and on :) First book is great though. Good enough on it's own.

Ray Bradbury is good. As is Kurt Vonnegut. I like writers who write other types of fiction rather than just sci-fi. That said, I do like Asimov, AC Clarke, William Gibson and Philip K Dick who are all mainly if not totally sci-fi.

I miss reading books. My eyes have started to go and I'm resisting getting reading glasses.
 
I, too, miss reading. Used to read every night before sleeping.
My wife, however, likes to watch TV in bed and I can't read with the TV on. Too distracting. Only time I read now is when on holiday.
 
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