Any fiction suggestions for a somewhat picky reader? The Expanse lasted me a long while but I’m finishing up the novellas now and need to start looking for something new. Not necessarily in the same genre.
I don’t have a lot of books under my belt as an adult, but some of my favorites have been Stoner by John Williams, Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts, East of Eden, Catch 22, Flowers for Algernon, and Harry Potter. Kind of all over the place I guess. 😅
I’ve also enjoyed John Williams’ other novels, Piranesi, The Things They Carried, House of Leaves, and Ender’s Game and the sequel.
Some books I didn’t really care for include Hitchhiker’s Guide (although I loved the first half), Lolita, Sharp Objects, Turtles All the Way Down, The Stand, The Road, 1984, and Fahrenheit 451.
I’m always overwhelmed trying to find something new, so thanks for any suggestions!
EDIT: Thank you all! It’ll be a bit daunting exploring all these new books but not nearly as daunting as if I had no guidance, so I really appreciate it!
I’ve started reading The Culture novels by Iain M. Banks. It’s space opera on a much larger scale than The Expanse, but I’m thoroughly entertained .
If you enjoyed the mystery part of the expanse I recommend Beacon 23.
Pandoras star and Judas unchained are great.
One series I haven’t seen recommended yet is Alastair Reynolds novels. Revelation Space is a wonderful series, and if you want to start with a standalone story House of Suns and Diamond Dogs are great choices.
For lighter reading there’s also the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells.
There’s other older series that may appeal to you: Vatta’s War and Vorkosigan Saga conf to mind.
+1 for Murderbot!
The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson is good.
The entire Sanderson cosmere has been enjoyable IMHO.
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The Aubrey/Maturin series. Now you might think you’d hate a series of 20 novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars because when I finally gave in to my friends constant pressure to read them, so did I. I was wrong, they are brilliant. Very well written and often very, very funny. The movie Master & Commander is based on two or three of them. It’s like if Star Trek was set in the 19th century and on an actual ship.
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The Wolf Hall trilogy. Everyone thinks they know the story of Anne Boleyn and Henry, but this trilogy is unique - set from Cromwell’s perspective.
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Farseer trilogy. Fantasy fiction done right.
A glass of wine with you sir!
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I’m a big fan of modern epic fantasy. I highly recommend Stormlight Archive and The Kingkiller Chronicles. Sanderson and Rothfuss are easy to read and enjoy.
This is like the sixth time I’ve had Stormlight Archives recommended to me by random strangers. Maybe it’s time to look into those.
Brandon Sanderson is awesome. I recommend starting with the mystborn books, but stormlight are good as well. They’re both part of the cosmere, a universe created by Sanderson. Many other books as well.
Stormlight Archives can be daunting to those not familiar with Sanderson’s works, especially since the books are long (1000+ pages) and the first book is setting up a long 10-book series (plus other stuff from a wider universe).
If you’d like something smaller and standalone to try first, check out “Emperor’s Soul” (novella) or Warbreaker (novel).
Sanderson himself recommends ‘Tress of the Emerald Sea’ as a short work to get a feel for his style. I agee.
Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Final Architecture trilogy ticks a lot of the same boxes as the Expanse. A blue collar crew of misfits from different factions gets caught in the center of a galaxy-spanning fight for survival.
Larry Niven Ringworld
Just reread Ringworld. It’s really good given it’s age. Engineers is okay. Throne is no.
The ironic thing is, the more you like the first book, the less you will like the sequels.
Ian M. Banks’s Culture series is pretty good sci-fi.
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
Great series, I just wish they were longer
You could finish the rest of the enders game universe, it’s a really interesting read
The author is problematic if that sort of thing bothers you.
This thread makes me wonder why printSF isn’t more active on Lemmy. One of the few subs I still visit reddit for.
Neal Stephenson has a few good SF books (seveneves comes to mind) and some good alt history (cryptonomicon).
I just finished re-reading the three body problem series and it’s still good too.
I would suggest The Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds. One of my favourite scifi series. Others include the Hyperion series and the Dune series. I would also like to mention a series which is not that well-known but I enjoyed it: the suneater series.
