I’ve basically been ordered to pick up any fiction book and read, after a friend discovered I’ve not read anything but non-fiction for a decade.
The ones I’ve enjoyed in the past have been short, fantastical or sci-fi (think Aldous Huxley, Ian McEwan), but crucially with amazing first person descriptive prose - the kind where you’re immersed in the writing so much you’re almost there with the character.
I liked sci-fi as the world’s constraints weren’t always predictable. Hope that makes sense.
Any recommendations?
Edit: I’m going to up the ante and, as a way of motivating myself to get off my arse and actually read a proper story, promise to choose a book from the top comment, after, let’s say arbitrarily, Friday 2200 GMT.
Edit deux: Wow ok I don’t think I’ve ever had this many responses to anything I’ve posted before. You’ve given me what looks like a whole year of interesting suggestions, and importantly, good commentary around them. I’m honouring my promise to buy the top thing in just under 4 hours.
Haven’t seen this one mentioned, but The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin might work. I don’t believe there’s a lot of first person, but it’s an interesting read.
IMO this is a wild recommendation to give to someone that doesn’t do a lot of reading.
That’s fair, I had thought op had mentioned they didn’t read fiction, not that they didn’t read at all. Maybe I missed some nuance in the comments, thanks for pointing it out if I did. For all I knew they could be reading Foucault. Enjoyable read regardless, I wouldn’t be discouraged.
Adding to the pile.
Peter Watts. Most of his works are available on his site for free - https://www.rifters.com/real/shorts.htm
Greg Egan. Start with Diaspora.
Alastair Reynolds. I recommend starting with short fiction in Revelation Space and looping back to main novels. I accidentally approached it that way, and the experience of all the stories linking together was downright magical.
Charles Stross’ “Neptune Brood” explores the idea of debt under the guise of a space opera-ish action. Afterwards, Glasshouse and linked books will present a different existential crysis to mull over.
Cory Doctorow’s Little brother is an excellent book to follow 1984 with. And a great start to the rest of his biography.
N. K. Jemisin’s “Broken earth” was quite a treat, prose- and story-wise.
Ann Lecke’s “Imperial Radch” is a brain-twister, especially for someone whose native language is gendered all throughout. It was fun giving up on information I’m used to have in words.
Pierce Brown’s “Red rising” has one of the best flowing prose I’ve read. Do mind that the story was initially planned to be a trilogy, and it clearly shows in narration.
Mark Lawrence’s everything. “Power word kill” is a great play around DnD, and “The broken empire” has the most loathsome protagonist you’ll ever root for.
Cordwainer Smith
You might try some of Azimovs short stories. For a bit more meat you might try Frederik Pohls Hee Chee saga. Book 1 was great.
I’d recommend The Martian.
It’s hard sci fi and the writing style is quite similar to nonfiction so it should be a fairly fast read for you.
I’d also recommend grabbing a book of Philip K Dick short stories.
I tried to go for quick reads. The top 3 recommendations (all novellas, but incredible) would be
Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman Or All Systems Red by Martha Wells (already mentioned by others too) Or A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
And 2 honorable mentions that are longer: Thief by Margaret Whalen Turner The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
Most of the novellas in The Murderbot Diaries are short. If you like the first one, the rest are more of the same. And if you don’t, you only invested a little time.
It’s definitely not short, but The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey is absolutely top notch.
The attention to detail that goes into a sci-fi series that lives within a realistic world, with actual physics is incredible - i.e:
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Ships need to calculate when to flip around midway through their journey to decelerate by burning the opposite direction.
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Torpedoes and tungsten slugs have travel time.
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Making hard accelerations or evasive maneuvers can and will crush you into your flight seat due to the intense G forces and the only way to not black out is a cocktail of stimulants, adrenaline, and blood thinners
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Communications take place at actual light speed, which means when you’re dealing with distances up to several hundred million kilometers, it can take anywhere from minutes to hours for your message to be received.
But fear not! This is truly a traditional sci-fi novel, packed full with ancient alien substances that seem to reprogram human cells for their own use - but to what end? Ancient feuds between those born in space, and those born on a planet. And the answer to the age old question: why not just use asteroids as weapons?
The main characters are an extremely close knit group, who it seems at times get by on sheer willpower and a touch of luck (with some excellent planning).
The story takes turns being told from different characters’ perspectives, which really helps you get to know each character intimately - how they think, and feel about the events unfolding - how their morality affects their choices.
If you’re looking for a more “realistic” take on sci-fi, this series is absolutely up your alley.
The first novel is called “Leviathan’s Wake” and there are 9 main books in the series, with a smattering of novellas between that expand on the world.
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I know you’ve been recommended a lot of books.
Like you I only ever read non-fiction.
Then someone gave me a copy of Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut.
You might like a lot of his work. It’s not exactly fiction and not exactly non-fiction.
Anyway, good luck on your adventure! You are doing something brave and interesting. Let us know how you get on.
I tend to be a slow reader and it can take me a long time to finish a book, but Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road are two books that gripped me such that I basically spent every waking moment reading the book until I finished (I think in both cases I finished the books in less than 24 hours).
Slow readers are my favourite humans.
They don’t race through a book, but instead the stroll, taking time to look around, think things through, ponder the future and reason the implications. Sometimes they just rest for a while, letting the story mull in their mind, before returning later.
Genuinely have so much time for people that take it slow with books.
That’s an interesting perspective, as I have always felt insecure for being a slow reader. I feel like people in my world see it as a sign of being less intelligent, and while I would like to think slower reading helps with my comprehension, I also just feel like it’s not much of a choice for me (I mean, the alternative to slow reading for me would be something other than reading, like scanning; it seems people who can read faster than me are somehow also more competent or intelligent).
People lie about how much they read and how quickly they read. I saw one guy online list his yearly reading and if you totalled up the words in those books he’d be breaking records.
People lie because they want people to think they are smart. But reading quickly isn’t an indicator of intelligence any more so than people that watch videos at four times the speed.
Retention and comprehension are far more important, but still secondary to enjoyment.
If you enjoy how you read and what you read, don’t let anyone tell you that you are doing it wrong.
That seems like a wholesome perspective, thanks for sharing it!
People lie because they want people to think they are smart.
I remember when I was amazed by my grandmother who could finish a whole novel in a few sittings across a day or two when she would come and stay with us. I once mustered up the courage to ask her how she learned to read so quickly, and she explained that she doesn’t actually read every word, but just scans for major plot points. I felt silly, and unsure how to respond - it seemed to me she wasn’t reading, but I didn’t want to imply that. lol
She wasn’t trying to appear smart, I think she just didn’t want to suffer the boring parts, so she scanned ahead to the juicy bits. That’s such an interesting and different way of approaching reading than I have, I’ve only recently started to skip an introduction or preface if it didn’t seem crucial to the book, something I would have previously considered antisocial or rougish, haha.
Oh yeah, I’m not shaming anyone who skims, read however you enjoy.
I just know that there’s more of a weird stigma for slower readers.
Same goes for finishing books. I know some folk will stick with a book even if they aren’t enjoying it, mostly because they’ve learnt that as part of their education.
I abandon books all the time. Life’s a little too short, so I treat reading like the radio… A song comes on that I’m not into, just flip over and see what else is put there.
That said, I’ve returned to books that I bailed on and in some cases I really enjoyed them at the second attempt. Which makes me think that you have to be in the right place sometimes. Still, it’s no reflection on intelligence.
All good points! I have the same tendency to pick up and drop books based on mood and what’s going on in my life. I recently just picked back up Sapolsky’s A Primate’s Memoir which I had abandoned years ago after reading roughly the first half. Picking it back up, I enjoyed it so thoroughly I became a bit avid in my reading and finished the rest of the book in a week or so (which is rather fast paced for me).
I like the metaphor of reading being like listening to the radio. I often feel guilty for dropping books or not powering through (there are many, many books I have read the first quarter or so of and shelved with the intention to finish another time). Probably healthier to have a more free and less “driven” mindset towards reading books.
Sometimes I drop a book because I enjoy it so much I don’t want it to end, I want it to always be there and to relish it later. This is a bit silly - there are always other books, but I also will forget the plot over time and eventually the book will be enough like new that I can enjoy re-reading it.
@foofiepie@lemmy.world Iain M Banks books are always a treat, and I mean the Culture ones
Nation by Terry Pratchett. It’s a beautiful and introspective book that has all of STP’s humor, humanity and insight but it’s completely self contained. I read it recently and wanted to read it again right away.
Have you read The Martian by Andy Weir?
Diamond hard sci-fi told mostly through the main character’s personal log. First time I read it, I couldn’t put it down, I read the whole thing in one sitting.
I’d like to add The Hail Mary Project by Weir as I recommended The Martian to a friend looking for sci-fi but he couldn’t get into it because it’s a little harder on the science and less on character development, although I personally agree it’s a great recommendation for immersive writing.
The Hail Mary Project might have more immediate emotional character connection if the Martian feels a little dry.
This, and Artemis too. Basically anything by Andy Weir at this point.
Really? I actually don’t know his history. Was Martian his first one or just his breakout hit? Are all of his later novels more character driven like Hail Mary project?
I like realistic science fiction a lot, but I need some more characterization and plots to really get into it like I did with the Hail Mary project.
If anyone stumbles on this thread, check out the mote in god’s eye for some amazing characterization and hard science fiction.
He did some short format writing, but The Martian was his first published novel, I think. He was a software engineer before that.
Artemis follows the same pattern of a capable main protagonist solving problems, so it is not very different from the other books in terms of characters, but it is much better in character depth and development than The Martian.
Awesome, thanks, I’ll check it out
I’m going to suggest The Murderbot Diaries. It starts off with the few short novellas before they’re being a full length novel. You can finish the novellas in a few hours and you will be hungry to get into the full length novel. Get them off www.libgen.is
First one is called All Systems Red by Martha Wells Followed by: Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy, Compulsory(just a super short origin story), Network Effect(full novel), Home(four short stories), Fugitive Telemetry, System Collapse (another novel)
I think this would let you break into some really good offbeat sci-fi with some novellas first. Then some full-on novels all within the same universe.
I think so far the Vonnegut is the best recommendation for you. And not sci-fi but Catch-22 by Joseph Heller might also be a good fit. A lot of these suggestions are really good books, but not as pithy and gripping as I think you might be looking for. But more data is needed, any favorite movies?
Ooh difficult question.
The John Woo movie ‘Cypher’ was a great mind bender, I like stuff like Gattaca, Day After Tomorrow(?), anything that plays with time and reality.
Not really sci-fi, but shirt and very good: Fictions/Ficciones and Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges. Also, Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino.
