There are many fictional books that tell so much truth about humanity, but I would recommend Karel Capek's novels as those aren't very popular nowadays. Particuraly: The "Absolute at Large" and "War with the Newts".
I don't read much fiction myself. "Siddhartha" by Herman Hesse was recommended to me by 3 different people on 3 different occasions, so I decided to read that one. It's a great little book that will make you stop every few pages and think about life.
While I cannot recommend any particular books, I can recommend that you look into the "Hard Science Fiction" genre. They are very realistic, yet still have a cool aspect of fiction. The Wikipedia page for Hard Science Fiction has a list of good books in the genre.
Besides that, off the top of my head, I would say books by Isaac Asimov (Foundation series) or Arthur C. Clarke (Space Odyssey series).
My standing recommendation in the SciFi genre would be any Culture novel by Iain M. Banks. Truly utopian SciFi, and an interesting depiction of a post-labour, post-scarcity, post-human, AI-symbiotic, "human" civilisation.
It's not hard SciFi, but close. Banks really understood that spaceship battles are about mass, velocity and energy, and technobabble doesn't save the day.
I think for "simple" western movies the term was "horse opera", related is "soap opera", but in science-fiction it is not seen as such a negative term anymore and the definition has expanded to cover a wider range of works. Futuristic with not much in the way of technical details, hero figures, grand conflicts is roughly what makes a space opera now, and at least some of Banks' works fit right in there.
Another "hard sci-fi" suggestion: Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. Goes into a lot of detail about some potentially interesting things (moon science and orbital mechanics come to mind), if you enjoy that. I learned that I don't, but still really enjoyed it for the great story.
I'll second someone else's recommendation for The Martian, that was just a really fun read you can just burn through because it is so enjoyable.
If you want another really fun read, Ready Player One was fantastic.
I've also enjoyed the Old Man's War saga, there are 6 books but you can skip book 4 since it is a retelling of book 3 from the POV of another character. This is a space saga and I really like the universe he created.
In the hard sci-fi genre, I really enjoyed The Forever War.
And for just pure world building fantasy, the Game of Thrones books (The song of Ice and Fire series) are some of the best written books I've ever read.
Eh, I'd give it a shot by I quit after the first few chapters. I didn't like the narrator's voice/tone at all and the writing was definitely not my favorite.
Since the theme of procrastination and self-discipline is quite popular on HN, I would recommend OP and everyone here "Oblomov" and "Frigate Pallada" by I.A.Goncharov.
I rarely read fiction, but am loving "Sacre Bleu" by Christopher Moore. If you like art, artistic and clever turns of phrase and plot, comedy about serious things, wonderfully twisted fictionalized versions of historical figures and events, then you will enjoy it.
Wikipedia: "Sacrebleu" is a very old French profanity meant as a cry of surprise or happiness.
My favourite book to recommend is 'Carter Beats the Devil' by Glen David Gold. Perhaps the best praise I can give it is that I've recommended it quite a lot, with many varied friends and relatives reporting they found it most enjoyable.
I find it difficult to describe why I personally love it, but if you get into reading fiction, think about putting it on your shelf.
I read Non-Fiction also, but in school I remember really enjoying Animal Farm. Basically I felt it was basically a Non-Fiction book with a Fictional story to get the points across.
I started reading sci-fi(mostly hard-sf) after I read the commonwealth saga, 'Pandora's star' and 'Judas unchained'. It was just really entertaining and unlike anything I've read. Also really recommend 'Snow crash'. Also adding a couple fantasy recommendations: Lies of Locke lamora, and any basically any novel by Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn: the final empire, Warbreaker, The way of kings etc.)
Douglas Adams's "The Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy", a sci-fi comedy adventure fiction. It's the book where this appears: Answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. The novel is adapted from a radio drama show, so reading it feels like someone is telling and describing you a story verbally.
I'll second The Baroque Cycle (or Cryptonomicon: it doesn't matter which). But might I also suggest the works of Terry Pratchett, particularly Discworld? Sir Pterry's work is among the best I've ever read.
If you're looking for something a bit fluffier than the above, then I would suggest The Dresden Files. Sure, it's mindless fluff, but man, it's good mindless fluff. The same applies to The Codex Alera (which apparently resulted from a bet that the author couldn't make a good book from an awful idea: the idea given was the lost roman legion crossed with Pokemon).
I can also suggest Ready Player one in this category. Ready Player One is essentially geek culture (especially gaming culture) furiously... well, you know. Giving itself one. But it's a fun ride (unlike Armada. But that's another story).
Finally, I can reccomend The Laundry Files. Do you like computing? Do you like lovecraftian nightmares? Go buy these now. The first book is okay, but has a rather nasty problem, sort of: It keeps winking at the audience incessantly. I didn't mind too much, myself, but I know others have been put off by it. Don't worry, the winking lessens to a manageable rate (although never quite fully goes away: after all, this is a series about a CS Student turned Sysadmin turned hunter of unspeakable monstrosities named Bob Oliver Francis Howard. Think about that for a second). And it is one of very few horror series that I have enjoyed. Take that as you will.
Let me throw in the name of Jorge Luis Borges, specially the short stories in the book "Fictions". "The Library of Babel" is a short story that many programmers appreciate.
Yes, indeed. Dune. Lets talk about the why. Its much more than an average fantasy because it contains a lot of angles. It is full with psychology, politics, and sociology. Specifically, it touches on subjects like discrimination & racism, oppression/tyranny, managing, infiltrating, warfare, and various eastern philosophies (since the Atreides are forced to suffer). Did I forget anything? Please, do improve my answer! :)
I'm allergic to clumsy exposition and Herbert, by and large, did a very good job.
Many times you can read what the characters are thinking. This gives you many situations where you get a sense just how tormented someone feels, but how he needs to react in order not to lose control.
Fremen suffering in general. How it shapes their rituals, culture and further development of the story. Interesting also how it clashes with other cultures. There's also a nice part about how they must continue to suffer along, lest they become weak.
60 comments
[ 1.6 ms ] story [ 141 ms ] threadThere are many fictional books that tell so much truth about humanity, but I would recommend Karel Capek's novels as those aren't very popular nowadays. Particuraly: The "Absolute at Large" and "War with the Newts".
Besides that, off the top of my head, I would say books by Isaac Asimov (Foundation series) or Arthur C. Clarke (Space Odyssey series).
It's not hard SciFi, but close. Banks really understood that spaceship battles are about mass, velocity and energy, and technobabble doesn't save the day.
I would say it is pretty much space opera (every single technology is handwaved away). It doesn't make it less awesome though.
I've never seen the movie, and I don't intend to; the writing in this book takes the imagination on a ride like I've never felt before or since
If you want another really fun read, Ready Player One was fantastic.
I've also enjoyed the Old Man's War saga, there are 6 books but you can skip book 4 since it is a retelling of book 3 from the POV of another character. This is a space saga and I really like the universe he created.
In the hard sci-fi genre, I really enjoyed The Forever War.
And for just pure world building fantasy, the Game of Thrones books (The song of Ice and Fire series) are some of the best written books I've ever read.
Wow. If you ever wanted to see how a fiction book could make you feel and appreciate literature.
Wikipedia: "Sacrebleu" is a very old French profanity meant as a cry of surprise or happiness.
The book lives up to both of those feelings.
I find it difficult to describe why I personally love it, but if you get into reading fiction, think about putting it on your shelf.
My suggestion is to start with short stories. Ted Chiang or Greg Egan have got some great collections of short stories, although they're both SF.
Right now I am reading 'Seveneves' recommendend by Bill Gates.
If you're looking for something a bit fluffier than the above, then I would suggest The Dresden Files. Sure, it's mindless fluff, but man, it's good mindless fluff. The same applies to The Codex Alera (which apparently resulted from a bet that the author couldn't make a good book from an awful idea: the idea given was the lost roman legion crossed with Pokemon).
I can also suggest Ready Player one in this category. Ready Player One is essentially geek culture (especially gaming culture) furiously... well, you know. Giving itself one. But it's a fun ride (unlike Armada. But that's another story).
Finally, I can reccomend The Laundry Files. Do you like computing? Do you like lovecraftian nightmares? Go buy these now. The first book is okay, but has a rather nasty problem, sort of: It keeps winking at the audience incessantly. I didn't mind too much, myself, but I know others have been put off by it. Don't worry, the winking lessens to a manageable rate (although never quite fully goes away: after all, this is a series about a CS Student turned Sysadmin turned hunter of unspeakable monstrosities named Bob Oliver Francis Howard. Think about that for a second). And it is one of very few horror series that I have enjoyed. Take that as you will.
I mostly read non-fiction myself, so, just like you, I looked for something else amd randomly chose Dune. Loved it.
Brilliant world building and a story arch that keeps on giving. And there are 7(?) books in total.
I'm allergic to clumsy exposition and Herbert, by and large, did a very good job.
Many times you can read what the characters are thinking. This gives you many situations where you get a sense just how tormented someone feels, but how he needs to react in order not to lose control.
Fremen suffering in general. How it shapes their rituals, culture and further development of the story. Interesting also how it clashes with other cultures. There's also a nice part about how they must continue to suffer along, lest they become weak.
A few analogies to our dependency on oil.
The Great Maker <3