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Ask HN: What are the best Sci-Fi books you've ever read?

92 points by rayalez ↗ HN
I've been reading non-fiction almost exclusively, and now I'm looking to get into reading more fiction. Can you recommend something awesome?

I'd love to read something fun, lighthearted, and enjoyable (as opposed to gritty dystopias or super hardcore hard scifi). To relax, explore cool worlds and likable characters, and encounter some cool ideas. I'll be extra happy if it's available on audible.

Things I liked: Harry Potter and The Methods of Rationality, The Martian, Ready Player One, Mistborn.

143 comments

[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 214 ms ] thread
marenkay
Read "Neuromancer" by William Gibson, also "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson.

Both offer something beyond just being Sci-Fi.

gtdthrow
+1

Anything Gibson, especially Sprawl Trilogy Anything Stephenson, though I particularly liked Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, and Snow Crash, In the beginning was the command line.. oh, I like everything by him.

Seriously though, In the beginning was the command line and Cryptonomicon are basically an ode to 90s hacker culture, the true neckbeard type of CS. Love that aesthetic, culture and ethics.

soufron
20000 lieux sous les mers !
Symbiote
In English, that's one of about three sci-fi books I was unable to finish.
troebr
Vingt mille lieues sous les mers. I was a huge Jules Verne fan when I was a kid.
jger15
"Chocky" by John Wyndham was quick/fun. A little uneven but enjoyed "All Our Wrongs Today" by Elan Mastai. Tough to get thru for me but many seem high on "The Three Body Problem" books by Cixin Liu.

Some others that are not scifi but enjoyed this year:

"Trick" by Domenico Starnone

"Such Small Hands" by Andres Barba

"Convenience Store Woman" by Sayaka Murata

lionradio
Asimov. Pretty much anything he has written.
ArtWomb
Just a short story, but Asimov's The Last Question keeps popping up. FermiLab Cosmologist Dan Hooper recently posted to Arxiv a few conjectures on what it would take to survive expansion. And I can't help but think that looking for signs of Dyson Spheres and other star harvesting mega-structures may be key in detecting signs of intelligent extra-terrestrial life ;)

Another thing that really holds up over time is the Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes screenplay to the hit 1980s movie War Games. Not only does it talk about meta-learning and game theory. Its just a really great script!

Simulacra
DAEMON by Daniel Suarez.
hazard
Suarez's books are so underrated. The buddhism / sci-fi thing is great
physicsyogi
Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash were great. Others you might:

- The Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang (superb short story that Arrival was based on) - The Three Body-Problem (Cixin Liu) - Dune (Frank Herbert) - The Parable of the Sower (Octavia Butler) - Lucifer's Hammer (Larry Niven) - The Kundalini Equation (Steven Barnes)

orev
The Story of Your Life was really remarkable. A collection of short stories, only one of which Arrival was based on. The others are equally intriguing and unique.
darthlucio
The Ted Chiang anthology is sooo good. Every story's premise was so unique - it blows my mind that one person can come up with so many out there ideas.

I know OP wasn't looking for dystopias, but if you like Parable of the Sower, I recently read two excellent new scifi/dystopia books: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, and American War by Omar El Akkad. American War was really cool - it's by a journalist who covered military trials at Guantanamo Bay and the Arab Spring, who transposes the stories/atrocities he witnessed as a reporter onto the future US.

mud_dauber
I literally finished The Story of Your Life this afternoon. Highly, highly recommended.
Davertron
Cryptonomicon is one of my favorite books of all time (I'm probably due for a re-read at this point).

I would also recommend "Seveneves", one of Neal Stephenson's most recent books. "Anathem" was also very enjoyable.

manojlds
Blindsight by Peter Watts

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindsight_(Watts_novel)

dsr_
OP said "fun, lighthearted and enjoyable".

Noted reviewer James Nicoll on Peter Watts: "When­ever I find my will to live be­com­ing too strong, I read Peter Watts."

Which Dr. Watts put at the top of his About the Author page.

Watts is really, really good. And really, really bleak.

manojlds
You're right. Didn't read the request fully.
agbell
Blindsight and Story of your life are two of my favourites. They are both first contact stories with seemly similar aliens and could not be more different. The way they learn to speak the languages of the aliens for instance - both methods seem plausible and horribly different.
Ancalagon
Olaf Stapledon's "Star Maker" Is one of my favorite books of all time. Its pretty much a grand exploration of this universe and every other universe to ever exist, through the eyes of the main character. I'm rereading it right now again.
RBerenguel
Agreed. I read it in one sitting and sits very up on my sci-fi hall of fame
cjensen
Ender's Game

But if you just want light fun, the Expanse Series

Tomte
"Use of Weapons" by Iain M. Banks.

Edit: Overlooked the "fun" and "lighthearted" part. Let me change my answer to "Excession", same author.

mft_
I'd recommend "The Player of Games".

Not light-hearted, but definitely pretty fun in places. And a cracking story - I go back to it and dip in randomly every few months.

sleepydog
Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun series is great
joshwcomeau
The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers #1), by Becky Chambers.

Really touching story, great character development, and some interesting questions about AI and sentience.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22733729-the-long-way-to...

[dead] honestoHeminway
Ive read it and to be honest found it very dissappointing. SciFi is not about characters, its about ideas and what they do with society. Characters are just for authors who secretly crave to write "real" literature, and have no intersting ideas to explore.

As always its just my opinion, but i read it and found it lacking.

Read Le Guin instead, she had ideas and a wry sort of humor, which could be best described as situational comedy for ideologys.

jamesRaybould
I'm fond of "A Fire Upon the Deep" by Vernor Vinge, and its kind of prequel "A Deepness in the Sky", they both contain some great ideas and I love the fact they have some very alien aliens!

Oh and if you haven't read any Douglas Adams "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is fantastic

magicbuzz
Just about to chime in about Vernor Vinge myself - awesome conceptuals and well written
bhouston
His books are great, I loved both "fire upon deep" and a "deepness in the sky". It is unfortunate he inspired the Singularity movement which I find full of bullshit and religious overtones.
madeofmeat
Seconding "A Fire Upon the Deep": a fast-paced, high-stakes action adventure in a zany, 5th Element-esque space opera universe. Explores the idea of strong AI in a unique and interesting way.
gattr
Love both of these. Perhaps more so "A Deepness in the Sky", with its darker tone, very thoughtful programming-related remarks, and the reversed "alien invasion" concept.
r00fus
I really like how Vinge addressed the Fermi paradox by permitting that the constants of physics may not be different in different parts of the galaxy.

The first chapter (via Audiobook) was one of the best first chapters I've ever read / listened to. I was totally hooked after that.

jesuslop
Hitchhiker's matches nicely what you look for
laretluval
It sounds like The Expanse is what you want. The TV show is also very good.
stevewillows
I'm halfway through Lilith's Brood / the Xenogenesis series from Octavia E. Butler, and I'm loving it. Despite the sci-fi angle, it feels like this is how things could play out if we were introduced to a mostly well-intended alien species.

The first book is mostly conversation in interview form, but I was drawn in tight and didn't want to put it down.

The audiobook performance for this series is fantastic.

Jotto999
Greg Egan's Diaspora was very good.
RBerenguel
Haven’t read anything more hard-sci-fi than Egan myself (Clockwork Rocket, quite good). From comments from the OP Egan may not suit (but very recommendable nevertheless)
Jotto999
You're right, it's the wrong book for the OP. Let them be warned:

Greg Egan's Diaspora is diamond-hard scifi. If you aren't well-read in a variety of scientific concepts, aren't comfortable doing on-the-fly physics thought experiments while reading a novel, or won't be comfortable reading an extremely high vocabulary, then Greg Egan is not a good fit.

But if you can read it, the reward is great. Magnificent, alien, profound. It made me realize I don't like soft-scifi.

tass
I’m a big fan of the foundation series.

Another book which I recently enjoyed was Dragon’s Egg.

aresant
I am just finishing reading the Hyperion Cantos which is an absolutely inspired masterwork by Dan Simmons.

I can’t stand rereading / rewatching anything, this series is so rich that it feels like reading fresh material all over again.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_Cantos

baal80spam
Came here to say that Hyperion to me is a SF masterpiece.
thetruepickle5
Another recommendation from me too. This series takes you to some magical places and ideas.
RBerenguel
I always considered the HC to be Hyperion and The Dawn of Hyperion. They as entity, leaving things open but felt cohesive. Would you recommend the later Endymions?
r00fus
Absolutely. The latter two books have a different feel but are as impressive as the first in different ways.
gmuslera
Fully agreed with that. Along with LOTR are the series that I did read most times. The first book can also be seen as an antology of short stories, each one superb, but the total is far more than the sum of the parts.
gorbachev
I thought the Dune series was most excellent.

Also any Asimov books.

I also quite enjoyed Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity.

As for lighthearted...you can't go wrong with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

mattnewton
Dune. Definitely Dune. The most epic sci-fi world that is so far in the future it feels like it could be middle earth. Politics, mysticism, prescience, intergalactic travel build an amazing world that feels utterly alien but still relatable.

It’s like reading about modern battles between oil, culture and money, but in countless years and star system into the future.

Honorable mentions for Hyperion and Neuromancer for my favorites :)

unmole
Dune undoubtedly is a masterpiece. But, it's neither fun nor light-hearted like OP requested.