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Ask HN: Non-sci-fi fiction recommendations?

12 points by mrspeaker ↗ HN
I love science fiction, but I've been reading too much and am a little burnt out! When I look for recommendations based on my tastes, I only get more sci-fi results. Do you have any recommendations for interesting reads from other genres that would suit a sci-fi fan?

(My recent favorites have been the Three Body Problem series, Permutation City by Greg Egan, Hail Mary by Andy Weir, and The Man who fell to Earth by Walter Tevis.)

Thanks!

22 comments

[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 56.4 ms ] thread
brudgers
I am big Cormac McCarthy fan.

Blood Meridian is a tale about the impact of a crate of new technology.

softwaredoug
I enjoy non fiction books about explorers or insane expeditions from the past. I feel like it gets at some of the “exploring the unknown” aspects of SciFi. And there’s usually interesting characters.

For example “River of Doubt” details an insane last minute choice during a Teddy Roosevelt South American goodwill tour to explore an unexplored river in the Amazon.

CharleFKane
I was surprised - and very happy - to see "River of Doubt" mentioned here. That is indeed a very good book, and kicked off a fascination for me with TR in general.

The author, Candice Millard, has two other books which I also enthusiastically recommend: "Hero of the Empire", about Churchill's escape from a POW camp during the Boer War, and "Destiny of the Republic" about the assassination of President Garfield.

cpach
Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard.
fokinsean
Kurt Vonnegut is really great, my personal favorite is Sirens of Titan which is his most "sci-fi" of the bunch but I wouldn't really call it sci-fi. Other great starting points are Cat's Cradle, Mothernight, and of course Slaughterhouse Five.

I've only read one Toni Morrison book, Song of Solomon, but that was one of my favorite reads of this year.

If you haven't read Frankenstein or Dracula then I would highly recommend them. I personally enjoyed Frankenstein much more than I thought I would.

Norse Mythology and Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman are also fun reads.

If you want some non-fiction, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer is a very engaging read.

potta_coffee
Haruki Murakami - Wind Up Bird Chronicle is my favorite but he has a lot of good novels. They're not science fiction but they're interesting and they have an "uncanny" aspect to them.
DarrenDev
If you want something completely different, take a look at Willy Vlautin. About as far from sci-fi as you're likely to get.

The tragedy of everyday life. Brief and almost poetically written.

I'm a big sci-fi fan myself, but like to mix things up.

jjjbokma
I read besides sci-fi and fantasy a lot of crime fiction. Can highly recommend the Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly.
mikewarot
1632 by Eric Flint, an alternate history which spawned a series of books.

A small town in present day (2000) West Virginia is transported back in time to 1632 in Germany, and the middle of the 30 years war.

tenfourwookie
I read A Confederacy of Dunces every few years. It's a fun book.

I also love Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess. Epic saga beautifully written.

muzani
Worm: https://parahumans.wordpress.com/

Dark/superhero genre. I was recommended to it from HN. Every time it's brought up, it's fairly controversial. Someone even made a throwaway account to criticize it. But I suppose the fact so many read it makes it of interest to the kind of people who visit HN.

sdrinf
heads-up: worm is going to make you depressed. It is, fundamentally, an exercise in taking "hope" & the expectation for "things to generally become better", and beating it systematically into a pulp over a few thousand pages.

Things, in this book, do not become better.

raptorraver
Russian classics (Dostoyevsky, Tolstoi etc.) have never failed me.
fattybob
In the past, I used to flip into classical literature, almost anything, Icelandic sagas, the Greek classics, brontes (still doing that), and recently I’ve been into Mick Herron’s books, but they may be an acquired (UK) taste ! Oh yes, possibly still sci fi in some classifications, Neil Gaimans works and the the disc world novels are great diversions.
GGfpc
Try Blindness by Saramago. It's kind of science-fictiony in the theme but its literary fiction.
2rsf
I lost interest about a quarter into the book, it is written (or at least translated to English) in a strange way and looses momentum after a very interesting beginning
cosmodisk
The divine comedy

Moll Flanders

The Glass Bead Game

White Fang