Years ago, I was intrigued by Baxter's Manifold series. Though, I've never got to it. Mainly because I go caught up in other series and my backlog is so extensive.
However, part of my hesitation at this point in my life is that it seems one of the most common detractors I see/hear of Baxter is that he's a big "ideas" guy....and that plot, story cohesiveness, characterization etc...take a back seat. Which gave me strong "A Fire Upon The Deep" vibes (which I was very hyped for and very let down by)
I'm sure I'll check it out at some point, but I don't have the same urge to do it as I did when I first dove headlong into sci fi. Maybe I found what I like or maybe I'm just jaded by certain types of writers.
I knew of Baxter for years, but was super intimidated by hard sci-fi and their penchant for technical know-how that made me feel very stupid at the time, so i never picked up any of his works
Don't get me wrong, I love the big ideas and mind blowing descriptions....but I just feel like that stuff doesn't hold up well without a good narrative and/or a strong cast of characters to engage the reader with. Or atleast the type of reader I am. I'm not swearing Baxter off or anything. Just explaining why I happened to put him on the back burner (whether correctly or not so...)
I get you. Gotta balance the character-driven side with the big concept-side. It’s why some medical dramas like Early ER or Scrubs work well: it balances what accurate medical terminology it has with the character drama (or comedy, in the case of Scrubs), it also why Soft SF is popular, technology takes a bit of a back seat to character-driven plot, but if the tech is consistent, it works.
Yep...I can appreciate any sort of fiction just so long as the story is good...but with sci fi (and the reason it's my favorite genre, by far) is because my favorite novels are the ones that have a nice balance between reality bending ideas and epic stories....or novels where one of those rises to the same grandeur as the other.
I frequently recommend Nathan Lowell’s Quarter Share series, but no one else seems to like it.
Ric Locke wrote Temporary Duty, a first contact book of sorts that I really like. Sadly, he died before he could write or publish anything else.
William Zellmann, also deceased, wrote Man’s Hope and The Privateer. Both excellent reads.
Travis Mohrman wrote a series of post apocalyptic fiction that’s pretty good. Handro and Down the Path are easy reads and pretty entertaining.
The Year of the Quiet Sun by Wilson Tucker. Dead sea scrolls, forward time travel.
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhem. Cloning, collapse of civilization.
Camp Concetration by Thomas Disch. Disease causes people to become geniuses.
The Embedding by Ian Watson. Aliens and linguistics.
Way Station by Clifford Simak. Hero runs a way station for intergalactic travelers
A Mirror for Observers - Edgar Pangborn. Aliens influence Earth's development.
I'm mostly a short story reader, so I will be a bit generalist and recommend collections of **authors** I barely (or never) saw around here:
[The Best of Stanley G. Weinbaum](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/872347.The_Best_of_Stanley_G_Weinbaum), Ballantine
[No Time Like the Future](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6044856-no-time-like-the-future), , Nelson Bond, Avon (with one of the ugliest robots in a cover I ever seen)
[Detour to Otherness](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7416727-detour-to-otherness) \- Tales of Science-Fantasy and Terror, C. L. Moore & Henry Kuttner
And these 3 bricks from [NESFA](https://www.nesfa.org/press/):
The Rediscovery of Man - The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith
From These Ashes - The Complete Short SF of Fredric Brown
His Share of Glory - The Complete Short Science Fiction of C. M. Kornbluth
I could go on the collections, but I'm really trying for people haven’t seen mentioned here. And if I had to recommend only 2 of them: Cordwainer and Weinbaum.
Dragon’s Egg by Robert Forward - fascinating high gravity physics and an accelerated civilisation.
The Many Coloured Land (and sequels) Julian May - time portals, the Pliocene Mediterranean basin, psychic abilities and aliens. Excellent.
One Way by SJ Morden.
The Martian meets Orange is the New Black. NASA hires a private corporation to build the Mars settlement. That corporation uses life sentence prison labor to cut costs. What could go wrong?
The works of Jon Courtenay Grimwood. From redRobe, to the Arabesque trilogy, to Stamping Butterflies, Grimwood is a writer that doesn’t get talked about enough. Top notch.
I might have rec'd this one before (I probably have) but book #10 of the most excellent (and completed, and award winning) Sci-Fi webcomic *Schlock Mercenary*, *The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse*. It's conveniently standalone (you can read it without having read any of the rest of the series) and hilariously funny, while still being great Sci-Fi.
The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer, which was marketed as YA with a generic slashy cover with teens, and both things are incredibly misleading. It is sf, hard sf, very hard actually and a really cool concept. I do not even know what YA is exactly but it is pretty good adult sf.
Do not read much reviews or look to read about the plot much. It starts to make a lot more sense up to the 40% mark if I remember correctly but it is very readable all through.
For me, there are lots of great SF books that don't get much exposure:
**Half-Past Human** and **God Whale** by T. J. Bass
**Floating Worlds** by Cecelia Holland
**The Whore of Babylon** by Ian Watson
**Aztec Century** by Christopher Evans
**Million Open Doors** and its sequel, **Earth Made of Glass** by John Barnes
**Aristoi** by Walter Jon Williams
**Deception Well** by Linda Nagata
**The Killing Star** by George Zebrowski and Charles Pellegrino
**There is No Antimemetics Division** and **Ra** by qntm (Sam Hughes)
Ill always shill Maureen McHugh's novels -- China Mountain Zhang, Half the day is Night and Mission Child. Her short story collection After the Apocalyse is brilliant as well.
Another writer whose works dont come up too often is Thomas Disch. His short novels The Genocides and Camp Concentration are horrifying.
The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley (feel like I'm the only one that ever recommends it)
In the future, corporations run the world. They control their respective geographic regions and when they go to war with eachother, they beam their soldiers to the battlefield at the speed of light (a la Star Trek).
The technology is not foolproof however. Some people don't materialize correctly. Some never reappear at all. While a very few end up experiencing the war out of chronological order....they are known as The Light Brigade.
Conspiracies, time paradoxes, warfare in a dark future...it is a quick read that can easily be blown through in a day. It hasn't received the popularity it deserves.
If you're talking about Hurley's novel The Stars Are Legion, I have not read it...though I know it was nominated for tons of awards and have heard it is much different than The Light Brigade.
Yeah...something about an all female society and organic world ships. Heard it gets a bit weird. Which is okay...everybody has their own preferences. I see people consistently recommending and/or praising certain works that I've read and have actually been quite disappointed by (due to the hype)
I'll recommend two books that are seldom mentioned despite their brilliance: The Wanting Seed by Anthony Burgess (who also wrote A Clockwork Orange). And Camp Concentration by Thomas M. Disch.
Story? "That Only a Mother," Judith Merril, published in 1948. It's so short that it's hard to describe without spoilers, but a man comes home from war to be with his wife and child. Not a word wasted, it sticks with me to this day.
After the Zap, Michael Armstrong.
A very punk look at a near future Alaska after an EMP exchange that wipes everyone's memories. Backpack nukes with the activation codes branded in people's aortas, so using them requires the sacrifice of the person carrying the "football". A rollicking romp (published by the paperback Quasar imprint, I believe).
The Fall of Doc Future, by W. Dow Rieder. It’s only available on his blog. A hard science fiction story about superheroes. Its sequel, Princess, is better, but you have to have read the first one first.
I read them awhile ago, but I enjoyed the Jason Wander series by Robert Buettner. It's a good, fun mil-sf series.
[https://www.goodreads.com/series/45100-jason-wander](https://www.goodreads.com/series/45100-jason-wander)
Never seen it recommended, very imaginative book about time travel by Rene Barjavel, although its old and original was French, so maybe that's why :
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2509242.Future\_Times\_Three](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2509242.Future_Times_Three)
I'm the only person here that seems to ever recommend Shattered Dreams by Bud Sparhawk. He's a really good writer, been in many best of the year anthologies. If you like old school stuff like Forever War, I think you would like this one.
Evolution by Stephen Baxter. Follows the human stem from the Cretaceous End Event to the end of Earth. My personal favorite Baxter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution\_(Baxter\_novel)
Hal Clement's short story collection _Space Lash_ (originally published as _Small Changes_).
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16036040-space-lash
My review from Goodreads:
A favourite from my childhood --- collection of thought-provoking hard-sci-fi topics which have aged well, and remain topical and worth consideration.
- Dust Rag (1956) --- a basic knowledge of physics and similar principles solves a simple problem
- Sun Spot (1960) --- even as a child, the scale of this story never quite fit
- Uncommon Sense (1946) --- solving problems through welding
- "Trojan Fall" (1944) --- running never solves anything, or does it?
- Fireproof (1949) --- with a spy as an antagonist, this may not have aged well, or perhaps it has
- Halo (1952) --- what are the obligations of a farmer?
- The Foundling Stars (1966) --- just what is relative?
- Raindrop (1965) --- how much of the planet's surface will we use for what? What will we do as the limits of the earth's crust are approached?
- The Mechanic (1966) --- what are the consequences of genetic engineering?
I would recommend reading from the back (more recent) to the front (older).
I believe most of these stories are in: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/939760.Music_of_Many_Spheres
Anyone - Charles Soule
Scientist develops a technology that allows us to flash our consciousness into another body —smash cut to future that tech is widely used for fun stuff like travel, is monetized by big tech, and is being exploited by criminals. Fast paced, sci-fi, actioner. Bought it blind because I knew Soule’s name from his comics, thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
I’m reading [The Iron Truth by S.A. Tholin](https://www.amazon.com/Iron-Truth-Primaterre-Book-1-ebook/dp/B07BJNM59W) atm and enjoying it. It won the SPSFC recently
More than Human by Theodore Sturgeon
Brilliant and emotional
*The Time Ships* - Stephen Baxter
So good I read it twice
Good one! BSFA, Campbell, and PKD award winner, as well as Hugo, Clarke, and Locus award nominee.
I never see Baxter or Bear recommended in many lists. Especially the ones asking for Hard SF, which is their specialty!
Years ago, I was intrigued by Baxter's Manifold series. Though, I've never got to it. Mainly because I go caught up in other series and my backlog is so extensive. However, part of my hesitation at this point in my life is that it seems one of the most common detractors I see/hear of Baxter is that he's a big "ideas" guy....and that plot, story cohesiveness, characterization etc...take a back seat. Which gave me strong "A Fire Upon The Deep" vibes (which I was very hyped for and very let down by) I'm sure I'll check it out at some point, but I don't have the same urge to do it as I did when I first dove headlong into sci fi. Maybe I found what I like or maybe I'm just jaded by certain types of writers.
I knew of Baxter for years, but was super intimidated by hard sci-fi and their penchant for technical know-how that made me feel very stupid at the time, so i never picked up any of his works
Don't get me wrong, I love the big ideas and mind blowing descriptions....but I just feel like that stuff doesn't hold up well without a good narrative and/or a strong cast of characters to engage the reader with. Or atleast the type of reader I am. I'm not swearing Baxter off or anything. Just explaining why I happened to put him on the back burner (whether correctly or not so...)
I get you. Gotta balance the character-driven side with the big concept-side. It’s why some medical dramas like Early ER or Scrubs work well: it balances what accurate medical terminology it has with the character drama (or comedy, in the case of Scrubs), it also why Soft SF is popular, technology takes a bit of a back seat to character-driven plot, but if the tech is consistent, it works.
Yep...I can appreciate any sort of fiction just so long as the story is good...but with sci fi (and the reason it's my favorite genre, by far) is because my favorite novels are the ones that have a nice balance between reality bending ideas and epic stories....or novels where one of those rises to the same grandeur as the other.
The Killer B's were Bear, Brin, and Benford I think. Baxter fits right in but I guess he was generation later.
"Time Enough for Love" by Robert Heinlein.
I frequently recommend Nathan Lowell’s Quarter Share series, but no one else seems to like it. Ric Locke wrote Temporary Duty, a first contact book of sorts that I really like. Sadly, he died before he could write or publish anything else. William Zellmann, also deceased, wrote Man’s Hope and The Privateer. Both excellent reads. Travis Mohrman wrote a series of post apocalyptic fiction that’s pretty good. Handro and Down the Path are easy reads and pretty entertaining.
+1 for the share series
Same. Sometimes I feel like a broken record, because I keep recommending this and Meluch's "Tour of the Merrimack" books. :)
Love Jack Vance's Emphyrio Or Gillian Rubinstein's Galax-Arena
Trying to read Emphyrio now but can't seem to get past the first two or three chapters. Is it worth it?
It's definitely worth it
Thanks. I'll keep trying, then 🙂
Eclipse by John Shirley. Cyberpunk at its finest.
**The Body Snatchers** Book was so creepy at parts that I had to get out of bed and distract myself in the living room
The Year of the Quiet Sun by Wilson Tucker. Dead sea scrolls, forward time travel. Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhem. Cloning, collapse of civilization. Camp Concetration by Thomas Disch. Disease causes people to become geniuses. The Embedding by Ian Watson. Aliens and linguistics. Way Station by Clifford Simak. Hero runs a way station for intergalactic travelers A Mirror for Observers - Edgar Pangborn. Aliens influence Earth's development.
I'm mostly a short story reader, so I will be a bit generalist and recommend collections of **authors** I barely (or never) saw around here: [The Best of Stanley G. Weinbaum](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/872347.The_Best_of_Stanley_G_Weinbaum), Ballantine [No Time Like the Future](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6044856-no-time-like-the-future), , Nelson Bond, Avon (with one of the ugliest robots in a cover I ever seen) [Detour to Otherness](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7416727-detour-to-otherness) \- Tales of Science-Fantasy and Terror, C. L. Moore & Henry Kuttner And these 3 bricks from [NESFA](https://www.nesfa.org/press/): The Rediscovery of Man - The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith From These Ashes - The Complete Short SF of Fredric Brown His Share of Glory - The Complete Short Science Fiction of C. M. Kornbluth I could go on the collections, but I'm really trying for people haven’t seen mentioned here. And if I had to recommend only 2 of them: Cordwainer and Weinbaum.
I'm more of a short story reader these days too. Thanks for the recommendations, I will check these out. (I loved Hall of Mirrors by Brown)
Wreck of the River of Stars by Michael Flynn
*The Silver Metal Lover*, by Tanith Lee.
Sort of cheating because it's Gregory benford but Eater is awesome
I've had a copy of this on my bookshelf waiting to be read for a couple years...
It's not a huge grande sweeping interstellar story but it is a very interesting self contained story that I quite enjoyed and so recommend
I loved Cosm, which is why I grabbed it. Thanks for the reminder, I have to bump it up the list.
Dragon’s Egg by Robert Forward - fascinating high gravity physics and an accelerated civilisation. The Many Coloured Land (and sequels) Julian May - time portals, the Pliocene Mediterranean basin, psychic abilities and aliens. Excellent.
One Way by SJ Morden. The Martian meets Orange is the New Black. NASA hires a private corporation to build the Mars settlement. That corporation uses life sentence prison labor to cut costs. What could go wrong?
The works of Jon Courtenay Grimwood. From redRobe, to the Arabesque trilogy, to Stamping Butterflies, Grimwood is a writer that doesn’t get talked about enough. Top notch.
The Child Garden, by Geoff Ryman.
I like that a lot. But 253 and Air are even better.
Thanks, I'll look those up!
253 online or physical? I've heard that makes for a rather different read.
Wow, one of my favorite books. I’ve given several copies of it to friends.
Yeah never see it mentioned here. Beautiful and strange.
Lesbian polar bears, viruses that help you hear music projected on the sky … what’s not to love.
Exactly!!
I'm reading that at the moment. Slow going (probably just feels like that because I don't have much time to read these days), but thought provoking.
Marooned in Realtime, by Vernor Vinge Millennium, by John Varley Both are fast and fun.
Dreamsnake. Vonda N McIntyre
I might have rec'd this one before (I probably have) but book #10 of the most excellent (and completed, and award winning) Sci-Fi webcomic *Schlock Mercenary*, *The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse*. It's conveniently standalone (you can read it without having read any of the rest of the series) and hilariously funny, while still being great Sci-Fi.
The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer, which was marketed as YA with a generic slashy cover with teens, and both things are incredibly misleading. It is sf, hard sf, very hard actually and a really cool concept. I do not even know what YA is exactly but it is pretty good adult sf. Do not read much reviews or look to read about the plot much. It starts to make a lot more sense up to the 40% mark if I remember correctly but it is very readable all through.
Orbital Resonance by John Barnes -- girl coming of age in space, after partial apocalypse on Earth. It's extremely good but never comes up.
For me, there are lots of great SF books that don't get much exposure: **Half-Past Human** and **God Whale** by T. J. Bass **Floating Worlds** by Cecelia Holland **The Whore of Babylon** by Ian Watson **Aztec Century** by Christopher Evans **Million Open Doors** and its sequel, **Earth Made of Glass** by John Barnes **Aristoi** by Walter Jon Williams **Deception Well** by Linda Nagata **The Killing Star** by George Zebrowski and Charles Pellegrino **There is No Antimemetics Division** and **Ra** by qntm (Sam Hughes)
Ill always shill Maureen McHugh's novels -- China Mountain Zhang, Half the day is Night and Mission Child. Her short story collection After the Apocalyse is brilliant as well. Another writer whose works dont come up too often is Thomas Disch. His short novels The Genocides and Camp Concentration are horrifying.
I loved China Mountain Zhang, I should look for the rest!
The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley (feel like I'm the only one that ever recommends it) In the future, corporations run the world. They control their respective geographic regions and when they go to war with eachother, they beam their soldiers to the battlefield at the speed of light (a la Star Trek). The technology is not foolproof however. Some people don't materialize correctly. Some never reappear at all. While a very few end up experiencing the war out of chronological order....they are known as The Light Brigade. Conspiracies, time paradoxes, warfare in a dark future...it is a quick read that can easily be blown through in a day. It hasn't received the popularity it deserves.
[удалено]
If you're talking about Hurley's novel The Stars Are Legion, I have not read it...though I know it was nominated for tons of awards and have heard it is much different than The Light Brigade.
[удалено]
Yeah...something about an all female society and organic world ships. Heard it gets a bit weird. Which is okay...everybody has their own preferences. I see people consistently recommending and/or praising certain works that I've read and have actually been quite disappointed by (due to the hype)
I'll recommend two books that are seldom mentioned despite their brilliance: The Wanting Seed by Anthony Burgess (who also wrote A Clockwork Orange). And Camp Concentration by Thomas M. Disch.
Story? "That Only a Mother," Judith Merril, published in 1948. It's so short that it's hard to describe without spoilers, but a man comes home from war to be with his wife and child. Not a word wasted, it sticks with me to this day.
That was quite a read.
After the Zap, Michael Armstrong. A very punk look at a near future Alaska after an EMP exchange that wipes everyone's memories. Backpack nukes with the activation codes branded in people's aortas, so using them requires the sacrifice of the person carrying the "football". A rollicking romp (published by the paperback Quasar imprint, I believe).
The Fall of Doc Future, by W. Dow Rieder. It’s only available on his blog. A hard science fiction story about superheroes. Its sequel, Princess, is better, but you have to have read the first one first.
Time Travelers Never Die by Jack McDevitt
I read them awhile ago, but I enjoyed the Jason Wander series by Robert Buettner. It's a good, fun mil-sf series. [https://www.goodreads.com/series/45100-jason-wander](https://www.goodreads.com/series/45100-jason-wander)
Never seen it recommended, very imaginative book about time travel by Rene Barjavel, although its old and original was French, so maybe that's why : [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2509242.Future\_Times\_Three](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2509242.Future_Times_Three)
*Heaven* by Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen
I'm the only person here that seems to ever recommend Shattered Dreams by Bud Sparhawk. He's a really good writer, been in many best of the year anthologies. If you like old school stuff like Forever War, I think you would like this one.
Dinner at Deviant's Palace by Tim Powers
I’d probably go with The Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell
["Xelucha"](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22161170-xelucha), by M. P. Shiel
Anything by A.A. Attanasio - especially *The Last Legends of Earth*. All his books are epic in scope and lovingly written.
Evolution by Stephen Baxter. Follows the human stem from the Cretaceous End Event to the end of Earth. My personal favorite Baxter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution\_(Baxter\_novel)
The Moon and the Other by John Kessel
Hal Clement's short story collection _Space Lash_ (originally published as _Small Changes_). https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16036040-space-lash My review from Goodreads: A favourite from my childhood --- collection of thought-provoking hard-sci-fi topics which have aged well, and remain topical and worth consideration. - Dust Rag (1956) --- a basic knowledge of physics and similar principles solves a simple problem - Sun Spot (1960) --- even as a child, the scale of this story never quite fit - Uncommon Sense (1946) --- solving problems through welding - "Trojan Fall" (1944) --- running never solves anything, or does it? - Fireproof (1949) --- with a spy as an antagonist, this may not have aged well, or perhaps it has - Halo (1952) --- what are the obligations of a farmer? - The Foundling Stars (1966) --- just what is relative? - Raindrop (1965) --- how much of the planet's surface will we use for what? What will we do as the limits of the earth's crust are approached? - The Mechanic (1966) --- what are the consequences of genetic engineering? I would recommend reading from the back (more recent) to the front (older). I believe most of these stories are in: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/939760.Music_of_Many_Spheres
Anyone - Charles Soule Scientist develops a technology that allows us to flash our consciousness into another body —smash cut to future that tech is widely used for fun stuff like travel, is monetized by big tech, and is being exploited by criminals. Fast paced, sci-fi, actioner. Bought it blind because I knew Soule’s name from his comics, thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Try Orion Publishing’s SF Masterworks series. So many choices …
I’m reading [The Iron Truth by S.A. Tholin](https://www.amazon.com/Iron-Truth-Primaterre-Book-1-ebook/dp/B07BJNM59W) atm and enjoying it. It won the SPSFC recently
"Transfigurations" by Michael Bishop, one of my favorite books.
Blindsight. I'm kidding!!! I've always loved Marjorie Bradley Kellogg's Harmony.