I often get asked for SciFi book recommendations. So decided to put together a list, that I can just point people to.
This list is likely to evolve over time.
I tend to prefer hard SciFi or soft SciFi that imagine different ‘political’ system.
Classics that deserve (almost) no introduction
3 dystopian novels that are still very relevant today.
1984 (George Orwell)
Brave new world (Aldous Huxley)
Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)
Bradbury styles is very poetic and laden with metaphors all the way through.
Robert A Heinlein
The moon is a harsh mistress
The moon is a prison state that will fight a war of independence against earth.
Stranger in a strange land
A earthling raised by martians comes back to live on earth. Got the author to be labelled an anarchistic hippie!
Starship trooper
A young man joins the infantery to fight a war against some alien species in a society where only those who have fought in the war can vote. Inspired the similarly titled movie. MUCH better. Some socratic discussion lead you to accept scary conclusions. Got the same author to be labelled a fascist!
Isaac Asimov
The Foundation trilogy: “Foundation”, “Foundation and Empire”, “Second foundation”
The galactic empire will collapse soon. There might be a way to shorten the period of chaos that will ensue. Easy reading. Character might be too 2-dimensional but the logic of the plots is fantastic.
Robot stories
Get your hands on some robots short stories by Asimov, already! The number of logic games he played with the 3 laws of robotics is impressive!
Frank Herbert
Dune
In a universe where the most precious substance grows on a desertic planet, inhabited by giant sandworms and fearsome indigenous warriors. Don’t have to read the whole cycle (gave up in book 4) but the first 3 books are really good.
Joe Haldeman
Forever war
A war is being fought against some alien species. But because of relativistic physics a) the weapons you use might be obsolete by the time you encounter your ennemy, b) the society you return to has dramatically changed. An allegory to the alienation underwent by veterans coming back from Vietnam.
Andy Weir
The martian
Left for dead on Mars. You have to survive with the little means left yo you. Hard science fiction. Competence porn. Pleasantly fun.
Kim Stanley Robinson
Mars trilogy: “Red mars”, “Green mars”, “Blue mars”
From sending a 100 colonist to Mars, to the whole planet fighting for its independence. First volume is hard sci-fi, the others progress slowly into softer sci-fi and the making of an utopia. The author has some clear anti-capitalist/anarchist tendencies.
Ian Banks
“The Culture” series
Especially:
- the player of games
- use of weapons
- excession
The culture is a very advanced anarchist galactic civilisation.
Player of games
A good one to get familiar with the Culture: a game prodigy is sent by the secret service into another civilisation where the ruler is chosen by winning a very hard strategy game.
Use of weapons
Talks about the story of a guy in the special ops of that culture.
Excession
Most of the characters are starships from the Culture: equipped with super smart AI and very diverse personalities.
Urusula Leguin
The dispossessed
An anarchistic utopia set on a barren planet. One of their goes as an emissary on their neighbouring planet where a communist and a capitalist civilisation fight a cold war.
The left hand of darkness
A man visits a planet where the inhabitants have no permanently defined sex. Good feminism material.
China Mieville
The Crobuzon trilogy: “Perdido street station”, “The scar”, “The iron council”
All set in the same world. Really weird. A mix of steam punk, fantasy, science fiction. With clear political undertones (especially in the last one) as the author is Trotskyist. A style where every sentence has been chiseled like a jewel.
Perdido street station sets the tone.
The scar gives you a pirate version of it.
The iron council is the Western version.
Vernor Vinge
“A fire upon the deep” and “A deepness in the sky”
Both books are long but are very good. Part 1 and 2 of the “zones of thought” series: the further away from the galactic core the smarter AI, technology, beings can be.
Orson Scott Card
Ender’s game
To fight off a bug invasion, kids are trained since their early childhood to command troops by playing war games. Ender is a genius at it.
Philip K Dick
I am not a big fan of Dick but he is one of the big ones: I think that he is the author with the highest number of SciFi books adapted into movies. I would highly recommend “Do Android dream of electric sheep?” if only because it inspired “Blade runner”.
Clans of the alphane moon
Do android dream of electric sheep?
Ubik
Arthur C Clarke
2001 a space odissey
If only so you can understand the movie!
Rendez vous with Rama
An extraterrestrian starship makes its way through the solar system. A crew is sent to investigate.
Philip Jose Farmer
To your scattered bodies
All the human beings who ever lived (and died) wake up one day on an unknown planet on the bank of a huge river.
William Gibson
Neuromancer
if you want to know what cyberpunk is. Did not age so well but still fun.
Alfred Bester
The stars my destination
The demolished man
Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn series
This is maybe more on the fantasy side but the hard magic system of Sanderson should easily appeal to most hard Sci fi fans.