Recommend some Sci-Fi!

[MosquitoBeest]

I am currently waiting on a ref sheet for a character that I want to create a world and stories around and it's a bionic humanoid created by an ancient and long-gone alien race, so I'm hoping to rack up some good sci-fi reads to help me venture into the genre!
Anything that takes good care with detailing other planets is a plus! I'm not looking for any stereotypical alien stories if it can be helped.

 

[Borophagus Monoclinous]

I hear The Expanse series of novels by James S.A. Corey is pretty great.

But I don't know, myself, because I've only watched the TV series so far.

Without spoiling it, I'll say that it is largely based in our solar system.

 

[MosquitoBeest]

I hear The Expanse series of novels by James S.A. Corey is pretty great.

But I don't know, myself, because I've only watched the TV series so far.

Without spoiling it, I'll say that it is largely based in our solar system.

My husband has the first book of that series and he says it's pretty detailed. I know there's 8 novels out so far so I'd be in it for a long haul if I ended up liking it (which isn't a bad thing).

 

[Toasty9399]

Expeditionary Force by Craig Alanson is by far the best Sci-FI. I recommend it 10000%
Expeditionary Force Book Series: Amazon.com

 

[Pomorek]

Anything by Stanisław Lem should be safe bet given your preferences, but I have no idea how much is available in English. At least the classic, "Solaris", ought to be available, and it does a good job depicting a very odd planet, with very odd story to match - all this while managing to remain really hard sci-fi. Not without mentioning human(oid)s created by alien intelligence, but I'd rather avoid further spoilers... I think it was filmed too, possibly more than once, but with allegedly mediocre results.

"Eden", again, if you can get it, could be as good. Different story, less outlandish ("we crash-landed on this planet and what to do now?"), but probably even more detailed picture of an alien, difficult-to-comprehend world. Likewise, "Invincible" can be recommended here.

 

[Miles Marsalis]

You may like the Great Ship series by Robert Reed where transhumans are uncovering the secrets of an ancient alien ship, the Algebraist by Iain M. Banks which is extremely witty and an emotional roaster coaster, the Culture series which also by Bank but more uplifting generally, The Way series by Greg Bear which deals with the titular megastructure left behind by a sufficiently alien race, and the Revelation Space series by Alaister Reynolds is crawling with dead alien races for a reason.

There are probably tons I'm forgetting from my light reading, but they'll probably come to mind soon enough.

 

[GarthTheWereWolf]

I adore the Man-Kzin Wars series. The series is a shared universe so multiple authors write several short stories set in the universe in each book.

The plots revolve around the theme of:

Mankind has socially conditioned itself to be absolute pacifists. Human space was in the middle of the "Long Peace". ARM, the United Nations security force, has completely suppressed all "dangerous" technologies, histories, mental illnesses, and media, leading to not only an end of war and almost all violent crimes, but a change in society so vast that most people have a difficulty even conceptualizing such things. They have started space exploration and colonization and encounter the alien species the Kzinti a warrior race of giant bipedal tiger/lions that conquer other alien species to use them as slaves/prey animals for their hunting reserves. The Humans as a result have to relearn war, and the Kzinti learn that humanity isn't a race of pacifists because they don't know how to fight, but because they were so good at fighting they had to become pacifists to prevent their own self-destruction.

There are a lot of books in the series and because its written by multiple authors you can pick up any of them and just start reading.

Its a fun read <:

 

[Miles Marsalis]

I adore the Man-Kzin Wars series. The series is a shared universe so multiple authors write several short stories set in the universe in each book.

The plots revolve around the theme of:

Mankind has socially conditioned itself to be absolute pacifists. Human space was in the middle of the "Long Peace". ARM, the United Nations security force, has completely suppressed all "dangerous" technologies, histories, mental illnesses, and media, leading to not only an end of war and almost all violent crimes, but a change in society so vast that most people have a difficulty even conceptualizing such things. They have started space exploration and colonization and encounter the alien species the Kzinti a warrior race of giant bipedal tiger/lions that conquer other alien species to use them as slaves/prey animals for their hunting reserves. The Humans as a result have to relearn war, and the Kzinti learn that humanity isn't a race of pacifists because they don't know how to fight, but because they were so good at fighting they had to become pacifists to prevent their own self-destruction.

There are a lot of books in the series and because its written by multiple authors you can pick up any of them and just start reading.

Its a fun read <:

Are they still writing those? I read a few in high school.

 

[GarthTheWereWolf]

Are they still writing those? I read a few in high school.

Yea, the most recent book came out last year. Man-Kzin Wars XV

They come out with new book every year or two with either a main series entry or an offshoot entry like Treasure Planet

 

[Toasty9399]

Ay, Evil Cat aliens! Expeditionary Force has those!
GLORY TO THE MAXOHLX HEGENOMY

 

[aomagrat]

I adore the Man-Kzin Wars series. The series is a shared universe so multiple authors write several short stories set in the universe in each book.

The plots revolve around the theme of:

Mankind has socially conditioned itself to be absolute pacifists. Human space was in the middle of the "Long Peace". ARM, the United Nations security force, has completely suppressed all "dangerous" technologies, histories, mental illnesses, and media, leading to not only an end of war and almost all violent crimes, but a change in society so vast that most people have a difficulty even conceptualizing such things. They have started space exploration and colonization and encounter the alien species the Kzinti a warrior race of giant bipedal tiger/lions that conquer other alien species to use them as slaves/prey animals for their hunting reserves. The Humans as a result have to relearn war, and the Kzinti learn that humanity isn't a race of pacifists because they don't know how to fight, but because they were so good at fighting they had to become pacifists to prevent their own self-destruction.

There are a lot of books in the series and because its written by multiple authors you can pick up any of them and just start reading.

Its a fun read <:

That's a great series. Larry Niven is awesome. I discovered him while attending college in the 1970's. I had to take an English elective and found a course "Science Fiction Literature" buried deep in the catalog. It was one of the best classes I took. We read books by Heinlein, Asimov, Pohl and Kornbluth, and of course Niven, to name a few. Niven's "Known Space" are awesome!

 

[Miles Marsalis]

This just came to me, but you may like the Uplift Saga by David Brin, @MosquitoBeest . It takes place in a space opera setting where humanity has been newly admitted into the galactic community by older extraterrestrial species, but still faces hurdles to its advancement and possible threats from hostile civilizations. The series is also notable because humanity has a practice of raising existing animal species such chimpanzees and dolphins to sentience, which turns out to be a common practice among galactic species.

I would recommend starting with the first three books, Sundiver, Startide Rising, and The Uplift War.

I might review the series on FAF eventually, time permitting.

 

[Gnarl]

I recommend you check out "bad dog books" or the FWG page "Furry writers guild" There will lots of good stuff depending on what you want. Otters in space is pretty good and so is Kismet.

 

[Gnarl]

If you want to know about world building check the new series, The Reclamation project.

 

[Attaman]

Dan Simmons' first two books in the Hyperion Cantos are rather solid. Technically the story goes well beyond these novels (into a grand total of four books), but Hyperion is by far the strongest of the series with its sequel still fairly solid (if getting a bit chaotic at times).

Likewise, the first Ringworld novel has some pretty interesting examinations of the titular Ringworld, though may fall under the "stereotypical" category (the first Hyperion novel, meanwhile, is basically a Sci-Fi Canterbury Tales).

 

[Miles Marsalis]

Dan Simmons' first two books in the Hyperion Cantos are rather solid. Technically the story goes well beyond these novels (into a grand total of four books), but Hyperion is by far the strongest of the series with its sequel still fairly solid (if getting a bit chaotic at times).

Likewise, the first Ringworld novel has some pretty interesting examinations of the titular Ringworld, though may fall under the "stereotypical" category (the first Hyperion novel, meanwhile, is basically a Sci-Fi Canterbury Tales).

I didn't know you read the Cantos, but it's one of my favorite series. You're well-read.

 

[hara-surya]

Becky Chambers write some amazing scifi.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet has a Scalie character who has an interesting culture centered around sexuality and a love of touching one another that makes other races uncomfortable. The fur-covered navigator has an infection in his brain that makes him amazing at hyperspace navigating; but what makes it special kills members of his species, every member of his species is infected and treats their fate as a matter of religious devotion. There's also the fact that aliens in the setting think human smell terrible and the doctor (who is one of only a handful of members of a species on the verge of extinction) secretly gives the human crew special soap to make them stink less. It's written in an episodic manner, so every couple chapters come across like an episode of a TV show.

A Close and Common Orbit is about treating artificial intelligences as people. The A-plot is a shipboard AI is forced to live inside a humanoid body and is adopted by the main character of the B-Plot whose story is about a little girl being raised in a junkyard by the artificial intelligence on a wrecked spaceship. The woman in the B-plot loves a kid's show because a single episode was her only child-friendly solace while stranded in the junkyard. (It's implied she has what amounts to a bobblehead collection of the characters.) The story is heartwarming and I actually teared up at the ending.

I've not read it, but Record of a Spaceborn Few is about a fleet of human refugees from a dying Earth who, as newly-minted full citizens of the galactic government can now settle where they please, but choose not to because it's the only life they've known. I'm pretty sure it's a scifi reflection of people who insist on staying in dying industries like coal mining and the related company towns, despite there being no future and their children leaving for a better life elsewhere.

 

[Miles Marsalis]

Becky Chambers write some amazing scifi.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet has a Scalie character who has an interesting culture centered around sexuality and a love of touching one another that makes other races uncomfortable. The fur-covered navigator has an infection in his brain that makes him amazing at hyperspace navigating; but what makes it special kills members of his species, every member of his species is infected and treats their fate as a matter of religious devotion. There's also the fact that aliens in the setting think human smell terrible and the doctor (who is one of only a handful of members of a species on the verge of extinction) secretly gives the human crew special soap to make them stink less. It's written in an episodic manner, so every couple chapters come across like an episode of a TV show.

A Close and Common Orbit is about treating artificial intelligences as people. The A-plot is a shipboard AI is forced to live inside a humanoid body and is adopted by the main character of the B-Plot whose story is about a little girl being raised in a junkyard by the artificial intelligence on a wrecked spaceship. The woman in the B-plot loves a kid's show because a single episode was her only child-friendly solace while stranded in the junkyard. (It's implied she has what amounts to a bobblehead collection of the characters.) The story is heartwarming and I actually teared up at the ending.

I've not read it, but Record of a Spaceborn Few is about a fleet of human refugees from a dying Earth who, as newly-minted full citizens of the galactic government can now settle where they please, but choose not to because it's the only life they've known. I'm pretty sure it's a scifi reflection of people who insist on staying in dying industries like coal mining and the related company towns, despite there being no future and their children leaving for a better life elsewhere.

To Be Taught, if Fortunate is a rather unique portrayal of transhumanism and interstellar travel that explores the effects on the travelers in emotional detail. Chambers has strong work across the board, though.

 

[Zehlua]

Dragon Riders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey

Space Opera by Vicente

 

[BlackJoker]

Been going through the Dune series again. Started a series called Helldivers. Earth is an irradiated nightmare, and what's left of humanity lives on two massive airships. Folks known as Helldivers parachute to the surface to scavenge for materials and supplies. It's interesting in the first book, I'm struggling to get interested in the second.

 

[DominantSubdivision]

This ones a manga but i would 100% recommend it, an absolutely depressing adventure.

An unknown event causes all humans to be locked out of the network and seen as hostiles by the cities defense. A cyborg named Killy searches the endlessly expanding city labyrinth for a human with the "net terminal gene" well facing new and ancient threats.

 

[MetroFox2]

I just picked-up Roadside Picnic by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky, it might not be the kind of sci-fi you're looking for, but I've just started reading it and think it's certainly worth sharing. If you're familiar with the film Stalker, or the series of games of the same name, I believe this book is what originally inspired them.

 

[Canis Dirus]

Anything that takes good care with detailing other planets is a plus!

«Лунная радуга» (I don't know, really, if it was translated into English)? No aliens, but have some space scenery porn (Mercury in the first book, Oberon and Iapetus in the second).

 

[Mambi]

I am currently waiting on a ref sheet for a character that I want to create a world and stories around and it's a bionic humanoid created by an ancient and long-gone alien race, so I'm hoping to rack up some good sci-fi reads to help me venture into the genre!
Anything that takes good care with detailing other planets is a plus! I'm not looking for any stereotypical alien stories if it can be helped.

For sci-fi world building, try the Foundation series by Issac Asimov.

 

[ManicTherapsid]

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein are pretty good. If your looking for furry, the Pelted books by M.C.A. Hogarth are a good read depending on the series. Some of the Battletech books are pretty good, no aliens, pretty much Game of Thrones in space with mechs.