Recommend somewhat modern sci‐fi writers that you like

What are your favorite sci‐fi writers, that wrote something in the last 15 years? Preferably of non‐US origin, as those authors are usually the ones that get translated here, so I’ve read lots of ’em already. I want something new, different, I dunno.

Bonus points for NOT describing space as a sea and all that marine stuff.

#sci-fi

Posted in: s/Books

☕️ tenno-seremel

Apr 20 · 6 months ago · 👍 stack, Nilbog, Nexy

8 Comments ↓

🌻 Nexy · Apr 20 at 13:11:

Almost all the scifi I read it's pretty old, the only recent book I read was "Shadow of the Endless" that it's pretty nice, but it's for the universe of a videogame I like (endless space 2)

I'm Interested in the topic too and I want to know some new good autors.

🚀 stack · Apr 20 at 14:00:

The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu is pretty hard to put down. Read it before the TV version (which is not bad as well)

🚀 mbays · Apr 20 at 17:10:

How about Greg Egan? Australian. "Hard" sci-fi, often centred on variant or speculative physics, thoroughly worked out. His best stuff imho (Diaspora, Schild's Ladder) was published over 15 years ago, but there's also a lot to like about the Orthognal series and his various short stories, and the other novels are interesting in their own ways.

🐝 mifuyne · Apr 20 at 17:30:

This one falls outside of your 15-year range, but I quite enjoyed Peter Watts's Rifter Series. It's about a crew working in a geothermal power plant...about 1400m below sea leve at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. It's not a light-hearted story, the last I recall. It's about people who are mentally unsound in various ways, but they were chosen because that unsoundness made them fit to work in isolation.

He's actually made the series available on his website. It starts with Starfish and ends with βehemoth. Blindsight is part of his Firefall series (which includes Echopraxia, but that doesn't seem to be available on his site). You can find them here:

— https://www.rifters.com/real/shorts.htm

As for the origin of the author, he's Canadian. However, the books were published by Tor, a US company. Maybe it doesn't help the recommendation but as I said, he did make the series freely available on his site.

☕️ tenno-seremel [OP] · Apr 20 at 19:22:

@stack Ah, I’ve read The three body problem. It was different alright, although the third book felt a bit too much like fantasy. I wonder if he wrote something new since then.

@mbays I’ll check him out, thank you!

👺 Nilbog · Apr 21 at 02:04:

This is slightly outside the 15-year window but I found "All Tomorrows" by C.M. Kosemen (Turkish) to be quite intriguing. It is told from the perspective of an alien archaeologist going over the history of human evolution over a billion years. It is very short, but I found the illustrations of the different human species to be amusing.

🚀 mz · Jul 17 at 21:01:

I really enjoyed "Children of Time" by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Haven't read any of the sequels yet but I'm looking forward to reading them. The story is about a group of humans coming into contact with a technological race of spiders. About half the chapters are from a spider's point of view. It might sound crazy but it's very well executed.

🚀 HorikBrun · Aug 24 at 23:50:

Adrian Tchaikovsky is possibly the most creative sci-fi writer I've come across in quite a while. And prolific. And he hides a lot of jokes and references to other writers and books.The more well-read you are, the more of them you'll spot.


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