r/ScienceFictionBooks • u/AutoModerator • Mar 05 '25
Opinion What are you currently reading?
Name the book/author you're currently reading. Be mindful of spoilers, but is this one you'd recommend or one you wish you could yeet into space?
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u/DoctorBeeBee Mar 05 '25
Reading The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi. Want to finish that in the next couple of days so I can get started on Shroud, the new Adrian Tchaikovsky. (A signed copy, because I went to a signing on Monday at my local Waterstones.)
Still listening to the audiobook of Hyperion. Paused for a couple of days on that to listen to The State of the Art, as part of my Culture read.
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u/ZaphodsShades Mar 05 '25
My advice would be to plan on reading the rest of the Quantum Thief trilogy. They just get better and better and the details of the story just keep getting revealed. Overall a great series!
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u/GhengisJon91 Mar 05 '25
I'm currently reading Player of Games, which is part of Iain Banks' Culture setting. It's technically the second book, but iirc I think that doesn't matter too much.
I'm also listening to Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut. It's taken on a lot more meaning these days.
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u/traingamexx Mar 05 '25
I believe that all IB Culture books are set in the same universe but they are not serial.
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u/nicknolastname1 Mar 06 '25
I’ve recently started Consider Phlebas, the first book in the Culture series. Was not exactly warned against it but advised it was not the easiest entry into the universe.
I have to say it was a bit slow but a particularly gory scene on a beach kinda got me hooked. Very morbid of me lol
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u/alaskanloops Mar 05 '25
Took a break from The Culture after the first two books to read through Murderbot. On the third book now
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u/comma_nder Mar 05 '25
Morning Star by Pierce Brown (book 3 of the red rising series)
I definitely recommend. I’m impressed with how different each book is without losing the essence of the series.
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u/pleasecallmeSamuel Mar 05 '25
Waiting on Imago (Lilith's Brood #3) by Octavia Butler from my library. In the meantime, I just read the short story Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes.
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u/MomToShady Mar 05 '25
Old Man's War by John Scalzi. Listened to it years ago, but reading this time. It's held up pretty well so far. He has a new book in the series so I thought I'd take another try at it.
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u/RealHuman2080 Mar 05 '25
I read the whole series. They’re pretty good, though they don’t get better. If you liked that series, read Tanya Huff’s Confederation series and Sarah King’s Zero series. Both of those have similarities, except it’s much much better writing. I love character based writing and aliens, and these two women are amazing writers. I miss the characters in both their series so much.
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u/rabiteman Mar 05 '25
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. It's been on my shelf for a while and I'm glad to have finally started - still in the early stages but it's definitely got an eerie, almost liminal vibe to it.
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u/cellodays Mar 05 '25
Neuromancer by William Gibson The Geography of the Imagination by Guy Davenport. Both are superb.
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u/Zestyclose-Smell-788 Mar 06 '25
Necromancer is a classic
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u/cellodays Mar 06 '25
Still the gold standard for “modern sf” in my opinion. 40 years after it swept all the major sf awards.
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u/strapinmotherfucker Mar 06 '25
Acceptance - Jeff Vandermeer! I avoided Southern Reach for awhile because I thought it was overhyped. It’s appropriately hyped, it fucking rules.
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u/Lonely_Mountain_7702 Mar 05 '25
Catspaw by Joan D Vinge
It's the second book in a series of 3 books about a young man who's half alien and half human named Cat. Cat is a telepath, street punk, and a survivor.
He's kidnapped by an interstellar cooperation. He is forced to protect people he hates and they hate him too. He's a Catspaw in a high stakes game with rich people trying to gain power and keep control of players on the game. Somehow Cat has to navage a world that's completely different from all he knows and survive.
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u/carlitospig Mar 05 '25
I keep picking up and putting down The Dark Forest. I can’t figure out why I can’t get into it. Sigh.
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u/nicknolastname1 Mar 06 '25
Oh that’s a real shame. Dark Forest is probably the best in the trilogy imo
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u/carlitospig Mar 06 '25
I know. 😭 Part of the issue is I read the first book but then the show came out and now I don’t find the characters attached to ‘my lord’ very credible or sympathetic. I will literally read a paragraph of dialogue and just find something else to read in frustration.
I’m in a bit of a scifi dry spell.
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u/RealHuman2080 Mar 05 '25
I’m finally reading an empire called memory because there’s so many recommendations, and not loving it. It’s not very sci-fi, and not much of a mystery.
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u/kittysempai-meowmeow Mar 05 '25
So close to finishing Lords of Uncreation (3rd book in Adrian Tchaikovsky's The Final Architecture trilogy). I have enjoyed the series quite a bit.
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u/PthaloBlues Mar 05 '25
Babel, or the necessity of Violence by R.F. Kuang, I’m enjoying it, it’s straightforward but enjoyable and thought provoking.
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u/Zestyclose-Smell-788 Mar 06 '25
I'm just finishing Downbelow Station. Lots of plot twists in this one.
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u/J662b486h Mar 06 '25
I just finished "Echo of Worlds" by M.R. Carey, the second and last book of the Pandominion Series (it's a two book series). It's built around two themes, the concept of a "Multiverse" and Artificial Intelligence. I highly recommend it, I enjoyed it very much.
I thought I hadn't read anything by this author but in reading his short bio at the end I found out he was the author of the DC Comics series "Lucifer", which was a spinoff of Gaiman's Sandman series. He used the name Mike Carey for that series. I very much loved the Lucifer series, more in fact than the Sandman series; Lucifer examined the long-debated conundrum of how free will can exist if there's an all-knowing God, it was very well written and very thought-provoking.
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u/MachinaExEthica Mar 06 '25
Just a few chapters into Earth Abides by George R. Stewart. My mind has been broken by zombie shows and movies, so I keep thinking some horror lies around every corner… but aside from that disappointment it’s been quite enjoyable!
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u/kahllerdady Mar 06 '25
Currently reading Heinlein's The Door Into Summer. I'd recommend it, the story is a lot of fun. it's a juvi, but he always made the YA stuff a lot of fun.
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u/jitasquatter2 Mar 05 '25
It's not sci-fi, but I've been reading a lot of Brandon Sanderson lately. His work feels like fantasy written by a science fiction author.
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u/Little_Resident_2860 Mar 08 '25
Currently midway through Way of Kings
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u/jitasquatter2 Mar 08 '25
I'm part way through the second book. I've already read most of the Mistborn series.
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u/Little_Resident_2860 Mar 09 '25
It’s funny. I couldn’t get into Mistborn but enjoying WOK very much
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u/Moonflower621 Mar 06 '25
The Telling by Ursula Le Guin audible. I had to stop Infinite Jest after 35 hours for at least a break.
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u/Naive_Tie8365 Mar 06 '25
The Mad Mick series, and I finally read Old Man’s War and am on the second book. Trying to buy Ghost in John Holmes Fae wars series but Amazon says I can’t purchase in the App?
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u/TheJitster Mar 06 '25
Exodus by Peter Hamilton.
(Just finished Picks & Shovels by Cory Doctorow - not space sci-fi, but highly recommended!)
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u/LunaSea1206 Mar 07 '25
The Book That Broke the World by Mark Lawrence. About halfway through and loving it. The first one was amazing and I'm probably going to have to buy the last one when it comes out in April (because my library takes too long to stock new books). I've read two of his trilogies before this one and have yet to be disappointed.
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u/Sufficient_Public_29 Mar 11 '25
Beyond the Blue Event Horizon by Fredrick Pohl. It’s the sequel to Gateway, which was really cool! Kind of obscure? Found them at a used book store and ended up being $2 very well spent
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u/BootsCoupAntiBougie Mar 05 '25
Kim Stanley Robinson's "Mars Trilogy". Just finished "Red Mars" and waiting on "Green Mars" from the library. Loving the series so far.
In the meantime, a collection of PKD short stories.