I loved Adrian Tchaikovsky's "Final Architecture" trilogy, starting with "Shards of Earth". I've really enjoyed Tchaikovsky the last couple years, "Children of Time" is magnificent, "Cage of Souls" was cool weirdness; but "Shards of Earth" was like a Firefly/Expanse-inspired story set in a Culture style universe, definitely my favorite of his books that I've read so far. Even acting as book one in a trilogy, it's ending was satisfying enough that I'd still have loved it without reading books 2 or 3.
this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2023
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@kat_angstrom will pick this up, thanks! Was planning to do Hyperion as well on the side!
Hyperion is glorious. SUCH a good book, and the next in the series is fantastic as well. Three and four a little less so
I agree with all the recommendations so far (Banks, Tchaikovsky, etc.) but would like to add Hannu Rajaniemi, namely the trilogy beginning with “The Quantum Thief”, which blew my mind.
I'm pretty used to jumping right into new, strange worlds so I rarely get lost, but The Quantum Thief was extraordinarily complex, in a good way. And you could trace ideas in it back to tech in use now. Highly rec the book.
For starters, definitely read Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson. So good.
And The Peripheral by William Gibson, although I wasn't a huge fan of the follow-up novel called Agency.
Also, A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine should be on your to-read pile if you liked The Expanse, I think.
Oh yeah, and so far I think my favorite book of 2023 has been Cory Doctorow's Red Team Blues. It's a super fast read and a lot of fun if you're at all into computer security. Very unlikely hero too—a retirement age forensic accountant living out of a rock star bus, traveling the US in search of good wine and good food, haha.
Hail Mary Project!
Martha Wells' Murderbot series, starts with All Systems Red Anne Leckie's Ancillary Justice series Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee Tamsyn Muir's Gideon The Ninth (lesbian necromancers in spaaaace!) JB's The Cruel Stars And file under older but still great: Jon Courtney-Grimwood's Arabesk series, cyberpunk alt history set in Alexandria, starting with Pashazde The Laundry Files by Charles Stross (actually spy / horror) starting with The Atrocity Archives A short story, Down On The Farm, set in the same universe is free to read here
The Borne books (Borne, A Strange Bird and Dead Astronauts) by Vandeemeer were so great too. Like the exact opposite tone and energy of The Southern Reach Trilogy but so rich and rewarding!
K. B. Wagers is a great author. I started with Behind the Throne and read the whole Indranan War series. Next trilogy was the Farian War. Haven't read past those although I want to! Her new stuff looks interesting.
I also really like N. K. Jemisin. My favorite is the Dreamblood series.
Another vote for NK Jemison, she's good.
I find Mieville's books dreamy in a way (though gritty there is a dreamlike or trippy quality to them) so will also suggest:
Ian McDonald
Charlie Jane Anders
Patricia McKillip if you like fantasy
The book "This is the way you lose the time war"
I've been enjoying Django Wexler's Shadow Campaigns series so much. If you like these sideways military stories, Naomi Novik has a good one too.
If you like Neal Stevenson, will probably like William Gibson too, they are different but I like both.
Not enough people have heard of and read The Quantum Magician so I will continue to recommend it. It's quite the wild ride.
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