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Lots of good suggestions here. I've just ordered Anne Leckie's 'ancillary' trilogy.
I'll recommend Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun (The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the Conciliator, The Sword of the Lictor and The Citadel of the Autarch) - Lots of weird, cool imagery and ideas.
I need to get around to The Urth of the New Sun at some point.
The Stars My Destination was a pretty good one. I don't have a ranked list, but i'll throw in some recommendations anyway.
Allen Dean Foster is one of my favorite authors, wrote many many books set in the universe of the Humanx Commonwealth, although several books work as just stand alone novels with their own things going on. If I had to pick just one: Sentenced to Prism.
Lois McMaster Bujold wrote the Vorkosigan Saga, another series with many books. The main series follows Miles Vorkosigan, who essentially has to spend his entire illustrious career talking his way out of increasingly absurd shenanigans.
Tad Williams wrote Otherland (and other works as well, but I only read the one). It's a single story split apart 3 books, with some good cyberpunk shenanigans.
If you're willing to dip into warhammer 40k, there's some good stories although it's a lower reading level. the Eisenhorn trillogy is a good introduction to the setting, also something of a spy thriller. The Infinite And The Divine is probably my favorite though, features two geriatric immortals harassing each other over thousands of years trying to steal/use a mcguffin, 10/10 shenanigans.
In no particular order and I can't order them by preference, so there's more than 10:
Altered Carbon
Expanse, the first two or three
Dune, the first one
Forever War
Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained
The Carpet Makers
Spin
Childhood's End
Ender's Game
Eternity Road
Pushing Ice
Any scifi by John Scalzi is entertaining
The Steerswoman
Vorkosigan Saga
The Dispossessed (Anarcho-Communist lunar colony re establishes contact with the rest of the world after 100yrs due to making a huge scientific breakthru) or any other Ursula le guin novel.
xenogenesis series by octavia e. butler. Humans wiped themselves out, horny aliens offer a deal, they restore earth and in exchange humanity interbreeds and merges with the aliens.
House of the scorpion king: drug lords have annexed Mexico and collapsed the us, the king pins live forever using clones for organ harvesting and have a mentally stunted slave class to do the farming. It's a very heartwarming story in my opinion.
Project Hail Mary, by Andy weir who wrote the Martian (also good book). It's hard to describe the book without spoiling it, but essentially slightly more advanced society than ours pools the whole worlds resources to send the protagonist on a one way interstellar mission to discover a way to save earth.
I also just finished the three body problem series, I enjoyed the second book in particular, its beautifully written and well translated but I felt like the series is severely hurt by the authors sexist themes.
A Fire Upon the Deep represent! Now you must read A Deepness in the Sky. Must.
In a spider related vein, Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, plus pretty much anything else by him. I cried my eyes out about those little spiders.
Snow Crash and Seven Eves by Neil Stephenson
Andy Weir's novels are light and entertaining: Project Hail Mary and The Martian, for example. They're palate cleansers for after the 1984s of literature.
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler is a great read.
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott Abbott is close to sci-fi and from the 1880s. It's a short read and, being a math nerd, I really enjoyed it.
What everyone said, plus:
Strata by Terry Pratchett
Dahak trilogy by David Webber
Anything by Ray Bradbury
wow, haven't seen anyone else recommend Empire from the Ashes.
Have a signed copy at home.
10 is hard to go off the top of my head, but, in semi-random
The expanse: loved it so much we have our son the middle name Holden
Dune: always a classic for a reason
Children of Time: find myself dwelling on this
Honor Harrington: the best military sci-fi
Forever War: made me think
Hitchhiker's Guide: always makes me laugh (also like Darkside of the sun, but not listing both)
Hyperion: definitive space opera
The matian: definitive hard scifi
The culture: like the federation in star trek, but better.
Children of time needs more hype. Probably the best science fiction to come out in recent times.
We're going on an adventure!
I didn't think the second book could be on par with the first but it was also fantastic.
Third one wasn't as good, but worth a read. Adrian Tchaikovsky must be the most underhyped sci-fi author writing today, his "The Final Architecture" series is great bit of space opera.
I'm on the second of that. Loved the first, but got dragged off while re-reading SLA
Good to hear. Haven't read the rest of the series, but felt the first was so good it didn't need a follow up
The Three Body Problem trilogy, in particular the second book. It’s hard to talk about it without giving away the mystery of the first book, but it’s a book series that reshaped my perception of the universe.
Otherwise, there’s Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy for some good old British comedy.
The first one was so bad though. The characters had ZERO depth, and the "game" was obviously created by someone who has never played a game before.....ever. The dialogue was so cringey at spots.
Like...I can't bring myself to read the second book.
I read most of the first book in Chinese, and so attributed it to my language level not being high enough. So I read it in English, and it was worse. Then later, again, someone recommended the TV series, and I watched the whole thing thinking that I might have missed something. I believe the first season also contains parts of book 2. Still, I don't understand why so many people like it. It feels like it was written by someone who never read other sci-fi before, to say the least.
I felt like that about Everything, Everywhere All at Once. People raving how amazing it was and it just seemed like a campy romp of nonsense...and I love quirk books or shows.
written by someone who never read other sci-fi before
And lauded by people that have never read SF before. It's like it was written by a literature prof with zero understanding of anything scientific and if he handwaved enough, everyone was just going to hypnotized into a suspension of disbelief. And the terrible character development. And the deus ex machina plot device that invalidates everything else. And and and. Just horrible.
They're all bad. Don't bother.
I hated it. Other than the folding think I didn't find anything worthwhile in it, and I've read other books with the same gimmick, if at a smaller scale.
The Expanse Series
Enders Game
We are Legion (We are Bob)
Murderbot Chronicles
When I look at the source code of your comment, I see that you are trying to say:
The Expanse Series
Enders Game
We are Legion (We are Bob)
Murderbot Chronicles
If you would like single-spaced line breaks, like the list above, you need to leave 2 spaces at the end of the line. That shows that the line-break is an intentional part of the formatting, not just a word-wrapping issue.
Did you just read the first Dune book? If so, I highly suggest getting through God Emperor of Dune. Messiah wraps up (mostly) Paul's story, then Children and GEoD resolve a lot of the themes.
I've been getting into the Culture series by Iain M Banks, which is frequently recommended for good reason.
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman is a classic of hard military sci-fi
Ringworld by Larry Niven is likewise a classic, though I never finished it
Philip K Dick's stories are also a must
Asimov's Foundation series is basically sci-fi's LotR, deeply fundamental to the genre
I know I'm forgetting one or two, I'll add if I remember
Well, guess I'll just hop in here and second(/third/fourth...w.e) your comment, it's almost verbatim what I was going to say......
Ringworld + sequels
Rama + sequels
Both of those are good classics for a starting point
enjoyed ringworld, but struggled to re-read it recently. Feels really dated (which it is), but it and Rama are still the definitive BDO scifi!
I love big dumb object sci-fi but didn't realize it was a named genre until your comment. Thank you, you've opened up a big dumb world for me to explore.
Any recommendations? Didn't care for Bowl of Heaven
Frederik Pohl's Heechee Saga has some sweet BDO action. It's a little dated as the first book was written back in the seventies but it's not awful.
Shit, I think I want to write a BDO novelette now. This is all seriously a revelation. I haven't been this excited in years!
That's great news! Tag me, I wanna read the sorry.
Have you ever read Marrow? It's about a spaceship the size of Jupiter, with countless planet sized voids used for habitation...
Enjoyed the premise, but the ensigns were rushed, very much "and then something happened and they were all ok"
Andy Weir‘s Books (The Martian and Project Hail Mary) are very good entries and fairly easy to read and brilliant.
Then you can look into Corey’s The Expanse for more „realistic” sci-fi in around earth and/or look into Banks’ The Culture of you want to stretch your imagination.
Further mentions: Hugh Howley (Wool/Silo), Neal Stephenson (Anathem, Seveneves, Snow Crash …)
Blindsight by Peter Watts
The Bobiverse series by Dennis Taylor
Anything by Blake Crouch
William Gibson isn't for everyone but I love him.
Not exactly sci-fi more like litrpg but my favorite series currently is Dungeon Crawler Carl. Audio books are the way to go here, Jeff Hayes is fucking incredible.
I might get shit for this but Project Hail Mary
I also recommended Andy Weir's novels and don't care if sci-fi elitists think they're not worthy of mention.
Not every novel needs to be a serious read that challenges the reader. Hell, I grew up devouring the works of Alan Dean Foster, an author of solidly bubblegum sci-fi and fantasy. Novels can just be dorky and fun.
I love weir, he's such a fun read. I'm also no elitist gatekeeper about what is sci-fi or not but someone always talks shit when it gets brought up. The only book of his I don't enjoy is Artemis but even it was pretty good all told. Project Hail Mary was so fun to read and listen to I've probably been through that book 8-10 times.
If you like dorky fun try Red Shirts if you haven't. I think it's scalise who wrote it but not sure. Starter Villain was cool too but a bit short. I am quite addicted to "shitty sci-fi" but also love the hard sci-fi.
My favorite argument from gatekeepers is, "that's not even close to realistic" and it's like, yeah, it's a fucking FICTION story. That's the point.
I really enjoy Kim Stanley Robinsons books, the Mars trilogy especially. However a couple of his standalone books are also great (Aurora and 2312).
Also, I love peter f Hamiltons world building. Pandoras Star kicks off a huge story spanning 7 odd books.
And finally, James sa Corey and the expanse series are phenomenal.
Second for Kim Stanley Robinson, 'Aurora' is a standalone book about a generation ship that I enjoyed.
Seconded for Peter Hamilton books, a total of 8 books if you include the prequel Misspent Youth.
One warning that the story perspective jumps between many different characters viewpoints before bringing them together. It can feel really confusing and irrelevant until you get further into the book.
Lots of good stuff from Charles Stross:
Also Vernor Vinge:
In no particular order:
Forever War. This is a good companion piece and counterpoint to Starship Troopers. As a book I find it more engaging and easy to get through than Starship Troopers. There is a lot of interesting contemplation about society and government structures in the book.
Foundation. A classic novel that tackles the idea of the "great man" theory of history. The next two follow-up books round out a great trilogy. There are more books after that, but those belated sequels don't have the same spark.
Dune. It's Dune.
Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. This book and the sequels are the funniest scifi out there.
Ender's Game. A great book about a child prodigy in military strategy, and the consequences of a government which uses him.
At The Mountains Of Madness. Humanity is either a joke or a mistake.
Tactics Of Mistake. Decently breezy military scifi. It takes The Art Of War and turns many of its principles into a scifi plot.
Hyperion. Strange, scary, weird.
Old Man's War. Another military scifi that is accessible and easy to get through. Great central concept.
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. Robert Heinlein's best book. An uprising, but on the moon.
Anyone who likes Iain Banks, should give Anne Leckie a try. I've never had that special kind of "Iain Banks feeling" again until I read her books. But Banks is still the GOAT, of course.
Everone always praises Asimov’s Foundation, but I found his robot stories (collected both in “I, Robot” and “The Complete Robot”) more entertaining. While Foundation is more of an adventure story, the robots pose interesting philosophical questions are are always good for a last-minute reveal. They’re also usually quite short, so they’re a good read when your time is on a budget or you’re not an avid reader in general.
I wish I had learned earlier that short stories can also be entertaining and not just the artsy bullshit you’re forced to read in school.
Speaking of Asimov and robots, I really enjoyed The Positronic Man by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg, which is based on Asimov's novelette The Bicentennial Man.
Stranger in a Strange Land
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Both by Heinlein
A few:
The Unincorporated Man by Dani and Eytan Kollin. The story and parallels of society really slap.
Lightning by Dean Koontz. Not exactly known for sci-fi per se, but this one checks lots of boxes including time travel.
The Dosadi Experiment by Frank Herbert. A good non-Dune choice.
Leviathan Wakes by James SA Corey. A great space opera.
Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers series. It's Trek with a different angle and adventure from the series leaders.
Warm Bodies by author Isaac Marion. Probably controversial but i dig the way it did the zombie genre. Darker than the movie.
The Sequence by Lucien Telford. A hidden gem really. Gene editing thriller sci-fi.
On my backlog:
Anything by Stanislaw Lem. Very philosophical at times, but easy enough to read, and with a lot of jokes and thrills... I'd start with some short storys.
Frederick Pohl Heechee series.
Hyperion Cantos
Saberhagen's Berserkers, the first few books
Keep going on Vinge's zones of thought; well worth finishing
Dragonriders of Pern is escapist as hell
Dune: the Frank Herbert stuff, nothing his son wrote was good. In fact, I'd probably stop at God Emporer
Majipoor Chronicles.
Larry Niven: Ringworld series, Known Space and Kzinti Wars
David Brin's Uplift books
Steven Baxter Xeelee Sequence and his Long Earth series.
Haven't read 10. I like "a canticle for leibowitz".