Iain M Banks, Peter F Hamilton, Asimov, Neal Asher, and Alastair Reynolds.
I like space operas if you can’t tell.
this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2025
41 points (97.7% liked)
Science Fiction
14895 readers
56 users here now
Welcome to /c/ScienceFiction
December book club canceled. Short stories instead!
We are a community for discussing all things Science Fiction. We want this to be a place for members to discuss and share everything they love about Science Fiction, whether that be books, movies, TV shows and more. Please feel free to take part and help our community grow.
- Be civil: disagreements happen, but that doesn’t provide the right to personally insult others.
- Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, ableist, or advocating violence will be removed.
- Spam, self promotion, trolling, and bots are not allowed
- Put (Spoilers) in the title of your post if you anticipate spoilers.
- Please use spoiler tags whenever commenting a spoiler in a non-spoiler thread.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Neal Asher! I just fall into his books. I'm never even sure if it's good writing but I do love his stuff so much.
I'm reading my first Alastair Reynolds now and I can see why fans of Banks might like it.
I recommend House of Suns, Terminal World and Revenger.
Loved the Revenger trilogy.
spoiler
Kinda liked the way it wrapped up by answering all the characters' questions but left them with a whole series of new unanswered questions.
Yes a surprisingly fun and satisfying adventure. It really made me wish there was a video game in The Congregation setting.
I'm on Revelation Space.
Also great. A fun series but dense as hell.
i like banks and someone lent me a reynolds book. its soooooo long though. im reading some phillip k dick instead
Pierce Brown, though book 6 was a little rough
To push it a bit more contemporary: Peter Cawdron and his "First Contact " series, which is infinite variations (about 30 as of now) of making first contact with an alien sentience of any type.
It's excellent, and despite being excellent only available on kindle / kindle unlimited because as an independent author, that's the only way for him to publish & make a buck out if it.
Peter Cawdron is on Mastodon btw
Iain Banks
With or without the "M"? :)
Both, tbh.
Keith Laumer, Gordon R. Dickson and Jack McDevitt are probably the ones I re-read the most.
Definitely Jack Vance first.
After that it's all over the place from day to day. Really enjoying Adrian Tchaikovsky lately, "The Final Architecture" series is just perfect.
Benedict Jacka has scratched my itch for urban fantasy.
I keep being impressed by Ian McDonald, his Luna series was such a tidy read.
Other than that, Samuel Delaney, LeGuin, Harry Harrison, Heinlein, and several others. I don't have a list, just authors :)
I'm getting into Adrian Tchaikovsky myself. He certainly loves painting the future as a capitalist hellscape, doesn't he?
I'm part way into Shroud, where whole solar systems are being strip-mined for resources, and the people doing the work are skinny because they can't afford to eat well but they get auto-dosed with drugs to help them focus when hunger is distracting them.
Ohhh, that's the newest one of his, right?
I'm currently reading City of Last Chances. Interesting urban fantasy, I'm digging it
Recent, certainly. I don't know if it's newest.
Hmm. Lately, Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Neal Asher, Mike Carey, Octavia Butler.
I read a lot of fantasy too, if I had to pick a favorite writer it might be Ian McDonald, but Mike Carey is so good, the comics he worked on are so good.
Not a purely sci-fi author , but checkout "Octavia E Butler". She uses sci-fi to explore other thematics. The fact that I didn't see her name once here says a lot about how underrated she is
Her main book "parable of the sower" is a must read today for anyone living in the USA nowadays. So many points of today's politics make me think back about that book.
Ursula K Le Guin, Alaistair Reynolds, Margaret Atwood (For the Maddaddam trilogy,) Jules Verne, John Windham.
Asimov, Clarke, Niven obviously.
For more modern authors:
- Christopher Hinz
- Jon Scalzi
- Brandon Sanderson
- Neal Stephenson
- Hugh Howey
I don't really have a fav, but I've enjoyed lots of sci fi authors over the years.
- Frederick Pohl (especially Gateway, but not the sequel)
- J. G. Ballard
- Phillip K Dick
- Alfred Bester
- William Gibson
- George Orwell
- Andy Weir
- Strutgasky Brothers (Loved Roadside Picnic)
- Paolo Bacigalupi
- China Meiville
The list goes on
Aside from the big 3 (Asimov, Clarke, and Herbert)?
William Gibson and Mike Pondsmith.
I like Neuromancer as a story.
I really like Mike's world building in cyberpunk. Has he written any novels?
Asimov, Clarke and Frank Herbert are, of course, in the top 3, but I particularly enjoy Dan Simmons as well. I loved both Hyperion and Ilium, he has a knack for weaving together half a dozen tales that have seemingly nothing in common. Downside is that you spend an entire book reading the buildup to the actual story, but I'm a Robert Jordan fan too, I'm accustomed to that.
- Robert Silverberg
- Peter Corris
- Hammond Innes
- Dick Francis
- Arthur Ransome
- Nevil Shute
- Robert Heinlein
- Isaac Asimov
- Hergé
Isaac Asimov, Roger Williams