Can anyone recommend some recent science fiction books?

[SpaceCadet]

I figure this is probably a good group to ask. When I was young I read sci fi a lot, but haven't in maybe 20 years. Can any sci fi buffs here recommend some recent stuff? Doesn't need to be too unusual, it can be totally "mainstream" because I really haven't read any of it for so long. Thanks!

 

[Mr Allen]

If you're in any way a fan of Star Wars, have a look at Shadows of the Empire, it's kind of set between the end of Empire Strikes Back and beginning of Return of the Jedi, so I guess if they'd done it as a film it'd be Episode 5.5.

I've read it as both the book itself and on Kindle, it's quite good.

 

[nowwhat]

Richard J. Morgan, the Takeshi Kovacs series
Iain M. Banks, the Culture series and others
C.J. Cherryh, Cyteen
Neal Asher, anything he has written
Not sci-fi, but Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon and the Baroque Cycle, and Seveneves, which is sci-fi
William Gibson, anything at all he's written
Dan Simmons Hyperion Cantos
Joe Haldeman, The Forever War
Alistair Reynolds has a bunch of good stuff, the titles of which, I can't remember at the moment.
Charles Stross, the only one comes to mind is Accelerando, but there are many
Stephen King, The Dark Tower, and the one about the Kennedy Assasination

Neal Gaiman, more fantasy than sci-fi, but I love his stuff. He is deservedly famous.

 

[Mia]

I'm reading Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood at the moment. It's a trilogy with Year of the Flood and MaddAdam afterwards. It might be termed fantasy, apocalyptic science fiction. It's well written, as is usual with her books.

Neuromancer, William Gibson (His writing takes some getting used to, if you haven't read some of his work.)

The Man in the high Castle, Phillip K. Dick. (Although I haven't read this book, my husband has and liked it, Dick also wrote bladerunner, adjustment bureau, total recall and many others)

Hunters of the red moon, Marion Z. Bradley. One of my favourites.

The day of the triffids, and other books by John Wyndham. (He called his science fiction 'logical fantasy')

Ringworld, Ringworld Engineers, by Larry Niven.

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem.

 

[wyverary]

What little I've read of H.P. Lovecraft I have highly enjoyed. Good old-fashioned pre-war science fiction.

If you don't mind something of a sci-fi/fantasy mashup, Philip Pullman's "The Golden Compass" is a beautiful novel. If you're open to more fantasy, I second the Neil Gaiman recommendation..."The Ocean at the End of the Lane" is one of the best books I've read since Gabriel García Márquez.

If you REALLY want to delve into things by way of graphic novels, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8" is quite excellent (yes, vampires, but I would say that particular collection is probably more sci-fi than fantasy).

And if you haven't read "The Martian," it's well worth a go, even though I preferred the movie version *ducks*

 

[Mr Allen]

They're not really recent, but if you can find any of them the Discworld books by the late Terry Pratchett were classics, I've read most of the earlier ones because I used to play the Discworld PC games so I read the books to find out about the characters, they're very funny!

 

[SpaceCadet]

Thanks to everyone for the loooong list! The only ones I'm sure I've read already are Philip K. Dick's "The Man In the High Castle" - which was absolutely "required" reading in my long-ago US Navy gang in the Pacific - and H.P. Lovecraft who I read recently (& went to see some of the Lovecraft sites in Providence RI). Today I'll look into getting some of your recommendations, and I'll check in here later.