Ask HN: Favorite fiction books of 2018? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Favorite fiction books of 2018?

69 pointsriledhel62 comments

Similar to this one https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18743465 but I'm looking for fiction, poetry books to read next year.

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Three Body Problem (this one's probably going to get mentioned a lot, and it absolutely deserves it). The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi. Red Rising (series) by Pierce Brown.

I almost gave up on Three Body Problem because it starts off a little slowly and it's difficult to see where the book is going. Absolutely worth it in the end, though. The second two are the kinds of books you can rip through quickly if you've got a little extra reading time over the holidays.

Pro-tip: Nils Frahm’s 2018 album All Melody pairs extremely well with book 3. This combination was a highlight of 2018 for me.

Glad to hear the trilogy was worth continuing! I tore through the first one in about 3 days – admittedly the start is very slow. Will have to pick the other two up now.

Permutation City by Greg Egan - Hard sci-fi about what might happen if we could scan human minds in sufficient detail to simulate them in computers. Best treatment of this topic I've ever seen.

Diaspora by Greg Egan - Takes the idea much, much further. What might happen to humanity if virtualized "human" minds embodied in robots or not embodied at all became the two most common ways for people to be. Also, fascinating and surprisingly rigorous diversions into math and physics.

Greg Egan is a true treasure. I would love to know more about why he seems to have pulled out of traditional publishing.

It's from a couple of years ago, but his Clockwork Rocket series is incredible. It's about a universe in which the spacetime metric is Riemannian instead of Einsteinian.

Stormlight series by Brandon Sanderson. This is my first foray into high fantasy, and i absolutely loved these books. I also enjoyed sci-fi novel, The Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

I liked the mistborn series even better. Check it out. I still can’t figure out how they’re related though.

that is where i'm going next :)

You have a whole universe to explore! I think Stormlight was the best, but they are all great.

The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemison was a favorite. Intelligent, conflicted characters and such a superb interplay of geological science fiction.

Foundryside from Robert J. Benett - it's a fantasy novel where magic system is based upon reverse engineering power words and jealusly keeping them secret from other trade organizations. Magic in that world is literally intellectual property and is compiled into huge dictionaries which aren't far from being programs. The whole "feel" of the world is very victorian - something akin to Dishonored if anyone played this.

The prose is very readable, the characters pretty awesome and it's just such a very fresh take on fantasy.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37173847-foundryside?fro...

And The Verge ("Foundryside is a cyberpunk adventure wrapped in an epic fantasy novel"): https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/23/18148907/foundryside-rob...

Almost a day late, but I'll throw this in here if people come by later looking for more suggestions.

From this year, I read all but two of the Haruki Murakami books and all short stories. I love his writing style (great translations), and the fact that the stories are about not all the time realness. Kafka on the Shore is a great starting book. Also Norwegian Wood is another example, though this strayed away from the magical aspect I like of his.

Another from this year was The Dubliners, collection of short stories from James Joyce. I was stuck in Dublin during a snow storm this past spring, so I'm sure this lead me to like the stories more, but I swear they're amazing and I haven't found anything else like them. They're all tiny points in people's lives, and the things that happen make differences for the people or are also easy to remember and not forget. Get one with reference notes in the back too.

Besides those, Love in the Time of Cholera was another one way up on my list. Similar to One Hundred Years of Solitude, which I think I prefer slightly more, but reading both is interesting to read since Cholera was written 20 years after Solitude and we can see how the author changed over time.

Overall though, my absolute top tier books are East of Eden, Catch-22, and My Struggle (Knausgaard). 1000% read those. I like including these so if somebody reads this and likes these books as well, they can somewhat trust my other suggestions.

Currently reading the three body problem. It’s been reccomended here a few times but I still quite like it.

The trilogy is fantastic

+1. Read the series earlier this year and really enjoyed it.

Book one is a bit tough to get through, but books two and three make it all worth it.

I read Infinite Jest for the first time this year, and it's incredible. I recognise at the same time it's not for everyone, but the story, writing style, humor and sheer specific knowledge on so many subjects employed in this book are incredible.

It's one of my long-time goals to read this book. I read the first few chapters and it was amazing, but sadly life intervened and I couldn't continue.

I'm curious - did you read it on its own, or did you read some kind of resource along with it? I've seen recommendations to read it alongside websites/books that help understand it.

I read it on its own, on an ebook reader where the annotations don't work (bad android app). Generally I only have to look up the occasional word or two to get some of the word jokes (my favourite being "[making his exam by] a single dento-dermal layer", meaning "the skin of his teeth")

I am reminded of the foreword, the author of which I forget, who said that it clearly isn't a breeze to read, you have to put in actual effort to understand the damn sentences. This is totally true, if I let my mind wander as with any other book, I have to go back and re-read it.

I also read it this year (as part of a book club) - one thing I’d note is I was very pleasantly surprised at how well the footnotes worked in the ebook. I had made an attempt with a hardcopy about ten years ago and found juggling two bookmarks a major pain. It’s not without its flaws but well worth the effort to read, and once I got properly going I didn’t find it difficult or a drag at all.

Fates and Furies - Lauren Groff Brilliant. It's considered "literary fiction" but I found this book to be an absolute page-turner, much more so than what is usually described as a "page-turner". The summaries / back-cover marketing copy can't do it justice.

Florida - Lauren Groff Sublime, poetic, haunting collection of short stories.

Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang Exhalation - Ted Chiang Being released in May 2019 (I got an advance copy), but many of the stories are previously published and/or available online. "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" is just wonderful. Ted Chiang's work is the definition of economy in storytelling. Absolutely quality over quantity.

The Three Body Problem, The Dark Forest, Death's End - Liu Cixin I’m not sure how fulfilling it would be to just read the first one. They really feel like a single (big) novel. Worth it.

The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O - Neal Stephenson, Nicole Galland Kind of Stephenson-light(?). Smart, entertaining and seems destined to be a TV series.

The Secret History - Donna Tartt A bit slow to get going. Lots of Greek, snow, and booze at a private liberal-arts college in Vermont.

The Grownup - Gillian Flynn (short story)

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25499718-children-of-tim...

East of Eden (John Steinbeck) is one of my new favorites of all time. Once you get past the opening descriptions of valleys and farms, the story is relatable, gripping, and unexpected.

The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt.

I read a lot of fiction (30+ novels a year) and this book really blew me away.

Oh and by the way, it's not about Samurai or Japan or anything like that. If you're interested in thinking about the nature of intelligence / learning while reading some beautiful prose, get this book.

The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie (the Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, and the Last Argument of Kings). They're quite dark but surprisingly funny and maybe the most readable novels I've ever read. Absolute page-turners.

Also the next 3 books on the same universe are great: Best Served Cold, The Heroes & Red Country.

I tried to read it previous year and found the books incredibly boring - most of the characters are exaggerated and flat, the story is really nowhere to be found after 300 pages and the use of English language was simplicistic.

I only got through ~300 pages before giving up though, maybe a plot arises and takes the lead but I never reached it.

I stuck to the classics. Kafka's Castle is absolutely brilliant. I read it greedily, just couldn't stop. It doesn't look magical at first sight but I could feel the atmosphere, the temperature, even smell.

Other than that Nabokov's Lolita is just celestial. And it's not only about the wording which is beyond beauty. Sometimes I caught myself thinking that this book reads me not the other way around. It's very precise, very unabashed, very intimate. Sometimes it looks surprisingly like your own reflection. Can't recommend enough.

I enjoy easy page-turner sci/fi or fantasy because it helps me unwind after a stressful day at work. Some of my favorites this year:

- Vengeful and Vicious by VE Schwab - Collapsing Empire by Scalazi (late 2017, but close enough to 2018)

Not released in 2018, but still fun and new to me this year. - The Red Rising series by Pierce Brown

I really enjoy Scalzi, so I was surprised when I didn't know about the Interdependency series. The nice thing was by the time I finished Collapsing Empire the second book in the series was released (The Consuming Fire). I haven't started it yet, but it's next in the queue!

You should add Expeditionary Force then. Best light sci-fi in my opinion.

I found the Red Rising books to be stilted, narcissistic and implausibly Manichean, FWIW. I made it through the first one, the second one was just too plagued by characters making implausible choices and the protagonist scoring implausible successes.

Past Tense - Lee Child

The Forbidden Door - Dean Koontz

The Crooked Staircase - Dean Koontz

The Outsider - Stephen King

Sleeping Beauties - Stephen King & Owen King

The Fallen - David Baldacci

Zeroes - Chuck Wendig

The Supernatural Enhancements - Edgar Cantero

A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller Jr.

A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle

The Lies of Locke Lamora. Not a new book, but I read it this year and as a fan of the thief/conman type in fiction, I found it fun. Will probably pick up the next one next year.

Yes! The audio version narrated by Michael Page is incredible too. I'm on book three and don't want it to end.

Incredible voice acting, gripping storyline, and hilarious dialogue.

I have thoroughly enjoyed The Dublin Trilogy by Caimh McDonnell.

The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells also very good, except the price for book 2+ are ripoffs at $12 for only 150-170 pages.

Enjoyed:

- Chocky - John Wyndham

- Convenience Store Woman - Sayaka Murata

- The Eight Mountains - Paolo Cognetti

- The Executioner Weeps - Frederic Dard

- The Invisibility Cloak - Ge Fei

- The Midnight Fox - Betsy Byars

- Ms Ice Sandwich - Mieko Kawakami

- Such Small Hands - Andres Barba

- The Thief - Fuminori Nakamura

- Ties - Domenico Starnone

- Trick - Domenico Starnone

Certainly not published in 2018, but I read and really enjoyed Vernor Vinge's Zones of Thought series, which begins with Fire Upon the Deep.

A Deepness In The Sky is an all-time favorite of mine.

The Power by Naomi Alderman.

Can't remember whether it was this year or last year, but Walter Jon William's Metropolitan series is great, too.

‘The man I think I know’ by Mark Gayle. No kingdoms at war or cyborgs. Just a good read about male friendship with an interesting starting point.

Really loved the Auora Rhapsody (Rising + Renegades + Disonant) by G.S Jennsen. It’s an epic 9 book space opera that has both Hyperion and Commonwealth Saga beat. It’s a must read.

https://www.gsjennsen.com/books

Best:

My Year of Rest and Relaxation - Ottessa Moshfegh

The Great Alone - Kristin Hannah

Disappointments:

The Fifth Season - NK Jemisin - gimmicky nonsense. I realize I'm in the minority.

Autonomous - Annalee Newitz - This guy falls in love with a robot that is basically being described as in the shape of a refrigerator, among other things. I couldn't get over how stupid it all was.

> The Stone Sky - NK Jemisin - gimmicky nonsense, I can't understand why people keep recommending it.

Did you read this after the first two? It is the third in a series, and IMO not as good as the first one (the second was also less good).

That said, the first was great, one of the best fantasy books I've read in a long time.

Sorry.. my mistake I meant to write The Fifth Season. I probably won't read the rest of the trilogy. I've edited my original post.

I agree about Fifth Season.

* Senlin Ascends, by Josiah Bancroft. It was fantastic, a steampunk world with a little bit of everything, and a protagonist that starts off as a git, but by the end transforms into a likeable hero, without losing track of who he was. I highly recommend it.

Drowned Worlds, Jonathan Strathan (Ed) - Stories of climate change. One of the stories will make it real to the reader.

Circe, Madeline Miller - Entertaining and memorable tale with many characters from Greek mythology.

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green - Just solid, approachable sci-fi.

Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami was my favorite of the year. I'd highly recommend it.

Days Without End by Sebastian Barry ran a close second, and I'm in the middle of Wolf Hall and quite liking it, too.

Anything Brandon Sanderson, with Stormlight Archives as the crown jewel.

Trinity by Leon Uris.

It was a historical fiction about Irish independence and has become my favorite book.

Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner

Stoked to see this book mentioned here; it's among my favorites. Stegner's "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" is good too; IMO it has higher highs but is a weaker effort overall.

Expeditionary Force, an ongoing series. Has become my favourite light sci-fi.

I love this too. Laughing out loud more often than any book(s) before. Recommended. It's an easy read.

American War by Omar El Akkad. Incredible post-apocalyptic civil war story.

dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18746712

Published in 2018? I liked The Outsider by Stephen King

“Off to Be the Wizard” from the Magic 2.0 series

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