Five of the best science fiction books of 2024 | Hacker News Reader

Five of the best science fiction books of 2024

theguardian.com

34 pointssorokod19 comments

If anyone else is a fan of generation ship novels, here's a wikipedia page where fiction in this setting is listed (does not yet include Calypso):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Fiction_about_generat...

I'm likely to get it in this thread: I've been trying to scratch the itch that Iain Banks and The Culture left in my head.

Does anyone have similar recommendations? Please hn help me!

Subsequently the books on this list are soft sci-fi. Not really my jam. I've only read one (Calypso) because I like David's writing. Did not care for it as science fiction.

I don’t think anything scratches that itch. At least, I haven’t found anything that does. But you might like The Void Trilogy. Some also say the Polity series by Neal Asher fits, but it’s much more action-oriented. I thought the first book was okay but never looked into the rest, for whatever that’s worth.

Myself, I still have a couple of Culture books left unread. I own them but haven’t touched them, because I like knowing there’s more out there.

I have the void trilogy to read next. I just finished the Commonwealth saga. It's close but it just doesn't quite hit as well as the culture. I'm honestly not sure why. I have hopes for the void series.

The Void Trilogy hits closer to The Culture than does the Commonwealth Saga (which is why I didn't recommend that series). You have a (near) post-scarcity society grappling with what it means to be human and how much intervention is necessary or even right. It delves deeper into politics than The Culture—or at least does so more blatantly—and even centers around an OCP.

All that said, it's close but not quite there. In its defense, I don't think it's trying to be a successor to The Culture. It's not nearly as thought-provoking, which I think is that intangible quality that makes The Culture what it is.

It's still an excellent series well worth reading! I hope you enjoy it.

Right now I'm looking for some good (preferably hard) SF audiobooks to check out on Libby. Discovery can be a challenge!

Ooooooo I have recommendations for that!!

The best, absolute best audiobook (not even science fiction just audiobook in general), go for Hyperion by Simmons. The voice acting and sound design is better than most movies I've seen. It's legitimately the best piece of audio media I've encountered. If you haven't listened to it, do that now. You will not regret it. The only problem with it is that it's so engaging because of the voice acting that you might lose track of time. I drove 16 hours once way once and had that as a companion for both the going and return trip. It was amazing.

For something crunchier, try the Nights Dawn series by Peter Hamilton. That series is IMPOSSIBLE to get through in print, but the audiobooks are doable. There are so many settings and characters that I had to make a spreadsheet while reading. But for some reason the audiobooks are way more approachable.

I have been reading the Hyperion series by Dan Simmons. It's a 4 book series, and each book is surprisingly good. I say surprisingly because some series start good and fade off. Unlike the Culture series read these in order.

I have a Hyperion tattoo! The tree ship yggdrasil takes up almost all of my calf and thigh.

Good recommendation but I'm way ahead of you on that one!

It's a significant gap, to be sure.

Charlie Stross has written some excellent books - his Eschaton series might be relevant to your interests, though unfortunately he's said he won't write any more and so we have only the two (Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise). I listened to the audio books of these, and the narration was excellent.

I also have very fond memories of reading Accelerando, though reviewers said it was more like an essay than a novel, I don't recall having anything like that takeaway when I read it.

Thanks for the recommendation! I'll try them out.

Did you read some of the old stuff?

- The Xeelee Cyclus

- Gateway from Pohl

- Rondevouze with Rama

- Starship Troopers

- The forever wars

Not hard sci-fi but good:

- The Bobbyverse

Increasingly I find that lists of sci-fi books aren't even what I call sci-fi at all. They may have some near-future or science-fantasy angle, but they seem to be more like classic literature, primarily about relationships. The science, such as it is, is frequently laughably bad, which completely turns me off.

There's nothing else quite like The Culture as far as I know. Maybe some of the following would scratch your itch, although you probably know most of them already.

* Xeelee Sequence, by Stephen Baxter.

* Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds.

* The Mote in God's Eye, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

* Children of Time, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

* Eon, by Greg Bear

* A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge

* The Golden Age, by John C. Wright.

To your first paragraph - that is exactly my complaint.

I've read about half of those. Thanks for the recommendations!

You might also like the whole series of books in "The Nanotech Succession" by Linda Nagata.

Hrm. Maybe also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nexus_Trilogy ?

I just can't scroll down on my mobile. Is it just me?

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