Science Fictions Suggestions
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What sort of things have you liked in the past? Have you read the "classics" of the genre? Indeed do you care if you haven't? Personally I might question having never read Dune but I won't think too hard about having not done much Isaac Asimov and some of his contemporaries (though certainly many from then/"the golden age of sci fi" are legends for a reason).
Do you have a leaning for any particular flavour of science fiction? Space is a fairly big thing but there is some near future stuff (possibly still on earth) that does well. For instance Castles Made of Sand by Gwyneth Jones is quite a bizarre series really but it sits happily on my shelves, and while very different books then those things that got turned into games (Roadside Picnic becoming S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Metro 2033 being a game of the same name) are good stuff.
Personally I have skewed into fairly hard sci fi in recent times but some might still prefer the more classical/golden age easy FTL + people living on planets + whatever else stuff that often amounted to examination of one concept rather than a whole setup, or maybe just a classic action adventure but set in space. I don't have too much for the latter these days beyond look up some golden age authors and go from there.
The thing that got me properly back into it was probably the The Expanse, which also got a really really good TV series to go along with it. I had been doing some stuff before then, for instance Iain M. Banks's impending death saw a bit of a resurgence in interest for his rather good books, the main ones being The Culture series, they are not exactly sequels to each other (indeed may take place thousands of years before or after one another, in different parts of the universe it occupies) then start with the start of Consider Phlebas if you are going there unless upon reading a breakdown of another it has something more for you there -- if you are on a gaming site then player of games is possibly one of those. However the Expanse series really worked for me. In some ways that surprised me as well as at least the earlier stuff (though that is not to say the stuff the TV series is now being based upon is not good) was in space but still with humans puttering around the solar system, and I usually go far later in "history" hard sci fi.
Alastair Reynolds does some really good stuff and for a more space opera approach then Peter F Hamilton (though he keeps things pretty tight on the science front).
Might I also suggest the Isaac Arthur channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZFipeZtQM5CKUjx6grh54g and https://www.bitchute.com/channel/IsaacArthur/
If stuff like the following and its sequel on iron stars don't do it for you then I might question whether the rest of these will do much.
Their book suggestions might also yield something
https://www.isaacarthur.net/books
and
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PsSZyKofUpXIm2_kRoLLhfYdLDtEYfFdalHI9G4m2E8/edit#gid=0 for the not so much book of the month stuff but noted in passing for a given episode.
You get a bit of straight up fantasy (though there is a reason most book shops and the like will bunch fantasy and sci fi together, and I certainly do a fair amount of both) and some of the golden age stuff I was dubious about earlier in there but still good stuff.
Most good sci fi for me these days comes in the form of TV shows (long form narratives do so much better for these things for me) and as such I am struggling a bit for straight up films, and when I do watch films I tend to find "that would have been so much better as at least a TV miniseries". Indeed if I do have a sci fi film I enjoy then the science fiction part of it is a fairly minimal element and it is more a reflection of the characters (compared to most of the above where it is more about the science and how that plays out in society). That said if you have not seen Primer then I should probably suggest that, and if that works then consider the director's other things.
Do you have a leaning for any particular flavour of science fiction? Space is a fairly big thing but there is some near future stuff (possibly still on earth) that does well. For instance Castles Made of Sand by Gwyneth Jones is quite a bizarre series really but it sits happily on my shelves, and while very different books then those things that got turned into games (Roadside Picnic becoming S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Metro 2033 being a game of the same name) are good stuff.
Personally I have skewed into fairly hard sci fi in recent times but some might still prefer the more classical/golden age easy FTL + people living on planets + whatever else stuff that often amounted to examination of one concept rather than a whole setup, or maybe just a classic action adventure but set in space. I don't have too much for the latter these days beyond look up some golden age authors and go from there.
The thing that got me properly back into it was probably the The Expanse, which also got a really really good TV series to go along with it. I had been doing some stuff before then, for instance Iain M. Banks's impending death saw a bit of a resurgence in interest for his rather good books, the main ones being The Culture series, they are not exactly sequels to each other (indeed may take place thousands of years before or after one another, in different parts of the universe it occupies) then start with the start of Consider Phlebas if you are going there unless upon reading a breakdown of another it has something more for you there -- if you are on a gaming site then player of games is possibly one of those. However the Expanse series really worked for me. In some ways that surprised me as well as at least the earlier stuff (though that is not to say the stuff the TV series is now being based upon is not good) was in space but still with humans puttering around the solar system, and I usually go far later in "history" hard sci fi.
Alastair Reynolds does some really good stuff and for a more space opera approach then Peter F Hamilton (though he keeps things pretty tight on the science front).
Might I also suggest the Isaac Arthur channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZFipeZtQM5CKUjx6grh54g and https://www.bitchute.com/channel/IsaacArthur/
If stuff like the following and its sequel on iron stars don't do it for you then I might question whether the rest of these will do much.
Their book suggestions might also yield something
https://www.isaacarthur.net/books
and
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PsSZyKofUpXIm2_kRoLLhfYdLDtEYfFdalHI9G4m2E8/edit#gid=0 for the not so much book of the month stuff but noted in passing for a given episode.
You get a bit of straight up fantasy (though there is a reason most book shops and the like will bunch fantasy and sci fi together, and I certainly do a fair amount of both) and some of the golden age stuff I was dubious about earlier in there but still good stuff.
Most good sci fi for me these days comes in the form of TV shows (long form narratives do so much better for these things for me) and as such I am struggling a bit for straight up films, and when I do watch films I tend to find "that would have been so much better as at least a TV miniseries". Indeed if I do have a sci fi film I enjoy then the science fiction part of it is a fairly minimal element and it is more a reflection of the characters (compared to most of the above where it is more about the science and how that plays out in society). That said if you have not seen Primer then I should probably suggest that, and if that works then consider the director's other things.
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I recently read 'the Martian' by Andy Weir. If you thought the movie was nerdy, this isn't for you. But the book is fun to read, captivating and filled with great ideas. A definite recommend!
Another one I recently read (and liked) was the genius plague (Walton) . It's an okay take on invasion of the body snatchers, so perhaps more in the genre of thriller /horror, but pretty well written.
Other than that, I've got just classics : Philip K Dick(do Androids dream of electric sheep), Heinlein(strange in a strange land), Arthur c Clarke (anything, though 2001 is obviously the most known), Orwell (1984), Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451) and Huxley (brave new world).
Oh, wait... Larry Niven's work is pretty good, and I loved Simons' hyperion saga as well
Heh... Just saw Vonnegut's slaughterhouse five on a science fiction list. It's... Not wrong, I guess. It's pure brilliance, but it's most likely NOT what you expect (it's about... Erm... time travel... the horrors of the great War and... Slapstick. No, I'm not making that up)
Another one I recently read (and liked) was the genius plague (Walton) . It's an okay take on invasion of the body snatchers, so perhaps more in the genre of thriller /horror, but pretty well written.
Other than that, I've got just classics : Philip K Dick(do Androids dream of electric sheep), Heinlein(strange in a strange land), Arthur c Clarke (anything, though 2001 is obviously the most known), Orwell (1984), Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451) and Huxley (brave new world).
Oh, wait... Larry Niven's work is pretty good, and I loved Simons' hyperion saga as well
Heh... Just saw Vonnegut's slaughterhouse five on a science fiction list. It's... Not wrong, I guess. It's pure brilliance, but it's most likely NOT what you expect (it's about... Erm... time travel... the horrors of the great War and... Slapstick. No, I'm not making that up)
I went through a rather embarrassing Michael Crichton phase. They're not terrible works, nice little pieces of book candy to pass the time away.
Jurassic Park (duh) and sequel
Prey
Eater's of the Dead
Andromeda Strain
Westworld
A number of his books have also been adapted into other forms of media if you're like me and get "stuck" in literary worlds after reading a novel about them or something :-P
Jurassic Park (duh) and sequel
Prey
Eater's of the Dead
Andromeda Strain
Westworld
A number of his books have also been adapted into other forms of media if you're like me and get "stuck" in literary worlds after reading a novel about them or something :-P
Really great Suggestions.
These are really Gems of Science Fiction.
The Movies from
1973 (Westworld)
1971 (Andromeda Strain)
are great,classic Science Fiction Entertainment.
Thank you.
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