Sci-fi lovers, what have you read recently?

Just seen Red Rising is 99p on the kindle.

Book summary from goodreads

While I'm waiting for Native Tongue to arrive from ebay seller, I am reading Fortune's Rising by Sara King. Bought it as a kindle recommendation and it's quite good!

I was reading about Native Tongue and realised that the author actually created a language for that book ("Láadan"), complete with grammar & vocabulary. She was apparently hoping for it to become at least as influential as Klingon but it has had no effect whatsoever - nobody picked it up. And her conclusion is: "... the conclusion I draw from that is that in fact women do not find human languages inadequate for communication."

What do you think she means by this? It is not because English language is inadequate that so many weirdos Trekkers learned Klingon. It is because Star Trek is hugely popular and has an enormous fan base.

I'm going to order 'Native Tongue'. The premise reminds me of Woman at the Edge of Time, which I read when I was younger and liked.

Thanks, I will check those out.

I loved Sand and the Wool trilogy, especially Shift.

I also really liked Flood and Ark (Stephen Baxter)

I enjoyed Circle (Dave Eggers)

I liked the first half of The Girl with all the Gifts

I recently read The Chronoliths (Robert Charles Wilson) which was quite good.

I've just finished re-reading the spinward fringe series by lalonde (incomplete next one out next year i think) is a brilliant space opera,

also read the enders game books recently very good, if a little horrifying! I thought m.pax's backworld series a nice easy read, but again unfinished! (Hate hate hate getting into a series and having to wait for books to come out)

I don't read YA (no criticism of people who do) and thankfully have never had any difficulty finding sci-fi to read that is written for adults, with adult protagonists - special thanks to Amazon & Kindle on that note

Have you read The Sparrow and Children of God by Mary Russell? Most excellent sf.

Also read lots and lots of Justin Robson.

Thanks but I have read those four and most other 'classics' of the genre. Most of the new output seems to be for the YA market. I have nothing against that, but would occasionally like to read something where the protagonist is over the age of 20.

If you don't want to read YA, I can recommend some good sci-fi that is actually written for adults. Which sub-genres are you interested in?

For example, dystopian/post-apocalyptic:
1984
Cloud Atlas
Children Of Men
World War Z (nothing to do with the film)

I have to say I just read adult books when I was a teenager, and now I'm middle aged, I read YA books

Yes, me too. These days I am not trying to impress boys anyone with my reading material.

Red Rising is about young people but it is not YA, imho. It deals with adult ideas in a ruthless setting, like Lord Of The Flies.

I enjoyed Red Rising and thought it was better than The Hunger Games.

I am a bit put out that when I was a young teenager, almost all the sci-fi / post-apocalyptic / dystopian stuff was for adults and now that I'm an adult, most of it is being written for teenagers.

Didn't take to the Martian at all. I just kept thinking: "Either survive or die. Stop boring me about it."

I love love love the Chronicles of St Mary's! They manage to make me laugh and cry and are the perfect comfort read.

I've also read the whole series of The Chronicles of St Mary, this is the first in the series. I think she's still writing the series, I hope so anyway.

I really liked The Martian too, it did read a bit like a film IMO but I don't think it made it any less enjoyable.

I read Fortune's Rising recently and it was fabulous. I think was either free or very cheap on Kindle when I bought it. I went back to buy the next in the series and it hasn't been written yet, which is a pity.

I've finished all of the Wool books. I've even read a few of the books by other authors set in the same silo world. The books by other authors are a bit mixed, the original series by Hugh Howie is great.

The Old Man's War stuff is pretty good for Scalzi. Don't listen to him on audiobook though as he was a weakness in the way he writes dialogue in that it literally he said "..." she said "... " he said ".. " which you may notice in the written word, but it really stuck in my mind when I listened to it.

Neal Stephenson has a new one out called Seveneves but I'm going to have to put in a couple of weeks of bicep curls before I can try to read one of his books in bed.

Although I haven't yet read it, Old Man's War is probably a good start for Scalzi.

I thought The Martian was a fantastic technical achievement and really enjoyable to boot. I also agree that Ancillary Sword doesn't have the heft of the first volume, I won't rush to read the third volume.

I recently read one of the best hard sci-fi I have come across in recent years:

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

It's 'first contact' and virtual reality. It's impressive in scope and attention to detail, with some interesting science & math. I can only compare it to Neal Stephenson's Anathem, only much easier to get through. Definitely recommended.

I like Scalzi's blog- anyone suggest a book to start with?

I just read The Martian- that was a proper old fashioned space adventure story. Also The Goblin Emperor, steampunk despite the title (is steampunk fantasy or sf?).

Have Le Guin fans read Vonda McIntyre? Love her Starfarers series.