Station Eleven

I don't usually like Sci Fi books but I loved Station Eleven.

Yeah thats the one. I must admit, I don't really know the difference between fantasy and sci-fi I just read books I like the look of I once read Anne McCafferys book The Ship who Sang but I couldn't tell you if it was sci-fi or fantasy.

I'll look into your recommendations, I have a while to wait for my Justin Cronin book.

Just chipping in to say that The Passage by Justin Cronin is currently 99p on kindle.

I have several other similar SF recommendations (not very sciencey, action-packed etc):

Lexicon by Max Barry
Brilliance trilogy by Marcus Sakey
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

I haven't read #3 in Red Rising trilogy (refuse to pay that much for a Kindle book) but I'm looking forward to reading it.

This one?

Essun, masquerading as an ordinary schoolteacher in a quiet small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Mighty Sanze, the empire whose innovations have been civilization's bedrock for a thousand years, collapses as its greatest city is destroyed by a madman's vengeance. And worst of all, across the heartland of the world's sole continent, a great red rift has been been torn which spews ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries. But this is the Stillness, a land long familiar with struggle, and where orogenes those who wield the power of the earth as a weapon are feared far more than the long cold night. Essun has remembered herself, and she will have her daughter back. She does not care if the world falls apart around her. Essun will break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.

Thank you for the recommendation but this is fantasy and I don't like this sort of fantasy much. Same with Lord Of The Rings etc.

The Fifth Season by N K Jemisin. Love it!

Cote - that's me not concentrating! I meant Red Rising Absolutely loved it but the last book was almost too much to keep up with. If you like those, there's another book you may be interested in (if you haven't read it already!). I'll look it up a moment as I've forgotten the title and author.

I agree The Strain wasn't greatly written but sometimes I don't mind that! For that reason, I do appreciate The Hunger Games

What was wrong with 'The first fifteen lives of Harry August'? I really liked that book!

TheUltimate - I think you will really enjoy the Red Rising trilogy. Don't think about it, just get it. You can thank me later

I had not heard of The Rising Sun so just looked it up in Amazon and there does not seem to be a book in the English language by that name. There are several books called Rising Sun but they don't look like SF. Can you tell me the author? I'd be interested to look it up.

I enjoyed The Passage and its sequel but have to say did not get along with The Strain (very badly written, I barely made it through the 1st book), The Girl With All The Gifts (too YA for me) and Wool (didn't feel plausible in any way).

I must say, Station Eleven wasn't my favourite and I've read many dystopian, post apocalyptic novels. I try not to pick apart too deeply as there will be discrepancies in pretty much all of them but I very much enjoy them.

I have City of Mirrors on pre-order. The Passage is my all time favourite and what got me into the sub-genre of Sci-Fi. I recently read a trilogy, The Rising Sun which was more Sci-Fi than I normally go for but very much enjoyed (except the last book, it threw me completely with its over the top action and seemingly fast space travel).

I love others that have been mentioned - The Wool series, The Strain (though definitely agree, the TV series was dire!) and I really enjoyed The Girl with all the Gifts. Another one which title and author eludes me was quite similar to The Road - ah! The Reapers are the Angels. I think that is a series so I may follow up with those but I rather enjoyed it.

SF stories don't need to be "sciencey". Quite a few have no science whatsoever, as they tell post-apocalyptic stories where what is left of society has regressed to pre-industrial days. Maybe that is also why it is increasingly called "Speculative Fiction" these days - to avoid that confusion.

It's not that "S11 is dystopia and therefore SF". It's that S11 talks about a future world where major changes have meant significant changes for human societies. That makes it SF. It is literally the broad definition of SF.

Personally, I wouldn't say S11 is much of a dystopia, even. Nothing terribly dystopian happens, really, except that they don't have modern comforts like air conditioning (about which they moan a lot in the book ). Nobody seems to have much trouble meeting their basic needs and staying alive, miraculously, living how they like moping around all day, whining about lost comforts .

Dystopian fiction is a sub-genre of SF, that is a different matter. I said it because people were saying "It's dystopian, not SF" which makes as much sense as "It's a biography, not non-fiction".

Cote, I have read High Rise.

I haven't read Station Eleven. But from the description, if SE is dystopia and therefore related to sci-fi, then High Rise would be too.

to me, anything prefixed to "fiction" means that's the dominant theme - science, crime. Is the "science" bit applicable to Station Eleven?

I haven't seen the film High Rise and you haven't read the book so we might not be talking about the same thing here. Wikipedia says the film is SF but there is no such mention about the book.

IIRC the book is about a building in a normal city where people have started implementing their own version of order. That is not dystopian literature because it is a small group of people living in a society which is not a dystopia. (Again, apologies if I am misremembering the book)

It is comparable to Lord of the Flies imho - a fiction book about children stranded on an island while being evacuated during WW2. Their self-governing experiment ends in disaster. But it is not SF and it is not dystopian.

"As for "what do I think sci fi is" - are you saying any theoretical scenario counts as sci fi?"

Of course not. "Any theoretical scenario" counts as fiction.

I asked what you (and others) think SF is, because S11 is very obviously SF. It is the very definition of SF - "fiction about future developments and how they affect people & societies".

More and more, SF is being called Speculative Fiction rather than Science-Fiction. I wonder if that is because there is a negative feeling associated with the term Sci-fi. Many readers (and indeed - inexplicably - some authors like Ishiguro and Margaret Atwood) say that the books they have read/written about future dystopias are NOT SF. I get the feeling that is because they believe their 'brands' would be negatively affected by being associated with SF, which many people think is a juvenile and unworthy genre.

Margaret Atwood has gone so far as to say that her books are not SF because they make sense and are realistic, to which critics and readers alike HOWLED Good SF is supposed to make sense and be realistic. Which is why we have been saying all along that S11 is not a good example of this genre.

Cote - I haven't read Station Eleven yet but if you agree High Rise is just regular fiction, then how is dystopia a sub genre of sci fi?

I'm so confused.

Re High Rise - J G Ballard is one of my favourite writers and yes, he is notoriously difficult to categorise He has said that he writes about "mindscapes" ("psychological landscapes", according to his definition).

He has written short stories about other planets and aliens etc which are clearly SF, but his short stories in Vermillion Sands for example talk about a deserted vacation spot in the desert where sculptures sing, people make art by reshaping clouds, and created poems float in the air and disturb neighbours. Vermillion Sands is a brilliant book and imho closer to fantasy as genre than anything else.

It's been a while since I read High Rise and can't say I remember every detail but I would say it's not SF or fantasy. Just regular fiction. Many of Ballard's later books are variations on that theme of seemingly normal (and often upper-class) neighbourhoods exploding in bizarre and unpredictable ways - e.g. Super Cannes, Kingdom Come, Running Wild, Millennium People.

just realised, I saw High Rise yesterday. Dystopia, yes. Sci fi? Now I'm confused. Maybe I don't know what sub-genre means...

Cote, I have no idea about this sort of thing.

As for "what do I think sci fi is" - are you saying any theoretical scenario counts as sci fi?

if so that's news to me but I don't worry about this kind of thing, I just pick up what seems like it will work for me.

I read it and thought it was OK - was surprised that it was loved by some in my book group. I think it was a bit too happy and easy-going compared to the sort of books I tend to enjoy in the genre. It made me want to go back and read Riddley Walker - which shares lots of themes around the role of art/religion, but does it in a way which (from my recall) is much deeper and richer. However that is a bloody tough book to get into unless you are prepared to mumble read aloud for the first 100 pages. As such, couldn't agree that post-apocalyptic lit is per se accessible, Cote!

lorelei - Dystopian is a sub-genre of sci-fi.

Station 11 is about a future catastrophe that has wiped out most of the world's population. Of course it is sci-fi.

What do people think sci-fi is? Space battles and 6-eyed Martians?

I'm sorry that you are having trouble understanding my posts Scarlett. Looking back I see that it could have been clearer, but if you read the post in its entirety, you can't help but see that "it" refers to Station 11 and not the entire genre in both my post and the one I have replied to. Especially the last sentence should make it clear that I am not dissing all post-apocalyptic books. See below:

CoteDAzur Mon 14-Mar-16 21:34:17

"That said, I wouldnt describe SE as Sci Fi. I'd describe it as post-apocalyptic accessible literary."

Post-apocalyptic is a sub-genre of SF. It is "accessible", for sure, but that is because it is not terribly clever. It's chick-litty SF.

Nothing wrong with enjoying a light read, but it really shouldn't be the best SF anyone has ever read. There really are many excellent books that explore a post-apocalyptic world.

wow, this is on my TBR and I didn't even know anyone classified it as sci fi.

I thought of it maybe as a dystopian book.

Your earlier quote Cote didn't just refer to Station Eleven...

Post-apocalyptic is a sub-genre of SF. It is "accessible", for sure, but that is because it is not terribly clever. It's chick-litty SF

Sounds like you're dismissing all post apocalyptic SF books as "not terribly clever".

"Not terribly clever" was about Station 11, not about the entire genre of SF which happens to be one of my favourite genres, actually.

Anyone who likes reading SF can tell you that there are far better (and more clever) examples in the genre. Not just classics, either, but new books published every year.

You can enjoy whichever books you like, but if like OP, you say Station 11 might be the best book you have ever read, people will wonder how many others you have actually read. You are right, it would not be polite to say so in RL but we can be (and are) more honest on MN, which is part of what makes it so valuable.

If someone said to me in RL that Station 11 is the best SF ever, I would ask them how much SF they have read. Instead, people I know in RL who have enjoyed this book are invariably women who don't normally read SF. Which is fine. It is a bit strange that some then say it's not SF (as if they mean they can't possibly have liked a SF book) but I digress.