Can I have some sci-fi recs please?

[ParisOnWheels]

I’m trying to expand my reading a bit and would love some recs for sci-fi I may have missed.

In the last few years I’ve read and loved Becky Chambers books and the first two books in Mary Robinette Kowal’s Lady Astronaut series. I’ve previously read what I would say is a fair amount of Arthur C Clarke and some Asimov and Philip K Dick amongst others.

I like dystopia and hate horror. I like Star Trek but never go into Star Wars. I have a disability and am always keen to read books that feature well rounded disabled characters.

I also like reading historical fiction and memoir.

I recommend Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan saga - each book is quite light and some are very funny. Miles Vorkosigan (protagonist of books from the 3rd onwards) is disabled but otherwise very privileged. One centres on his mother's pregnancy.

Ursula Le Guin - highly recommend, especially The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed.

I've been watching The Expanse on TV which is amazing, and plan to read the novels it's based on for more detail (James Corey)

Second for Bujold's Vorkosigan series - go from Cordelia's Honor.

Going by your prefs you may well enjoy Alastair Reynolds - start with Revelation Space or The Prefect.

Iain M Banks, Against a Dark Background is dystopic and endlessly inventive.

John Scalzi, Lock In.

Peter Watts, Blindsight.

Anne McCaffrey has some great sci-fi sets. I recommend her fantasy series Dragons of Pern too.

Ancillary Justice by Anne Leckie and Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky are both v good.

Would suggest trying some of Anne McCaffrey's earlier books which I feel tend to be more sci-fi than fantasy. 'The ship that sings' is one of my favourites and the central character also has disabilities.

Second anything by Ursula le Guin and if you like dystopia give Peter F Hammilton a try. Vast novels in all senses of the word - Mindstar Rising and Nano Flower are from the 90's but a good place to start. Be warned though have lost weeks of my life emerged in his novels. Happy reading!

Kevin J Anderson- the Saga of the Seven Suns-was a series that I enjoyed

Stephen Donaldson The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. 12 in the series. Addictive.

Iain M Banks - all of them. Definitely Vorkosigan series. If you want space battles, David Weber's Honor Harrington series is the best of his, but there are a lot of vaguely related stories as well. Slightly off the wall: Simon R Green's Nightside series.

I’m not a huge scifi fan, but I enjoy soace opera.

You might try Elizabeth Moon, Jessie Mihalik, TA White’s Firebird series and perhaps Shelley Adina’s Mysterious Devices series, although they’re more stream punk. I’ve also enjoyed Linnea Sinclair, although they might veer more romance.

I’d definitely second McMaster Bujold.

I was goi g to recommend the Ancillary Justice series - I read those and Becky Chambers in the same year and it was a good year!
And I have just read Semiosis by....um,Sue?! Burke,maybe ( sorry!) Easily googlable,that was so good!
( but Thomas Covenant isn't sci fi,it's fantasy )

If you like sci fi short stories at all, Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang is just brilliant. I normally don't like short stories or sci fi but I loved this.

I'm another fan of Anne McCaffrey, the Pern books, all of the books from the the Ship that sang universe and although for young adults I loved the Crystal Singer trilogy by her too.

More recent I LOVED Altered Carbon ( the book and tv series) so much I bought every book he's written and rewatched the series a few times. Very violent but amazing cyberpunk universes. Didn't like absolutely hated what they did with the second tv series. Gutted as would have loved to see the second book brought to life. ( If it has been done to the level of series 1)

Definitely Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space and its sequels.
Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow

The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton by Larry Niven

Gil Hamilton is a law man working mostly against organleggers. He loses as arm, gets a new one but discovers he has telekinesis limited to the extent of his old arm.

The Wormwood series by Tade Thompson.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0356511367/ref=dbsaawdpp0356511367

The Children Of Time novels by Adrian Tchaikovsky
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B07KPMJ7V9/ref=dbsaawdppb07kpmj7v9

I've spent that last few months working my way through John Scalzi's backlist via audible. I loved his Lock In series (Earth-based) and his Last Emperox (space-based) series. Both series are very different, but they both have very inclusive and diverse characters and great plots.

And dystopian scifi: Sheri S Tepper.

Enders game (orson Scott card)

Serrano books by Elizabeth moon

Saga of the exiles then intervention/galactic milieu trilogy (must read in that order you’ll understand why when you do) by Julian May

Another vote for Anne McCaffrey. But a personal favourite I find few people have read - Sheri S Tepper. Raising the Stones is one of the most engrossing and compulsive books I have ever read, and so off the wall you don't see it coming!

Third vote for Ursula LeGuin, especially the two recommended by Jackparlabane. I also love Rocannon’s World, though it has less of a sci-if feel.

I very much enjoyed Semiosis by Sue Burke, and it’s sequel Interference. Sci-fi and dystopian, but also hopeful.

For a curve ball - Tuf Voyaging by George R R Martin. It sort of rattles along with plenty of action and humour, but has some major underlying moral questions about power and the ethics of shaping our environment.