Science Fiction

[NowyouhaveDunnett]

Can anyone recommend a good book for my dad?
I wanted to get him something more modern. He loved Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Ursula Le Guin and Arthur C Clarke back in the day.

When I google I seem to be getting mostly fantasy or the ubiquitous Piranesi which I'm not sure would be his cup of tea having read what it's about.

I'm not really a sci fi reader so it's hard for me to judge.

He's read Andy Weir.

Many thanks!

Excuse the heresy, but I can't help wondering if you should also ask this on a site that is not all-female. It has seemed to me that men read more SF and choose slightly differently.

However, if it's any help:

Favorite sci-fi and fantasy books of the past decade
https://www.npr.org/2021/08/18/1027159166/best-books-science-fiction-fantasy-past-decade

15 recent sci-fi books that forever shaped the genre
https://www.polygon.com/21516173/best-new-science-fiction-books-scifi-last-15-years

The Greatest "Science fiction" Books Since 2000
https://thegreatestbooks.org/the-greatest/science-fiction/books/since/2000

He might like Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds. [ETA DH liked this one.}

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PushingIce

I'd really recommend Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It's the first in what is a decent series, but it is by far the best, and it stands alone just fine too.

Seconding The Long Earth series mentioned above (although the first book was the best)

@MsAmerica - please don't assume that everyone who has responded to this is female 🤣.

I've really enjoyed The Time Traveller's Almanac edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer. It's a collection of short and medium length stories from a wide range of writers based around the theme of time travel. Could be a good introduction to new writers.

Embassytown
Aurora
Rosewater

Rosewater (link didn't take)

If you want something he almost certainly won't have read, how about C S Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet. People associate Lewis with Narnia and Christianity, but he had a passion for science fiction and wrote a trilogy of his own. Out of the Silent Planet is superb – and beautifully written.

Second this recommendation too.
I was amused when 'That Hideous Strength' was a pointless answer on the eponymous quiz show recently (I got it 😁).

Looking back through my Kindle library, I can recommend:

• Iain M Banks, Consider Phlebas is a good starting point.
• Peter F Hamilton, a prolific author, Great North Road is a good standalone novel.
• Neal Stephenson, his novels tend to be very long, but Snow Crash is a normal length novel, and Cryptonomicon introduces characters and themes that recur in later novels.
• Alastair Reynolds, a prolific author. I read Eversion quite recently.
• William Gibson, a classic sci-fi author. Either go back to the early stuff and Neuromancer, or go straight in with the more recent Blue Ant series.
• Tochi Onyebuchi, War Girls is sci-fi from a different perspective than usual.
• Neal Asher, another very prolific sci-fi author.

Another one recommending
Alistair Reynolds
The revelation space series is tremendous
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revelation_Space_series

The Stone Man series by Luke Smitherd, more sci fi thriller, based in contemporary UK

Stephen Baxter, Bob Shaw , all quite a long time ago but are 'hard' science fiction. I dislike the fantasy books too, it's difficult to find others, though I think on Amazon under science fiction you can filter for different types (but not always accurate).

If he likes space opera then Gareth Powell is a good modern author.

He's clearly open to female authors (some people really aren't) so I'd also recommend Octavia Butler.

Another old classic writer Dan Simmons, especially his Hyperion. It is very 80s for good and bad, but based on the Canterbury tales. But in spaaaaace.

Like others in this thread I am also a fan of Iain Banks, Alastair Reynolds, Adrian Tchaikovsky, John Scalzi and Stephen Baxter. I also like Kim Stanley Robinson a fair bit. People say his Mars Trilogy is quite dated now but I did enjoy how he set up the evolution of completely different economic and political systems based on the ecology of the place whilst it was being terraformed. I also liked his Years of Rice and Salt - the 'what if' being what if Europe never dominated world affairs because everyone was killed by the Black Death.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I got Dark Eden. Loads to go on here and I will pass on your recommendations (keeping some back for his birthday and Xmas!)

Really appreciate everyone taking the time to comment!

Definitely not a new author and he may well have read them anyway, but Edmund Cooper wrote some really good sci- if, particularly seahorse in the sky and cloud walker

Well, @Grumpyoldpersonwithcats, I think it's safe to assume that Mumsnet is heavily dominated by women, and so far I have not run across any poster who seems to definitely be male. I was suggesting that a forum not geared to women might be a good idea.

Why do you think women don’t read science fiction?

I'm currently watching the TV version and really enjoying it.

Robert Rankin - The witches of Chiswick

Stephen King has some that are Sci Fi as much as horror.

I don't think I said that women don't read science fiction, @ZazieBeth. However, based on my experience - including knowing my friends, reading online book forums, and being in science fiction specialty stores - that men constitute a far larger part of the scifi audience, plus which, as I originally said, men seem more likely to gravitate to different sorts of science fiction.

Ok then, I will rephrase.

Why do you think that the advice from women who do read science fiction will be insufficient for the OP’s purposes?

There's a million MNers. If they're all female (obvs they're not) and one percent of them read science fiction, then that's ten thousand. If only ten percent of that number prefer old school hard sf that's still a thousand.

It doesn't matter if an equivalent male group might have a larger percentage of sf readers: it's still adequate for the OP's purposes, so she doesn't need to go and join Pistonheads. Unless you're suggesting that the options we've suggested are inadequate in some way?

I'm not worried he won't like suggestions from female readers. Any hard sci-fi fans will be fine.

Embassytown - China Mieville
Perdido Street Station - China Mieville
A Memory Called Empire - Arkady Martine
Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie
Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson (first of a trilogy, but the other 2 aren't so good)

All general space opera in different ways, and have a similar feel to the other older authors you mention.

The Silo series by Hugh Howey