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Any good sci-fi or fantasy book recommendations (pub. in 2000 or more recently) ?


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This is for me, actually. :) I'd like to put together a list for my summer reading, and would like some ideas for some good works written recently (no older than the last 15-20 years). Young adult works are great, too. :) I am down to just one book in my sci-fi/fantasy pile that I haven't read yet:

Jonathon Strange & Mr. Norrell (Clarke).

 

Works I've already enjoyed recently:

Doomsday Book (Willis)

Dawn (Butler)

Anathem (Stephenson)

Embassytown (Mieville)

Leviathan, Behemoth, Goliath (Westerfeld)

Name of the Wind; A Wise Man's Fears (Rothfuss)

Thief; Queen of Attolia; King of Attolia (Turner) -- book #4 is on its way!

 

Any thoughts on any of the books on either of these lists?

20 Best Science Fiction Books of the Decade

Top 25 Best Modern Science Fiction Books

 

 

ETA: Master List HERE

Okay! To make this easier for everyone, I've compiled all of your suggestions here. If there is a ** marking, it means the book/author was recommended by more than one person. Be sure to read down through the thread, as the contributors often posted helpful additional info about their suggestions! :)

 

THANK you all! This is an awesome list, and I look forward to some super reading this summer! :) Hope it helps those of you who contributed, too! :)

________________________

 

SCI-FI

**Garden of Iden (**Kage Baker) -- time travel; first in The Company series

** Silo series: Wool; Shift; Dust (Hugh Howey) -- post apocalyptic thriller

** Stranger (Sherwood Smith & Rachel Manija Brown)

** Station Eleven (Emily St. John Mandel)

** author Connie Willis -- time travel series: Blackout, All Clear, Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog

- Imperial Radch series: Ancillary Justice; Ancillary Sword; Ancillary Mercy (Ann Leckie)

- Ready Player One (Ernest Cline) -- sci-fi

- Lock In (John Scalzi) -- sci-fi/disaster

- Domechild -- sci-fi

- Parable of the Sower; Parable of the Talents (Octavia Butler) -- dystopia

- Touched by an Alien series (Gini Koch) -- sci-fi/thriller/romance/humor

- The Martian (Andy Weir)

- author Lois McMaster Bujold; Miles series: book #1 = Shards of Honor; a later book = Miles in Love

________________________

 

SPECULATIVE

** The Golem and the Jinni (Helene Wecker) -- modern/mythic

** The Night Circus (Erin Morgenstern)

- author Mary Robinette Kowal -- fantasy/sci-fi/romance

- The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Neil Gaiman)

________________________

 

FANTASY

** author Brandon Sanderson: The Way of Kings; Words of Radiance; Mistborn trilogy; Warbreaker; Legion (and sequel); Steelheart; Firefight

- A Stranger in Olondria (Sofia Samatar)

- Who Fears Death (Nnedi Okorafor) -- see note in thread below on this one

- 500 Kingdoms series (Mercedes Lackey) -- fairytale/fantasy/romance -- book #1 = Fairy Godmother

- The Pelbar Cycle (Paul O. Williams) -- long since post-apocalyptic / world-building

- author Tad Williams: Dragonbone Chair series; To Green Angel Tower series

- author S.M. Stirling: Novels of the Change series -- book #1 =  Dies the Fire (and other books by Stirling)

- author Lois McMaster Bujold -- Chalion series; Sharing Knife series

 

________________________

 

YOUNG ADULT 

 

YA fantasy

** Cinder (Marissa Meyer) - fairytale/fantasy

** Finnikin of the Rock (The Lumatere Chronicles) (Melina Marchetta) - fantasy/mythic

- How to Ditch Your Fairy (Justine Larbalestier) - fantasy

- Curses, Inc (Vivian Vande Velde) - fairytale/fantasy

- Shadows (Robin McKinley) - fantasy

- Face Like Glass (Frances Hardinge)

- Runemark; Runelight (Joanne Harris)

- Seraphina; Shadow Scale (Rachel Hartman) - fantasy

- The Monster Blood Tattoo series (D.M. Cornish) -- fantasy

- Heroes of the Valley (Jonathan Stroud)

- Tapestry series (Henry Neff)

- author Kristen Cashore -- fantasy/mythic

 

YA sci-fi

- The 5th Wave (Rick Yancey) -- sci-fi

- A Confusion of Princes (Garth Nix) -- sci-fi

- Double Helix (Nancy Werlin) - sci-fi

- Ruby Red (Kerstin Gier) - time-travel/romance

 

YA speculative

- David Levithan's Every Day - speculative

- Hounded (Kevin Hearne) - modern/mythic/fantasy

- Pivot Point (Kasie West) - modern/paranormal ability to see into the future

 
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My library had this book, and it helped me find a lot of cool kid, young adult, and adult books to read this year. It looks like there's a new edition coming out later this year.

 

Some favorites I have read over the last couple years:

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier

Curses, Inc by Vivian Vande Velde

Double Helix by Nancy Werlin

Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier

Shadows by Robin McKinley

Hounded by Kevin Hearne

Pivot Point by Kasie West

 

Ruth

 

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1. Conspiracy of Kings has BEEN out, it's book 5 we're waiting on!

 

2. Anything by Butler is good, have you read her Earthseed books yet - Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents, darn if I can never remember which comes first?

 

With that said, here is my list of sci-fi and fantasy books I've read recently and enjoyed:

 

Garden of Iden (first in a series)

Cinder

The Golem and the Jinni

The Last Knight (actually, the second most recent in the series is best, but you can't start with that, can you?)

Face Like Glass (so I recommend this on every kidlit thread. It's an awesome book and you can't gainsay me on that!)

Runelight

A Stranger in Olondria

A Confusion of Princes

Stranger by Rachel Manija

Who Fears Death (note - the book starts off with a description of the protagonist's conception by genocidal rape. Great book, and that information is crucial to the story, but I skimmed nonetheless)

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Kage Baker IS pretty fantastic! I've been slumming and reading a lot of YA scifi/post apocalyptic lately. That's been sort of fun, but nothing super notable.

 

Have you read Tad Williams? He has two great series, a very classic coming of age hero journey fantasy an a very virtual reality scifi series that I liked even better.

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Anything by Brandon Sanderson. My favorites are part of an epic fantasy series he's started recently--The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance. DD13 and I have been reading and re-reading and analyzing everything (we adore them), but you should avoid them if you don't want to spend the next several years waiting for the rest of the story.  :toetap05:

Some other titles by him that I especially liked:

Mistborn trilogy

Warbreaker

Legion (and its sequel--both novellas)

 

Unfettered is an interesting looking collection of short stories by various fantasy authors. I enjoyed the free sample on my kindle, and I'm going to buy it soon.

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Ooo! Thank you, thank you, one and all! How fun to come back to this thread and find so many responses. What great goodies you all have to share! :)

 

I'm not familiar with most of these -- even better!  :hurray:

 

 

1. Conspiracy of Kings has BEEN out, it's book 5 we're waiting on!

 

Yes, well, some of us came very late to this party and are just *now* getting caught up. ;) Glad to hear there's something more to look forward to once I get through book 4!! :)

 

 

Have you read Tad Williams? He has two great series, a very classic coming of age hero journey fantasy an a very virtual reality scifi series that I liked even better.

 

Years back I tried book 1 of his Dragonbone Chair series; I just could NOT get into it. It was so dull and dry, I could not care about any of the characters, and it felt like the author didn't either -- it was like author was just going through the motions. One of the rare books I just put down and never picked up again. sigh. Should I have struggled on? Or is his other series better?

 

 

Curses, Inc by Vivian Vande Velde

Shadows by Robin McKinley

 

Velde is fun. :) I haven't read this one, though. I'm running a Lit. & Comp. co-op class this year, and last semester we had a lot of fun discussing point of view with her book The Rumpelstiltskin Problem. :) I've enjoyed other of McKinley's works, so I'll look for that.

 

 

Keep it coming ladies! Loving all your ideas! :) Thank you!

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Have you read the rest of Connie Willis' time travel series? To Say Nothing of the Dog is just delightful (and not nearly as heavy as Doomsday Book), and the other ones are good too.

 

Oh, wow! Didn't realize it was a series! I'll definitely be looking into this… I was riveted this spring by The Doomsday Book! Thank you!

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Oh! Another few books I've read and enjoyed, in case anyone else in this thread is also looking for ideas:

 

Shades of Gray (Fforde)

really well-done dystopia; note, the title is very close to something else ;)

 

The Eyre Affair; Lost in a Good Book; The Well of Lost Plots (Fforde)

the first 3 in the Thursday Next series; very creative and funny; by book 4, it's down to just the occasional clever or funny bit, and I stopped partway through book 5 and have never picked up the series again, although there are another 3-4 books -- and they may get better...

 

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Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel.  A pandemic kills off 99%+ of Earth's population, but a roving band of Shakespearean actors tries to retain their humanity.

All of the Connie Willis time travel books, including "Blackout" and "All Clear". 

Red Mars/Green Mars/Blue Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson: Hard Science Fiction about the terraforming and colonization of Mars and beyond.

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First of all, read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell! Don't be distracted by any of these other recommendations!

 

In terms of slightly literary scifi/fantasy of the last few years... I'll second Station Eleven, which I loved, and Golem and the Jinni and The Night Circus, both of which I enjoyed greatly.

 

In terms of recent scifi/fantasy YA (you can probably guess I read a lot of YA), I really liked David Levithan's sort of literary scifi about a boy who lives each day as someone else, Every Day. I have been so unimpressed by most of the dystopian scifi. Almost none of them beyond Hunger Games are worth reading. One exception for me was The 5th Wave, which has been really amazing - reminiscent of Stephenson. But I feel like I've been enjoying a few of the YA fantasy series I've read recently. I really liked Seraphina and Shadow Scale, which were both really good. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Finnikin of the Rock, which seemed like it was just going to be so-so, but the whole series stayed very strong - the writing style was sort of similar to The Thief (it's maybe not quite as good, but what is?). And if you haven't read the various interconnected Kristen Cashore books, they're all very good, I think. In general, I feel like even the YA fantasy that I've read in the last few years that I think has just been okay - like The Runaway King series or Shadow and Bone or Girl of Fire and Thorns - have at least been better written and more interesting than a lot of the scifi.

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First of all, read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell! Don't be distracted by any of these other recommendations!

 

lol! Thanks Farrar. I think this is a given, since it is the only book I have in the house at the moment that I haven't read yet. ;) I've been saving it for summer when I can take my time and not rush it. :)

 

Also thanks for the YA fiction suggestions! I did enjoy Gregor the Overlander (a title I got from your recommendations in past threads), but only read book 1 and was good. Also enjoyed the first book of the Tiffany Aching (Wee Free Men), but wasn't so drawn in as to want to keep going. Scott Westerfeld's Uglies trilogy looked interesting. His Midnighters was great -- creative, fascinating, and creepy, but I only read book 1, and didn't feel I needed to keep going. 

 

I do enjoy YA books as well as adult fiction. :)

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In general, I feel like even the YA fantasy that I've read in the last few years that I think has just been okay - like The Runaway King series or Shadow and Bone or Girl of Fire and Thorns - have at least been better written and more interesting than a lot of the scifi.

 

 

The trouble with The Runaway King is that if you've read The Thief, you see that plot twist waaay back on page one. Heck, I saw it reading the blurb.

 

 

The Farrar list of YA reminded me, as always, of The Monster Blood Tattoo, which is... epicly epic. Also Heroes of the Valley, which certainly took me by surprise.

 

Also enjoyed the first book of the Tiffany Aching (Wee Free Men), but wasn't so drawn in as to want to keep going.

 

You're... not a Discworld fan?

 

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The trouble with The Runaway King is that if you've read The Thief, you see that plot twist waaay back on page one. Heck, I saw it reading the blurb.

 

 

The Farrar list of YA reminded me, as always, of The Monster Blood Tattoo, which is... epicly epic. Also Heroes of the Valley, which certainly took me by surprise.

 

Yes. To your spoiler, I did too. And that's true of Finnikin of the Rock to some extent, though it's a little different.

 

Heroes of the Valley wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. But I think I wanted it to be more like Bartimaeus - I didn't have the right expectations going in. I haven't heard of Monster Blood Tattoo... Off to look.

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I just finished The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, and loved it.

 

I'd second Brandon Sanderson - Shannon and I just read Steelheart and Firefight and enjoyed them.

 

I also read Ancillary Justice and Ancillary Sword this year, enjoyed that series very very much - such an interesting twist on both gender and point of view.

 

Ready Player One is a contemporary sci-fi, dystopian adventure, but a really fun revisit of the 80s!

 

Oh, Lock In by John Scalzi was awesome!  I got that suggestion and Ancillary Justice from Scientific American, and really enjoyed them both.

 

Hmm, from your lists, I just put Quicksilver and Jonathan Strange on hold!

 

Octavia Butler is fantastic, but not recent enough for your list.  I'm not a fan of Margaret Atwood's more recent dystopias, other than The Handmaid's Tale.

 

 

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Pen, I asked that same question a few days ago! The tag is simply spoiler in square brackets, but if you don't like typing out BBCode you can find it by going to the square immediately to the left of the Font box - if you hover over it, it should say "special BBCode". Click that and all shall be revealed.

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I highly recommend the Tapestry series by Henry Neff. It is YA fantasy.  Just don't judge the series on the first book as it's much too like Harry Potter. Book 2 is better, but books 3-5 are fantastic in my opinion.

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- author Lois McMaster Bujold -- specifically mentioned: Miles in Love

The Miles series is not fantasy but sci-fi.  I would not suggest starting with Miles in Love.  I started chronologically with SHARDS OF HONOR (which is really one generation pre-Miles but excellent).  Her Chalion ( I really like The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls) and Sharing Knife series are fantasy.

 

Also enjoyed Marchetta's Lumatere series (starting with Finikin) and Cashore's Graceling series   -- to get them double stars :lol:

(even bought the 3rd  Lumatere book internationally because I couldn't wait for the US version which wasn't out yet then)

 

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Stephen R. Donaldson has recently added to his series if you enjoyed the first 6. I also recently found an interesting older series that was republished on Kindle, it was one of the "top 10 world building" recommendations I found somewhere, since I had read the other 9 and enjoyed most of them this seemed like an easy to read add. It was "The Pelbar Cycle" by Paul O. Williams.

 

If you are interested in Christian Sci-Fi, I have a few recommendations.

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Lori, I agree with Farrar! You have to read Strange and Norrell first. It was just too good and I had to force myself to keep putting it down so that I could stretch it longer.

 

For YA:

  1. Jackaby by William Ritter
  2. Paper Magician and Glass Magician by Charlie Holmberg
  3. Abarat and sequels by Clive Barker
  4. The Cure for Dreaming and The Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters
  5. I'm not sure if Temeraire qualifies (series by Naomi Novik)

 

 

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Dear me, have you read Guy Gavriel Kay? He is fantastic. Tends towards dense political machinations in fantasyish settings, if you enjoy that. The Fionavar books are less political, more fantasy, and were a great love of mine in my early adult years.

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I have Christian scifi and fantasy recommendations, as well, if you'd like them. I'd be interested in hearing yours, Elizabeth B.

 

Tad Williams: I googled so I could remember the series names ;).

 

I looked at Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn for a long time before reading it. It is a LONG series, but I came to be quite attached to the characters. And, yes, there are many battles and long descriptive passages. It is very classic fantasy, IMO.

 

His Otherland series is quite different. Has a lot of characters, I didn't get really emotionally attached. However, it's such an intriguing story and setting. I found it quite compelling.

 

I did read the Pretties series this past year. It was OK, but nothing as deep as some reviewers made it out to be.

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I just finished The Country of Ice Cream Star by Sandra Newman.

 

Set in a post-apocalyptic America, Ice Cream Star wants to save her brother from the plague that kills everyone when they reach 18. The author has allowed the spoken language to evolve also, which I found so amazing.

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I really enjoyed the Unbounded series by Teyla Branton.  She also writes under the name of  Rachel Ann Nunes.  I am currently reading her Autumn Rain series, and it has been an okay read.  Both of these series are clean reads that I feel comfortable recommending to my daughter.  

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If you like Connie Willis, you should certainly read "Lincoln's Dreams", "Doomsday Book", "To Say Nothing of the Dog",  and the pair of "Blackout"/"All Clear"... the short stories in "Fire Watch" and "Impossible Things" are also good...

 

For classic fantasy in the last 10 years, I quite liked Nancy Farmer's "Sea of Trolls" books... the second two books in the trilogy are less interesting and more ambivalent towards organized Christianity if that matters to you, but the first one is really excellent.

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WHAT???

 

Is it good? Is it awful? Should I order it right now? Should I pretend I've never heard of it?

 

Reviews suggest "forget all about it" may be the right way to go. I tend to find that fourth books added years later onto an existing trilogy are subpar - consider Ancient, Strange, and Lovely or the fourth Pit Dragon book which was so awful I'm just gonna pretend I never read it.

 

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WHAT???

 

Is it good? Is it awful? Should I order it right now? Should I pretend I've never heard of it?

 

I read it.

I liked it well enough...it just felt like it should've been more.  Like it was the intro (several hundred page intro) to a much longer story.

 

But I don't regret reading it, at all. :)

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S.M. Stirling's Novels of the Change. The first one is Dies the Fire.

 

Also other stuff by S.M. Stirling. I've liked everything of his I've read.

I love Stirling as well, but I like the Island in the Sea of Time trilogy even better than the Change series (or at least until the latest Change book -- squee!). I think I've read the whole trilogy at least 7 times so far. He is also the only author that I order everything he writes in hardcover instead of waiting for the library or the paperback.

 

I also really enjoyed everything David Weber has written.

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