Fantasy, SF, and Horror books you'd recommend

[AwkwardlySet]

A lot of great recommendations here. One more from me.


Red Rising

Pierce Brown's Fantasy/SF series, still unfinished, but hopefully, the last book will come out this year. People compared the first book to The Hunger Games, but Brown's books are a class above it. It's not a suitable comparison.

Anyway, it's about a dystopian society where people are divided by the color of their eyes. Reds are the lowest, almost slaves, and Golds are the highest, and there are significant differences in physical capabilities between colors. Not to spoil the story, I'll just say the protagonist is a Red, and the first three books are all told from the first-person perspective of the protagonist.

The story is about love, loss, and rising in the ranks in order to overthrow the unjust society. It has plenty of action and is well written. There aren't that many fantasy or SF elements; the focus is on the characters and the plot. I'll also say that this book series is one of the truly rare ones where the emotional aspect and romance are done well.

I warmly recommend this book series, even if it has its flaws as well.

 

[Bramblethorn]

why would banks be depressing and not entertaining?

Oh, he's entertaining too. Banks has a wry sense of humour that shines through in everything of his I've read; this is the guy who began a novel with the sentence "It was the day my grandmother exploded".

But the storylines tend to be grim, and more than one of his protagonists dies by suicide. I'd still love to live in the Culture, just a long long way from Special Circumstances.

Use of Weapons was amazing for that, but Player of Games I think is my favourite of the couple of I've read.

Probably mine also, overall. One thing that really impressed me in that book is how Banks narrates the fictional game that's such an important part of the plot. He manages to give enough of the strategy to make the gameplay compelling without feeling like one's listening to a rules explanation for one of those games that takes six hours to play.

(not that there's anything wrong with games that take six hours to play)

I don't do horror much; my imagination is too visceral. That said, The Road is probably the single best book that I will never, ever, under any circumstances whatosfucking ever, read again. You can add A dream of a thousand cats to the list - I love it, and I've been extra nice to all cats ever since I read it. Not that that's ever been hard, I'm an adoring cat slave regardless of what they do to me.

Oh, I forgot:


I cannot read this without calling out Shoggoths Old Peculiar

Both one-time favourites of mine, along with The Dream Hunters. God I wish Gaiman hadn't shat the bed :-/

 

[Bramblethorn]

I second this with the caveat that you really ought to treat it like poetry. it’s hard to actually pinpoint the genre it belongs in (ostensibly sci fi + romance) because of the obtuse writing style, but God does it contain beautiful writing.

It's not not SF, but I think at the heart it's epistolary romance.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Almost anything by Ursula le Guin, but the book that made me cry upon finishing it, partly because it was over, partly because I knew I'd never write anything so good, was The Left Hand of Darkness.

An anthropologist joins a society on an alien planet, where the people have no sex or gender except at certain times when they essentially go into heat. Our MMC keeps thinking he's got his head round that, then realises he hasn't, while politics, diplomacy and adventure also happen.

The Dispossessed is also excellent and more political. I have to admit I wasn't a big fan of Earthsea, but I think I just read it at the wrong time - too mentally fragile to cope with the Tombs of Atuan, in particular.

I've only read the first Expanse book so far, but the entire TV series was possibly the best I'd seen in years. The first book focuses on engineering and space travel more, and I'm told I'll probably enjoy the next couple more as we get the interplanetary politics and Avasarala.

I loved the Murderbot TV series and trying to track down the books at a good price. I should point out that Alexander Skarsgård plays Ray in Pillion exactly as impassively as he does Murderbot, with the same accent, which does add to the hilarity of Pillion, one of the funniest films of recent times.

Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series is some of the best space politics out there. The first book is not-Russian man meets not-Californian woman and they bond through peril - it's well-done but not particularly original. Then she marries him and has to deal with his planet's aristocracy and plots to assassinate them, resulting in Miles being born with severe birth defects in a society where that's totally unacceptable, but he's related to the Emperor. He grows up, has to use wit and charm given his body's limitations, and ends up with an alter ego and spying, with his own space crew - and that's before someone creates a clone of him... Having pregnant characters as protagonists, and ones having to arrange childcare, is really unusual in SF, but none of the diversity (and the planetary system is pretty damn diverse with its humanoid species) feels forced - the tensions and politics all make sense and events have ripples 30 years later.

I have a soft spot for Heinlein - yes his redhead fetish is weird, but he was one of the first authors I read where women were allowed to enjoy sex and that was appreciated by the men. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress successfully evokes a society adapting to circumstances, though Double Star is a good straightforward book (failing actor ends up having to be a body double for the president of the galaxy)

 

[onehitwanda]

God I wish Gaiman hadn't shat the bed :-/

It's one of the most remarkable and vexing things about our species that utter cunts can still have insight.

 

[VerbalAbuse]

Almost anything by Ursula le Guin, but the book that made me cry upon finishing it, partly because it was over, partly because I knew I'd never write anything so good, was The Left Hand of Darkness.

An anthropologist joins a society on an alien planet, where the people have no sex or gender except at certain times when they essentially go into heat. Our MMC keeps thinking he's got his head round that, then realises he hasn't, while politics, diplomacy and adventure also happen.

The Dispossessed is also excellent and more political. I have to admit I wasn't a big fan of Earthsea, but I think I just read it at the wrong time - too mentally fragile to cope with the Tombs of Atuan, in particular.

I've only read the first Expanse book so far, but the entire TV series was possibly the best I'd seen in years. The first book focuses on engineering and space travel more, and I'm told I'll probably enjoy the next couple more as we get the interplanetary politics and Avasarala.

I loved the Murderbot TV series and trying to track down the books at a good price. I should point out that Alexander Skarsgård plays Ray in Pillion exactly as impassively as he does Murderbot, with the same accent, which does add to the hilarity of Pillion, one of the funniest films of recent times.

Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series is some of the best space politics out there. The first book is not-Russian man meets not-Californian woman and they bond through peril - it's well-done but not particularly original. Then she marries him and has to deal with his planet's aristocracy and plots to assassinate them, resulting in Miles being born with severe birth defects in a society where that's totally unacceptable, but he's related to the Emperor. He grows up, has to use wit and charm given his body's limitations, and ends up with an alter ego and spying, with his own space crew - and that's before someone creates a clone of him... Having pregnant characters as protagonists, and ones having to arrange childcare, is really unusual in SF, but none of the diversity (and the planetary system is pretty damn diverse with its humanoid species) feels forced - the tensions and politics all make sense and events have ripples 30 years later.

I have a soft spot for Heinlein - yes his redhead fetish is weird, but he was one of the first authors I read where women were allowed to enjoy sex and that was appreciated by the men. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress successfully evokes a society adapting to circumstances, though Double Star is a good straightforward book (failing actor ends up having to be a body double for the president of the galaxy)

The Man from Winter

 

[VerbalAbuse]

It's one of the most remarkable and vexing things about our species that utter cunts can still have insight.

but he said he ain't one.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I love Banks and his ability to create complex narrative structures, but some of his books would be improved (or at least get me to re-read!) if he removed some of the extra grim bits.

So I'll nominate Player of Games as the best, because it doesn't give me nightmares. Consider Phlebas has that horrible eating chapter. Use of Weapons - yeah, great literature, don't want to return to it. I think it was the Algebraist that had a comedy OTT villain and a nasty torture scene on pages 16 to 17 which simply confirmed he was an OTT villain. Readers would lose nothing by skipping those pages.

Then read The Crow Road - or Whit, Espedair Street, or the Steep Road to Garbadale. Not SF but a similar viewpoint on how a society works.

 

[onehitwanda]

but he said he ain't one.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's very seldom a polarbear wearing swimming fins on his snout.

 

[StillStunned]

I have a soft spot for Heinlein - yes his redhead fetish is weird,

Hey!

but he was one of the first authors I read where women were allowed to enjoy sex

Some might say the two go hand in hand.

 

[Bramblethorn]

but he said he ain't one.

Honestly, even his version of events makes him out to be pretty cunty.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

HP Lovecraft scared me. I coulldn't read his stuff even in the day time

HP Lovecraft was scary, with his racism and misogyny and screwed-up life.

His fiction doesn't scare me at all, but Howard Philip himself was definitely scary.

--Annie

P. S. To be fair, Lovecraft was not static and his worst views (e. g. support for Hitler), to his credit, were moderated by exposure to facts (e. g. about Nazi atrocities) later in his life. I'm talking about HP at his worst, above.

 

[lovecraft68]

Robert McCammon is a can't miss, the first two I list here are great spins on the Vamp/Werewolf.

They Thirst
Wolf's Hour
Swan Song
Usher's Passing-Great modern take on Poe's Fall of the house of Usher.

 

[lovecraft68]

Peter Straub

Ghost Story
Shadowland-nice dark spin on magicians
Floating Dragon

 

[AlinaX]

Iain M. Banks' Culture series (SF). Slightly mixed recommendation: the sci-fi is amazing, super-tech galactic civilisations and sentient starships, but the stories tend to be depressing as fuck.

Agree completely.

 

[Areala-chan]

The Ring is great. Also great, but not exactly horror: Woman in the Dunes, and Out. Woman in the Dunes is an existential novel, Out a crime novel, but both have horror inflections.

Out is such a phenomenally good book. One of those "definitely need a shower after reading" novels!

 

[Nynah]

Folks have already mentioned Gideon, Murderbot and Time War so I will simply just add that these are fantastic books and everyone should read them.

Adding some of my own recommendations:

The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow - Time-wimey fuckery mixed with so much yearning and angst between a strong, powerful lady-knight and a timid historian. Loved the inversion of the tropes and Harrow's prose is just top-notch. One of the best books I read last year.

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor - a metatextual commentary on the publishing industry in general, it does a lot of cool shit with having a book-within-book while also providing much needed perspective on what it's like to be not only a queer woman in today's rather misogynistic world, but a disabled one at that.

Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher - I don't read a lot of horror so this will have to do. A dark fantasy retelling of Snow White, the main character gets wrapped up in a lot cloak and dagger skullduggery but really she just wants to be left alone to mix her potions, so naturally I loved and related to her a lot. Kingfisher has such an engaging way of weaving a story with humor and intrigue, I couldn't put it down.

 

[redgarters]

The Locked Tomb, and Gideon the Ninth in particular. The second and third books (the fourth is not out yet) are excellent, but they're less accessible.

Gideon The Ninth, though, is the work of someone who is a good writer, and who is having so much fun with foreshadowing and jokes. It's a bit like Warhammer 40k if it was explicitly Catholic, and queer af. It is dripping with character and style. Certainly some people will be turned off by the sheer amount of character, and would want the story to be a little less obtuse, but I have been in love with the manifold mysteries and puzzle box nature of it all since 2019. I read the first book maybe 10 times, and then after the second book came out I read one and two maybe 5 times. Now that there are three books out, I've read one, two, and three maybe 5 more times. I read them over and over, obsessively.

Gideon the Ninth is a book that will have you screaming "What the fuck is happening?" at it up until the 75% mark, but you will continue to read because the characters are so compelling. Once you get past the 75% mark, you'll be like "That's what was happening? This whole time?!"

The second book, Harrow The Ninth, pulls this off again, but even more complexly.

The third book, Nona the Ninth, pulls this off again, and it is my favorite.

This kind of trick is difficult to pull of once. To do it three times in the same series, in ways that continue to expand and inform the larger story of its universe, is fucking bonkers.

Can't second this enough, just the blurb on the back of Gideon the Ninth should tell you all you need to know to pick up this book: "Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space."

The Expanse. Sci Fi that tries to be based on real universe physics and realpolitik. It's a grand space opera that covers several genres within the series (detective noir, political thriller, disaster story) but is ultimately held together by brilliant characters (Amos, Bobby, Peaches, Naomi especially).

Hands down the best space opera I've read. Great worldbuilding, politics, space battles great writing and well written three dimensional characters carry the whole thing.

Adding my two cents to the discussion:

A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace (The Teixcalaan duology) by Arkady Martine.
This is some of the best Sci Fi writing and worldbuilding I've seen, exploring themes like politics, culture, language. Amazing writing.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein.
One of the best books by one of the three sci fi greats, about a revolt against Earth by a virtual anarcho-capitalist society in a Lunar colony. This book is worth reading if only because it has profoundly influenced scores of sci fi books since.

Blackout and All Clear (duology) by Connie Willis
Historians time travel back to London during the Blitz and get stuck there. These are the best time travel books I've read, the plot is superbly written. If you like historical fiction, this is for you.

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
Cozy fantasy. Read it with a nice cup of coffee, under a blanket on a rainy day.

Mistborn and Skyward by Sanderson are firm favourites as well

 

[StillStunned]

For a bit of fun: "Goblin Quest" and its sequels by Jim C. Hines. A D&D dungeon crawl, but from the point of view of the runtiest goblin in the dungeon. And his dead god.

 

[redgarters]

Aaaah sooo many good recs in this thread.

I love Miles Vorkosigan. A prime example on how sci fi can be fun and capers but also deep and thoughtful at the same time.

I'll hesitantly add Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein to the list here. Yes it's too long, yes it's got rambling monologues at times, yes it's fiercely political, but it's just so damn weird/good. If you pick it up, give it a chance and remember it was a groundbreaking text for the 60's Free Love movement.

The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin is brilliant. One of the few cases of second person narration that actually works.

Edit: So I don' t keep adding posts:
The Left Hand of Darkness is a book everyone needs to read right now. Another one is A Handmaid's Tale. Don't just watch the TV show, read the book.

 

[SugarStorm]

I feel my taste is a bit vanilla for this crowd, but I love anything Discworld by Terry Pratchett. There’s also a special place in my heart for Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. Edit // Gideon's cool. Harrow's almost even cooler. Not finished Nona yet.

I was born and raised on classic and high fantasy, but after revisiting a few books now that I’m older wiser, I’ve decided to let the rest remain firmly in memory.

I also grew up on Don Rosa Disney books, which remain my prized possessions. In case of a fire, the order is: Don Rosa books, my laptop, my wife (she’d better already be on the move), and then the kids.

I’ve tried to branch out, so a shout-out to @Areala-chan for her patience with my ignorance.

 

[redgarters]

I feel my taste is a bit vanilla for this crowd, but I love anything Discworld by Terry Pratchett. There’s also a special place in my heart for Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. Edit // Gideon's cool. Harrow's almost even cooler. Not finished Nona yet.

I was born and raised on classic and high fantasy, but after revisiting a few books now that I’m older wiser, I’ve decided to let the rest remain firmly in memory.

I also grew up on Don Rosa Disney books, which remain my prized possessions. In case of a fire, the order is: Don Rosa books, my laptop, my wife (she’d better already be on the move), and then the kids.

I’ve tried to branch out, so a shout-out to @Areala-chan for her patience with my ignorance.

Vanilla is a taste too, nothing wrong with that.
Terry Pratchett's social commentary through fantasy is second to none. King. I have all of Discworld on my Kindle, quicker to grab during that fire...

 

[onehitwanda]

Vanilla is a taste too, nothing wrong with that.
Terry Pratchett's social commentary through fantasy is second to none. King. I have all of Discworld on my Kindle, quicker to grab during that fire...

Sam Vimes and Esme Weatherwax are my consciences

 

[AchtungNight]

Drew Hayes has written some excellent fantasy with the SuperPowereds and NPCs series, also Fred the Vampire Accountant. Humor, character building, original takes on fantasy tropes.

For those into graphic novels and religious allegories, the Preacher series by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon has always been a favorite of mine.

Elliot Kay has written another fun religious allegory series called Good Intentions. The lead is a young college student just trying to be a good person. In the first book he ends up in a three way relationship with a reformed succubus and a lawful good but very foul mouthed angel. The humor is hilarious. Later they bring in various arch demons, djinns, and more angelic politics. The series never fails to delight.

 

[redgarters]

Sam Vimes and Esme Weatherwax are my consciences

There's an easy answer to most of life 's questions: What Would Sam Vimes Do?