Exciting sci-fi novels

September 28, 2024 7:14 AM

I used to have a friend who read all the current sci-fi and then excitedly recommended the ones I might like. I miss that! Can you recommend new sci fi novels (published in the last two years or so) you are excited about? Books I have enjoyed below the fold.

I like character driven stories. I don't like the kind of gender dynamics male writers tend to come up with.

I recently liked the following series:
Murderbot, Ancillary Justice, A Memory Called Empire, Gideon the Ninth.

In the past, I've enjoyed some Peter Watts, Charles Stross, Richard Morgan, Ian MacDonald, Cory Doctorow. Though like I said I have gone off male writers mostly.

posted by Omnomnom to Media & Arts (32 answers total)

You sound like you'd enjoy Aliette de Bodard - her latest novella, Navigational Entanglements, is a fully standalone, but the Universe of Xuya has a shared setting rather than story continuity so I also recommend A Fire from Exile and Red Scholar's Wake. Seven of Infinities is four years old but also one of my Xuya favourites. (She tends to draw inspiration from classic novels - in turn these are inspired by Count of Monte Christo, Rebecca and Arsene Lupin. The novella is more like xianxia in space.)

Liberty's Daughter by Naomi Kritzer is likewise a novella, but excellent.

Vajra Chandrasekara's The Saint of Bright Doors blew my mind in the best way. It's... different, not hard sf but on feel more sf than fantasy. Bit of Lovecraft, bit of 1984, very non Western.

And Kate Elliott's Unconquerable Sun is 2020, but the second volume was out last year (she's still writing the third) and it's so good and intricate. Space genderbent Alexander the Great that is hard space opera in the best way.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 7:37 AM on September 28

Based on your list you might like Becky Chamber’s Wayfarers series.
posted by tchemgrrl at 8:07 AM on September 28

Omnomnom it sounds like we have similar tastes! So I will recommend Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh, which won the Hugo award for best novel this year.

I'm also really enjoying Malka Older's series that started in 2023 with The Mimicking of Known Successes.

I'll be watching for other's suggestions too.
posted by Illusory contour at 9:01 AM on September 28

Illusory contour and I have similar instincts! My breakdown: on the cozier side, I'd recommend Malka Older's detective series starting with Mimicking of Known Successes and Rebecca Fraimow's book Lady Eve's Last Con. On the angrier side, I think you might enjoy Emily Tesh, Some Desperate Glory and A.D. Sui, The Dragonfly Gambit.

Rebecca Fraimow's novella Iron Children and my own collection North Continent Ribbon are closer to the middle of the cozy-to-angry spectrum.
posted by yarntheory at 9:08 AM on September 28

Seconding Becky Chambers.
Adrian Tchaikovsky's Final Architecture series is quite similar to her Wayfarers, in character dynamics and structure.

And, primarily because I've only recently discovered Lois McMaster Bujold, her entire Vorkosigan Saga is wonderful.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 9:10 AM on September 28

I've read the murderbot series a few times and someone in a murderbot reddit recommendation thread recommended "kitty cat kill sat" by argus. Just finished it this week and have already ordered another book by the author.
posted by noloveforned at 9:32 AM on September 28

Ooh lots of good recs.

'Some Desperate Glory' was GREAT - high recommended.

And 'The Future' by Naomi Alderman - good adventure set in the very near future and very timely.
posted by sedimentary_deer at 9:36 AM on September 28

as all the things I would recommend have already been mentioned, I will just second the rec on "The Future" by Alderman. timely indeed.

will be keeping an eye on this thread.
posted by supermedusa at 9:44 AM on September 28

I love the series you listed, and I really enjoyed The Tainted Cup. It's botanical biopunk murder mystery.
posted by Akhu at 9:47 AM on September 28

I also like all of those series, and if you have any interest in sci-fi + murder mysteries I also recommend Mur Lafferty’s Midsolar Murders series. There are two books (so far): Station Eternity and Chaos Terminal.
posted by DiscourseMarker at 9:59 AM on September 28

I've enjoyed work by Mike Chen, particularly Light Years From Home.
I loved Far From the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson.
I'm also a fan of Ben Winters and liked Golden State and Big Time.
The Midsolar Mystery Series is fun. Start with Station Eternity.

This was far more literary, but I also really loved Edan Lepuki's Time's Mouth.
posted by brookeb at 10:19 AM on September 28

Strong second to The Tainted Cup! I really enjoyed it and I like a lot of the other books you like.
posted by potrzebie at 10:30 AM on September 28

What a great list. I like all the ones I recognize and am adding the others to my TBR list.

My contributions:

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson (2020) and its follow up, Those Behind the Wall (2024)
Moonbound: A Novel by Robin Sloan (2024)
posted by AMyNameIs at 10:39 AM on September 28

Missed the edit window, but I just thought of another another pair


Aether Ones (2020) by Wendi Coffman-Porter and its sequel, The Grand Veeshali (2022)
posted by AMyNameIs at 10:50 AM on September 28

* Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki, 2021, strong female protagonists, lighthearted feel, lgbtq characters, Asian American characters

* One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston, 2021, queer time-travel romance

* A Master of Djinn, 2021, more fantasy than sf, an adventurous mystery featuring strong female characters set in an alternate history Egypt

* Alix Harrow’s “Fractured Fables” series
posted by dog-eared paperback at 10:54 AM on September 28

Metafilter's own brainwane has a history of suggesting good short stories, which in turn bring about recommendations. (I'd say 'paging...' but we don't have an @-notification pony.)
posted by k3ninho at 11:01 AM on September 28

You must read Adrian Tchaikovsky. “Children of Time” and the followon books are an amazing series, as well as “The Final Architecture” series, which begins with “Shards Of Earth”. If you line characters, Shards Of Earth is probably a little better, but both are fantastic and you get six books of greatness!
posted by RobotNinja at 11:06 AM on September 28

One good place to find recommendations is The Otherwise Award, an award encouraging the exploration & expansion of gender. The nominations list & winners list for recent years are available, although 22-23 are still being discussed.
posted by dog-eared paperback at 11:37 AM on September 28

Look for books that were nominated for the Ursula LeGuin Prize. One that I particularly liked was A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys. I also loved Light From Uncommon Stars and Children of Time.
posted by matildaben at 12:12 PM on September 28

I have similar taste (ALECTO WHEN??) and recently enjoyed AK Larkwood’s The Unspoken Name/The Thousand Eyes.
posted by corvine at 2:46 PM on September 28

I also bounced hard off Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers but I straight up adored her Monk & Robot books. I do need to give Wayfarers another go at some point.
posted by corvine at 2:48 PM on September 28

I also have been avoiding male writers lately and have really enjoyed these:

Frontier and Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis

The Mars House by Natasha Pulley

Station Eternity and it’s sequel by Mur Lafferty (as already suggested by brookeb)

There are two series by Megan O’Keefe. One starts with The Blighted Stars and the other starts with Velocity Weapon. These are more hard sci-fi than my other recommendations.
posted by knitswithcathair at 2:50 PM on September 28

Ada Hoffman's Outside trilogy (Locus review)

Rivers Solomon, so far I have only read An Unkindness of Ghosts which is outside your time window, but from that will be trying more!
posted by away for regrooving at 9:00 PM on September 28

I have similar taste (ALECTO WHEN??) and recently enjoyed AK Larkwood’s The Unspoken Name/The Thousand Eyes.

Yes!! To this, to Tainted Cup (probably more fantasy, though?), and to most things Tchaikovsky (he just released a new one called Alien Clay that I'm excited to dive into).

Would add M.R. Carey's Pandominion duology (Infinity Gate and Echo of Worlds), and though it is pure fantasy must put in a plug as always for The Steel Seraglio by Carey, his wife, and his daughter, which is as beautiful and exciting a rumination on the nature of story and memory wrapped in the guise of an Arabian Nights-esque tale about a wayward harem as you are ever likely to find.

Oh, and while I'm talking fantasy, if you haven't read Naomi Novik's Scholomance series, you really, really should.
posted by Gadarene at 5:02 AM on September 29

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:38 AM on September 29

Oh, another I forgot yesterday: Winters Orbit by Everina Maxwell. There is a second book set in generally the same universe, but totally new characters and setting, Oceans Echo. I didn’t quite like the second as much but it might be worth a shot. Both have romance subplots in case that matters to you.
posted by DiscourseMarker at 7:00 AM on September 29

Semiosis by Sue Burke and the sequel Interference. A couple years older than you are thinking of, but very in line with the novels you noted!
posted by gregr at 6:00 PM on September 29

Arkhangelsk by Elizabeth H. Bonesteel came out in 2022; I recommended it in this recent(ish) SF book recs thread. Since then I've read and loved Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh (recommended upthread), and I think they make a good pair.

One more. OK, I'm cheating, because this is not a novel, but - have you read Emma Newman's Planetfall books? If so, have you also read her book of short stories set in the same universe, Before, After, Alone? It came out in March last year, but as an e-book only, so you might have missed it.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 4:18 AM on September 30

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Jackson is excellent, and the sequel, Those Beyond the Wall, is incredible. I cannot recomment them highly enough!
posted by maryellenreads at 8:27 AM on September 30

I came to this thread and then saw that k3ninho wished to beckon me. Hi! :-)

The science fiction novels I've read in the past few years have mostly been somewhat older than what you're seeking. I have read and enjoyed Vajra Chandrasekara's The Saint of Bright Doors (here's an excerpt you can read for free). And I recommend to you Naomi Kritzer's recent CatNet novels Catfishing on CatNet and Chaos on CatNet, sequels to her 2015 short story "Cat Pictures Please". Both Chandrasekera and Kritzer focus on characters navigating group belonging as well as emergent effects of fantastical systems, which is something I think you probably also enjoy in Leckie and Wells.

I am on the board of the Otherwise Award, so I absolutely do recommend you check out our past honorees! (I saw in this thread a recommendation for Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki, which was one of 2 winners of the 2021 Otherwise Award.) We took a pause in our operations recently and we may honor 2022 and 2023 work in a different way. As we wrote in that post: "We’re exploring various approaches to celebrating work from those years. That celebration may end up taking a very different form than usual." But a jury is now considering work published in 2024 so we will be honoring them next year!

Also, are you open to fanfiction?
posted by brainwane at 10:31 AM on September 30

I think you'd like Moonbound, by Robin Sloan.
I sure did.
posted by cleverevans at 10:55 AM on September 30

[[oooh, new Sci-Fi! We've added this reader friendly thread to the sidebar and Best Of blog; thanks, Omnomnom!]]
posted by taz at 4:21 AM on October 1