Looking for speculative fiction recommendations

March 30, 2004 12:47 AM

Can anyone recommend some very very good speculative fiction books that I can read that are maybe along the lines of the Parable books by Octavia Butler (They don't have to deal with apocalypse though). Reading those was just bliss for me and I look forward to finding similar novels.
posted by Slimemonster to media & arts (7 answers total)

It's not out yet, but the collection edited by historian Andrew Roberts', What Might Have Been: Leading Historians on Twelve What Ifs of History, looks fascinating.
posted by jonathanbell at 2:29 AM on March 30, 2004

You should find U. Le Guin's The Lathe of Heaven and The Dispossessed, if you haven't already read them. One of my favourite apocalyptic novels is Arslan by M.J. Engh. Finally, you might also enjoy Maureen McHugh: China Mountain Zheng and Half the Day is Night to start.
posted by bonehead at 5:43 AM on March 30, 2004

I wasn't a huge fan of Parable of the Sower, so I may not be the best to answer this for you, but have you read "Lilith's Brood"? It's also by Butler, and I liked it a bit more.

If you haven't read "Stranger in a Strange Land", it's worth reading.

You might enjoy Bruce Sterling's "Distraction".
posted by willnot at 7:25 AM on March 30, 2004

I just finished Kim Stanley Robertson's The Years of Rice and Salt which is as much a long essay on human nature as it is an alternative history tale where the black death had wiped out Europe and Islam and China had dominated the world.
posted by PenDevil at 7:33 AM on March 30, 2004

On the beach, by Nevil Shute. The last days in Australia after a "nuclear holocaust" in the Northern hemisphere, as the trade winds bring fallout to Australia. How does a society deal when the people know they only have weeks to live?
posted by whatzit at 8:07 AM on March 30, 2004

Celestial Matters by Richard Garfinkle. It's set in an alternate universe where the Greek Empire, using Ptolemaic astronomy and Aristotelian physics and biology, is fighting a war with an alternate Chinese Empire where Taoism is ascendant. Very interesting. Very thought provoking.
posted by geekhorde at 8:51 PM on March 30, 2004

If you like a good long read, try the Ender series by Orson Scott Card. I'm a huge fan of John Brunner - The Sheep Look Up, Stand on Zanzibar and Shockwave Rider. And if you haven't read it - Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash.

Also, if you like bookish chat, try Readerville.com. Reg. req'd. and payment expected eventually, but if it's your sort of thing, it's excellent. The software it's based on is not wonderful.
posted by theora55 at 8:53 PM on April 2, 2004