Can anyone recommend some good, contemporary fiction for people that have forgotten how to read fiction?
Although it’s not quite contemporary - I really enjoyed it so you might too. There is also a bunch of follow on books I may delve into one day... but right now I’m back to business books :)
It's basically a crime story based in two different cities, and I won't say more about that. :)
edit: Apart from that, if you like visual storytelling, it's great to read graphic novels, comics or webtoons in a language you're still learning. I could recommend some if you're interested.
Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game is fantastic, and it's follow-up, Speaker for the Dead is even better, and my favorite science fiction novel of all time. They won back to back Hugo and Nebula awards. Card is a polarizing figure for his outspoken political opinions, but if ever the art should be separated from the artist, it's Speaker, which is an incredible exploration of empathy and responsibility, in addition to being a gripping, action-packed, science-literate read. Many more in this series, if you get into it.
John Scalzi's Old Man's War series is fantastic, if you're into military science-fiction, or even if you're not. Smart, funny, engaging and accessible, and reminiscent of Heinlein at his prime, minus the weird incest fetish. Redshirts, a Star Trek parody, rivals Galaxy Quest and only falls short because Galaxy Quest is so goddamn brilliant. Agent to the Stars is less appreciated, but in my opinion his finest novel, rising way above its goofy premise by taking it seriously, exploring the consequences and treating the characters with empathy and respect. Also hilarious.
Seconding Dune, which is a classic for a reason, and Stranger in a Strange Land (though I think The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a better place to start with Heinlein). Also Neal Stephenson, though I'd suggest Cryptonomicon over Diamond Age.
Another book that gives off very similar vibes is Don DeLillo's Underworld.
Also, really can't go wrong with Terry Pratchett.
P.S. - I have the same problem, its been years since I read for 'fun'. Mostly all tech stuff now.
Check out B. V. Larson's Swarm and Undying Mercenaries series, Dennis E. Taylor Bobiverse series, and Craig Alanson's Expeditionary Force.
Also what I mentioned to OP, what I'm doing my annual re-listen of https://www.goodreads.com/series/51166-troy-rising
They're not Heinlein by any means but they're fairly good hard science fiction. The audiobook versions all have fantastic narrators too if one has a commute.
I enjoyed many of the Halo books (there are a couple duds in there too), which lead me to other books authored by Eric Nylund. I like his writing style, even though he has more fantasy elements to his stories than I would typically like but it somehow works. A Game of Universe and Mortal Coils are some that I have read.
I also read some of the Splinter Cell books. They were ok from what I remember, but probably only good if you liked the games. Tom Clancy has some good books (the Splinter Cell game books are ghost written). I remember Rainbow Six was a good one.
You could also try non-fiction adventure books. Since they are set in areas you are not familiar with, your brain still has to build the environment and imagery. Something like One Man's Wilderness. I enjoyed that book. I used to read and listen to books like Hatchet and this was along the same lines but non-fiction. I'd also say to be careful about these. For me, it makes me want to quit and live on a farm.
[This is not a criticism, rather an exploration...] Why do you include the constraint "contemporary" fiction?
You said you want to stimulate your creative thinking, and "switch off". Might you be open to the possibility that fiction set in another place and time could help with your objectives?
I'm asking because I've felt similar to what you describe, and I know of some good books that did for me what you ask, but they are mostly set in different centuries to this one, and written by people who are dead.
I work in software engineering and marketing, which means most of what I do is conceptual rather than physical. I find that doing physical jobs, like carpentry gives me a satisfaction and a feeling of escape. After I've built something, I can sit back and just look at it... there's no better feeling than making something come into existence.
Well, sometimes a good work of fiction can achieve a similar level of escape or transcendence, yes.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Collector-Tibor-Fischer/dp/00992681...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thought-Gang-Tibor-Fischer/dp/00995...
I enjoyed all the books written by Fred Vargas. Detective stories, but funny. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fred-Vargas/e/B001I9OXT6
Actually most books that I buy are either from authors that I've already read a lot of times (=easy reads for me) or I read an article in a magazine and a book is referenced. Unfortunately I don't read much contemporary fiction in English, but I liked A Man's Place from Annie Ernaux, it's also just 96 pages
I remember only reading for a few minutes a day on the train, but it pretty much felt like watching a TV mini series where each train ride was a short episode.
I think that book in particular was the turning point for me, from only reading technical books and having no interests outside non-fiction, to realising I was just looking through fiction books that I didn't actually enjoy.
For an older fantasy series, you could also try Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy (starts with Titus Groan), which actually predates the Lord of the Rings and has a crowd that thinks it's better written. I think Neil Gaiman has worked on a TV series adaptation.
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) is a pretty good and campy series.
The Dresden Files series is also good, I tried to get into it but I hated the mumbly voice actor on Audible unfortunately.
Iain Banks is good, especially Player of Games, Consider Phlebas and The Algebraist. Use of Weapons put a bad taste in my mouth.
Good luck!
EDIT: Forgot to mention Isaac Asimov, I've yet to see anything bad by him. Still trying to get through the Foundation series.
It's a really fun series, basically an alien race appears in the system and installs a gate to open up trade with the system. It has some really neat ideas in it and some good challenges they work through from fuel to interstellar war, with the primary character being your run of the mill guy with tech industry experience working in a rural community fighting his way to being fantastically wealthy and arguably the primary defender of human space.
Book 1: Live Free or Die:
>First Contact Was Friendly
>When aliens trundled a gate to other worlds into the solar system, the world reacted with awe, hope and fear. But the first aliens to come through, the Glatun, were peaceful traders and the world breathed a sigh of relief.
>Who Controls the Orbitals, Controls the World
They're a good read, but the narrator makes them quite a good listen. I've actually bought other author's entire series purely because Mark Boyett has narrated them.
Mark Boyett, R.C. Bray, and Luke Daniels are some great narrators and all do a lot of narration in the hard science fiction space. They make the audio versions of books far superior to reading it yourself, at last in my opinion.
Daemon and the sequel Freedom TM by Daniel Suarez are also a fun read. It uses near-future, or even at the time experimental tech, to weave a mostly believable near-future scenario.
Daemon:
>When the obituary of legendary computer game architect Matthew Sobol appears online, a previously dormant daemon activates, initiating a chain of events that begins to unravel our interconnected world. This daemon reads news headlines, recruits human followers, and orders assassinations. With Sobol’s secrets buried with him, and as new layers of his daemon are unleashed, it’s up to Detective Peter Sebeck to stop a self-replicating virtual killer before it achieves its ultimate purpose - one that goes far beyond anything Sebeck could have imagined....
It's a bit like a labyrinthine search for identity and self identity, and for knowing the other.
Set in Belfast and in Paris, the former is which it is also interesting to learn a bit of the actually life feeling of.
It's my favorite sci-fi universe of any book, movie, or game. Feels a bit like Star Trek if the Federation were more advanced.
For the HN crowd "going postal" is probably a good first read. You can mostly read them in arbitrary order.
It imagines a future where global warming goes unmitigated. I don’t want to spoil anything beyond that. Fantastic glimpse into what our future may hold.