Ask HN: Best Contemporary SF Books

Recommending William Gibson. Early books were cyberpunk, moved onto near future, alternative realities. Great contemporary writer.

“Snowcrash” by Stephenson “The Dosadi Experiment” by Herbert

I just read “How to Lose the Time War”. That was good (actually I think I have the name slightly wrong)

Ian M Banks is good. “Use of Weapons” is weaponized fiction. Neil Asher plays in similar waters.

Gibson’s new stuff is good. “The Peripheral” and “Agency” (they turned the peripheral into an Amazon show and that’s quite different but also quite good)

I guess when we’re calling out sci-fi shows based on books we can’t neglect “Altered Carbon”.

I'm more of the space battles and hard science SF fan. so:

I only recently read The Three Body problem, I really really enjoyed it. Can't remember the author, it's Chinese.

The Old Man's War series by Scalzi

If you are interested in the singularity Stross's books come to mind, the best probably Accelerando.

I think these are all in the last 10 years or so.

But you need to ask someone younger than me. "The golden age of science fiction..is twelve."

I am fortunate to be part of a book club whose members will read almost anything, but who tend to gravitate toward SF. Over the last few years we've read some amazing stuff. Here are some recommendations from my list of favorites, and which I continue to ponder many months after reading:

"This is How You Lose the Time War" by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. Without a doubt one of the most amazing and beautifully-written books I've ever read (and I read a lot). Astonishing.

"Children of Time" by Adrian Tchaikovsky. If I had read the book jacket short-description of this book in a book store, I probably would have put it back on the shelf, but I am so glad I didn't do that. Seriously.

"The City and the City" by China Miéville. A difficult beginning. To be honest I had to start this book two or three times before it finally clicked, but when it did... oh man.

"The Book of Strange New Things" by Michel Faber. This is a story that has been done by a couple of other authors (notably Mary Doria Russell in "The Sparrow"). But this book is so delicate, so lovely that I have purchased and given copies to my nerdy-wordy friends more than any other. It sticks in my head and I still think about it in some way almost every week.

"Bewilderment" and "The Overstory" by Richard Powers. OK, to be frank, anything by Richard Powers is worthy of your attention. There are very few authors working today who can construct prose like this man. Perhaps his work is not for everyone, but if your brain works a certain way, you will no doubt fall in love with this guy's writing. He has many books, but for those with a sci-fi slant, also check "Galatea 2.2" and "The Gold Bug Variations"

"Exhalation" and also "Stories of Your Life" by Ted Chiang. Two collections of memorable short stories, including the story that the movie "Arrival" was based on.

"Providence" by Max Barry. Wow. This needs to be made into a movie NOW. This book was so intense at points that I had to stand up and put it down because my heart was racing. A very fun, quick read.

Some sci-fi gems that were scattered in between those listed above include: "Starplex" by Robert J. Sawyer, "The Clockwork Dynasty" by Daniel H. Wilson, "Solar Warden" by Ian Douglas, "Hench" by Natalie Zina Walschots, "The Peacemaker's Code" by Deepak Malhotra, "Hail Mary" by Andy Weir (don't let the naysayers fool you, this is a fun book with a lot of interesting ideas), and the entire "Vaz" series by Laurence Dahners.