I’ve not read anything in years. I was recommended 3 Body Problem but hear it starts very slow and I could do with something easy and engaging.
Think mindless action film but in book form. To keep my attention and make me read. Get back in the habit.
Likes:
- Dark Materials trilogy.
- Horror - esp. Graham Masterton
- Non-fiction - love popular science books and history.
- Sci fi
- Short stories
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I recommend the Forever War by Joe Haldeman, it’s kind of dated and amateurish and weird in a Heinlein kinda way
Forever War and Forever Peace are an amazing duo. I don’t think they are amateurish though, Haldeman writes these exactly as they need to be to represent the difficulty Vietnam vets faced returning home.
I like how humanity becomes a literal hivemind of Polynesians it rules but also making the enemies a totally mindless drone hivemind is pretty yikesy tbqhbbq
It’s interesting in that historical sense idk if I agree about whether it really expresses something we need to get abt the vets suffering after the war or something though haha, and that when he comes back from the time skip everyone is a hivemind of Polynesians.
Someone mentioned another Neal Stephenson book, I’ll suggest Snow Crash-it’s sci-fi and reads a lot like an action film without being dumb.
Kraken by China Mieville is wonderfully strange, there’s a reason he is associated with the “New Weird” genre. Kind of fantasy, kind of horror.
Not at all light but still makes for short enjoyable reads to get your reading muscles in shape for 3BP: Ficciones and Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges. Two collections of short stories that are fantastic and dense with thought provoking ideas.
Leviathan Wakes
The Forever War
Piranesi
I’ve got two for you. Both by the same author but they’re both real page turners.
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Harcastle and The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton.
There are few series I am evangelical about and they are:
- The Laundry Files by Charles Stross - darkly funny spy horror with lashings of Lovecraft
- The Bas-Lag trilogy by China Mieville - fantasy/horror/weirdness
- The Divine Cities by Robert Jackson Bennett - but difficult to summarise but a fantasy novel if the setting was a bit like the Indian subcontinent fighting back against the British Empire with a weapon that allowed them to kill the gods that enabled their subjugation.
The Bas-Lag trilogy by China Mieville
This guy looks like he does some really fascinating stories. Especially the Bas-Lag stuff talking of mixing genres. I like the sound of that!
I’ve got a library across the road from me so I’m gonna take a wander over on Monday to have a mooch around for some of these. Failing that I’m gonna visit the giant second-hand bookshop in town tomorrow!
This guy looks like he does some really fascinating stories. Especially the Bas-Lag stuff talking of mixing genres. I like the sound of that!
He essentially started a new genre with those books. The feeling was that it’d usher in an era of literate weird fiction mashing genres together but, other than Jeff VanderMeer’s work, it didn’t really.
The VanderMeet’s released The New Weird anthology (introduction here) but the only one that worked for me was Alistair Rennie’s “The Gutter Sees the Light That Never Shines” which he expanded into a full length book, BleakWarrior, which is equally beserk. So far, that’s his only novel.
I recently read The City & The City and it was a very enjoyably weird read. There was a TV adaptation of it a few years ago so it’s one that might be more likely to be in the library stocks.
Gideon The Ninth by Tsmsyn Muir
It’s horror science fantasy with lesbian necromancers in space, and all together just a lot of fun and surprisingly easy to read.
(And if you enjoy it, there’s two more books continuing the plot)
My second recommendation is Time To Orbit Unknown by Derin Edala the link is to the first chapter of the actual story, as it’s online and completely free.
This one is scifi with future humans in space and lots of mysterious weird shit that keeps happening.
Honestly, click the link and just read the first chapter, it’s addictive and super easy to fall into.
New chapters are out every wednesday and saturday and chapter 135 came out today. I genuinely envy you for having so much of this story ahead of you to binge!Gideon The Ninth by Tsmsyn Muir
It’s horror science fantasy with lesbian necromancers in space, and all together just a lot of fun and surprisingly easy to read.
Oh yes, this ☝️☝️☝️ it’s also a murder mystery.
Oooh, so is Time To Orbit Unknown, now I think about it.
(Also I misspelled Tamsyn, fixed it now tho)
A second chance at Eden by Peter F Hamilton
Armor by John Steakley is one of my favorites; it starts off quickly and keeps a steady pace through the book.
Any of Andy Weir’s books are good solid fun.
I’d take a stab at Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series and see if it captures your fancy.
fancy
My “fancy” is very much off-limits to your musings! I will add Dark Tower to the list though. 👍
You might want to try the Reacher series by Lee Child. It’s definitely mindless action and very easy to pick up without being complicated.
Anything by Jules Verne is a fun easy sci-fi read.
Hitch hikers guide to the Galaxy. Fantastic read.
Howl’s moving castle. Good film too
Norwegian wood.
If you like horror, I find Stephen King books pretty easy to read. The Mr Mercedes books are worth a read. Then there’s always the show to compare to. Although I guess pretty much every King book has a movie or show.
If you haven’t read Philip Pullman’s other novels in the HDM universe they might be worth a go. The Book of Dust trilogy is still waiting for its third part, and the second book is not brilliant, but I really enjoyed the first one and it stands pretty well on its own as a prequel novel.
I’ve recently been reading the Rivers of London series, which is sort of urban fantasy / crime. They’re not high literature, and I recommend them only relatively weakly, but they’re very easy reading and pretty fun. Might be a nice one to ease yourself back into the habit again.
If you want some “serious” sci-fi that is also very accessible and action-oriented, The Expanse might be worth a look too.
I have read Three-Body Problem, and it certainly wasn’t a bad book, but it also was far from top tier for me. The story is a little silly in places, and the writing (at least in the English translation) can be a bit of a slog. By all means read it, and you’ll probably enjoy it, but maybe not as your first foray back into casual literature.
The Book of Dust
Funnily enough what triggered me to write this post was when I looked over at my full bookcase at all the unread books and then saw my original trilogy of HDM. I thought “Maybe I should re-read it?”. I’ve never re-read a book in my life cos I never saw the point in re-treading something.
But it’s been almost 20yrs since I did and I’ve forgotten a LOT of it. I don’t think I’d be able to read the new series without re-reading the OG trilogy but maybe that’s a good starting point anyway? Reading a series I loved to springboard into the new series? It’ll be easy cos I’ll be rediscovering something I know.
So I just grabbed Northern Lights after adding everyone’s recommendations to my list. I may start with NL though.
Funny you should say that. Someone had bought me The Book of Dust vol.1 ages ago, and it had been sitting on my bookshelf unread for exactly that reason. About a year ago I finally convinced myself to re-read the HDM trilogy so that I could finally get on and read it!
HDM held up decently well with adult eyes. It’s still a very emotive, well-paced and convincingly plotted read, although there were parts that made me raise my eyebrows in a way I undoubtedly didn’t as a younger reader, and the third book perhaps didn’t hold up quite as well as I remembered. But all in all I greatly enjoyed the revisit, and like I said I really enjoyed La Belle Sauvage (which is a pretty weird and trippy book in a way, but a very enjoyable trip all the same).
