Rec me stuff!

[oyceter]

OMG people! I have my plot brain back! Not only that, but I am suddenly feeling the urge to read really dense SF with lots of worldbuilding and aliens. This is extremely strange, given my three-year-or-so romance novel spree and my general tendency toward the fantasy side of sf/f.

Rec me stuff! I have been contemplating attempting Cherryh again, as I just reread Gate of Ivrel and could actually figure out what was going on, but I am a little scared of where to start. I've mostly just read her fantasy, since plot-brain abandoned me years ago, but now I want to try more of her SF. I own Faded Sun, Foreigner, and Invader.

... while I'm at it, I should probably read some Ursula K. LeGuin SF too, since I haven't even read Dispossessed.

Mostly I want cool cultures and politicking and alien-ness, although anti-colonialism and feminism are huge pluses. I've already been slightly thrown out of a book or two thanks to the use of terms like "native" and "reservation" and not being sure if the author was aware enough to deconstruct or was just thoughtlessly using it. POC authors also a big plus. Have read Karin Lowachee's Cagebird and have some of her others out, recently went through a fair amount of Butler and mean to reread her Parable books, would like to know if Tobias Buckell's current books fit the amount of denseness I am in the mood for.

This feels so odd, but I figure while I am in the mood, I should read as much as possible, since this seriously hasn't happened for years and years.

Comments

[pandarus]

I &hearts the hell out of Iain (M) Banks, particularly the Culture novels - 'Use of Weapons' is a particular favourite.

People tend to rave about Lois McMasters-Bujold's Vorkosigan books too, but I've not read them.

DUNE! Have you read Dune? God, that's brilliant. You've probably read it, though.

Also Vonda N. McIntyre's 'Starfarers' books are fab, and they're downloadable now.

[rilina]

Have you read Vanishing Point by Roessner? It is post-apocalyptic SF set in south bay!

[oyceter]

I've bounced off of several of Bujold's books (Vorkosigan and her fantasy series), and my feeling was that it was her prose and characterization, not the plotting or the worldbuilding, so I may hold off on her. And have definitely read Dune at a very malleable age!

Haven't really read Banks or McIntyre outside of her Star Wars books, will check them out!

[oyceter]

Bwahaha, I am going to check that out just for that combination!

[rilina]

I loved the fact that I knew almost all the landmarks mentioned, and that one of the leads was an older woman.

[littlebutfierce]

No recs, just wanted to say that it's great to see you posting again!!

[estara]

Well if you have Foreigner you have another 11 books to read, and from what she says on her website the series is still selling so well, that she has plans and ideas for another couple of books at least - at the moment she's busy writing the next one, which will come out next year - they seem to be one a year by now. Personally I find the series going really strong still. Jo Walton did a spoiler-filled review series on Tor.com

I also find Juli Czerneda writes really out-there SF with mostly female protagonists and lots of alien - more space operaish action, too and some hints of romance: Esen, the ultimate shapeshifer and Sira of the TradePact Universe and for a change a human who gets drawn into an intergalactic problem, because of her knowledge of marine biology (Czerneda was a marine biologist by profession as far as I know)- Dr. Mackenzie (Mac) Connor.

I might remember more, but these are books I really enjoyed and authors I continue to buy from.

[estara]

seconding the Starfarers recommendation.

[jain]

Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany is an awesome book containing most of the things you're looking for. It ends on something of a cliffhanger (there's a planned sequel that may or may not ever be completed at this point), but I don't hesitate to recommend the book despite that.

[oursin]

Thirding!

[sanguinity]

Andrea Hairston's Mindscape. (Which I'm only half through because I somehow managed to misplace it coming back from Colorado, boo!) Dense plotting and worldbuilding (and I had to restart it halfway through because I was only hanging on to my understanding of the book by my fingernails, but once I did, wow). Post-colonial and post-apocolyptic SF, with the most stable high-standard-of-living nation being West African, and the least stable of which is the southwestern U.S., which has become a failed state controlled by private, warring Hollywood militias. There's more stuff about the worldbuilding that I absolutely adore, but it's better for you to read it than for me to tell you all the things.

I also really liked Nalo Hopkinson's Midnight Robber</i as anti-colonial SF, and one which is not heteronormative, to boot.

[lnhammer]

Second the rec for Banks -- he's one of the few plot-heavy SF authors I still keep up with. The Culture novels start with Consider Phlebas, but the second one, Player of Games, is generally considered the best entrypoint.

Charles Stross is hit-or-miss for me, but I did enjoy Singularity Sky. Haven't gotten to the sequel yet.

---L.

[thistleingrey]

+1-ing Vanishing Point, Banks (skip Consider Phlebas), and Midnight Robber if you haven't read it already. Banks's Culture books peter out after a while, for me, but there's a good few before they do.

I wasn't overwhelmed by Buckell's Crystal Rain, but I found it interesting enough to make a note to find the sequels at a library sometime. Haven't done that yet. :P

hmm *makes note of Mindscape*

[heresluck]

I have no recommendations for you (though I am happily noting down everyone else's!) -- just wanted to say wooooooooo plot brain! I'm a little envious -- mine is still missing -- although it's probably just as well since staying up to 3am reading would not be a good life choice for me right now. Hee.

[glass_icarus]

LEGUIN! :D &hearts I've been reading a bunch of her stuff recently and I enjoyed all of it that I've read so far, but my current favorites are The Left Hand of Darkness (though you have probably read it already?) and The Birthday of the World and Other Stories.

[vito_excalibur]

I'm reccing Rosemary Kirstein's Steerswoman books to everyone, because I am in LUUUUUUUUURVE.

[laurashapiro]

I can't recommend The Dispossessed highly enough. There's so much good there.

I haven't been reading much SF, but if you're in the mood for epic Indian pre- and post-colonial historical fantasy, I loved Red Earth and Pouring Rain by Vikram Chandra.

[cofax7]

Aren't they *awesome*? So fabulous. If only she could write FASTER. ::sigh::

[ellarien]

As someone else has mentioned, there are lots more books in Cherryh's Foreigner series. (Bear in mind that the first few dozen pages of Foreigner are a prologue almost completely disconnected from everything else.) The later sequels don't have quite the same edge as the first few, but those of us who are hooked don't mind too much. If you're in a plotty mood you might also try Downbelow Station.

Also, Kristine Smith's series (starting with Code of Conduct) has lots of plot and politicking, and what I thought was an interesting take on the developing relationship between humanity and a humanoid alien race. I'm not sure how that would read from an anticolonialist perspective, but the aliens are not being subjugated or exploited, but meeting humanity on more or less equal terms as far as I remember.

Karen Traviss, City of Pearl and sequels; something of an environmentalist polemic, but complex and engaging, with lots of interesting aliens.

Recently, I've enjoyed Karl Schroeder's Virga series (Sun of Suns and sequels), but that's more of a loose string of adventures across a gorgeous (slightly steam-punky) science-fictional setting, not so much with the intricate plotting. Tobias Buckell's Crystal Rain is good too, and has a couple of sequels.

Ken MacLeod (not so much the recent near-future stuff, which is very gritty and downbeat, but maybe Cosmonaut Keep and sequels.)

You might also try older Gene Wolfe -- Book of the New Sun, Book of the Long Sun, Book of the Short Sun (which are two quadrologies and a trilogy, but the first quadralogy is usually published two books at a time these days.)

[ailiathena.livejournal.com]

If you haven't already, go read Sherri Tepper's Grass ASAP.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104342.Grass

[lnhammer]

Oh, and the two SF books over the past year I most enjoyed are Declare by Tim Powers (it's SF cleverly disguised as a historical spy thriller) and Anathem by Neal Stephenson.

---L.

[starlady]

I saw him at a talk about 1.5 years ago, he said that since the relationship the book was created out of ended he doesn't know if he could go back to finish it, and that he's kind of moved on from sf. :/

[starlady]

I would second the Gene Wolfe rec. Brain-bending, in a good way.

[kate_nepveu]

oyceter, if you're not reading authors on grounds of intersectional fail, I would disrecommend Gene Wolfe (also, alas, Dan Simmons and Elizabeth Moon, who in prior years I would have recommended).

[ellarien]

I'm sorry to hear that re Wolfe; apparently I managed to miss that one.