Iain M Banks, Peter F Hamilton, Asimov, Neal Asher, and Alastair Reynolds.
I like space operas if you can’t tell.
this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2025
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I'm reading my first Alastair Reynolds now and I can see why fans of Banks might like it.
I recommend House of Suns, Terminal World and Revenger.
Loved the Revenger trilogy.
spoiler
Kinda liked the way it wrapped up by answering all the characters' questions but left them with a whole series of new unanswered questions.
Yes a surprisingly fun and satisfying adventure. It really made me wish there was a video game in The Congregation setting.
I'm on Revelation Space.
Also great. A fun series but dense as hell.
i like banks and someone lent me a reynolds book. its soooooo long though. im reading some phillip k dick instead
These are some of my favorite authors as well. I have a lot of issues with Hamilton, though. I loved Pandora's Star/Judas Unchained. I liked (but did not love) the Void books. I just recently read The Reality Dysfunction and have started The Neutronium Alchemist, but I really don't like them very much. My main issue with his writing and the thing that is getting in the way of my enjoyment of the Night's Dawn books is simply that he seems to be a massive pervert. Like, it is constant and it is gross. It really detracts from the story at times.
Banks and Reynolds are absolutely amazing though, as is Asimov. I haven't read anything by Neal Asher yet but I plan on it.
Yeah that’s a fair criticism. I can see how it would be polarising. Personally, I don’t mind a bit of slap and tickle in books and I think it thematically fits the hyper-individualist universes in each series.
Megan O’Keefe’s Protectorate Trilogy is a fun read that reminds me a bit of Hamilton’s writing without all the sex.
Sweet, thanks for the rec!
Neal Asher! I just fall into his books. I'm never even sure if it's good writing but I do love his stuff so much.
Definitely Jack Vance first.
After that it's all over the place from day to day. Really enjoying Adrian Tchaikovsky lately, "The Final Architecture" series is just perfect.
Benedict Jacka has scratched my itch for urban fantasy.
I keep being impressed by Ian McDonald, his Luna series was such a tidy read.
Other than that, Samuel Delaney, LeGuin, Harry Harrison, Heinlein, and several others. I don't have a list, just authors :)
I'm getting into Adrian Tchaikovsky myself. He certainly loves painting the future as a capitalist hellscape, doesn't he?
I'm part way into Shroud, where whole solar systems are being strip-mined for resources, and the people doing the work are skinny because they can't afford to eat well but they get auto-dosed with drugs to help them focus when hunger is distracting them.
Ohhh, that's the newest one of his, right?
I'm currently reading City of Last Chances. Interesting urban fantasy, I'm digging it
Recent, certainly. I don't know if it's newest.
To push it a bit more contemporary: Peter Cawdron and his "First Contact " series, which is infinite variations (about 30 as of now) of making first contact with an alien sentience of any type.
It's excellent, and despite being excellent only available on kindle / kindle unlimited because as an independent author, that's the only way for him to publish & make a buck out if it.
Peter Cawdron is on Mastodon btw
Iain Banks
With or without the "M"? :)
Both, tbh.
Ursula K Le Guin, Alaistair Reynolds, Margaret Atwood (For the Maddaddam trilogy,) Jules Verne, John Windham.
Not a purely sci-fi author , but checkout "Octavia E Butler". She uses sci-fi to explore other thematics. The fact that I didn't see her name once here says a lot about how underrated she is
Her main book "parable of the sower" is a must read today for anyone living in the USA nowadays. So many points of today's politics make me think back about that book.
I don't really have a fav, but I've enjoyed lots of sci fi authors over the years.
- Frederick Pohl (especially Gateway, but not the sequel)
- J. G. Ballard
- Phillip K Dick
- Alfred Bester
- William Gibson
- George Orwell
- Andy Weir
- Strutgasky Brothers (Loved Roadside Picnic)
- Paolo Bacigalupi
- China Meiville
The list goes on
Asimov, Clarke, Niven obviously.
For more modern authors:
- Christopher Hinz
- Jon Scalzi
- Brandon Sanderson
- Neal Stephenson
- Hugh Howey
Asimov, Clarke and Frank Herbert are, of course, in the top 3, but I particularly enjoy Dan Simmons as well. I loved both Hyperion and Ilium, he has a knack for weaving together half a dozen tales that have seemingly nothing in common. Downside is that you spend an entire book reading the buildup to the actual story, but I'm a Robert Jordan fan too, I'm accustomed to that.
Aside from the big 3 (Asimov, Clarke, and Herbert)?
William Gibson and Mike Pondsmith.
I really like Mike's world building in cyberpunk. Has he written any novels?
I like Neuromancer as a story.
- Robert Silverberg
- Peter Corris
- Hammond Innes
- Dick Francis
- Arthur Ransome
- Nevil Shute
- Robert Heinlein
- Isaac Asimov
- Hergé
Pierce Brown, though book 6 was a little rough
Isaac Asimov, Roger Williams
Hmm. Lately, Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Neal Asher, Mike Carey, Octavia Butler.
I read a lot of fantasy too, if I had to pick a favorite writer it might be Ian McDonald, but Mike Carey is so good, the comics he worked on are so good.
Keith Laumer, Gordon R. Dickson and Jack McDevitt are probably the ones I re-read the most.