So, to those people who want to give Science Fiction a try, but aren't quite sure where to start, or to those people who want to find a particular type of sci-fi book, hopefully this post will give you a bit of help. Since I mostly read YA, a lot of the books featured in this post are going to be be YA novels. Don't know what else to write in this introduction, so let's get straight into it:
haha you people are probably tired of me going on and on about this book, but seriously. It's so good. I do have to say it's one of the more sci-fi like sci-fi novels (wait that sounds weird. I mean to say the focus is on the sci-fi side of things rather than on romance and what not) so it's not for everyone, but for people who want a bit more sci-fi focused book, I'd recommend this one.
The Classics: Sci-Fi Style- Cinder, Of Beast and Beauty, For Darkness Shows the Stars
These three are retellings of Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast and Persuasion respectively. They're all quite good, and bring a nice sci-fi twist to their original tales. FDSTS is quite romance focused (as you would expect from a retelling of Jane Austen) so maybe start with that one if you like that sort of thing.
Okay, granted, the blurb of this sounds pretty cliched. I mean, 'stopping the clock and saving the planet', yeah, sounds pretty crappy. The book itself is rather amazing though- and quite action packed and fast paced. And the parallel universe stuff- boy, I was not expecting that to be so good.
Timey Wimey Stuff- All Our Yesterdays, Time Between Us
The amazingness of All Our Yesterdays can basically be described in one word: Finn. Although I wasn't completely convinced about the science behind the time travel in this book, the characters and action were sufficient for me to make this book a Panacea Candidate. Time Between Us, similarly, seemed a bit more like a paranormal rather than a sci-fi because the time travel could only be done by one individual and kinda seemed more a super power rather than a scientific thing, but whatever. It's still time travel.
ALIENS!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!- In the After, The 5th Wave
On the GR page a lot of people have shelved In the After as a zombie book, but I seem to recall "Them" more so being aliens rather than zombies? Maybe they're zombie-like aliens. The 5th Wave is definitely aliens, and woah, it was gooood.
Everyone is Dying- Partials, Wither
These are both dystopians where EVERYONE IS DOOMED. Different reasons though. In Partials, all the babies are dying because of a virus named the RM virus, and in Wither, everyone has a limited lifespan because of all this genetic experimentation that has done. Both pretty good.
Travel Through Space- These Broken Stars, Across the Universe
These Broken Stars has pretty much no sci-fi stuff in it, but it's still technically classed as "sci-fi" because it's set in space. Just think of it as a romance/survival novel that happens to be set on another planet rather than the Amazon forest or whatever. Across the Universe has a lot of science fail in it (I direct you to this post), but if you don't mind a bit of scientific inaccuracy, it's not a bad read.
What is this Sorcery- The Knife of Never Letting Go, Gameboard of the Gods
These two are both sci-fi books with fantasy twists. To convince you of the merit of the first book, read the blurb and here's an additional quote: Without a filter, a man is just chaos walking. Surely that should be enough to convince you to pick it up. The fantasy aspect of Gameboard of the Gods is really very interesting, but I can't say too much about it because spoilers. Just go read it.
Dude, science. GLORIOUS SCIENCE. *flails*
Why Don't We Have This Technology Nowwwww- Insignia, Ready Player One
I'm sad that we cannot somehow extract the technology from these books and use them in real life. Insignia has these brain computer things that make you super smart (gimme) and Ready Player One has this virtual reality technology that ERMAHGERD ME WANT.
So yeah, I think all of these books are pretty good. Have you read any of them? Are there any you're dying to read? Have any recommendations? Fire away in comments :)
Parasite is so good. I had a hard time falling asleep when I read this book late at night.
ReplyDeleteLOVED Parasite. It was just so scarily realistic and all the scientific stuff was so awesome :D :D
DeleteI can't wait for the sequel!
I've read six of these, and have several of the others on my shelf to read =D Some great picks here Nara!
ReplyDeleteThanks Rinn!
DeleteHopefully you'll be able to eventually read some of the others. They're all pretty good :)
Ready Player One and The Knife of Never Letting Go were both great books, Ready Player One being my favourite book of the year so far!
ReplyDeleteKirsty :)
I love Ready Player One! Such a fantastic idea! I can't wait for his next book to come out :)
DeleteOMG Cinder and Parasite are amazing, some of my favourite books. Some amazing recommendations here Nara, thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteJeann @ Happy Indulgence
They're definitely in my favourites as well! Cress is going to be epic :D
DeleteThorne x Cress is totally going to be in there haha
LOVE your recommendations. I've read a few of them and can definitely agree these are winners for people who usually don't like the genre. I can not wait to get my hands on parasite.
ReplyDeleteOh man, Parasite is so good! Ends on a bit of a cliffhanger though haha.
DeleteOoh, I've read a few of the books you recommended! And there are also quite a few that I am now adding to my mile-long wishlist. Earth Girl sounds (and looks) like an absolute beauty and Ready Player One sounds super fun-- I've watched a few anime that use the same virtual reality premise, so I'm interesting in reading Earnest Cline's take on it.
ReplyDeleteAnd These Broken Stars... Wow. Everyone seems to be loving that one :P
I know right! Earth Girl looks so pretty. When you put it together with Earth Star, they look really awesome together :3
DeleteAnime! Is this SAO you might be talking about? Such an awesome anime. More so the art and battle sequences were awesome, the plot was a bit iffy haha. There's a webtoon named Automata that kinda takes the virtual reality premise and really twists it- in quite an interesting way.
Do you have a blog by the way? Can't seem to find a link to it.
Yup. SAO is one of the virtual reality anime I've watched. The characters and plot weren't very good, but the animation was just beautiful. Oh, my blog? Here :)
Deletehttp://booksandbeautifulworld.wordpress.com/
Oh, I love these suggestions! I've read quite a few and several are on my TBR. Out of the ones I've read, I definitely agree that they would be great for people who maybe just want to ease into some science fiction. I LOVED both These Broken Stars and All Our Yesterdays, and think both are great for this list. There's quite a few on my TBR too--especially Ready Player One. That one is recommended to me all the time! I need to add it to my library book for next time.
ReplyDeleteReady Player One is really very good. Again, not so much of a focus on the sci-fi aspect. It's more so just one big computer game/adventure type thing. AND IT'S AWESOMESAUCE.
DeleteSo...I just commented on this post but I think it disappeared? I don't see it here and it doesn't say "awaiting moderation" or anything like that, hmm... So, as I was saying, thank you for this list! I've been wanting to get more into sci-fi, but it kind of makes me a little nervous because it isn't really "my thing." A lot of the books you mention are already on my TBR list, but you gave me some good new ones, too! :)
ReplyDeletehmm that's weird. We don't actually have comment moderation unless the post is more than 2 weeks old (since most spam seems to come from old posts) so I'm not quite sure where the comment disappeared to! Seems like Blogger ate it haha
DeleteNo problem! Sometimes it's difficult to know where to start with such a wide genre like sci-fi, so I find these types of lists do help ease you into the genre a bit :)