Request: recommendations for SF&F books published since 2007.

[Tielhard]

Hi I’m not actually new here but I have not posted in over eight years and I have not read any SF or Fantasy in that time*. I lost interest in the subject and I have no idea why. Now the interest has returned to me. So I thought it would be a good idea to ask for recommendations as to what I should read of the SF&F that has been published since 2007?


To help you in your recommendations I have tried to explain my likes and dislikes. I tend to enjoy hard SF such as Reynolds, MacLeod and Nagata but at the same time I enjoy softer more humanities based authors; Connie Willis, Butler and Le Guin for example. I appreciate literary SF such as Simmons. I absolutely loath military SF that regurgitates Starship Troopers or espouses right wing political viewpoints. I like a bit of steam punk but only when it is internally self-consistent. Fantasywise I am more in to quirky and things based on legends/folk tales; Little Big, Faerie Tale and American Gods would be good examples. I sometimes enjoy Alternative/Hidden History. I don’t read spin offs (Dr Who, Trek, Star Wars, Firefly &c.) and as a general principle I am none too keen on series of more than three books. Finally, I am much more keen on novels than short stories but I read both.


Hope you guys can help?


*OK that is a slight exaggeration as I have kept up with both Martin’s Game of Throne and the Discworld books and I also read Black Out/All Clear by Willis and the Folk’d trilogy but that is about it.

 

[BAYLOR]

Map of Time by Felix Palma published 2012 the season book is Map of the Sky and the the third jut came out Map of Chaos

He is a superb writer.

 

[Silver Owl]

The Water Knife and the Windup Girl are two books by an up and coming talent Paolo Bacigalupi. The former is his latest and it's a near future story about water scarcity and the latter a modern steampunk type thing. I've only read the Water Knofe but I'm assuming the other one is good as well as it won the Hugo.

You said you enjoyed American Gods so perhaps read Gaimans latest short fiction collected in Trigger Warning or his latest main novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane. It's really good.

 

[J-Sun]

Best I can come up with would be:

Joe Haldeman - Marsbound

This is the first in a trilogy about "the Mars girl" and a Martian colony but I liked each installment successively less and it seems like the first one doesn't entirely require sequels, so could be regarded as a single novel.​

Jack McDevitt - The Devil's Eye, Echo, Firebird

All these are in a series of something like seven or eight books but each is a self-contained science fiction archaeology mystery so if you only want one or however many, that works. I'd probably rank them Devil's Eye/Firebird/Echo.​

John Shirley - Doyle After Death

Quirky fantasy about a private eye helping Arthur Conan Doyle solve a mystery in the afterlife.​

Gardner Dozois, ed. - Galactic Empires

Excellent anthology of novellas so, even if stories aren't your favorite, these are mini-novels by Peter F. Hamilton, Neal Asher, Robert Reed, Alastair Reynolds, Stephen Baxter, and Ian McDonald. Indeed, that would give you pointers on more folks to follow up on.​

Some things this exercise tells me: (1) we like different stuff - there are several things I like that I thought about recommending but which seemed counter-indicated; (2) I've got a HUGE amount of recent stuff I haven't read; (3) even for a guy who doesn't like extended series just like you, finding things that aren't is hard to do. I was going to reply earlier, but wasn't sure I could even come up with the above list's worth of stuff. But since Silver Owl reminded me and the replies haven't otherwise poured in yet, I'll go ahead and throw in my two cents. Hope some of this appeals.

 

[hitmouse]

Try the recent Ancilliary books by Anne Leckie.

 

[HareBrain]

Maybe give Peter Higgins's Wolfhound Century and its sequels a go -- set in a fantasy version of Stalinist Russia, and with folkloric elements.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Windup Girl ... a modern steampunk type thing. ... I'm assuming the other one is good as well as it won the Hugo

Sort of, in that steampunk is very broad. But it seems quite horrible. I nearly bought it. Glad I didn't.
I think winning a Hugo is no indication of quality entertainment today.

 

[Tirellan]

Shanghai Sparrow by Gaie Sebold is a pretty decent steampunk novel

 

[Montero]

Maybe Tanya Huff's The Silvered - 18th century sort of setting - plus werewolves and magic.

 

[Randy M.]

A question: I know you said post-2007, but did you read Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell? It seems a close fit to your requirements.

Fantasywise I am more in to quirky and things based on legends/folk tales; Little Big, Faerie Tale and American Gods would be good examples. I sometimes enjoy Alternative/Hidden History. I don’t read spin offs (Dr Who, Trek, Star Wars, Firefly &c.) and as a general principle I am none too keen on series of more than three books. Finally, I am much more keen on novels than short stories but I read both..

Focusing on the above statement, these seem like possibilities,

The City & the City by China Mieville. If you like quirky this would be it: Two cities occupy the same physical location. The inhabitants of one do not acknowledge the inhabitants of the other. A murder occurs in one with implications for the other, forcing an inspector to travel between the two. Has a very European police procedural vibe with its fantasy content. Some readers view this novel as s.f.

The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes. Secret history, some London lore pulled in. This leans toward horror, but I'd definitely call it fantasy, though dark. Maybe a descendant of sorts of Gaiman's Neverwhere.

Farther afield and leaning more toward horror, Caitlin Kiernan's The Red Tree, which has echoes of Arthur Machen and Poe, as well as Lovecraft. The narrator can't be fully trusted, which is part of what made it an immersive read for me.


Randy M.