looking for low-fi, sci-fi book suggestions!

RIP Paul

RIP Paul

a fly tramp
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Apr 19, 2016
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trying to expand my knowledge of the sci-fi universe.. in search of some less heard of science fiction books with stories that have big ideas but take place in a small setting..i've read too many of these huge space exploration stories that take place on a whole planet or in a galaxy .. i'm looking for something like an alien invasion from the point of view of one family! (doesn't have to be aliens but you understand!) ((i hope!))
 
You might find The Host by Stephanie Meyer fits what you are after. It is an unusual alien invasion with a relatively small cast of characters.
 
Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
Story of one man with low IQ who takes an experimental drug to make himself clever.

More than Human - Theodore Sturgeon
Story of a group of outcasts who come together to form the next step in the evolution of humanity.

Both are low key Sci Fi and both are probably in my top 10 novels ever and they are very well regarded in SF fandom as well.
 
I don't normally do this but given the description you gave, can I plug my own?

Inish Carraig is set in Belfast following an alien invasion and follows what happens to a single family in the aftermath of it. It's got - genuinely - stellar reviews.

Runs away. :)
 
RIP Paul said:
trying to expand my knowledge of the sci-fi universe.. in search of some less heard of science fiction books with stories that have big ideas but take place in a small setting..i've read too many of these huge space exploration stories that take place on a whole planet or in a galaxy .. i'm looking for something like an alien invasion from the point of view of one family! (doesn't have to be aliens but you understand!) ((i hope!))
Click to expand...

WAY OF THE PILGRIM by Gordon R. Dickson
 
Cozy SF? Most of Asimov's robot stories (as distinct from the novels) involve only a few characters and minimal geographic movement. Asimov revered Agatha Christie and it shows in a lot of his shorter length pieces, not just the mysteries. Actually, I think a lot of shorter length SF would qualify. Some of Niven's short stories are cozy SF mysteries with few characters and little movement.
 
I know he's not exactly less heard of but your description "stories that have big ideas but take place in a small setting" sounds like a pretty good description of much of Philip K Dick's work.
 
A lot of John Wyndham's books would fit the criteria, especially The Day of the Triffids (perhaps the original apocalypse survival book!) and The Midwich Cuckoos. They're set in 1950s Britain, but are less dull and stuffy than that suggests. I think a lot of zombie fiction owes something to the triffids (28 Days Later and The Last of Us in particular). Also, The War of the Worlds is about an alien invasion told through the perspective of one or two people. It's a classic.
 
Jo Zebedee said:
I don't normally do this but given the description you gave, can I plug my own?

Inish Carraig is set in Belfast following an alien invasion and follows what happens to a single family in the aftermath of it. It's got - genuinely - stellar reviews.

Runs away. :)
Click to expand...

Just ordered this from Amazon, sounds great :)
 
Jo Zebedee said:
I don't normally do this but given the description you gave, can I plug my own?

Inish Carraig is set in Belfast following an alien invasion
Click to expand...
My yet to be released Fantasy novel, "No Silver Lining" is about the collapse of society due to everything being outsourced to the Cloud. It's set largely in an even smaller space than Inish Carraig, a bungalow used as student accommodation in Limerick. It's actually got no SF at all, though it might seem like it has. All the Cloud, computer, satellite etc stuff in it is real. There is magic.
I'm not sure when, if ever, it will be published.

HOWEVER
My main contribution to this thread is perhaps "The Machine Stops".
"The Machine Stops" is a science fiction short story (12,300 words) by E. M. Forster. After initial publication in The Oxford and Cambridge Review (November 1909), the story was republished in Forster's The Eternal Moment and Other Stories in 1928. After being voted one of the best novellas up to 1965, it was included that same year in the populist anthology Modern Short Stories. In 1973 it was also included in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two.
Click to expand...
Sadly not yet on Gutenberg
Books: E. M. Forster (sorted by popularity)
 
This description made me think of Heinlein's juvenile works. For example, 'Farmer in the Sky', which was my first ever Heinlein and had me riveted, is the story of one teenager who goes to help colonise one of Jupiter's moons with his family. 'Tunnel in the Sky' is about a group of high school students whose final exam in survival skills requires them to be sent through a portal to a strange planet for several days. 'Have Space Suit - Will Travel' is about a high school student whose ambition to join the Moon colony leads him, indirectly, into all sorts of save-the-world type adventures. You get the idea. All of his juveniles that I know of (I haven't read them all) centre around one person or one family and the adventures they have in a science fiction setting.
 
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