Hit me up with some good scifi I haven't read.

[Al Jackson]

Recommend me some scifi. I prefer lighter, less grim works. I'm ok with series or standalones. Just tell me why I might like it - hit the high points. Some that I have read and enjoyed:

Not Grim … hmmm

Can tell ya you have never read anything more different or funny as an alien invasion story than

Martians Go Home Fredric Brown

More different than any other time travel story (and humorous too) is

Lest Darkness Fall L. Sprague de Camp

Double Star Robert Heinlein … an interplanetary Prisoner of Zenda (there is politics but not the soap boxing that Heinlein did later and ruined this books)

Rendezvous with Rama A.C. Clarke … a solar system ripping yarn … mysterious aliens framed in a story better than Clarke's 2001 novel.

The Stars My Destination Alfred Bester , a baroque space opera the likes of which no one has ever done again.
(This is the kind of space opera that out classes Doc Smith by light years.)

 

[WaylanderToo]

a little pulpy I guess - but I really like this series...


Columbus Day (ExFor 1) - Craig Alanson

 

[williamjm]

Becky Chambers' Wayfarers books beginning with The Long Way to a Small, Angry, Planet definitely fit the 'light, less grim' criteria, it's much more optimistic than a lot of recent space opera.

Ken MacLeod's Learning The World is an enjoyable first contact story. I like most of his other books as well, but they tend to be less light reads with a lot more politics in them, but Learning the World is probably his most traditional SF story.

 

[dwndrgn]

Becky Chambers' Wayfarers books beginning with The Long Way to a Small, Angry, Planet definitely fit the 'light, less grim' criteria, it's much more optimistic than a lot of recent space opera.

Ken MacLeod's Learning The World is an enjoyable first contact story. I like most of his other books as well, but they tend to be less light reads with a lot more politics in them, but Learning the World is probably his most traditional SF story.

Thanks! I've read the Wayfarers series but haven't heard of Learning the World.

 

[Danny McG]

Yeah. This one deffo
Newton's Wake: A Space Opera - Wikipedia

 

[merritt]

The Aluminum Man - GC Edmondson
very enjoyable, fun

 

[Vince W]

I've seen The Stainless Steel Rat and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy mentioned, but why do we never mention Keith Laumer? So I will.

Keith Laumer's Retief stories are wonderful. And the Bolo stories are required reading IMO.

And if you end up liking Bolo you might like David Drake's Hammer's Slammers.

 

[Montero]

So, Julie Czerneda - has a trilogy around a shape shifting alien, my favourite is her Species Imperative trilogy. While it all deals with serious situations, definitely not grim at all. (I don't read grim.)
For a fairly complex society centred on an extended family of successful space traders and scouts, the Liaden series by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.
Ann Aguirre - Sirantha Jax series (not read any others of hers) - again not grim despite all the things that happen to the main characters.

 

[picklematrix]

I second anything by Jack Vance. Rereading his stuff now. He is the master of pulpy awesomeness.

 

[WaylanderToo]

I'm currently enjoying the escapades of James Brownstone (protagonist - can't remember the book title) VERY light scifi (think earth in 20/30 years with some magic). Rocks along at a fair old clip, thumbs up from me

 

[tachyon]

Constellation Games by Leonard Richardson

Aliens arrive and they're pretty cool, actually. Game developer and lonely nerd protagonist decides be the first to write reviews of alien video games, while in the background society and government struggle to deal with the news of the arrival.

Light, low body count, high video game and tech nerd quotient.


Edited to add:

Up Against It by M.J. Locke

Asteroid colony life support system suffers a major accident, the colonists have to cope with local politics and the political situation in the greater solar system as they try to recover. Awesome worldbuilding, low body count, believable tech, great hard SF.

 

[harryjones0071]

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Recommend me some scifi. I prefer lighter, less grim works. I'm ok with series or standalones. Just tell me why I might like it - hit the high points. Some that I have read and enjoyed:

Old Man's War
Vorkosigan Saga
Confederation/Peacekeeper by Tanya Huff
Ready Player One
The Indranan War by KB Wagers
Linesman SK Dunstall
Vatta series Elizabeth Moon
Dark Run Mike Brooks
Foundation trilogy
Unbreakable WC Bauers
Everness Ian McDonald
Imperial Radch
Paradox Rachel Bach
Dragonback Timothy Zahn
Ivory Doris Egan

Hi
You gotta go for some Iain M Banks - particularly the later culture novels - hydrogen sonata, matter, surface detail. or one of his older ones - Feersum Endjinn.
All fabulous novels and great scifi .

H