Awesome, thank you.

I started on the culture series at the suggestion of a number of people here, and some suggested I skip the first book as it’s the weakest, but I decided to read it anyway. I didn’t dislike it or the second, but it seems odd how insular the characters are. I’ll probably keep reading the series, I liked them will enough.

Let me know if you really like anything this list points you at. I appreciate your reply

Perfect! That’s exactly what I hoped for when posting this. I hope I help steer you to things you enjoy but might not otherwise have read.

Oh, certainly. In case it’s helpful, here’s a post I made last spring with notes from a year of reading - it’s pretty much all SF and fantasy. Many of the books mentioned in this thread are there. I’ve been reading about the same amount since, and will probably do another post on the anniversary of that one.

I was surprised at how little I liked it given the hype.

I’d love to hear what you think, I enjoyed both quite a lot.

If you end up searching online for that kind of things, “hard science fiction” is the phrase that’s usually used for it.

A lot of good recommendations here. Some endorsements and other recommendations:

• Project Hail Mary by Weir is a no brainer choice if you liked The Marian. He gets the science right.
• Children of Time, by Adrian Tchaikovsky is amazing, and the first of a trilogy, so more to read.
• The whole Expanse series, by James Corey is good and he does a good job with the science, especially the celestial mechanics.
• The Uplift series (starting with Sundiver) by David Brin is great, and Brin is will known for hard SF. It’s from the 80s.
• Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie, is great and the first of a series as well.
• Beggars in Spain, by Nancy Kress, is great, with a good science background, though it’s more genetics than engineering. Really cool story though.
• I also agree with the recommendation on Saturn’s Children, by Charles Stross. Also the first of a loose series.

On the flip side, I really didn’t care for Three Body Problem, and though the Bobiverse books seem fun, I’m not sure I’d call them firmly hard SF.

From your recommendation and others, I’m reading it now. Ten percent in and, yes, it sure has fast pacing.

Machineries of Empires series sounds interesting.

Thanks for the interesting post.

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Okay, I finished We Are Legion (Bobiverse book one). It was fun, and I’ll probably read the next. Nothing especially deep, but amusing. A few things bugged me a little:

I’ve read both of those and agree they’re both excellent. Really good books. Very different from each other.

That last bit is interesting and funny. It was really popular in China, too, right?

Yeah, I agree, it’s really good. The sequels are both excellent, too.

One of my reading times is before bed, and I find that the routine of it helps me sleep, plus the escapism helps me stop thinking of everything else in my brain, which is a barrier to sleeping for me.

He seems to like exploring different things in the same universe with mostly different characters. The only consistent character in Blue Ant is Bigend. So I wasn’t surprised by the different set of characters in Agency - there was actually more overlapping in that one - but I agree that Flynn was the most interesting in The Peripheral.

So many recommendations that I’ve started reading it already. 20% in. Seems entertaining.

Book one of The Expanse series - really good. Had you watched the show?

I’m sure there’s an odd element caused by the fact that it was translated from Chinese (which involved tweaks for a western audience), but it certainly didn’t come close to living up to the hype for me.

I don’t know how different California is from other states, but it might be worth looking into the situation for your state.

So many people have recommended Bobiverse that I’m reading it now.