Most of my favourite books/movies/TV shows are Sci fi - I love Mary Shelley, slaughterhouse five, annihilation (both the book and the movie), The Thing, x files, the invasion, and the OA. This feels like a pretty wide variety of writing styles when I line them up but 90% of the sci fi I read/watch I just don’t enjoy at all. It’s a shame because when I love something sci fi I feel like it’s changed my whole life, but when it comes to finding new things I can just enjoy its easier to go through other genres. Is anyone else like this? Does anyone have reccomendations based on what I do like?
Read the expanse series if you haven’t. It’s good. Bio of a space tyrant is pretty good too, but definitely less hard sci-fi.
If you want something very different, try Malazan Book of the Fallen. It’s fantasty, but the world building is outstanding.
Malazan Book of the Fallen is one of the best brick walls I’ve ever put my head through.
Lmao.
It’s a lot, that’s for sure. I’m on my first time through, and on book 5.
My friend got me hooked on them after my 3rd read of the Wheel of Time (speaking of brick walls)
Can anyone recommend where I could get short sci-fi horror stories? Even for audio listening like a podcast.
My love for aliens, space, etc was born from Alien, Star Wars, and even wierd movies like Splic despite it being kind of meh.
I absolutely love Arrival, The Martian, Interestellar, and even Ad Astra.
Even more so I love horror being thrown into the mix and I want more of it. My love for sci-fi grew even larger with video games like Halo and more recently Stellaris.
I loved Annihilation and Dune as books. I am almost finished with the last book of The Three Body Problem series and the last book is a tough read. The Dark Forest is easily the best of the three so far.
I saw a massive list on this thread and have book marked it for later but I love listening to sci-fi horror. Every now and again, The No Sleep Podcast will tell a Science Fiction Horror story and I just want more.
https://pseudopod.org/ for horror
or
https://escapepod.org/ for sci-fi
There are a few shows from each that cross over a bit. It’s been years since I listened so I can’t attest to the current quality but I enjoyed it when I listened.
I have a few short story compilations that I like but not many are in the sci-fi horror genre. I did really enjoy Voyage of the Space Beagle which reads kind of like a bunch of short stories. It’s been said that it was one of the inspirations for Alien.
St. Lem “The Invincible”.
I just purchased this. I’m excited to read it but it’s a few books down on the pile yet. I purchased the new translation from Bill Johnston.
You seem to like character driven stories with fantastical elements. The stories you list I put in the category of “weird shit happens to people” which is distinct from space operas and world building, which is most of sci-fi.
You might want to look at the nightside books by Simon Green, for pulpy action mysteries in a fantastical London. American Gods by Neil Gamain for a world just beyond our sight. Or maybe even Horrorstöre by Grady Hendrix for a haunted IKEA.
Looks to me like you’re in the sci fi/thriller genre. There’s a lot in that category. Seems you like the classics too. Have you tried Phillip K. Dick? Dracula might be your cup of tea also.
I didn’t personally enjoy Blade Runner or do androids dream of electric sheep, maybe I should give some of his other works a go though. I know he’s considered an OG. I subscribed to the Dracula mailing list thing so have been reading it for about half a year now haha
If you want to give him another shot, I’d actually recommend his short story anthologies. I feel like Dick excels with bringing an interesting idea or twist to a story, but is weaker with character development. In a short story, his strengths are accentuated and his weaknesses are diluted or eliminated.
Two titles to look for are “The Father-thing” and “I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon”.
In fact, many of his stories that turned into feature films started as shorts. “Minority Report”, “Total Recall” (originally “We Can Remember it for You Wholesale”), and “Paycheck” were all short stories originally, and hit all the harder for being shorter and more focussed.
Look at Richard K. Morgan. He wrote the Altered Carbon books. The first season of the tv show is ok, the second not so much. The animated one is pretty good. However the books are outstanding. There’s two other books not in the Altered Carbon world that you might like better: Thin Air and 13teen.
