Hello all! I am just coming to the end of the fantastic Culture series by Iain M Banks and I am looking for recommendations for similar books/authors. I have also enjoyed James S A Corey’s The Expanse books so if anyone has a good recommendation for similar sci-fi books it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
I really liked Adrian Tchaikovsky’s stuff. Particularily “Children of Time” and a lot of his standalone novels like “Alien Clay”, “Shroud”, and “Service Model”.
Another good book that explores truly alien aliens is “A Fire Upon the Deep” by Vernor Vinge. I really like how a lot of concepts are presented in a way that initially lets you sort of figure out whats going on before too much exposition is used to clarify alien ideas.
Finally, I need to recommend David Brin’s books, like the uplift trilogies or oven his weirder stuff like Kiln People. He does a good job of establishing a technology or social convention and building a world around it.
“Children of Time” surprised me quite a bit. It was a gift from a family member. One of those “oh…they like sci-fi…” kind of gifts. And it was really good.
I would add some Stephen Baxter to this list with the caveat that he really gets in to the wild mathematical stuff. Not as “hard” as Greg Egan, but not far off either
Alistair Reynolds’ Revelation Space series is excellent. My introduction/entry point was “Chasm City,” and that played out awesomely for getting into the first two novels in the formal trilogy. Reynolds was also partially inspired by the Culture series.
Thank you! I have never heard of Alistair Reynolds before. The revelation space trilogy looks good.
I am just finishing that series. It’s … rather oddly written. But still enjoyable.
It’s hard to beat the Culture series. While not quite the same I found that Ken MacLeod’s Engines of Light Trilogy and Ursula LeGuin’s Hanish Cycle books were both excellent in their own ways and hit a lot of similar notes.
The closest I have found is Neal Asher’s Polity books. I like Asher even more, if they are a bit darker. I can’t recommend them enough.
Damn. I can’t find any without DRM for sale. That’s disappointing.
There’s always Anna’s, if your local library doesn’t have digital checkouts.
I enjoyed Cixin Liu’s Rememberance of Earth’s Past trilogy (Three Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death’s End).
Oh yes, thank you. That trilogy is on my list, looking forward to reading those.
I’ll second that recommendation. It’s a fantastic series, but oh boy does it get crazy (in the best way possible).
I finished reading them a few months ago, and am still reeling.
Foundation is a good series in a similar vein. But I agree with artifex. Nothing really beats The Culture.
Richard Morgan’s Altered Carbon, Broken Angels and Woken Furies.
Anything from Peter F Hamilton’s Commonwealth saga.
The Saga of Seven Suns by Kevin J Anderson.
I’ll think of more.
+1 for Peter F. Hamilton. I love all his work (with only a couple of notable exceptons). Much of his storytelling spans several (page-turning, epic, and incredibly long) novels, so if you wanted to start with a standalone, my fav is Fallen Dragon.
The Xeelee series is pretty great if you’re looking for another multi-book commitment
Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars series is pretty good.
Which novel was your favorite?
I have just started the Hydrogen Sonata a few days ago, but my favorite so far would be between Surface Detail and The Player of Games. Inversions was quite a different novel in the series and I have heard many people don’t like it but I really enjoyed that one also.
