Recommend somewhat modern sci‐fi writers that you like
What are your favorite sci‐fi writers, that wrote something in the last 15 years? Preferably of non‐US origin, as those authors are usually the ones that get translated here, so I’ve read lots of ’em already. I want something new, different, I dunno.
Bonus points for NOT describing space as a sea and all that marine stuff.
#sci-fi
2025-04-20 · 1 year ago · 👍 stack, Nilbog, Nexy
10 Comments ↓
Almost all the scifi I read it's pretty old, the only recent book I read was "Shadow of the Endless" that it's pretty nice, but it's for the universe of a videogame I like (endless space 2)
I'm Interested in the topic too and I want to know some new good autors.
🚀 stack · 2025-04-20 at 14:00:
The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu is pretty hard to put down. Read it before the TV version (which is not bad as well)
🚀 mbays · 2025-04-20 at 17:10:
How about Greg Egan? Australian. "Hard" sci-fi, often centred on variant or speculative physics, thoroughly worked out. His best stuff imho (Diaspora, Schild's Ladder) was published over 15 years ago, but there's also a lot to like about the Orthognal series and his various short stories, and the other novels are interesting in their own ways.
🐝 mifuyne · 2025-04-20 at 17:30:
This one falls outside of your 15-year range, but I quite enjoyed Peter Watts's Rifter Series. It's about a crew working in a geothermal power plant...about 1400m below sea leve at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. It's not a light-hearted story, the last I recall. It's about people who are mentally unsound in various ways, but they were chosen because that unsoundness made them fit to work in isolation.
He's actually made the series available on his website. It starts with Starfish and ends with βehemoth. Blindsight is part of his Firefall series (which includes Echopraxia, but that doesn't seem to be available on his site). You can find them here:
— https://www.rifters.com/real/shorts.htm
As for the origin of the author, he's Canadian. However, the books were published by Tor, a US company. Maybe it doesn't help the recommendation but as I said, he did make the series freely available on his site.
☕️ tenno-seremel [OP] · 2025-04-20 at 19:22:
@stack Ah, I’ve read The three body problem. It was different alright, although the third book felt a bit too much like fantasy. I wonder if he wrote something new since then.
@mbays I’ll check him out, thank you!
👺 Nilbog · 2025-04-21 at 02:04:
This is slightly outside the 15-year window but I found "All Tomorrows" by C.M. Kosemen (Turkish) to be quite intriguing. It is told from the perspective of an alien archaeologist going over the history of human evolution over a billion years. It is very short, but I found the illustrations of the different human species to be amusing.
I really enjoyed "Children of Time" by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Haven't read any of the sequels yet but I'm looking forward to reading them. The story is about a group of humans coming into contact with a technological race of spiders. About half the chapters are from a spider's point of view. It might sound crazy but it's very well executed.
🚀 HorikBrun · 2025-08-24 at 23:50:
Adrian Tchaikovsky is possibly the most creative sci-fi writer I've come across in quite a while. And prolific. And he hides a lot of jokes and references to other writers and books.The more well-read you are, the more of them you'll spot.
🐦 JustASillyBird · Jan 27 at 20:39:
I was going to sing the praises of Adrian Tchaikovsky, but... looks like I'm beaten to it. Guess I'm not the only fun. Seriously, good stuff. Other than that... Elizabeth Bear has some good stuff. Oh, and Dennis E Taylor, of course! Everyone loves the Bobiverse.
🐦 JustASillyBird · Jan 27 at 20:45:
And Mz: I promise you that you will not be disapointed in the sequels. The third is confusing as hell throughout most of the book because everything is out of order and often self-contradictory, but that's all by design - if you stick with it, all that confusion and mystery is building towards a hell of a payoff.