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Hi, any recommendations for someone who is new to sci-fi and looking to get a feel for the genre?

I mainly read fantasy and already have Skyward and One Word Kill on my to be read list since I enjoy both author's writing, seemed like a good starting place.

Looking for a broad suggestion of books so I can eventually find a style that takes my interest.

With Skyward you already have a wonderful book on your list. I loved it so much!

For philosophical SF I would recommend The Left Hand of Darkness,
For a really good scientific and psychological blend I would recommend my all-time-fav Children of Time (if you don't have arachnophobia - in this case it's not the right choice),
For epic Science Fiction Hyperion is a great choice,
for Space Opera Merchanter's Luck would be a good start,
For new weird Science Fiction Annihilation could be nice way to dip your toe in,

ETA: not to forget: Wool Omnibus was a surprisingly good read for postapocalyptic Science Fiction.

The Forever War is a favourite of mine.

Yes, it very much depends on what you’re looking for in science fiction. You can find pure adventure in space opera, or philosophical stuff or hard science or socio-politically focused novels in the speculative genre.

I agree with the previous posts for a variety of scifi, and want to add The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton which is scifi thriller, fairly short and for me a complete page turner from start to finish.

For epic I agree with Hyperion but also Ender's Game is a good one--I read that and Ender's Shadow, but there are a number of others in that series that I wasn't interested in because they are quite different. here is a link to a Listopia of epic scifi /shelf/show/... but not all of the titles there really fit the definition of epic IMO

My daughter liked that weird scifi series that Gabi mentioned that starts with Annihilation--she is 24 so closer to your posted age than I am.

Our reading tastes don't overlap at the moment because you only have 50 books up--most of the ones on both of our shelves are ones you have marked to read :), or I'd have more suggestions for you.

Seconding both The Forever War and The Left Hand of Darkness, and if the latter proves pleasant would heartily recommend expanding to The Dispossessed.

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy is an excellent for less fantastical scifi (the sociopolitically focused kind).

The Martian, for similarly 'hard scifi' survival with character.

I would recommend Richard Morgan’s ALTERED CARBON or Peter Hamilton’s “The Reality Dysfunction��.

Beena wrote: "Hi, any recommendations for someone who is new to sci-fi and looking to get a feel for the genre?"

Based on your Read list...

Since you liked The Help, I would recommend Kindred and Wild Seed by Octavia Butler. Perhaps also An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon.

Since you like the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas, I would recommend John Scalzi’s new series, Interdependency, starting with The Collapsing Empire.

Because you liked the First Law, I’d recommend Dune by Frank Herbert.

And just because I think you’d like it, Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern, which is a nice blend of SF and Fantasy. The first three are Dragonflight, Dragonquest and The White Dragon.

Thanks for the suggestions!

For a really good scientific and psychological blend I would recommend my all-time-fav Children of Time (if you don't have arachnophobia - in this case it's not the right choice),

Yeah, I think I'll give that miss lol

What about Ready Player One by Ernest Cline?

You might also enjoy The Diabolic by SJ Kincaid or The Illuminae Files by Amie Kaufmann and Jay Kristoff. I feel like these are good introductory science fiction titles.

I’ll echo recommendations of Hugh Howey whose writing feels very accessible, and Michael Crichton.

A broad spectrum of the genre ...

Hyperion for sure (and if you liked it, then do the follow-up novel, The Fall of Hyperion, as well). The first one is an exemplary work in both style and substance. Its structure replicates The Canterbury Tales in that it revolves around a disparate group on a pilgrims who each tell their own story. So it's like several innovative short stories glued together by an overarching story. Worth multiple reads.

Dune is an obvious one as well (don't worry about the sequels for now, and totally avoid the prequels forever). It covers the whole Galaxy-spanning-empire theme with lots of political intrigue with an environmental focus. If you're into political power struggles (including religion as a political power), backhanded machinations, fantastical settings, complex social structures, and really wild things then this one's a classic.

The Forge of God by Greg Bear covers several themes of serious SF: first contact with aliens, end of the world as we know it, "hard" sci-fi, big tech, Big Dumb Object (aka large alien structures that humans explore and try to figure out). It's a very contemplative and non-fantastical book in its tone, but a very human one. Hmm...this is the second time in a few days I've recommended this one.

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. is a good, short introduction to SF as social commentary with a good dose of oddball humor. It was Vonnegut's way of writing about his experience in WWII as well as his way of commenting on the madness of the world in one go. And it's kind of a time travel novel as well. Some find its plot disorienting (because the main character is unstuck in time and the narrative bounces around his life more or less at random), but I never had trouble with it. Incidentally there was a film of this book made that was quite faithful to the original material. Worth watching if you can find it.

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman is a great example of military SF, being sort of Haldeman's take on the Vietnam War as Starship Trooper was Robert A. Heinlein's take of WWII. But if you want something in that genre that's a little lighter then perhaps try the more modern Old Man's War by John Scalzi.

Now, you need some really weird stuff. Social/psychological stuff like the entire oeuvre of Philip K. Dick. The Man in the High Castle is an obvious one for its alternate history nature. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (aka Blade Runner) is another obvious one, but don't expect the movie version of that story; the book is a much less high adventure and a lot weirder. But my personal favorite in his works is Ubik, a notoriously delirious "WTF is going on?" work that really twists the brain. But, hey, so much to choose when it comes to PKD!

Wow, thanks for the detailed recommendations, really helpful, gives me an idea of what I might like.

Aince you have liked a few YA books and your recommendations here have been quite serious and heavy, I'll add some more YA/fun/light/bit of romance/humorous SF suggestions:

- Aurora Rising
- Young Miles
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- Scythe (haven't read this one yet but heard good things)
- We Are Legion

Have fun reading and possibly discovering another genre you enjoy! :-)

You've gotten a lot of recommendations for older sci-fi, which is fantastic, but there's also a lot of recent stuff that's wonderful:

All Systems Red is a fun one, starring a misanthropic android called Murderbot.

Binti is a fantastic novella (and series) that I think you may enjoy based on some of your other books. Another couple based on your other books would be Trail of Lightning and Gideon the Ninth).

If you enjoy Slaughterhouse-Five and The Forever War (or even if you just want a slightly more modern take), I'd recommend The Light Brigade - together they make for a pretty interesting look at war.

Ninefox Gambit is science fantasy, so I think a lot of the themes would be familiar to you as a fantasy reader, and it's also a pretty fantastic trilogy.

One of my favorite series, which I've been recommending as much as possible lately, is The Chronicles of Old Guy series by Timothy J. Gawne.

It swings from serious to introspective to whimsical. It chronicles the adventures of a piece of bleeding edge war equipment as it gains sentience and continues through its lifetime until it is the most antique member of the cybertank civilization.

It is perhaps the most charming piece of science fiction I've read.

...and we haven't touched on other sub-genres in SF, like:

Cyberpunk (whatever that really means) where we have great books like Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, of which Wikipedia says: "Like many of Stephenson's other novels, it covers history, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, religion, computer science, politics, cryptography, memetics and philosophy." (Along with a lot of movie-style action scenes). Or indeed Nanopunk like The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by the same author which is similar in style to Snow Crash (IIRC, it's been a long time since I read either) but I liked this one better. It deals more with artificial intelligence and nanotechnology.

And in a similar vein there is the The Petrovitch Trilogy (aka The Metrozone series) by Simon Morden, which won the Philip K. Dick Award in 2012. Each book in the trilogy (now a tetralogy I see) is a stand alone story set in chronological order following the same main character and his cohorts. It's a fast-paced, action-packed, Russian expletives littered work that is light on real substance but a heck of a lot of fun. Underdog vs the Corporate and Criminal classes in a post-apocalyptic London.

New Space Opera is another favorite sub-genre for me (as poorly defined and adhered to as any other sub-genre, no douibt), encompassing mainly the works of the UK SF writers Alastair Reynolds, Iain Banks (SF under the name Iain M. Banks, RIP), Peter F. Hamilton, Ken MacLeod, and probably a few others. The key aspects of this sub-genre are a somewhat more rigorous sticking to science as we know it, far future advanced civilizations, spacefaring (not always with FTL), and often times large scale events.

There's so much to recommend here it's hard to know where begin. But some highlights would be:

Revelation Space by Reynolds, and all its subsequent novels set in that universe.

All the Culture books by Banks, but especially Excession (focuses on the AI entities, or minds, used in their sentient ships); The Player of Games (expounds less on spacefaring and big scale events and more on the "Special Circumstances" or covert operations side of the supposedly benign Culture, and in so doing addresses the dullness of living in a Utopia); and Use of Weapons (another Special Circumstances novel with a more violent and galaxy-spanning plot...and very cleverly written--can't say more for fear of the dreaded spoiler!)

Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained, Hamilton's crowning achievement so far, IMHO. A duology of complexity and fast past action. Alien invasions? Check. Political intrigue? Check. Cool SF tech? Check. Lots of characters and stuff to keep track of but a cracking good read if you're up to the task.

Now, Ken MacLeod �� he's probably better known in the New Space Opera genre for his Engines of Light Trilogy, but I really much prefer his Fall Revolution series, which is a rather odd set of books in terms of classifying their genre. It's really a combination of alternate history and New Space Opera. Wikipedia states it more succinctly as:

"The Star Fraction is the first book of two series: one is a trilogy, and ends in The Cassini Division with a war between humans and a society of uploads inhabiting the massively re-engineered Jupiter..."

--The book in between Star Fraction and Cassini Division is The Stone Canal and is one of my favorites in this whole series...it's weird but I love it.--

"...the other consists of The Star Fraction and The Sky Road, and occupies a parallel universe, in which one of the main characters makes a different decision at the end of the first novel, which results in a very different, catastrophic outcome.

I really like The Martian and The Ascendance Protocol: Endeavour, I mostly read fantasy though, I have read other scifi but can't remember them lol. Gonna check out the other recommendations here :D