Welcome to the Dark Matter Sci-Fi Reading List
Greg’s recommended reads:
SARS-CoV-19 readings
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel with one character in a post-plague apocalyptic USA traveling theater group insisting “Survival is Not Enough!”
First Contact and Hard Sci-Fi
The Three Body Problem (trilogy) by Liu Cixin (Hard scifi: especially the first and second volumes)
The Sparrow and Children of God by Mary Doria Russell (anthropological/theological)
Blindsight by Peter Watts (almost more of a weird scifi genre mixed with hard scifi elements).
Sci-Fi Noir
The City & the Cityy by China Miéville (not sure how to classify this noirish geopolitical novel whose ending is a bit of a letdown though otherwise remarkable)
Literary Sci Fi/Horror
Strange Bodies by Marcel Theroux which is hard to describe but manages to combine Soviet experiments in Cosmism with the resurrection of writer Samuel Johnson a Silicon Valley conspiracy, a failed marriage and a love affair. What more could you want?
Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang including the haunting short The Great Silence written in collaboration with Puerto Rican artists Allora & Calzadilla with the video version found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8yytY7eXDc
Weird Sci-Fi
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (about to be made into a film, but not sure how that is possible from this so-called “new-weird” novel with lovecraftian overtones)
Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff (a reworking of the Mythos from an Southern, African-American perspective: nice payback to HP’s racism)
The Ballad of Black Tom (a bit like the previous entry, more horrific)
The Night Ocean (a sort of queering of HP as para-realism)
Fantasy
American Gods by Neil Gaiman (not a fan of fantasy but this was remarkable as a 10th anniversary edition full-cast Audiobook )
11-22-63: A Novel by Stephen King which reimagines a time-travel rescue mission during the lead up to JFK’s assassination on the date of the novel’s title using a portal found in the back of a closet in a small town diner…what can I say, straight up Americana.
From Brad Butler, London UK Dec. 2017:
My obvious favourites from scanning which were most thumbed on my bookcases are it seems some of the most famous. So maybe nothing new for you here, but anyway just in case one got away: Hyperion (Dan Simmons) for its multiple timelines, The Forever War (Joe Haldeman) for its timelag concept, Embassytown (Mieville) for the Hosts Dual lingusitc system, The Dispossesed (Le Guin) for its anarchist planet and the amazing Survivor (Butler) which is out of print I believe? Gateway (Pohl) was a hilarious critique of consumerism, as is Jennifer Government (Barry) and Snowcrash (Stephenson). More recently I am drawn to the poems of Warsan Shire though i also like the trash zombie opera novels of The Reality Dysfunction (Hamilton). I will likely soon revisit Fiasco (Lem) and The Draco Tavern (Niven) because who wouldn’t want to work in an alien space bar
From Greg: WOW a great list Brad thanks! The Forever War is also so timely right now. And I have done a bit of reading since the last posting including the new Artemis by Alex Weir (author of The Martian): a perfectly enjoyable but relatively minor story set on the first moon city more or less techo-thriller meets appealing lumpen space-punk girl smuggler who ultimately saves the day for everyone in the city. Also Paradox Bound by Peter Clines which would be a lot better if actually written by Stephen King whom it seems desperately trying to emulate. And Stephenson’s The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., which I am still in the middle of but compared to Snow Crash or Cryptonomicon it simply does not have the juice though it seems to never end in spite of that shortcoming! Anyway, not a real recommendation in the bunch, sorry.
Will Essilfie’s list:
There’s a link on my blog to a list compiled by China Mieville of 50 sci-fi and fanstasy books all socialists should read [http://asg-stuff.tumblr.com/tagged/China-Mieville], which may be of interest. His book Embassytown, once you get past the first few chapters, is quite an impressive experience.
Some really cool stuff I’ve read in the last few years include the following;
The Bees by Laline Paull – a bee as the central character takes a reader into the lives of bees in a bee hive
Lexicon by Max Barry – the power of words as used by a sinister organisation
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler – time travel and slavery in antebellum Maryland
The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi – a thriller set in a near future US, where water is scarce and control of it is power
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow – YA fiction engaging with surveillance/ technology and the modern world
Moxyland by Lauren Beukes – YA fiction set in South Africa showing impact of technology on young people’s lives
For a year a while back, I ran a book group that focused on fiction engaging with political or social justice issues, as a way to provoke new discussions on related topics and read some interesting sci-fi stuff in the process including;
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin – depicts the complexities involved in ‘simple’ solutions to society’s problems
Marcher by Chris Beckett – provides an insight into how the benefits-system of a future UK welfare state might operate
Momo by Michael Ende – a kids book that somehow manages to serve as a critique of how time is valued in modern society whilst showing the power of friendship
I’m always looking out for interesting books that have a fresh way of looking at the world around us and/or the nature of life so do please keep me posted when you come across great books.
Peter Wolfendale’s list
I’ve been rather enjoying M John Harrison’s Viriconium series, which is a wonderful bit of dying earth sci–fi/fantasy. The only issue is that the language is so wonderful and involved it isn’t great as a casual listen. The one sci–fi series on audiobook I can thoroughly recommend if you haven’t gone through it yet is The Expanse series by James SA Corey (beginning with Leviathan Wakes [now made into the series “The Expanse”]). The TV show they’ve made out of the books is pretty good, but the books are better. They’re all available to torrent on thepiratebay if you can access it.
