from Hacker News

New sci-fi and fantasy books to check out this August

by AndrewLiptak on 8/3/21, 12:24 PM with 33 comments

• by sohkamyung on 8/5/21, 6:24 AM

  For fantasy, I recommend "A Master of Djinn" by P. Djèlí Clark [1], a fun steampunk alternate history story where Egypt is a world power due to the magical power of djinn and other supernatural forces. Features a fun female investigator from the Egyptian Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities.

  If you're not sure about reading it, check out his prequel short story, “A Dead Djinn in Cairo” on Tor<dot>com. [2]

  [1] https://pdjeliclark.com/a-master-djinn/

  [2] https://www.tor.com/2020/06/08/read-p-djeli-clarks-a-dead-dj...

• by Dowwie on 8/3/21, 7:06 PM

  My Summer scifi has thus far included "Project Hail Mary" by Andy Weir and "Dark Matter" by Peter Straub. Both are fast-past and engaging until the end.

  I wouldn't recommend either if you haven't read Dune, book 1, though. Read it.

• by skee_0x4459 on 8/5/21, 7:19 AM

  i was thinking about writing a novel now that im retired. i became uninterested in fiction completely about ten years ago. i just cant bring myself to care about something that didnt happen. it inevitably ends up being about people having sex or some kind of love triangle. no matter what novel, no matter how austere or dignified, if it was published in the past ten years then it uses some kind of visceral limbic-system mind bait. its some semi-interesting sci-fi with a whole lot of click bait slathered on top. even red mars, one of the only fictional books i like, has this problem.

  but fiction can be worth it when its laying out ideas that are so new and so fresh that it is intrinsically valuable. but these grand visions dont involve people or relationships at their core, so making a book out of it can be difficult.

  i think the next great sci-fi novel will be about mars. i feel like there are a lot of aspects of mars colonization that have not been picked up by the hive-mind yet. practical aspects of living there and moving things there. and generally applying the rules of today to that world. the arbitrage is in the fact that people usually paint the future with a utopian, optimistic brush but the same rules of economics and politics will apply on mars just as much as they do here. maybe that sounds like red mars but it would be different.

• by Garlef on 8/5/21, 7:38 AM

  I would be very sceptical of everyone promoting books by Peter V Brett. They are - to say it politely - not particularly good.

• by highden on 8/5/21, 5:32 AM

  Just finished Clockwork Rocket by Greg Egan. Anyone here needs to check out their work.

• by nicwolff on 8/5/21, 2:16 PM

  I found Max Barry's "The 22 Murders of Madison May" to be an original and satisfying many-worlds thriller.

• by laurencei on 8/5/21, 6:42 AM

  Anyone have a similar style list of Scifi/Fantasy but for TV series/movies?

• by test6554 on 8/5/21, 6:50 AM

  Star Wars Thrawn Trilogy

  Battlefield Earth (the book, definitely not the movie)

  The Land: Founding - Aleron Kong

  Steel World - B.V. Larson

  Ready Player One / Ready Player Two - Ernest Cline

  Twinborn Chronicles - J.S. Morin

  The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss