Books

Yet again I will pitch for Piranesi. My favorite book of recent years.

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. A psychologist is sent to a station in orbit around a planet covered by a sentient ocean to determine if research on it should continue. Lem's work consistently blows my mind, actually--other favorites are His Master's Voice (memoirs of a mathematician working on a project to decipher what might be a message from extraterrestrials) and Peace on Earth (an adventurer returns from a trip to the moon with his brain bisected, and the half that remembers what happened is both unable and unwilling to communicate it).

Two very different recommendations.

First is the Southern Reach novels by Jeff VanderMeer (the first one being Annihilation). Unsettling, surreal Lovecraftian sci-fi. Gorgeously written, beautiful prose, and very memorable.

Second is the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson (starting with Red Mars). Hard sci-fi on an almost unprecedented scale: a comprehensive and incredibly detailed narrative of the colonisation of Mars, which covers almost every possible aspect of the story in glorious, engaging detail. You get everything from the love triangles and personal rivalries of the colonists, to politics and religion, to macro-economics, to superstructure engineering, to long deep chapters covering hydrology, micro-biology, the finer points of lichens and mosses, to architecture, art... Honestly, it's breathtaking in just how thoroughly it covers its subject whilst still being a poignant, engaging, story. Not to everyone's tastes, but it could certainly make an impact.

My absolute all time favourite sci-fi book series is John Scalzi's "Old Man's War".

I can't recommend this book series enough. Kept me up several nights because I couldn't stop reading (and suffered for it at work).

Scalzi added a lot of humor too and it's brilliant.

Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. Pushing Ice. Semiosis trilogy. Ninefox Gambit. Schild's Ladder. Firefall.