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   Matthew Lyon (mattly@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 07-Oct-2025 04:05:27 JST Matthew Lyon

   hey folks, for the first time in six years I’ve nearly cleared out my reading queue, and would love to get some recommendations from y’all

   things I’ve read recently and enjoyed *a lot*:
   - a re-readthrough of the entire Discworld series (yes all of it) by Terry Pratchett
   - The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
   - Wayfarers by Becky Chambers

   things I’ve tried to read recently and bounced off, hard:
   - Witch King by Martha Wells
   - The Craft Cycle by Max Gladstone
   - Imperial Radch (Ancillary *) by Ann Leckie
   - Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin

   I’m looking for more recent stuff. My favorites of the genre’s history include Ursula K LeGuin, Philip K Dick, and Kurt Vonnegut; my least favorites include Orson Scott Card, Robert Heinlein, and (*dons asbestos suit*) Tolkein and Frank Hebert

   • Embed this notice
     datarama (datarama@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 07-Oct-2025 04:12:39 JST datarama

     @mattly His most famous work is the Revelation Space trilogy (Revelation Space, Redemption Ark, Absolution Gap), which later got extended with a fourth main cycle book (Inhibitor Phase) and a whole lot of other stories set in the same universe. I'd recommend starting with Galactic North, a short story collection set in that universe - that's how I got into it, and probably the reason why the first book in the series itself didn't feel like a slog (a common complaint).

     Two other great stories of his are House of Suns (set in the *VERY* distant future) and Pushing Ice (which I cannot describe without spoiling it).

   • Embed this notice
     Eashwar (e_nomem@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 07-Oct-2025 04:12:44 JST Eashwar

     in reply to

     @mattly what about Old Man's War by John Scalzi? A new book in the series just came out in the last month

   • Embed this notice
     josh susser (joshsusser@autistics.life)'s status on Tuesday, 07-Oct-2025 04:34:36 JST josh susser

     in reply to

     @mattly I haven't been reading very much lately, but the latest things I've read that I really liked include

     *Diaspora* by Greg Egan
     *Kiln People* by David Brin

     and an old favorite that's pretty obscure so you may have missed it

     *Engine Summer* by John Crowley

     and I always recommend Diane Duane's *Young Wizards* series as a smart alternative to terfy magic school books.

   • Embed this notice
     Matthew Lyon (mattly@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 07-Oct-2025 04:46:04 JST Matthew Lyon

     in reply to

     oh and I wrote a bit about why I like each of
     - Wings of Fire: https://lyonhe.art/book-recommendations/wings-of-fire/
     - The Murderbot Diaries: https://lyonhe.art/book-recommendations/the-murderbot-diaries/
     - Wayfarers: https://lyonhe.art/book-recommendations/wayfarers/

   • Embed this notice
     draNgNon (drangnon@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 07-Oct-2025 04:54:45 JST draNgNon

     in reply to

     @mattly I don't know what turned you off from Imperial Radch, but if it wasn't simply trying to grok the pronoun use in the first 50 pages (it disambiguates after that), you might like _The Ninefox Gambit_ by Yoon Ha Lee (and the two sequels), which I found amazing.

     there are a couple or three last airbender books by F.C. Lee (no relation) that might be ok to read with your kid, if your kid is old enough.

     what else have I recently read that feels like it fits for you...
     _The Tainted Cup_ by Robert Jackson Bennett (fantasy-based mystery)
     the Scholomance stuff by Naomi Novik, maybe? I have a feeling people who like Murderbot would like it but I have not read Murderbot.

     #books

   • Embed this notice
     draNgNon (drangnon@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 07-Oct-2025 15:46:43 JST draNgNon

     @mattly then, hm, I can't tell if you would like the Yoon Ha Lee books; without yielding spoilers too much, both concepts are a factor, but with vastly different takes.

     The two things you are talking about though, are absolutely the primary plot drivers for Ancillary* sequence, they are not a mere backdrop for whatever one may think is the story from the outset.

     but I think you would like the Tainted Cup ; and I really liked the Scholomance ones although the initial entry into them made me grimace.

     now I'm glancing at other stuff by
     Robert Jackson Bennett and wondering if I should try it. I'm also thinking about some of Becky Chambers recent books which a few people have recommended. Ah well, must resist, I am busy, will look after this weekend.