Stellaris Recommends - Sci-Fi reading suggestions from the Community Team

[Harlot]

Hey Everyone!

On Twitter and Facebook, for a while now, we've been running a bi-weekly segment of sci-fi book recommendations and I felt it'd be a good idea to gather them in a single archive, here on the forums.

Please note these are in no way hints to what might be coming to the game. Just sci-fi we read and think you might too.

Most recent recommendations are at the top:

16.
Theme: Time Travel
Book Name: The Gone World
Author: Tom Sweterlitsch

15.
Theme: Arctic Planet
Book Name: Absolute Zeros
Author: Xander Franklin

14.
Theme: Plantoids
Series Name: Semiosis Duology
Author: Sue Burke

13.
Theme: Alternate Earth
Book Name: Outland
Author: Dennis E. Taylor

12.
Theme: Desert Planet
Series Name: Sandstorm Series
Author: T.W. Piperbrook

11.
Theme: MegaCorp
Series Name: SynCorp Saga
Authors: David Bruns & Chris Pourteau

10.
Theme: Naval Sci-Fi
Series Name: The Locus Series
Author: Ralph Kern

9.
Theme: Mechs
Series Name: Wholesale Slaughter
Author: Rick Partlow

8.
Theme: Guns & Dinosaurs
Series Name: The Flipside Sagas
Author: Jake Bible

7.
Theme: Ocean Planet
Book Name: A Darkling Sea
Author: James L. Cambias

6.
Theme: Inspired by Firefly
Series Name: Black Ocean
Author: J.S. Morin

5.
Theme: Psionic Cyberpunk
Series Name: Soul Jacker
Author: Michael John Grist

4.
Theme: "Cats"
Book Name: Fuzzy Nation
Author: John Scalzi

3.
Theme: Colonization
Series Name: First Colony
Author: Ken Lozito

2.
Theme: Titanic Lifeforms
Series Name: Nemesis Saga
Author: Jeremy Robinson

1.
Theme: Tomb World
Series Name: Hell Divers
Author: Nicholas Sansbury Smith

 

[Harlot]

[POST SAVED FOR LATER USE]

 

[Spaceception]

Thanks for making this thread! I'll definitely keep a look on this for future novels to get. Will you edit the new recommendations in the OP, or threadmark new ones?

 

[Harlot]

Thanks for making this thread! I'll definitely keep a look on this for future novels to get. Will you edit the new recommendations in the OP, or threadmark new ones?

I'll probably make a new comment every 2 weeks when we make a recommendation, to bump the thread, and will also edit the list at the top of the thread.

I'll also sticky the thread.

Glad to see you like it!

 

[BlackUmbrellas]

Its an older story, but Rats, Bats, and Vats is an excellent sci-fi comedy.

It's about a far-flung human colony facing a disastrous ground war against an alien hivemind; thankfully, a more benevolent species takes pity on us and trades us some useful technology so we can stand on more even footing against the invaders... including uplift technology and cloning mechanisms, which we utilize to create vat-grown uplifted rats and bats (with personalities patterned off of Shakespeare's works) as soldiers to swell the colony's limited human manpower.

 

[Livigy]

I really liked the 'Three body problem' and 'The dark forest' by Cixin Liu. It is unapologetically Chinese propaganda but the way it deals with pre-Ftl first contact and the scale of time and distance is really interesting. Humanity is locked out of progressing particle physics and aliens are coming to invade..in 450 years. How does humanity deal with an invasion that is more psychological than death rays? How do you prepare when the threat isn't imminent and the enemy is omniscient?

 

[ComradeIan]

I was looking for something like this on FB the other day after checking out the latest recommendation. Thanks!

 

[A_Dane]

Bookmarked, thanks! atleast of couple of those I want to check out

EDIT: Also, I'm unsure what "Cats" represents?

 

[Harlot]

Bookmarked, thanks! atleast of couple of those I want to check out

EDIT: Also, I'm unsure what "Cats" represents?

There are cat-like species in that book. Or at least that's how the protagonist describes them. I would say more but it'd go into a spoiler territory.

Scalzi is a very good writer and the book is a breeze to read.

 

[Ezumiyr]

with personalities patterned off of Shakespeare's works

I never realized how strong this trope is until recently.
A lot of robots, AIs and clones in scifi seem to be modelled after Shakespearian characters. And then you have articles like this one...

I guess it's a good way to have a mix of familiarity and strangeness, just like many alien "monsters" are chimera or mixes of animals with an alien trait.

 

[Harlot]

Update: Reversed the recommended books order so that the most recent one is always on top.

 

[rubert]

Links to Goodreads or similar would be nice for lazy people like me

 

[Harlot]

Links to Goodreads or similar would be nice for lazy people like me

I'll see what I can do! I've been getting them off Amazon, but I need to double-check with Legal how that works.

 

[rubert]

Much appreciated. If links are not possible then copyable author names would be helpful as sometimes book names are pretty generic when searching and you might get books by different authors.

 

[Harlot]

Much appreciated. If links are not possible then copyable author names would be helpful as sometimes book names are pretty generic when searching and you might get books by different authors.

Done!

 

[A_Dane]

There are cat-like species in that book. Or at least that's how the protagonist describes them. I would say more but it'd go into a spoiler territory.

Scalzi is a very good writer and the book is a breeze to read.

Ahh - thought it might be an abbreviation or something

 

[hangry]

Thanks for the suggestions! There is so much stuff out there that it's sometimes frustrating and too time consuming to find new books. I just bought 'a darkling sea', sounds really interesting.

 

[Harlot]

Thanks for the suggestions! There is so much stuff out there that it's sometimes frustrating and too time consuming to find new books. I just bought 'a darkling sea', sounds really interesting.

It really is! Sadly, it seems to be the author's only book.

 

[A_Dane]

It really is! Sadly, it seems to be the author's only book.

According to his goodreads page he actually has a few to his name: Corsair, Arkad's world and GURPS Mars

 

[Harlot]

According to his goodreads page he actually has quie a few to his name: Corsair, Arkad's world and GURPS Mars

There you go! My fault for relying on Amazon too much!