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Science Fiction Adventure eBooks:
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Top Reddit reviews mentioning Science Fiction Adventure eBooks:
Obligatory The Churn recommendation. It's a novella focused on this character's backstory. It's all set well before the TV series and the full-length novels, so you can go into it having read nothing else.
I read something like 220 books this year, and I'd wager that Gideon the Ninth is my favorite. Great book, about lesbian necromancers in space, with amazing characters, great story, and creepy as hell depictions of necromancy =D
If you like The Orville, you might like The Expanse (Formerly a ScyFy Show, now being produced by Amazon, also a series of books).
The character Amos is originally from Baltimore, there's a novella that dives into his past in a dystopian Baltimore. The Churn.
Lesbian necromancers in space is literally how it's advertised. I only got about 50 pages in the first time I picked it up (library book, ran out of time), and I definitely still got the picture loud and clear.
And yeah that's a great point about the Broken Earth trilogy that I should have mentioned! Jemisin is really great about writing diverse characters.
The Quarter Share series gets there eventually - by the second or thirdish book the MC is in his 30s and secure in his life.
The story is very slice of life, and the setting is kinda Horatio Hornblower In Space.
There's also the EarthCent Ambassador series, which again starts out with a 20something protagonist who's in her 30's or 40's within a couple of books thanks to time skips.
Also fairly slice of life, but in this case the books remind me of the more laid back Star Trek episodes - there's a focus on dealing with aliens, particularly because she's an ambassador from Earth on a trading station.
It's available on Amazon Kindle which you can read on a smart phone or even your computer.
https://www.amazon.com/Wizard-Kindle-Motion-Magic-Book-ebook/dp/B00EF8Z32I
It does and even allows animations within a book! They call it Kindle in Motion but I have no idea how to become a part of that.
Technologically there shouldn't be any limitations because ebooks support pretty much every reasonable web standard, though I know that Amazon limits scripting among other things.
It's hardcore sci-fi and it's beautifully written with extraordinary characters. I read all eight novels and all of the novellas in about 10 days. This was one of those series that just hits you and you know it just has to be made into a movie or something.
Well it turns out some other people already had that idea. Amazon turned into a series back in 2015 and they've just started season 5. It's hugely popular and somehow I never heard of it until now. And I would say it's about 90% true to the books from what I've seen so far.
I highly recommend it. Either the books or the series on Amazon.
Here's a link to the first book of the series:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0047Y171G/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_PHLMFbAQWEYWT
I think you want /r/TrekBooks
The only Trek book that I've read and enjoyed enough to remember anything about it is A Stitch in Time by Andrew Robinson, fleshing out his DS9 character, Garak.
"Hey," Watney said over the radio, "I've got an idea."
"Of course you do," Lewis said. "What do you got?"
"I could find something sharp in here and poke a hole in the glove of my EVA suit. I could use the escaping air as a thruster and fly my way to you. The source of the thrust would be on my arm, so I'd be able to direct it pretty easily."
"How does he come up with this shit?" Martinez interjected.
"Hmm," Lewis said. "Could you get forty-two meters per second that way?"
"No idea."
"I can't see you having any control if you did that," Lewis said. "You'd be eyeballing the intercept and using a thrust vector you can barely control."
"I admit it's fatally dangerous," Watney said. "But consider this: I'd get to fly around like Iron Man."
"We'll keep working on ideas," Lewis said.
"Iron Man, Commander. Iron Man."
- Andy Weir, '<em>The Martian</em>'
The last one is actually a short story called The Egg by Andy Weir. He's a really talented artist and you should check out his novel, The Martian, which is being adapted into a movie to be released in November.
You should drop everything and read Snow Crash.
Gideon the Ninth (https://www.amazon.com/Gideon-Ninth-Tamsyn-Muir-ebook/dp/B07J6HWLPR)
This should really be right up your alley. It's really well done.
It took me about five seconds to find the following on Amazon's Kindle storefront for the GtN:
>At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
HtN and NtN are also sold without DRM.
So... buy it there?
And use Calibre to convert it from .mobi to .epub if it's really going to keep you up at night?
I'm pretty sure Off To Be The Wizard is part of it. It shows the little Headphones next to the KU. Fun series.
>Martin Banks is just a normal guy who has made an abnormal discovery: he can manipulate reality, thanks to reality being nothing more than a computer program. With every use of this ability, though, Martin finds his little “tweaks” have not escaped notice. Rather than face prosecution, he decides instead to travel back in time to the Middle Ages and pose as a wizard.
>
>What could possibly go wrong?
It's not completely fantasy... but what about fantasy/sci-fi?
If you have a fighting game bouncing around in your head I'd suggest reading Iron Prince it does a wonderful job of balancing fighting/story in a very addictive and engaging way.
Since you mention sci fi, one of my first reads on my Kindle was Quarter Share. Really enjoyed that whole series and have been thinking about giving it another read over the last few weeks myself.
Quarter Share (Trader's Tales from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper Book 1) https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00AMO7VM4/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_72F1JMX81NM6P6699Q3T
Here a good series that is not as stressful - no huge "fun to discuss with your kids topics" - https://www.amazon.com/Quarter-Share-Traders-Golden-Clipper-ebook/dp/B00AMO7VM4
This series never really stressed me out for the most part. Good character development arcs, good stories... easy read.
Try looking for entertainment that does things from a different "gaze"
It has been nice for me.
The female gaze provides a new perspective on storytelling that I am enjoying.
Y the last man is pretty good.
Lesbian necromancers in space: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07J6HWLPR/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
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And if the female gaze isn't interesting to you then cross cultural things could help.
Came here to say that. Here's a link.
One of the authors is quite active on Reddit. They also have a Patreon, and are releasing chapters from Book 2 now.
This science fiction series is like that. You get some lessons about how to be successful and get along with people: https://www.amazon.com/Quarter-Share-Traders-Golden-Clipper-ebook/dp/B00AMO7VM4
Have him give Iron Prince a try. It's a very chunky book but if he likes games, it's a fantasy novel with stats, so it's like a real life scifi rpg. It's very binge-worthy. The characters attend a special academy where they learn how to develop their personalized scifi weapon for the purposes of eventually fighting hostile aliens on the frontier. Big emphasis on the sports aspect as well, as people compete with their scifi weapons in arenas for the masses, and the kids at the academy all battle one another in duels and tournaments.
The main draw is that the MC is a total underdog born with a crippling medical condition. With modern tech it's able to be treated but not cured. The MC's only hope is to prove he's worthy of being one of the few chosen to attend a special academy and get a scifi weapon (the weapons integrate with the whole body and have the potential to permanently keep his condition at bay). He works insanely hard for every small gain in the beginning and is very likeable and persistent. You just have to root for him. And when he receives his scifi device he really starts to take off, his limitless potential combined with his almost inhuman determination rocketing him to the front of his class. He makes awesome friends in the academy and the supporting cast are all great.
https://www.amazon.com/Iron-Prince-Warformed-Stormweaver-Book-ebook/dp/B08KGT4CLQ
Highly recommend it. One of my favorite reads of 2021.
I have read all of these more than once on KU and bought a few copies also.
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I think lucklookinglurker may have been referring to the Magic 2.0 series which begins with Off to Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer. I read the first book years ago and its about a guy that learns a way to manipulate reality and uses this technique to time-travel back to the middle ages to live so that he could be free to manipulate reality as he wished and the locals would accept it as wizardry.
Do I get the extra points? ;-)
The Traders Tales by Nathan Lowell is like that. Here’s a link to the first book in the series Quarter Share.
On that note, if you wanna dig deeper on the philosophical concept of memes, check out the book Snow Crash. Basic story concept is the idea of memes that can act like computer viruses to the human brain stem, spreading from person to person virally using the avenue of language, and of people learning to "write" these virally intrusive memes. It's one of Neal Stephenson's better ones, imo, and I like quite a few of his novels.
Orson Scott Card, in the preface to one of his short story collections, wrote about how "stories are the atomic units of society".
The fictional story <em>Snow Crash</em> is of course on a similar theme, taken to an extreme.
Anyway, lots of people that are socially awkward treat the little stories and memes that link people together as silly. Admittedly, they are silly. But they are also important.
Think about religious cultures. What food to eat on a holiday is not important. It's the stories about why we that food on that day that matters.
C. S. Lewis wrote about his ideal Christianity as a "good infection". Whatever your little stories and memes are, enjoy them by yourself and you can enjoy sharing them with others. For good or ill, that is most of society.