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Ask HN: Non-sci-fi fiction recommendations?
I love science fiction, but I've been reading too much and am a little burnt out! When I look for recommendations based on my tastes, I only get more sci-fi results. Do you have any recommendations for interesting reads from other genres that would suit a sci-fi fan?
(My recent favorites have been the Three Body Problem series, Permutation City by Greg Egan, Hail Mary by Andy Weir, and The Man who fell to Earth by Walter Tevis.)
Thanks!
- arethuza 5y agoI've almost finished reading Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman after seeing it mentioned on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27568340 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27568340 It's a stunning book - has had me in tears more than once.
- brudgers 5y agoI am big Cormac McCarthy fan. Blood Meridian is a tale about the impact of a crate of new technology.
- markus_zhang 5y agoAnything by James Clavells.
- softwaredoug 5y agoI enjoy non fiction books about explorers or insane expeditions from the past. I feel like it gets at some of the “exploring the unknown” aspects of SciFi. And there’s usually interesting characters. For example “River of Doubt” details an insane last minute choice during a Teddy Roosevelt South American goodwill tour to explore an unexplored river in the Amazon.
- CharleFKane 5y agoI was surprised - and very happy - to see "River of Doubt" mentioned here. That is indeed a very good book, and kicked off a fascination for me with TR in general. The author, Candice Millard, has two other books which I also enthusiastically recommend: "Hero of the Empire", about Churchill's escape from a POW camp during the Boer War, and "Destiny of the Republic" about the assassination of President Garfield.
- cpach 5y agoRum Punch by Elmore Leonard.
- fokinsean 5y agoKurt Vonnegut is really great, my personal favorite is Sirens of Titan which is his most "sci-fi" of the bunch but I wouldn't really call it sci-fi. Other great starting points are Cat's Cradle, Mothernight, and of course Slaughterhouse Five. I've only read one Toni Morrison book, Song of Solomon, but that was one of my favorite reads of this year. If you haven't read Frankenstein or Dracula then I would highly recommend them. I personally enjoyed Frankenstein much more than I thought I would. Norse Mythology and Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman are also fun reads. If you want some non-fiction, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer is a very engaging read.
- potta_coffee 5y agoHaruki Murakami - Wind Up Bird Chronicle is my favorite but he has a lot of good novels. They're not science fiction but they're interesting and they have an "uncanny" aspect to them.
- DarrenDev 5y agoIf you want something completely different, take a look at Willy Vlautin. About as far from sci-fi as you're likely to get. The tragedy of everyday life. Brief and almost poetically written. I'm a big sci-fi fan myself, but like to mix things up.
- aristofun 5y agoAll of Pelevin novels. If you’re into philosophy, humor, and understanding meaning of life, but in exciting adventurous form. https://www.amazon.com/Victor-Pelevin/e/B000APHFPS/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1 https://www.amazon.com/Victor-Pelevin/e/B000APHFPS/ref=dp_by...
- raptorraver 5y agoRussian classics (Dostoyevsky, Tolstoi etc.) have never failed me.
- jjjbokma 5y agoI read besides sci-fi and fantasy a lot of crime fiction. Can highly recommend the Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly.
- mikewarot 5y ago1632 by Eric Flint, an alternate history which spawned a series of books. A small town in present day (2000) West Virginia is transported back in time to 1632 in Germany, and the middle of the 30 years war.
- tenfourwookie 5y agoI read A Confederacy of Dunces every few years. It's a fun book. I also love Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess. Epic saga beautifully written.
- muzani 5y agoWorm: https://parahumans.wordpress.com/ https://parahumans.wordpress.com/ Dark/superhero genre. I was recommended to it from HN. Every time it's brought up, it's fairly controversial. Someone even made a throwaway account to criticize it. But I suppose the fact so many read it makes it of interest to the kind of people who visit HN.
- sdrinf 5y agoheads-up: worm is going to make you depressed. It is, fundamentally, an exercise in taking "hope" & the expectation for "things to generally become better", and beating it systematically into a pulp over a few thousand pages. Things, in this book, do not become better.
- jvandonsel 5y agoNeal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Baroque_Cycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Baroque_Cycle
- fattybob 5y agoIn the past, I used to flip into classical literature, almost anything, Icelandic sagas, the Greek classics, brontes (still doing that), and recently I’ve been into Mick Herron’s books, but they may be an acquired (UK) taste ! Oh yes, possibly still sci fi in some classifications, Neil Gaimans works and the the disc world novels are great diversions.
- GGfpc 5y agoTry Blindness by Saramago. It's kind of science-fictiony in the theme but its literary fiction.
- 2rsf 5y agoI lost interest about a quarter into the book, it is written (or at least translated to English) in a strange way and looses momentum after a very interesting beginning
- cosmodisk 5y agoThe divine comedy Moll Flanders The Glass Bead Game White Fang
- gadders 5y agoI really enjoyed the Nelson Demille Paul Brenner novels - The Generals Daughter (a film starring John Travolta) and Up Country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_DeMille#Paul_Brenner_series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_DeMille#Paul_Brenner_se... They're thrillers, but not brainless ones.