sci-fi recs

8.3.2025

Love science-fiction. Love reading it.

Hate long intros on lists and recipe blogs.

Here is my list:

1. Xenogenesis Series (also known as Lilith's Brood) by Octavia Butler

   1. Aliens. Love. Gender. Reproduction. Collectivism. Three part series including Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago. Each novel takes place in a sequential generation from the one prior, allowing for evolution to unfold and play out with the challenges that arise from adaptation. It may make you cry.

2. Exhalation by Ted Chiang **asian author

   1. Short stories. Quantum physics. Artificial intelligence. Alternate archaeology and evolution theories. The absolute most detailed and poignant definitions for the worlds Chiang builds. Still so wistfully human.

      1. **see also Stories of Your Life and Other's, also by Chiang and containing the story which Denis Villeneuve's "Arrival" was based on.

3. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

   1. OK this one is great. I read this in 2020 and was enamored by it. Stephenson is said to have coined the term "metaverse" in this novel (which Zuckerburg's Meta is derived from.) You can expect to find themes of linguistics, religion, politics, economics, cryptography and technology (obviously). I learned a lot from this book. And it's very entertaining.

4. An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

   1. Occurring on a spaceship/satellite/floating planet named "Matilda," this dystopian mystery follows a young doctor as she/they uncovers the true mechanics of the ship; decrypting a hyper-detailed cartographic rendering of the space-planet left by their late mother, solving murders and fighting against tyranny, and pursuing a forbidden love all whilst doing so.

5. Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

   1. I wanted to place this at #1 but that felt too cliché (for me). But this is THE book that comes to mind when people ask me what science-fiction I would recommend. Specifically, this novel (imo) is the epitome of afro-futurism. Don't read it if you're still in the fight-or-flight mode of climate and social injustive anxiety. Do read it if you're past the fear of our current times and open to a beautiful and honest rendition of how to pave the way for a different world.

6. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

   1. I read this book in 2022, still in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic. So it was a bit jarring to experience a story based upon a post-pandemic civilization collapse. However, the meat of this story was the joy, connection, and [forced] family connections created amidst tragedy. It flips back and forth from present to past, which is a framework that I've always enjoyed.

7. Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut

   1. This is a hectic read! Vonnegut, eclectic as ever, delivers satire, insanity, and chaos in this novel following protagonist Paul Proteus, a worker at General Electric who navigates mass mechanization and automation through machines. I always enjoy reading Vonnegut because he often places his stories in Illium which is a fictional town inspired by Troy, NY, and references a lot of history and infrastructure surrounding that area.

8. Pangu's Shadow by Karen Bao **asian author

   1. A YA (young adult) book recommended by one of my besties who shall not be named but happens to be a YA librarian in the greater Los Angeles region (ily fr). It's very cute. Lil murder mystery moment. Lil alternate solar system moment. Lil oops we extracted an entire planet of all their natural resources, polluted it through means of forced mass production and have deemed the people who originate from there to be savage, unkempt, uncivilized scoundrels.

9. Severance by Ling Ma **asian author

   1. Another post-pandemic novel that I read in the midst of a pandemic. It's been a few years since this read for me, but I remember particularly enjoying the monotonous tone of the story and the main character's forced fastidious outlook on her office job overseeing design variations and translations of the Bible. Very Chinese this book is.

There are 9 items on this list as 9 is the number of completion. Should I consider adding more reads to this list I suggest you do the kindness of emailing me recommendations for my reading pleasure. Ah yes, thank you much.