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[faridmon]

Kafka on The shore by Haruki Murakami

 

[BadWolf]

1984.

 

[Kuraudo]

The Children's Hospital by Chris Adrian

God sends a second flood to wipe out life on Earth except for a children's hospital.

 

[Funyarinpa]

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein.

Got a ways into this (>50%) but it just didn't hook me. When does it start to get really good?

OP, read Koushun Takami's Battle Royale, it is a masterpiece. It was recently retranslated into English (called Battle Royale Remastered), it's my favorite novel.

There are other books in the same universe, but Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed is a magnificently written utopian sci-fi and it stands perfectly on its own.

If you'd like some modern stuff (contemporary fiction?) then I recommend Haruki Murakami's Kafka On The Shore.

 

[Megasoum]

Not sci-fi but if you want a really great spy novel, I suggest "The Company" by Robert Littel.

It's a story spanning 50 years from the 40s at the beginning of the cold war all the way to the fall of the USSR in the early 90s. Follows a bunch of friends who are working for the CIA as they rise through the ranks and get married, have kids, etc.

What's really great is that they mix fictional characters with real people (Kennedy, Dulles, etc) so the first time I read it I always had wikipedia opened on my computer to check if every new character introduced was a real person or not.

 

[KodaRuss]

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Came to post this. Its incredible.

 

[Coolluck]

I'm glad nobody has recommended Chuck P. I'll definitely check out a few of these books. I had to force myself through Stranger in a Strange Land. Some of it was good and some of it just seemed so drawn out and slow. Worth it as a whole though.

 

[Noaloha]

Not sci-fi/fantasy (perhaps a touch on the exaggerated side), but this is one of my go-tos for single book recommendations.

 

[Ganhyun]

good choices in here

 

[owlbeak]

The Terror - historical fiction, a little bit horror, a little bit sci fi. It's a great read, especially on a cold winter's night.

Hugo-winner Simmons (Olympos) brings the horrific trials and tribulations of arctic exploration vividly to life in this beautifully written historical, which injects a note of supernatural horror into the 1840s Franklin expedition and its doomed search for the Northwest Passage. Sir John Franklin, the leader of the expedition and captain of the Erebus, is an aging fool. Francis Crozier, his second in command and captain of the Terror, is a competent sailor, but embittered after years of seeing lesser men with better connections given preferment over him. With their two ships quickly trapped in pack ice, their voyage is a disaster from start to finish. Some men perish from disease, others from the cold, still others from botulism traced to tinned food purchased from the lowest bidder. Madness, mutiny and cannibalism follow. And then there's the monstrous creature from the ice, the thing like a polar bear but many times larger, possessed of a dark and vicious intelligence.

 

[kruis]

Do you recommend reading the other Dune books?

Nope. I read books 2, 3 and 4 - didn't like any of 'em. Stick with the first one. Dune is a self contained novel and there's no need to read anything else in the series.

 

[injurai]

Neuromancer is phenomenal, Snow Crash is good too

both are essential Cyberpunk novels

I just got a Kindle, and I picked out Neuromancer as my first book. Really liking it so far, it feels way more modern than it's publication date would suggest. What an experience it must have been on release.

This thread is very apropos.

 

[hobblygobbly]

This is all science fiction.

Novels:
Roadside Picnic (this is the book that went on to inspire the great Stalker 1979 film, the STALKER game series and Metro series). It's a great read.
Rendezvous with Rama (the best hard sci-fi in my opinion)
The Songs of Distant Earth
Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale

Shorts:
The Last Question
The Last Answer (read after The Last Question)
Robot Dreams
The Nine Billion Names of God
Summertime on Icarus
Dog Star

I recommend reading a lot of the short stories of Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, so many good well written shorts. The Last Question is my favourite short story ever. You can go out and buy their whole collections, some of them are also free I think under public domain if I'm not mistaken.

 

[hunchback]

Not sci-fi but if you want a really great spy novel, I suggest "The Company" by Robert Littel.

It's a story spanning 50 years from the 40s at the beginning of the cold war all the way to the fall of the USSR in the early 90s. Follows a bunch of friends who are working for the CIA as they rise through the ranks and get married, have kids, etc.

What's really great is that they mix fictional characters with real people (Kennedy, Dulles, etc) so the first time I read it I always had wikipedia opened on my computer to check if every new character introduced was a real person or not.

Thank you. I have been looking for good CIA book. Just downloaded.

 

[Protome]

Uprooted by Naomi Novik
It's a story about a village beside a wood filled with evil and corruption, the wizard who defends them and the girl he takes as payment for his work. I'm not a big fan of Novik's other work but this was probably my favourite book I read last year.

Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente
Based on Russian fairytales, a girl with many sisters watches as each is married away until finally it's her turn. Then it gets really weird and dark and twisted...

 

[PillarEN]

The Bell Jar.

Sure OP. Read this if you want to feel miserable. It is short though.

I'd say Enders Game which has other books to go along with it but the book is also stand alone in its own right. Author is an ass if that's too much for you to cope with. It's a sci fi classic which you seem to be looking for.

 

[SpaceHorror]

Got a ways into this (>50%) but it just didn't hook me. When does it start to get really good?

It started off a bit slow for me (but still good), but once they

Spoiler

escaped the hospital and especially when they got to Jubal's place

it really hooked me.

 

[Ratrat]

The Stars my Destination by Alfred Bester
Light by M. John Harrison
Embassytown by China Mieville
Tuf Voyaging by George R. R. !artin
Voyage of the Space Beagle by A. E. van Vogt

edit: Light has a sequel but is pretty unrelated from what I've read.

 

[Lindbergh]

I've been enjoying this so far

 

[Pantaghana]

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Hard to describe without spoilers, but a quick synopsis would be:

The Devil, AKA Satan, visits Moscow during the height of the atheist/anti-religion movement between the two world wars. Hijinks ensue.

 

[Lightning Count]

Eisenhorn by Dan Abnett, it's a collection of three awesome stories, requires no prior knowledge of the 40k universe.

It you like dark fantasy/science fiction you will like this.

 

[Orbis Tabula]

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

 

[The Libertine]

Most Neil Gaiman novels. Neverwhere is probably my favourite, but American Gods and Good Omens are also fantastic.

 

[EatChildren]

Ubik

 

[Aiii]

If you want a few good laughs along the way, try this one: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20861021-starship-grifters

 

[manzoman96]

I've been enjoying this so far

Interesting never knew this was a thing.

Though it's a biography, I reading this right now and it's a great read

 

[inki]

But when I need something quick that I love

 

[Kill3r7]

Not sci-fi/fantasy (perhaps a touch on the exaggerated side), but this is one of my go-tos for single book recommendations.

Seconded. Also, most Gaiman books are worth checking out, see American Gods or Neverwhere.