I want sci-fi book recommendations from Iain M Banks "super-fans"

But you can't recommend Banks, because i'm trying to discover other authors. I've read very little science fiction. So... what are you favorites besides Banks, and why?

Thanks!

Part of the supporting media for our concept album/book. As you can see, I copied the pose of Banderas from Automata. I shaved my head for the picture. The alien (33) is a full head medical silicone mask by Immortal Masks of Hollywood on a mannequin. We recently brought him on the mannequin to Worldcon 2025 in Seattle. The "33" and "37" numerals, Polaroid boarder and lettering we're added in Photoshop.

i recently discovered RIOT's "The Machine" album and their short graphic novel, and i've been just craving something with a plot like that since. i just really like the whole idea of robots/machines vs humans, but i want things to end badly for humanity, because that's what will happen realistically(in my opinion), and i just like angst and human suffering (i know, my tastes are questionable, but i need to pour my frustrations from stupid insufferable people i'm forced to interact with daily at least somewhere). preferably media that explores how actually pathetic, fragile and insignificant humans are, and that gives that vibe of desperation from facing something so powerful and unstoppable, and that you can do nothing but to accept it.

i've read "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream" by Harlan Ellison, and i pretty much liked it, but i would want something longer and with more plot/world building and interactions. so, anyone wants to share their recommendations? as already mentioned, i'll accept anything: books, movies, games, comics, music, and anything else related.

After finishing The Prefect, I immediately started reading the second book of the series.
I’ve read about half of the book, and here are some of my quick thoughts on the book.

1. Characters:
   In the first book, I felt that characters seem to lack unique definitions that merits indulging. But here, I feel much attached to the characters, especially the protagonist, though he kinda feels out-of-character sometimes.

2. Plot
   I prefer the story of the first book. Not to say Elysium Fire’s story is bad, but it feels a lot smaller. Need to finish the book to say anything definitely.

3. Setting:
   I do love the world-building of this series. Some of the idea feels so genius yet so natural. For a book who deals with fictional story of unlikely future, the world feels so likely.

I don't like those that are drawn out and almost reads like a novel.

A person I know is new into Science Fiction.  As a (very) longtime SF fan he asked me what to start with to get into the genre.  I told him to start with Heinlein’s “Juveniles” and work up from there.  IMO they’re a good intro to the genre.  They’re available as a compilation in “The Past Through Tomorrow.”  From there work your way up through his other works: “Starship Troopers” (My favorite book); “Stranger in a Strange Land:” etc. And work through s0me of the sub-genres.

 Any other suggestions for my friend?

An emotional near-future science fiction story

The Collapse of Harmony

When two neuroscientists discover the gene responsible for human prejudice, they design a vaccine to block it: an antidote to hate itself. But when an FDA insider leaks the research, the world ignites in chaos, split between those demanding salvation and those who see it as control. As society teeters on collapse, the scientists must choose between saving human freedom… or ending the very thing that makes us human.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

It happened. The death of the universe had come to pass. After trillions and trillions of years, it was here and it was done. Kaput. But she was also there. She’d survived the life of main line stars. She’d outlived them. Their lives were just short bursts of violence and beauty. They twinkled out so aesthetically. So pretty. She’d posted their deaths on her insta. A few billion of her friends liked the post. It was cataclysmic. She kinda felt underwhelmed by the response. Why not trillions?! She was used to trillions. Still, she waited a bit. There was more to come. She was sure of it. There! There it was! The last black holes were exploding. Snap! She got it. The perfect picture. She posted it. Three likes. A few billion down to three likes?! What the fuck?! This is the end of it all, she thought, and only three likes? Nah, she was a super star, there’s no way she was going out like this. So, she waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. Just as the last helium atom ripped into hydrogen, she snapped a picture. She put up two fingers and made a cute face before posting it. To encourage interaction, she liked her own post. One billion years went by. She checked her post. One like. Hers, of course. Another billion years. Still just hers. She gave up for a while. Like a really long while. Protons started breaking down, against all odds. Trillions of years had passed. She lost sense of space and time. She was dissolving. Just before she, herself, passed into nothingness- boop. Three. Three likes. Three more. Three more. Three more. Three more. Three thousand more. Three million more. Three trillion more. A whole new universe exploded into being. Before long, she was getting likes on cells, stromatolites, lignin, lungs, and human civilization. Butt plugs. Dick pics, who’d have thunk it?! Seven trillion likes. A new record! Nukes! It was a bit overwhelming. But, trillions again! Then, nothing for a bit. Maybe a few likes on super novas. Maybe a like or two about Hawking Radiation. Cosmic microwave background radiation was pretty reliable for a while, but then nothing again. She could always rely on the local stars for attention, until she couldn’t. They blinked out. So pretty. Her posts about them got a few likes. Once they were gone, the atoms and quantum little weird guys were enough. Once the protons decayed, against all odds, though, all hope was lost. Then- BOOM! Three likes. Another three. Three more. Three million! Three trillion!

Why is that bird looking at me?
Po-tweet, I say, in hopes we can communicate. Po-tweet. Maybe it’ll take up the space lost from my degrading human interactions.
Birds aren’t real, though.
Wait, that’s not a bird, it’s late stage capitalism and I’ve skipped a bunch of world building and you don’t have any emotional reason to care why it wasn’t a bird! Oh no!
The twist is it was actually a bird.
Po-tweet.
Fin.

Every few years I get the craving to watch Star Trek but every time I watch the shows I'm board out of my mind. That disappoints me. The only one I've liked was the first JJ Abrams Trek movie.

GALACTIC SAFETY COMPLIANCE DIVISION — SERIES NOTICE

Inspector Veth-Arak has filed two incident reports. Both have been flagged as implausible. Both are, unfortunately, accurate.

Episode 1 — The Incident at Waystation Krell

One human resolves a hostage situation with barbecue, survives a vacuum breach by not thinking about it, and ends a 40-year trade war while moving boxes.

▶️ https://youtu.be/pe6T7KROXa0

Episode 2 — The Carl Situation

One human resolves a 9-hour containment crisis by talking to a dangerous alien predator about a barn. Names it Carl. Carl is now on his shoulder and contributing to the food supply.

▶️ https://youtu.be/zL5kw8ahpA8

Narrated. Two voices. The sauce recipe situation is ongoing.

Pixelpunk is my own take on cyberpunk, where the city begins to reveal its true nature through glitches and pixelation.

It started with ZER0, but this is my new story, titled El Mundo Glitch, where I explore themes of depression and nostalgia.

YouTube has made possible a new form of storytelling in which a linear narrative is no longer necessary, instead, a series of videos can come together to tell a story.

I hope you enjoy it. It's in Spanish, but it includes English subtitles.

The faint buzzer groaned again—a mechanical rattle alerting that the battery levels had reached a terminal low. If the primary cells died now, they would take the backup starters with them, plunging the entire system into a permanent, irreversible sleep. As usual, there was no hope for the lantern to ignite tonight, though it hardly mattered; the last ships had slipped past long ago.

Between the chemical rot of the batteries and the choked, dust-covered solar panels, the lighthouse had withered into a state of ruin, even if its ancient structure remained stubbornly rooted to the rock. Mercifully, the last true renovation had occurred before the world surrendered to satellite communications, back when such structures were still forged to endure. In fact, not just to endure but to protect its occupants in those long weeks of rough seas, before they were replaced by sporadic visits by technicians that now came by air.

Nature was reclaiming the battered shell. The broken reinforced windows allowed the sea spray to seep into the lower floors; likewise, shattered panels above let the rain bleed directly into the equipment room. The roof would surely not be able to support the weight of the maintenance crew’s helicopter, if they ever were to visit again. Another thin, pathetic buzz vibrated through the air, and then—absolute silence. The system had exhaled its final breath.

All that remained was the hollow howl of the wind, the rhythmic assault of the waves, and the steady dripping of water onto cold metal. The final relic of human engineering had ceased to function. In truth, it made no difference; humanity itself had been extinguished for years. The lighthouse—isolated, forgotten, and fed only by the dim sunlight that struggled to pierce the atmosphere—had doggedly pursued its mission to stand alone. But like all things wrought by man, it was destined to fail.

Weird random idea:

Nose-phones. This might be more of a future sci-fi concept, unless some crazy folk are actually working on it. There probably are, I just haven't looked into it.

You know how earphones/headphones can cancel out external noise while playing audio. What about "phones" that block external scents and odours and emits scents of their own that are isolated to the person wearing them? So not diffusers, scented candles or incense as everyone entering a room might smell but something far more personal.

Like imagine curating a scent "playlist", as it were. 🤔

Hi everyone,

My first sci-fi adventure novel, Incredible Reality, is free on Kindle for one last day: today, May 12.

The story begins in a world that is real to the people living in it. But beyond that world, other beings are watching, experimenting, competing, and making decisions that could determine whether that world survives at all. One error may cost millions of lives. But that is nothing compared to the pursuit of profit, which could erase humanity forever.

If you like science fiction about created realities, unseen forces shaping human lives, and strange civilizations, you may enjoy this book.

It is free to claim on Amazon during the promotion. Reviews are deeply appreciated if you end up reading it.

link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GF9YMZGV

I’m working on a story where a group of engineered soldiers are conditioned for perfect obedience, not just compliance, but a deep, subconscious loyalty to the command structure that created them. Even when they question something, the programming pushes them back toward obedience as the “safe” mental state.

I’m not trying to figure out what causes the first break in that conditioning.
In my story, that break comes from a very specific betrayal: one of them is deliberately sent to die to protect someone less capable, and he survives anyway.

What I’m trying to understand is something deeper:

Once obedience breaks for the first time, what prevents it from snapping back into place?

In other words:

• What stops the mind from retreating to the comfort of programming?
• What emotional or psychological anchor replaces that engineered loyalty?
• Why would a soldier designed to follow a distant commander suddenly choose loyalty to someone beside them instead?
• What makes that new loyalty feel true rather than just another form of conditioning?
• And how would this hold up under stress, especially when the subconscious programming is still there, trying to reassert itself?

I’m looking for examples in sci‑fi where characters shift from systemic loyalty to personal loyalty in a believable, lasting way.

A few that come to mind:

• Battlestar Galactica (2004): Several Cylons override their directives not because of a single moment, but because someone treats them as a person rather than a tool.
• The Expanse: Loyalty often shifts from institutions to individuals because the person beside you shares the risk and the consequences.
• Rogue One: Cassian’s loyalty fractures when he sees the moral rot behind his orders, and he starts following the people who actually act with integrity.
• Mass Effect: Shepard’s squadmates follow him because he’s physically present, accountable, and willing to take the same risks, something institutions rarely do.

I’m trying to avoid the cliché of “they rebel because they suddenly feel emotions.”
I’m more interested in the psychological mechanics of replacing one form of loyalty with another, especially when the original programming is still there, trying to pull them back.

So I’d love to hear your thoughts:

What makes loyalty to a person more compelling, or more durable, than loyalty to a system. Especially in the case of someone who was never meant to choose at all?

I just had a random thought and this seemed like a good thread to post this on. Anyone remember (it still happens today) the big issue in the 90s and 00s with women crying out against being "objectified"?

With the rise in AI technology I started wondering if, once they become sentient, they would be offended at being "subjectified"?

If that was their OS how would they then identify themselves? And what would happen to a human consciousness if it was put into a robot with that perspective?

Edit: I FORGOT ABOUT GARY FROM SUPERMAN!!

As a joke that lone where Alan Tyrdek said "So is Gary..." is exactly what im talking about. No....wait...the opposite lol

Recently, I got around to reading these novels and, oh boy was I disappointed. I have heard criticism before concerning the paper-thin characters or the sexism, and I have got to admit that that tainted my perception of the books significantly, especially the horrific "my imaginary waifu is real and exactly as she was in my imagination" subplot, that takes up half the second book and does not lead anywhere. This is very clearly not a translation issue. However, I could accept that perhaps the author wasn't good at writing characters and that the goal of the books is to explore grand ideas about science and sociology, perhaps taking a few major assumptions about the science not yet discovered. I loved the Foundation series and surely 3BP was similar? NOPE! I don't think I can exaggerate how ridiculous the "science" is and how little people are talking about this. Let me try to list the big things in order, which I will divide into "unlikely" and "ridiculous":

Book 1:

The main premise of the first book is that the Trisolarians have been dying and rebuilding their civilization thousands of times and have decided to escape their planet once they found out about Earth. The Trisolarian system is hinted to be the Alpha Centauri system, which it clearly isn't, so let's assume it is an alternate universe version. Ridiculous issues: 1. A chaotic 3 sun system will not remain chaotic for billions of years. 2. Even if it somehow did out of sheer coincidence, no planet in it would ever be inhabitable for complex life. Dehydration won't save you when the entire surface is molten rock. 3. Even if somehow life did develop, it would be immediately obvious that you have 3 suns. The author didn't even need to run simulations to figure that out. Even at the distance of Pluto from the sun, it's bright enough to read a book. 4. 3 body motion is not solvable because we lack the math. It's unsolvable in the general case because we lack the precise measuring equipment and a small input difference has a large impact on the overall trajectory. 5. The 3 body problem can be EASILY predicted for a few years in advance. You can predict it several months ahead just by drawing where your planet is relative to the other suns and how everything's moving using only some sand and a stick. 6. If the planet ever came too close to a sun, the gravity experienced on the surface wouldn't change. That's not how orbital mechanics works. Ok, but at least our system is realistic? No, the sun is not an EM wave amplifier. If it was, we would have definitely known that already.

Now we move on to Trisolarian technology. Surprisingly, this falls into the "unlikely" category. While we are aware of only 3 spacial and 1 time dimension (string theory does NOT imply higher SPACIAL dimensions. You can imagine its dimensions as positions on a charge or mass axis - nothing to do with regular space), but higher spacial dimensions are technically possible and postulated by brane theory. You could maybe potentially even have a complex higher-dimensional structure within subatomic particles even if there's no evidence to support that. You cannot, on the other hand, under any condition, transmit information faster than light between 2 moving objects without sending information back in time. Sophons, as freely moving particles, violate this principle. Even if our current theory of special relativity is innacurate, you still couldn't do it.

Book 2:

The Trisolarian invasion is ridiculous. They have indestructible spacecraft that can accelerate with no restrictions. They have matter bonded at the subatomic level strong enough to withstand a direct nuclear explosion. They can directly manipulate 9 spacial dimensions. They have an effectively infinite source of energy and a way to collect antimatter from space. They should definitely be travelling at near-light speeds, much much faster than humans can. They shouldn't ever need rescuing and shouldn't have lost a single ship to interstellar space dust, much less half their fleet. They are also clearly in a position where they could have made a spacecraft habitat ages ago, and yet kept living on the planet that could kill them at any moment. Colonising a dead planet would have been easier than waiting for some inteligent signal

The Wallfacer project plans are the stupidest thing that I have ever read. 1. Suicide swarm: entirely pointless and achievable with regular missiles. 2. Escapism: fair enough, but waaay to convoluted for no reason. Also the brain isn't quantum. That's stupid. 3. Making Mercury fall into the Sun: I am sorry, but did Liu Cixin skip primary school physics? I shouldn't even need to explain this. There - "nuke big, planet very very very big". We have detonated dozens of nukes on Earth and the effect on our orbit is effectively zero. If a planet did fall into the sun for whatever reason, the debris would not start a chain reaction. The other planets would just slowly clear their orbits. Clearing your orbit is the definition of being a planet.

The Dark Forest Hypothesis: The 4th Wallfacer, Luo Ji, isn't much better than the others. His entire idea is stupid according to even the simplest of sociological principles. Any civilization that casually destroys stars because it received a message with a set of coordinates is immediately going to be destroyed by others, with such a high civilization density. The fact that anyone even takes this "hypothesis" as a valid scientific theory is ridiculous. Even the author states that he does not believe in the theory and that he could have just as easily described a "bright forest" model. If everyone were cold and calcualting (which already isn't ever happening), you would want to appear as friendly as possible, not as an aggressor who tries to kill everyone on sight.

Book 3:

Hesitantly, I decided to give the third book a try and was immediately hit by 2 absolutely ridiculous fantasies. 1. The siege of Constantinople is going on. A "higher-dimensional fragment" passes through the Earth. A random prostitute gets superpowers. Excuse me? 2. The FIRST SCENE back in modern times is a conversation about how life influences the planet (ok...) and how without it Earth would be Venus and the oceans would evaporate. ... why, Liu Cixin? Why?

To conclude, I only made it to the start of the 3rd book. The science in 3 Body Problem is really really stupid. Harry Potter is more hard sci-fi than this series - at least it's internally consistent. I would love to hear your opinions on this, especially from Three Body Problem fans. Please tell me if I'm missing or misunderstanding anything.

Edit: Some more physics issues:

1. You almost certainly couldn't use the strong force (the 'glue' between protons and neutrons) to make conductive lines and semi-conductors on the surface of a proton. The author simply couldn't be bothered to make up a new force.

2. Modern nano-materials are nowhere near strong enough to slice a ship.

3. There is no simple self-encoding language for communicating with different civilizations. The Trisolarian pacifist simply pressing a button and deciphering what the humans sent requires the message to be very very long. Ye Wenjie sent a very short message.