Book recommendations
Books and media highlighted in bold are the best of this list.
They appear in order of preference, while other entries on this list are sorted alphabetically.
Only the first book in a series is listed, except for special cases, but the entire series usually carries the same recommendation.
Content marked with a ◊ contains content that may be distressing, beyond that which you might normally find in average fantasy or science fiction books.
Books
- Monstrous Regiment (Discworld #31), Terry Pratchett ‡
- Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb #1), Tamsyn Muir ‡
- Voyage from Yesteryear, James P. Hogan
- The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect, Roger Williams (online) ◊
- Consider Phlebas (Culture #1), Iain M. Banks
- And Shall Machines Surrender (Machine Mandate #1), Benjanun Sriduangkaew ‡
- All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1), Martha Wells
- Annihilation (The Southern Reach #1), Jeff VanderMeer
- A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan #1), Arkady Martine ‡
- Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch #1) Ann Leckie
- Children of Time (Children of Time #1), Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Cinderella Is Dead, Kalynn Bayron ‡
- Constellation Games, Leonard Richardson
- Crier’s War (Crier’s War #1), Nina Varela ‡
- Dragonoak: The Complete History of Kastelir (Dragonoak, #1) Sam Farren ‡
- Glasshouse, Charlie Stross
- Good Omens, Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
- His Majesty’s Dragon (Temeraire #1), Naomi Novik
- Hunting Party (Serrano Legacy #1), Elizabeth Moon ◊
- Into the Storm (Destroyermen #1), Taylor Anderson
- Prador Moon (Polity #1), Neal Asher
- Redshirts, John Scalzi
- Revenger (Revenger #1), Alastair Reynolds
- Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
- Sweet & Bitter Magic, Adrienne Tooley ‡
- The Atrocity Archives (The Laundry Files #1), Charlie Stross
- The Collapsing Empire (The Interdependency #1), John Scalzi
- The Dragon’s Path (The Dagger and the Coin #1), Daniel Abraham
- The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
- The Reality Dysfunction (Night’s Dawn #1), Peter F. Hamilton ◊
- This Quest is Broken! (This Trilogy is Broken #1), J. P. Valentine
- To Be Taught, If Fortunate, Becky Chambers ‡
- To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, Christopher Paolini
- Tuf Voyaging, George RR Martin
- Winterglass (Her Pitiless Command #1), Benjanun Sriduangkaew ‡
Other written fiction
Online fiction
Not all fiction fits into a neat category, but these hard-to-categorise entries are some of my very favorite stories.
Young adult fiction
The book series that I grew up on. I think they aged well.
- Mortal Engines (series), Philip Reeve
- The Edge Chronicles (series), Chris Riddell and Paul Stewart
- The Old Kingdom (series), Garth Nix
- Artemis Fowl (series), Eoin Colfer
- Chaos Walking (series), Patrick Ness ◊
- Ptolemy’s Gate (series), Jonathan Stroud
Comic books
The comic books I grew up with. Some of them have not aged well.
- Scott Pilgrim, Bryan Lee O’Malley
- Transmetropolitan, Warren Ellis
- Global Frequency, Warren Ellis
- All-Star Superman, Grant Morrison
- Preacher, Garth Ennis ◊
- R.E.D., Warren Ellis
- Superman: Red Son, Mark Millar
- Switchblade Honey, Warren Ellis
- The Boys, Garth Ennis
- WE3, Grant Morrison
Interactive and visual fiction
Games
A very short list of the games I love for their stories, rather than everything I’ve enjoyed playing.
- Death Stranding (2019), Kojima Productions
- The Talos Principle (2014) and The Talos Principle 2 (2023), Croteam
- Dwarf Fortress (2006), Tarn Adams and Zach Adams
- Divinity: Original Sin 2 (2017), Larian Studios
- Dishonoured (2012), Arkane Studios
- Fallen London (2009–), Failbetter Games
- Final Fantasy XIV (2013–), Square Enix
- Firewatch (2016), Campo Santo
- NieR:Automata (2017), PlatinumGames
Films and television
Not the films I like, but the films I love.
- Speed Racer (2008), The Wachowski Sisters
- Knives Out (2019), Rian Johnson
- Love Death + Robots (2019)