Sci-Fi Books For Beginners

I am finally bringing to you my beginner’s guide to sci-fi because I know it can be an intimidating genre. After all, it’s so vast and if you’re not already reading sci-fi, you might not know where to start. So I didn’t want to make it like a list of like classic sci-fi that everyone’s always talking about, so I tried to organize it in a way that is like, if you usually like this type of book, try this one.

1.     The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

I wanted to start with this one because I feel like a lot of pool would enjoy it, it’s a feel-good book. It’s a character, driven, it’s not action-packed and I feel like people that enjoyed those contemporaries' “why” books that are everywhere. You would enjoy this one and it is The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. So, like I said it’s a feel-good character-driven book, you follow your crew of humans and aliens in space, and what they’re doing is not what’s important. The best part is the characters, their relationship together and there’s a lot of diversity, there’s, a bunch of aliens and the way they’re all super different in culture, and their species, and you will laugh. You will cry it’s popular for a reason on here and I think a lot of all should try it because it’s technically an adult sci-fi, but I feel like it’s in-between. Why an adult and I know once again a lot will read a lot. Why not a lot of adults and again are intended, so this one is just a no-brainer, I had to recommend it.

2.     Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

The only classic I needed to talk about is the mixed one because it’s again very good. If you are someone that already reads a lot of contemporary fiction and you’re, trying to dip your toe into the whole sci-fi thing, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, and in this book, you are following in character, Charlie, who has an unusually low IQ and he’s still a functioning adult, but he takes part into an experiment that will increase, is IQ and the whole book is written into a journal entry. So, whenever you’re, starting at the book, there’s a bunch of mistakes and it’s written like a child – would write, and then, as the story progresses, IQ increases and it’s such a great book, it’s a classic for a reason. I think a lot of fools will enjoy it’s one of the only books that has ever made me cry. I don’t cry easily and I shed a few tears here. So I think a lot of people that enjoy reading adult contemporary literary fiction will enjoy this one. It’s soft sci-fi.

3.     Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Still in the same vein, contemporary at not action-packed is Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel and this is the least action-packed post-apocalyptic book I have ever read so in this one you’re, following people before a little bit during, and after a super fluke a bit killed. They never give you an exact number, but something like 95 percent of the population, so you’re following a few people that are recreating Shakespeare’s play and they are going like from pocket of humanity to the next one kind of just doing that trying to entertain people like I said very character-driven, you just learn more and more about the characters. If you like things that are like a slice of life, you would enjoy them. You kind of learn the link between those people, as the story goes by and I think it’s a very interesting take on the whole post-apocalyptic first thing when I first finish it, I was like not mind blown because once again, I do like post-apocalyptic but they’re usually so action-packed so like everyone trying to kill everyone, and it’s less about that in this one, but it’s something that stuck with me and I keep thinking two years later. I still think about it so, I think a lot of you would enjoy it if you already enjoyed contemporaries.

4.     The Humans by Matt Haig

The next one I finished recently and I giggled like a madwoman when I was reading it, I didn’t expect it but enjoyed The Humans by Matt Haig and honestly, if you get this, please don’t do my mistake and get the Edition with that weird thing humans have on their faces. They have an edition with a cute dog on it recommend getting that one, because, yes, there is a cute dog in the book, which is a character. It is important which is yes, but this one is like a mix of a funny book and, at the same time, being kind of literary fiction, you’re following a character who is an alien sent to earth, but you killed someone that just made a maths discovery discovered an equation that will bring humanity a lot of new technology that we are not ready for, but aliens are making sure that we don’t go too fast too far, so he is sent here as a punishment to kill that person, and then he takes his body And then he has to kill everyone that has been told about set equations, so it has to discover what it is to be human, so in the beginning, is funny and then becomes more and more serious a little bit more literary a little bit more philosophy calls so. Yes, I enjoyed this book.

5.     Replay by Ken Grimwood

I would recommend reading it if there’s something that you are into the last book in that section is Replay by Ken Grimwood and it is following a 43-year-old man who has had you know very average life, he has a wife and he’s talking to her on the phone and he dies from heart attack and then next thing he knows, he’s waking up in his own body at age 18 and he’s reliving his life over and over again because of a little bit of a twist there. But I don’t want to give too much information. I’m saying it’s a bit more, literary in the sense that he’s thinking of how he can influence humanity in life, and I think, a lot of the choices he made sense. I felt sometimes whenever you’re reading something that has that plot. Do you do a lot of crazy stuff that you wouldn’t do or do think or don’t do things that you would do, and he Gamble’s and try to make money, which is what most people would do. I feel like it leaves the first life you relive, so yes, I would recommend this one. If that’s something you are into it’s an adult book, but I enjoy that one again, something that will stick with you.

6.     The First 15 lives of Harry August by Claire North

So if you like its premise like this, but you need something that might be a bit more action-packed. I have to talk about The First 15 lives of Harry August by Claire North and in this one you’re following Harry August, as he relives his life over and over again, these two books are different, though, because he is part of a group of people. I think they’re like point zero percent of the population that relive their life over and over again, however, you don’t change body, you always wake up in the same body at the same time, so technically, there’s no like time travel is always in the same period, but I think this one would be something a lot of people are into. If you usually like you know action kind of spy movies because in this one there’s like his enemy, who is trying to change the future and trying to accelerate things too fast, and it’s killing other people in the future. So he has to try and figure out who and how? It happens to try to stop him.

However, I do want to mention that I don’t think again. It would be the first one. I would recommend to someone that reads a lot of why, or at least just warning you that there’s a lot of back and forth between these few lives, because, if you have lived like 12-15 times, your brain probably doesn’t work like the average person. So sometimes you can get a little confused like which life are we talking about? What’s the point of it, and I feel you it’s still very like it made sense, I feel, like your brain, would start working a little bit more like that anyway. I totally would recommend this one if you are looking for someone that relives his life over and over again, but you want something a bit more action-packed.

7.     Wool by Hugh Howey

So you know how I mentioned this one is a bit more like spy movies and crime and something more intense.  If you are someone that loves police crime-solving and everything, I would recommend checking out Wool Bye Hug. Oh, this book is taking five different stories in one book and I thought the first two or three are very, very like you’re following a police officer. So it will give you time to get used to the whole post-apocalyptic thing because in this one you’re following a group of people who now live in Silos because went to shit, you can’t live outside anymore. So people are just stuck in those silos and so every time someone commits a crime they are sent outside to just clean a window and go and die. But nobody understands why people don’t just walk away without cleaning your window. So that’s the kind of the first mystery of the first story, so I feel like, if you usually like those type of like police things you would enjoy at this, take on post-apocalyptic the first two short stories as soon as they were done.

8.     Wayward Pines by Blake Crouch

I was like, I need to continue another series that it’s kind of a mix of mystery thriller and sci-fi that I enjoyed is the Wayward Pines Trilogy. I binge-read the whole thing and I feel like if you enjoy the first one you will want to binge text so in the first book, which is pines by Blake Crouch you’re following a Secret Service agent who is sent to a small town called Wayward Pines because two of his colleagues went there and disappeared and he has to investigate and figure out what happened and when he gets there things were weird, like imagine like the whole, like small-town vibes that everyone staring at you you don’t know what’s going on nobody’s helping him nobody’s giving him the answers, he’s asking for and yeah there’s a twist to it. I don’t want to give anything up but again, like I said, trailer, mystery sci-fi.

We recommend it if you loved the first one. You will love the whole trilogy. There is a TV show, the first season is kind of close, but not the second one. I much prefer the trilogy, so it would work about this. It read like a TV show it’s pretty much like a strip, so it’s like you are at the edge of your seat. You can’t stop. You need to finish it.

9.     Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

If you’re, someone that prefers a flowery prose type of writing he’s not an author but I enjoyed it, and speaking of that, a second book from the same author Dark Matter. This is a trailer sci-fi and you will not want to put it down. You will just devour the whole thing if it’s something that you enjoyed because you’re following the main character – and he has you – know very average life. He has a wife, he has his son, he’s a teacher and then he gets kidnapped and he wakes up and his wife is not his wife. His son doesn’t exist and he’s not the same person that he was and he’s trying to figure out what’s going on and try to go back to them and just you know, mystery trailer, sci-fi, don’t want to say too much about it, because I think it’s better if you go blind, but he realizes that every decision in his life changes the course of it.

10.  Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel

So yeah speaking of action-packed, I needed to mention Sleeping Giants. This is the first book. Indeed, the third book just came out, so you will be able to binge-read the whole thing. These books are kind of hard to describe without saying too much because they are fairly short and they’re all in like interview style or like files, a little bit like illuminate. That is a Weiss. I find a lot of cool I’ve been talking about, and this is also something you will not be able to put down you’re following a group of people, including a scientist when she was a kid, she fell into a big hole and she woke up into the big hand of a robot and when she becomes an adult she ends up working on it.

I figure out, where the rest of the set is and think giant robots are aliens. That kind of the series – and I do think a lot of people would enjoy it, it’s kind of a great way to just start to Scifi, which is the goal of this article.

11.  Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

And last but not least, I wanted to mention this book that I also read recently and I think a lot of people would enjoy it if you’re someone that loves reading mysteries, you like to try to figure out who murdered who did it, Why? but you want to get into sci-fi. You need to read the Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton. The U.S. version is coming out and it’s going to be called seven and a half debts, but in this book, you are thrown into the story.

So I’m kind of giving you a little bit of an idea of what it is about because otherwise, you get a little confused for the first like fifty pages, but the main character has eight days to figure out who killed Adeline Hardcastle because it’s going to look like a suicide at like 11 o’clock every night she kills herself and he has like, I said, eight days to figure it out and every day he relives the same day over and over again. However, every day he wakes up in a different body, so Easter in this big house, which there is the little thing on the first page. So you can see the house where everyone sleeps, there’s an event at the party.

That’s why there are so many people there, but he doesn’t know who his other bodies are. He doesn’t know who is trying to kill him and he has to stay alive, because if his body is killed, he will have to wake up in the next body, and again he only has eight days to figure it out. I thought it was such an interesting take on the whole, like murder, mystery if you’re someone that played a lot of clues growing up, you will most likely enjoy this one. This is going to, be it.

I hope you enjoyed my beginner’s guide to sci-fi.