Four of the Best Recent Science Fiction Novels to Read

SPACE - Image (modified) by Alexander Andrews

In the past years my interest in science fiction has grown. Maybe because sometimes I feel like living in a vision of the future already. Here are four good examples of pretty recent novels - all of them have been made into major movies or TV-series.

1. Andy Weir - The Martian (2011)

Known through the movie (2015) with Matt Damon in which protagonist Mark Watney finds himself stranded on Mars, the book was first selfpublished as a serial on Weirs blog, before it became an international bestseller. Weir researched extensively to make the book's content scientifically plausible (later confirmed by an employee of NASA). The book tells the story of an engineer who is left behind alone on Mars. He has to use all his wits and optimism to "work all the problems" he faces. The movie is quite funny. The book, told in log entries, much more so. Andy Weir followed with the novels "Artemis" (2017) and "Project Hail Mary" (2021), this one to be released as a movie starring Ryan Gosling as middle school teacher becoming world-saving astronaut. Both books are worth reading, especially the latter.

2. Liu Cixin - The Three-Body Problem (2008)

The Three-Body Problem became internationally famous when it was chosen by David Benioff und D.B. Weiss as their next project after creating the TV-Series "A Game of Thrones". Before that the novel had already been very successful in China. Here we stay on Earth but are faced with an alien species that has somehow arrived in the minds of some people. The aliens have left their own instable world in a nearby solar system, trying to reach Earth in the next 400 years. They aim to stop Earth-science from developing so that humankind won't destroy their fleet of spaceships before arrival. During the cultural revolution a Chinese scientist discovers them, but keeps silent despite being warned, because she believes that humans have no future. This book is not funny at all, but very intense and provokes challenging political and philosophical thoughts.

3. Martha Wells - All Systems Red (2017)

This novella is shorter than novel-length, but I'm adding it anyway. It was particularly successfull in the audiobook version read by Kevin R. Free. The first installment of the Murderbot Diaries tells the story of a security cyborg, a "SecUnit" that has hacked its own intelligence and is hence able to think (and sort of feel) free of human control. The specialty of this cyborg is killing, its passion is watching mediastreams, basically soap operas and it wants nothing more than to be left in peace to do this for days on end. The cyborg seems at times like an emotionally handicapped human, trying to decipher the signals of people and other computers without really knowing how to do this. In the first installment the murderbot has to save a group of scientists it is bodyguarding and grows attached to them. This book is very funny and had me laughing out loud on a regular basis. A TV Series starring Alexander Skarsgård was released on Apple TV+ in 2025.

4. John Sandford with Ctein - Saturn Run (2015)

Pulitzer Price winner John Sandford has written more than 50 novels, most of them crime thrilllers, since the late 80's. For Saturn Run he teamed up the Ctein, who was responsible to make the science in this novel as bulletproof as possible. The world in 2066: A rich surferboy and secrect special forces soldier discovers an Alien spaceship close to Saturn. Just the size of the ship tells a story of extraordinary (and dangerous) power. The United States build a spacecraft with VASIMIR electrothermal thrusters to go take a look and get as much alien technology as possible, trying to beat the Chinese who have a spaceship ready, but are using a different form of engine propulsion. A  fastpaced and interesting take on live in space and the covering of great distances using the knowledge of physics we have today. Sandfords solution for the meeting between humans and aliens is very clever.   

And Come They Did - Stephen King: Fairy Tale

My choices of reading matter must seem weird from the outside. I read both Nobel, Pulitzer and Bookerprize winners and what many people consider Pulp Fiction. For example Amercian writer John D. MacDonald of whom I'd read more if there were more than his roughly 50 novels.

When I look for new books the only method that works is: start reading. After a short time I get a feel for the sound of a book. If I like the sound, I keep reading, if I don't - most of the time I stop. Off course I can be wrong and might miss a great book. But every time I think: "Let's keep reading, this could still become good!" - I stop anyway after 50 more pages. It's not about quality. It's about taste. My own, weird taste.

Because of my method I try not to read blurbs. I don't want to know what's coming. I prefer to know if I like the sound and then explore a book like a completely unchartered country. A few weeks ago I hit gold. A book with great sound (in two senses, as you will see) and with a content that kept surprising me until it was almost over. You've read it in the headline: Stephen King's "Fairy Tale" is such a book. 

Before I come to that, allow me to say a few words about Mr. King. He's without a doubt a master. One of the mostread writers of all time, likely to surpass J.K.Rowling and with a productivity that astonishes all writers who try to match him. Like many Teenagers I read some of his books already when I was 13, though I wasn't so much into "It", "Pet Cemetery" or "The Shining" like most of my peers. 

"Christine" left deep impressions on me. I could very much relate to the main character Arnie, a somewhat classical nerdy looser, who, if you care to look beyond the horrorparts, is finely drawn and very alive. "The Long Walk" is another masterpiece, written under the pseudonym Richard Bachmann. The simple formular to reduce 100 boys to one through endless walking is done in a perfection that hasn't lost its appeal to me after four readings. The few strokes with which Mr. King draws a picture of the United States as dictatorship are also state of the art writers economy - and, believe it or not - poetic as well. Another book, an early one, that I've liked immensely is "Salem's Lot", a vampire story that keeps shocking and surprising its readers to the point where ... I won't spoil here: Better read it, if you haven't already.

So: "Fairy Tale". I didn't read it, I listened to it. Having a cold and headaches I needed something to keep me entertained while resting my eyes and my tired body. So I browsed audiobooks in my local online library and found "Fairy Tale" read by Seth Numrich. What luck for me. I liked the sound of Mr. Kings writing (which isn't the case with all of his works): the book feels like the late work of someone who knows his craft to the core and doesn't have a thing left to prove to the world. His pacing is cool and immaculate: Calmly detailed and yet moving forward with tension in every sentence. I also liked Mr. Numrichs voice, his sound and his rhythm - a beat that might feel strange to some people because it halts and swings at the same time. It went right into my head and my heart. 

For me it parallels with Stephem Fry's reading of the Harry Potter books, which I enjoyed like none other so far. Mr. Fry had a way of capturing both the heart and emotional warmth and the humor of Harry Potter.

There isn't much humor in "Fairy Tale", but Mr. Numrich is so convincing as Charlie Reade and all the people that pass through the story (not to mention the animals, lead by a German shepherd named Radar, whose soul has been caught in words like hardly a dog's before him), that I wanted to follow along from word one. I didn't know anything about the story but its title and the bookcover. It is, indeed, a fairy tale and no horror story even though the master can't help himself. Lucky me for not knowing a thing. The story keeps changing. When I thought: "Ok, I know what's going on here!" I discovered, that I still had three quarters to go and a dead main charakter left plenty of space for new surprises to come. And come they did.