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I love Sci fi but I'm very picky

Most of my favourite books/movies/TV shows are Sci fi - I love Mary Shelley, slaughterhouse five, annihilation (both the book and the movie), The Thing, x files, the invasion, and the OA. This feels like a pretty wide variety of writing styles when I line them up but 90% of the sci fi I read/watch I just don't enjoy at all. It's a shame because when I love something sci fi I feel like it's changed my whole life, but when it comes to finding new things I can just enjoy its easier to go through other genres. Is anyone else like this? Does anyone have reccomendations based on what I do like?

48 comments
  • The common factor seems to be more grounded Earth-based sci-fi with a smidge of horror and perhaps some mystery, rather than space battles.

    In that case, films and TV:

    • Early Cronenberg up to eXistenZ (perhaps Crimes of the Future, if you really like that)
    • Society
    • The Faculty
    • Save the Green Planet
    • Under the Skin
    • They Live
    • The Mist
    • A Quiet Place
    • Cube series
    • Slither
    • Splice
    • Splinter
    • The Reanimator series
    • From Beyond
    • Phantasm series
    • Tetsuo
    • Cloverfield (and 10 Cloverfield Lane)
    • The Host
    • Predator series
    • The Void
    • Fringe TV series, as you liked The X-Files. I presume you have watched Millennium?
    • BrainDead (2016 TV series)
    • The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker TV series
    • Truthseekers (2020 TV series)
    • Lovecraft Country - book and series
    • Eerie Indiana
    • Ultraviolet (1998 UK TV series)
    • Tokyo Gore Police and others by the same team, like Meatball Machine and Machine Girl
    • Gantz
    • The Girl With All the Gifts - book and series
    • Timecrimes
    • Pi
    • Bad Taste
    • Grabbers
    • Body Melt
    • Wild Zero
    • Pontypool
    • The Objective
    • District 9
    • Firebase and have a look at the others they have done, especially Zygote
    • Love, Death and Robots
    • Matango
    • Xtro
    • John Dies at the End - read the books first
    • Frankenstein's Army
    • Overlord
    • Quatermass and the Pit, as well as other Quatermass films and series
    • The Deadly Spawn
    • The Man With X-ray Eyes
    • Village of the Damned (1960)
    • The Illustrated Man (1969)
    • Take Shelter

    And one with spaceships in it: Starship Troopers

    • That goes a little too hard into horror, so also try:

      • The Truman Show
      • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
      • Looper
      • Source Code
      • Minority Report
      • 12 Monkeys
      • Donnie Darko
      • Vanilla Sky
      • Dark City
      • Being John Malkovich

      Although they are all pretty obvious. Might have to ponder this more.

      edit: also:

      • The Arrival (1996) - instead of Arrival that I'll assume you've seen
      • Resident Alien - TV series and comics
      • How to Talk to Girls at Parties
      • Rupture (2016)
      • The Watch (2012)
      • Alien Raiders (2008)
      • Threshold (2005 TV series)
      • Invasion (2005 TV series)
      • The Forgotten (2004)
      • This is a great list!

        12 monkeys is also a series. It's not as good as the movie, but still amazing.

        Edit: more into the light scifi genre, Jennifer Government

    • Adding to this, Devolution by Max Brooks. Book only

      I also like earth based hard sci-fi with some mystery and horror. This book hits all three points, and is very character driven on top of that.

  • Have you read any Iain M Banks’ The Culture novels? Incredible writing. Most of his books have interesting twists in them, some of which will fuck you up. They are the type of books that you wish you could read again for the first time. The author died in 2013 so there are no more coming.

    • Consider Phlebas
    • The Player of Games
    • Use of Weapons
    • The State of the Art
    • Excession
    • Inversions
    • Look to Windward
    • Matter
    • Surface Detail
    • The Hydrogen Sonata

    Other SF books by Banks:

    • Against a Dark Background
    • Feersum Endjinn
    • The Algebraist
  • Some of my all time favorites:

    • Project Hail Marry, Andy Weir. He did "the Martian", similar tone of semi-hard sci-fi with a healthy dose of cheeky humor. Much bigger and more interesting scope.
    • Seveneves, Neil Stevenson. Absolutely amazing read. Pretty heavy at times.
    • The wool ombinus and shift, Hugh Howly. It's the series the silo show is based off of. Absolutely fantastic. They're doing a great job with the show but I love the books. One comment: The first book, the wool "omnibus" started as some short stories that Howly just kind of did out of passion. For better or worse, the series tends to get a bit lighter as it goes on because Howly started finding success and I think was just in a better place in life. Those first few chapters of the omnibus (which used to be their own stories) hit like a freight train. When reading remember originally you didn't have the benefit of feeling how many pages were left in the in the book; that gut punch was the end. That was it. There was no more.

    For series:

    • Startrek strange new worlds is perfect if you like trek. It's exactly the right level of camp, but still gets weird. It's hard to explain, and it might not be your cup of tea, but they really captured some of what made TOS magical.
    • The expanse show is amazing. Especially if you like it when people treat space realistically. I mean, it's still fiction but they put a lot into what both surviving and commuting in space would be like. It's like when Europeans started coming to the Americas: You could do it, the boat could handle it, but it was pretty rough.
    • If you liked the Anhelation move, American Gods might be worth a try for you. Same kind of dreamy feel. I don't know if I'd really call it "sci-fi" but it's weird and wonderful and visually amazing.
    • For all mankind is fantastic, but different seasons may be divisive for some viewers lol. I loved them all in different ways
    • Fringe was an absolutely modernized x-files for a while
    • Legion is trippy as hell and one of those "you'll love it or hate it" shows.
    • Pennyworth is a weird romp through steam-punk through 50s/60s London and a lot of fun (it's barley connected to anything batman)
    • Doom patrol is another fantastic odd one that you'll know pretty quickly is or isn't for you
    • Severence. I would have been happier if they told the story as a 1 season shot but it's a great ride
    • edit: wanted to add some love for my boo Stargate. It's campy at times. It's corny at times. But I loved all of them, SG-1, Atlantis, and yes even SGU. You should be aware though that SG-1 and Atlantis are tonally pretty easy breezy, and SGU made a hard right in quasi-grimdark territory. I loved it but it's divisive for that reason.

    Movies:

    • Moon. The one with Sam Rockwell. Absolutely fantastic.
    • Contact, with Jodi Foster. Not exactly obscure but doesn't get the mentions it deserves.
    • AI is worth a re-watch with some context. It's best viewed as Kubricks last film. Movies with Mikey did a great episode on it that had me appreciate it way more
    • Ex_Machina is really well done, even if the central point had a much shorter shelf life than anyone expected when it came out.
    • Gattaca, if only because it absolutley nailed an uncomfortable amount of things.
    • predstination
    • The newer planet of the apes trilogy. There's no shortage of praise for this one but I feel like it still flys under some peoples radar as another popcorn schlock cash grab
    • Sunshine. An absolutley brutal and beautifully done hard sci-fi watch.
    • Vivarium. If you like the feeling of being in liminal space this is a feature length film that will give you that.
    • In this order: "resolution" (2013), "The endless" (2018),
    • The void
  • so, shameless plug for my favorite scif movie- the Day the Earth Stood Still. the 1950's version, not the remake.

    It's not action, it;s more drama. it's also a classic for a reason and it;s still poignantly relevant.

  • If you liked Annihilation, give Roadside Picnic a try.

    Also I have a feeling you might be looking for a more literary style, so I recommend Robert Silverberg as a start.

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