The Murderbot Diaries are some of my favourite novellas. They are a lot more interesting than the title may suggest too so highly recommend.
this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2024
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At that length, try Cat's Cradle, by Vonnegut. It's debatable how "hard it hits", with that being subjective, but it's one of those books that can change how you think about what books can/should bring to the table.
If you don't mind reading books meant for a younger audience, try bridge to terabithia. I still can't read it without crying, and it's a very fast read.
If you want light, silly fantasy, try any of the first ten or so books in the Xanth series by Piers Anthony. Yeah, he catches some flak from his rather unusual choices, but they're easy to ignore if you take them in the spirit of the series.
Same with any of the castle perilous series, by John Dechancie.
It's kinda hard to be certain what a given person can read in a single day, so I'm kinda going with stuff that I can finish in less than that, given a lack of interruption.
I read all of Piers Anthony and I kind of regret it, but his body of work just joins hundreds of other trashy novels that I read. I don't really read as much junk as I used to.
For my own recommendation, I'd probably go with Mistborn. It's reasonably short and pretty fun to read without being awful.
For a completely different kind of novel The Secret Life of Bees is really quite wonderful.
That's a tough one.
Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett was my first foray into the Diskworld so it's special to me, but also just a great book.
Neuromancer by William Gibson blew me away. It first defined so many things that are now Cyberpunk and SciFi tropes.
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson is probably my favourite discovery in recent years - the whole series was just so much fun.
The Expanse by James S. A. Corey, absolute SciFi banger. Politics, intrigue, war, amazing characters, insane setpieces... cried more than once during my read.
Discworld is a strong recommendation from me as well, though Guards Guards is my preferred starting point
This reading order guide is quite good, though I'm pretty sure the note saying where the author said to start is wrong. IIRC, Pratchett's recommendation was to start at Mort, skip Sourcery, and read through chronologically.
I also highly recommend the Orconomics trilogy. It's clever, witty, satirical, and very, very Pratchettesque.
I feel with discworld there's so much material, and all of it is mooostly standalone readable (?) that i havent had any issues.
I'd say the rincewind stories are an ok starting point too, but i think the characters are extra whacky if you aren't used to the world. Guards guards is probably good, but i just grabbed men at arms at the book shop on a whim knowing next to nothing about it
I'm going to second your first two and add a random two:
The First Fourteen Lives of Harry August, Claire North
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared, Jonas Jonasson
Generation X by Douglas Copeland
Virtual Light by William Gibson
The Ocean at The End of The Lane by Neil Gaiman
Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Summerland by Hannu Rajaniemi
Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
Project Hail Mary by Ansy Weir Guards, Guards or Mort by Terry Pratchett Murderbot diaries by Martha wells Miniatures by John scalzi Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy by Douglas adams
Wow, you just listed the top books in my own library!
Juust gonna check the monoxide levels in my home…
Off the top of my head some shorter books:
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol, Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis, Post Office by Charles Bukowski, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev, Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie, The Hammer of God by Arthur C. Clarke.
If you’re looking for shorter fiction, try the stories of Jorge Luis Borges.
The Dresden Files: A wizard working as a detective in Chicago. Fun, pulpy, and has an expanding world and scope as the series goes on. Often described as Harry Potter for adults.
Children of Time: Humans escaping a dying earth encounter a planet where a terraforming project accidentally created sapient spiders. Very thoughtful and creative. Explores the evolution of the spiders as a species and civilization and the ways they would be both similar and different from humans.
Dungeon Crawler Carl: OK, this is a hard one to describe in a blurb, but basically aliens invaded and turned earth into a massive reality show / video game. Our pantsless hero Carl and his cat Donut are among the survivors being whittled down level by level in an insane fantasy dungeon crawl. Has much better world building and character development than you would ever expect, is compelling while also being hilarious, and despite the very dark subject matter, it stays fun and avoids getting bogged down by misery. I highly recommend the audiobook version as it is absolutely first rate and adds so much more to the experience.
War of the Worlds: The adaptations have never done thr original justice. It's a simple story, but very effective. And I just have a soft spot for really old classic sci-fi, what with the lumbering mechanical monstrocities and their heat rays assaulting pre-WWI military units.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - by Heinlein who also wrote Starship Troopers. Starship Troopers is also great and pretty different from the movie
Isn't the Starship Troopers novel what the movie was satirizing?
The Forever War