I started reading last year, mostly productivity stuff, but now I’m really looking to jump into fiction to unwind after a long week of uni, studying, and work. I need something to help me relax during the weekends without feeling like I’m working.
I’d love some recommendations for books that are short enough to finish in a day but still hit hard and are totally worth it. No specific genre preferences right now. I’m open to whatever. Looking forward to seeing what you guys suggest. Thank you very much in advance.
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The Lady Astronaut series by Mary Robinette Kowal. The first book is called The Calculating Stars. Basically, an alternate history where (spoiler for the opening chapter) ::: spoiler spoiler a meteor wipes out the east coast and kick-starts climate change, causing the Space Age to start 10 years early. ::: It follows a Jewish computer (a woman who literally runs calculations for NASA, as seen in Hidden Figures) who wants to become an astronaut, and her struggles with the racism and misogyny of the 1950s.
Recommend high quality short stories. Edgar Allen Poe has a collection that is some of the most thrilling, mysterious and fun, imaginative, adventurous, grotesque and other depending on the story. https://www.amazon.com/Edgar-Allan-Poe-Complete-Collection/dp/1453643141
Robert Louis Stevenson was also a fantastic writer of short stories.https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Short-Stories-Robert-Stevenson/dp/030680882X
I like short stories sometimes as I can’t commit to a larger read.
murderbot series is fantastic, I love every single entry in the series so far, and they’re not very long or unnecessarily complicated; you can finish one in a day or two easy.
The first entry is called “All systems red”
The Locked Tomb series is refreshing. It’s weird, it’s fun, it’s dark, and it’s trash, but it’s trash that the author is having fun with.
Discworld is also just amazing
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It and its sequel Children of Ruin both explore what it means to be a person and makes you feel empathy for “the other”, beings that get more and more alien as the story moves on. Compared to most of what others mention here it is rather new. But it will become a cult classic, I am certain of that.
That’s a great series. I recommended the first book to everyone I know after reading it. For another amazing story of compassion that circles around from everything from horror, to Kant, to AI intelligence, to religious extremism before it gets there, read The Hyperion Cantos.
Currently half way through the last of the 4 (Rise of Endymion) … fantastic series!
The End of Eternity (Asimov) might be short enough for you, and has some interesting ideas about the implications of time travel.
Someone else already suggested it, but I would second Terry Pratchett. Even though most of the books are standalone, I recommend start with the Colour of Magic and follow publication order.
And the entire collection is on sale right now.
$18 for all 39 books.
Another vote for Pratchett! I’m an economics fan, and making money happened to be my introduction, but there are far more common onramps.
My personal suggestion for getting a feel of Pratchett’s writing these days is monstrous regiment - technically in the discworld series, but it’s very standalone, so you get the flavor of the writing with little of the need for additional context.
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is the most impactful book I’ve ever read. It completely changed my perspective of the system I was born into. A Farewell to Arms is the first book I read that mirrored my inner emotional state, and let me know it was okay for me to feel as I did back then. Both are top-tier books.
I know they’re not everyone’s cup of tea, but The Stormlight Archive books speak to me like no other books ever have. They’re a huge time investment, but they’re all about the journey, not the destination. 😉
Stormlight hit hard in the ptsd feelings. I really love how the series handles mental illnesses and cycles of violence.
Anything by Brandon Sanderson is a pretty safe bet!
Way of Kings blew my mind when I first read it. I loved it so much. I read it again when the last book came out because I couldn’t remember everything that happened, and it’s still an amazing book on the second read. Unfortunately, each of the following books in the series is less enjoyable for me. I didn’t like the Rhythm of War at all. I know a lot of people love it, but it has become something I don’t appreciate at all. I don’t know if I’ll even finish the series, assuming Brandon ever finishes it himself.
I’ve really enjoyed everything in the Cosmere, but Stormlight is a step above the rest. Last book in this era is out soon. I can’t wait.
I know! Have you been reading the chapters on Reactor Mag?
I have not. I can only do the audiobooks, especially for something this long. I’m going to have to go back and listen to the last 5 hours or so of RoW to refresh. It ended so powerfully in the epilogue that I need closure.
One of the few series that I love for making me want to be a better person, then hate it because that’s hard, then love it all over again because it’s worth it.
The Martian and Project Hail Mary are some of the best sci-fi-of-tomorrow books I have ever read. Maybe not a single day, but neither are overly long.
I read Andy Weir’s The Martian in a single sitting. Book really grabbed me by the face.
Basically most Terry Pratchett books really. Some will take more than a day, but it’s like a mix of Lord of the Rings and Monty Python. Whimsical and silly with some good moments that make you think.
The discworld collection is currently on humble bundle for cheap if you have an e-reader.
Roadside Picnic. it’s a story of unmanaged survivors guilt, in an increasingly desperate and accurately depicted Soviet dystopia, where the players hustle and vie for mediocre survival even in an exceptionally bizarre, hostile, and literally alien environment, just as they would in any other terrestrial conflict zone.
There’s a good reason it spawned an epic film and 4 outstanding games so far
Best? Hard to say. But favorite?
Galactic Pot-Healer by Philip K. Dick. It’s quite short, like many of his books, and you could absolutely knock it out in a day.
I’ve never read a fictional book. They don’t exist. hurhurhur
But seriously, I did kind of enjoy reading the Manifold series (Origin, Space, Time) by Stephen Baxter way back when. If you’re a quick reader, I reckon you could probably zip through one of the novels in a day.
And I’d recommend reading at least a couple in order to get to know the characters, because then you could pick up the short story anthology set in the same multiverse (Phase Space), where for some you’d only need half an hour.
(Baxter has a bunch of other books and short stories - the Xeelee Sequence springs to mind - but I never got around to those, so have no idea how long the novels are, or whether they’re any good.)
Arguably the elder scrolls series has tons of fictional books.
The Lusty Argonian Maid is probably my favorite fictional book.
The Real Barenziah is good too.
The Culture by Ian M. Banks. It’s a little difficult to approach, but an incredible exploration of Sci-Fi, humanity, AI, and life in general. Unlike a lot of other great Sci-Fi (like The Expanse, which I also highly recommend) it’s gritty, but overall The Culture is a hopeful and optimistic take on the progress of humanity and technology.
The best books are The Player of Games, Look to Windward, and Excession.
Depending on how you’re feeling, I think you can skip The State of the Art, Matter, and Inversions, though they’re worth an eventual read. They’re just less connected to the main Culture story.
It’s a series that truly changed me and my perspective on life.
Whenever anyone asks me what fictional universe I want to live in, I say the Culture universe. Hands down the best sci-fi universe to live in as a regular humanoid. It’s a post-scarcity galactic paradise where if I ever get bored, I can plug into a Matrix-style simulation of any other fictional universe that’s 100% real to my senses. Or I’ll take any of a number of drugs that a gland in my brain can generate at will for shiggles. The possibilities are limitless.
Big disagree on the best - Use of Weapons, Surface Detail and Consider Phlebas are the favorites of my partner and me.
Not that the 3 listed are bad just that I like my 3 more :)
I mean, fair. All great books!
I honestly think that difference in opinion speaks highly of Banks as an author - the books speak to us differently and he wrote diverse enough stories that they capture each person separately.
Great point! They do vary wildly by style and subject matter, while all being masterful IMHO. Incredible talent.
