My girlfriend really likes the Southern Reach trilogy and is thoroughly enjoying Nicholas Binge’s Ascension right now after I lent it to her, so I’m trying to find more books that fit this mold. Along the lines of “an expedition is sent into a mysterious/dangerous/shifting/alien landscape and has to survive when everything gets extremely fucked up.”
So far I’ve suggested Darwinia and Ringworld, but what are some others?
by kanyesutra
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Would you read non-fiction? The Shackleton expedition is the classic example of this
Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant and We Have Always Been Here by Lena Nguyen.
Editing to add Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes.
Dan Simmons The Terror is amazing and fits quite well.
It is based on a true historical event. Victorian era explorers were trying to find the Northwest Passage (a channel that would let them cross the Americas) but they get stuck in the ice and things go very badly.
It’s horror but with a heavy dose of historical fiction. Very atmospheric. It’ll make you feel a chill on a hot summer’s day.
The Sparrow! It’s science fiction about a group making first contact with aliens. Insightful thoughts on faith and humans being humans, kind of the definition of >!the road to hell is paved with good intentions!<.
The Martian, also.
The first book of the Expanse series doesn’t focus on this, but it’s a major plot point.
Sparrow by Mary Doria Russel. One of my all time favorites
The Ruins by Scott Smith
Blindsight by Peter Watts.
Everything gets fucked up on physical, emotional, and existential levels.
Many James Rollins books would fit, Amazonia, Subterranean and Excavation come to mind.
Older so tamer than what she might be looking for but: Arthur Conan Doyle’s. The Lost World