I really want to read a Sci-Fi horror book as a beginner, but there are so many books to choose from. I have been thinking of Hyperion, but I heard that it starts off very slowly and I'm a bit worried that I would get bored after 50 pages or so. Any recommendations?
by sdavid19
1 Comment
Hyperion is indeed quite hard to get into. It is a great classic so I definitely recommend reading it at some point! Here are some other sci fi horror books:
* The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
* Leech by Hiron Ennes. This one is a bit weird, but I liked it a lot.
* And Then I Woke Up by Malcolm Devlin. Short, and set in the near future so there isn’t a lot of complicated worldbuilding or jargon.
* Blood Music by Greg Bear. A [short story available free on the publisher’s website.](https://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781625791153/9781625791153___2.htm)
* Bloodchild by Octavia E. Butler. A different kind of horror from Blood Music despite the similar title. Also [available on the publisher’s website.](https://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781625791191/9781625791191___1.htm)
* The Fold by Peter Clines. This is like a blockbuster movie in book form. The dialogue is a bit stiff and unnatural in exactly the way people talk in movies, which kind of bugged me, but it’s good for beginners to sci fi as a genre.
* The Invincible by Stanislaw Lem. Also has a bit of a slower start, but this is a much shorter book than Hyperion.
* Nightflyers and Other Stories by George R. R. Martin. A collection of short sci fi horror.
* The short fiction of James Tiptree Jr., who wrote an enormous number of sci fi short stories and novellas, many of which are sci fi horror. There’s a [ton of collections of this author’s works](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Tiptree_Jr.#Works), but I recommend the collection Her Smoke Rose Up Forever.
* Blindsight by Peter Watts. Not the easiest to read, but it’s good and it’s also available free on [the author’s website](https://rifters.com/real/shorts.htm), though the sequel is not.