I'm desperately in need of a book to scratch the adventure itch! I'd love for the characters to be on an adventure where they're constantly being subjected to new places and creatures! The creatures are important! I feel like you get to experience like 2-3 new creatures per book but I want them to be like "oh we're thrust into this new world, look at the pretty flower! OMG THE FLOWER BIT JOHNS HAND OFF!" and then they run away only to be hunted by some sort of fantastical/space wolves or something lol I think scifi has so much room for this as a genre being that they have the ability to adventure multiple planets but I have such a soft spot for fantasy creatures! I'd love a romance subplot (mostly because it's what I'm familiar with I think) but I don't think it's necessary as long as the book is action packed! I'd prefer a female lead as well! You guys are awesome! Thank you for reading all this 💜
PS a little humor is also amazing to me 💜
by ModestMeeshka
4 Comments
{{Agent of Change by Sharon Lee}}
These don’t all have creature encounters, but do have a mix of your other requests. I agree that there should be more planet-hopping naturalists in sci-fi, hmm.
{{The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi}} – the titular kaiju are the primary creatures.
{{The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers}} and the rest of the Wayfarers series is a great intro to sci-fi – cast of quirky characters, multiple sapient species, romance side plots, generally hopeful, multi-POVs including female characters. She also wrote {{To Be Taught If Fortunate}} which has more of the planet hopping xenobiology, as they are on a mission to explore planets with potential living organisms.
{{All Systems Red by Martha Wells}} starts with a creature encounter. No romance. POV character is an agender bot/human construct who just wants to be left alone to watch its shows.
{{A Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell}} is sci-fi romance (MM) that has one creature encounter.
{{Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes}} includes psychic cats.
{{Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather}} – the spaceship is a creature. Less humorous than the previous suggestions.
{{Mindtouch by M. C. A. Hogarth}} features students of xenopsychology and several sapient races (human, alien, and engineered).
{{Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis}}, {{Binti by Nnedi Okorafor}}, {{Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty}}, and {{The Rosetta Man by Claire McCague}} all involve cross-species interstellar interaction. Are you familiar with Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series? It’s mostly fantasy, but the characters sometimes travel to different planets with different sapient species.
You might like the Paradox Trilogy by Rachel Bach – the first book is Fortune’s Pawn. It’s an adventure science-fiction with some pretty cool aliens – and most especially, a solid romantic plot line!
The Scar – China Mieville