Hugonauts: The Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time

All of Becky's writing is excellent, but if you haven't read The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet  it's a great place to start. It's a wonderful, warm, and character-driven space opera that follows the tight-knit crew of a wormhole-drilling starship working their way across the galaxy. We talked with Becky about:Growing up in a 'space' familyGoing from self-publishing to winning a Hugo Her process for creating her wonderful characters Using the search for identity as central conflict Becky's biggest influencesOr you can watch the episode on YouTube if you prefer video (and see the short videos we've started posting every other week), or join the Hugonauts book club on discord!

Ellie is a brilliant radio astronomer who has often felt alone in the world. When she detects an indisputably intelligent signal emanating from the Vega system, that all changes - for her and for the entire human race. The nations and people of the world begin to come together in the face of the alien intelligence, and humanity faces a simultaneous revival and crisis of faith. Ellie works with an international team of scientists to decode the layers of the Message, and eventually, they realize the Message contains plans for some kind of Machine. Should humanity invest the resources to build the Machine? And if they do, what will happen when they turn it on?Join the book club on discord!Related books we recommend:Cosmos by Carl SaganSolaris by Stanislaw LemThe Three Body Problem by Cixin LiuOr you can watch the episode on YouTube if you prefer video (and see the short videos we've started posting every other week).Hope you love it, keep reading y'all!

Hiro Protagonist is a self-described hacker working as a pizza-delivery driver and living in a storage unit at LAX. He lives in a US that has been fully corporatized - from Judge Bob’s Judicial System to Pastor Wayne’s Pearly Gates. To get away, Hiro spends much of his free-time in the Metaverse, where he wrote many of the subroutines that underpin the virtual world. One of his hacker friends, Da5id, is given a new virtual drug called Snow Crash that not only crashes his computer, but also destroys his brain in the real world. Hiro (and a hilarious cadre of friends) are drawn ever deeper into the worldwide conspiracy that is spilling out of the virtual world to threaten the real world.Link to buy the book (and help support the show!)Join the book club on discord!Written (and more shareable) reviewRelated books we recommend:Neuromancer by William GibsonBabel-17 by Samuel DelanyGood Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil GaimanOr you can watch the episode on YouTube if you prefer video.Keep reading y'all!

Michael Crichton was fresh out of Harvard Medical School when he wrote the Andromeda Strain - and we're so glad he did! The book that launched his literary career and all that followed, from Jurassic Park to Sphere.Here's the setup:A US government program is sending satellites with scoops into orbit, looking for alien organisms that can survive the void of space. When one of the scoops comes down in the Arizona desert two soldiers are sent out to pick it up. But as they get closer, they realize the signal has moved - someone has already picked up the object and moved it into the tiny town of Piedmont. As the two men pull into town, bodies line the streets. In less than five minutes they are dead too. The United States government is forced to mobilize Project Wildfire, a top-secret emergency response protocol. Four of the nation’s most elite biophysicists are summoned to a clandestine underground laboratory where they must race to understand and contain the crisis. But the Andromeda Strain proves different from anything they’ve ever seen - and what they don’t know could not only hurt them, but lead to unprecedented worldwide catastrophe.Link to buy the book (and help support the show!)Join the book club on discord!Related books we recommend:The Hot ZoneJurassic ParkChildren of RuinRendezvous with RamaRed MarsOr you can watch the episode on YouTube if you prefer video.Keep reading y'all!

The story is told via the diary of a Handmaid - a young woman living in Gilead, an extremely repressive, patriarchal society that has taken over the United States. We explore the dark world through her eyes, and follow her struggle to express herself, escape, or just take control back over any part of her life. What are the rules of this brutal society? And will the Handmaid ever see the people she loves again?Link to buy the book (and help support the show!): https://amzn.to/3DqPTxPJoin the book club on discord! https://discord.gg/fHejh3PpR2Related books we recommend:1984 - https://amzn.to/3Y71TMOThe Testaments - https://amzn.to/3XTM1OaBrave New World - https://amzn.to/3kW4CKMNever Let Me Go - https://amzn.to/3DsPFWPOr you can watch the episode on YouTube if you prefer video.Keep reading y'all!

Jason Dessen is walking home one night when he realizes he is being followed. A strange man in a geisha mask abducts him at gunpoint, drives him to an abandoned building, takes his phone and clothes, and injects him with a strange drug. When Jason wakes up, he’s surrounded by strangers congratulating him for something he’s supposed to have achieved. In this world he’s not a college professor - they say he’s created something that seems impossible. He looks for his wife - but in this world she says she’s not his wife. His son was never born.Is this world real, or a dream? And no matter what this place is, how can he get back to the people he loves?Or you can watch the episode on YouTube if you prefer video.We also launched three new things this week!A website - hugonauts.org - where you can read written reviews & see related books!A Hugonauts book club discord to talk about books together (and everything else)! We're giving away 8 great sci-fi books to kick off the channel, enter to win on the discord channel.Providing links to buy the books we recommend. It doesn't cost you any extra, but a percentage of anything you buy after clicking these links goes to the show, and the support really means a lot!Keep reading y'all!

The story is told from the first person perspective of Laurence Smith—the self-styled “The Great Lorenzo”—a down-and-out actor who spends most of his time in bars. He's approached by a space-pilot who offers him a drink and, despite some trepidation about Lorenzo’s high opinion of himself, offers him a dangerous job at a very high pay rate. One of the solar system's most important politicians has been kidnapped, and they need someone to impersonate him until he's rescued. Lorenzo is quickly pulled deeper and deeper into the conspiracy, and has to keep up the act to avoid his own death and an all-out planetary war.Or you can watch the episode on YouTube if you prefer video.Drop us a line:https://twitter.com/hugonautspodhttps://www.instagram.com/hugonautspodcast/https://www.tiktok.com/@hugonautspodcast hugonautspodcast@gmail.com

It’s the year 2025, and society is descending into anarchy in the face of climate change and other disasters. We see the world through the diary entries of Lauren Olamina, a teenager living in a walled-in neighborhood in the exurbs of Los Angeles. Jobs are scarce, food and water are increasingly expensive, and armed gangs and drug addicts control the streets outside. Lauren’s father, a pastor and professor at a local college, tries to keep their little community safe, but Lauren feels things going to pieces and is always preparing for things to get worse. When it all comes crashing down, will she be ready?Or you can watch the episode on YouTube if you prefer video.Drop us a line: https://twitter.com/hugonautspod https://www.instagram.com/hugonautspodcast/ https://www.tiktok.com/@hugonautspodcast hugonautspodcast@gmail.com

Seth Fishman, a notable literary agent, represents prominent authors like Cixin Liu and Ann Leckie. He shares insider knowledge about current trends in the sci-fi publishing landscape, discussing the balance between originality and commercial success. Seth offers invaluable advice for aspiring writers on perseverance, the importance of agent relationships, and creative pitching. He also delves into the growing impact of audiobooks and the challenges of securing audio rights, highlighting the evolving dynamics of the publishing industry.

Aliens have taken a snapshot of the entire earth, down to 1 meter of resolution - we know because they lit the entire sky on fire to do it. Then, humanity detected something out at the very edge of the solar system sending a signal - but not to us. The signal is being sent out, into deep space, to another planet, or to something already on the way to Earth. A ship is dispatched with a crew of five - including two technical specialists who have been deeply biologically and technologically enhanced, a soldier, a resurrected Vampire who interfaces with the ship AI to lead the crew, and our protagonist, Siri, whose job is to understand those specialists and translate their insights for the people back home. What will they find, out in the darkness? As always, we also recommend and discuss some similar books if you are looking for more great books to read. This week we recommend: The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry PournelleChildren of Ruin by Adrian TchaikovskyThe Dark Forest by Cixin LiuOr you can watch the episode on YouTube here.