Books similar to Scalzi's Redshirts

[Kylara]

Have been organising my libraries again and trying to update my computer database with my newest books. My partner's birthday book Redshirts appeared and he remarked how much he enjoyed it (and The Martian) and asked me if he could have something similar for Xmas. Short notice as per usual!

I'd love to get him a book as he struggles to enjoy reading (unless it's electronics manuals) but I don't really read the Scalzi type books. Needs to be an easy fun read or very technical (like The Martian which he adored). I've not been into the harder sf recently so finding it difficult to think of books he might like! Nothing 'preachy' as he calls it (thought I was onto a winner with The Stars my Destination but apparently as soon as the being in space bit finished it got too preachy). He also likes discworld, but I have all of those

Any ideas? He has Lock In but not read it yet (dug it out of a pile yesterday and he'd forgotten about it) and I don't think he could deal with any massive tomes a la Peter F Hamilton.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Has he got Sclazi's Old Man's War? If not, that might tickle his fancy. And it's the first of a series, if that helps for further ideas down the road.

 

[ratsy]

Kylara, I would suggest We Are Legion (we are bob) by our very own Bizmuth. The book is great, and has that same wit to it. And it just won the best SF audio book of the year, so I'm not the only fan

 

[Kylara]

Thanks. I'll look them up.
He's difficult as has dyslexia that really messes him up when reading novels. So has to be interesting enough (hard SF) or amusing enough that it is worth him working on it.
I've tried him on audio books but mine aren't really to his taste (other than the discworld ones) but I'll give them another go.

Any seriously hard sf you can think of?

 

[biodroid]

Isn't Steven Eriksons book Willful Child a Star Trek type novel?

 

[Vertigo]

My current 'fun' reading is the Ketty Jay series from Chris Wooding of which the first is Retribution Falls. Old fashioned swashbuckling adventure set in a semi-fantasy, semi-SF, semi-Steampunk setting. Nothing serious about this but, in its own fantasy sort of way, quite techie.

For very technical hard SF anything by either Greg Egan or Greg Bear will stretch the mind (at least they stretch mine!).

For something a little different and techie might be worth considering Tony Ballantyne's Twisted Metal - a society of Robots with not a human (or anything organic) in sight.

 

[Gnrevolution]

For the technical side of things, along the lines of The Martian (although only just) there is Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson? Hard SF set on Mars, but maybe a little preachy. As always I always going to suggest The Three Body Problem, lots of Hard SF in it (some technical), but it sounds like he might be put off by the characterisation which is a bit poor (it's translated from Cantonese??).

For the easy read, from the discworld mold there are the Robert Rankin novels (starting with The Antipope), also maybe Ready Player One, I found that very easy to read, a real 80's gaming retro vibe (if he's into that). There's also the Ben Aaronovitch novels (The Rivers of London is the first, a modern day wizard in the met police) or Charles Stross The Laundry Files (The Atrocity Archives is the first, a modern day 007 meets Lovecraft).

 

[Kylara]

He's got ready player one and the laundry files and I've got the aaronovitch novels

I'll look the others up for sure, sound good.

It's less the star trek thing but more the fun easy read. And techy is good, the more the better!

But obviously finding the right book is hard as the 'preachy' element seems to cover a multitude of sins

Definitely lots to look for and try him on thanks, as always you have not let me down