When Audible asked me to recommend five of my favorite audiobooks, I found it difficult to pick only five. There are so many great books (and narrators!) out there. However, since my latest novel, Fractal Noise, is science fiction, I figured I’d share a mix of sci-fi stories that (a) I’ve enjoyed or (b) I’ve enjoyed and that have influenced me.
I was also tempted to throw in some Jeeves and Wooster, but they don’t quite qualify as speculative fiction. Still, the collected series is well worth listening to. (All right, I guess that makes for six recommendations. Ha!)
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A delightful, fairly hard-sci-fi adventure that Ray Porter does an exceptional job of narrating. The relationship between our main character, Ryland, and the alien, Rocky, is an especial highlight.
A classic of the genre, Dune features little of the "space” in space opera, but it more than makes up for that in the complexity of the world-building and the sheer strangeness of Herbert’s vision. (To better understand his prose style, one only needs to look at Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T. E. Lawrence, a.k.a. "Lawrence of Arabia.") Dune is one of the few novels I return to every few years, and with each listen, I find something new to think about.
Not part of his Culture series, but it shares much the same flavor. An interesting story and a truly fantastic setting. The gas-giant aliens he created are truly unique.
One of the major first-contact stories in sci-fi. (2001: A Space Odyssey, also by Clarke, being another.) A novel of fascinating ideas. And it has one of the best ending lines ever.
Strange and wide-ranging, Simmons really embraces the potential oddness of far-future tech and culture. And yet the first book is also based off The Canterbury Tales. Some of the most striking images and characters in sci-fi.
