Top 5 Best Rated New Science Fiction Books
Science Fiction is the go-to genre for many people that do not have the time to read like they used to. Nothing beats escaping the hustle bustle of life like getting lost in the creative plots of space travel, interstellar wars, or the latest concepts of human interactions in the future. From Asimov to Orson Scott Card, there is just about something for everyone. If you are like me and have read all of the classic sci-fi books, then I am glad to report that there are great new ones that have just hit the market in this great genre.
Here are the Top 5 new Science Fiction Books of 2018:
#5 2084
Rating: 4.5 /5.0 Stars Based on 62 Reviews
Quick Summary: Google Glass meets 1984 in this new novel by Mason Engel. In a world that is controlled by technology, people must use contact lenses to access almost everything. But with one company in control, how does this play out? For one boy, a Senator's son, he thinks that there is a problem with inviting the Newsight Corporation into the homes of everyone. He sets out on an adventure to challenge the status quo and finds himself linking up with a resistance group. After disabling his lenses, he can then begin to really see the world as it is.
What I liked: Takes a modern approach on an old classic and incorporates new technology implications, such as people willingly bringing invasive tech into their homes. Fast, easy read that is great to unwind to.
What could be better: Somewhat parallels 1984, but not in a bad way. Some may not like this aspect--especially the hardcore sci-fi purists. Mimicking 1984 would be verboten.
#4 Legionnaire (Galaxy's Edge Book 1)
Rating: 4.5/5.0 Stars Based on 349 Reviews
Quick Summary: After a diplomatic mission to the planet Kublar goes wrong, the elite Legionnaires sent to protect the diplomats are stranded in hostile territory. Surrounded by the Kublar natives, these future Spec Ops must rely on their advanced training, armor and helmet-integrated Artificial Intelligence to survive until extracted. During their mission to survive behind enemy lines, the leader slowly uncovers a plot that perhaps the diplomacy mission was meant to fail all along.
What I liked: I am a sucker for simplistic plots that have lots of action and elite forces kicking butt. After reading the blurb, that is what I expected--and what I got. But I also got a story and plotline that was a lot more layered than I thought it would be. This was icing on the cake. I highly recommend this book to anyone that liked Heinlein's Starship Troopers.
What could be better: Some may not like the fact that there is some allegory between this plot and the US occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Although this is very nuanced and most won't even notice, let alone care.
#3 Genome (Extinction Files Book 2)
Rating: 4.7/5.0 Stars Based on 60 Reviews
Quick Summary: If you liked A.G. Riddle's The Atlantis Gene, then you will definitely like this Series. Genome is book two and picks up right where Pandemic left off. After a global outbreak, humanity is on the brink of extinction. A team of scientists and military begin a daring mission to stop those that began the original Pandemic. This mission leads them to a sunken submarine deep in the Arctic. There, the team discovers an ancient secret: a technology that is capable of taking control of the human race.
What I liked: As a fan of the Atlantic Gene, I had high hopes for this series, and it didn't disappoint. This has a high paced plot that is definitely original. It reminds me of The Sphere meeting a Tom Clancy novel with a little bit of Dirk Pitt thrown in for good measure. I'd recommend reading Pandemic first.
What could be better: The story bounces around quite a bit from person to person, so if you do not plan on reading this straight through--which would be hard not to--then you might forget what is going on when you pick it up a week later.
#2 Quantum Space
Rating: 4.7/5.0 Stars Based on 243 Reviews
Quick Summary: A Soyuz capsule disappears on reentry and the crew is feared dead. But right before going offline, the capsule's crew reported seeing a bright light. Did the capsule burn up on reentry, or did they simply vanish? When an unknown transmission shows up, a team of scientists embarks on a mission to figure out what happened. In order to do so, they must explore the fringes of physics and soon discover that the incident may impact the everyone on earth.
What I liked: This plot was very original and made you think. I really like anything that involves theoretical physics when trying to explain events in sci-fi books. Reminded me a bit of a mix between Contact and the Da Vinci Code.
What could be better: I really prefer plot depth to character development, so the only complaint someone might have is that this book really focuses more on a layered plot than developing every character.
#1 Genesis (First Colony Book 1)
Rating: 4.6/5.0 Stars Based on 98 Customers
Quick Summary: After escaping from prison after being wrongfully accused, Connor finds himself as a colonist heading to a distant planet in pursuit of a fresh start. But when their ship takes an unexpected detour, the colonists are forced to change their plans. While he may not be the ideal colonist, Connor is perfect for helping them survive what they discover on their new home.
What I liked: One of my favorite sci-fi plots include humans that set off to colonize distant planets. It allows for the perfect mixture of military action, sci-fi tech and alien creatures. This is also the start of a new series which I am always a fan of, especially if the author can maintain the high level of work. I look forward to reading the next few books in this series to see how it goes.
What could be better: The book is an easy read and it makes it seem shorter than it is. But this is pretty common with books in any series.
Reading is an escapist hobby, but science fiction and fantasy reading even more so -- people escape out of their own worlds into places and times that do not exist nor ever will.
Why do I read science fiction and fantasy?
It turns out the answer may be in my psychological makeup. Paul Allen, a reader of science fiction and a practicing clinical psychotherapist for 22 years, says my temperament predisposes me to a love of science fiction.
Each of us has a temperament, that is, a part of our personality that may or may not be genetically based. A quick Myers-Briggs test has informed me that I'm a Thinking iNtuitive (NT), that is, a "Rational." According to the Keirsey Temperament website, "Rationals are very scarce, comprising as little as 5 to 7 percent of the population."
Allen says, "NTs are non-conformist critical thinkers. The NTs idolize the science fiction writer as the real architects of change. They can see the cleverness and competency in science fiction. Back in the day, when you could sell a book with a rocketship on the cover, you were selling to the NT."
According to a Wikipedia article on temperament [1], Rationals "excel in any kind of logical investigation such as…conceptualizing [and] theorizing." Science fiction readers require a "willing suspension of disbelief" to enjoy the material as well as the ability to conceive and extrapolate beyond what the writer has written.
Sherry Sontag, a science fiction reader and non-fiction writer (Blind Man's Bluff), compares reading science fiction to the experience of the Wallace Stevens' poem, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." "You see a man and a woman and your brain fills in a park bench and the sky and the blackbird flitting around. Reading science fiction is the ultimate interactive experience," Sontag says, because when you read science fiction, "your brain begins to build a world from the ground up."
"[T]his tendency [to read science fiction] is anchored in [a] love of complexity, the author's independent thinking, and an eye for elegance in any well-designed system." Allen says, "NTs also the ones who argue with [the authors] about why they did this on page so-and-so." Not only has Allen put a finger to my reading habits, but also he has identified my former career as a copy editor.
If all NTs in the U.S. general population read science fiction, that would mean 15 to 21 million people would know where their towel is. As science fiction readership is nowhere near that wide, another element must be added (or removed) to identify the genre readership.
In addition to nature, there is also nurture.
From my interviews, it seems that many people who read science fiction as children had similar experiences: raised outside their mother countries, moved frequently, had health problems, troubled childhoods, and/or were academically gifted. These circumstances led these people to delve more deeply into books than to reach out to other people.
For example, author Jay Lake (Trial of Flowers) says he reads science fiction because, "I grew up overseas before satellite TV or VCRs, so my childhood was dominated by books in a way which is unusual for my generation…. I was always drawn to the genre side, quite possibly because of the improbably alien nature of my own life in the Third World."
Tamara Nichols, who practiced psychotherapy for 11 years, says, "[The genre] can provide a sort of a symbolic model for people who don't fit into the more mainstream ideas of what a man should be, what a woman should be."
Science fiction speaks to people who feel, well, "alienation."
Nichols says, "Certainly I think everybody has that feeling of being an outsider at some point in their lives, particularly in the US because we don't have communities like we used to. A lot of people feel like they don't belong at all. SF hits on what it's like to go out into an alien environment. SF organizes the unknown in a sense, and makes it more psychologically available," says Nichols.
Lake says that, for some, change is frightening, and "genre fiction embraces, encapsulates, and explains that change."
Genre stories are set in worlds that are unknown and disparate to us, and we automatically reorder them; at the same time, the main characters set fundamental wrongs to right. Readers of science fiction have the luxury of extrapolating a positive future or predicting and hopefully avoiding negative ones. But if one liked to read equations and logic puzzles, one would stick with non-fiction. Science fiction and fantasy also appeal to other temperaments, including readers of a "romantic" nature.
"SF is called the literature of ideas, and it really is, but the ideas aren't about fusion or nanotubules or seven schools of magic; they're the same ideas of love and anger and the human heart in conflict with itself (tm William Faulkner) that drive all other stories, but foregrounded and made new," says Maroney.
"Even [books about] distant space travel boils down to human emotion and human thought," says Sontag.
Yet reading science fiction has its own pitfalls: people whose diet consist mainly of genre material can experience a kind of cognitive dissonance when reading non-genre. Maroney says, "I know that when I read Vonnegut's collection Welcome to the Monkey House in my early teens, I kept expecting fantastic events to burst out in every story and being slightly puzzled by 'Who Am I This Time?' and 'Long Walk to Forever,' which have no SF elements."
I agree, and here I admit: non-genre material bores me. I keep expecting aliens or smoke-puffing dragons and even mushroom planets to appear, and when they don't, I am disappointed. I also enjoy the anticipation of the unusual, woven into the fabric of any genre story: if a book or story begins on a "normal" day, it will mostly certainly not remain so.
Back to my psychological profile.
The circumstances of my childhood (troubled by poor health) plus my tendency toward thinking-intuitiveness -- nurture and nature -- have possibly shaped my reading choices.
But what about the reverse? Does what we read shape who we are?
I can't speak for everybody, but I read science fiction and fantasy for an even more important reason than it appeals to my critical thinking. I read because it's a genre full of ideas and optimism and inspiration. Hopefully, I am what am read.