My favorite cult sci-fi and fantasy books you may not have heard of before
71 comments
·October 26, 2025auntienomen
noir_lord
Missing Iain M Banks is a weird omission indeed - perhaps they couldn't get the reprint rights.
bondarchuk
I read sci-fi but not fantasy, why do people insist on lumping these together?
triMichael
They really aren't all that different from each other. One is imaginary things that might one day be possible, and the other is imaginary things that won't ever be possible.
And even then, that can swap between the genres. Scifi often contains FTL tech, which from what we know is almost certainly impossible so it's actually more like fantastical magic. Meanwhile, fantasy can have hard rules for its magic, in which case it acts more like technology that we haven't discovered yet. I haven't read it yet myself, but I've heard of Wizard's Bane, where a programmer is transported to a magical land and becomes really powerful because he treats the magic system like a new programming language.
Other things I've noticed is that scifi tends to involve spaceships and is more mystery oriented, whereas fantasy tends to take place on the ground and is more hero's journey oriented. But even these aren't defining traits. Plenty of scifi books involve investigating alien planets and many contain the hero's journey (including the original Star Wars if you count that as scifi). Meanwhile plenty of fantasy books are on some sort of ship (Narnia - Voyage of the Dawn Treader) and many are more mystery oriented (Harry Potter for example).
Personally, I think a better line of division is hard vs soft. Was the world created first with actual rules and the characters molded to fit the world (Dune, Lord of the Rings)? Or were the characters created first and the rules are bent to create the story that is being desired to tell (Star Trek with its technobabble, Star Wars's prequels and sequels, the entire universe of Harry Potter)?
noir_lord
They are different if you like sci-fi and dislike fantasy which OP apparently does as do I, on the grand scheme of things not a big deal but it does get in the way when specifically looking for new sci-fi to read.
gjstein
Ursula Le Guin in her preface to The Left Hand of Darkness [1], describes Science Fiction as "descriptive." She invents "elaborately circumstantial lies" as a means of describing what she sees as some truth in our being. The full quote:
> I’m merely observing, in the peculiar, devious, and thought-experimental manner proper to science fiction, that if you look at us at certain odd times of day in certain weathers, we already are. I am not predicting, or prescribing. I am describing. I am describing certain aspects of psychological reality in the novelist’s way, which is by inventing elaborately circumstantial lies.
This is how I think about both science fiction and fantasy. Elements of world building are different, even within each sub-genre, but this element of incorporating elements that are inconsistent with our world to tell stories is common to both. It's also why the term "speculative fiction" persists: a category that subsumes sci-fi and fantasy.
[1] Read that full preface here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/342990/the-left-hand...
t-3
They're usually the same thing, differing only thematically. Some "hard" sci-fi may be completely grounded in reality, but for most the "sci" is just a background setting. Many space operas are even more fantastical than wizards throwing fireballs at each other. Some fantasy writers go far out of their way to build coherent worlds governed by physical laws just as strict as our own. Both/Either/The genre(s) use the flexibility of an imagined world, whether that's an imagined future or some land of myth, to contrast with the present, and as with the fantastical myths of old, to make moral or political points that couldn't be so easily expressed if weighed down by history and nuance.
nsavage
Bookstores like to make things easy for themselves by defining categories (a la Seeing Like A State), especially due to the perceived overlap between the readership of the two categories as the weird books the nerdy guys read.
While that may have been true historically, fantasy has a new, blossoming, largely female readership, although you could consider this to be overloading the term 'fantasy' as these new BookTok books seem to have little in common with the old school sword and sorcery.
mikkupikku
How would you classify The Foundation? Classic sci-fi novel, right? But it has telepaths.. By modern standards, telepathy, empaths, telekinesis.. that's all magic. Fantasy. But in 20th century science fiction it was extremely common.
wmil
Interestingly, that was due to the top editor at a major sci fi publisher being really into psychics.
jowea
If it's called telepathy it's sci-fi, if it's called magic it's fantasy. Learn the rules!
On a more serious note, yeah scifi and fantasy can usually be distinguished, I get why it so often gets lumped in together as speculative fiction, even though it annoys me when I'm looking for one and have to sift through the other.
thaumasiotes
Note that in the 20th century telepathy was believed to be real.
mikkupikku
Only for the earlier parts of that century. By the late 70s to 80s the scientific consensus was coming down hard against parapsychology but it continued to be featured in science fiction for quite some time. It was still going reasonably strong well into the 90s with popular media like Star Trek, Babylon 5, etc. You can still see some traces of it today, to an extent it has become a part of the genre that persists for legacy reasons, respect for or reference to older media in the genre.
auntienomen
The genres weren't always as defined and distinct. The early authors and especially the editors who popularized the genre frequently worked in both.
topynate
I would be hard put to place The Night Land in one genre or the other. Hodgson would have had no idea what the difference was anyway.
freetonik
That's a major gripe of mine. Nothing against fantasy, but for me these are two almost opposite genres.
tetris11
John C Wright wrote a nice short story set in William Hope Hodgson's "The Night Land"
Awake in the Night
https://web.archive.org/web/20090524012412/http://www.thenig...
In the side panels are users/readers who drew up their own maps on what they think the Nightscape is.
It has all the romantic mystery of a fantasy tale, whilst still being firmly grounded in reality.
I remember when London's Shard was going up, and I'd see it lit up slightly at night, glowing and ominous and thinking, "this is it: this is the last holdout of humanity."
bwb
Anyone got some favs to share?
I need to read the new Peter Hamilton book (book 2 due out soon). And I am ashamed to admit I haven't read any Greg Egan yet, need to get on that :)
MattPalmer1086
For modern sci fi and fantasy, pretty much anything by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
I also just discovered the short story collections of Rich Larson (Changelog and Tomorrow Factory are both recommended)
Just published as well is There is No Antimimetics Division by qntm. You can read the original on SCP [1], but it's now out in book form.
wmil
In the spirit of brining down the level of intellectual sophistication here, I have a few recommendations I've enjoyed.
- All 18 Expeditionary Force books by Craig Alanson
- The first 5 Starship's Mage books by Glynn Stewart. UnArcana Stars (book 6) went in a direction that made the government look extremely incompetent.
- Jacques McKeown series by Yahtzee Croshaw
- Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
- Bobiverse series by Dennis E. Taylor
a_bonobo
I love Stanislaw Lem. Solaris is his most famous and it has many of his core themes; I'd also try Fiasco.
I'm also a huge fan of R.A. Lafferty, but his stuff his harder to find, mostly out of print.
Peter Watts' Blindsight is amazing recent-ish hard SF. (the follow-up, I did not like at all).
Anything from the Strugatsky brothers you can get your hands on!
raddan
I also love Solaris. I remember reading it the first time as a teenager. It is so matter-of-fact in its telling, but the facts are so bizarre, that I found it to really induce terror. It has always struck me as more of a horror novel than as a sci-fi novel although it is clearly the latter.
There are now multiple English translations of Solaris available. I know that there’s been a lot of praise for the newer translation, and I read it, but I do not like it. Something about the earlier translation feels more ominous.
On that note—I’ve always found it hard to believe that The Cyberiad was written by the same author! I love the Cyberiad as well but almost for the opposite reasons I love Solaris. The entire universe is charming and funny, whereas Solaris is engrossing but dreadful. I went through a phase in college, reading every Lem book I could find, and eventually discovering that my library’s stacks also included Lem in Polish. Sadly I know no Polish, and was not motivated enough to learn it, so those novels remained off-limits to me.
franczesko
Solaris is such a unique concept. From Polish authors I've really enjoyed Limes Inferior by J. Zajdel. The concept of means of payment spoke to me, when I had my own wondering about workless future and digital currencies.
logicalshift
Had a look at my bookshelf to see what I could find that was obscure, maybe these would be interesting:
First Contract (Greg Costikyan) - a book about the economics of first contact
John Courtney Grimwood (author) - science fiction, generally cyberpunk, told from the point of view of characters who don't understand the tehcnology, which gives his work a kind of mystic vibe. (Eg, Nine-tail fox is about a detective trying to solve his own murder)
Footfall (Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle) - was a big release back in the day, but not so well known these days. Hard SF alien invasion novel (Independence Day might have ripped this off a bit)
The NASA trilogy (Stephen Baxter) - dark alternative future books, with bleak endings but great science. I think not so well known these days because of the bleakness, but that's also part of what made them memorable when I read them.
OisinMoran
The City and the Stars by Arthur C Clarke is one of my favourites and have only ever met one other person who has read it. Just reread it recently and it's even better and more relevant than I remembered.
The 1950s was a particularly good time for sci fi I think.
cheela
Robert L. Forward's Dragon's Egg and Starquake:
beardedetim
I've become a huge fan of A.E. van Vogt and have been slowly collecting all of his pulp books.
andyjohnson0
> And I am ashamed to admit I haven't read any Greg Egan yet, need to get on that :)
Permutation City is his best-known work, and while some people (including me) enjoy the density of ideas, others find the characterisation weak. I'd start with one of his short story collections, such as Luminous.
georgefrowny
Second the short stories. Axiomatic has some great ones too with concepts that really stuck with me.
And if you like that, Phase Space by Stephen Baxter feels very similar.
freetonik
I'd like to recommend one as well: The City & the City, by China Miéville. A delightful, unique experience! Fresh and original, “fantasy science fiction”. Not a big fan of detective stories and noir, but this is something else.
georgefrowny
I found Railsea really fun. It's a bit silly and didn't take itself very seriously. Somehow it feels like it could have been a novelisation of a British 1960/70s stop motion TV show like the Clangers.
flanbiscuit
I loved Perdido Street Station and The Scar. Haven't read this one but I'm adding it to my list now. Thanks!
lanfeust6
Liked it though preferred Embassytown. Hated PSS.
aduwah
So many lesser known modern books to recommend.
Memoires of an imaginary friend
Dogs of war (Adrian Tchaikovsky one)
The devil's detective
Red rising
The painted man
Amorymeltzer
Of these I've only read The Worm Ouroboros, and I cannot recommend it enough. The structure is a bit weird at first—you gotta get past the first chapter—but after that it settles and is astounding. If you have any passing interest in Lord of the Rings, you'll likely love it.
xeonax
I would like to recommend The Wandering Inn by Pirateaba. You won't read anything else for years.
donkey_brains
Am I missing something, or is “Love And Chocolate” a romance novel that was included as a joke? Seems pretty incongruous in this list.
tempacct2cmmnt
You may have overlooked the small blue bar at the top labeling it an ad.
cubefox
My version of the website doesn't mention "Love And Chocolate" anywhere?!
null
idoubtit
I've read 3 out of those 5 books, and I see our preferences differ. For instance, I've a few books from Van Vogt, and I can't imagine I could like anything he wrote.
- "A voyage to Arcturus" tried hard at being strange and philosophical, but it seemed shallow and I did not feel interested.
- "The worm Ouroboros" was better, with a very unusual epic style, both in writing style and in the story. But some points made me cringe, e.g. the focus on nobles and the despise of common people, even heroic characters. Then it got repetitive, with a final trick that felt like a mockery of the whole story.
- "The dying Earth" was a good book, but it is far from my favorites. I prefer continuous novels to collections of short stories, even when they share a common setting. The book sometimes felt like a poetic tale, with nature and nostalgia as strong themes, though it was also quite brutal.
Since anonymous suggestions aren't very useful without any context, I'll match little-known books with famous books:
- If you thought that "1984" had good ideas, but also many stupid parts that spoiled the whole book, then try two older books. "We", by Zamiatin, is a bit old and naive but enjoyable. It was a source of inspiration for "Brave new world" and "1984". The Swede "Kollocain" (1940), by Karin Boye, is excellent, and much more subtle than the latter.
- If you like collections of related short stories, like "The dying Earth", then "The carpet makers" (1995) by Andreas Eschbach is a must. I remember the joy when I finally had a global understanding of the whole situation.
- If you wish for bizarre fantasy, not the epic Tolkien style, not even the dark saga of Ouroboros, but something more gothic and unsettling, then Mervyn Peake's "Titus groans" is perfect.
- I think "Brain twister" (1961) is the only funny book I've read in SF-Fantasy-supernatural.
ReptileMan
One of the effects of passing of time is that even some of the greats of yore are now obscure and cultish. Like the whole golden age
I have met very few people under 50 that have read the early Schekley short stories. That are probably one of the sci fi peaks.
But in cult and unknown works - Ticket to tranai. One of the best (anti) utopias written.
BiteCode_dev
A E Van Vogt can hardly be called unheard of, the null A series is quite a cult classic. But yeah, the Space Beagle is not his most well-known work.
It always surprises me (although it shouldn't) how many underrated gems there are still in the world. And new ones are produced every day.
E.G: I still think QTMN will deserve a place as a classic sci-fi author among the great ones, for "there is no antimemetics division" alone. And yet despite a solid fan following, it has never exploded in popularity. It is 10 times better than the 3 body problems, which comparatively had stratospheric success.
In movies, "Amelie" has been a planetary success, but from the same author, the excellent "The city of the lost children" is practically unknown.
Even last month, a tv show named "Nero" came out on Netflix, and while not revolutionary, is clearly above most of the crap that regularly comes out. Yet, nobody talks about it.
Popularity is a cruel mistress.
If you like these books -- early classics of the genres -- it's going to be well worth your time to check out Fantasy Masterworks collection (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_Masterworks). It's a set of reissued sci-fi and fantasy novels, chosen by the British publisher Millennium for their quality and influence on later writers.
3/5 of the books in the linked article are included.
It's not perfect-- it's missing War for the Oaks, for example, and doesn't have any Iain M Banks. But there's an awful lot of good material in there.