Looking for sci-fi books of a certain flavour

[ownedbycats]

Thought I may as well post here.

Basically: Looking for books that give the same feel as the Mass Effect games, though perhaps with a wee bit less cosmic horror robot squids trying to exterminate everyone. Basically, less "fighting evil aliens trying to invade Earth" and more "befriending cool aliens." Also preferably said aliens aren't just funky-looking humans.

If it's on Overdrive, all the better. I've got access to a couple of libraries and I think some of them take requests.

Here's a few that I've read so far.

Ones I liked:

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Becky Chambers) -- Yes. This is pretty much what I'm looking for. I've already got the second book from the series on my wishlist.

Ones I didn't like:

The Right to Arm Bears (Gordon R. Dickson) -- To be honest, the only thing I really remember about this was a feeling of vague frustration while reading it.

Space Opera (Catherynne M. Valente) -- I wanted to like this. The premise sounded really neat. But I think the author might've been overdosing on energy drinks and sugar while writing it because very sentence was some runon monstrosity that veered in a thousand different directions and ended with a punchline. It was... very difficult to follow.

Ones that I'm undecided on:

Stardoc (S.L. Viehl) -- This was also pretty close to what I was looking for and I was enjoying it... well, up until a certain disturbing scene that left me feeling pretty icky (since I shouldn't describe it on a family-friendly forum, check the 1-star reviews). It kind of spoiled my feeling for the entire book. Less of that, please.

Chilling Effect (Valerie Valdes) -- I'm some 40% through this. I think I'm enjoying it so far. That might change.

Thanks for suggestions.

[Little.Egret]

Liaden series. Sharon Lee and Steve Miller


The Clutch Turtles are generally regarded as cool

Not in every book so start with

Agent of Change which is free

[cpegg]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Thought I may as well post here.

Basically: Looking for books that give the same feel as the Mass Effect games, though perhaps with a wee bit less cosmic horror robot squids trying to exterminate everyone. Basically, less "fighting evil aliens trying to invade Earth" and more "befriending cool aliens."

I don't know anything about "Mass Effect" but for humans-meeting-aliens stories some things come to mind:

Uhura's Song by Janet Kagan
The three books in the Species Imperative series by Julie Czerneda (Survival, Migration and Regeneration)
Mission of Gravity and Star Light by Hal Clement
Eifelheim by Michael Flynn
Semiosis and Interference by Sue Burke
Hellspark by Janet Kagan (though there's much about divergent human cultures and not quite as much contact with the aliens until later in the book.)
The Starbridge series by A.C. Crispin


I quite liked the Stardoc novels, but if you found the first one somewhat disquieting then I'd recommend staying well clear of the rest.

[ownedbycats]

Thanks you both. I'll take a look through.

[crossi]

Hospital station books by James White.
Gordon R Dickson's Hoka books.
Demon of Undoing by Andreas Alton.
Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy.

[Quoth]

Looking for books that give the same feel as the Mass Effect games

No idea what Mass Effect Games are.

James White is good anyway.
Eifelheim by Michael Flynn is on my TBR pile. It's got aliens?
Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement was good.
On the third hand, what about Niven's Motie books and Ringworld books?
Maybe some Ursula Le Guin SF (but not the Lathe of Heaven)
C J Cherryh's "The Cucko's egg", but I might be confusing it with a different C.J. Cherryh book with aliens.

(also there are Ray McCarthy's Talent Universe. Starship Chief has only aliens, but Solar Alliance of the Talents Universe is mostly on Earth. Last two appear mostly complete)

[Apache]

Also, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle wrote Footfall. An alien invasion by a species with a herd mentality.
Apache

[cpegg]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Eifelheim by Michael Flynn is on my TBR pile. It's got aliens?

It's got one species of aliens.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Apache

Also, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle wrote Footfall. An alien invasion by a species with a herd mentality.
Apache

Almost parody & satire. Brilliant. Curiously Jerry DID advise NASA and the idea was seriously considered in era of prototype nuclear powered aircraft, nuclear Zeppelin proposal, digging out canals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projec...ear_propulsion)

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by cpegg

It's got one species of aliens.

I will move it up the TBR pile.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Almost parody & satire. Brilliant. Curiously Jerry DID advise NASA and the idea was seriously considered in era of prototype nuclear powered aircraft, nuclear Zeppelin proposal, digging out canals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projec...ear_propulsion)

That is why I liked it. Niven and Pournelle wrote some great books together.
Apache

[astrangerhere]

You could try Ann Leckie's Ancillary trilogy. I'm a huge ME fan and I enjoyed them.

[ownedbycats]

Thanks everyone. I've added a lot of books to my wishlist.

[ZodWallop]

Okay, I wanted to wait until others with more knowledge answered, as I am unfamiliar with Mass Effect (though I do have the trilogy of Mass Effect novels the game's creator wrote on my TBR).

Anyway, isn't David Brin's Uplift Saga starting with Sundiver sort of what you are looking for? (Please forgive Sundiver's awful current cover. The book is a classic, inspite of the current cover looking like it is rusting on the shelf.)

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Okay, I wanted to wait until others with more knowledge answered, as I am unfamiliar with Mass Effect (though I do have the trilogy of Mass Effect novels the game's creator wrote on my TBR).

They're good! Except Deception. It was written by a different author who didn't really understand the franchise and as such there's a lot of lore mistakes.

Also, this. Cue the 'cereal killer' jokes.