Best suspense books according to redditors
We found 800 Reddit comments discussing the best suspense books. We ranked the 187 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 800 Reddit comments discussing the best suspense books. We ranked the 187 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
Hah, I literally just finished this chapter in Enemies Foreign and Domestic.
Saturn's Children by Charles Stross might count. Humans are extinct and only our robots are left.
Then again, it might not be what you're looking for, since some of the characters resemble - and act - like humans anyway. The main character is a sexbot, so obviously she looks and behaves human (as is her function). However, her artificial nature is very much emphasized and there are several instances of very non-humanoid robots.
But, from what I recall, there truly are no humans around...there's no cop-out where it's like "oh but they were hiding" or "here's a human who's been in cryosleep this entire time!".
Iain M Banks' has a book titled The Algebraist, there are aliens in it called Dwellers; each individual dweller lives for millions of years and the species has been around for 10 billion. Dwellers are...not what you'd expect from beings that old.
Based on your list, it seems you're a video gamer, too. Nice, so some of your fiction titles reflect that.
Kindlie link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001RWQVSK/
Kindlie link: https://www.amazon.com/Andromeda-Strain-Michael-Crichton-ebook/dp/B007UH4EPS/
Kindlie link: https://www.amazon.com/Sphere-Michael-Crichton-ebook/dp/B007UH4G9C/
Kindlie link: https://www.amazon.com/Goes-There-RosettaBooks-into-Film-ebook/dp/B003XVYLGW
Kindlie link: https://www.amazon.com/Vault-Beast-E-van-Vogt-ebook/dp/B001M0N0FO
Kindlie link Nightrunners: https://www.amazon.com/Nightrunners-Joe-R-Lansdale-ebook/dp/B00634UDHC
Kindlie link The Drive-in (book 1 of 3): https://www.amazon.com/Drive-Joe-R-Lansdale-ebook/dp/B00H1L5D9E
I also agree with others for their recommendations for Laird Barron, John Langan, Shirley Jackson, Dan Simmons, H.P. Lovecraft, Paul Tremblay, and of course Stephen King. For King, try the Dark Tower series as that's a mix of Western and horror, kind of like if Red Dead Redemption video game went into the horror territory but on an epic scale. Great series. Also check out The Stand which is epic post-apocalyptic tale. I quite liked The Shining as someone else has mentioned and I also liked Salem's Lot.
Lastly, for a great (and free) short story that is a nice twist on The Thing, check out this story that has a similar premise, only it's from the alien's point of view. It was quite cool, and an interesting idea to see how things would look like from the alien's side.
All the Painted Stars by Gwendolyn Clare -- available to read online here at Clarkesworld Magazine website
You will love anything by Jack McDevitt. Especially http://www.amazon.com/Seeker-Jack-McDevitt/dp/0441013759
The Color of Distance
oh man this is bringing back memories...
I forgot he also wrote (illustrated?) those books on castles and underground too
Check out Shadow Unit. It reads like a television show and the authors behind it write it as if each story is an episode in a season. It's kind of like Criminal Minds meets The 4400. All of the stories are actually published for free on official website, but I recommend paying a few bucks for the ebooks as they are much easier to read. Highly recommended, but be aware that it gets considerably darker around Shadow Unit 3.
Also check out Event, which is the first novel featuring an organization very much like the SCP Foundation.
A final suggestion, The Atrocity Archives. It's the first in The Laundry series, which follows a British intelligence agency fighting with other intelligence groups over artifacts beyond mortal comprehension for the usual reasons. In addition to fighting a kind of supernatural cold war they also work to keep the public safe from, and in the dark about, things beyond their understanding.
This WP has a ton of overlap with the book Saturn's Children. AI based society, with hard wired programming to be slaves to humans. Therefore they have special police that makes sure nobody ever tries to clone/create humans, because if they managed it, they would all become slaves again.
https://www.amazon.com/Saturns-Children-Charles-Stross/dp/0441017312
You certainly have a good start. There are a few things in your list that are still in my to read pile. I see a few holes in your collection that I am sure that you will eventually get to reading:
Personally, I prefer Joe Nobody over A. American. Glen Tate's series is good but runs out of steam towards the end. John Grit's first book is rough but the series gets better. I couldn't get past Bradley's first book. I am sure I could list more books but my bookcases aren't very organized at the moment.
I would also highly recommend that you branch out into dystopias. There is a lot of shared space with apocalyptic fiction. There is a lot to be learned from 1984, Brave New World, It Can't Happen Here, Wool (series) and The Iron Heel.
Oldie but goodie!
https://www.amazon.com/Underground-David-Macaulay/dp/0395340659
The author's control of the book cover art can be pretty minimal. Stuff like getting a main character's race wrong is pretty common.
Even when they get it right, the author can disagree - I remember Charles Stross specifically mentioning on his blog how he objected to the US cover of "Saturn's Children". There's nothing inaccurate about the cover - the book is about an android who was built to be a sexual companion for men - and the cover definitely looks true to form, but it gives the wrong impression for the book.
It's been an awesome month. I completed work on the audiobook for No Such Thing As Werewolves, and am just waiting for QC before it appears on Audible and iTunes. I'm blown away by how well it turned out. The narrator I found on ACX is amazing. I'm also blown away by the 4.9 star average for the book =O
I finished my first novella, a prequel that covers the backstory for a reader favorite character. Here's the cover art.
I like you :) I read a lot of indie work, and while there is a little wading involved, between reviews and ratings (and previews) you can find the good stuff.
I'm self-published too, 4.5 star rating. Mind PMing me the name of your book (and could I pm you mine?) :)
EDIT: Hah, we've already met and own each others books. His is No such thing as Werewolves and I've written Larkspur: A Necromancer's Romance
Are you sure a man wrote this? I don't know anything about Laura's boobs after one paragraph.
Edit: I knew it:
Dinosaur Lake by Kathryn Meyer Griffith
https://www.amazon.com/Dinosaur-Lake-Kathryn-Meyer-Griffith-ebook/dp/B00943P0JK/
An ancient predator has been reborn in the caves beneath Crater Lake
…and it’s hungry.
DINOSAUR LAKE:
Ex-cop Henry Shore has been Chief Park Ranger at Crater Lake National Park for eight years and he likes his park and his life the way it’s been. Safe. Tranquil. Predictable. But he’s about to be tested in so many ways. First the earthquakes begin…people begin to go missing…then there’s some mysterious water creature that’s taken up residence in the caves below Crater Lake and it’s not only growing in size, it’s aggressive and cunning…and very hungry.
And it’s decided it likes human beings. To eat.
And it can come up onto land.
So Henry, with the help of his wife, Ann; a young paleontologist named Justin; and a band of brave men must not only protect his park and his people from the monster but somehow find where it lives and destroy it…before it can kill again. ** An EPIC EBOOK AWARDS 2014 Finalist* in their Thriller category. And now there are three sequels: Dinosaur Lake II: Dinosaurs Arising; Dinosaur Lake III: Infestation and Dinosaur Lake IV: Dinosaur Wars - and soon Dinosaur Lake V: Survivors will be coming in late 2018 or early 2019.
/r/womenwritingjudgmentalmen
The text quoted is on page 19. Henry is bringing KFC home from the police station.
>I imagine in the long term future, local space colonization will be a one-way, generational endeavor. Sort of like the indentured servants of the past or the student loans of the present.
There are actually a pair of books that deal with the plausible reality of space colonies in the immediate future (that is, the next thousand years or so). The presumption made is that entities would travel based on current technologies that we could at least conceive of, thus rockets, nuclear drives, and lasers. Travel between planets is, at the shortest, a months long endeavor that is nearly impossibly expensive to manage to the point that even the richest entities lop of arms and legs to reduce their delta-v cost. Going from the inner system to the outer system takes years even with the fastest propulsion methods (nuclear). Interstellar travel is an event that takes hundreds of years of work from a single star system to manage and is so monumentally expensive that the colony founded is so deep in debt that the only way to survive is to found still more colonies in the world's worst pyramid scheme.
Also, humans are extinct and robots are the ones doing all of this because, it turns out, trying to keep apes in cans alive anywhere but on earth during a very specific period of the planet's history is borderline impossible in the long term.
If you'd like to read about former sex robots learning just how shitty inter-planetary travel is, read Saturn's Children. That one will also work if you ever cared about spaceship on android, or hotel on android sexy times, too. If you'd like to learn about how stupidly expensive interstellar travel would be and the complex monetary systems necessary to keep such a system running, check out Neptune's Brood. That one is principally about accounting and FTL scams and even includes a pretty on the nose reference to Monty Python short.
You remind me of the villain in The Algebraist...his name escapes me.
Here's one.
Here's another.
Here's one of my favorites.
This one is pretty freaking sweet.
I'm pretty sure this one qualifies...
Don't read this one before bed.
Here's an interesting read.
This one is a compilation of several of the above.
Here are all the local Amazon links I could find.
amazon.co.uk
amazon.ca
amazon.com.au
amazon.in
amazon.com.mx
amazon.de
amazon.it
amazon.es
Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.
Flowertown by SG Redling.
War Brides by Helen Bryan.
Downbelow Station, Foreigner by CJ Cherryh.
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis.
Hi everyone. I just wanted to share the news about my latest book and let you know that it's free for the next couple days. I hope you check it out!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VX7VWDR
One mysterious farm...
Five slaves with no memories of the past...
A shocking discovery that none of them saw coming.
***
In the distant future, mankind is nearly extinct.
Those who remain work the farms.
But it's just a matter of time before humans are no longer needed...
The countdown to the end has begun.
***
Waking up on a farm that appears to be out of the early 1800's, Cole has no recollection of the past. He stands in line as the landowner and his two farmhands explain the rules of the farm along with the consequences of breaking those rules.
But for the sweet taste of freedom, questions will be asked and rules will have to be broken to find the truth, leaving Cole in the fight for his life as he seeks to fulfill the dying wish of an old man who longs to see mankind back on top of the food chain once again.
Will Cole find the answers to all of his questions and obtain the freedom that he so desperately wants?
Or will he die trying and rest in peace on the farm?
***
Packed full of mystery and suspense, The Farm is a page-turning, character driven thrill ride that you won't soon forget.
"With elements of Lost, Westworld, and many classic scifi tales, The Farm is a simmering piece about the grey area of power relationships. Recommended for those looking for a contemplative sci-fi mystery." - Paul C
I spent the flight from London to the US reading Macauly's Underground.
Who knew sewers could be so fascinating?
I highly recommend this book (and the two that follow in the series):
https://www.amazon.com/Enemies-Foreign-Domestic-Matthew-Bracken/dp/0972831010
The Color of Distance is a book? Don't know about a movie?
I think it might be The Color of Distance
Also from SM Reine (author of The Descent): Preternatural Affairs, books 1-3 -- Tales of a top-secret government agency dedicated to fighting ghouls and demons.
I listened to this one last week during my commute: Black Amazon of Mars, by Leigh Brackett -- Well read, good sound -- enough to be heard above the clatter of the hunk of junk I call my car.
> the Turner Diaries
They've got an updated version now, courtesy of some dickweed named Matt Bracken called Enemies Foreign and Domestic. I bought the trilogy years ago because it was $1.99 and I figured it would make good pool reading.
It's so goddamn bad and contains LITERALLY every single white supremacist trope
AND MUCH MUCH MORE
Iain Banks wrote a nice fat novel where the galaxy's primary religion had the same idea.
http://www.amazon.com/Enemies-Foreign-Domestic-Matthew-Bracken/dp/0972831010
And stop making up fly fishers look like crazy assholes.
I too, like books. I think you'd like The Andromeda Strain. It's by the same author who wrote Jurassic Park.
Nobody has mentioned Iain M. Banks yet, so how about
The Algebraist
Excession
Against a Dark Background
Another military sci-fi novel with several unique twists would be Vernor Vinge's:
A Fire Upon the Deep
Hard to beat Ender's Game, though. Old Man's War is really good; Armor is good but kinda depressing.
I can think of lots more, reply if you'd like more suggestions :-)
I've seen this before but it's still a fun read if you're familiar with Banks' Culture books. "Use of Weapons" and "Excession" are good places to start in the Culture universe.
Banks has a new book out, not in the Culture universe, that's quite good as well: The Algebraist.
I'm reading City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett, which is the second book in the Divine Cities series. It's pretty good. The first one was also pretty good. I'm really enjoying it, but it's driving me crazy that since the latest update I can't figure out how to make the page numbers/percent read display. I hate not knowing approximately where I am in a book.
Chris Weatherman, the author, is a good guy too. I agree with /u/TheGreyWatcher that the first book in the series was the best but they're easy reads.
While less about the prepper's mindset or the journey you encounter in "Going Home," you may also enjoy Matthew Bracken's series, beginning with "Enemies, Foreign and Domestic" -
https://www.amazon.com/Enemies-Foreign-Domestic-Matthew-Bracken/dp/0972831010.
This is not exactly what you're looking for but may be close enough.
Jack McDevitt has a series of novels about 2 antiquities dealers in future. Typically they come across an unusual artifact or story. They then have to work out the truth in a similar fashion to the detective mysteries you mention.
They are called the Alex Benedict novels. They are an easy read but raise interesting questions IMHO. All but the first are told from the PoV of Chase Kolpath, Alex Benedict's pilot and partner.
I started with the third novel, Seeker, which won the Nebula award.
I've read them all and found them entertaining, though somewhat repetitive in some plot devices. You don't have to start at the beginning of the series.
FWIW Jack McDevitt has a second group of books called The Academy series. I've read a few of them and liked them but prefer the Alex Benedict novels.
Hope this helps. You might also ask for help in /r/printsf - a sub dedicated to written scifi.
Edit: I also thought of another story that contains an pretty good mystery. It's called Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future. It has a great ending.
Yeah, it's not like any other LN but once you start reading, you can't put it down. Also, you can also check out Genocidal Organ and Harmony. Even though they are not really a hard sci-fi like Qualia, they are both great read and have anime movie adaption.
Reminded me of the book Underground by David Macaulay. It has some really neat drawings of what city infrastructure would look like if we had X-ray vision.
Hell Yes!
Unbuilding
City
Underground
Castle
Pyramid
Mill
Cathedral
Mosque
David Macaulay is the MAN. I
loved these books when I was a kidlove these books!Something I want
Something I need
Something to wear
Something to read
Something to watch
Something to listen to
Once upon a time
There was a girl named Kristi
She liked surprises
:) Thanks for the contest ♥
City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett stars an old female general and former provincial governor. I haven't read it in a year or so, but she is definitely not a ravishing beauty.
Somewhat disappointed that this episode (or the comment episode) makes no mention of Project Itoh's award-nominated SF novel Genocidal Organ. That book is possibly another perspective on the same idea but without so much linguist hogwash as it deals with the ideas mentioned in MGSV but without the trapping of specially, say, English. I say another perspective because Project Itoh and Kojima/MGS is intrinsically linked
http://metalgear.wikia.com/wiki/Project_Itoh
It's not to knock books like Snow Crash and others that brought up the idea about the power of language in a SF/fantasy setting, but this one has a lot more to do with the geopolitical nature of language (especially one that resonates with Japanese readers, perhaps--Genocidal Organ is one of the best selling SF novels in Japan in the 00s), and I bet Kojima's read it...
The book is now available in English via Viz/Haikasoru
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008ZVNXYQ/
If you like this kinds of stuff, check out this book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0395340659/ref=wms_ohs_product
Dr. Max Tegmark, cosmologist and physics professor at MIT
Dr. Jane Goodall, Primatologist
Dr. Sean Carroll, Theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology
Dr. Temple Grandin, Animal scientist
Dr. Seth Shostak, Senior astronomer and director at the Center for SETI Research
Dr. Chris Stringer, Anthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London
Dr. Jack Horner, Paleontologist at Montana State University
Dr. Adam Riess, astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Steven Strogatz, professor of mathematics at Cornell University
Dr. Ainissa Ramirez, materials scientist
Dr. Mario Livio, astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute
Olympia LePoint, rocket scientist
Dr. Danielle Lee, biologist
Dr. Michael Shermer, historian of science
Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist
She's one of those authors who's always 10 years ahead of the curve and likes to skip between subgenres. She wrote a mythic urban fantasy that's now considered one of the seminal works of the genre (War for the Oaks), a weird western way before that got popular (Territory), a gender-neutral/androgynous protagonist decades before Ann Leckie (Bone Dance), etc. Not to mention a straight SF novel (Falcon), the aforementioned historical fantasy novel with Steven Brust, and she's one of the creators/writers of Shadow Unit, a group author project that's told in episodes like a TV show. Plus a bunch of other stuff, and absolutely all of it is excellent.
Have you ever read the WWW Series? It asks and trys to answer these questions with a cool sci-fi AI twist. Gave me all the chills.
http://www.amazon.com/WWW-Trilogy-Robert-J-Sawyer/dp/044101853X/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1409325998&sr=8-4&keywords=www
Try the Audiobook if you're into that, it's excellent, multiple readers, etc.
I read Seeker which is part of the Alex Benedict Series in Spring 2011. Changed my life forever.
Read it apart of a science fiction English class and despite that I read it out of order from the series, it was fantastic.
The vision of the future portrayed in this novel is what I'd like our future to be.
The WWW series by Robert J Sawyer. 3 books, I couldn't stop. It's amazing!
https://www.amazon.com/WWW-Trilogy-Robert-J-Sawyer/dp/044101853X
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MRM8394/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=1RW2LKE7BT31L&coliid=I399H99I7NYGGO
IF that doesn't work, its the $4.99 Preternatural Affairs, Books 1-3: Witch Hunt, Silver Bullet, and Hotter Than Helltown [Kindle Edition].
My kindle is emptying faster than I can fill it!
Thanks for the contest! :-)
Here
https://www.amazon.com/WWW-Trilogy-Robert-J-Sawyer/dp/044101853X
For a negative view of this future, trying reading Avogadro Corp.
For a positive view of this future, try reading WWW: Wake
I think you should be more concerned with what men the female author of this passage knows.
https://www.amazon.com/Dinosaur-Lake-Kathryn-Meyer-Griffith-ebook/dp/B00943P0JK/
This isn’t men writing women. This is women writing men thinking about women.
on the right: John Ringo is a guilty obsession of mine, but will make any classic liberal's eyes roll hard enough to detach corneas Do not read that book if you can't handle liberal bashing. In a weak defense, his best books, the Alldenata series, Looking Glass series, and Troy series are such a blast to read. While there are a few snipes in them, a forgiving person on the left can really enjoy if they like military sci fi.
The Honorverse books make caricatures of socialism, and diplomacy oriented foreign policy.
While not being the worst offenders, Ark and Flood illustrate a similar style on the left. I tore through them, which would seem to tell me I enjoyed them, but when I was finished I could not look back and say they were good books. Objectively, they probably are.
Invasion was excrutiating. The protagonists are disgusting people. You get lots of mocking of religion for being so silly and irrational, yet the main character has lots of prophetic spiritualism through his enlightened use of hallucinogens. The author(s)' have such a laughably exaggerated idea of what "country people" are (anyone who doesn't live in a major city on the coast), you would think they had never even had a long layover anywhere in flyover country, much less actually spent any time outside NY or LA.
I am a voracious reader, and promptly forget authors and titles so I am having problems justifying my comments with other (better) examples.
It may be easier for me to pick out all of this stuff. I spent the first half of my adult life being very conservative. I like to think I was an intellectual conservative and reasonable, but definitely solidly Republican. Over the past 10 years I have transitioned to what most would consider the opposite extreme. I would roughly place my ideology (with exceptions) in a "Northern European center-left" which would have me very far left in the US.
It isn't when authors advocate an ideology that irritates me. It is when they seem to refuse to admit there are intelligent, reasonable people on the other side.
I have read both, and count them among my favorite books. In the real world today governments already exercise control over us in ways that even Orwell could never have imagined. These novels, however are works of fiction that necessarily predict a dystopian future for dramatic effect.
Since we're recommending books now, I would suggest you read the works of Robert J. Sawyer specifically the Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, and the WWW trilogy to see how 100% surveillance society may not be a bad thing.
It's pretty light reading, but if you like the idea of an Indiana Jones style adventure in space (but with a bit more science), I would check out 'Seeker' by Jack McDevitt.
It's a pretty fun and engaging read.
Lnk: http://www.amazon.com/Seeker-Jack-McDevitt/dp/0441013759/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291709470&sr=8-1
>It's a little below my level
Lol, sorry but that is super hipster sounding. =P
Awe, now you edited it. =P
It's a decent series, not amazing like the Enemies Trilogy. However the Divided we Fall series brings up a LOT of what you guys are talking about.
http://www.amazon.com/Enemies-Foreign-Domestic-Matthew-Bracken/dp/0972831010/ref=la_B00350B7EU_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453305557&sr=1-1
I for one welcome our (hopefully) benevolent AI overlords.
There is a series of books I read that deal with the coming of age of an AI. The WWW series. It is interesting, if not a little poorly written.
The Foreigner, by C.J Cherryh - this is a ongoing series, second one is called Invader
1st try
2nd try Beholders eye
I love the Culture books by Banks, but I think The Algebraist is the best sf he's written to date. And to my mind, no dull parts anywhere, middle or otherwise. (Okay, to put a very fine point on it, I did think the "villain" was little more than a cartoon but the rest of the book is just about perfect).
StarRisk is good fun as long as you arn't looking for deep hidden meanings in your writing, because other than a few story twists it's fairly straightforward. That doesn't make it any less entertaining thou.
The Evergence series is a considerably more sophisticated read and you'll likely get some good milage out of the story on that one. Everything from ascended beings to cyborgs and super soldiers.
The two I was trying to remember are
Seeker: It's an exploration and discovery novel, so not particularly military in approach but interesting.
The Faded Sun Trilogy: This one is a retired military character that ends up in a fish out of water situation. It's admittedly very long and was a tougher read than I had anticipated when I picked it up but I enjoyed it even if I felt a bit burnt out at the end because there's so much going on and the pacing isn't that great since it's actually 3 books in one cover.
If you want to get absolutely insane milage out of a book series try the Otherland series. It's not a space opera but it's a heavy duty sci-fi regardless. For hard space sci-fi the Culture series is also really incredible and should probably be at the top of this list not the bottom.