I recently read the trilogy, and absolutely fell in LOVE with this type of story. To clarify, to me, the three body problem trilogy felt like a modern take on cosmic horror, while im not looking specifically for horror. I’m looking for the feeling that this trilogy gave me, a sort of feeling of awe and excitement over the unknown. I love the unknown, but especially i love the idea of the unknown in reality, so stories that ground science fiction worries in reality a bit, but also aren’t entirely afraid to pull out some less realistic ideas to get across certain points. I am looking for any books that remotely feel like this trilogy in that sense.
I feel like such books would be very uncommon however.
EDIT: Do any of you listen to music while you read? I started recently making specific playlists for reading various kinds of books, so far i’ve made a playlist for reading warhammer 40k books and a playlist for reading cosmic horror and creepy stories in general, i came up with the idea while reading three body problem. after i started listening while reading, it made the experience even creepier, which i loved.
EDIT EDIT: For anyone else making suggestions, since theres a few suggestions i already have in my collection i plan to read here. i will provide a list of books i have in my collection that i plan to read. This isn’t all of them, this is just my “cosmic stuff” folder. Some of it is a bit less sci fi and is more just personally interesting for other reasons.
Ballad of black tom- victor lavalle
Blindsight+echopraxia- peter watts (suggested by this thread, already had it, more inclined to read now)
The void trilogy- peter hamilton
Phyl Undhu, Abstract horror, exterminator- Nick Land
The killing star- charles R pellegrino
The revelation space collection- alastair reynolds (newly added thanks to this thread)
The tinfoil dossier trilogy- Caitlin R Kiernan
vacuum diagrams/xeelee sequence- Stephen Baxter (newly added from this thread)
The expanse- james S.A. Corey (haven’t grabbed yet, but plan to)
Have you read The Expanse?
not yet! but i did watch the show, and i do plan to read the books, ESPECIALLY if they focus on the protomolecule and the ring builders a bit more, which it sounds like it might, the only two reasons i haven’t yet is that it seems soo darn long! which isn’t a bad thing, but i have a lot of books to read. the other reason is that i have a lot of trouble with violence and gore, and the show was really difficult to get through. So i worry that the books might explain some graphic things in great detail. And i might have to stop every once in a while due to nausea and vomiting.
I might also play or watch a playthrough of the recent expanse game that came out. Drummer was very cool in the show so i would imagine i’d enjoy the game even without the protomolecule and ring stuff going on.
If I recall correctly, they go over the psychological reaction to the gore more than the gore itself. The expanse focuses on the characters mental state a lot.
oh wow, that actually sounds WAY better than the show and far more interesting.
Project Hail Mary might fit the bill. It’s a story of a person who finds himself inside a spaceship, traveling somewhere in space to some location in space. He has lost his memory, so he has no idea why he is there or where he is going. All he knows is, that while he survived, his crewmates did not, and so, he is alone in space with somewhat annoying artificial intelligence as his only companion. He needs to save earth from something, but he doesn’t know that yet.
I’m not 100% sure if it is what you are looking for, but it is very highly regarded sci-fi book. Also it’s a standalone book (500 pages), not part of any kind of series of books, so it’s less daunting to read than something like The Expanse series. There are some violence, but I don’t remember how graphic it is.
I’ll just have to read it and see!
Try reading Peter Watts, particularly Blindsight and Echopraxia (also found together in omnibus as Firefall).
It’s hard sci-fi that dips into things that humans are not capable of understanding (like an animal not recognizing itself in the mirror).
:D these books are in my “cosmic stuff” book folder. I thought it would be somewhat interesting, i did hear some ideas like that were in there i am looking forward to it! Your description sounds most fascinating. It may not be a new book in my collection but at least i have a better idea of what books i want to read next, thanks!
I recommend anything by Alistair Reynolds, but in this vein I’d have to go with his Revelation Space trilogy (there’s technically a 4th, but it’s only loosely connected to the others), specifically the first three of the Inhibitor Sequence books
OOOOOOOHHH this sounds like almost exactly what im looking for, there’s even posthumans! This might be my next read before the rest of the suggestions here, or maybe i should save it for last just in case it’s that good… HMMMM…
Definitely second The Revelation Space series. Also enjoyed “Inhibitor Phase” which came out recently.
The Expanse really ramps up the “cosmic horror” aspects in the later hooks. Also, 40k plays well with Cosmic horror in some of its stories. Mainly anything about tyranids or Chaos.
Oooh dangit expanse sounds even better now. And yes! i’ve read a couple 40k stories that i adored, i’ve read just about every adeptus mechanicus related book in my collection, i’ve read 2 or 3 of the horus heresy, and and a couple tau books, and books involving necrons.
There are some youtube videos i had watched of some interesting stories, like “Watcher in the rain” seemed super creepy, right up my alley. I will probably be making a folder for 40k horror stuff.
Expanse is an 11/10. At least the first 8 books. Haven’t finished the last one yet lol. Man I love watcher in the rain.
Will have to make a 40k horror folder for all my 40k horror books, im sure i have a couple already.
Not so much cosmic horror, but definitely the sense of awe and scale (both physically and time wise), the Xeelee Sequence by Stephen Baxter. ‘Vacuum Diagrams’ is a short story collection that spans the timeline and I think it’s a good introduction to see if you’ll like it.
Edit: I guess there is some cosmic horror, as in ‘what could make an ancient and powerful race so scared and helpless that they need to build an escape hatch in the universe?’
i should clarify “cosmic horror” for me is a MUCH broader concept in my mind than most think of it, for me, it encompasses so much more than just space gods beyond human understanding. i classify cosmic “entities” as anything out of control of humanity and of the “outside” in some vague sense, capitalism is a lovecraftian monster out of human control, it is not foreign to our world, but a.i. is also very similar in this regard, as is the weather/climate change, to a lesser extent. For me, the lovecraftian concepts in three body was the very idea of a dark forest, the idea that you fundamentally cannot know if the dark forest is in fact real, so they had to more or less assume it was, similar to that even if life is a simulation in order to prevent complete chaos we would still need to assume it’s all real so we aren’t just going crazy and doing ridiculous stuff on the off chance that it isn’t a simulation and murder and such things did matter, such concepts no matter the authors beliefs on how it ends up are always VERY interesting to me.
Just from this line “what could make an ancient and powerful race so scared and helpless that they need to build an escape hatch in the universe?’” I am already curious and will probably grab the book shortly and read some later tonight.
I consume book therefore i am, maybe, probably, we’ll see after i read X more books that further break down my preconceptions on everything i used to think i understood. Somehow i think i will just be less certain :P
You might enjoy Peter F Hamilton’s books Pandora’s Star and its sequel, Judas Unchained. It’s somewhere between space opera and hard sci-fi but there are significant plots and sub-plots involving alien creatures ranging from the vaguely comprehensible (to humans) through to creatures that are almost beyond our ability to understand.
