General Discussion

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams) - sci fi comedy

The Heir Chronicles (Cinda Williams China) - fantasy series

Red Queen (Victoria Aveyard) - futuristic fantasy series

1. Would like to vouch for Hitchhiker's Guide. It's a wonderful blend of humor and sci fi, and I swear by it!

2. Would ALSO like to vouch for Scythe, and by extension the sequel Thunderhead. The world is an exploration of a society after death is no more, and a fascinating examination of morality, humanity, and personal expression when immortality is the norm. Heavy themes but one of my favorite reads.

3. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer is a stunning example of weird sci fi- reminiscent of Lovecraft but less, y'know, racist and stuff. You may have heard about the movie, which is also a favorite of mine, but very different at a surface level. Lots of existentialism and quiet horror. I've heard it's one of those series where the sequels are just as good if not better than the first novel, but I haven't picked up the other books yet.

4. Lionboy by Zizou Corder is more oriented towards middle grades, I believe, but that doesn't diminish the quality in my eyes. The son of two biologists has been able to talk to cats as long as he can remember, and when his parents go missing, he sets out to find them, aided by a pride of circus lions he frees on his journey. It's a good mix of near-future sci fi and well-portioned bits of fantasy!

i suck at explaining, but if you want the wiki link, it's further down

if you're looking for a long series, the Xanth novels are really good

it's a fantasy series about 41+ (since 2017, plus 4 that are "forthcoming," according to wikipedia) books strong and it's basically just a fun little series with each book surrounding a different character and their quests. every book has a quest, and, if you're into it, has loads of puns. so many. the series title itself is basically a cute joke (the author is piers anthony, so)

a quick summary from wikipedia:

each human in xanth is born with a talent, which is some unique magical ability. though there are a few exceptions, the talents don't repeat. most talents are limited in what they can do, the series mostly focuses on the people with talents that are "magician" level abilities, mainly meaning that they are really powerful and is a criteria for serving as king of xanth.

theres a bunch of other mythical species and a bunch of play on words and jokes and such. i highly recommend if you like fantasy. i myself stopped around book number 25 or 26 but im considering picking it back up.

@Faasnu

After the Black Magician trilogy starts the Traitor Spy trilogy, starting off with the Ambassador's Mission, followed by The Rogue and The Traitor Queen. :>

@Faasnu
I highly recommend reading Worm by Wildbow. It's all online here but it's hella lengthy though; around 1.7m words, without counting it's currently ongoing sequel. It's a sci-fi about a world where people can get superpowers. It's pretty dark though and it gets even darker and more bleak as the story progresses.

Knife of never letting go by patrick ness is a really good alien planet type book, its more about what happens after we begin living on a new planet and what goes wrong. It can be a little intense but additive. Its the first of four books.

Delirium by lauren oliver is about love being considered a illness, its really more than just love, its emotions in general but love is the big one. You would think that the book would have love as the main plot but its actually much bigger than that.

birthmarked by caragh o'brien is another good book too.

Proxy by Alex London (and it's sequel Guardian) are amazing in my opinion!!!!

@cucumberoverlord - I read the Knife of Never Letting Go a couple summers back. It was interesting.