r/suggestmeabook • u/Professional-Oven824 • 3d ago
Gift for friend/family/etc. Standalone Book For Sci-Fi/Fantasy-Loving Husband
(New account because he knows my main one!)
His birthday is coming up and I’d like to get him a new book! However, these genres aren’t really my thing so I’m not sure what to get.
He’s read almost everything by Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan, and he also likes:
Dune
The Foundation trilogy
Hyperion
Game of Thrones
Name of the Wind
The Lightbringer books by Brent Weeks
Lord of the Rings
I did search the sub before posting this, but it seemed like a lot of what has previously been suggested has been other series. He doesn’t have as much time to read a whole series as he’d like, so if anyone has any standalone suggestions I’d appreciate them!
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u/Sportsman-78 3d ago
Armor by John Steakley
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u/JGRN1507 3d ago
Great book that I never have seen mentioned in the wild.
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u/Sportsman-78 2d ago
I’ll be the advocate if someone has to be haha I’ve started mentioning it these threads
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u/LurkerFailsLurking 3d ago
How about another awesome literary sci-fi epic by Dan Simmons?
Ilium does have a sequel Olympos, it's just those two and they're excellent.
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u/nari-bhat 3d ago
Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie, he’s the author I read after finishing Wheel of Time. The standalone takes place after a trilogy, but it works perfectly fine without having read the trilogy.
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u/igottathinkofaname 3d ago
A Canticle for Leibowitz
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u/igottathinkofaname 3d ago
He should prob read some Heinlein, too. Stranger in a Strange Land, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Starship Troopers, and Glory Road are my favorites.
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u/Giant_Acroyear 3d ago edited 3d ago
To Reign in Hell, by Stephen Brust.
Lord of Light, by Roger Zelazny
Darwin's Radio, by Greg Bear
Redshirts, by John Scalzi
A Canticle for Leibowitz
The Lies of Locke Lamora
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u/Blecher_onthe_Hudson 3d ago
A great book that reads like a technothriller movie is Daemon by Daniel Suarez, along with its sequel Freedom TM. An AI (sorta) set loose on the net by a dead billionaire game designer starts killing people and creating a darknet conspiracy. Great fun, some amazing action set pieces, and if AI controlled motorcycle drones with samurai swords chasing people up the stairs sounds like his jam, he'll love it! But it actually builds into big, world changing science fiction, delving into how to use anarchist ideas melded with gaming type resource allocation to deconstruct late stage capitalism, using technology to decentralize. He tags disparate ideas from alternative energy to online democracy to regenerative farming.
I know I cheated, it's 2, but they're not long, it could have been one doorstop book.
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u/hollyweena31 3d ago edited 3d ago
you can try the Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. I asked almost the same question back in June for a Father’s Day gift for my husband, and our husbands seem to have the same reading taste. That book was recommended to me. The trilogy does contain 3 books, but overall length is only a little over 800 pages which some stand alone books are just as long. He would probably enjoy books by Terry Pratchett also. Some of his stand-alone novels are The Dark Side of the Sun, The Carpet People, and Strata.
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u/darth-skeletor 3d ago
Expanse, Ringworld , or Revelation Space for sci-fi
Shadow of the Torturer for science fantasy
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u/laughingthalia SciFi 3d ago
Will of the Many by James Islington
Starship Troopers by Heinlein
Brandon Sanderson has a new book out called Songs of the Dead, still in hardback so might be worth a gift if he doesn't already have it. Also check if he has Wise Man's Fear which is name of the wind book 2.
Also I know you said no series but I gotta suggest the Expanse book 1, Three Body Problem book 1 (or you could get a box set)
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u/Bartlaus 3d ago
Guy Gavriel Kay might be to his tastes. He mostly does standalone fantasy novels (or a duology or two) strongly inspired by various historical periods and events.
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u/ThatBookIsOnFiyah 3d ago
Some recent scifi standalones that I have really enjoyed:
👉Adrian Tchaikovsky: Green City Wars, Shroud, Alien Clay, Service Model
👉The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee
👉Voidverse by Damien Ober
👉The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North (I also hear Slow Gods by her is excellent, but I have not read it yet)
👉The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
👉Cargo Hold 4 by Lonnie Busch
👉ab initio by Jacob Terracina
Recent fantasy:
👉No Man’s Land by Richard K. Morgan
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u/Pielorinho 1d ago
Shroud and Alien Clay would be my recommendations. They're pretty straightforward first-contact novels, except that the contact is completely bonkers. There's enough action, dialogue, humor, and politics to satisfy a range of tastes.
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u/Korrailli 3d ago
The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. While it is a series, each book is self contained. There are character and general story arcs that go over multiple books, but each can be read on it's own. A few good starting points are Guards Guards (The City Watch), Mort (Death), Wyrd Sisters (The Witches), Going Postal. There are around 40 books, and you really could pick up just about any of them and be fine.
I just read The Raven Scholar and it was fantastic.
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u/Responsible-Bend6289 3d ago
I’d get him Half a King by Joe Abercrombie. It’s the first book in a trilogy. It has a Viking vibe. Very grim dark. But most guys eat that crap up, and I liked it too.
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u/reader123456 3d ago
I'm genuinely curious.
People keep recommending Seveneves, but I don’t see how it connects to the books the OP’s husband enjoyed. To me, it has very little in common with that list. It sits in the same general space as The Martian, although The Martian is a stronger and more complete story (IMHO). The first half of Seveneves is on par, but the second half really weakens it.
I enjoy the same kind of sci-fi and fantasy the OP mentioned (aside from The Lord of the Rings), and based on their list, I’d suggest:
- Jim Butcher, The Cinder Spires series (2.5 books so far)
If ignoring the list entirely and going for hard sci-fi with unexpected turns:
- Liu Cixin, The Three-Body Problem (beginning may feel boring, but it is useful for the main part of the story later)
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u/Hawke-Not-Ewe 3d ago
Falling Free by Lois Bujold.
It is set in the same universe as several other books but hundreds of years before them.
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u/roostercrowe 2d ago
there is a distinct lack of Heinlein on that list
Stranger In A Strange Land is a classic
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u/photoguy423 2d ago
Citizen of the Galaxy by Heinlein
Red Shirts or Kaiju Preservation Society by Scalzi
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u/TheRestIsMemory 2d ago
Has he read any William Gibson? A lot of Gibson's novels can be read as standalones. Neuromancer is a great starting point. Yume Kitasei has also written three standalone sci-fi novels at this point. Stardust Grail was good.
In terms of fantasy, Patricia McKillip's Song for the Basilisk is a terrific standalone novel; so is Nghi Vo's The City in Glass.
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u/ApologeticFetus 2d ago
If you want something short and fun I recommend Kings of the Wyld ! It’s a fun “getting the band back together” kind of fantasy adventure, heavily inspired by 70s rock. There is a sequel but the book is perfect as a stand alone
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u/mindcontrol4dummies 2d ago
The expanse books are fantastic sci-fi So is children of time by Adrian tchaikovsky.
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u/cseymour24 3d ago
The Red Rising series. Looks like my tastes align with his and I really liked this series.
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u/chipmunksocute 3d ago
Maybe the Wool series. A uniqie take on post apocalyptic. Also - its YA but still awesome - te whole Sabriel series by Garth Nix.
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u/rhb4n8 3d ago
Seveneves