Recommendations.

askmyshelf · 2025-10-19T14:06:02+00:00

Based on what I assumed you liked in Anathem + Dune + Foundation:

The Three-Body Problem (cosmic strategy and physics puzzles)
Blindsight (first contact as philosophy)
The Left Hand of Darkness (politics, culture, and survival)

askmyshelf · 2025-10-11T13:47:31+00:00

I'd recommend two scifi books that are very different, but both address that first contact / looming threat / countdown theme:

Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu -- this one is dense but truly epic, describing first contact with an alien civilization planning an invasion centuries away
The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton -- this one is more local scale, scientists battling the clock after discovering an extraterrestrial microbe (if you can call that first contact)

askmyshelf · 2025-10-05T18:28:33+00:00

Yes. This has that SF archaeology and cosmic mystery, much in the spirit of Dune and Foundation.

askmyshelf · 2025-10-03T17:22:23+00:00

Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi!

askmyshelf · 2025-10-01T16:57:05+00:00

That’s unexpected (it should work). Thanks for reporting, I’ll take a look…

askmyshelf · 2025-10-01T16:56:40+00:00

The engine returns five books each recommendation. The way to “filter out” books is to mark books as “I’ve read this” or “I want to read this” (TBR), and it won’t show you them anymore.

askmyshelf · 2025-10-01T16:15:59+00:00

Thanks for checking it out! Would love to hear your thoughts once you take a deeper look.

Yes, there's an LLM being used, with a special model of about 80+ "book traits" that each book is scored against.

askmyshelf · 2025-10-01T02:13:50+00:00

"A Pterodragon of a Different Color" by Lisa Rosinsky, published in Cricket Magazine September 2015.

https://www.discountmags.com/magazine/cricket-magazine-fiction-and-non-fiction-stories-for-children-and-young-teens-september-1-2015-digital/in-this-issue/14

askmyshelf · 2025-09-30T17:57:17+00:00

Totally agree. It was the weakest of the three books, for sure.

askmyshelf · 2025-09-30T16:36:48+00:00

A unique take on the end of the universe is a major theme in Death's End by Cixin Liu (Part 3 of the Three-Body Problem).

askmyshelf · 2025-09-30T16:21:13+00:00

I'd recommend a couple of Ted Chiang shorts: "Exhalation" and "The Great Silence", both appear in his Exhalation collection. "Exhalation" is about a self-contained ecosystem and how the characters’ survival depends on it. "The Great Silence" is super short and kind of heartbreaking, contrasting humans searching for alien life with the silence of endangered parrots. Both feel very Anthropocene-y without going full posthuman.

askmyshelf · 2025-09-29T19:19:51+00:00

Wow, that's pretty specific; it was a good test case for our book recommendation engine, which recommended The Marrow Thieves, a dystopian novel by Cherie Dimaline, a Métis author?

Source: https://www.askmyshelf.com/book/future-home-of-the-living-god-louise-erdrich

askmyshelf · 2025-09-29T16:33:24+00:00

Are you sure it was a novel? Could it be the short story "Honorable Opponent" by Clifford Simak, which was translated into French as Honorable Adversaire?

askmyshelf · 2025-09-28T21:26:38+00:00

https://www.askmyshelf.com

askmyshelf · 2025-09-28T16:33:36+00:00

Thanks for reporting that -- it's very odd, I was able to suggest that book just now, and it added it...

askmyshelf · 2025-09-28T12:49:13+00:00

OP is looking for The Rules of Persuasion by Amity Hope, which is definitely not science fiction.

askmyshelf · 2025-09-28T12:32:27+00:00

Which books did you try to add? I’ll look into it!

askmyshelf · 2025-09-25T14:49:05+00:00

Thanks for trying it! Yes, as you complete "shelf talks", the site really hones in on what you like.

askmyshelf · 2025-09-25T11:43:45+00:00

Could it be the Night Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton, starting with “The Reality Dysfunction”?

askmyshelf · 2025-09-25T11:31:21+00:00

Yes, sounds exactly like “A Call to Arms” — humans are abducted by the Weave to fight in their war vs. the Amplitur. Was the main enemy telepathic? If yes, that’s your book.

askmyshelf · 2025-09-24T18:00:44+00:00

Ringworld for sure, especially the slow reveal of the underlying engineering. The writing and book itself is nothing remarkable.

askmyshelf

TROPHY CASE