Joshi-Joshi Forum

I just thought I'd post my reading list. It's by no means exhaustive, but I try to update it as often as I can. I'll probably write little reviews/loose thoughts about the books I read, and this is also a space for curious people to inquire me about books in general.

It's all fiction for now, but I read a lot of reportage, political, and philosophy stuff too, so I'll add sections for that too later. This is a living OP.

key:

A book I've read
▶ A book I've started to read
🞭 A book I gave up on

Gene Wolfe

Book of the New Sun (series)

• The Shadow of the Torturer
• ▶ The Claw of the Conciliator
• The Sword of the Lictor
• The Citadel of the Autarch

Book of the Long Sun (series)

• Nightside the Long Sun
• Lake of the Long Sun
• Caldé of the Long Sun
• Exodus from the Long Sun

Book of the Short Sun (series)

• On Blue's Waters
• In Green's Jungles
• Return to the Whorl

Iain M. Banks

The Culture Series

• Consider Phlebas
• The Player of Games
• Use of Weapons
• The State of the Art
• Excession
• Inversions
• Look to Windward
• Matter
• Surface Detail
• The Hydrogen Sonata

Cixin Liu

Remembrance of Earth's Past

• The Three-Body Problem
• The Dark Forest
• Death's End
• 🞭 The Redemption of Time (by Baoshu)

Adrian Tchaikovsky

The Final Architecture

• Shards of Earth
• ▶ Eyes of the Void
• Lords of Uncreation

Kim Stanley Robinson

The Mars Trilogy

• Red Mars
• Green Mars
• Blue Mars

Warhammer Crime Series

Spoiler

• The Vorbis Conspiracy
• Bloodlines
• Dredge Runners
• The King of the Spoil
• The Wraithbone Phoenix
• Flesh and Steel
• Grim Repast

Arthur C. Clarke

• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Rendezvous with Rama

Cordwainer Smith

• ▶ We The Underpeople

Octavia E. Butler

• Bloodchild

Walter M. Miller

• A Canticle for Leibowitz

Thomas Pynchon

• Against the Day

AM ALOS ON TEH CULTURE SERIES!A DOING EM ALL IN ORDER,,,, JUST F(sorry caps)inished with inversions and had a blast
Lobed the helly out of Liu's work too.. i love books!
which one is your favorite to reccomend?

Quote from: Valley on Feb 23, 2026, 06:35 PMAM ALOS ON TEH CULTURE SERIES!A DOING EM ALL IN ORDER,,,, JUST F(sorry caps)inished with inversions and had a blast
Lobed the helly out of Liu's work too.. i love books!
which one is your favorite to reccomend?

I've only just begun on the culture series, even if it's been a while now. I enjoyed the two first novels. I've avtually started on Use of Weapons, but my brain was overheating on the two narratives intertwining, and one of them being told backwards. I still wanna read it eventually tho, I gave myself freedom to just move on to the next book.

As far as recommendations go, I'd like to give them based on knowing something about what the person in question likes. Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy is one of the first sci-fi series that I just became obsessed with. Highly recommend if you like hard(-ish) sci-fi, with a big ensemble cast of characters, political intrigue and interpersonal drama... and Mars - if you like the planet Mars.

such a coincidence! i'm also reading the Book of the New Sun, i'm still in The Shadow of the Torturer, so a little behind you. i really like it so far but it's definitely a bit of a difficult read for me, something about the style requires me to really focus... so i have been quite slow with it since i don't always have the energy to dice into it before bed - which is my usual reading time.

i love how evocative it is though, and discovering this world along Severian. there's already a couple of places and moments that were rly inspiring to me! i might do some art from it. how have you been finding it yourself?

Quote from: AutoReiv on Feb 24, 2026, 09:46 PMKim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy

I'm adding it to my to read list asap!!
Sounds like an exiting series... also mmmarts!!

Quote from: krzchn「c」 on Feb 24, 2026, 10:58 PMsuch a coincidence! i'm also reading the Book of the New Sun, i'm still in The Shadow of the Torturer, so a little behind you. i really like it so far but it's definitely a bit of a difficult read for me, something about the style requires me to really focus... so i have been quite slow with it since i don't always have the energy to dice into it before bed - which is my usual reading time.

i love how evocative it is though, and discovering this world along Severian. there's already a couple of places and moments that were rly inspiring to me! i might do some art from it. how have you been finding it yourself?

Heck yes! It is such obvious c-core now that I think about it. I can see your fanart of Severian in my minds eye. I wanna get some good physical copies bc the cover art is amazing.

It is very dense and requires your attention, I agree. I really gotta focus. The way it goes in and out of his different memories, the unreliable narrator. I'm definitely taking it slow. Wolfe wrote it this dense on purpose though. I think he wanted to write a book you could come back to over and over, and each time you would peel off a new layer of meaning, details and connections you didn't notice at first. So don't let it hold you back, read and enjoy the fascinating world, the surface appearance, the wacky and interesting character moments. I'm pretty sure you'll come back again... I know I will. I already suspect that this series will be the new "stranded on an island pick" for me, like Dwarf Fortress for viddy.

I really want to get into the Culture series, but I find I'm not really fond of the writing style. I think this sort of straightforward prose is typical of stories that more focused on plot progression than the actual 'stylisation' of the writing, but it really hampers my ability to progress with the books (although I have only tried the first two).

I know it's the most prominent and really one of only well-known books/series that are set in genuine utopias though so I want to take a stab at it again one of these days. Utopias aren't really something I believe are commonly explored in fiction. And the ship names are funny :comfmonk: