Most fast-paced Sci-Fi book?

[Olivia]

I am desperate. My mother really wants to read, but to say she is impatient is such an understatement. She gets bored if the first chapter of a book doesn't get right in to it. She loves movies that are thrilling and action packed, and she is a big sci-fi fan. Some of her favorites are Men In Black (she loooooves the humor), Aliens, The Matrix, Terminator, and a recent movie she told me she absolutely loved because it was action packed right in the first few minutes was World War Z. So basically, if any of you have recommendations for a novel that is like World War Z (movie) type action and pace please let me know, I am also interested in reading it myself.
Note: I tried Ready Player One, Unwind and this random mystery novel I never read, and she did not stick with any of the,.

[Alia]

There are always the novelizations of those movies.

[Sarah]

Our current group read, Nexus would definitely fit the bill. There are a bunch of gunfights and hand to hand combat and the pace is really fast. There's also a SciFi technothriller listopia that would probably have some great ideas.

[Sarah]

Here's a couple of the listopias that I mentioned.

Best Technothrillers Ever
Best Science Thrillers

[V.W.]

Try Empire From the Ashes by David Weber. It's a trilogy in one book. The first page starts like this:

The huge command deck was as calm, as peacefully dim, as ever, silent but for the small background sounds of environmental recordings. The bulkheads were invisible beyond the projection of star-specked space and the blue-white shape of a life-bearing world. It was exactly as it ought to be, exactly as it always had been—tranquil, well-ordered, as divorced from chaos as any setting could possibly be.
But Captain Druaga's face was grim as he stood beside his command chair and data flowed through his neural feeds. He felt the whickering lightning of energy weapons like heated irons, Engineering no longer responded—not surprisingly—and he'd lost both Bio-Control One and Three. The hangar decks belonged to no one; he'd sealed them against the mutineers, but Anu's butchers had blocked the transit shafts with grab fields covered by heavy weapons. He still held Fire Control and most of the external systems, but Communications had been the mutineers' primary target. The first explosion had taken it out, and even an Utu-class ship mounted only a single hypercom. He could neither move the ship nor report what had happened, and his loyalists were losing.

[Silvana]

The Expanse series, by James S.A. Corey, starting with its first book Leviathan Wakes. She also can watch the TV series (The Expanse) to for visual purposes.

I also remember liking All You Need Is Kill and Terms of Enlistment for their pace. Both are rather serious, though.
A more lighthearted one that might fit could be John Scalzi's works, such as Old Man's War and Redshirts.

[Jain]

From what I recall, The Warrior's Apprentice, Fortune's Pawn, Warchild, and The Hunger Games are all heavy on action and get to it in the first chapter or so. Actually, speaking of The Hunger Games, YA sci-fi in general might be a good fit for your mother. I don't read much of it myself, but maybe someone in this group (or your local librarian) would have some more suggestions for you.

[Lexxi Kitty]

I haven't read the author in a good long while, but I've a vague recollection that Matthew Reilly tends to be non-stop action. The kind that gets a lot of use out of ! (exclamation points). Ice Station. Do not recall if there's much in the way of humor in it, though.

[Zippergirl]

I thought Railhead was pretty amazing, with a character-based sci-fi / fantasy plot, and it moved like quicksilver, lots of smart dialog.

[Lexxi Kitty]

I only mention because I was curious so I looked - there are at least two 'spin-off' books based on MIB. I've never read them, so no idea of quality, quickness, or the like. Men in Black: The Green Saliva Blues & Men in Black: The Grazer Conspiracy

ETA: Actually, there might just be the one book. Goodreads seems to think that the book got rereleased with a new title at some point.

[Micah]

Maybe look at The Petrovitch Trilogy by Simon Morden?

It's a near-future dystopian cyberpunk-ish set of 3 standalone stories that follow a set of characters in chronological order. It won the Philip K Dick award back when it came out.

Definitely fast paced with lots of action. I really liked the way each book has a closed ending. It helps to read them in order, of course, but not 100% strictly necessary. I read them out of order actually and it wasn't a problem getting up to speed with the characters, but reading the earlier books later spoiled a few things.

[Trike]

The Destroyermen series by Taylor Anderson is quite fast-paced. First one is Into the Storm.

[Roberta]

The most fast-paced SF book I can remember is The Stars My Destination by Bester: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

Not just action-packed, but amazing use of graphics.

[MadProfessah]

Actually Marcus Sakey's Brilliance trilogy is very fast paced and lots of fun.

[Trike]

I would also recommend the Sten series by Allan Cole and Chris Bunch. They were former screenwriters of low-budget flicks and that series has the sparseness of a screenplay. It is one of the fastest reads I've ever encountered, plus the books are great fun. Each sequel takes a classic film as its inspiration, such as The Great Escape or Lawrence of Arabia, but in condensed form. The first one is Sten. I think there are omnibus editions.

Similarly, Logan's Run is a headlong rush to the end. The book is better than the movie in many ways, and it's less than 195 pages. It's the only book I've ever read where the chapters count down from 10 to zero, which gives you an idea of its pell-nell nature.

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman is a classic for a reason. Also a quick read. Similarly, John Scalzi's Old Man's War zips right along and is action-packed. And then there's Damnation Alley. Fasty McFasterson.

[Chris]

Your mother might enjoy graphic novels. What would be slow-paced exposition in a regular novel is often shown through the art. Also, it's easy to move through slow parts to get to the action.

[Sarah]

Chris wrote: "Your mother might enjoy graphic novels. What would be slow-paced exposition in a regular novel is often shown through the art. Also, it's easy to move through slow parts to get to the action."

That's a brilliant idea, Chris.

[Aaron]

Screw The Galaxy Less of a movie format, a bit more tv show like but dense action/comedy.

Maybe Prime Suspects: A Clone Detective Mystery

I'm actually shuffling though my list of books that 1 start with action and 2 stay fast paced it's not really that many some that keep a high pace once they get going.

A Choice of Treasons
Edge of Reality

And while I know you are looking for Sci-fi get your mother The Rook, it sounds perfect for her.

[Faith]

The Great Zoo of China by Matthew Reilly is a fantasy thriller with relentless action. My review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Gnome Claire *Wishes she was as cool as Gnome Ann*]

It's not like world war Z but I really enjoyed The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy it's sci fi and humour. It's funny and the plot starts from the very beginning (I think that earth is destroyed in the first chapter or so). It's not particularly actiony with fights ect. and it's quite weird and trippy and very funny.

[Trike]

Faith wrote: "The Great Zoo of China by Matthew Reilly is a fantasy thriller with relentless action. My review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show......"

Interesting review. I had a similar reaction to his book Seven Deadly Wonders: too much action, not enough character development.

[AndrewP]

Almost anything by John Ringo. All that I have read have been fast paced.

[Steven]

Try my Golden Years of Virginia Morgan, or Clones and Mutants Series...all scifi adventures
R/Steve Moore (http://stevenmmoore.com)

[Sifou]

try like every scalzi book ever written is pretty much what you described fast paced, witty, fun and sci fi

[Sarah]

Scalzi would be great in this particular situation. Fuzzy Nation is one of my favorite feel good sci-fi books.

[Betelgeuze]

I second Rachel Bach's Fortunes Pawn. I would also recommend
and

is more science fantasy than pure sf, but contains lots of action.

If you mother also likes Urban Fantasy than I highly recommend

and

[Steven]

To show I'm not a self-serving clod, here are a few other recommendations for fast-paced sci-fi thrills:
Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein's Friday
Hogan's The Proteus Operation
Jack McDevitt's Omega
Pohl's Heechee series
These are all classics. For some extraordinary but little known fantasy/sci-fi with lots of action, try the "Under the Stairs" series by John Stockmyer. In that same tone (and beating my own drum again), my recent novel Rogue Planet is a swashbuckling adventure too.
All these books hum along like a Porsche on the Autobahn.
All the best,
r/Steve

[Kateb]

I felt a little more detail might be needed in the “action” book descriptor. Olive, does your mother want an action book or one that has things happening right from the first chapter.

Many of the above books are action books but still involve a lot of description, and finally lead up to the action.

I have found over the years that I will skim through some of the first chapters of a book to see if it “improves” , but really I like my books to be into the action immediately. If the first few pages are descriptive I have been known to reject the book.

I have been reading sci fi since I was 8, with an Isaac Asimov book. Since retirement I thought I would have time to read at a more leisurely pace , but no still find them a little slow.

So YA are good, depending on the story. Some YA are all about real teenage things , others are called YA as there isn’t any sex, but the story is still interesting.

If this is the type of book your mum wants then I can give lists. Try Raymond Feist. Let me know and I will suggest others.,

[Steven]

Kateb,
I agree. You're describing that ubiquitous hook. Let me throw out some traditional and broad categories to make a point: there's hard sci-fi, space opera, and fantasy (and many subcategories under those--choose your taxonomy). Books trending to the second or third often have a nice hook at the beginning, not so much the first kind where a novel trending to scientific extrapolation often does a lot of world building (often called narrative prose in other contexts) and said extrapolation. The "classics" in my list are good reps of hard sci-fi with some space operatic qualities, and they move right along (maybe why they're classics?).
YA novels can be any of the above (my The Secret Lab is a YA sci-fi mystery set in the same universe as the "Chaos Chronicles Trilogy," for example). They tend to be shorter. (It surprised me how many adults liked my book.) The tendency to brevity isn't a hard and fast rule, though. Harry Potter, definitely YA, has lots of world building.
Novels that begin with a hook grab you from the beginning, but you pointed out a potential problem: if it's all downhill from there, including an unsatisfying ending, the author is in trouble with readers too.
r/Steve

[Kateb]

some books can still build up the "world" by the actions and comments as things happen, and still be action based from the beginning.

There is a place for the long slow build up, I have a sister who loves them.

[Steven]

Kateb,
I've observed over the years that the reading population is as varied as the general population. This wonderful diversity in human nature means that most any book can find an audience if written well, no matter the genre, style, or characterizations. This all belies the often heard advice directed at authors to "write to market." Like Pokemon Go, authors, agents, and publishers really can't predict what will capture the reading public's attention. Who could have predicted the amazing success of The Martian, Fifty Shades of Grey, Gone Girl, or even the Harry Potter series. Clancy's Hunt for Red October almost didn't get published. Etc, etc.
All that said, I can still say the best reward for an author is that every book s/he writes entertains AT LEAST ONE reader. It's all about the storytelling.
r/Steve

[Kateb]

still haven't heard from Olive on what type of action book her mother wants?

[J.J.]

Since you use movies as examples, has she seen the Total Recall remake? That movie seemed to be nonstop from beginning to end, and it was the only movie I've ever told myself that it needs to stop for a breather.

[Steven]

J.J. and others,
One has to be careful when comparing books to movies, even when the screenplays come from books, as in the case of the original Total Recall and maybe the remake, if Hollywood didn't mess with it too much. (The original story is a Phillip K. Dick short--Hollywood discovered him with Blade Runner and hasn't let go yet). Movies and books are different media (I'm stating the obvious, of course), so we're all too often comparing apples and oranges. Because books allow the reader to get inside the head of protagonists and antagonists and movies don't, and movies are more visual and books leave more to the reader's imagination, we've become accustomed to more action in our thriller movies. Books can have plenty of action too, but it's their introspection that attracts many readers. A good movie can carry that over to the silver screen--for example, Tinker, Tailor..., a dark spy noir from Le Carre was an excellent movie.
I was watching On His Majesty's Secret Service on cable last night (a Lazenby-Bond flick I'd missed) and was amused that there was a ski-chase scene almost identical to one in a later Moore-Bond flick (Roger Moore is no relation, by the way!). There are only so many action scenes Hollywood can film--they're mostly car chases, of course, and blown-up buildings. (I'm generally not impressed with Hollywood skills and probably reflect that in the movie reviews on my blog.)
Bottom line: while I'm as guilty as the next guy, let's try to stick to books. That was the original question.
r/Steve

[J.J.]

Didn't mean to draw any comparison, but the OP used movies as examples, so I simply added another to the list. But your point perfectly illustrates why fans of books have so many problems with film adaptations. They are two entirely different genres with different rules and like you point out, the rules you can live by in a book don't necessarily translate to the visual medium. Starship Troopers is a perfect example where fans of either the book or the movie seem to hate the other, yet I think both are good for their respective mediums. I doubt a faithful adaptation of the book would have worked for Hollywood audiences, and I doubt a faithful novelization of the movie would have been such an endearing classic of literature.

BTW, Lazenby is underrated as Bond!

[Steven]

J.J.,
LOL: I agree about Lazenby after seeing his wonderful glibness--not as good as Connery, but much better than Moore. Craig was much better than his predecessor too.
The director of Starship Troopers made the movie a pseudo-Nazi-parody (bet they would have like to have that psi-corps), all the more biting because supposedly that's our future. Here's a funny story (black humor, I suppose): we lived in MA at the time the movie was released, and Digital (or was it Compaq or HP?) was performing massive layoffs. Group leaders were told to train the next wave of people coming in to take their jobs. (Spoiler alert) Those group leaders likened the whole onerous procedure to the brain-sucking scene in the movie.
Here's another example: I saw the previews of I, Robot and made the conscious decision to put Isaac Asimov out of mind. As a consequence, I could enjoy the movie. There was an audience split on that one too, but maybe not as much as with Starship Troopers.
Then there's Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher...sigh....
Back to fast-paced sci-fi: have I mentioned The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein? Maybe in a class by itself?
r/Steve

[Roberta]

Getting back to action-packed books, now that I've started Slan by A.E. van Vogt I recommend it to anyone who wants a scifi book packed with lots of fast-paced action.

[Steven]

Roberta,
Slan (the Slans are superhumans) is one of those classic sci-fi tales. Some people call them space operas. Even The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress could be called that. I first read Slan in junior high (middle school for east-coasters), so it's pretty old. I think it was serialized at first in one of the sci-fi zines (not on Amazon, like Hugh Howey's Wool--hey, that's another fast-moving tale), but I think he must have reedited in the version I read--it had none of the jerkiness serialization brings (I fought that with Evil Agenda, the only book I've first serialized).
I'm sure we can find more of these classics that can qualify as fast-paced. Let the good times roll!
r/Steve

[Trike]

Steven wrote: "Roberta,
Slan (the Slans are superhumans) is one of those classic sci-fi tales. Some people call them space operas. Even The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress could be called that. "

Wait, no, that's not true. Neither Slan nor TMiaHM are space operas. I'm not going to derail the thread for a discussion on subgenres, but each one has distinct requirements and tropes.

[Steven]

Trike,
OK--I said "some people call them space operas," and I WILL "derail the thread" a wee bit to make this point about genres: I go for the story and don't give a damn about them. They're just categories originally created by bookstores and libraries to facilitate their shelving problems, after all (that old Dewey decimal system is replete with genre contamination). For me, genres today are of limited use as just other key words to describe a book. And I'm certainly not going to argue semantics about their definitions and applications.
I believe you're reading "space opera" and thinking of the words in their pejorative sense, though. There are many EXCELLENT space operas, and you shouldn't consider the words in that way. Almost all sci-fi stories have elements of hard sci-fi (read "intelligent extrapolation of current science and technology," always tricky), space opera, paranormal, and fantasy, the mix tilted one way or the other by the story's author. Clarke's last Rama book (God is an engineer) is a prime example. Most people would call Star Trek sci-fi, but it's more space opera; most people would call Star Wars sci-fi, but it's more fantasy; and most people would call CSI (the original TV program, i.e. Las Vegas) a crime series, but it's sci-fi (no lab makes a DNA test in a day). See what I mean? Genres are the bane of good storytelling, period. I never start writing a story telling myself, this is going to be in X genre. Heaven forbid! (Or Clarke's engineers?) I just tell the damn story,
r/Steve

[Trike]

Steven wrote: "Trike,
OK--I said "some people call them space operas," and I WILL "derail the thread" a wee bit to make this point about genres: I go for the story and don't give a damn about them. They're just c..."

I do not think of space opera as a pejorative. Kindly stop assuming things about me.

I also don't care if some people categorize books incorrectly. My 78-year-old aunt thinks Obama can rewrite the Constitution; that doesn't make her assertion valid.

Further, most genres and subgenres arose long before bookselling as we know it became a thing, and decades before there were public libraries, nevermind the Dewey Decimal system. When you run into an artificially-created subgenre cooked up by a marketing department, such as "Young Adult" or "New Adult", you can pretty much tell.

My PhD thesis was going to be on genre distinctions, so I put a lot of work into it. Genres exist because humans naturally categorize things. Categorization is useful in every aspect of life, from survival ("hot things hurt me") to entertainment ("if you like X, you might like Y"). So getting categories wrong does a disservice to everyone.

Categorizing something is not bad. Judging something based on its category IS bad. How many times have you heard someone say, "I hate Westerns," or "I hate Romantic Comedies"? That kind of broad brush condemnation is prejudice, plain and simple.

[Sarah]

I'm going to say that Trike is typically very precise and knowledgeable about genre definitions. (He also uses the words "trope" correctly.) He's precise but not derogatory that I've seen.

That said, let's not have an off topic argument or debate.

[Steven]

Sarah Anne,
Or I can suggest some tranquilizers? :-)
Yes, way over the top. And I apologize if I stepped on anyone's toes, but bowing out of this one. It's becoming as vitriolic as FB. See ya.
r/Steve

[Roberta]

Steven, Trike, Sarah Anne,
How did we get onto a space ship production of an opera? Good writing is good writing. Science fiction isn't always about space! I've read stories classified as scifi that are adventures in space, but also books or stories about microbes, non-permeable viruses, bones, evolution, alternate history, romance, horror, comedy, God, theology, geology, (earth), mythology, personal relationships, or any other topic.

Slan was on display at my local library branch. I've wanted to read it for a long time, so this was a good opportunity.

Rama Revealed (Clarke and Lee) is a good conclusion to the series, and it's also worth reading for the surprising homage to Douglas Adams on the last page of Chapter 8. When I read it I stopped and yelled "What? How could they do this?"

I enjoy reading good writing, regardless of the genre. Regarding scifi, I've seen copies of the same book are shelved under scifi, general fiction, literature, horror, or humour in libraries or book sales.

[Steven]

Roberta,
I like all your points. They pretty much prove mine. Taxonomy is one thing, stories another.
I think I mentioned Hogan's The Proteus Operation, Nazi-hunting alternate history with a twist, namely the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, an interpretation laid out in a PhD thesis by Hugh Everett III, a student of Wheeler's--speaking of PhD theses. It will probably lead to quantum gravity via quantum histories, so Hogan's is hard sci-fi at its best--not one spaceship either!
I still think we're off track--someone just wanted recommendations for fast-paced sci-fi books, and we went down a weird yellow brick road to find a genre discussion instead of the Wizard. Your last paragraph proves that genres aren't all they're cracked up to be, by the way, in PhD theses or otherwise.
Now I really will bow out.
r/Steve

[Sarah]

I don't think I need the tranqs. I was trying to avoid exactly the convo that just took place so my comment was pretty on point.

Roberta, I apologize. Steven said a book was space Opera and Trike disagreed. This was the result of that.

I'm locking this thread for now.