Maybe take a look at post apocalyptic sci Fi (…wikipedia.org/…/Apocalyptic_and_post-apocalyptic…), as it includes a lot of interesting futuristic tech, but it is mostly limited to earth. There’s probably another category where things like blade runner fit too

Oh there’s just so many. A favorite of mine is Replay by Ken Grimwood. It’s a kind of a time travel book, but different from most, and a lot of fun - written in 1986, so not new. Broad plot is that the main character, a middle aged man, dies on the first page and wakes up back in college, back in the 50s, I believe. It gets more interesting from there.

You might enjoy the Murderbot Diaries, by Martha Wells, which is a series that starts with All Systems Red. The first couple are novellas, and the first one was published in 2017, so much more recent. They won a lot of awards. It takes place in an unspecified time in the future, told from the perspective of a cyborg of sorts who is a security bot who has hacked his control unit and doesn’t have to do what he’s told, but he doesn’t want people to know that so he can watch soap operas when he can. He’s guarding a small group on an alien planet when things get weird.

I’ll recommend one other, very different: Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge. I believe that was 2007. It’s told from the perspective of a guy in near earth future who had late stage Alzheimer’s but was given a cure, so is slowly getting back his mental function. Wearable computers are ubiquitous at the time. Also a big award winner.

I hope you find something you like.

You also listed fantasy, so I’d like to recommend N.K. Jemisin. She won the Hugo award for a novel 3 years in a row for her first 3 books, and has I think 2 more? So 5 Hugo’s on 7 years?

I’m really enjoying the Wool Trilogy my Hugh Howey. It’s maybe more dystopia than sci-fi but in the same vein for sure.

Dune is an example of massive world-building with a tons of jargon, but you still liked it? It seems that this post is saying you don’t like books like Dune, so how did you manage to enjoy it?

Isaac Asimov: The Caves of Steel Next books in the series involve space travel. But nothing large the world building is very limited. All short reads. Was written in the 50s keep that in mind with some of the language.

I’ll throw in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed. Both classics that are great page turners. Take place against the backdrop of an intergalactic society but remain focused on singular planets and their societies (well if you include their anarchic moons). Great characters with meaningful relationships. Left Hand has more of an interpersonal focus, Dispossesed more societal, but both amazing in their own way.

How about The Expanse or The Martian? They’re both relatively hard sci-fi that focuses mostly on our own solar system.

The Martian tells the tale of a man stuck on Mars and his ability to survive on his own whilst those back on Earth figure out a way to get him back. Both the book and the film are great so you can’t go wrong with either.

The Expanse covers more of the local system. Earth and Mars are on the brink of war, whilst others live out near the asteroid belt, Jupiter and beyond. It goes a little sci-fi later on but it’s an inherently human story that has some great characters living in a time when space travel is still dangerous but achievable by humanity. It starts a little slow but ramps up brilliantly and has a nice conclusion that wraps everything up pretty neatly. You’ve got 9+ books, a 6 season TV series on Amazon Prime, and a newly released TellTale video game, all of which are well produced and worth investing time in.

lemmy.world/post/2368503

Any of these?

• The windup girl
• roadside picnic
• God’s war
• sand
• High Rise
• a scanner darkly

Just some non-space novels that have stuck with me.

Ann Lecke’s “Imperial Radch” does happen in multiple locations, but revolves primarily around people relationships and de-genders English language for a delightful effect.

Peter Watts will make you learn a lot of words and concepts, will have you read author notes at the end of his books, and will have you take a look at the list of scientific literature used in writing said books. Main overarching topic - consciousness might not be as central to intelligence as we default to thinking it to be.

Charles Stross’ books can take you into space, but are hardly about space or new worlds. Hell, the most space travel heavy book of his I read - Neptune’s Brood - explores the ideas of money and debt.

Greg Egan’s everything, but there are two that I immediately remember when I think about his bibliography. “Diaspora” explores weird space times, consciousness bootstrapping, and problems of communication. “Orthogonal” trilogy is “math of spacetime: what could be” as a novel.

Cory Doctorow explores problems of identity and privacy. Start with “Little brother” (yes, it is a 1984 reference) and “Down and out in the Magic kingdom” and expand further.

John Meaney’s “Nulapeiron sequence” is an easy read that builds its world alongside shedding its main character ignorance.

Check out The Greg Mandel trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton. A lot of sci-fi, not focused on space travel.

I also love his large Commonwealth universe with several trilogies and novels in it that can be read independently, but these are definitely space based. I would start with the Void Trilogy. It is defined as a space opera. There are just so many cool sci-fi concepts though :)

Try some cyberpunk stuff, it’s great “local” sci-fi, with hardly any of that muck you don’t like.

“Neuromancer” - William Gibson
“Snow Crash” - Neal Stephenson
“Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” - Philip K Dick

isn’t world building the whole point of sci-fi?

Possibly Existence by David Brin? There’s some stuff around space travel and alien contact, and it ain’t exactly a short, but is mostly set on a future earth.

There’s also a lot of “future jargon” which grates a little, but is quite fun to look at something written in 2012(?) about a future involving wearables and AI among others.

I suggest Becky Chambers, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. The whole series is good but each is stand alone. There is a world and it’s in space but the stories are people scale.

Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead are both classics with little world building.

Lots of the classics aren’t super space travel-y. Stranger in a Strange Land, Childhoods End, War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, Ender’s Game… Animorphs 😄

My recommend is Semiosis by Sue Burke, it’s very different.

Also the commonwealth saga which is big but not overwhelming

I enjoyed the Stainless Steel Rat series by Harry Harrison - they’re short, reasonably light comic sci-fi.

Guant’s Ghosts - Dan Abnet

it’s warhammer 40k but it doesnt really focus on space too much, other than they always travel through space to get from one battlefield to the next. lots of mud & blood trench warfare.

Avoid Alastair Reynolds imo. Lots of jumping around and meeting new aliens but not engaging on the character level well.

You might like the Innkeeper Chronicles by Ilona Andrews. It’s a series of 6-9 books but they are good by themselves. Kinda fantasy, kinda sci-fi. The books are short and fun and will keep you entertained. My other favorites are Brandon Sanderson and David Dalglish.

Dungeon Crawler Carl

Aliens destroy earth and the protagonist must compete in an rpg style dungeon created underneath the earth with his (ex) girlfriends cat.

Funny, heart warming, and blood pumping

The Three Body Problem trilogy, especially the first two books.

Trying to avoid too many spoilers, the first book is about a Chinese scientist investigating a mysterious threat. It’s not too heavy on world building, and it’s set on present day earth.

Second book is about how this impossible threat is dealt with, and I think it’s one of the most fascinating things I’ve read.

I think the third book went overboard quite a bit, but it’s still a good one.

The Three Body Problem trilogy, especially the first two books.

Trying to avoid too many spoilers, the first book is about a Chinese scientist investigating a mysterious threat. It’s not too heavy on world building, and it’s set on present day earth.

Second book is about how this impossible threat is dealt with, and I think it’s one of the most fascinating things I’ve read.

I think the third book went overboard quite a bit, but it’s still a good one.