Someone else suggested N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth series, which is also an unusual take on the post-apocalyptic and survivalism stuff that a lot of people are into these days.
I’d have to say China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station.
I’ve been trying to get into the first Gormenghast book and finding it difficult to get into the swing of. Does it get any easier as you go?
I wouldn’t say it gets easier but if you’re like me and love fantasy settings but hate magic as a cure-all, it gets more engaging and interesting as you start to realize that maybe the castle itself is a central character and the fantasy comes from the fantastical massiveness of it all, when so few people live in it.
Also, the third book is where it really takes off in my opinion, and also where the sci-fi elements come in.
The Broken Earth series is really original and well written.
Wait, Gormenghast has Science fiction? When does that show up? I only read the first book so far and don’t remember a lot.
Third book is all scifi.
I know this is answer is overdone at this point, but a pretty good chunk of Brandon Sanderson’s books are this.
The Black Ocean series
- The Captain by Will Wight
- The Shadows of Dust by Alec Hutson
- Portal to Nova Roma by J.R. Mathews
- Starship’s Mage by Glynn Stewart
Mark Lawrence’s “Book of the Ancestor” and “Book of the Ice” series.
Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. Mix of cyberpunk post-apocalyptic parallel universes with science so deep it’s magic.
(Trying not to give away too many spoilers!)
As a bonus, there’s an extended reading list which ties the Dark Tower into books and short stories from King’s universe.
A Big Ship at the End of the Universe would be one of my picks. Starships, alien worlds, robots, etc…but also most everyone is born with an organ that enables them to cast magic. It also has a little Firefly-ish vibe to it if the crew had run Serenity more like a military ship.
Dune, Frank Herbert.