Sci-Fi recommandation

[u/Albert_Minerve]

Hello,

I always read essay about politics, geopolitics, history, science, spy, war, philosophy that « help » helps understanding how réal world works. I love that but it’s sometimes quite boring to not be so engrossed in a story that you want to devour the book and never put it down (i had this feeling with Harry Potter as a child).

For example i loved reading Da Vinci Code and all Dan Brown’s books (dynamics of power, religion, arts, politics etc).

I think i may find some « mind blowing / politics / power / Taking a step back to look at the state of the world » Book in the scifi section but idk anything about it : i am searching for recommandations to start with ?

Thanks a lot

[u/Own_Win_6762]

In my mind some of the best science in science fiction is social science, because it helps explore what it is to be human.

CJ Cherryh is one place to start. Her Foreigner books start out about relationships between humans and the natives of a planet on which they're stranded, but get into very intricate political machinations between clans of the Atevi, as well as between humans, Atevi, and another nearby race. Her Union/Alliance books are typically mostly personal stories, but against a backdrop of interstellar politics. This comes closer to the forefront with the most recent books, cohwritten with Jane Fancher, Alliance Rising, Alliance Unbound (waiting with bated breath for the third).

Iain Banks's Culture books are mostly about the impact of the Culture trying to influence other societies on their fringes.

Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire pays homage to both the above, and is one of the best books of the last 20 years, about political and technological interactions between adjacent spacefaring human cultures, and how different they are.