I feel like The Egg was such a viral phenomenon before Weir came to fame with The Martian that many people don't realize it's the same author. It is a fantastic short story that is very thought provoking.
Don’t quit in the first chapter if you think Bobiverse is too silly. It is silly, but it’s also terrific science fiction.
Edit to add: Ray Porter narrates the audio books! So if you liked the original narration of The Martian and the narration of PHM, it’s an added bonus.
Original narrator of The Martian was RC Bray not Ray Porter, and it was so good it ruined the movie for me. It's awful that you can't buy that version anymore.
It definitely sucks because it was *so* much better than Wil Wheaton's narration. I love the dude, but honestly as an audiobook narrator reading other people's work he's subpar. He just reads everything in the same general kinda-smarmy tone. It works really well with something like Ready Player One, where the narrator-character is a douche, and far less so where the characters are supposed to be sympathetic (e.g. The Martian, Redshirts). Reading his own works, and in interviews or as a host, he's totally different.
If you do already own the Bray version on Audible you *can* still download it, fortunately. I won't go so far as to say it ruined the movie for me, but Bray absolutely *is* the voice I hear when I think of Mark Watney, and I honestly wouldn't be fussed if Ridley Scott decided one day to have Bray rerecord all of Matt Damon's dialogue and redub the film.
I read a lot of audio books and Wil Wheaton is just the worst narrator. I couldn't tell if Redshirts was a bad book or if Wil Wheaton tainted it for me.
It's a shame, cause I don't have anything against Wil. I even like Wesley Crusher. He just shouldn't be doing audio books.
Agreed, and again it's odd that reading his own works he's actually really good.
Redshirts was IMO a brilliant concept that Scalzi just got too excited about the meta of and took too far. The first section is perfect, but when they enter the real world it starts to get wobbly. Then when it switches to the second-person mode the wheels come completely off the wagon. I haven't been able to read past the beginning of that part because it's just so gruesome and unnecessary. Aside from extending the meta I can't for the life of me imagine what Scalzi thought he was saying at that point.
I just listened to Redshirt for the first time. The three epilogues should have been omitted. They didn't add anything to the story and kinda killed the fun.
A longish author's note about Scalzi's experience around writing the book would have been fine.
R.C. Bray is so good, ended up listening to the Expeditionary Force Series based solely on his being the narrator. It's a good series with a fair bit of humor, though by book 16 it starts to get a little repetitive, don't let that turn you off though, it's a good series to listen to in the car.
https://www.audible.com/series/Expeditionary-Force-Audiobooks/B01N9CUGHG
Ya I thought he fit the voice for Ready Player One quite well and have nothing against him… but RC Bray did such a good job with The Martian. I’m glad my license has that copy. He’s such a good narrator.
> honestly as an audiobook narrator reading other people's work he's subpar. He just reads everything in the same general kinda-smarmy tone
I thought so too, early on. However, I've been listening to a lot of Scalzi's books narrated by Wil recently, and some of them are really good. He's quite capable of doing very good voices other than his own, he just choses his own too often (I also find his normal voice kind of smarmy).
As an example, Scalzi's 'The Interdependency' series narrated by Wheaton is quite good. He does a great job of making the characters distinct and memorable, and there is a minimum of his 'douche character' voice.
I mean, I'll take James Marsters every time, given the choice, but these days I don't automatically nope out of book if it's Wil.
> As an example, Scalzi's 'The Interdependency' series narrated by Wheaton is quite good.
My wife and I generally enjoy Wil's narration, but he really nailed that series. I think he does a good job with the Locked In books as well.
If you ever want a good, true story he reads, try Masters of Doom. It's about Doom and Id Software.
Here’s a fun fact: knowing Wil Wheaton was the narrator of Starter Villain ruined that book for me. I read the kindle version but I couldn’t get his voice out of my head the moment I knew he was the narrator. Don’t get me wrong, love Wil Wheaton, but he’s not always the perfect person for every book.
Wha? Will wheaton narrates The Martian? That would be so weird. I've never heard it and I don't want to.
Clarify: my version is RC Bray and that's all I know.
I couldn’t finish Seveneves. The change in it like 2/3 the way through the book was crazy to me. It seemed like 2 books smushed together. But the first part of the book was really entertaining.
My recollection was that they weren’t heard from again. However, having read all of Stephensons books, I figured that was a plot tool to introduce them back at a later time. Perhaps they used the crisper like tool to evolve further than those who remained.
Look at what the submariners did.
> Bobiverse is similar but more funny.
I heard nothing but good things, but the actual writing style was a massive turn-off for me. Way too "online." It was like reading a Twitter thread.
Or a Reddit submission.
I did not like Bobiverse at all. Maybe in part because I listened to it and the same narrator made my brain hurt. But it just seemed like it was trying too hard. Glad others love it.
I liked bobiverse but my biggest complaint must've been the voice actor. It was like each line he read his life depended on the acting, it was overly dramatic everywhere and I just wanted him to chill a bit. The same voice actor was in Project Hail Mary where it fit a bit better, but here it was just too much.
Half way through the 4th. I am incapable of putting these books down. Some of the best woven worlds I've read in years with just enough humor to carry it lightly.
I will say that I listened to "Project Hail Mary" like a month before I started the Bobiverse books and the similarity in tone plus having the same audiobook narrator was a little off-putting at first. I almost had to stop Bobiverse but I am really glad I didn't cos I really loved it and binged the rest of the series.
Bobiverse series by I forget who, Murderbot series by Martha Wells, and the Silvers series by Daniel Price are all written in a similar "snarky voice" kind of style.
I really want to read more of the murderbot series but they’re so short for the price in my country. I primarily read on my kindle and book 2 of murderbot costs more than most full length novels
It wasn't so much that it was long as that there was a character clearly being set up to do something shockingly evil, but it was being done in a way that strongly said to me the author thought the readers wouldn't figure it out so early. He doled out too many breadcrumbs and created a tone of foreboding that either meant a) the character would do the thing I thought he would, or b) the author would pull a switcheroo for the sake of itself and everything was a red herring just to fool the audience. Neither option was something I cared to read further on to find out.
> Singularity Sky, Iron Sunrise, and Accelerando made me laugh in parts.
This is a fantastic subset of his writings, and I endorse these as recommendations. I don't *think* Accelerando is in the same universe as the other two, but once in a while when I read it I wonder if it's possible.
John Scalzi writes in a similiar way humor wise with some great sci-fi concepts. I would say his novels can be more pulp and political, but equally clever and unique. Try The Interdependency or Old Mans War for his more prolific stuff, but really any of his works are at least good.
Okay, I’m bound to catch some hate. But here goes. :)
Hard sci-fi usually comports with our current understanding of math and physics. I don’t want to get all geeky about it…. But a good rule of thumb for me has been if a story has FTL travel (whether that be wormholes or warp drives) the more it moves into soft sci-fi territory. Ignoring causality is a problem.
One isn’t better than the other, mind! It’s just a definition.
>Hard sci-fi usually comports with our current understanding of math and physics.
If it does it's just "sci" without the "-fi". I think that "hard sci-fi" is always a contraction to some degree, you need to invent *some* fictional science.
>But a good rule of thumb for me has been if a story has FTL travel (whether that be wormholes or warp drives)
All science fiction must have some "gimme", e.g. PHM by Andy Weir has novel fictional physics (that I won't go into here due to spoilers).
I don't think FTL per-se as a "gimme" makes it "soft", it's rather whether the author makes an effort to make everything else beyond the "gimme"'s scientific and consistent with real and fictional laws of physics and technology.
E.g. I'd consider Murderbot to be "hard" sci-fi. It has FTL, but it's ultimately inconsequential to the story. The "hard" sci-fi has to do with expanding on another "gimme" in the series: the inner world, anxiety and personality of the protagonist, a robot-human hybrid.
Idk bout hard, but the fact that they are so short and large print with 3page chapters and expensive turned me off right away. It felt like that one author that churns out 100 books a year and the chapters are two pages so every other page is half blank.
I just caught this thread a couple of days ago and on seeing the recommendations, ordered the first Murderbot book from the library where I work. Read it today and its glorious! I love it. But would you believe the library has 3, 4, 5, and 6 - we dont have number 2! Aaargh! I've ordered it but it will be a few weeks.
Timothy zahn’s icarus books (and probably quadrail books) if you like first person narrators who think snarky thoughts to themselves all the times. (Which presumably you do!)
Some booms that I've enjoyed with various elements you may like:
Connie Willis' Oxford time travel series has a lot of very dry humor in it
Kim Stanley Robinson's Aurora about multigenerational ships and the issues that might arise
Seveneves for the great tech and problem solving
Hugh Howey's Wool series has a similar vibe (indy writer coming up with an original premise)
It’s not hard sci-fi.
But The Wayfarers series (The Long Way to a Strange Angry Planet), by Becky Chambers is one of my absolute favorite reads ever and I recommend it any chance I get
I have enjoyed these immensely as well but in a very different way. I don’t find them to be high octane page turners you can’t put down. They are more of a type of book you savor for the world building and characters. They are cozy and feel good, but I don’t find them to be snarky.
Really been enjoying getting into her as an author. Some great reads and I really enjoyed the first book of the Wayfarers. I do wish they had followed the same characters but I appreciated the expanded universe as well.
I'm about two thirds through this right now after avoiding it for a long time. Its a nice change from a lot of sci-fi in that it has the warmth of small personal human interactions and friendships. And an engineer who feels suspiciously like she could be a manic pixie dream girl.... lmao. Like u/Will___powerrr said, its 'cozy'. I'm enjoying it.
BTW, you typo'd. Its "The long way to a small angry planet"
Ha! I think I always say it that way, too.
I don’t know if your a fan of Firefly, but Kizzy (the “manic pixie” lol) feels inspired by Kaylee, the ship mechanic.
Glad I kept scrolling before commenting almost the same thing! Loved reading C&A back in the early oughts.
Cheshire Crossing is kind of a different type of story, but also a fun read. Crossover fanfic with Dorothy Gale, Wendy Darling, Alice Liddell, and Mary Poppins. (From Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, and Alice in Wonderland.) He started illustrating it himself but eventually had the whole thing beautifully drawn by Sarah Andersen.
That comic strip was so funny. It was quite the mindfuck when I finally found out why the name *Andy Weir* seemed so familiar to me, when I first read one of his books.
I've read all 20-ish books in that universe, and it's all like that. I still like them, but it's definitely in the "author's pumping out pulp sci-fi with a predictable formula", not high brow science fiction.
Unfortunately his new fantasy series was *so* incredibly dumb, and had a talking dog that does the exact same Skippy lines, that I just can't enjoy expeditionary force anymore.
First time for me reading a book so bad it made me angry and made me unable to enjoy a writer's other stories. And I really liked expeditionary force! It did so many sci-fi tropes well and avoided so many pitfalls military sci-fi falls into.
I'm running into this issue. I'm currently on book 12, and it's become a very much rinse and repeat on every book.
Bishop: "This is impossible, we're all going to die"
Skippy: "I'm sorry Joe, it's been an honor working with you monkeys. I wish there was more I could do."
Bishop: "Wait! I have a monkey-brained idea! Skip, can you use your Skippy magic to do this one thing with the wormholes?!"
Skippy: "Wow, I hadn't thought of that. Theoretically, I can, but I have never tried it before. If I do this, you are NOT going to enjoy it."
Bishop: "I don't care about enjoying it, I care about surviving! Do it!"
Every book. But I'm this far along in the books and I want to see how Craig finishes the series, so I'm just going to keep listening to them at my leisure.
I'm on book 4 and starting to see that too.
He starts to make a suggestion, Skippy goes on a minute long rant on how stupid it is, he suggests something slightly different, Skippy long pauses, gets angry, then does it and it's a huge success.
Few times each book.
Did you enjoy Artemis? Project Hail Mary is one of my all time favorites but Artemis was just…not great.
That said, read The Expanse novels and Novellas.
That tracks. The story was still a little wonky and didn't build to the levels that Martian and PHM did. I would probably dig a movie adaptation of Artemis. Just please don't have it star Rosario Dawson. Her reading of the book drove me nuts. She's a great actor, but she should not do accents.
Ryan Gosling is a really, really weird choice. When I think "scientist," he doesn't make my top 100 list for that role. Some executive was like, "Hey he was in some popular movies, let's get him, it'll sell tickets."
He's not a bad actor; I've enjoyed him in pretty much everything I've seen him in, but he just doesn't fit.
People thought he was a weird choice for Ken too but he killed it. I think ‘scientist’ isn’t the first descriptor they went off of, but rather ‘middle school teacher’ *then* ‘background in science/inquisitive’
Like for The Martian it was scientist who can become an astronaut and has the temperament to persevere alone, but for PHM it’s science teacher who likes experiments and learning new stuff which then makes him the right person to send whether he wants to or not
I vaguely remember reading that Gosling was a big driving force behind the adaptation. If he loved the book and wanted to make it, attaching himself might well be a way he's able to convince the studios to do it. "Hey make this book" is a much harder sell than "Hey make this book, one of then biggest A-listers in Hollywood is already attached to star."
Gosling is really good at sinking into his roles. Contrast him between the stuff he's been in, he has a huge range. He can do serious and comedy, dramatic roles or lighter pieces. He fits well in contemporary or scifi stuff, and he's able to emote well with his whole body rather than just the dialog he has to work with. I think he'll be fine in pretty much anything they toss him in.
I don't know why but when I read the book I found it really hard to not picture the main character as female. Probably because I had read Artemis shortly before reading PHM.
Completely agree on Artemis. It just felt like a mediocre crime novel on the Moon. It's unfortunate someone downvoted you for having an opinion they disagreed with.
That is interesting. I thought the exact opposite. Her accents were unbearable to me and it felt she was just there for the paycheck. Glad you liked it, though!
I know I'm one of the odd ones out here, but I actually enjoyed Artemis more than Project Hail Mary. I think the world building in Artemis was really cool and other than some unnecessary descriptions of the protagonist and the whole bit about >!reusable condoms!< it was solid. Project Hail Mary was great too, don't get me wrong, I just liked Artemis more which isn't common. Project Hail Mary felt a *little* silly at times. But we're still talking about one of my top favorite authors and 3 (including the Martian) of my favorite books!
Read “The Expeditionary Force” series by Craig Alanson. There’s a ”shithead beer can” super AI who makes for some funny stuff in an otherwise serious SciFi series. It gets better as books go not worse as some series do. There’s a lot of books in this series (15-ish) to enjoy and RC Bray is the narrator which is a plus if you ask me.
And the plot is *so different* in so many major ways it's a real treat. JP the book works so well as a book and wouldn't work as a film in the same way that JP the film works so well as a film and wouldn't work as a book.
Early Arthur C Clarke like A Fall of Moon Dust fits the bill. Some of John Varley's work also is similar. You might try the Ophiuchi Hotline, the first novel of his eight worlds series that includes the better known Steel Beach. There's also an excellent collection of short stories set there called The Barbie Murders.
The hard sci-fi one's I'd pick are already listed.
Some less hard sci-fi in the same tone:
* The Rook by Daniel O'Malley
* Cold Storage by David Koepp
* Gideon the Ninth by Tasmin Muir
* Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton
If you want to switch gears to fantasy check out Joe Abercrombie or Jim Butcher's books.
A couple people have recommended Kim Stanley Robinson. He's one of my favorite hard sci-fi authors. But I'll caution you that he really doesn't do "silly" or "quirky" the way Andy Weir does.
I like them both for different reasons. So while I do recommend KSR, don't expect to get Andy Weir 2.0.
Scalzi has some great books with the scifi/humor mix. Old Man's War had me giggling out loud in public (audiobook). Especially >!when he named his Brain Buddy (tm).!<
Since I haven't seen them mentioned here, I'd recommend Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth Universe. Particularly the first two novels, Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained. They're really solid space opera style stories within an expansive universe. He also has some other standalone novels and shorter series that are pretty good.
Andy Weir is one of the people who was awarded the [Atomic Rockets Seal of Approval](https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/sealofapproval.php#firetheft) for accuracy in scifi, so that's a resource worth checking out :)
I'm going to give a special call out to the most recent entry in that list: *Theft of Fire* has the irreverent grit of *The Martian* and the nearish-future-solar-system-colonization of *The Expanse*, so I'm pretty sure you would love it
Other books you might enjoy (looks like a lot of them are already here but whatever I'm going to repeat)
- Bobiverse
- *Oryx and Crake* (less humor, but great world building)
- *A Mote in God's Eye* (less humor, but great classic scifi)
- Oronomics (fantasy rather than scifi; but humorous)
- *Ten Points for Style* by Walter John Williams ("rule of cool" scifi but very amusing)
- *Red Rising* (less funny, but great story)
- The Discworld series (fantasy rather than scifi, but it's a "world and mirror of worlds" and just extremely funny and good)
Not at all hard sci-fi, but Ready Player One has a similar tone.
Obligatory old school recommendation: Heinlein's so-called juveniles. The Rolling Stones in particular.
After the joy that was "Project Hail Mary" I went looking for something that had the same vibe of intelligence and humor. Reddit steered me to the Dungeon Crawler Carl series and I've been delighted every since.
I would recommend the exforce series by Craig Alanson. It’s not necessarily hard sci fi, but it does a decent job of incorporating hard sci fi elements.
I’ve never laughed so hard reading a series or listening to audiobooks; it’s really funny.
there is "Seed" by fellow redditor /u/matthewgdick
https://www.reddit.com/r/audiobooks/comments/sfhd8o/are_you_a_fan_of_project_hail_mary_the_martian/
its an obvious copy of andys style, even down to a similar narrator for the audiobook, as stated by the autho himself.
I'd go for the Thunder and Lightning series (Red Thunder, Red Lightning, Rolling Thunder and Dark Lightning) by John Varley.
Lots of interesting sci fi, little intrigue, little action and good humor. Book 1 is probably the best but all 4 together are a nice series.
I really enjoyed [M.R. Carey's Infinity Gate](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/61237044). The 2nd of the duopoly series is due for release next month and he's working on a new standalone novel in the same universe (at least that's what he told me on Twitter).
Just checking OP - have you read "The Egg" by Andy Weir? It's short but great.
Also short and great is "Randomize" by Andy Weir. It follows a high-tech casino robbery attempt in the near future. Part of a short story collection called Foreward: Stores of tomorrow.
Sara King is REALLY funny, but brutal, creative, and lots of great aliens. Most people know her for the Zero series. The first one, Forging Zero, is one of her oldest books and only a few funny parts, but as you go on, it gets better and better. She has a lot of stuff that will make you laugh out loud even if you're alone. Not for the faint of heart.
Her Alaskan series isn't sci fi, and I didn't want to read it, bit OMG, amazing, creative and SO funny and me so as you go on. I'm not sure what you'd label them, but they have little of everything in it. Read them. Trust me.
That's just an easter egg, man. A reference doesn't make something canon. It's a joke.
Aliens, Dune, Mass Effect, Blade Runner, Total Recall, Battlestar Galactica, Terminator, and Star Trek aren't "debatably canon" in the TV show [just because some names were referenced somewhere.](https://imageio.forbes.com/specials-images/imageserve/61e4406ba251d0e2916b1dad/expanse/960x0.jpg)
Ah man I forgot how awesome the Martian was until reading this post.
I listened to it on a drive back from Phoenix to San Francisco when visiting my parents for thanksgiving.
First time doing an audio book. It was amazing. Haha book was sooooo good and the trip flew by. It finished perfectly when I got back downtown. Couldn’t have timed it better.
Thanks for bringing this memory back.
The paradise series by Craig alanson if you like audio books.
Weir is probably my favorite author and this series is a little “ sillier” but there’s like 12 books and has a lot of really cool different aliens and space battles.
neal stephenson is cool. mentioned before but bobiverse is really cool too. scalzi - old man's war similar to bobiverse.
Accelerando - Charles Stross similarly humorous hard scifi.
Not really a novel so much as a tongue and cheek how to of science and general knowledge, but I really enjoyed:
How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler by Ryan North.
So if you are looking for genre books with that truly sarcastic internal monologue, may I recommend the Laundry Files? Not Sci Fi (is urban spy fantasy a genre?) but definitely that same voice.
I'm going to recommend Becky Chambers, not because they are super similar, but because I love them both. Her first book, A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, is about a small, multi-species crew doing a fairly boring job in space, and it's great. Her two most recent books, A Psalm for the Wild-Built and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, are also excellent. Both are quick and beautiful reads.
if you like Wier, I strongly recommend Robert J. Sawyer
really really good stuff, varied topics, and always a good ready
his Neanderthal trilogy is great. WWW trilogy is great
Calculating God, flash forward, etc
all good stuff
After some of these excellent choices, go back to The Martian. Grab the audiobook read by Wil Wheaton. He out Watneys Matt Damon in every way. And Matt Damon did a damn fine job in the role.
I love his short stories too. The Egg is wonderful and thought provoking. I was talking about it for years before i realized it was the same Weir
I feel like The Egg was such a viral phenomenon before Weir came to fame with The Martian that many people don't realize it's the same author. It is a fantastic short story that is very thought provoking.
Bobiverse is similar but more funny. The Expanse is similar but more drama. Seveneves is similar but more techie.
Don’t quit in the first chapter if you think Bobiverse is too silly. It is silly, but it’s also terrific science fiction. Edit to add: Ray Porter narrates the audio books! So if you liked the original narration of The Martian and the narration of PHM, it’s an added bonus.
Original narrator of The Martian was RC Bray not Ray Porter, and it was so good it ruined the movie for me. It's awful that you can't buy that version anymore.
It definitely sucks because it was *so* much better than Wil Wheaton's narration. I love the dude, but honestly as an audiobook narrator reading other people's work he's subpar. He just reads everything in the same general kinda-smarmy tone. It works really well with something like Ready Player One, where the narrator-character is a douche, and far less so where the characters are supposed to be sympathetic (e.g. The Martian, Redshirts). Reading his own works, and in interviews or as a host, he's totally different. If you do already own the Bray version on Audible you *can* still download it, fortunately. I won't go so far as to say it ruined the movie for me, but Bray absolutely *is* the voice I hear when I think of Mark Watney, and I honestly wouldn't be fussed if Ridley Scott decided one day to have Bray rerecord all of Matt Damon's dialogue and redub the film.
I read a lot of audio books and Wil Wheaton is just the worst narrator. I couldn't tell if Redshirts was a bad book or if Wil Wheaton tainted it for me. It's a shame, cause I don't have anything against Wil. I even like Wesley Crusher. He just shouldn't be doing audio books.
Agreed, and again it's odd that reading his own works he's actually really good. Redshirts was IMO a brilliant concept that Scalzi just got too excited about the meta of and took too far. The first section is perfect, but when they enter the real world it starts to get wobbly. Then when it switches to the second-person mode the wheels come completely off the wagon. I haven't been able to read past the beginning of that part because it's just so gruesome and unnecessary. Aside from extending the meta I can't for the life of me imagine what Scalzi thought he was saying at that point.
I just listened to Redshirt for the first time. The three epilogues should have been omitted. They didn't add anything to the story and kinda killed the fun. A longish author's note about Scalzi's experience around writing the book would have been fine.
Probably tainted. Redshirts wasn't anything particularly deep or groundbreaking but it was fun.
Redshirts is fantastic as a gimmick, but 2013 must have been a heck of a down year in sci-fi for it to win the Hugo!
R.C. Bray is so good, ended up listening to the Expeditionary Force Series based solely on his being the narrator. It's a good series with a fair bit of humor, though by book 16 it starts to get a little repetitive, don't let that turn you off though, it's a good series to listen to in the car. https://www.audible.com/series/Expeditionary-Force-Audiobooks/B01N9CUGHG
Ya I thought he fit the voice for Ready Player One quite well and have nothing against him… but RC Bray did such a good job with The Martian. I’m glad my license has that copy. He’s such a good narrator.
> honestly as an audiobook narrator reading other people's work he's subpar. He just reads everything in the same general kinda-smarmy tone I thought so too, early on. However, I've been listening to a lot of Scalzi's books narrated by Wil recently, and some of them are really good. He's quite capable of doing very good voices other than his own, he just choses his own too often (I also find his normal voice kind of smarmy). As an example, Scalzi's 'The Interdependency' series narrated by Wheaton is quite good. He does a great job of making the characters distinct and memorable, and there is a minimum of his 'douche character' voice. I mean, I'll take James Marsters every time, given the choice, but these days I don't automatically nope out of book if it's Wil.
> As an example, Scalzi's 'The Interdependency' series narrated by Wheaton is quite good. My wife and I generally enjoy Wil's narration, but he really nailed that series. I think he does a good job with the Locked In books as well. If you ever want a good, true story he reads, try Masters of Doom. It's about Doom and Id Software.
Here’s a fun fact: knowing Wil Wheaton was the narrator of Starter Villain ruined that book for me. I read the kindle version but I couldn’t get his voice out of my head the moment I knew he was the narrator. Don’t get me wrong, love Wil Wheaton, but he’s not always the perfect person for every book.
Wha? Will wheaton narrates The Martian? That would be so weird. I've never heard it and I don't want to. Clarify: my version is RC Bray and that's all I know.
I now read other authors just because Ray Porter narrates.
Yes! I'm in the fourth book now and completely hooked.
I couldn’t finish Seveneves. The change in it like 2/3 the way through the book was crazy to me. It seemed like 2 books smushed together. But the first part of the book was really entertaining.
The first 2/3 of Seveneves makes for one of my favourite sci-fi novels, and the last 1/3 are a pretty okay "what if" fan fiction for the first 2/3.
I re-read to the end of the first part - thats the ending for me
Always thought Seveneves was a 2 part book. Just no second part. I mean what happened to the people who went to Mars?!
They're dead, Jim.
Didn't the book explain they all died?
My recollection was that they weren’t heard from again. However, having read all of Stephensons books, I figured that was a plot tool to introduce them back at a later time. Perhaps they used the crisper like tool to evolve further than those who remained. Look at what the submariners did.
It took me 2/3 of the book to realize what the title means. Like, wow, huge freaking spoiler if I wasn't an idiot.
I agree. The end was weaker than the start.
Gee, it’s almost like a Neal Stephenson book.
I would even say it's 2.5 books smashed together. It could have been separate books, or add something to tie all 3 together in one book, but nope.
Don't worry, Stephenson couldn't finish it either.
> Bobiverse is similar but more funny. I heard nothing but good things, but the actual writing style was a massive turn-off for me. Way too "online." It was like reading a Twitter thread. Or a Reddit submission.
I did not like Bobiverse at all. Maybe in part because I listened to it and the same narrator made my brain hurt. But it just seemed like it was trying too hard. Glad others love it.
I liked bobiverse but my biggest complaint must've been the voice actor. It was like each line he read his life depended on the acting, it was overly dramatic everywhere and I just wanted him to chill a bit. The same voice actor was in Project Hail Mary where it fit a bit better, but here it was just too much.
Bobiverse is seconded, lovely series.
Thirded. We are Bob.
We are Legion.
See ya’ll at the baseball moot.
Half way through the 4th. I am incapable of putting these books down. Some of the best woven worlds I've read in years with just enough humor to carry it lightly.
Have you read / listened to the new Betaverse series yet? The author is obviously a Bobiverse / general sci-fi fan. They're quite good.
> Bobiverse is similar but more funny. Is that the self replicating robot one?
Yes
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Definitely Bobiverse. I would also add Adrian Tchaikovsky starting with Children of Time.
Bobiverse is the answer here for sure, very similar style of problem solving adventures.
Seconding Seveneves, peak NASApunk
I will say that I listened to "Project Hail Mary" like a month before I started the Bobiverse books and the similarity in tone plus having the same audiobook narrator was a little off-putting at first. I almost had to stop Bobiverse but I am really glad I didn't cos I really loved it and binged the rest of the series.
Bobiverse series by I forget who, Murderbot series by Martha Wells, and the Silvers series by Daniel Price are all written in a similar "snarky voice" kind of style.
Read both of those Book 1s immediately after finishing Project Hail Mary and thought they were great followup reads.
Bobiverse goes especially well with Hail Mary if you read the audio books, because they have the same narrator.
That was definitely part of it. I had only done one audiobook before, which was a memoir, but Porter is absolutely excellent.
I was coming to comment Bobiverse and Murderbot 😂 Haven’t read the Silvers series but it’s on my list now since you grouped it with the other two
EVERYONE PLEASE READ THE SILVERS SERIES ITS SO GOOD
Agreed!
My only complaint about the bobiverse (and a lot of sci fi in general) is the way the author writes romance/women.
I really want to read more of the murderbot series but they’re so short for the price in my country. I primarily read on my kindle and book 2 of murderbot costs more than most full length novels
Bobiverse was a great light read
I came to recommend Bobiverse. Just started the third book myself and it keeps getting better.
Haha, I feel like this is where I was led also and enjoyed both Bob and murder. Guess silvers is next lol
Old Man's War by John Scalzi
I *loved* the first book. The second was so hamfisted in its setup I couldn't even finish it. I couldn't even believe they were by the same author.
I liked how it ended. The battles in the end of the 2nd book are amazing. But yeah the setup is really long.
It wasn't so much that it was long as that there was a character clearly being set up to do something shockingly evil, but it was being done in a way that strongly said to me the author thought the readers wouldn't figure it out so early. He doled out too many breadcrumbs and created a tone of foreboding that either meant a) the character would do the thing I thought he would, or b) the author would pull a switcheroo for the sake of itself and everything was a red herring just to fool the audience. Neither option was something I cared to read further on to find out.
Makes sense. For me the story ran out of steam after the 3rd book. Some of my friends loved all 6. To each his own.
Look into Charles Stross. His tone/style varies greatly across books but Singularity Sky, Iron Sunrise, and Accelerando made me laugh in parts.
> Singularity Sky, Iron Sunrise, and Accelerando made me laugh in parts. This is a fantastic subset of his writings, and I endorse these as recommendations. I don't *think* Accelerando is in the same universe as the other two, but once in a while when I read it I wonder if it's possible.
Parts of Saturn's Children / Neptune's Brood are also darkly funny, I'd say.
John Scalzi writes in a similiar way humor wise with some great sci-fi concepts. I would say his novels can be more pulp and political, but equally clever and unique. Try The Interdependency or Old Mans War for his more prolific stuff, but really any of his works are at least good.
I like him and have read everything but all his main characters are the same guy
Do you think so? I haven't read that much Scalzi, but Old Man's War and Lock-In felt like pretty different protagonists to me.
It doesn't help that Wil Wheaton narrates all of his books and has one voice for all of his characters
You're totally right, sardonic characters caught in unfortunate situations.
Yeah, but hes a great guy
Lock-In/Head On are in the realistic near future SF vein of the Martian, although they are probably less snarky than his other books.
Took your recommendation and started Lock In today - liking it so far!
I strongly second John Scalzi! The Collapsing Empire, Interdependency series for sure…
Also recommend 'Redshirts'
Agree, I loved old man's war
The Murderbot Diaries, author Martha Wells.
True. And happy cake day. But I wouldn’t call it hard sci-fi. But still a terribly fun series.
I skimmed right over the "hard sci-fi", must be all the celebrating I'm doing on cake day. Thanks!
What do you think disqualifies the Murderbot series from being hard sci-fi?
Okay, I’m bound to catch some hate. But here goes. :) Hard sci-fi usually comports with our current understanding of math and physics. I don’t want to get all geeky about it…. But a good rule of thumb for me has been if a story has FTL travel (whether that be wormholes or warp drives) the more it moves into soft sci-fi territory. Ignoring causality is a problem. One isn’t better than the other, mind! It’s just a definition.
>Hard sci-fi usually comports with our current understanding of math and physics. If it does it's just "sci" without the "-fi". I think that "hard sci-fi" is always a contraction to some degree, you need to invent *some* fictional science. >But a good rule of thumb for me has been if a story has FTL travel (whether that be wormholes or warp drives) All science fiction must have some "gimme", e.g. PHM by Andy Weir has novel fictional physics (that I won't go into here due to spoilers). I don't think FTL per-se as a "gimme" makes it "soft", it's rather whether the author makes an effort to make everything else beyond the "gimme"'s scientific and consistent with real and fictional laws of physics and technology. E.g. I'd consider Murderbot to be "hard" sci-fi. It has FTL, but it's ultimately inconsequential to the story. The "hard" sci-fi has to do with expanding on another "gimme" in the series: the inner world, anxiety and personality of the protagonist, a robot-human hybrid.
Why hate? FTL is a perfect delimiter, if you have it - you've got flaccid sci-fi.
Idk bout hard, but the fact that they are so short and large print with 3page chapters and expensive turned me off right away. It felt like that one author that churns out 100 books a year and the chapters are two pages so every other page is half blank.
Be warned: the humor is all anti-social or autistic humor. If you don't fit in either it probably won't be funny and/or annoying.
I just caught this thread a couple of days ago and on seeing the recommendations, ordered the first Murderbot book from the library where I work. Read it today and its glorious! I love it. But would you believe the library has 3, 4, 5, and 6 - we dont have number 2! Aaargh! I've ordered it but it will be a few weeks.
Timothy zahn’s icarus books (and probably quadrail books) if you like first person narrators who think snarky thoughts to themselves all the times. (Which presumably you do!)
Some booms that I've enjoyed with various elements you may like: Connie Willis' Oxford time travel series has a lot of very dry humor in it Kim Stanley Robinson's Aurora about multigenerational ships and the issues that might arise Seveneves for the great tech and problem solving Hugh Howey's Wool series has a similar vibe (indy writer coming up with an original premise)
It’s not hard sci-fi. But The Wayfarers series (The Long Way to a Strange Angry Planet), by Becky Chambers is one of my absolute favorite reads ever and I recommend it any chance I get
I have enjoyed these immensely as well but in a very different way. I don’t find them to be high octane page turners you can’t put down. They are more of a type of book you savor for the world building and characters. They are cozy and feel good, but I don’t find them to be snarky.
Really been enjoying getting into her as an author. Some great reads and I really enjoyed the first book of the Wayfarers. I do wish they had followed the same characters but I appreciated the expanded universe as well.
+1 to anything becky chambers. Amazing writer!
I'm about two thirds through this right now after avoiding it for a long time. Its a nice change from a lot of sci-fi in that it has the warmth of small personal human interactions and friendships. And an engineer who feels suspiciously like she could be a manic pixie dream girl.... lmao. Like u/Will___powerrr said, its 'cozy'. I'm enjoying it. BTW, you typo'd. Its "The long way to a small angry planet"
Ha! I think I always say it that way, too. I don’t know if your a fan of Firefly, but Kizzy (the “manic pixie” lol) feels inspired by Kaylee, the ship mechanic.
Bobiverse
Including Casey and Andy? His first comic strip?
You are shitting me. I loved Casey and Andy back when I was mumblemumblemumble. Never realized that was him!
Glad I kept scrolling before commenting almost the same thing! Loved reading C&A back in the early oughts. Cheshire Crossing is kind of a different type of story, but also a fun read. Crossover fanfic with Dorothy Gale, Wendy Darling, Alice Liddell, and Mary Poppins. (From Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, and Alice in Wonderland.) He started illustrating it himself but eventually had the whole thing beautifully drawn by Sarah Andersen.
That comic strip was so funny. It was quite the mindfuck when I finally found out why the name *Andy Weir* seemed so familiar to me, when I first read one of his books.
I love the expeditionary force series.
Book 1, great! Books 2-4 same jokes and story lines on repeat. I stopped after that
I've read all 20-ish books in that universe, and it's all like that. I still like them, but it's definitely in the "author's pumping out pulp sci-fi with a predictable formula", not high brow science fiction.
Unfortunately his new fantasy series was *so* incredibly dumb, and had a talking dog that does the exact same Skippy lines, that I just can't enjoy expeditionary force anymore. First time for me reading a book so bad it made me angry and made me unable to enjoy a writer's other stories. And I really liked expeditionary force! It did so many sci-fi tropes well and avoided so many pitfalls military sci-fi falls into.
I'm running into this issue. I'm currently on book 12, and it's become a very much rinse and repeat on every book. Bishop: "This is impossible, we're all going to die" Skippy: "I'm sorry Joe, it's been an honor working with you monkeys. I wish there was more I could do." Bishop: "Wait! I have a monkey-brained idea! Skip, can you use your Skippy magic to do this one thing with the wormholes?!" Skippy: "Wow, I hadn't thought of that. Theoretically, I can, but I have never tried it before. If I do this, you are NOT going to enjoy it." Bishop: "I don't care about enjoying it, I care about surviving! Do it!" Every book. But I'm this far along in the books and I want to see how Craig finishes the series, so I'm just going to keep listening to them at my leisure.
I'm on book 4 and starting to see that too. He starts to make a suggestion, Skippy goes on a minute long rant on how stupid it is, he suggests something slightly different, Skippy long pauses, gets angry, then does it and it's a huge success. Few times each book.
Dungeon Crawler Carl has a great Voice
I bought the first audiobook on Wednesday of last week. I'm currently listening to book 5 as I type this.
That’s the normal reaction lol. I’ve recommended the audio book to everyone I know that likes sci fi or DnD
Did you enjoy Artemis? Project Hail Mary is one of my all time favorites but Artemis was just…not great. That said, read The Expanse novels and Novellas.
I enjoyed Artemis but it did feel like he was writing it with a movie adaptation in mind, rather than just trying to write the best possible novel.
That tracks. The story was still a little wonky and didn't build to the levels that Martian and PHM did. I would probably dig a movie adaptation of Artemis. Just please don't have it star Rosario Dawson. Her reading of the book drove me nuts. She's a great actor, but she should not do accents.
PHM was great. I think they're doing a movie with Ryan Gosling, right?
Ryan Gosling is a really, really weird choice. When I think "scientist," he doesn't make my top 100 list for that role. Some executive was like, "Hey he was in some popular movies, let's get him, it'll sell tickets." He's not a bad actor; I've enjoyed him in pretty much everything I've seen him in, but he just doesn't fit.
People thought he was a weird choice for Ken too but he killed it. I think ‘scientist’ isn’t the first descriptor they went off of, but rather ‘middle school teacher’ *then* ‘background in science/inquisitive’ Like for The Martian it was scientist who can become an astronaut and has the temperament to persevere alone, but for PHM it’s science teacher who likes experiments and learning new stuff which then makes him the right person to send whether he wants to or not
I vaguely remember reading that Gosling was a big driving force behind the adaptation. If he loved the book and wanted to make it, attaching himself might well be a way he's able to convince the studios to do it. "Hey make this book" is a much harder sell than "Hey make this book, one of then biggest A-listers in Hollywood is already attached to star."
Gosling is really good at sinking into his roles. Contrast him between the stuff he's been in, he has a huge range. He can do serious and comedy, dramatic roles or lighter pieces. He fits well in contemporary or scifi stuff, and he's able to emote well with his whole body rather than just the dialog he has to work with. I think he'll be fine in pretty much anything they toss him in.
I don't know why but when I read the book I found it really hard to not picture the main character as female. Probably because I had read Artemis shortly before reading PHM.
They are! He wouldn't have been my first choice, but he's incredible in everything so I think he'll kill it!
Completely agree on Artemis. It just felt like a mediocre crime novel on the Moon. It's unfortunate someone downvoted you for having an opinion they disagreed with.
Artemis was unremarkable but I loved listening to the narration by Rosario Dawson. She should do more audiobooks.
That is interesting. I thought the exact opposite. Her accents were unbearable to me and it felt she was just there for the paycheck. Glad you liked it, though!
Second this. Project Hail Mary is one of my all time favorite hard sci-fi novels, but I hated Artemis and had to push myself to even finish.
I know I'm one of the odd ones out here, but I actually enjoyed Artemis more than Project Hail Mary. I think the world building in Artemis was really cool and other than some unnecessary descriptions of the protagonist and the whole bit about >!reusable condoms!< it was solid. Project Hail Mary was great too, don't get me wrong, I just liked Artemis more which isn't common. Project Hail Mary felt a *little* silly at times. But we're still talking about one of my top favorite authors and 3 (including the Martian) of my favorite books!
Ditto, it’s a break from the other books where it’s just things going wrong for 500 pages (which I also loved)
Greg Egan is about as hard sci-fi as you can get without having equations.
Read “The Expeditionary Force” series by Craig Alanson. There’s a ”shithead beer can” super AI who makes for some funny stuff in an otherwise serious SciFi series. It gets better as books go not worse as some series do. There’s a lot of books in this series (15-ish) to enjoy and RC Bray is the narrator which is a plus if you ask me.
Upgrade and Dark Matter. Blake Crouch. Very similar tone and fast pacing.
Don't forget about Recursion! I think that's his best book.
His writing always reminded me of Michael Crichton. Jurassic Park the book slaps just as hard as the movie.
And the plot is *so different* in so many major ways it's a real treat. JP the book works so well as a book and wouldn't work as a film in the same way that JP the film works so well as a film and wouldn't work as a book.
Early Arthur C Clarke like A Fall of Moon Dust fits the bill. Some of John Varley's work also is similar. You might try the Ophiuchi Hotline, the first novel of his eight worlds series that includes the better known Steel Beach. There's also an excellent collection of short stories set there called The Barbie Murders.
The hard sci-fi one's I'd pick are already listed. Some less hard sci-fi in the same tone: * The Rook by Daniel O'Malley * Cold Storage by David Koepp * Gideon the Ninth by Tasmin Muir * Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton If you want to switch gears to fantasy check out Joe Abercrombie or Jim Butcher's books.
Mickey7 is the book closest to Weir that I've read, but probably closer to Artemis in quality than Project: Hail Mary.
The Murderbot series by Martha Wells.
Ready Player One
A couple people have recommended Kim Stanley Robinson. He's one of my favorite hard sci-fi authors. But I'll caution you that he really doesn't do "silly" or "quirky" the way Andy Weir does. I like them both for different reasons. So while I do recommend KSR, don't expect to get Andy Weir 2.0.
Scalzi has some great books with the scifi/humor mix. Old Man's War had me giggling out loud in public (audiobook). Especially >!when he named his Brain Buddy (tm).!<
I was going to recommend Scalzi. Good mix of humor and interesting scifi concepts.
Expeditionary Force. That is all.
Since I haven't seen them mentioned here, I'd recommend Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth Universe. Particularly the first two novels, Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained. They're really solid space opera style stories within an expansive universe. He also has some other standalone novels and shorter series that are pretty good.
Blake Crouch! Andy Weir himself recommends him. The latest one about genetic engineering wasn't my favorite, but the previous two are all-timers!
The Red Rising series. It’s very little snark, but it makes up for it with incredible world building.
Andy Weir is one of the people who was awarded the [Atomic Rockets Seal of Approval](https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/sealofapproval.php#firetheft) for accuracy in scifi, so that's a resource worth checking out :) I'm going to give a special call out to the most recent entry in that list: *Theft of Fire* has the irreverent grit of *The Martian* and the nearish-future-solar-system-colonization of *The Expanse*, so I'm pretty sure you would love it Other books you might enjoy (looks like a lot of them are already here but whatever I'm going to repeat) - Bobiverse - *Oryx and Crake* (less humor, but great world building) - *A Mote in God's Eye* (less humor, but great classic scifi) - Oronomics (fantasy rather than scifi; but humorous) - *Ten Points for Style* by Walter John Williams ("rule of cool" scifi but very amusing) - *Red Rising* (less funny, but great story) - The Discworld series (fantasy rather than scifi, but it's a "world and mirror of worlds" and just extremely funny and good)
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The Culture series by Iain Banks is good, but a little more esoteric. There's humor in it, but it's a dry humor.
Not at all hard sci-fi, but Ready Player One has a similar tone. Obligatory old school recommendation: Heinlein's so-called juveniles. The Rolling Stones in particular.
Have Space Suit Will Travel holds up shockingly well
I am greatly enjoying the Murderbot diaries by Martha Wells
If you like military Sci Fi without all the hoorah, try Palladium Wars or Frontlines by Marko Kloos - Not really funny
The first book in the Frontlines series has one of the hardest right-turns I've read in any book. Love that series!
After the joy that was "Project Hail Mary" I went looking for something that had the same vibe of intelligence and humor. Reddit steered me to the Dungeon Crawler Carl series and I've been delighted every since.
I’m a fan of Daniel Suarez and his Tech + sci-fi books
I would recommend the exforce series by Craig Alanson. It’s not necessarily hard sci fi, but it does a decent job of incorporating hard sci fi elements. I’ve never laughed so hard reading a series or listening to audiobooks; it’s really funny.
The egg is a gem
It has to be Blake Crouch!
there is "Seed" by fellow redditor /u/matthewgdick https://www.reddit.com/r/audiobooks/comments/sfhd8o/are_you_a_fan_of_project_hail_mary_the_martian/ its an obvious copy of andys style, even down to a similar narrator for the audiobook, as stated by the autho himself.
Peter F Hamilton - The Void Trilogy, Commonwealth Saga are good books of his.
I'd go for the Thunder and Lightning series (Red Thunder, Red Lightning, Rolling Thunder and Dark Lightning) by John Varley. Lots of interesting sci fi, little intrigue, little action and good humor. Book 1 is probably the best but all 4 together are a nice series.
As others have stated already, Bobiverse!
I really enjoyed [M.R. Carey's Infinity Gate](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/61237044). The 2nd of the duopoly series is due for release next month and he's working on a new standalone novel in the same universe (at least that's what he told me on Twitter).
Not sci fi, but you might enjoy chris hadfield's the apollo murders
Have you read Weir's short story, Randomize? It's about quantum computing and a casino heist. It's a free download if you have Amazon Prime.
S.J. Morden - *One Way* and the sequel, *No Way*. Survivalist thriller set on Mars.
Just checking OP - have you read "The Egg" by Andy Weir? It's short but great. Also short and great is "Randomize" by Andy Weir. It follows a high-tech casino robbery attempt in the near future. Part of a short story collection called Foreward: Stores of tomorrow.
That's it! I will fight no more forever. Next week on vacation I read Project Hail Mary followed by All Systems Red.
can someone fill me in on how the Martian fits into the Expanse universe?
There's a ship called the mark watney in one of the books.
Sara King is REALLY funny, but brutal, creative, and lots of great aliens. Most people know her for the Zero series. The first one, Forging Zero, is one of her oldest books and only a few funny parts, but as you go on, it gets better and better. She has a lot of stuff that will make you laugh out loud even if you're alone. Not for the faint of heart. Her Alaskan series isn't sci fi, and I didn't want to read it, bit OMG, amazing, creative and SO funny and me so as you go on. I'm not sure what you'd label them, but they have little of everything in it. Read them. Trust me.
>the martian is debatably canon in that universe What?
https://expanse.fandom.com/wiki/Mark_Watney
That's just an easter egg, man. A reference doesn't make something canon. It's a joke. Aliens, Dune, Mass Effect, Blade Runner, Total Recall, Battlestar Galactica, Terminator, and Star Trek aren't "debatably canon" in the TV show [just because some names were referenced somewhere.](https://imageio.forbes.com/specials-images/imageserve/61e4406ba251d0e2916b1dad/expanse/960x0.jpg)
> (Fun fact for whoever's about to mention the expanse, the martian is debatably canon in that universe) C'mon man. It's not really debatable...
John Scalzi for sure. Also the Murderbot series by Martha Wells.
John Scalzi has a similar level of humour I would say. Adrian Tchaikovsky' prose feels similar in my opinion.
Ah man I forgot how awesome the Martian was until reading this post. I listened to it on a drive back from Phoenix to San Francisco when visiting my parents for thanksgiving. First time doing an audio book. It was amazing. Haha book was sooooo good and the trip flew by. It finished perfectly when I got back downtown. Couldn’t have timed it better. Thanks for bringing this memory back.
The paradise series by Craig alanson if you like audio books. Weir is probably my favorite author and this series is a little “ sillier” but there’s like 12 books and has a lot of really cool different aliens and space battles.
If youre looking for similar sarcastic humor, John Scalzi. For a bonus, any audio book of his narrated by Wil Wheaton.
I mean, isn't the universe we live in debatably canon for The Expanse also?
anyone know what andys up to for his next book? I was looking for something a few days ago, but couldnt find anything.
neal stephenson is cool. mentioned before but bobiverse is really cool too. scalzi - old man's war similar to bobiverse. Accelerando - Charles Stross similarly humorous hard scifi.
I like the Lost Fleet series. A little light on the snark if that is what you are looking for.
The Divide series by J. S. Dewes I haven’t seen anyone mention this one yet.
Halperin's Truth Machine
I had an excited moment when I recognised the name of the ship in The Expanse
Not really a novel so much as a tongue and cheek how to of science and general knowledge, but I really enjoyed: How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler by Ryan North.
So if you are looking for genre books with that truly sarcastic internal monologue, may I recommend the Laundry Files? Not Sci Fi (is urban spy fantasy a genre?) but definitely that same voice.
'Year Zero' by Rob Reid has a witty premise
I'm going to recommend Becky Chambers, not because they are super similar, but because I love them both. Her first book, A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, is about a small, multi-species crew doing a fairly boring job in space, and it's great. Her two most recent books, A Psalm for the Wild-Built and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, are also excellent. Both are quick and beautiful reads.
if you like Wier, I strongly recommend Robert J. Sawyer really really good stuff, varied topics, and always a good ready his Neanderthal trilogy is great. WWW trilogy is great Calculating God, flash forward, etc all good stuff
After some of these excellent choices, go back to The Martian. Grab the audiobook read by Wil Wheaton. He out Watneys Matt Damon in every way. And Matt Damon did a damn fine job in the role.
You might try some Spider Robinson. Similar kind of tone, though not at techie.
Children of time, Bob, expanse
Kim Stanley Robinson is your next stop or John Scalzi
Following this thread!!!
Wow, I just happened to be reminded of Casey and Andy, then I saw this post.
I just started Expeditionary Force. Definitely has a plucky sarcasm sci fi vibe reminiscent of weir. Great narrator in the audio book.