I recently read the trilogy, and absolutely fell in LOVE with this type of story. To clarify, to me, the three body problem trilogy felt like a modern take on cosmic horror, while im not looking specifically for horror. I’m looking for the feeling that this trilogy gave me, a sort of feeling of awe and excitement over the unknown. I love the unknown, but especially i love the idea of the unknown in reality, so stories that ground science fiction worries in reality a bit, but also aren’t entirely afraid to pull out some less realistic ideas to get across certain points. I am looking for any books that remotely feel like this trilogy in that sense.
I feel like such books would be very uncommon however.
EDIT: Do any of you listen to music while you read? I started recently making specific playlists for reading various kinds of books, so far i’ve made a playlist for reading warhammer 40k books and a playlist for reading cosmic horror and creepy stories in general, i came up with the idea while reading three body problem. after i started listening while reading, it made the experience even creepier, which i loved.
EDIT EDIT: For anyone else making suggestions, since theres a few suggestions i already have in my collection i plan to read here. i will provide a list of books i have in my collection that i plan to read. This isn’t all of them, this is just my “cosmic stuff” folder. Some of it is a bit less sci fi and is more just personally interesting for other reasons.
Ballad of black tom- victor lavalle
Blindsight+echopraxia- peter watts (suggested by this thread, already had it, more inclined to read now)
The void trilogy- peter hamilton
Phyl Undhu, Abstract horror, exterminator- Nick Land
The killing star- charles R pellegrino
The revelation space collection- alastair reynolds (newly added thanks to this thread)
The tinfoil dossier trilogy- Caitlin R Kiernan
vacuum diagrams/xeelee sequence- Stephen Baxter (newly added from this thread)
The expanse- james S.A. Corey (haven’t grabbed yet, but plan to)
Have you read The Expanse?
Project Hail Mary might fit the bill. It’s a story of a person who finds himself inside a spaceship, traveling somewhere in space to some location in space. He has lost his memory, so he has no idea why he is there or where he is going. All he knows is, that while he survived, his crewmates did not, and so, he is alone in space with somewhat annoying artificial intelligence as his only companion. He needs to save earth from something, but he doesn’t know that yet.
I’m not 100% sure if it is what you are looking for, but it is very highly regarded sci-fi book. Also it’s a standalone book (500 pages), not part of any kind of series of books, so it’s less daunting to read than something like The Expanse series. There are some violence, but I don’t remember how graphic it is.
Try reading Peter Watts, particularly Blindsight and Echopraxia (also found together in omnibus as Firefall).
It’s hard sci-fi that dips into things that humans are not capable of understanding (like an animal not recognizing itself in the mirror).
I recommend anything by Alistair Reynolds, but in this vein I’d have to go with his Revelation Space trilogy (there’s technically a 4th, but it’s only loosely connected to the others), specifically the first three of the Inhibitor Sequence books
The Expanse really ramps up the “cosmic horror” aspects in the later hooks. Also, 40k plays well with Cosmic horror in some of its stories. Mainly anything about tyranids or Chaos.
Not so much cosmic horror, but definitely the sense of awe and scale (both physically and time wise), the Xeelee Sequence by Stephen Baxter. ‘Vacuum Diagrams’ is a short story collection that spans the timeline and I think it’s a good introduction to see if you’ll like it.
Edit: I guess there is some cosmic horror, as in ‘what could make an ancient and powerful race so scared and helpless that they need to build an escape hatch in the universe?’
You might enjoy Peter F Hamilton’s books Pandora’s Star and its sequel, Judas Unchained. It’s somewhere between space opera and hard sci-fi but there are significant plots and sub-plots involving alien creatures ranging from the vaguely comprehensible (to humans) through to creatures that are almost beyond our ability to understand.
Id say give the southern reach trilogy by Jeff vandermeer a read. Fits right in with the other recomendations.
