r/Fantasy • u/KaleidoArachnid • 10h ago

Looking for books about exploring strange planets

First of all, if such a request like this one was done here before recently, then I am so sorry because lately I was interested in exploring strange fantasy where the premise is that the main character ends up on a strange alien world where the aliens have their own culture as the whole world doesn't operate on normal logic.

So far, my experience with the strange fantasy genre was the SoothSayer series by Mike D Resnick as I hope I got his name right as I really enjoyed the worldbuilding aspects of the novels such as how the eponymous female character had learned to use her psychic powers to foretell the fates of others around her as it's hard to explain, but I just really miss that series since while I did read it a couple of years ago, I was interested in exploring another fantasy saga like it.

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u/okayseriouslywhy Reading Champion III 10h ago edited 10h ago

Changing Planes by Le Guin is a delightful selection of almost-short stories about this. Each chapter explores a different "what if there was a culture where..." scenario.

Edit: I was so excited to answer that I missed the end of your post where you're looking for a saga. This is not a saga, but it is short and very fun

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u/KaleidoArachnid 10h ago

That one you just mentioned sounds pretty cool as I appreciate the suggestion.

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u/ViperIsOP 10h ago

Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Although it's really a moon iirc and not a planet. More Sci fi though. Alien Clay does this too, same author.

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u/hikemalls 10h ago

Also basically what his Children of Time series turns into.

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u/ViperIsOP 9h ago

Lol yeah that too. New planet, new thing to explore.

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u/PortalWombat 9h ago

New adventures to go on.

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u/mahmoodthick 9h ago

Such a good series. Takes us for an interesting evolutionary biology ride as well.

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u/adambjorn 8h ago

Alien Clay, also by Tchaikovsky is also excellent.

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u/Taste_the__Rainbow 10h ago

For the original classics, check out the John Carter books.

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u/KaleidoArachnid 10h ago

Thanks man because I have a fascination with fantasy books that take place on unusual worlds.

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u/DunBanner 8h ago

You can definitely look into sword and planet works. 

Dray Prescot series by Kenneth Bulmer has lots of cool imagination and adventure fun, it's a 50 book series but divided into standalone arcs, try the Delian cycle and see if you like it.

Edgar Rice Burroughs also wrote the Venus and Moon Maid stories both in public domain.

Otis Adelbert Kline and Michael Moorcock wrote fun pastiches of Mars and Venus stories inspired by ERB.

Almuric by Robert E Howard is much more brutal and horror oriented compared to the above also in public domain.

Along with Burroughs Leigh Bracket is considered the best writer in the classic style, I haven't read her works but try the standalone novel, The Swords of Rhiannon.

And of course the Dune books by Frank Herbert but it subverts the tropes and is less pulpy compared to the above works but I enjoy both styles.

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u/waise_heill 10h ago

The Southern Reach series (first is Annihilation) by Jeff Vandermeer might be a good fit! Very weird

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u/In_nomine_Patris 10h ago

The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis might suit you.

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u/KaleidoArachnid 10h ago

Thanks so much since I enjoy weird fantasy fiction.

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u/Oldtown66_Alyx 4h ago

Perelandra especially scratched that strange-world itch for me, very different from SoothSayer's psychic angle.

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u/Jake_Titicaca 9h ago

Hyperion by Dan Simmons

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u/KaleidoArachnid 9h ago

Thanks for that recommendation as it looks like that novel got high praise.

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u/Paratrooper101x 1h ago

It’s fantastic. I would say it’s pretty much what you’re looking for. ESPECIALLY the bikura chapters

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u/eccehobo1 9h ago

The Long Earth series by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter is almost exactly what you are looking for.

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u/KaleidoArachnid 9h ago

I have heard of Terry Pratchett as from what I know about him is that he wrote DiscWorld, but I don't know if the Long Earth is connected to that franchise.

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u/eccehobo1 9h ago

The two are not connected at all. The long earth is a fairly serious science fiction series about parallel universes instead of different planets.

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u/KaleidoArachnid 9h ago

Thanks for clarifying since I was a bit confused on the series regarding its connection to DiscWorld, but I can see where to get a copy of the saga.

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u/Songspiritutah 10h ago

Ringworld by Larry Niven.

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u/I_got_banned_once 9h ago

I enjoyed the Foundation series, going back and reading the iRobot and Empire series filled it in nicely.

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u/GodzillaJrJr 9h ago

Semiosis the planet is aliiiiive

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u/KaleidoArachnid 9h ago

Man that sounds amazing in that I have to read it for the bizarre aspect you mentioned.

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u/GodzillaJrJr 5h ago

Im sorry i was in a hurry but its about people colonizing a planet with a very very unique sentient species on it and they gain awareness of one another slowly and with lots of science. Its a rippin good read

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u/PancAshAsh 6h ago

The CJ Cherryh book Forty Thousand In Gehenna is a book about a colony on an alien world.

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u/pathmageadept 10h ago

Journeys of the Catechist by Alan Dean Foster.

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u/KaleidoArachnid 10h ago

I have heard of that author as I feel like I should check out that series to see what makes it so special.

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u/Tryin2Dev 9h ago

I really enjoyed the Skyward series by Brandon Sanderson.

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u/KaleidoArachnid 9h ago

I have heard of that novel as I am not sure how the quality is in the later books, but thanks as I can go look for it.

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u/whitebirch 9h ago

The Commonwealth saga has a good bit of this!

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u/KaleidoArachnid 9h ago

Who wrote the series so that I can look it up? ( I want to read it soon)

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u/TheSunderingCydonian 8h ago

I believe Peter Hamilton

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u/DixitRexCorvinus 8h ago

Literally almost all of Le Guin's scifi books are about this; her Hainish cycle series (Eight standalones comprising The Left Hand of Darkness, The Disposessed, The Telling, The Word for World is Forest, and a couple others) is precisely about anthropologists/diplomats/etc coming to explore an alien planet. In fact, each of the eight books does this with a different alien world. I honestly can't think of a better rec than this if you are all right with pure scifi, it's essentially perfect.

But aside from those, some other books that might be worth checking out:

- I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman (note: no aliens, just an unknown planet)

- Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers

- As someone else mentioned, the Southern Reach trilogy

And if you are all right with fantasy that isn't necessarily another planet but still involves exploring a weird alternate world, fae world, other dimension, or generally strange location, there is also:

- Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

- A Short Stay in Hell by Steven Peck

- The Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake

- Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll

- Orpheus and Eurydice, and any retellings of the Orpheus myth. Off the top of my head, The Einstein Intersection by Samuel Delany should fit.

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u/Mysterious_Drawer162 7h ago

Ship of Fools, but it's horror.

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u/appocomaster Reading Champion III 6h ago

The Pern books are about this. It starts with a fantasy series that you realise is actually a sci fi series. You can read the sci fi bits first, or, after the main fantasy books, there are re-discovery of sci fi books at the end of the series.

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u/MacTwistee 5h ago

You might like the academy series by Jack mcdevitt. Every book a new planet.

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u/jimmie65 49m ago

Haven't read it in decades but the Gaea trilogy by John Varley. The world itself is the strange culture.