Recs if you like Sphere...

you can enter a space. you are a regular guy, you can enter a room. you are a regular guy, you can do that transaction. you are a regular guy, you know how to answer the phone. you are a regular guy, you know what sleep is. you are a regular guy, you know what it means to be you.

all of these books have regular people as the protagonist doing all sorts of things, from kissing to killing!

as always, open to all suggestions!

"you exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you" sci-fi edition canon sci-fi authors (before the year 2000) that have shaped the science fiction we have today. suggestions are enthusiastically welcome ✨ (1 book per author)

for people who are both terrified of and fascinated by the ocean (like me)

…are you certain whatever you’re doing is worth it?

or, books with similar vibes as the game subnautica

Tight spaces. Heavy air. The creeping realization that escape may not be possible. These are stories designed to make you feel trapped.

Recs welcome!

...or the shallow. But either way, don't go near the water.

Aquatic horror

Life began underwater. Humans yearn to go back, and sometimes, they really shouldn't... A crowd-sourced list of stories that take place primarily underwater.

We think of summer as the season of light, but shadows are longest when the sun is highest. It is the time of the year when the woods grow too thick to see through, the water grows too dark to see into, and the heat makes the mind play tricks. From the rotting porches of the South to the blood-stained cabins of the North... We call them the Summer Nightmares.

This is for the classics, the old and new, the lesser known books, the short stories and the translated speculative fiction. Sci-fi could be argued to be one of the best and most expansive genres out there - it’s just a matter of finding the right book for you.

If there is a series, I will only be putting the first book unless they are unrelated.

ocean planet colonisation and deep-sea extraction technologies

Whether by lake, sea, or ocean these books have a distinctive nautical feel about them.

True thrillers that you can't put down and keep you heart racing.

Horror books swimming with thalassophobia

They do not want your songs; they want your wood and your iron. These are the krakens of the fog, the massive serpents of the tide, and the whales with enough spite to sink a fleet. They see our ships as intruders and our sailors as snacks. They are the reason we fear the horizon. We call them... the Ship-Breakers.

might have to dedicate a month to the subgenre because there’s SO MUCH of it on my tbr

(waiter, waiter! my steak is too juicy and my lobster too buttery!)

I read ‘Jurassic Park’ and honestly got hooked on his style of writing. not my usual thing, but now I’m on a mission to read all of his books! fair warning: they are of varying quality!

The wettest horror in town — watery graves, haunted dams, spooky shipwrecks, black oceans that exist beyond the limits of man — this list has got it all.