SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Hello, I am a Field Biologist (that mostly studies birds) and I am looking for some book recommendations that mix my two passions. Scifi/ fantasy books and wildlife/ecosystems.

I would like to have a story that has an emphasis on the natural elements of its world like plant life and animals/creatures. It doesn't have to be strictly scientific but if anyone knows of a book that treats creatures with some realism that would be great, or even a book about characters researching alien/fantasy creature would be amazing!

Thank you.

Try the Memoirs of Lady Trent series, starting with A Natural History of Dragons.

I second this - very enjoyable series!

I third it! It's an absolutely perfect fit for what you're asking for.

And there's Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials: Great Aliens from Science Fiction Literature and Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy: Great Heroes and Bizarre Beings from Imaginative Literature.

Cheryl wrote: "And there's Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials: Great Aliens from Science Fiction Literature"

a.k.a. "Barlowe's Beasts" ... which will, as a bonus, point you toward the various works of fiction from which said aliens come.

You might like Fragment by Warren Fahy.

Some of the books I've found with pretty good ecosystems...

I think the Pern books work pretty hard at it, especially later on.

Wild Magic is YA, but it's really focused on what it'd be like to talk to animals. I always enjoyed how everything was filtered through how different animals would perceive situations. There is a research component, but this is way more weighted on animals than ecosystem. (Bonus! There's a whole book in the series that is focused on birds!!)

The Subtle Knife (second book in His Dark Materials) and to an extent the other two also consider ecosystems. There are some really fascinating "what ifs" about other viable forms of evolution for sentient species.

In scifi, The Sparrow has a fascinating ecology. Can't forget Jurassic Park either!

I will fourth the Lady Trent series, especially the third book which is essentially a fantasy version of the voyage of the Beagle, which is titled The Voyage of the Basilisk.

Raptor Red by Robert Bakker is interesting, too. I read this when it came out over 20 years ago. I recall enjoying it once I accepted the speculation Bakker was engaging in. It's not quite "Call of the Wild with dinosaurs" but I appreciated the effort.

Similarly, The Dog Master: A Novel of the First Dog is speculation on taming wolves. It's kind of non-specific and can be brutal at times, but overall I liked it.

For something a little different, I highly recommend Robert L. Forward's Dragon's Egg, which is *not* about dragons at all but rather aliens who evolve on the surface of a neutron star. Most of the book involves their social history, but there's a ton of biology and evolution inherent to the story. I love this book.

But for dragons, a fun book is the classic The Flight of Dragons. It's a solid "what if" book taking the premise that dragons exist, so how would they work? It even explains the reason why they hoard gold.

bump... I want more like these but can't think straight atm... maybe Semiosis

Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre has a cool element of biology and mystery with the snakes.

War with the Newts is a lot of fun.

Undertow by Elizabeth Bear takes place on a planet with an indigenous, amphibious life form with interesting biology and culture that play a significant role in the story.

The Word for World is Forest for sure fits the bill.

Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr is a combo environmentalist fiction/mythical fiction told from the POV of a crow.

a lot of Andre Norton books have strong animal/alien interactions in them

Redwall = mice
Tailchaser's Song = cats

Dune, of course
C.J. Cherryh's Chanur Series = feline race on another planet/ecosystem
Remnant Population = another non-humanoid race on a planet
Little Fuzzy = alien race on a suposedly sentient free planet

Larry Niven's book The Integral Trees features a really unique ecosystem as a key part of the story.

The Integral Trees for the link. :)

You might enjoy Seanan McGuire's Incryptid series. Starts with Discount Armageddon. The series is about a family of cryptozoologists. They try to learn about various cryptid species (some but not all are human-shaped) and protect them from a rival organization that wants to eradicate all cryptids. The third and fourth books in particular focus on a character who is trained as a biologist and works at a zoo. The books also have a 'beastiary' in the back which is fun.

Edited to add: Grass, by Sheri S. Tepper, is set on a cool world, characters who are exploring the mysteries of its lifeforms and has some explicit ecological themes.

Imo, Children of Time counts.
And besides it's an amazing book so a mention is always a good thing. ;)

Seems to me this should be a huge list, esp. if we include stuff about humans learning that the ET natives aren't actually beasts but are sentient.

also:

Nick O'Donohoe' Crossroads series about a group of US vets/vet students practicing in a parallel world with mythical beasts like unicorns, griffins, etc (not available in digital format)

I'd love for this one to be available in Kindle or mobi format.

Many of Sheri Tepper's books focus on this. Three that come immediately to mind are Grass, The Companions, and After Long Silence.

"Your Haploid Heart" in Star Songs of An Old Primate (if I recall correctly, several of the stories in this collection have to do with creatures/biology)

Unicorns in the Rain

The Sparrow (humans' lack of understanding of alien biology is central to the events of the story)

Piers Anthony's Kirlian series, starting with Kirlian Quest, features a protagonist that hopscotches across a number of alien worlds and species; alien biology -- well, ok, sex -- often forms a significant part of the plot.

The Bees has a protag who is, in fact, a bee.

West of Eden posits an alternate history in which reptiles became the dominant species on earth.

Breed to Come and City feature a far-future earth with highly evolved cats and dogs, respectively.

This may be a bit of a twist, but George R.R. Martin (yes that guy) wrote Tuf Voyaging.
Sci-Fi - The main character goes around fixing broken ecosystems.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...

Thank you, everyone, for the recommendations :)

Hi Tory! Do you have any recommendations for us?

Oh, you *must* read Up the Walls of the World then! The book has three focuses, two of them are on alien beings, one of them a beautiful, stingray-like, flying creature, wonderfully and richly and realistically described :D

I can second Jeff VanderMeer, both Borne and the Southern Reach Trilogy are great.

I think you should also look into a new genre called Solarpunk. I haven't read anything in it yet but it pretty much sounds like it is exactly what you are looking for. At least with the eco-system part.

This is a short story/novella collection specifically from Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation SciFi that I have on my short-list, just haven't gotten around to it yet. A friend of mine recommended it to me and she is a marine biologist with an emphasis on climate. So, I guess the book isn't too shabby even in the eyes of someone who actually knows her stuff ;p

I have to agree with CBRetriever on his recommendations, plus jane lindskold

her - I'm defo a her, but thanks

I've been really enjoying the Raksura books by Martha Wells. I feel like the author spent a lot of time creating the creatures and ecosystems, and these elements are a key part of the books.

CBRetriever wrote: "her - I'm defo a her, but thanks"

so sorry never really thought about it, how sexist huh????

not really - most people see my name as being a CB handle type thing when it's actually a breed of hunting dog and as both are normally thought of as masculine hobbies (hunting and CB radios) it's understandable

I'll second the Raksura books those are fantastic.

Midworld & Mid-Flinx by Alan Dean Foster have a pretty neat forest-world ecosystem.
And I recall that his Drowning World felt very much like he got wrapped up in the biology and left the plot a bit behind, Foster has traveled the world (wrote a nonfic about the animals he's encountered) and put a lot of thought into how his invented worlds and their inhabitants function.

The Steerswoman's Road series by Rosemary Kirstein has a really really neat setting and later books in particular get into details on the ecosystem that are pretty interesting and unusual, but I hesitate to spoil the specifics since it's a bit of surprise the way things play out. They start out feeling very much like a standard fantasy series and then head somewhere else entirely.

CBRetriever wrote: "also:

Nick O'Donohoe' Crossroads series about a group of US vets/vet students practicing in a parallel world with mythical beasts like unicorns, griffins, etc (not available in di..."

Oh man, those are near the top of my "I wish they were ebooks" list, along with his other books, but he seems to have disappeared. Nice to find somebody else who's read them though!

CBRetriever wrote: "not really - most people see my name as being a CB handle type thing when it's actually a breed of hunting dog and as both are normally thought of as masculine hobbies (hunting and CB radios) it's ..."

In my brain I call you Chessie.

Aerulan wrote: "I'll second the Raksura books those are fantastic.

Midworld & Mid-Flinx by Alan Dean Foster have a pretty neat forest-world ecosystem."

Oh, I forgot about Foster. He does a lot of that sort of thing. Cachalot with cetaceans and alien water critters. Nor Crystal Tears has intelligent insects, although I recall it’s more linguistics and culture than anthropology.

Chessie would work

and as far as the Nick O'Donohoe books, I still have the paperbacks. I have some hopes as a few series I liked have showed up with digital versions:

Jade Darcy and the Affair of Honor and Jade Darcy and the Zen Pirates which would both work as far as the OP's request

and

Emergence which I'd wanted for years. It has a parrot with smarts in it so it might also interest the OP

John wrote: "I always liked the breed but my family went the Brittany route, more of an under the brush dog rather than bulldoze through it."

My friends had Brittanys (I suggested the name Rugby for their first one, which stuck), and one day when the mailman delivered a package to their door she apologized for all the barking the dogs were doing. He asked, “Did you just get them?” “No,” she replied, puzzled, “We’ve had them for three years.” Apparently they couldn’t be bothered to bark when the boss wasn’t home.😂

I don't breed them but I've been involved with the Chesapeake Bay Retriever Relief and Rescue group and have owned 3 purebred Chessies and one Mix(?) who was a rescue

http://cbrrescue.org/cbrrrescue/defau...

Very cool!

I wanted to let CB (I like Chessie!) respond, but if we could please have further responses include relevant book suggestions, that would be great.

I just remembered a book that is somewhat in the vein of VanderMeer's Annihilation, but in the genre of 'Weird Fantasy':



Great read!

Then Chessie it shall be from now on.

I have no suggestions of my own off the top of my head but I agree with Chessies suggestions too.

Kim wrote: "Try the Memoirs of Lady Trent series, starting with A Natural History of Dragons."

Thank you for this recommendation - I am interested in this topic as well!

Tory wrote: "Hello, I am a Field Biologist (that mostly studies birds) and I am looking for some book recommendations that mix my two passions. Scifi/ fantasy books and wildlife/ecosystems.

I would like to ha..."

Thank you for asking this question, I have used a few of these suggestions and recommendations myself. As a follow up, if you read any that were truly amazing and fit your criteria - please let me know! Thanks!

ooo, I forgot this series which is interesting:

The Changespell Saga Collection: by Doranna Durgin about a horse changed into a human

and as for aliens and doctors, S.L. Viehl's Stardoc series is fascinatiing

I'm late to the party here, but Manta's Gift by Timothy Zahn definitely has an emphasis on alien creatures and ecosystem. It's a pretty weird book, but I liked it and it definitely has some of the most interesting alien creatures I've come across.

There's another weird sci fi book I would recommend if I could remember the name of it. The main thing I remember is the main characters end up on a planet where there are symbiotic creatures that become different "people" when certain individuals group together. I can't remember if there were 2 or 3 species, but basically individual A and individual B make up pair 1. Individual A and Individual C make up pair 2, etc. It was a really cool concept in a series I haven't thought about in years. I'll try to remember what it is and come back here.

That does sound interesting, Bobby; I hope you do remember it or somebody recognizes it.

Cheryl wrote: "That does sound interesting, Bobby; I hope you do remember it or somebody recognizes it."

I found it, but it's been a while, so I didn't realize it's the third book in a series and the symbiotic creatures are only a small part of it. It's The Rebel Worlds by Poul Anderson

Ty, I'll still investigate.

Exotic ecosystems?
https://best-sci-fi-books.com/7-best-...

Integral Trees
Dragon's Egg
Semiosis
Titan
Bios
The Word for the World is Forest
Dune

I think you’d probably like CHILDREN OF TIME and CHILDREN OF RUIN.

I could add Moon of Three Rings

you could add a lot of Andre Norton's books