Ah, this would be my guilty pleasure, if I felt any guilt at reading and watching so much sci-fi. But I don’t, and neither should you!

Science-fiction is such a hugely imaginative genre that it feels like it can go on forever (or until the heat-death of this Universe, or the next if we manage to map through to it, or reverse heat-death, or simulate ourselves with ever-faster processing such that it seems like forever to us, or … you see why I like it?). Robots, space operas, endless wars or virtual paradises — it’s all possible in a science-fiction story.

Some favourites (off the top of my head)

• Anathem
• Culture! Oh how I wish I could live in the Culture.
• Blindsight (Peter Watts)
• The Expanse (series, books and TV are both great)
• Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom (Doctorow)
• Anything by Charlie Stross
• Most stuff by Greg Egan
• Gibson’s cyberpunk classics
• Hyperion, etc … Dan Simmons
• Dreaming Void etc
• Nicolas Fisk!
• Asimov!
• … oh god, there are so many (it’s full of stars!)

Guilty pleasures

• Anything from the Warhammer 40K series
• Anything from the Shadowrun novels
• Star Trek. Yes, even (especially!) Disco
• Iron Man Adventures