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You could read novels, but I personally think you're going to get a better intro to SF and more enjoyment, and a better chance of finding "your thing" if you read short stories. You can then read the novels you know you'll enjoy. I love SF anthologies, not only because you get a collection of pre-selected awesome pieces, but also you get to sample a ton of different authors with different styles in the same number of pages as reading a novel would get you just a single story and a single author. Also, many consider the short story the ultimate and best form for science fiction.

I suggest anthologies that collect stories over multiple years instead of just "best of the year" collection. For obvious reasons, you get better stories. Here are the best I know of:

• The Locus Awards: Thirty Years of the Best in Science Fiction and Fantasy
  
• The Hard SF Renaissance (One or two stories from this will answer the question of whether you like Hard SF.)
  
• The Science Fiction Century
  
• Twenty-First Century Science Fiction (sort of a sequel to the previous one)
  
• Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume 1, 2a, and 2b (This is kind of a survey of historical SF, ranging from the '20s to the '60s.)
  
  So you could go historically starting with old stories and working your way more contemporary, in which case you'd start with SF Hall of Fame. But it might be a better idea to start with the most contemporary stuff and go backwards. In that case, you'd start with Locus Awards and start in the back of the book.
  
  In terms of specific authors, I would be amiss not to encourage you to read Ted Chiang. He has written only 13 short stories between 1992 and now, but he's won more awards for them than most SF authors do in their lifetime including the prestigious Nebula, Locus and Hugo awards, among others! READ. HIS. STORIES. He has an awesome anthology Stories of Your Life and Others plus you can buy his more recent stories on amazon.
  
  You should also read Greg Egan. And Enders Game if you somehow missed it. There's also the classic Arthur C. Clarke, either his short stories, or a novel like City and the Stars.
  

Composing this reply, I'm struggling to define "best".

The shortlist is:

1. Voice of the Whirlwind is basically cyberpunk with corporate intersystem space espionage, and it was the first of his books that I read.
   When I found this novel in a secondhand bookshop in Brighton, I'd never read anything like it and it blew me away. This was before the internet was commonplace, and I have a distinct memory of experiencing surprise and pleasure, upon rediscovering Voice of the Whirlwind, at the realisation that I was now able to search this guy on Amazon and find out what else he'd written.
   Simply because I'm such a fanboi of this book, I can't recommend it in any kind of unbiased way, but I think it should get more recognition.
   
   
2. Metropolitan and its sequel City on Fire are unique and either genre-defining or -defying. It's absolutely safe for me to again say that this is an under-recognised work of Williams' - someone will probably chine in to say "I see WJW recommended here all the time", but there are so many space flight / exploration books which are constantly mentioned by this subreddit that don't have a fraction of the originality of Metropolitan. With it WJW rips up the rules and recreates the universe on his own terms.
   
   
3. The Green Leopard Plague is a relatively recent publication - perhaps I'm including it for that reason but it's also a shorter work, which is what WJW likes writing best.
   I'm not sure if WJW would consider short stories his "artistic calling", but certainly he's said that he'd like to write more of them and can't, because only full-length novels pay the bills.
   I do have reservations about Green Leopard Plague, but I think these boil down to an insubstantial feeling that it's somehow "not science fiction enough", yet I think that's actually a reflection of the literary quality of the writing, something which is in really short supply in the genre.
   There is something really enigmatic about the way events in this story are seen from different views, and I think its portrayal of data research is also really insightful.
   
   Additional, I think that Angel Station and Ambassador of Progress are worthy of mentioning, both really solid sci-fi, and that his short stories (another collection) deserve to be read.
   
   I'm sure I've read Aristoi twice now, but to be honest I find it a bit unmemorable.
   
   I have a bit of a theory about the eclectic range of William's work and that it divides his audience - if you loved Aristoi then you might not agree with my recommendations.
   
   Whereas some authors always carry a similar tone, flavour and vision throughout everything they write, I don't think it's possible to judge Williams properly or fairly without reading a good body of his work.

Colsec series by Douglas Hill. Sad as it is that this is rare, but it was lauded for having a female character that was close to the main character that wasn't a love interest for anyone. IIRC, in later books she has a relationship, but it is 98% off screen.

Podkayne of Mars by Heinlein. Main character is a very relate-able young girl with a precocious younger brother. Word of warning, the original ending had Podkayne dying. Most of the later editions have her surviving.

A lot of Heinlein's other juveniles are great as well. Tunnel in the Sky is my favorite. It has a girl as a major secondary character. Citizen of the Galaxy, The Star Beast and Time for the Stars are all great as well.

A lot of my friends picked up the Wheel of Time series at that age. Unfortunately, they had to wait a couple of decades for it to be concluded which isn't a problem any more.

Bad Humors by Aaron Wright (a fellow Redditor) is an excellent novella that I just read that fits with Gaiman's style.

I loved Henry Kuttner and CL Moore when I was her age. The Gallagher books were my favorites.

Adrian Tarn Series is definitely one of my favorites and isn't very well known. Definitely check this series out.

Odyssey One Series is pretty good.

Confluence Series is interesting.

Aurora Rhapsody Series is a good series too.

Dark Space Series is pretty decent as well.

The Frozen Sky Series is certainly entertaining too.

These are a few series I've read recently and enjoyed. Figured they would be good suggestions. They also aren't the most commonly suggested or well known books like the others that were suggested.

Although the other recommendations are definitely ones you want to read. Especially the Ender's Game sequels and the Old Man's War series.

There's a few resources out there, none perfect.

This is a short little bit by Gaiman on how to read Wolfe. Not specific to Book of the New Sun, and a little joking, but it's completely accurate. Approach Wolfe in that manner and you may get more from the books.

This is a dictionary/glossary that can be useful to link different parts of the series to eachother, and provides a lot of context as to the real world origins of words he uses. Wolfe invents a lot less words that it seems at first glance, almost every unfamiliar word is either just a really rare/archaic word, or is invented, but pulled from a real life reference. Sadly, it's a book and not freely available, but what can you do.

This is a wiki about Wolfe's works, kind of hit or miss, but the list of obscure words is useful, and some of the analysis/discussion is good.

This is the best regarded in-depth literary analysis of the series, but it's super dense and not a straightforward explanation by any means.

There's also a super long running mailing list about gene wolfe's work, but good luck digging anything useful out of it, it's just way too much with no organization.

You can't go wrong with Frederik Pohl's Gateway. It's an older classic that won all the best novel awards.

For more recent SF, Hugh Howey's Wool Omnibus is outstanding.

In fantasy, I've really enjoyed Joe Abercrombie this past year. Good characters, good plots, and good action scenes. The Blade Itself is the first of his series...all his books take place in the same fantasy world.

zem beat me to the punch with 'Last and First Men' I can't recommend this book more. If you're in a country with copyright laws of life +50 years then this is in the public domain i.e. free and legal to download (I'd recommend Gutenberg Australia).

Not a novel but a similar concept to 'Last and First Men' is Dougal Dixons Man After Man: An Anthropology of the Future (to navigate to each chapter, click on the links at the bottom of each page; 200, 300,....5 million years hence).

Frank Herberts Dune explores the idea of the evolution of humanity with the Guild Navigators, Mentats, Bene Gesserit, Bene Tleilax etc. [mini rant](/s"Although his son has stated in his toilet paper worthy novels that these aren't so much cases of gradual evolution as sudden developments that seem to fit well into a narrative in order to make money")

Robert Reeds novel Sister Alice tells a story spanning hundreds of thousands of years with humans having gained godlike powers. Also by the same author and in the same vein I'd recommend Marrow and The Well of Stars.

Alastair Reynolds also did a good job with House of Suns; very similar to 'Sister Alice'.

Can you believe I've typed that twice because of a blue screen of death.

Hugh Howey the author is very active on facebook. I recommend the Omnibus edition that contains all 5 books. I found the first few pages vague but I think that was the design. I was surprised at the ending and was hooked by then. I very much recommend it. I saw on his facebook that he has had some interest from movie studios. I think it would be an awesome movie. I have started on his Molly Fyde series of books and I am enjoying them very much also.

Check out Quarter Share by Nathan Lowell. Falls under the category of space opera, but it's a lot better than that. Great writing, funny, and no manipulative endings, with their screams of "buy the next book to find out!"

Normally I don't care for fantasy, but I stumbled across Hounded and found it well written, with a lot of creative, funny ideas. It's just good story telling.

I would recommend River of Gods by Ian McDonald over The Dervish House. The former deals with India and the latter with Turkey. I thought River of Gods was a much more interesting book.

I definitely agree that Pump Six is a better intro to Paolo Bacigalupi than The Windup Girl, so good choice!

Edit: If you like cyberpunk, I also recommend one of my recent new favorites: The Fortunate Fall by Raphael Carter.

I'm sure not many have read it but E.R. Mason's Adrian Tarn series is fun. The first two books are free on Amazon.

• Fatal Boarding
  
• Deep Crossing
  
• Shock Diamonds
  
• Dark Vengeance
  
• Mu Arae
  
  The books themselves probably need better proof-reading but E.R. is a talented writer.

• Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith - very imaginative, sort of across between, say, the humor of Douglas Adams and the down to Earth noir of Raymond Chandler.
  
• Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge. Everything SciFi should be.
  
• The Hainish Cycle (or if you're made of money) by Ursula K. Le Guin. Pretty much every single SciFi author you like has read these and been inspired by them, that should tell you a lot, iconic stories and concepts.
  
• Downbelow Station by CJ Cherryh. The core novel in the author's Alliance-Union Universe stories. Great ideas, great stories.

Your description seems to match my series of books. The first one has been on the Amazon top list since it was published in 2011, and Wil Wheaton Tweeted that it was "seriously one of the greatest things I've ever read." The backstory covers 78 millennia, but the modern timeline unfolds hour by hour, and each one continues exactly at the same spot the last book ends (like the television show 24). It's currently #29 on the Hard Sci-Fi list and #13 and #23 on two of the other Amazon Sci-Fi lists. Plus the first book in the series is free as an ebook. The God in the Clear Rock. I've already published four books in the series, and I'm writing the final two novels now. If you don't like Amazon, the series is available on B&N, Kobo, Smashwords, Google Play, and on iTunes. And it's available DRM free on all sites except Amazon and B&N.

The bobiverse is a good, fun, new one... Martin Kloos is great if he likes military scifi. Vernor Vinge is great with little or no bodily fluids, just spiders and dying civilisations...

I happen to like Lexicon Urthus, which helps organize the material. I happen to hate the Solar Labyrinth, which I think is a lot of silly imagining of things that aren't there.

The truth is that there aren't a lot of straight-forward answers with Gene Wolfe. We want there to be; we want Dr. Talos's play to make perfect sense, if only we had the answer key. But Wolfe's work thrives in ambiguity, and while there are some clues hidden, I think there are far fewer clues, and far fewer real answers, than most people do. The point isn't to understand in a conventional sense; I think it's to experience a kind of wonder.

As for your spoiler question: [Spoiler](/s "The woman wasn't actually ever harmed during the festival, and there's no evidence she was a robot. Actually, this is one of the rare places where Wolfe leaves some pretty credible clues: there's good evidence that that lady is Severian's mother.")

Edit: I just realized how retarded I am and that you were looking for 2016 books. Sorry about that. These are all relatively new though, and great reads.

I see you read Dalzelle's Black fleet trilogy. For something similar but with better tactics, an interesting perspective on differences in technology advancement, and a more expeditionary style conflict, including actual interactions with alien beings, try Evan Currie's Odyssey One series.

Another good Mil-Scifi is Michael Hicks In Her Name series. I've linked the last of the books chronologically but they were the first published and how I read them; so I feel its a good introduction to the series. It focuses on the main character who plays a central role in the human's conflict with a race of blue skinned, Amazonian-like warriors who prefer close quarters combat despite technological superiority(sounds cheesy I know, but the character and culture development is very well done). The middle trilogy is much more military oriented but focuses less on open space naval battles and more on ground battles across multiple planets. The "first," newest trilogy, chronicles the establishment of the Empire that humans are at war with (I haven't read this one yet). The series has some elements of science fantasy, which is all I can say without giving away too much.

My most recent favorite and I can't recommend enough is Pierce Brown's Red Rising trilogy. It's kind of hard to pin down this one into a specific genre. It seems like it would be YA, but it is not. It has eugenics, enhanced humans, an interesting caste system, space battles, ground battles, high technology, low technology, decent character development, and just a ton of other elements. It's sort of Game of Thrones meets Hunger Games meets Harry Potter meets Brave New World meets Roman history in space. It is very well told and is a New York Times best seller for good reason.

Wolfe claims that he only uses obscure English words, but his definition of the English language is very broad. I love language and word play and really liked leafing through Lexicon Urthus, which is a dictionary that was specifically made for The Book of the New Sun. My library happened to have a copy, so I used it, but it was by no means necessary.

For other tips for reading Wolfe, and general theories and whatnot, there are a few books well worth picking up.

Lexicon Urthus

Solar Labyrinth

The Long and the Short of It

The first book here is by Michael Andre-Driussi and has a foreword by Wolfe. This is mostly a dictionary and etymology-tracer of the words and names and theories in BotNS. Considering Wolfe's endorsement, it feels fairly official, even borderline cannon.

The last two are by Robert Borski and are absolutely great reads. Very imaginative, even if some of his theories seem too wild to be true.

I'd suggest one of the following:

• Old Man's War by John Scalzi. Well written, fun and an easy read.
  
• Seeker by Jack McDevitt. A good old fashioned archaeology mystery set 9,000 years in the future.
  
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Classic story about the child selected to lead Earth's defense against alien invaders.

A Canticle For Leibowitz is remarkably deep, more in the spec-fic vein than sci-fi, but an undeniable classic nonetheless.

I've also really enjoyed the "Hall of Fame" short story collections. You really get a sense of the inspirations behind the genre.

KU is awesome for readers like you and I. Problem is the 'quality' of some of the writing.

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There are several series buried in the tons of books available. The first one that comes to mind for me is Marko Kloos Frontline series beginning with Terms of Enlistment, its kinda dark but I read all six of the books he's done, having read all of them I believe he'll be back (or I hope he isn't done) to add more.

​

I've read thru quite a few others, mostly on the military scifi end, but if you're interested in fantasy, there are also a lot of books available in that genre too

May not be as combat intense enough for you, but I read all of Tanya Tuff's Confederate series and enjoyed them a lot. Think if Aeryn Sun was a Marine and worlds/characters similar to Farscape.

There is an omnibus of the first two novels if you're interested.

This is my personal favorite. Filled with great stories by many well known authors:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Hard-Renaissance-David-Hartwell/dp/031287636X

Marrow and its sequel The Well of Stars by Robert Reed are both fucking fantastic.

I discovered Marrow via the short story anthology The Hard SF Renaissance, which I whole-heartedly recommend. It's a monster of an anthology that doesn't have a single bad story in it (IMO).

If you haven't read the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown, I think you should give it a go. Stick through the first 50 pages, and you won't be sorry. The second in the trilogy is actually better than the first, and Goodreads called it the best SF of the year.

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North.

On My Way to Paradise by David Farland.

Ender's Game is always a good one for young adults.

My first scifi-ish books were: Keeper of the Isis Light, Alien Secrets, Animorphs, Beyond the Farthest Star. The first three may be a bit too young for him though.

Don't be afraid to give him non-YA (adult) scifi books. It's better to go too old for him than too young and risk insulting him. If you have a particular favorite (that isn't too theoretical/preachy), give him that. He's more likely to read it if you are interested in it, and it'll give you something to discuss.

That pretty much describes The Windup Girl, a recent joint hugo/nebula winner.

The Windup Girl ( or anything by Paolo Bacigalupi ) is pretty fantastic.

Another great anthology, in fact, the one that got me started on hard SF and led me to discover many of the authors I enjoy reading today is The Hard SF Renaissance.

Ha -- there's even a Gene-Wolfe-specific dictionary out there (Urth-centric, and it's awesome, if you've got the bug for his stuff).

If you are really intrigued, there is always, Lexicon Urthus and The Solar Labyrinth both of which explain many of the terms used and have a great deal of in depth analysis. Both are available as ebooks as well.

This is not exactly what you're looking for, but it deals with issues of perfection in society. Check out the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown.
https://www.amazon.com/Red-Rising-Pierce-Brown/dp/034553980X

Take a look at the list of past Hugo winners and look for easily accessible ones. A few jump out at me:

Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein

Dune - Frank Herbert

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress - Robert Heinlein

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

Barrayar - Lois McMaster Bujold, or maybe the omnibus Cordelia's Honor

The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson

Try Vurt by Jeff Noon, or perhaps better still Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith. Ready Player one put me in mind of both those books - especially the first half of Only Forward.

But to assume it's a plot hole and not dig deeper is to miss out on the depth and detail of Wolfe's writing. I highly recommend reading Borski's "The Solar Labyrinth" ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0595317294 ) to help see some of these deeper connections and hidden details.

Gah, I think I may be a little late to the post, but I just wanted to mention The Fortunate Fall by Raphael Carter. It was written by an American, but it takes place mostly in 24th century Russia.

The first story is The Microcosmic God by Theodore Sturgeon, and the third is A Martian Odyssey by Stanley Weinbaum.

I haven't read the 2nd one, but the collection is very likely to be The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol 1.

I looked at the first book today and it has over 1,500 ratings. I was shocked as well. His first book went out as a freebie, and it was a brilliant gamble for him. He just happened to do it with a damn good story. The Amazon marketplace is flooded with terrible freebies, but that one was a page turner.

I don't know if it is exactly what you are looking for, but you may like Ender's Game.

I recommend The Space Opera Renaissance https://www.amazon.com/dp/0765306182/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_FR8oxbYX4DN3P Although I did not enjoy every story, I feel that this anthology gave a good example of sci-fi through the years. I got more enjoyment from The Hard SF Renaissance https://www.amazon.com/dp/031287636X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fU8oxbBV8VXN7 partially because I'm a fan of hard sci-fi but it doesn't do as good of a job of describing he historical context of the short stories.

There's an entire book dedicated to the words in The Book of the New Sun.

http://www.amazon.com/Lexicon-Urthus-Dictionary-Urth-Cycle/dp/0964279517

Have you read The Windup Girl or Pump Six by Paolo Bacigalupi? Really good stuff, he's very dark and some might say depressing but his writing is top notch. Pump Six is his collection of short stories, I suggest you start there.

Vernor Vinge. A Fire Upon the Deep redefined high-concept hard SF.

Also, Robert Reed. His "Greatship" collection is like hard SF comfort food.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown is right up your alley. And it's only $1.48 for Amazon Kindle right now. The sequel, Golden Son, just came out too.

You might like The Red Rising trilogy. It's sort of like Ender's Game meets Game of Thrones. Definitely on the lighter side of Sci fi, much more character and plot driven, but takes place across multiple worlds and has high technology, no aliens though.

Maybe something by Alistair Reynolds, House of Suns or Pushing Ice if you want something more solidly sci fi but, still very accessible.

You haven't mentioned yet if you got a book to read or not, so here is my suggestion:http://www.amazon.com/The-Windup-Girl-Paolo-Bacigalupi/dp/1597801585.

Nathan Lowell's Solar Clipper series (start with Quarter Share) fits the bill perfectly. The protagonist is practically a Mary Sue, but it's actually quite refreshing to have a character who has no flaws and for whom everything goes right.

I think this is a good recommendation because the Book of the New Sun is so dense, like you said. But you're cruel for not suggesting he bring the Lexicon Urthus along with.