Hiya, I’ve seen a lot on Twitter lately about Young Adult and New Adult and thought I’d do a short and sweet recommendation for my fellow 20ish year olds and books that feature an older main character that aren’t your usual Colleen Hoover recs.
So here are some adult sci fi books that I loved and could be reclassified as NA if NA was defined as 19-28 year old protagonists.
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
A artificial intelligence set on bringing people together with its match making skills, witches and science battling to save the world, childhood friends drifting apart and finding themselves in later years. If you know me I really like weird and different sci-fi fantasy reads and this one had it all. The start of the story does start off with the mains being around 10 years old but the majority plays out when they’re 20-25.
A new release! Our main character has grown up on the moon in the first settlement called Artemis, Jaz is a kickass 27 year old that just wants to make her own way up the social status latter and if that means smuggling things into the moon so be it. Full of high stake crimes, hitmen, and the mafia making its way to control.
Jaz gets into so many problems but solves them with quick thinking and the help of friends. Jaz is crude to the point of hilarious and I know some people have said she reads like a pubescent boy because of this but I was glad to have a female main making dirty jokes and being confident in her looks and the way she speaks to those around her.
One of my favourite sci fi’s I’ve read. Devi’s worked harder than all the people around her to make it to the top in the mercenary world, at 26ish (i forget exactly how old she is) she doesn’t want kids like people would expect, she doesn’t want a full time relationship, she wants to be the best in her field and in general kick ass and she does all these things. Devi’s relationship with her powered armour and knives is my favourite thing ever – feminists in space? yes please.
Sleeping Giants by Slyvain Neuvel
This one’s tricky as it has a whole cast of characters ranging in ages but it’s about 20-30’s and the book series progresses over around 5-7 years.
Listen to this book on audio- just trust me. It’s told in a series of voice logs and interviews with an amazing cast of narrators that just get all the characters spot on. Seriously this book comes to life on audio and I’ll be forcing it on people till the end of time. Aliens and Government cover ups THAT ARE SO POSSIBLE ITS SCARY.
So there it is. If you’re looking for some older main characters in sci fi these are just a few of my favourites. I love young adult books and tend to read everything from middle grade, new adult to adult. Lines can be so blurry with ages and what people are going through but I recommend these to everyone as long as you’re okay with some swearing, violence, and sex (if you’ve read ACOMAF you should be fiiiiine).
Let me know if you have any New Adult recs for Sci fi or if you’ve read any of these!
Also let me know if you like this. I might make one for different genres if it’s something people are interested in seeing I’m pretty sure I have enough recommendations to do it.
Ahhh, great post Casey!! I love Sleeping Giants SO MUCH! The rest are on my TBR and I can’t wait to eventually get to them. I seriously wish NA encompassed more of the SFF genre.
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I think you’ll love Fortunes Pawn (it’s definitely the best in the trilogy but i still rec the others too) NA sci fi is some of my fave but yep more is needed in my life I need to go on a search for some more and add them to my tbr for next year 🙂 So glad you liked it lauren ❤
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Yay thank you for the rec’s!! I picked up Sleeping Giants the other day and then put it back down (only because I couldn’t afford to buy more books that day) so next time I go I will definitely pick it up!! Definitely need more NA books, sometimes it feels like YA and NA blend together a little bit.
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I don’t have the physical of sleeping giants but it is super pretty so I plan on picking them up eventually! Hope you can read it soon I highly recommend sampling the audio and seeing what you think of it 😊I feel they blend.a lot too
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YASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS SLEEPING GIANTS IS A MUST READ FOR EVERYBODY!
I still haven’t picked up the Martian? Is it related to Artemis in anyway? If not, I shall pick it up immediately ♥♥♥
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SLLLLEEEEEPPPIIING GIANTS 😍Nope not related at all 😊 I did enjoy the Martian more because mars is coooool but Artemis is great too! Hope you love it ☺️
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Love this post 💕💕😱! Sleeping Giants are high on my tbr and I got the chance to live in the same city as the author 😍🤣!!
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Reallyyy! That is awesome I’m super excited for you to read it, it’s sooo good I’m pumped for the final book I need it in my hands already 😆
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Thanks for this post! I want to read more NA but it’s hard because I don’t know where to start, so these recommendations are very welcome!
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I’m glad you like them! Technically I guess they are still classed as adult so it can be hard to find books that could be classed as NA until you actually pick them up and learn the characters ages 🙁 I hope you love any and all of these if you pick them up!
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Yeah a lot of books that should be classed as NA are either adult or YA, I think because NA books haven’t really found their market yet. Thank you!
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I agree! I find adult fantasies all the time that could easily slip into NA or YA if there wasn’t as much swearing I guess although I swore more as a teen then I do now so who knows how guidelines work XD
Hopefully NA comes into it’s own I’d love to find a NA shelf in the library or bookshop and know I had different genres to choose from like I can YA and Adult.
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Haha I always thought things were considered NA if they had sex in it or something (which doesn’t seem to be accurate either)
I hope so too! But if you find more YA/adult books that fit into NA, I’d love to hear about it!
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Yeah I think that’s what most people think but really it’s just an age range (atleast it is to me), like how young adult isn’t all coming of age contemporary I think NA should be more then sex scenes even though they’re definitely in the most popular NA books(colleen hoover).
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Thanks for the list! I put all of these books onto my TBR 🙂
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yay! Im so glad you like it and I hope you love all these reads XD
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Artemis sounds so good! Sounds like everybody loves Sleeping Giants too. I’ll have to go add it to my tbr.
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Artemis was really cool! I love how action/adventure it is but in a space setting. Yes to sleeping giants it’s one of my absolute favouries 😀 i hope you love both of these Kylie ❤
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I looked up Sleeping Giants and it talked about Deadwood South Dakota in the description and now in really excited for it because I’m from that area and nothing cool ever happens there 😂
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Man you’re are in for way to many cool things about to happen and way to many conspiracy theories XD
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Great post! I’ve been meaning to read more sci fi lately and this is a great list of recommendations. So far I’ve only read Sleeping Giants and I absolutely loved it. And the sequel is even better! Honestly they are some of the best audiobooks I’ve ever listened to!
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YESSS man the cliff hangers they leave you on HURT so fantastic though, im planning on re-listening before the final book comes out! I’ve been such a sci fi kick this year and it’s been awesome I love it so much 😀
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I can’t wait for the last book to come out! I’ll probably relisten to them before I get to it too! I can’t believe it took me so long to get to these!
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I definitely need to read Sleeping Giants.
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Late as usual–did a search for just this: sci-fi NA recommendations. I write it, so I read it. Read some, but really appreciate the heads-up on Sleeping Giant. Thanks!
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Sleeping giants is amazing, I highly rec the audio if you can listen, the narration is the best I’ve ever heard with a full cast. I hope you enjoy it!
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