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I would like to read some hard sci-fi novels, the more plausible from a scientific point of view, the better. I've read good reviews about Larry Niven and David Brin's books.

Of course questions asking for further recommendations are off-topic on Science Fiction & Fantasy but is there an SE site where it would be on-topic? After all there's a Software Recommendations SE site (with low traffic), so I was wondering if there was also a (sci-fi) book recommendation SE site.

If not, would it be impolite to ask (here on Meta, of course: not on the main site) about resources on the Internet where I could ask such a question?

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    Amazon offers suggested reads at the bottom of every book page. Might I suggest you just plug in your favourite books and keep a note of the recommendations it offers.
    – Valorum
    Feb 9, 2017 at 19:14
  • 3
    Related: What is a good site for book recommendations?
    – Möoz
    Feb 9, 2017 at 22:16
  • There is occasionally good stuff in story-identification, but don't expect anything tailored to your personal taste.
    – Kevin
    Feb 10, 2017 at 2:22
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    Describe the story you want to read, add the "story identification" tag and tadaaam you can use this site as a recommendation site !
    – Fabich
    Feb 13, 2017 at 1:08
  • (this is a joke)
    – Fabich
    Feb 13, 2017 at 1:08
  • This author recommendation service came up in The Reading Room (Lit.SE chat room)
    – Shokhet
    Feb 13, 2017 at 19:37

1 Answer 1

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There is no such site on the SE network

You're absolutely correct that "recommendation" questions are off-topic here; we even have a custom off-topic close reason for them. The only other remotely plausible site would be the new Literature Beta, but the consensus over there is also that recommendations are off-topic. You could always suggest a site for book recommendations on Area 51, but there is of course no guarantee that it would take off.

Moving outside the Q&A sites, your best bet would be:

  • Our main chat room
  • Non-SE websites, such as Reddit (which has at least two book suggestion subreddits)
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  • Thanks! I will try the chat, and if unsuccessful, I will try on Reddit (never used it much, apart from AMAs I was very interested in, but it could be a start!).
    – DeltaIV
    Feb 9, 2017 at 19:01
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    There was a "Recommendations" proposal on Area51 about a year or so ago. it didn't get off the ground.
    – Chenmunka
    Feb 10, 2017 at 10:46
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    @Chenmunka I'm not surprised. It's not easy to open Recommendation sites on SE - it's not impossible, but (expecially for something so subjective as literature preferences) it's very difficult to make it fit in the general structure of a Q&A site, where there should be "one right answer" (or few of them) to each question.
    – DeltaIV
    Feb 10, 2017 at 12:39
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    I've always hesitated to ask for recommendations in chat, for fear of turning it into a recommendations-swamp. Are recommendation requests well-received?
    – MissMonicaE
    Feb 10, 2017 at 19:44
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    @MissMonicaE - sure. Pop in, say 'does anyone know of a book like this that I would be interested in', hopefully get an answer, and chat will go on, discussing everything from squirrels to literature.se to toilet paper tubes. Don't worry about turning the chat into a swamp - if it becomes a problem, we'll probably create a specific chat room for book recommendations.
    – Mithical
    Feb 11, 2017 at 20:39

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