Some of my all time favorites:

• Project Hail Marry, Andy Weir. He did “the Martian”, similar tone of semi-hard sci-fi with a healthy dose of cheeky humor. Much bigger and more interesting scope.
• Seveneves, Neil Stevenson. Absolutely amazing read. Pretty heavy at times.
• The wool ombinus and shift, Hugh Howly. It’s the series the silo show is based off of. Absolutely fantastic. They’re doing a great job with the show but I love the books. One comment: The first book, the wool “omnibus” started as some short stories that Howly just kind of did out of passion. For better or worse, the series tends to get a bit lighter as it goes on because Howly started finding success and I think was just in a better place in life. Those first few chapters of the omnibus (which used to be their own stories) hit like a freight train. When reading remember originally you didn’t have the benefit of feeling how many pages were left in the in the book; that gut punch was the end. That was it. There was no more.

For series:

• Startrek strange new worlds is perfect if you like trek. It’s exactly the right level of camp, but still gets weird. It’s hard to explain, and it might not be your cup of tea, but they really captured some of what made TOS magical.
• The expanse show is amazing. Especially if you like it when people treat space realistically. I mean, it’s still fiction but they put a lot into what both surviving and commuting in space would be like. It’s like when Europeans started coming to the Americas: You could do it, the boat could handle it, but it was pretty rough.
• If you liked the Anhelation move, American Gods might be worth a try for you. Same kind of dreamy feel. I don’t know if I’d really call it “sci-fi” but it’s weird and wonderful and visually amazing.
• For all mankind is fantastic, but different seasons may be divisive for some viewers lol. I loved them all in different ways
• Fringe was an absolutely modernized x-files for a while
• Legion is trippy as hell and one of those “you’ll love it or hate it” shows.
• Pennyworth is a weird romp through steam-punk through 50s/60s London and a lot of fun (it’s barley connected to anything batman)
• Doom patrol is another fantastic odd one that you’ll know pretty quickly is or isn’t for you
• Severence. I would have been happier if they told the story as a 1 season shot but it’s a great ride
• edit: wanted to add some love for my boo Stargate. It’s campy at times. It’s corny at times. But I loved all of them, SG-1, Atlantis, and yes even SGU. You should be aware though that SG-1 and Atlantis are tonally pretty easy breezy, and SGU made a hard right in quasi-grimdark territory. I loved it but it’s divisive for that reason.

Movies:

• Moon. The one with Sam Rockwell. Absolutely fantastic.
• Contact, with Jodi Foster. Not exactly obscure but doesn’t get the mentions it deserves.
• AI is worth a re-watch with some context. It’s best viewed as Kubricks last film. Movies with Mikey did a great episode on it that had me appreciate it way more
• Ex_Machina is really well done, even if the central point had a much shorter shelf life than anyone expected when it came out.
• Gattaca, if only because it absolutley nailed an uncomfortable amount of things.
• predstination
• The newer planet of the apes trilogy. There’s no shortage of praise for this one but I feel like it still flys under some peoples radar as another popcorn schlock cash grab
• Sunshine. An absolutley brutal and beautifully done hard sci-fi watch.
• Vivarium. If you like the feeling of being in liminal space this is a feature length film that will give you that.
• In this order: “resolution” (2013), “The endless” (2018),
• The void