The modern answer to that are probably books like "the three body problems". Also old French science fiction can be excellent, e.g: anything Barjavel. Not to mention there are always UK outliers, like Douglas Adams.
But personally, I'd say Bande dessinée, the European cousin of comic books, is where you will find the most untapped underrated wonders.
Anything Moebius or Jodoroski, like "L'Incal" or "La caste des Meta-barons" is truly special. The aesthetics have a lot of personality, the writing is messed up, and the world building is all kind of twisted and provoking.
The main problem is that they sometimes take you for a whole run then end up nowhere. But the ride is awesome, and some of it has left scars inside me, I'm not kidding. And it has been translated to English.
Even without aiming for extremes, you'll find all kind of fun stuff.
Like "Aldébaran" that really sells this sense of discovery of new exotic places with a rag tag expedition, like African jungles in the past, but on new planets. It's a big saga too.
"Sillage" that packs your read with a futuristic black window amidst a galactic political turmoil.
Bilal's immortal trilogy giving the Egyptian alien concept some wind.
Or "Le gipsy" for a no brain adventure with a truck driver coasting on a road that wraps around the entire world.
It's crazy to me that given the lack of creativity of Hollywood they scrap everything they can from books and even mangas or video games, but they rarely attack this treasure.
Plus those SF master pieces have equally good fantasy sisters.
A problem with Barjavel - as I remember it - is the stylization of the stories: there is little detail, little background, little world ambiance in these books. Just a one big story. And that makes them paraboles or something - exercises about ONE idea. And not worlds.
In something like L'Incal on the contrary, the world around the story is very rich. In the way the Neuromancer world is rich. There is not JUST the story going on. It goes on in front and in the middle of a richness of OTHER ideas. Which is to me more thought-provoking because less artificial.
I’ve listened to From the Earth to the Moon and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, and between the lists of things that mean nothing to me[0] and the humans being unrealistic[1], I have to assume something was lost in the translation, because they… are just not any good.
[0] 10 kinds of seaweed? I think?
[1] I spent my life betting against you and losing! / I challenge you to a duel! — followed by both parties getting distracted before the duel and be found chasing butterflies. Was this a secret code for them pretending to hate each other so they could have a gay affair back when such things were forbidden? Because that would make a lot more sense than the actual words in the audiobook.
Both the language and the day-to-day life has aged and not in a good way. (Shockingly, The Three Musketeers' language and concerns hasn't! It's still great fun. But not scifi.)
But personally, I'd say Bande dessinée, the European cousin of comic books, is where you will find the most untapped underrated wonders.
Anything Moebius or Jodoroski, like "L'Incal" or "La caste des Meta-barons" is truly special. The aesthetics have a lot of personality, the writing is messed up, and the world building is all kind of twisted and provoking.
The main problem is that they sometimes take you for a whole run then end up nowhere. But the ride is awesome, and some of it has left scars inside me, I'm not kidding. And it has been translated to English.
Even without aiming for extremes, you'll find all kind of fun stuff.
Like "Aldébaran" that really sells this sense of discovery of new exotic places with a rag tag expedition, like African jungles in the past, but on new planets. It's a big saga too.
"Sillage" that packs your read with a futuristic black window amidst a galactic political turmoil.
Bilal's immortal trilogy giving the Egyptian alien concept some wind.
Or "Le gipsy" for a no brain adventure with a truck driver coasting on a road that wraps around the entire world.
It's crazy to me that given the lack of creativity of Hollywood they scrap everything they can from books and even mangas or video games, but they rarely attack this treasure.
Plus those SF master pieces have equally good fantasy sisters.