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Thought it'd be fun to share what everyone has been reading. I'll try to include titles and authors to make finding more information on them easier as well as a brief synopsis and my thoughts.

I had a lot of travel this week and speed through "Children of Time" by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Great read with very interesting ideas and payoff that had me hooked. Covers human uplifting of other species, their development, and interactions afterwards.

I've also been working on "Strontium Dog" from 2000 A.D. comics (hey, it's sci-fi and it's printed) and made it through most of Vol. 3. In short, the main character Johnny Alpha is a mutant who's only available employment is as a bounty hunter. Very fun read in general, although part of the main beats in this volume are sad.

Started a new novel and continued working on my audiobook but I'll save my thoughts on that for next week / when I finish them.

Politics, combat, exploration, found family. Recs?

If so, do you have an opinion? Somewhat of a polarizing work.

This book was eerily amazing when it was written, but doesn't account for modern technologies. And I haven't really kept abreast of the thriller market.

It feels relevant today with the war in Ukraine and this story, in particular: https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Mass-Fighting-Breaks-Out-At-Giant-Russian-Gas-Field.html

Paste a passage from your favourite speculative fiction, replacing all the proper nouns with "Lemmy". Then I'll try to guess where it came from without using google :)

Thanks to everyone that has posted or DMed about the bot doing the Reddit crossposting, and giving me your thoughts! Reviews have been mixed, which I expected, about whether or not the bot is useful or annoying or somewhere in between. It's getting turned off for now and I'll let the community grow organically.

It can be something used occasionally, turned back on temporarily after two weeks, or scrapped entirely (it's not meant to be permanent regardless). The next couple of weeks and the thoughts and opinions of community members will let me know.

So I've been in the Malazan marathon for a while. Currently early in book nine, but expect to be done book ten within a month. It's fantastic (pun intended)! Going to need something to cleanse the palate after such a rich series -- the speculative fiction equivalent of the pickled ginger served with sushi. Any suggestions?

He all,

I am have a really hard time remember what the books where called. I read it probable around 8 years ago. The basic premise of the first book was, earth gets attacked and people start getting abducted. The small bands fights back but find themselves on a ship where they go through genetic augmentation and are turned into an army for the race that abducted them. I do believe its the second book where they manager to take over the ship and get away from the ones holding them. One thing I remember is they use some kind of living suit to help them fight. I think it had 10+ books in the series.

I understand its probably not the best description out there for a book but I would really love to reread and buy the books. I did look through my kindle history buy cant find anything. Please help if you can.

​

Thank you

Space adventure… I love it!!!

I'm on the hunt for captivating stories that evoke the spirit of Star Trek, but with a fresh twist. I'm looking for either standalone novels or series that feature a diverse team embarking on thrilling space exploration missions. Picture a crew composed of humans, aliens, and even robots, each bringing their unique skills to the table.

What really piques my interest is if this team follows a code similar to Clive Cussler's characters, where killing is an absolute last resort. I believe that adds an extra layer of complexity and moral dilemmas to the narrative. While I'm primarily seeking action with a touch of mystery, I'm open to stories that also incorporate elements of suspense, horror, and humor. Variety is the spice of the cosmos, after all!

Furthermore, I'm a sucker for epic starships and books that keep me on the edge of my seat. So, if you have any recommendations that deliver gripping adventures and make the cosmos come alive, please share them with me!

Together, let's embark on a literary journey that explores the unknown reaches of space, where imagination knows no bounds. Engage!

Im looking for stories about life during or after the collapse of society. As far as realism goes, I can live with most things as long as its not so absurd that it makes no sense (for example the sun vanishes one day). Ive read a few of these sort of stories in my teenage years but I dont recall any particular ones. So have at it and suggest anything from the classics to the hidden gems of the genre.

When I was younger I was intrigued by steampunk/gaslamp fantasy works because it looked cool. But as I got older I learned that the Industrial Revolution which is the real life basis for steampunk had a dark side:

1. Unsafe workplaces: Since there were no regulations regarding workplace safety working conditions during the Industrial Revolution were bad. Prime examples included places like the Textile Mills and Coal Mines. In a textile mill the entire place would be warm and humid leading to workers having lung problems and workers would often suffer from stress injuries and physical deformities from doing jobs over and over everyday. And in some cases like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory a lot of flammable materials weren’t stored properly so if a fire happened they wouldn’t be able to put out because there is no sprinkler system. In a coal mine workers had to work places that were no higher than 30 inches and they had to breathe in coal dust and gases like methane. And like the textile workers the men, women, and children also suffered from stress injuries and physical deformities from backbreaking work. Assuming of course they didn’t die from an explosion which was the result of a buildup of methane and they also had to worry about the roof caving in on them. To top it all off workers in both places had to work 12 -16 hour a days with no overtime pay, endure corporal punishment, have no paid vacations or holidays, if they got injured on the job they wouldn’t get any medical attention, and their wages could be arbitrarily cut, docked, or suspended.

2. High Pollution and environmental degradation: In addition to contributing to global warming the Industrial Revolution also lead to a lot of environmental degradation. Since there were no air pollution controls and regulations, the sky would be clouded with smog and soot from factories. Deforestation also increased either to harvest more wood, increase settlement, or to mine or drill the land for natural resources. If it was to mine the land miners would often use heavy metals like mercury to separate the minerals from the rock which resulted in contaminating the soil and the water. And when plumbing came along this led to a lot of cities dumping their waste into natural lakes and rivers like what London did.

3. No sanitation: As I said above when plumbing was introduced this led to a lot of people dumping their waste into natural rivers and lakes. In addition the streets would also be a dumping ground for waste (animal/human), garbage, and they would often be covered in soot that spewed from the factories. This often resulted in the spread and outbreak of diseases like cholera, typhus, and TB.

To be fair nobody back then anticipated that theses problems would arise from Industrialization.

Though in any case are there any steampunk and gaslamp fantasy works that show the downsides of the Industrialization?

Sources:

https://www.history.com/news/industrial-revolution-negative-effects

https://www.britannica.com/story/the-rise-of-the-machines-pros-and-cons-of-the-industrial-revolution

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/industrial-revolution.asp

https://www.thoughtco.com/gold-mining-mercury-usage-2367340

https://www.historyonthenet.com/industrial-revolution-working-conditions

https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/triangle-shirtwaist-fire

https://www.grunge.com/319516/the-truth-behind-the-great-stink-of-london/

https://www.thoughtco.com/public-health-in-the-industrial-revolution-1221641

https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2183/the-textile-industry-in-the-british-industrial-rev/

https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2201/coal-mining-in-the-british-industrial-revolution/

https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2212/trade-unions-in-the-british-industrial-revolution/

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

The Kaiju Preservation Society, John Scalzi (Tor; Tor UK)

FANTASY NOVEL

Babel, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager US; Harper Voyager UK)

HORROR NOVEL

What Moves the Dead, T. Kingfisher (Nightfire; Titan UK)

FIRST NOVEL

The Mountain in the Sea, Ray Nayler (MCD; Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

NOVELLA

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, Becky Chambers (Tordotcom)

All award winners and nominees here: https://locusmag.com/2023/06/2023-locus-awards-winners/

Sorry for multiple posts spamming people's feed over the past few hours! Our bot became a bit frisky. I think it's all sorted now.

So I just picked up books 10 - 13 of his RCN series , last one was from 2019.

I was curious if more books were planned and checked out his website and it seems he is no longer writing:

Dave’s Retirement

Due to health issues, Dave will no longer be writing novels.

Since I haven't read these books yet..is the series closing in a satisfying way?

trying to visualize what the characters look like while reading the book. but there is no artwork of the characters. why is that? the book isnt popular?

I just finished House of Suns after being in a huge reading slump and remembered how much I love this stuff. I just started A Fire Upon the Deep by Vinge and really want to read Banks’ Excession. I just know I’m gonna tear thru all these so any suggestions y’all have would be much appreciated.

I'm in the middle of reading asimov's Foundation Trilogy and oh my God the first book is boring. The psychohistorian section was really good because one gets introduced to a huge Universe. I mean you hear about Trantor being this planet with 40 billion people who are in charge of administering the whole galaxy. For a moment I almost thought I was gaal arriving at Trantor in this crazy spaceship, checking out the nice space scenery. I felt like I had been the one graduating with my PhD and was finally arriving at this new world. I felt like I was the one taking the car from the Spaceport to this fancy hotel. It was a great introduction.

But the sections on encyclopedist and the mayors is so boring it's always these dudes talking about some random policy. And there is no real action at all whatsoever. There are no women in these sections, no one is boning down, no real character development, etc. These two sections feel like someone is giving me a dull summary of conversations that took place.

I'm looking for some books that are up there with dune and Hyperion. I also loved a dark matter, I thought I was such a fun book to read. And there is no hate on Asimov, as a matter of fact I loved his book The Gods themselves. Old man's war was really cool too. So far the books that I have abandoned this year has been a memory called empire, the three body problem, and I'm really close to abandoning the foundation Trilogy LOL. And your recommendations need not be science fiction or fantasy.

I'll be down to read a book about humans in other parts of the universe, interacting closely and maybe intimately with other species.

Title is somewhat self explanatory. I'm specifically looking for a books with similar vibes to shows like "Bee and Puppycat," "Sailor Moon," or "Summer Camp Island"? From what I understand, it's very hard to keep the same whimisical and childish feel of these shows in the written form. I used to imagine that somewhere out there was a book about the mythical Candyland, my cousins and I dreamed about: I tried to tackle writing this myself but I'm lacking. I don't have a problem with purple prose books btw (as long as it's good purple prose w/ a purpose). Any and all recommendations would be appreciated. Just don't recommend me something nonsensical like Fifty Shades of Grey or Wuthering Heights.

This is a name that I haven’t seen here very much (or at all), but I just picked up his short story collection from 2008 called The Drowned Life. Has anyone read his stuff? Any fans or not-fans?

I’m about a third of the way through the book and I can’t decide what I think of his stories. On one hand, they are well-written, interesting, with some very clever ideas. On the other hand I have found all of them to be unsettling - like just past the point of comfortable. Kind of like the uncanny valley idea. I can’t quite wrap my head around it. It’s all sort of triggering my anxiety but I’m also enjoying it? How does that even make sense? Is that the point? Is he more of a horror writer than I thought? It’s just weird stuff, but not overtly weird, just like normal life but there’s something hanging around the periphery that’s not. quite. right.

Hi! I’m looking for scifi stories that feature a sentient world or landscape. The worlds don’t necessarily need to be alive, but at least have an agency or act as protagonists of sorts in the action.

A classical example is Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris, of course, but the way the Earth play a role in the plot of NK Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy is equally intriguing to me. Some VanderMeer novels also come to mind!

First time posting. Really appreciate your recs!

Any references?

"World Made by Hand" by James Howard Kunstler
https://www.amazon.com/World-Made-James-Howard-Kunstler/dp/0802144012/

Book number one of a four book apocalyptic fantasy series. I read the well printed and well bound trade paperback published by Grove Press in 2009 that I bought new on Amazon. I have ordered the second book in the series.

In this alternate reality, oil well fracking was not invented and the world started running out of crude oil in 2008. Then somebody popped off a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles and somebody popped off a nuclear bomb in Washington DC. And the world slowed down and the USA moved back to the 1800s over the next several decades. We were back to times that the flu and encephalitis killed significant portions of the population. This book is set roughly in 2030 or 2040. The book is a page turner with short three to five page chapters.

The town of Union Grove, New York has decayed significantly over time. No cars, either buy a horse or walk where you are going. No electricity and the farms are worked by hand now. The population is maybe 20% of what it was at the turn of the century so there are houses standing empty all over town. All of the older people remember cars, airplanes, antibiotics, and air conditioning but the young people don't.

The author has an active website at
https://kunstler.com/
Warning, the author's website is fairly crude.

My rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars (1,098 reviews)

It's a common trope in sci-fi books that the Earth has a unified World Government, and the aliens are similarly unified.

It's not obvious that this would be the case though and in historical "First Contact" scenarios the fact that they weren't unified made a big difference (think of the other groups in Mexico helping Cortes against the Aztecs, the various alliances European powers had with different North American tribes etc.)

Are there any books that consider this? Like imagine if First Contact happened at the height of the Cold War...

I used to read a lot of SF short stories when I was younger but have really dropped off in my adult years. Can anyone recommend what they would consider the best stories / authors / collections from the past 20 years. They can be any kind of SF, I enjoy it all, even stories that are tangential.

Follow-up question: Are there any subscriptions for modern pulpy SF-type publications these days? That would be so cool.