Science Fiction

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breepf

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I'm an avid science fiction reader on the toilet and in other interstitial moments of life. I'd appreciate the opportunity to hear other posters' takes on the genre in whatever medium, though I'm partial to literature.

Anyhoo, I just finished reading Stephen Baxter's 1990s novel Ring, a quasi space opera that unfolds across billions of years and in a universe or two.

Three immediate thoughts:

1. In troubling times such as ours, I appreciate science fiction that captures the unfathomable scale of the universe. Yes, life sucks right now in the US. But we'll all be dead and forgotten in 1 billion years.

2. I appreciate science fiction that turns into competency porn. It's so comforting to imagine a world of rational, balanced individuals tackling enormous problems with expertise and skill.

3. I like thoughtful 1990s science fiction. When push comes to shove, I think a lot of good SF in the decade thinks through "end of history" liberalism in interesting and provocative ways. To wit, Ring hinges on a quite abstract and provocative conflict. Without spoiling the novel for any interested readers, it features a conflict between two alien forms of life that presume altogether different universes; that conflict dwarves--and puts into perspective--a human-alien conflict as utterly provincial.

If anyone who participates in this thread has ever seen a booby in real life, please let the rest of us know.
 
I've started reading Bruce Bethke's Headcrash, a satirical cyberpunk novel published in 1994. Bethke was apparently writing cyberpunk novels in the 80s as well--he's not a Johnny-come-lately. So far, it's like Office Space meets Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash.

I'm not very far along, but it's strange to read a sort of Silicon Valley parody that derides tech culture to the extent that it resembles Fordist-era dinosaurs like IBM. At the same time, there are a few "libertarian" jokes, let us say, about the excesses of liberal multiculturalism.

Yes, I shit a lot.

For those who have seen a real-life breast, did the aureole radiate divine light like when Moses come down off Mt. Sinai?
 
breepf said:
I've started reading Bruce Bethke's Headcrash, a satirical cyberpunk novel published in 1994. Bethke was apparently writing cyberpunk novels in the 80s as well--he's not a Johnny-come-lately. So far, it's like Office Space meets Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash.

I'm not very far along, but it's strange to read a sort of Silicon Valley parody that derides tech culture to the extent that it resembles Fordist-era dinosaurs like IBM. At the same time, there are a few "libertarian" jokes, let us say, about the excesses of liberal multiculturalism.

Yes, I shit a lot.

For those who have seen a real-life breast, did the aureole radiate divine light like when Moses come down off Mt. Sinai?
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You might like When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger, the first of a multi part series. It was nominated for the Nebula and Hugo in 86 and is basically a cyberpunk noir mystery set in the Middle East in the near future.
 
finesse said:
You might like When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger, the first of a multi part series. It was nominated for the Nebula and Hugo in 86 and is basically a cyberpunk noir mystery set in the Middle East in the near future.
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Good recommendation--I read it last year, I think. To be honest, I think most of the so-called cyberpunk subgenre pales in comparison to Neuromancer, on the one hand, and Schismatrix, on the other. In my estimation, those two books escape the noirish underpinnings of the genre to get at something novel, no pun intended.
 
I've always liked the noir stuff. I also love the definition of noir I once heard. It's when a woman with no past meets a man with no future.
 
I highly recommend the novella "Think Like a Dinosaur" by James Patrick Kelly, and the novel "Corrupting Dr. Nice" (a time travel screwball comedy) by John Kessel.
 
Someone else that I've read a lot of is Lois MacMasters Bujold, especially the Vorkosigan Saga. It's part military, part futurist and includes a fair amount of sociology. It's also pretty funny in parts.

Have read quite a bit of military science fiction such a John Ringo, David Weber, Eric Flint and an old friend (RIP) David Drake.
 
LeoBloom said:
I highly recommend the novella "Think Like a Dinosaur" by James Patrick Kelly, and the novel "Corrupting Dr. Nice" (a time travel screwball comedy) by John Kessel.
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Nice recommendations. I'm very familiar with Kelly's story, in particular the ways in which it rewrites "The Cold Equations" to show something like the sociopathy at the heart of technocracy. I don't think I've ever read anything by Kessel.
 
I also would be remiss if I didn't mention The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. He wrote it after serving in Vietnam so it has parallels to that experience.
 
finesse said:
Someone else that I've read a lot of is Lois MacMasters Bujold, especially the Vorkosigan Saga. It's part military, part futurist and includes a fair amount of sociology. It's also pretty funny in parts.

Have read quite a bit of military science fiction such a John Ringo, David Weber, Eric Flint and an old friend (RIP) David Drake.
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I think I read the first book--or the first recommended book--in Bujold's series. Sadly, it did not grab my imagination. I'm unfamiliar with the military sci-fi recommendations--I've only read the basics (Heinlein's Starship Troopers, Scalzi's novel, maybe one or two more).
 
breepf said:
Nice recommendations. I'm very familiar with Kelly's story, in particular the ways in which it rewrites "The Cold Equations" to show something like the sociopathy at the heart of technocracy. I don't think I've ever read anything by Kessel.
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Absolutely!! Yes, it does echo "The Cold Equations."

Kessel writes what some term speculative fiction. He wrote a great book about lunar colonies called "The Moon and the Other."
 
finesse said:
Someone else that I've read a lot of is Lois MacMasters Bujold, especially the Vorkosigan Saga. It's part military, part futurist and includes a fair amount of sociology. It's also pretty funny in parts.

Have read quite a bit of military science fiction such a John Ringo, David Weber, Eric Flint and an old friend (RIP) David Drake.
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I tried to get into Ringo but had a hard time.
 
donbosco said:
How about Science Fiction published in 1905 and written by an Bengali Woman Feminist?

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I've heard of this story but never read it.
LeoBloom said:
Absolutely!! Yes, it does echo "The Cold Equations."

Kessel writes what some term speculative fiction. He wrote a great book about lunar colonies called "The Moon and the Other."
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I'll check out the Kessel book.

I'm a big fan of intraprofessional sniping, so I've read several ripostes to the Cold Equations, as well as knocks on Asimov's Robot series like Bester's short story "Fondly Fahrenheit" or LeGuin's response in The Dispossesed to Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. That being said, I've have not yet read Jemisin's response to Le Guin's The Ones Who Walked Away. Jemisin put me off with the whole "attack helicopter" imbroglio.
 
I have read everything Charles Stross has written and have not been disappointed with any of it. Probably my favorite SF author. He has a couple of long-running series (the Merchant Princes and the Laundry files) and quite a few standalone or two-book series.
 
LeoBloom said:
I also would be remiss if I didn't mention The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. He wrote it after serving in Vietnam so it has parallels to that experience.
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I really like that one. The spiritual follow-up (not a sequel but explores some similar themes) The Forever Peace is also quite good, in my opinion.
 
roostra said:
I have read everything Charles Stross has written and have not been disappointed with any of it. Probably my favorite SF author. He has a couple of long-running series (the Merchant Princes and the Laundry files) and quite a few standalone or two-book series.
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I read Accelerando several years ago, and recall being disappointed. I think it struck me as a poor man's Schismatrix, no offense. Singularity Sky is staring at me from my bookshelf, but now I'm gunshy.
 
LeoBloom said:
I tried to get into Ringo but had a hard time.
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Some of his books are hard to read. He did a collaboration with Weber ( March Up Country and a couple more ) that I liked a lot. He also did a series ( The Aldenata Series, maybe) where the first 3-4 books were good and then got strange. Fortunately the first 3-4 are fairly complete without a need to read the others.

I'm also a big Glen Cook fan. The Black Company series mixes sword and sorcery and military science fiction and the Garrett, PI is a fantasy knockoff of the Nero Wolfe books with elves, dwarves and other oddities.

The Black Company might not suit everyone. It starts with a scene involving rape, torture and mayhem. Then you find out that these are the good guys (so to speak).
 
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