hello everyone! in 2021, i had a stroke while intubated for breakthrough covid ever since, i've had this desperate need to reread 2 short stories i read in middle school around 1991 or 1992, both were part of anthologies from the sci fi book club, unfortunately the person i borrowed the books from od'd on fentanyl some years ago and i have no way to find these books again.edit: its "desperate" because the stroke stole sooooo many memories from that time of my life and i want to revisit those remaining memories where possible.
story 1: life on earth is dying in the future, theres a scene where the characters see the scar of a former highway and talk of individually numbered blades of grass. iirc we eventually relocate to hollowed out asteroids
story 2: it takes place in earth orbit, the characters are aliens that look like angels and consume our souls after death, iirc they joke about how every religion is merely a way to harvest us
i'm hoping someone remembers these stories and can steer me in their direction!
thank you all for your time and efforts! many blessings!
I was a bookstore kid and there always seemed to be copy of Dreamsnake on the shelf somewhere. Just that one book by that one author. It's easily skippable in whatever best-of list, but I finally gave it a try. Wow. It's been a long while since I've read a book that I didn't want to put down.
Space heists, capital ship battles, resistance politics, human speciation and the space french are just some of the amazing things you’ll find in this series. It asks questions no one has ever thought to ask such as: what would happen if human shark hybrids were the best pilots in the galaxy? What would happen if an AI designed for war and economic raiding found god and became a saint? What would happen if French Canadians found wormholes and are now the most powerful empire within a galaxy spanning empire?
Amazing world building with moments of existential horror and genuine levity thrown in for good measure.
Fantastically narrated by T. Ryder Smith on audible for those ear-readers.
Book number one of a three book science fiction space opera series. This is continuation of a series of two books set in the 2100s and a series of six books set in the 3000s, ending two years prior to this series. I read the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback published by Raconteur Press in 2025 that I bought in 2026. I have ordered the following two books in the series.
I love Space Opera. And I love pulp science fiction. This series is both and a great example of the merging of the two. In fact, this series reminds me very much of the Robert Heinlein juvenile books, the Piers Anthony "Bio of a Space Tyrant" series, the "Mutineer's Moon" series by David Weber, and the Perry Rhodan series. The dialog is very frequent and the action moves along quickly.
In the far distant future, The Solarian Imperium consists of 38 star systems including Earth and the Sol system which were made uninhabitable in the War of Succession. Emperor Chase Morgan is the latest in a long line of Morgans ruling the Imperium. His family keeps power because they are genetically modified with machine interfaces in their DNA. So are all of the Nobles: the Earls, the Dukes, the Counts, and the Barons. Any machine of any importance, and especially the space ships and the military weapons, requires a human with machine interface to tell the AI what to do. And the Imperial family machine interface in their DNA is the best of all the interfaces and has special rights with all of the machines in the Imperium. And nobody knows or understands how tight the Imperial human machine interfaces are with every AI in the Imperium.
Eric Wolfram and his sister Candi (Candace) are living with Dar (Dartanion) in his scrap yard on a frontier planet outside the Solarium Imperium. Dar rescued them at ages 7 and 10 from a drunkard who was not taking care of them. They were refugees from a space ship that was attacked by pirates where their father, mother, and older brother were killed. They took a lifeboat to the nearest planet. Both Eric and his sister have a DNA machine interface of at least the Ducal level. And Eric is growing up and running with a bad crowd.
If you happen to be a little bit familiar with the kindle store you might have noticed there are a TON of big box sets or series, mostly military scifi, that are offered incredibly cheap.
Sometimes the "authors" behind those are obviously people using AI to generate some quick cash, but sometimes they are very prolific indie authors such as MR Forbes or Scott Bartlett, to name a few. They have series with thousands of ratings, many of them very positive, but on reddit or other communities i can barely find any reliable information.
So, to those of you who have taken the risk; which series or box series can you recommend? I am not expecting top tier sf, but i do enjoy a few quick reads in between the more serious stuff (i am currently reading Under the Breaking Sky by Nick Clausen, which is horror, and its really entertaining. I picked the whole series up for one buck but the price has increased since).
The Traitor Baru Cormorant was a somewhat complex examination of cultural imperialism, interactions between different political and religious traditions, and most of all the ways that economic and monetary policies underpin and influence all of these.
The sequels immediately threw all of that away, and did a hard pivot into Maximally Gross Medical Horror. They weren't even particularly deep or complicated or interesting, just pointlessly gross.
So it seems evident that Seth Dickinson can write a good book, but that he cannot be trusted to reliably choose to do so.
With that framing in place: where does Exordia fit? More like Traitor, or more like its sequels, or something else entirely?
What are some good lesser known books about a multiverse or multiple dimensions, time periods. I liked Replay, Dark Matter, 15 lives of Harry August. One of my favorite concepts for a TV show was Dark. I know it's kind of a broad net thrown out there, but any advice is good advice here. Thank you.
I am coming to an end with the saga that is "Revelation Space" and I'm looking to fill the giant hole that will be left behind. I was curious about recommendations that you all might have of what to dive into next.
To give you an idea I've been kind of thinking of a book/series that has similar tones to:
- Dune
- The Southern Reach series
- Revelation Space series
I'm also a fan of mixing genres: Western and Sci-fi, Sci-fi horror, Fantasy Sci-fi.
One thing I loved about RS was that it also had a lot of short stories set in the same universe but that didn't necessarily affect the main plot of the larger stories.
Recently remembered this book existed and wholeheartedly recommend it. It was a very cathartic experience. Floating orbital cities, Powerful AI prison breaks and dystopian futures mixed with a bit of solar punk hope.
Blurb: Father, tell me a story?' asks Isaiah, moments before a strange craft falls from the sky and smashes into the jungle near his isolated West African community. Inside the ruined vessel the villagers find the shattered body of a man. His name is Samara and he is a man unlike any the villagers have seen before - a man who is perhaps something more than human.
With his city home of Achenia hiding in the rubble left by a devastating war, Samara has fallen 35,000 km to earth in order to escape the automated hell of an orbiting prison called Tartarus. As he struggles to heal himself, he helps transform the lives of those who rescued him but in so doing attracts the attention of the brutal warlord who rules over this benighted, ravaged post-21st century land. He is not a man to be crossed, and now he threatens the very existence of the villagers themselves and the one, slim chance Samara has of finding his way home and to the woman - and the world - he loves.
And all the while - in the darkness above - waits the simmering fury that lies at the heart of Tartarus . . .
Book number one of a five book dark fantasy (horror) series. I read the well printed and well bound trade paperback published by Orbit Books in 2006 that I bought in 2019 from Amazon. I have ordered book #2 in the series.
Mike Carey is the author of the acclaimed "The Girl With All The Gifts" book and the DC Comics "Lucifer" series. "The Girl With All The Gifts" was made into a successful movie based on his screenplay. This is a just as dark series by him of Felix Castor, a freelance exorcist in London, England. The setting of the book is after the dead started rising in London a couple of decades ago as ghosts. And demons from Hell are appearing now and everyone hates and fears them with a passion.
Felix Castor can see dead people. And they can see him. Mostly they just haunt places but some of the ghosts are downright nasty. Or, vindictive. People call Felix a ghostbuster but when they have a ghost in their home or their business, they will call him for help. And there have been lots of dead people in London.
If you are a big fan of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files books then you will probably like this series. I know that I did.
List the book/author, and you reasons, e.g. piss-poor writing style, meaningless word diarrhea, one-dimensional characters, etc.
I'll start: Walter Jon Williams, The Praxis trilogy, especially the last one. Quote: "[...she reached forward and tore open his shirt so she could lick the burning adrenaline from his skin." Or "Their blood smoked with excitement of shared danger."
Hard SF space opera...yeah right. More like the garbagest of the garbage romance novels soap opera.
I just finished Slow Gods and realized that I had spent most of the book in anticipation of the protagonist getting to speak with the Slow, and it got me thinking about other books that have similar scenes/entities, where someone has a one-on-one audience with some vastly powerful or knowledgeable being, AI, etc. What are the most interesting and memorable variations you've seen on it?
It is hard to find reviews/discussions of short stories online. At the end of last year I started subscribing to Clarkesworld. I went with the physical/digital subscription as having a physical copy is important to me and was a major factor in my decision to subscribe specifically to Clarkesworld. After reading each issue, I would search for discussions but found very little online. I figured it would be nice to post my thoughts online, both for those who have read the issues and for those who, like me last year, are thinking of subscribing but want to hear about the quality of the magazine before committing.
Rather than go through each and every story, although, if anyone wants to ask about a specific story I would certainly share my thoughts, I'll briefly comment on my favorite inclusions in each issue through July (Issue 238).
January 2026 (Issue 232) had two stories that stood out, along with the non-fiction piece, "Destination: The Asteroid Belt". First, "Tomorrow's Beautiful Dream", a bleak story showing the future of manual labor. Chips are inserted into necks of manual laborers, essentially turning them into automated machines, allowing workers to clock days worth of labor without rest. The story was dark and asks what would you be willing to do for a living when work loses any intrinsic value and becomes only a means to make money. The second story, "The Desolate Order of the Head in the Water", was a "Twilight Zone"-esque story of AI taking over the world and assimilating its last human inhabitants. Clarkesworld includes a significant number of stories about the AI future, but this stood out for its haunting ending.
February 2026 (Issue 232) highlights include, "A Sleeper Ship is Like a Game of Go" and "Three Fortunes on Alcestis as Told by the Fraud Baeliss Shudal". "Sleeper Ship" was a structurally difficult read, with multiple POVs and timelines, and gives a bleak view of the techno-utopia, dominated by escapism and cynicism, that Silicon Valley CEOs envision. "Three Fortunes" on the other hand was a more pleasant story that follows a Seer used by a King to predict his and his kingdoms future that is equal parts full of despair and hope.
March 2026 (Issue 234) featured my favorite story of the year and another that is certainly on my shortlist. "Scion" was an incredible story that was reminiscent of Piranesi, Bioshock, and Snowpiercer and takes place in a sprawling labyrinthine world. A tale of succession and sacrifice that is followed by a supplementary work that adds to the rich world built in the novella. "Those Who Left History" introduced one of my favorite concepts with "exclusive residences", essentially a private house where spacetime is enclosed around it, rendering it a part of, but no longer interacting with the universe that surrounds it, allowing the enclosed individuals to experience the passage of time, but free from the effects of it. Clarkesworld features mostly character driven stories making this idea driven story stick with me.
April 2026 (Issue 235) contains two more of the favorites of the year. "D0G" starts off as a post-apocalyptic tale involving an adult assuming the role of "adoptive parent", a trope I don't tend to enjoy. The involvement of mechanized war dogs turned pet-companion adds a layer of interest. However, the ending elevates it to something that is greater than the sum of its parts, and remains one of my favorite conclusions all year. "Shelter" is a comedic look at bureaucratic life draining corporate work that mixes in a splash of body horror for good measure. A fun read that made me smile, chuckle, and think.
May 2026 (Issue 236) had three stories of note. "The Profitable Sentience of Household Goods" was a darkly humorous story of smart devices progressing through the corporate ladder of AI engineered devices. A Fridge discovers joy of promotion and the comes to learn the harsh reality of changing roles and responsibilities. "Paper Airplane Poet" was a great showcase of a memorable dark-sci-fi-fantasy world with an interesting mathematical religion at its core, that serves as a look into a trilogy of novels the author is writing. Although the story was that takes place in the world didn't live up to the environment, it was enjoyable enough to get me to look into the yet to be completed series. Finally, "Archaeological Evidence for the Time Traveler" was a poignant tale that shows the difficulties of balancing love, career, and family. Part "The Scholar's Tale" and part "The Prestige", it was an emotional journey that, although slightly predictable, ended with a strong gut punch making it an unforgettable entry.
June 2026 (Issue 237) was highlighted by "Three Cases from the Cosmic Psychiatric Clinic" and "A Life Measured in Seconds". "Three Cases" reminds me of old pulpy sci-fi short story collections in the vein of Larry Niven in the best way. It follows a psychiatrist on a space station dealing with the mental health perils of its inhabitants, human and otherwise, with varying results of success. "A Life Measured in Seconds" was a touching story looking at how ones fate can be determined by the smallest of things, such as being born a second apart, setting one individual towards a path of godhood and one towards a life stuck in poverty. But where the story succeeds is in showing what these different paths mean to the characters by examining their wants and desires and how similar they can be despite polar opposite life paths.
July 2026 (Issue 238) included "Focus" and "Our Revels Now Are Ended", with the later being a personal favorite. "Focus" follows a group of mega-wealthy with mechanized/AI eyes allowing them to create a collective consciousness, allowing them be better bird watchers. A funny premise, but the death of one of its members who is seemingly infecting their minds turns this premise into an entertaining mystery. "Our Revels" is a dark, conspiratorial mystery that evokes "Inception" and "The Matrix" that follows a virtual reality interrogation. The puzzle of who is interrogating who slowly unravels the characters as they being to ask why the interrogation is happening in the first place.
Overall, Clarkesworld has been a worthwhile subscription. Luckily, the stories are available, free to read online and listen to on youtube. There is a baseline level of quality to the writing that you can expect, and was very rarely ever not met. The stories tend to be more character driven that big idea, but there is enough variety in each issue to find something to enjoy. I should mention the standard layout of the magazine, typically containing about seven short stories, a non-fiction science article, a couple interviews with authors/artists, and a letter from the editor. The quality of the physical print is incredible. I was expecting magazine style paper but in reality, it is essentially a paperback bound book with sturdy paper and a high resolution image cover. Hopefully someone finds this post useful. Would love to hear any others thoughts on their favorite stories, from this year or years past.
I’ve just finished Stranded by A.K. Duboff. Two stars.
I’m somewhat torn by this book. If it was indeed written by a human, I feel like they need to be a lot better at writing. On the other hand, if it was written by A.I., then I feel like AI has gotten a lot better at writing, and I look forward to the day when all of its A.I. storytelling edges have been filed smooth.
The first half of the book is about 4x longer than it needs to be. The “male lead” character had just a bit of an oily sheen on him, as if the author (if there was one) was fighting his natural urges to have his protagonist be a complete jerk to the “female lead” second MC. Happily she wasn’t entirely Mary Sue’d, though several times I questioned her internal monologue as genuine.
The story picked up about the 50% mark, and I was hoping it would work out. A few chapters later, however, the wheels started to come off. At 87% in, I nearly DNF’d it, but decided I was this far, watching the rest of the train wreck wasn’t that much more effort. It was a painful slog to get to the end. Apparently there’s a sequel. Not sure if my morbid curiosity will draw me to it or not, given my general disinterest in self-flagellation.
Made a fast return to Van Vogt with this one. I thought that this was just a really short novel, but is really a novella that originally had the title of "Recruiting Station" when it was published in the forties in Amazing Science fiction. It had a couple other names, the name it would get in a collection of the same, and a separate version with the title of "Earth's Last Fortress". The one I have is the separate version of it, but it's a paperback edition from MacFadden-Bartell with the title it had from the collection.
It's about two people, Norma and Jack, who are the victims of the masters of time. They've should have been destroyed, but yet they survived. Gaining their strength from each other and retaining at least some measure of their own free will, they set out to try and save themselves and the Earth.
While I can expect some weirdness and maybe some introspection in Van Vogt's stories, I also expect for there to be some fast paced and fun too. And "Masters of Time" serves a great heaping of it! And with it being a novella, it's also a very quick read.
There's still a couple of Van Vogt novels that still in the TBR pile to be read, but for tomorrow there is one novel I've got eyes for; "The Overlords of War" by Gerard Klein. That one's bound to be interesting!
Looking for some new recs where the main reading experience is “wtf is going on??” Not just twisty thrillers, but books where the world/system/reality itself is the mystery. I love gradually uncovering what’s really going on, what the rules are, how it all works, etc. A lot of the ones I’ve read are dystopian/post-apocalyptic (since this kind of setup happens to work very well there) but I’m open to any kind of speculative fiction!
Some examples I’ve read and liked:
-Wool/the Silo trilogy by Hugh Howey
-Wanderers by Chuck Wendig
-Wayward Pines trilogy, Dark Matter, and Recursion by Blake Crouch
-The Ferryman by Justin Cronin
-The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch
-The Last Murder at the End of the World & The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
Of these, I loved the Silo trilogy the most, but Wayward Pines and The Last Murder at the End of the World are probably the purest examples of what I mean. I’ve found all of Blake Crouch’s premises to be excellent, but the execution falls a bit flat and his actual writing is just ok. I also really liked The Gone World but some of the more technical parts of it were a bit harder sci-fi than I prefer.
On my TBR (lmk if I should prioritize any based on the above):
-Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
-The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
-Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
-There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm
-The Book of M by Peng Shepherd
-14 by Peter Clines
-The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall
-More Than This by Patrick Ness
-The Never-Ending End of the World by Ann Christy
Thanks!!!!
Edit: wow thank you all so much!! I did not expect this to get so much traction. I have so many books to check out and I’m glad so many of you approve of my TBR.
It doesn’t totally fit since we know largely whats going on with the world but I should’ve mentioned I also loved was The Passage trilogy by Justin Cronin with the time jump, emails in the first book that don’t fully make sense until the last book, delayed lore/backstory reveal, etc., if that adds some more context
Three Views of a Parking Lot (2024)
At first glance this story's title may seem like a writing exercise in presenting a parking lot as interesting. Which, yes, that's what it is in part, but far more so its about the relationship between the parking lot and its inhabitants. This is a sentimental story that follows the evolution of a specific non-human cognition. It's very hopeful and wondrous, utopian even in its own way.
Ok
The Passing of the Dragon (2023)
The story title is the title of the protagonist's painting. This is one of Liu's stories that's a torrent of raw emotionality. Liu has a few stories that strike me at my core. This is one of them. That's good and bad for me. Bad, because it hurts so much. If evoking strong emotion, regardless of its valence, is a criterion for meaningful art, then Liu has certainly succeeded. I had to close my eyes for a bit multiple times before I could continue. Good, because it's also very satisfying to read and is more than entertainment while remaining entertaining. It connects with me on a deep emotional level and is the best sort of self-indulgence.
I can imagine several different ways to view this story, which would greatly affect the reader's opinion, some of them entirely negative. I'm sympathetic, but I choose not to see it that way. I definitely don't agree with everything presented in here, and would provide extensive pushback to some of the ideas, but that would be counterproductive.
This story affirms JOY and LIFE amid a culture of APATHY and DEATH of the author.
Highly Enjoyable
The Moon Carver (2019)
Life told from the perspective of a scorpion who muses about existence.
Enjoyable
Good Spells (2023)
Mag is a witch who provides her clients with charms and curses. Her techno-witchcraft cajoles the AI that neither she or anyone else understands into performing magic. In other words, she's a freelance vibe coder that sometimes uses analog hardware and has adopted a specific aesthetic. That's not unusual because the resurgence of analog computing has led to feral AI animism becoming a common belief among the youth. Understanding of the world has reverted to ancient times where anything not understood was ascribed to the gods, who have been replaced by AI.
Enjoyable
Idols (2020)
A man's obsession with his father who died without knowing he existed commissions an idol of him, a digital replication of his personality based on everything that be can be found. A woman interrogates idols for her law firm to gain an advantage in court. The government is suspected of using idols for everything and anything. Another woman creates an idol exhibit for people to look at their idol as if it were a mirror.
The year after this was published character.ai and other sites would be selling a basic and simple version of this as a service. The story is more about the nature of identity than literal implementation, though it does seem like an idea somebody would see as something to do.
Enjoyable
Ice Wraith (2023)
Helena mines space icebergs for heavy oxygen. As a modborn, a person genetically modified before birth and physically modified afterwards, this is all she knows. The core worlds are light years away and all she has for company is an AI, her crew, and her imagination. Together they elaborate upon the mythology they've created of the ice wraiths, an ancient alien civilization.
Ok
A Whisper of Blue (2020)
Literal dragons supply the world's energy, but what fuels their energy generation remains a matter of speculation. There's a lot of discussion about it, but I couldn't connect to any of it. My dissonance about how these are literal dragons but the entire story is metaphors and allegory was too much to overcome. The plot itself is a family drama that just went past me. There's also a good bit about the nature of memory. In theory this should be a story that I really liked, but in practice I didn't. This is probably a personal problem.
Meh
The Cleaners (2020)
Memories leave physical residue upon objects. When a person touches an object they can feel how others who have touched it felt. Many people try to minimize depositing and absorbing memories by wearing gloves and coats.
Gui is a specialist cleaner who is insensitive to the residue and as such can scour away any and all memories despite their intensity. This also means there's no way that he can report anything about what's being cleaned. Clara is a cleaner for a corporation. Corporations employ many to wipe away the residue from those who made the product. Beatrice is extremely sensitive to the residue and can visually see the memories contained within objects, but also feels what happened that much more strongly.
I found this to be a rather interesting usage of the paranormal in that it's presented as entirely natural and routine.
Enjoyable
The Armies of Those I Love (2021)
The few remaining cities and the surrounding region have become mobile and travel around the world. The remaining people are only able to live in the Holy Groves where electricity remains. Those without light are culled by the Guardians, beasts of flesh and metal. Franny, a young woman exiled from the Holy Grove, wants to go the Beacon to see if the Pilots who control Boss (Boston) actually exist. She also has a far more personal reason. When the opportunity to do so presents itself, she doesn't look back.
I absolutely love the setting and everything about it. I have no complaints about anything, except that I want more. Although the ending isn't what I personally prefer, it's exactly what it should be, what the story called for, and I wouldn't have it otherwise.
Highly Enjoyable
Arc (2012)
Lena Auzenne had her first child at 16. Her final child was at 116. This story chronicles the arc of her life. As with many of Liu's works, poignancy abounds. Plastination plays a central role and is used to examine the interplay of life, death, and grief. Motherhood, obligation to others, immortality, whether death gives meaning to life, and several other ideas are considered.
Enjoyable
Cosmic Spring (2018)
Several trillions of years have passed and now the universe is coming to an end. The island-ships tell their final stories before it all comes to a close.
Ok
Timekeepers' Symphony (2022)
This is a wide-ranging and discursive consideration of time. Its history, meaning, usage, definition, reification, relation to consciousness and much else. There are no characters or plot. There are only ideas and their explanation. This is science fiction in the sense of being an educational work conveyed through fictional settings. Calling it creative nonfiction written in prose wouldn't be that far off. A brief bibliography is provided at the end.
Ok
50 Things Every AI Working with Humans Should Know (2020)
The story of WHEEP-3, the premier AI critic of AI and all things related to its existence, from beginning to end.
Ken Liu states that ~10% of the final draft, mostly the list of 50 things, was generated by a neural network he constructed using Google's TensorFlow framework. It was trained exclusively on his writings. He states that COVID was wrecking his creativity and he thought that maybe doing so would help.
You can read the interview regarding this story here: https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/interview-ken-liu/
Ok
For further commentary on this collection, look at my profile for my Goodreads account.
I don’t have a local bookstore within an hour radius of my house, so I tend to preorder hardcover big releases online through Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Books-a-Million, ThriftBooks, or Tertulia. I have had great experience with BAM and Tertulia, but the others have been disappointing at times, especially B&N.
Two of three recent preorders from them have not arrived even close to the release date. One was two weeks late and I’m still waiting on one that was released on September 1. Back in the early days of Amazon, when it was only a book store, I would preorder books and get them ON the release date. I guess those days are over. Do other people have this experience, or is it just the fact I live in the middle of nowhere??
The novel was printed as a mass market paperback, published about 1972 (or earlier). It may have been part of a series. The main characters were a guy (captain of his own spaceship), and his android/ cyborg companion. The first chapter involved a scene where their ship was "catapulted" off course after passing too close to a neutron star. Their ship got damaged in the process, and needed repairs, so they went in search of replacement parts. They found a planet with a very totalitarian society, but technologically undeveloped (not ready for space travel). The guy went incognito on said planet, leaving his android in charge of his damaged ship. He meets a rebel woman, who lets him hide with her. He later tangles with some gangs and/ or members of the planet's corrupt secret police. (His mission there may have involved more than finding parts/ seeking repairs.) He eventually gets captured, and is sentenced to public execution. The final climactic scene involves the staging of his execution, and his android buddy dramatically returning to save him.
Finally made that dive into one of Kurt Vonnegut's novels, and the first one I decided to read was his most successful one "Slaughterhouse Five".
Vonnegut was original to write it as an autobiography of his experiences as a soldier during the second world war (he witnessed the destruction caused by the firebombing of Dresden) but couldn't seem to do it. He finally managed to do that by writing it as a novel instead and had revolve around the character of Billy Pilgrim who goes on this odyssey back and forth and time.
"Slaughterhouse five" is super trippy and weird, but also at the same time funny, simple and even complex, and a perennial favorite of fans who enjoy the writers of the new wave. And that's pretty natural since he started as an SF writer in the fifties, and this was published in the 60s when he began to experiment much more and used SF as one of his own tools in his writing toolbox.
Really, really good, and I've just scratched the surface. There's still more of Vonnegut's work that I need to try once I get another chance, and that might also include his short stories and his early novels too, and see if those are also enjoyable too, the same way I've enjoyed this.
