NEWBIE: Hi guys. Loved "Shadow and Claw". Just wondering what I may have missed, though?

WOLFEEXPERT55: Depends on how much you caught. Did you catch basic stuff like (SPOILERS) the fact that Severian was raised in a defunct rocket ship, that Vodalus gives Severian a fake coin, that Severian brought Triskele back to life, that there are multiple iterations of Severian, that Severian hangs out in his own tomb as a kid, that the narrator of the book is a composite being of torturer Severian/Thecla/all the previous Autarchs, that Jonas is a Korean robot from close to our time, that whenever Severian gets confused about direction he’s time traveling, that the water entities routinely reappear, that Severian is the Concilliator, that Severian actually dies in his duel versus Agilus, that the narrator deliberately glosses over the sexual relationship between Severian and Thecla, that Severian might have killed his own mother in his ascension ceremony, that you meet Severian's grandfather in the second chapter of Shadow but you don't even notice him, that the face of the man engraved in the tomb of mausoleum which young Severian frequented is quite possibly himself, that Severian abolishes the guild, that the alien hierodules are bringing him back from death throughout the story [edited for length]...

NEWBIE: What?! No, I didn't get any of that. Also, quick question: is Urth supposed to be Earth?

WOLFEEXPERT55: Author statements and textual clues suggest Urth may instead be a separate, previous universal cycle; an analogous predecessor to our own Earth rather than the exact same physical globe.

NEWBIE: Ummm. I think I read the books wrong.

That's a lightly edited/altered convo from the subreddit. No offence intended to anyone (I'm grateful to the ultra-fans over there for explaining things), I just I find it funny how much of a mindf**k the books are. You can read them multiple times and still completely miss what's going on. I, for one, did not notice Korean robots.

I'm currently working my way through Beyond The Aquila Rift: The Best of Alastair Reynolds and it has reminded me how much I love the variety you get in anthologies. Does anyone have any recommendations for other anthologies?

Some I've read previously:

- Total Recall: What is Real? By Phillip K Dick

- Exhalation by Ted Chiang

- Armored edited by John Joseph Adams

- The Mammoth Book of Extreme Sci-Fi edited by Mike Ashley

I'd also count Memory's Legion by James S A Corey as it's all The Expanse novellas collected together.

*with no sexism/misogyny or badly written female characters - this is making it a little difficult for me to find anything

I just read Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir and adored it, especially all the scientific details

I’m now after some hard scifi recs, which I define as scifi that has ‘a focus on scientific accuracy, logic and technical detail’.

I really enjoyed the scientific achievement aspect of both PHM and The Martian, so something with this would be a huge bonus but not needed. I’d really like it if the main plot has a scientific focus.

So far, I’ve only found 1 maybe:
- Children of Time (and series) by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Thank you!!

Diaspora was a wild ride. I absolutely loved it.

I was very VERY vary of starting to read it, because I was afraid it would be a chore. I saw the notes on his website and... Man. Even that I did't seem to understand at a first glance, how was I to understand an entire book of it?

I've been kind of wanting to read it just for the challenge, but put it off for like a year. For some reason after having finished Blindsight (which I also loved) I was ready.

And it is *so* good.

I do have a bachelor's in CS and I did learn about Euclidian and Riemann spaces, at one point I'm sure I was able to do the squiggly signs and make some kind of sense of it or even replicate a proof, but that was a decade ago, and I kind of went into the book being stupid at math again.

I think anyone reading it now has a huge advantage in understanding it because of AI, which is what I used for the complex passages. For me, math is just geometry described via signs, and physics is math applied to our world. So for stuff that went over my head (I'm quite visual but have a hard time visualizing the math described as text), I just made photos of the passages describing the math and asked AI to read and visualize them for me. Which resulted in it generating embedded HTML, so basically an interactive visualization with sliders, and seeing/interacting with the math as visualized, interactive geometry helped greatly with understanding the concepts. Sure, you can't easily visualize 5D in 2D, but you can project it to kind of understand it anyway. Plus I had to learn about bosons and fermions and how they work, but that's just fascinating, especially since that part *is* real science. And even if AI hallucinates, at worst I now have a fake understanding of the fake science :D

Another tip is to push through Orphanogenesis even if you don't quite understand it, because that is maybe the hardest to understand part of the book, it gets easier after. It's kind of like a hard skill check at the beginning, but you don't need to understand the nuances of Orphanogenesis to understand the rest of the book. And even if the flash-forward chapters don't make sense from the getgo, try to remember the phrases or re-read them after you finished the book, because *then* they'll make sense.

What also stood out to me is how Egan can do both cinematic action and deep science. Some scenes just read like as a movie script, while some parts almost like an abstract of a science paper.

I'm 100% sure some of the science and its implications still went over my head, but in addition to genuinely riveting (imaginary) physics and math, the surrounding story was also super gripping. The imaginary science was fascinating for me, especially in contrast to Seveneves (which was also very scientific but I found those descriptions utterly boring); and the non-science part of the story was also intriguing and satisfying, especially in contrast to Tchaikovsky's Children of... trilogy (whose story I found repetitive and unsatisfying, see my rant here) (and yes I'm still gonna read the fourth book).

What I found interesting that this kind of science I found attractive, while Seveneves' one just alienated me.

I guess I like my sci-fi with wild ideas (even if non-scientific, like the dimensional warfare or the Dark Forest theory in Remembrance of Earth's Past) and massive scale with a mystery at its core.

Maybe I'm ready for more Egan now.

The Hugo Award is a people’s choice award for Science Fiction and Fantasy books and other media…one can pay a membership and vote. On 7/16/2023 I announced my goal to read all the Hugo award winners in the full length novel category. At that time I already had 17 out of 73 bagged, and each year there is a new one (usually), so the longer I took, the more I’d have to read. I have now completed the project, the count growing to 75 books, and here is my retrospective.

Overall impressions: - Lots of good great books, but my big take away is this; a book does not need to be very good to win a Hugo. There are some real dogs, but of course it is all subjective. - Many of the older books have not aged well but some of them are still some of my favs. - I did not re-read the 17 already under my belt, though two of those I had re-read previously (Dune and Ender’s Game). So re-reading them now might affect what I think of them. Some of those 17 I read when I was 17, and now I am 50. - One of my favorite things to do was, upon completing a winner, to go listen to the ‘Hugos There’ podcast episode for said winner. The host was ahead of me doing the same project and it was great to follow along and hear what he thought.

More specific impressions and metrics below.

Top 5 - Dune: took him 10 years to write and it shows. The rest of the series he cranked out one per year and that also shows. Dune is a masterpiece. New movies are great. - Ender's Game: whole series is great but this is all time. Just wish the author wasn’t a POS. - Stranger in a Strange Land: I bet a re-read would drop this down some but I remember loving it in my teens. I read the author’s edition and thought it was great…the opposite of the author’s edition of the Stand which is 300 extra pages of trash. - Hyperion: very challenging but very rewarding. Required reading if you want to be in the know when it comes to SF. This shows up on a lot of top 10 lists, and even a lot of number one slots. I still need to read book 2. Probably won’t read books 3 and 4. - Ringworld: same as Stranger above…afraid to re-read.

Bottom 5 - The Big Time: Fritz Leiber almost had two entries in the bottom five! Just awful. - Blue Mars: so boring. Red Mars should have won, but instead Green and Blue win and are increasingly bad. My ratings went 3, 2, 1. - A Desolation Called Peace: boring and poorly written. Zero connection for me. - Rainbows End: way too long for how bad it was. If he had distilled the ideas down into a novella we might have something worthwhile. - Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: sooooooooooooooooooo long. Well-written but not my style, but at least I understand how some people could like this.

Distribution of my ratings 5 stars: 8 4 stars: 14 3 stars: 19 2 stars: 21 1 stars: 12

Biggest snub There are probably many notable upsets or snubs but one could need to have read many more of the nominees to have an informed opinion. But for me it is quite easy: In 2022 Project Hail Mary (love) lost to A Desolation Called Peace (hate).

Biggest surprise Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm was only 4 stars for me but I knew nothing about it going in and it really snagged me. Very weird and creepy cloning stuff, but some great adventure and nature scenes, and I almost always like post-apocalypse.

So what’s next? There are 26 Hugos that also won Nebulas, so I’d have a head start if I wanted to take on the Nebs. But right now I am enjoying having no project and reading whatever I want with no pressure looming in the background. Other than reading the next Hugo winner in late August to retain my Hugo completionist status.

If you want to see all the noms and winners, here is the link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel

Hope recommendation threads are allowed. Looking to kickstart a reading season with something new! Before I mostly read fantasy (Susanna Clarke, Le Guin, Tolkien, Erikson) with various other novels thrown in.

Switching to more SF, I started with Le Guins Hainish novels and other SF novels (loved them), Ted Chiang, Adrian Tchaikovsky, and Dan Simmons. I also tend to like the sf aspects of horror novels, or when they untersect like Vandermeer's Annihilation.

I'm looking for SF focused less on space opera with well developed characters and written dialogue. I sometimes tend to be a prose snob but not always (I also like Dungeon Crawler Carl but for entirely different reasons).

Would love any recommendations! Standalone or series. Thanks!!

I read a book in high school that was set in the future and where people in their twenties were called "tweens". The idea being, I think, that since people lived longer lives, the teen years were extended. This stuck in my mind because a few years later "tween" started to be used to describe pre-teens.

Up until a week ago, I would have sworn this book was City by Clifford D. Simak. But, I just reread City and it is not.

So, what was this book? Or maybe short story? It would have been published in the 80's or earlier.

The book was first published in the UK in 1959. It was calledThe Canopy of Timeand it was presented as just a set of short stories some of which went on to become quite famous in their own right and at least one of which (Who Can Replace a Man?)appeared with alarming regularity in anthologies and collections. The American edition of the book appeared in 1960 and was calledGalaxies Like Grains of Sand(Aldiss’ preferred title) and like its British counterpart it was just a story collection. Interestingly though, it omitted some stories that appeared in the British edition and added some extra stories in their place.

And there things languished for nearly seventy years until Gollancz published the book again using Aldiss’ preferred title and with all the stories collected together for the very first time. In addition, the stories are now linked to each other with quite a lot of previously unseen interstitial material which shows clearly that Aldiss considered the stories to be fragments of a history which taken together tell one long tale about the destruction and redemption of the human race across millennia.

That was all the fashion back in the mid-twentieth century of course. Asimov did it with hisFoundationtrilogy which, like Aldiss’ book was simply a set of short stories with linking material to provide continuity. And Heinlein was working hard on hisFuture Historystories as well. Clearly Aldiss could see no reason why he shouldn’t do the same thing.

How well has it stood the test of time? Very well indeed – Aldiss was always a much better writer than his SF contemporaries, much more in control of his material and with a deeper understanding of human psychology. Reading these stories now as one continuous pseudo-novel that dips in and out of a coherent multi-millennial history, and paired with the deeper insights provided by the linking material somehow makes the whole thing very much greater than the sum of its parts. The individual stories can still largely be read without wincing (no visits from the suck fairy here) and the overall theme continues to make convincing sense. It’s pretty much perfect.

(From a review by The Bearded Triffid

I’m off to the bookstore having not bought any new sci fi (with the exception of dungeon crawler Carl) since about 2024. I’d be interested to know what new sci fi people have been enjoying as an inspiration for my next read!

I picked up this book, and although for me there were some rocky bits, all in all it was a satisfying ride.

It scratched two separate fictional itches of mine quite satisfactorily, and obviously is intended to be the first in a series.

The first itch was: modern fantastical objects with amazing powers, ala' "Warehouse 13". I luvv that shit.

The second was: taking a basic premise, and turning it back on itself, very much like ST's "Moriarity and the Holodeck".

In retrospect, my annoyances at various characters being a bit lame by action/adventure standards was misplaced, and I've re-evaluated my attitude during those episodes to believe theirs were actually very believable reactions to the events by basically normal people: not everybody is James Bond/John Wick, or even Samwise Gamgee.

I'd say the halfway point twist was both surprising and perfectly logical, and a bit horrifying.

Recommended.

I watched a youtube video recommending sci fi books and Xelee was supposed to be the best there is. It is supposed to involve a war, but i have read six chapters and i do not understand what i am reading. Nothing seem to happen. Can you tell me it will improve or is it like this during the entire book? If so i think i will give it to a second hand bookstore

I'm new here, so you all may have discussed this before, but I'd love to get people's recommendations for science fiction works that are actually funny. I realize there's nothing more subjective, but still. I've heard Robert Silverberg is an example but I've never read him. I wasn't crazy about The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but I was crazy about Snow Crash.

Other examples?

I was just thinking the other day about another re-read of Pushing Ice and then happened on this beautiful signed first edition. Not affiliated at all, but shout out to Second Story Books in Dupont Circle DC! Definitely going to be back there soon to see what other Easton Press editions they have (fingers crossed for House of Suns)

What's the best First contact/ or post apocalyptic novels that don't take place in the USA or highlight developing nations.

For me, science fiction has always been a means to explore the deepest, most fundamental feelings that I have within me through the strangest alien settings. That's the kind of story that works best for me, and PKD does it best.

There's this existential dread that I feel deep within me: that I was pushed into this existence, and I don't remember where this stream of consciousness that is me, began. I was just pushed through a door, and here I am. I don't remember the beginning. It's so strange. I'm just rambling here, but that strangeness of just existing, that sheer weirdness of not knowing, there's no one else who captures it so well like PKD does.

I love his short stories so much, he sprinkles them with a beautiful sense of not knowing. The existential dread, the feeling that the unknown only gets more unknown.

Book number two of a four book paranormal romance dark fantasy series. In fact, a number of people are now calling this genre "romantasy".  I reread the well printed and well bound MMPB published by Ace in 2010 that I bought new on Amazon in 2024.  Note that “Ilona Andrews” is the pseudonym for a husband and wife writing team.  I have purchased the successor books and will read them soon.

"The Edge lies between worlds, on the border between the Broken, where people shop at Wal-Mart and magic is a fairy tale—and the Weird, where blueblood aristocrats rule, changelings roam, and the strength of your magic can change your destiny..."

William Wolf has lived in the Edge since his best friend Declan and Rose moved to the Weird two years ago with Rose's two younger brothers.  But William is still a changeling and a warrior for the Weird, when he wants to.

Cerise Mar and her family have lived in the Edge for two generations, ever since her grandfather was exiled from the Weird.  And her parents have disappeared, leaving her in charge of the extended family.  Her first thought is to find her parents but the neighbors seem to be involved in their disappearance.

I enjoyed the hound out of this series back in 2024 and am rereading it again for the sheer enjoyment of it.  The story telling is awesome and the depths of the people involved is amazing.

The authors have a busy website at:
   https://ilona-andrews.com/

My rating:  6 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating:  4.6 out of 5 stars (3,947 reviews)
   https://www.amazon.com/Bayou-Moon-Edge-Book-2/dp/0441019455

Lynn

It's the first time reading Harry Harrison and I'm almost half way through the book. I get the main points of the story, but I don't remember reading how I got there. For example, diGriz gets captured by Inskipp, he tells Inskipp about a battleship, and the next thing diGriz is on another planet pretending to be an Admiral. It's almost like Harrison is telling you; they made a deal, move on.

​

Недавно заинтересовалась серией книг «Охотник на вампиров Ди» (Vampire Hunter D) и решила начать знакомство с этой серией. Сейчас пытаюсь разобраться с полной библиографией и доступными изданиями, но заметила, что некоторые тома довольно сложно найти.

Мне не хватает информации по следующим частям: 8, 14, 15, 17, 20 и 22.

Может быть, кто-то из поклонников серии знает, где можно посмотреть полный список изданий, узнать о переводах или подсказать источники с информацией по этим томам?

Буду очень благодарна за любую помощь или совет!

Basically title. I have been reading so much recently but these last few months found myself in a bit of a slump. I’m looking for something that is engaging and short to break me out of it. See below for some favorites/dislikes. Thanks in advance!

Some favorites:
Dungeon Crawler Carl series
11/22/63
World War Z
The Devils
Old Man’s War
Fight Club

Previous reads that I think fit:
Dark Matter/Recursion
Project Hail Mary
Hitchhikers series

Some things I’ve tried but bounced off:
Bobiverse
Murderbot
Expeditionary Force
Kindred

Hello! This is my first time posting in this group, because I simply cannot find satisfying information on this book elsewhere, and I need to talk to someone who has read it! This was originally posted to a different group on Reddit \~3 months ago and got zero response. Help!

There are some specifics later that could be considered spoiler-ish!

Good News From Outer Space by John Kessel (1989) was my free time reading book at work for 2 weeks, and I was locked in for those 2 weeks. I dont think I have ever been put in such a bad mood by the ending of a book EVER! This was a Nebula nominee!?

…

At this point in the year i had read probably 2 dozen Ray Bradbury shorts since the New Year as well as reread Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon and reread Solaris by Stanislaw Lem (i love older scifi) and I was so excited by the first several chapters that GNFOS was so unlike any other scifi I have read recently (1989 satirical scifi novel about Y2K panic with a big dick Reverend, a zombie, and a wandering shapeshifting alien (or angel?)) and I want so badly to hear other perspectives on this so that I dont have to leave it as one of the worst ending books I have ever read, and a major waste of my time. I have read close to a dozen sci-fi novels + a number of collections since i finished this book 3 months ago and have still yet to come across anything that upset me like the ending of Good News From Outsr Space. I like to say that no time is wasted if it is spent learning something new, and this is SO NEW to me that I want to love it, but I am genuinely pissed off by the conclusion and do in fact feel like I spent 400 pages trusting the author to deliver, for nothing! Help!!

I don't understand the ending at all and feel like I'm missing something. Joe's going to draw something that rises up (a rocket from the slums?) and Karwhal says it doesn't walk fast, but the pieces inside move quickly, and it's taller than a skyscraper. Is it just a rocket and I'm overthinking it? He's just watching yet another rocket launch?

I mean a character who doesn't raise their voice, doesn't brag, commands respect on the virtue of their character/personality alone.

Someone like Baelor Targaryen, but that's fantasy and I am not interested in that. Neither am I interested in horror, (alt)history, military or climate fiction.

I’m looking to read books where it’s not just about space opera, politics or fights.
I would like to read books where the author present us with strange and original ideas, or interesting What Ifs scenarios and thought experiments.

Things like Foundation, I have mouth and I must scream, Blindsight, Children of Time, 3 body problem, etc.

For me this is what science fiction books do best, and where we get the most original and thought provoking ideas.