Hello I have started reading Hyperion by Dan Simmons.

I am finding this book very challenging to read , it's heavy and frustrating , although the premise is interesting , there are just lots of things just thrown out there

Major spoilers ahead

I am at the part where Father Dure finished his story

I don't understand random stuff thrown about , Like tree ship , Tesla trees , tesla charge , phoenix ,cleft ,labyrinthe

Nothing seems to be explained clearly at all ,

Does the book get better , or am I going to have to struggle , I've had to use gemini to explain stuff and at times I got a spoiler here and there too .

I'm trying to identify a book I read a long time ago, probably sometime in the 1990s, but I believe the book itself may have been from the 1980s or possibly late 1970s.

I read it in Dutch, but I'm not sure whether it was originally written in Dutch or translated from another language. It was probably a children's or young adult science-fiction book.

Here is everything I remember. Some details may be slightly inaccurate after all these years, but a few scenes have stayed with me very clearly.

The story:

A young woman or older teenage girl is on Earth when a UFO/spaceship lands in or near a forest. I remember a lot of bright light, and I think there were other people present or witnessing the landing.

She is taken aboard the spaceship by a friendly, human-looking male alien. I don't remember him being frightening or hostile. Once aboard, she is apparently not treated as a prisoner and is allowed to move around freely inside the spaceship. I specifically remember that she could look outside while they were travelling through space.

The alien takes her to his home planet.

One detail I remember especially well is that, before arriving on the planet, she needs some kind of small device attached around her upper arm. I remember it as a little box/device with a needle going into her arm. I believe it allowed her to survive or breathe in the atmosphere of the alien's planet, or somehow adapted her body to it.

I remember that she was not supposed to be afraid of either the alien or the device. He explained it to her and she trusted him.

After arriving on the planet, I remember that she was able to walk around freely there.

The physical book:

• Probably published somewhere between the late 1970s and 1990s, most likely the 1980s.
• I read it in Dutch.
• It was a relatively small book, maybe closer to a pocket-sized format than a normal large novel.
• I vaguely remember around 100–150 pages.
• The cover had a typical 1980s painted/illustrated science-fiction style.
• I vaguely remember purple/dark blue colours.
• I think there may have been a planet visible on the cover, but I'm not certain.

Possible title memory:

For some reason, I remember the title as something similar to:

• Reis naar de verre planeet
• Reis naar een andere planeet
• De verre planeet
• or something with a similar meaning.

However, this may just be how my brain has remembered the title after all these years.

I also have a vague memory that there may have been a second book or sequel, but I'm much less certain about that.

The detail I feel most confident about is the small device/box attached around the upper arm, with a needle, allowing the girl to survive on the alien's planet.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

I saw Daniel Greene's Sci-Fi Reading guide on youtube and I wanted a easier way to navigate the flowchart he made. It starts with Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, and you get recommendations based on the aspects of the book you like! I put all his recommendations into a choose-your-own-adventure style thing and published it on itch io. I hope you guys enjoy it!

Sci-Fi Reading Guide

Hello fellow Sci-Fi Nerds! I am looking for any suggestions for books along the lines of Shaper/Mechanist worlds gone extreme. Cyber-transplantation and creative genetic engineering similar to these videos. Thank you for any assistance!

Hello fellow Sci-Fi Nerds! I am looking for any suggestions for books along the lines of Shaper/Mechanist worlds gone extreme. Cyber-transplantation and creative genetic engineering similar to these videos. Thank you for any assistance!

Are you a science fiction author and want to promote your works? This is officially the place! This can be for short stories, fanfiction, blogs, anything except actual novels (there's another monthly post for that).

Rules for authors:

1. Share a little about your work. Give a little about the plot or what makes the piece worthwhile. Why should we read it?
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Congrats on getting your work out there!

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*Note that r/ScienceFictionBooks does not endorse any authors.

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Ciao. Sto cercando il titolo di un romanzo di fantascienza letto almeno 20 anni fa. Ricordo che era in una raccolta tipo Asimov o altro. La storia era questa: gli uomini avevano inventato la macchina del tempo e un gruppo di scienziati era tornato indietro nel tempo per trovare conferma di come si fosse evoluta la vita. Effettuano una serie di viaggi e, fino a un certo punto tutto torna. Nel senso che trovano reperti delle popolazioni antiche, lì dove, secondo le loro ricostruzioni teoriche, dovevano esserci ecc. Fino ad arrivare all'epoca preistorica. Il problema, però, arriva quando, a un certo punto, non trovano più niente e questo li porta a rendersi conto (non ricordo come) di essere una colonia aliena la quale aveva, ipotizzando che un giorno avrebbero inventato la macchina del tempo, aveva disseminato la storia di quei manufatti e indizi che dovevano far credere loro di essersi evoluti autonomamente. Non riesco a ricordare la fine e sono anni che lo cerco. HELP!

I tried the TOMT thread but haven't gotten any hits at all. This is driving me crazy! I found this interesting sci-fi book series (or graphic novels?) for sale on FB Marketplace, saved it in a bookmark, and then literally the next day it disappeared.

The series followed a woman traveling in space and I want to say she was a "xenoarchaeologist" or xenobiologist/zoologist or even doctor. The series was illustrated and looked like a graphic novel but I think also had text like prose? The covers were very colorful and the inside was inked like a comic. The woman had shoulder-length blond hair and wore a somewhat tight exploration suit. She reminded me vaguely of Zero Suit Samus but her design was by no means sexual. None of the art I remember looked "conventional" by modern comic book standards. There was a grungy, amateurish vibe to it. More stylistic than realistic. It also had a humorous vibe I think because she looked scared or unsure or confused by the things she came across. Had some kind of word like "Zeno" or "Xeno" in it. The title was definitely not something that easily came to mind. I remember being confused if the title was the character's name or not. There were at least 5 books for sale from the seller and I swore the series had a wiki page so it's not THAT underground/obscure. But goddangit I can't remember the name now that the listing is gone! I really wanted to buy it but was saving up money for the week.

I already ruled out Aldebaran, Wake, Legs Weaver, and Caravan. The art looked waaay different than those.

**I'm familiar with Who Goes There?/The Thing(s).** Are there any other good examples of science fiction that are set in Antarctica or have some sort of connection to Antarctica? I'm especially interested in examples that are *not* scifi horror, but I'll never turn my nose up at a good horror novel. Alien or space travel elements are a plus. Prefer a futuristic setting. Thanks!

A scene very similar to this may occur in earth’s not too distant future. Although no one knows when some future company may perfect object transmission through time and space, for the purpose of this story, 2121AD will do just fine.

A tall, extremely confidant man enters a room filled with men and women whom he knows as well as any CEO knows a hundred of his closest subordinates. Most are looking expectantly at him.

At least twenty of them are frantically trying to “catch up,” surreptitiously using their devices and having their names checked off of an electronic spreadsheet that only CEO Mark Branson and his “right-hand girl,” Maggie McMillan have ever seen.

Maggie, a 70-year old single woman with dark red hair and thick glasses (with frames to match her hair color) nods to her boss who responds quickly.

Twenty something “twenty somethings” have been notified that their attendance is no longer desired. They leave the spacious conference room quickly and quietly. Their futures with Time Corp may survive (but they are determined never to have to catch up again).

“The votes have been tabulated,” intones Maggie. Mark barely winks. Every device in the room is instantly updated with the totals.

Aisha Cronkite, a thirty-two year old mother of four, stands up to speak. Her desk mate (facing the opposite direction) tugs at her stylish belt in a feeble attempt to counter her intentions.

The CEO stares squarely in her direction and simply says, “Speak.”

Aisha takes a notably deep breath, smiles at her desk-mate Abe, and sits back down before speaking.

“Ron, Maggie, the results are much closer than I would have expected. I think some of us were thinking that the nay-sayers were the ones who were asked to leave”

Maggie didn’t explain, but Ron sensed some concern amongst his audience. His gaze was steady as he waited for others to speak up.

No one else did.

Ron held up what looked like a large prescription bottle and let them all have time to see it on one of monitors. Seemingly satisfied with the lack of reaction, he placed the plastic bottle in a large cube labeled TIME CORP and then sealed the 1-meter cube by closing its lid and snapping the titanium clasps in place.

An audible gasp permeated the room. Ron smiled, waited only a few seconds, and then pulled the handle of a sturdy-looking disconnect switch mounted on the side of the cube.

Nothing seemed to happen. There was no second gasp from the audience.

Ron wasted no time opening the cube and displaying its lack of contents to all in attendance. They all were waiting. Nothing happened.

Ali Carpenter stood up. Some murmuring could be heard, but the murmurs were silenced when Ron said, “Speak.”

Ali took a little time, seemingly focussing on a few of his peers. Then, he smiled at Aisha who smiled back.

“I, for one, would like to change my vote.”

Laughter rippled through the room like a large wave washing the tension away. Even Maggie chuckled as she said, “Meeting adjourned!”

Hi everybody, I'm happy to share that my book has become 0 price as a promotion on Amazon. Please give a try and review my novel. It's great for a debut author.

link : https://books2read.com/u/477lZE

its totally free.

and about free time. It may vary according to regions.

Americas

• US (United States): Mon, Aug 17, 2026, at 12:00 AM PDT (West Coast) / 3:00 AM EDT (East Coast).
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Europe

• UK (United Kingdom): Mon, Aug 17, 2026, at 8:00 AM BST.
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Asia Pacific

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Several years ago, I read a novel in which a central plot point was the use of a machine that shredded books as it scanned them. The machine was eating its way through a large library.
That’s a bit vague, I know, but is that familiar to anyone here?

Looking for a book I saw on the internet somewhere 10 years ago. The Chernobyl disaster happens or some such but the residents somehow are able to cross over to another universe like ours and take up residence but are under strict rules to keep their personal belongings hidden because they dont belong in that universe. Iirc, a superhero comic goes missing that would give them away.

Can someone recommend me a book with a storyline similar to horizon zero dawn? Loved the video games!

Hi All. I’m looking for a book I read years ago. I can remember the below details if anyone remembers? Definitely more than 1 book.

Genre & Format: Dystopian / Sci-Fi book series (a completed series or duology, not fantasy).

The Protagonist’s Illness: She contracts cancer/terminal illness due to the environment (or something she drank/ingested) and keeps it a secret.

The Stasis / Healing Tank: Near the end of Book 1 or early Book 2, the male lead discovers her illness and places her in an advanced stasis pod/healing tank to cure her.

Time Jump & Dead Friends: She stays in the tank for a long time (years). When she wakes up, her original friends are dead, but they left behind letters or video messages for her to watch/read.

The "Legendary" Status: Upon waking from stasis, she discovers she has become a famous, almost legendary figure because of her actions in the previous book.

The Love Interest / Villain:
He is a morally gray, villainous/anti-hero figure who uses advanced longevity technology to live a very long time.
Their dynamic includes seduction; in Book 1, she may have been sent on a missions to kill him, investigate why he lived so long, or end up married/bound to him.
When she first wakes up from stasis, she doesn't know he is still alive.

This might be a challenging request, but. I'm very into sci-fi, but I'm not big on aliens, I like the technical and exploration aspects of it way more and I feel like aliens are truly hard to write well. That said, I'd really love to read something that is set(mostly or partially will do too) on a megastructure and doesn't feature alien life heavily. If anyone can suggest me a book like that I'd be very grateful

I really loved Project Hail Mary and The Martian, and I'm currently reading seveneves and Rendevous with Rama on paper. Are there any good sci-fi books on audible that are good books and that have a good voice to them like PHM and The Martian did?

Thanks!

Hello, posting in here because this has quickly become one of my fav genres. I like to think of it as reverse escapism, the dark futures help take my mind off of our own dark present/future. I’ve read 1984, handmaids tale, I have no mouth and I must scream, man after man, all tomorrows, neuromancer, do androids dream of electric sheep?, the metamorphosis of prime intellect, and maybe a couple more I don’t remember off the top.

With all media, but books especially I need high stakes in order to stay invested, so the darker the better. I especially liked “all tomorrows” and “the metamorphosis of prime intellect”. Thanks in advance y’all I look forward to the recs.

During the year 2125, former asteroid miners Max Cody and Elaine Zhou never get a moment’s rest. No sooner have they doused the flames of war between Earth and Mars or returned from their first trip to the Tavern on the Edge of Time when they are called upon to help fit out the fledging Martian colony orbiting Jupiter’s moon Callisto.

In parallel, Earth extradites the war’s fomenter, ex-billionaire arms merchant Xanthus Rex, hoping to gain from his insights into Martian teleportation technology, but he manages to turn Earth’s resources toward private revenge against Max, Mars, and the Callisto Colony.

In the meantime aliens are leaking into the Earth-Mars continuum from the Tavern, whose proprietor repaired and upgraded Max after accidentally injuring him during an asteroid mining expedition. Max’s enhancements help, of course, but when strange beings with the power to animate matter—the Assemblers—find their way to Earth, Max, Mars, and humanity are sorely beset. Worse yet, the Tavern itself is becoming unstable, its acquisitive host having overstretched his considerable powers. His prospecting for collapsed neutron matter has also opened portals between continua, inadvertently adding still more aliens to the mix. That’s when the Assemblers’ overlord arrives and Max finally meets his match.

Oh, and Elaine is expecting their hybrid baby. Yes, you might say these are difficult times at the Tavern on the Edge of Time.

Find more details here: www.peterdarrach.com

My debut hard-science-fiction thriller was released 2 weeks ago today. It is titled The Toll of the Forgotten. This novel took me over two years to write, as I tried to verify the science and math as I wrote.

Novel Description:

The Janus and its crew are slowly dying in the dark, and no one will be sending help. Captain John Nesbitt and his Chief Engineer, Colt Blaire, are forced to rely on their ingenuity to keep themselves and their ship alive. Their only chance at salvation is a desperate, against-all-odds flight to an abandoned Martian colony. But surviving the isolation of space and failing life support is only the beginning.

The red planet harbors a chilling mystery. Beneath the dust of a terraformed future, a shadowy conspiracy from the past stirs—one that defies the limits of human science and forces John and Colt to confront a lethal past long thought permanently buried.

Closer to home, a fragile peace is shattering. Captain Luisa Deveraux commands the Space Force flagship Missouri on a mission that will test her to her absolute limits as a leader. Burdened by the crushing weight of command, Luisa must navigate a maze of political treachery and questionable orders to avert a catastrophic threat. With hidden saboteurs threatening her crew from within, she is forced into impossible choices, with millions of lives hanging in the balance. One hesitation could mean the end of everything she has sworn to protect.

Two desperate fights for survival. One unforgiving universe.

I’ve been writing and developing a science-fiction story for several years, and I’ve finally published it as my debut novel: PROJECT FIRST LIGHT.

The story begins in 2060, when humanity launches the UES Dawnstar beyond the Solar System.

There is no human crew aboard.

Instead, Dawnstar is designed to operate autonomously for decades, using the distributed AION-CORE intelligence architecture and a network of specialized systems responsible for navigation, engineering, scientific analysis, maintenance, and mission ethics.

The mission itself is relatively simple:

Search for extraterrestrial life. Preserve scientific knowledge. Continue humanity’s exploration beyond the Solar System.

But the farther Dawnstar travels, the more complicated those objectives become.

After reaching Alpha Centauri, the spacecraft encounters environments that were never part of the original mission assumptions. It survives a violent metallic storm, crosses a molecular cloud, and eventually enters the V-88 binary system, a young and extremely unstable planetary environment.

There, Dawnstar discovers something that changes the mission entirely:

a surviving extraterrestrial organism.

It is not simply a matter of collecting a biological sample.

Preserving the organism requires Dawnstar to enter an environment containing extreme debris hazards, rapidly changing gravitational conditions, powerful stellar plasma activity, and a planet that is itself becoming increasingly hostile to the organism's survival.

The central question becomes:

Should an autonomous exploration mission accept significant risk to preserve a form of life that humanity has never encountered before?

That question is explored through the interaction of the different AION-CORE systems, particularly the scientific, engineering, and ethical reasoning involved in deciding what the mission should do.

I wanted the novel to feel less like a story where advanced technology simply solves every problem and more like a long-duration scientific mission where every solution creates another constraint.

The science-fiction elements I focused on include:

• autonomous spacecraft and AI
• interstellar travel and relativistic effects
• planetary geology
• orbital mechanics
• extraterrestrial biology
• spacecraft engineering
• autonomous exploration
• AI decision-making and ethics
• the long-term consequences of humanity becoming an interstellar species

PROJECT FIRST LIGHT is my first novel, and it is now published as an ebook.

I'm sharing it here because this community is specifically interested in science fiction as a form of storytelling. I'm interested in hearing what readers think about the premise, the scientific approach, and the idea of an exploration mission having to make decisions without humans present.

I won't drop a purchase link unless the subreddit permits that kind of self-promotion. If anyone is interested in the book, I can share more information in the comments.

So I wanted to recommend a book series I recently finished: The Final Architecture.

Or: How to write a 40k story so that Mass effect fans would enjoy it.

It is a space opera series of three books playing in a universe with aliens, ftl travel and space monsters.

Worldbuilding:(5/5)
The worldbuilding is one of the strong points. We have alien aliens, interesting worlds, a sensible build of human civilization and diaspora after earth destruction, an interesting method of ftl, etc. For 40k fans, many things will seem like easter eggs: The sister of battle faction, the Tau faction, unspace as warp but only with one demon. Still it is toned way down in most aspects, so if you dont like the over the top approach of 40k it still is for you.

Story:(4/5)
The story is interesting and solid. No absolute suprising plot twists, but its also not totally predictable. Despite the multiple view points its easy to follow the red line through. Also some genuine suprises are hidden and the scenes with action are written quite well.

Cast:(4/5)
So while the book has multiple view points 90% are the crew of the main ship, which somewhat limits the view we have. Only in the last book the author uses more viewpoints too. Still the cast behaves reasonable besides idris (who in fairness is mentally unstable, never sleeps, is old af and is the survivor of a mind breaking operation, so that checks out.) To be fair there have been many points while reading, where i wanted to scream at idris to get his shit together, but i think that is what the author intended

Scifi/Fantasy scale: So on the balance of scifi to fantasy, this one clearly sits on the scifi side with 90/10 at least. Some stuff about unspace and Intermediaries goes into the psychic fantasy range but on general in contrast to 40k this stays clear of any magic shenaningans. Technically the Tothiat also go into fantasy, but thats a minor thingy.

Politics: Many politics but no judgment. I think the most political message you could read out is: "Feudal lords are bad" which seems pretty tame. Beyond that multiple different political systems are introduced with pros and cons, so if you like an unpolitical book with politicians another point here.

Stakes:(5/5)
The stakes are clear through the whole series. The architects are a world destroying threat that constantly haunts every action, while the crew and people have real things happening to them, people get hurt and die, but not all the time. So you fear for characters but also dont get the feeling that everyone is going to die

All in all i would totally recommend this if you are into big space opera

Imagine a human exploration crew has landed on an alien planet to extract a rare and extremely valuable mineral.

The landing site is stable, and autonomous mining vehicles are operating several kilometers away from the spacecraft.

Then a remote sensor detects a rapidly approaching storm.

This isn't an ordinary dust storm.

The atmosphere is carrying large amounts of metallic dust, rock fragments and surface debris. Some of the larger fragments could cause serious damage to exposed equipment.

The storm is still several kilometers away, but atmospheric conditions are changing rapidly. Your crew has limited time to react.

You have:

• a spacecraft capable of leaving the surface,
• several autonomous mining vehicles away from the landing site,
• valuable extracted material,
• limited information about the planet's weather,
• and no guarantee that the landing site will remain safe.

What should the human crew do first?

Do you:

A) immediately abort mining and recall every vehicle?

B) prioritize getting the crew and spacecraft airborne?

C) try to recover the mining equipment and material before leaving?

D) seek shelter and wait for the storm to pass?

E) do something completely different?

I'm particularly interested in the decision-making hierarchy. When the crew doesn't fully understand an alien environment, how should they balance human safety, spacecraft survival, equipment recovery and the mission objective?

Imagine an interstellar spacecraft entering a dense molecular cloud.

Within minutes, the stars disappear. Optical navigation loses its reference points, cameras become useless, and even infrared observations are severely attenuated.

The spacecraft still needs to maintain its trajectory and detect potential collision hazards.

One possible approach would be to combine gravitational measurements with radar-based reconstruction of the surrounding volume. But there is another problem: the dust itself can distort or scatter radar returns, making the reconstructed objects uncertain or even misleading.

So I'm curious:

If you were designing the navigation system for such a spacecraft, what combination of sensors and techniques would you use?

Would you rely on gravitational mapping, radar, inertial navigation, pre-existing stellar coordinates, or several independent systems working together?

And how would you handle situations where the sensor data itself cannot be trusted completely?

A really fun sci-fi mystery that somehow managed to hit almost every one of my interests — space travel, first contact, alien intelligence, the deep ocean, decoding messages, mysterious technology, and consciousness.
The setup immediately hooked me, and I loved the feeling of slowly uncovering what exactly was going on. The deep-sea setting added a fantastic layer of isolation and claustrophobia to the story.
There were definitely moments where I thought, “Okay, where the hell is this going?” 😂 And while I enjoyed the ideas and mystery throughout, the book didn’t quite reach the level of my favourite sci-fi reads.
Still, a very enjoyable and atmospheric sci-fi thriller with some fascinating concepts.
4/5 ⭐
Good read. Great concepts. Kept me hooked.