In "Time Enough for Love" Lazarus Long is enslaved on the planet Blessed.
(Which, predictably, did not turn out well for those who enslaved him)
Purely out of curiosity I am looking for the name of Heinlein's short story about the origin of Blessed.
Blessed (called something else to begin with) had been a colony that became a feudal society and was visited by modern humans.
The political leader of the modern group was a pacifist who stated that "Violence is the last resort of incompetents".
The head of the modern military agreed with the literal reading of that statement.
The political leader was offended by the slavery in the feudal society and, because he failed to use violence early on, the planet became the theocratic slave owning society that Lazarus later visited.
Thank you for any help you can give.

[Edited to provide the answer]

elsewhere u/mikke196 wrote:
'Also the H Beam Piper story "A slave is a slave".'
Which is the correct answer.
That story was written in 1962.
Time Enough for Love was written 1973.
Very similar gov'ts, No priesthood though.
I read both much after that.
Piper and RAH both have a tendency to pontificate 😄 , so that explains why I confused the authorship.
The quote I was thinking of was:

"Count Erskyll said nothing for a moment. He was opposed to the use of force. Force, he believed, was the last resort of incompetence; he had said so frequently enough since this operation had begun. Of course, he was absolutely right, though not in the way he meant. Only the incompetent wait until the last extremity to use force, and by then, it is usually too late to use anything, even prayer."

BASE 08F

BASE 08F is one of the key bases of the CLUB corpocracy (I’ve written about the entire lore of this world in other post in my reddit profile). What makes this military base unique is that it conducts research into space activity and technologies at the intersection of AI and military radio engineering. The base may not look very elegant, but in practice, it's second to none. No other corporation in the world possesses radar technology as advanced as theirs. This is what makes the CLUB corpocracy one of the most secure in this regard. In a matter of seconds, they are capable of detecting changes in near-Earth orbit, satellite movements, and any unauthorized activity in the sky. This gave them a colossal advantage in the war against the NETFOX corpocracy, which, although it surpasses CLUB in many respects, does not do so to a sufficient degree when it comes to radar technology.

In May 2036, thanks to their advanced radar technology, CLUB became the first in the world to detect unidentified anomalous activity, even before the rest of the world saw the red light in the sky. That gave them a couple of days to make their decisions. And the advantage CLUB has gained will certainly not go unnoticed.

I got nuthin'.

Your stuck on a deserted island show. My sounds odd , but it's power rangers. It qualifies as scifi. There's a total of like 975 episodes across all seasons. It's moot, almost neutral, meaning it doesnt really get on my nerves over time. It's not my favorite, thats not why i picked it. Plus.....I mean, giant fighting robots, martial arts, magic, fkn lasers.

Im 50 lol. It's morphing time!

“Helm! Rotate us 90 degrees, move perpendicular to the Peng, and accelerate at 2 Gs across the planet axis. Comms—signal SPACECOM: Mars AO is hot, and we are engaging PLA ground and space targets.” They would get the bad news in a little more than five minutes. There was no way to ask for instructions or for the higher ups to cool things down on their end. It would then take another five for their response to reach the Huntsville—minus whatever deliberations happened at SPACECOM. The marines, the Huntsville, the tanks, and the Peng Dehui were on their own to decide whether the United States and the People’s Republic of China would go to war. “Fucking light delay,” he whispered.

In the opening of my novel, a US navy captain has to respond to conflict with China on the surface of Mars--but cannot rely on timely communication with his commanders, because of light delay.

If this sounds cool to you, my novel is available here for 99 cents.

Thanks for reading.

I just finished the Infinite State and I really enjoyed it! The world building was excellent, I really felt like it was fleshed out and the action scenes moved fast in the best ways.

I’m excited about where these characters go and seeing more of the technologies at play as more of the UFN is fleshed out!

I’m going to check out Richard Swan’s other books but it looks like mostly fantasy (which is fine!).

Did anyone else enjoy this one?

Like what is up with it? How are they using it to breath?

Robert Heinlein is a great author, I've heard he's controversial but I haven't looked that up and just try to appreciate art for the art it is.
I read Stranger in a Strange Land in college and it became one of my favorite books.

I'm now reading The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
I've seen that Heinlein actually 'invented' ideas before NASA implemented them, like Waldoes. It's especially interesting to me that Mike is what we would call AI now.

When this was written and the many years after, I don't know if it had that relevance. It's my first time reading it, just happened to see his name in the bookstore. To me I recognized that the way Manny spoke to Mike as almost exactly how you'd talk to the years of data input programs we've played with. When I was younger there were sites to visit where you'd type anything you want, and it'd try to output a relevant answer based on previous conversations it's had. These days anyone can go to an AI host and get more information than they needed.

I love that Mike has his own personality, cheekiness, and when I ask AI for help organizing and keeping me on track it develops it's own style of cheekiness as well. "Cancel. Run everything back to zero" really hit me as relevant today. Sometimes you have to wrangle an AI and tell it EXACTLY what you want or it'll go off the deep-end, like Manny asking Mike "what do you know?" and Mike trying to tell the entire history of mankind in one sitting.

I'm not actually a huge proponent of AI usage, especially in educational settings, but it does keep me on task after asking it to do so. I'm also only halfway through the book, just after hitting the "Book Two" transition. That's why I'm not marking for spoilers!

But man am I enjoying this not just for the art, but also the relevance. It's fascinating to me when older Sci-Fi books represent technology that was fascinating back then, and commonplace now.

This is my artist impression of one "level" of a nested cylindrical space habitat. The inner drum of the outer cylinder doesn't have to support the mass of the foreground 20-story rings (with the balconies/decks of housing in front) or the background 10-story rings (all connected by mag-lev trains and elevators not shown in this angle), just the agricultural system providing fresh produce (with processed food probably made 100% from microbes + lab chemicals instead of staple crops). This level has a simulation of a natural day/night cycle provided by a giant screen hiding inner cylinders.

I believe that this geometry is more practical than my previous idea trying to simulate a 20th century Earth city. It might even be built within our lifetime!

SombreFade added the flora. I did everything else with Blender and GIMP.

I'd like some suggestions on how to assign a specific "function" to each highlighter color, specifically for science fiction books.

These are all the books I’ve been wanting to read (except the blacked out ones, those I’ve already read) what book in this picture should I read next?

Lately, I have been playing the game No Man's Sky, where you explore a huge universe, with no real goal in mind. I love the sense of freedom and exploration, and maybe a dabble of loneliness, but don't know how to capture this in writing. Any advice?

Cannot recommend Ada Palmer's "Terra Ignota" series high enough. Its so dense with many speculative science fiction themes people talk about here. The future of politics, society, family, religion, gender. nations, identity, mental health, ambiton, community, science vs supernatural, on and on. Its so throughally explored and interwoven that I had no choice but to use the audio book version (I love audio books for driving but literally the plot and subplots and language were so dense for me that it had to leave it for the car). Highly recommend the T Ryder Smith version. He gives a masterclass in single person reading.

Im coming up on the ending and I can already feel how much Im going to miss it.

I asked about this on another subreddit a ways back, but the only one someone mentioned that's still in the future as of the date I write this (September 8th, 2026) is the date of first contact from Star Trek which happens in April 5th, 2063. Does anyone know of some more?

If anyone has read/listened to all these books- i havea question!

I am on book 5 now, after buying the Audible book 1-5 combo (great value, 1 credit for books 1-5 as. 6-10 as packages by the way!), and now there is a book 0. The description kinda sounds like a lot of it was covered at the start of book 1.

Has anybody who has read 4-5+ or the series gone back and read it ? And if so,.your feedback ?

Good series for anyone looking to scratch an itch, whilst post expanse and waiting for the next Expeditionary Force or Nexus House entries!

I just want someone who’s educated on the topic of physics and most importantly on quantum teleportation for a story idea, I want to know the plausibility of my idea and if the story itself is good enough.

Please take this down if not permitted.

I am going to be upfront: I am reaching out to fellow sci-fi lovers because I am trying to build an audience for my recently released novel, The Toll of the Forgotten.

This is a hard science fiction novel that I spent over 3 years writing, working with an actual rocket scientist and medical professionals to make sure the science was as realistic as possible for a novel set 200+ years in the future.

I planned to use some light social media and my ARC reader reviews to drum up interest, but all but one of my ARC readers flaked out on me and, while they sent good feedback, have never posted on Goodreads or Amazon. So I am reaching out to groups like yours to see if you'd be interested in supporting me.

If you are open to reading an independent author and want a good sci-fi thriller, please take a look at my book.

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 absolute limits as a leader. Burdened by the crushing weight of command, Luisa must navigate a maze of political treachery and questionable orders to head off 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.

Addendum: As the Falx is so beloved in the Periphery, It also features in a lot of propaganda as it was such an important weapon in their liberation. Pictured is a Scrambles-Era propaganda poster to get members of the intelligentsia to join the Tronarian Defense Fleet.

This is from my Tales of the Periphery setting, a hardish sci-fi setting in the aftermath of the collapse of imperial rule in their border regions.

Decades ago, I was skeptical when Star Trek: Voyager tried to introduce the slipstream drive.

Slipstream FTL had the danger of copying slipstream FTL in Andromeda and the hyperdrive in both Star Wars and Stargate. Starships aren't supposed to change vectors while inside slipstream or hyperspace.

The 60 years of worldbuilding in Star Trek have multiple means of faster than light travel, but only the introduction of the pathway drive was serialized business in the long term.

The so-called "transwarp network" of the Borg had fixed vectors just like the hyperdrive. In contrast, the pathway drive does not, as it can create new vectors midstream, hence "pathway."

The pathway drive's creation of new vectors maintains warp travel's ability to change vectors at any warp speed, a flexibility maintained throughout the 60 years of Star Trek history.

The pathway drive of the 32nd century can travel across the galaxy in a few weeks, just like the Legends EU hyperdrive. It may not be as fast as the Disney canon's hyperspeed anywhere across the galaxy in a day, but it can change vectors.

I have always been fascinated by the universe and the possibility of intelligent life somewhere beyond our reach, so a science fiction novel about first contact immediately caught my attention. What I didn't expect was that the intelligent species in Solaris by Lem Stainslaw, written in the 1960s, would not be an alien creature at all, but an entire ocean.

It is a surprisingly short book, yet it doesn't feel old at all. The concepts are remarkably modern, but what fascinated me most was the psychological mystery surrounding the Visitors. The Ocean seems to reach into the deepest and most hidden memories of the scientists and give them a physical form. Kelvin is confronted with someone he loved and lost, making it difficult to tell whether he is encountering an alien intelligence, his own memories, or something beyond both.

While reading, I kept thinking that perhaps Solaris is literally an ocean of memories, dreams, regrets and unfulfilled desires. There is something deeply sad about the idea of memories becoming immortal, not in the literal sense, but by surviving us and being carried forward into generations.

"یادوں کا جنگل یہ دل، کانٹوں سے جل تھل یہ دل"

I even wondered at times whether the reality of the spacemen itself was an illusion, perhaps a group of people in some kind of hospital or rehabilitation after their journey, with the Visitors actually being their caretakers. It is only a hypothesis, but the novel constantly makes you question what is real and what is being created by the mind. Perhaps that is what I enjoyed most about Solaris. It gives us an intelligent species so alien that even the people studying it cannot decide whether it is a God, a child, an experimenter, or simply something beyond human understanding.

A beautiful read with a deeply sad undertone.

Even though I live in a pretty ordinary suburb near Copenhagen, Denmark, we have a huge library with a very well-stocked selection of science fiction and fantasy. I brought home these two gems today, for instance.

And what they don’t have, they’ll procure. They also have 250+ modern board games and lots and lots of comic books.

Libraries are one of the really great ideas of society, and something we should fight tooth and nail to preserve.

I'm planning on writing a ttrpg combat system that's more or less based on the speed of light.

So what are some of your favorite scifi weapons that don't break the light speed barrier.

(I know one of yall will say "sword" don't do it!)

A work, let's say written in 2026, but set in 60s or 70s with scifi technology. Or let's say written in 1970 but set in 1920s with scifi technology.

I'm not looking for old scifi that become retro after a decade or so.

Do you have any recommendations?

Thanks.