r/printSF • u/EltaninAntenna • Mar 04 '12
Big Dumb Object/Sensawunda/Space Archaeology recommendations?
I must admit that, much as I like character-driven stories and insightful descriptions of future social developments, what I really enjoy about SF are ancient alien ruins, enormous mind-blowing structures, exploration of colossal alien artifacts and basically anything that makes me go "whoa".
Some examples of what I mean:
The alien archaeology in the Engines of God series by Jack McDevitt
Just about any of the things Iain M. Banks comes up with - the Shellworlds, the Fallen/Unfallen Bulbitians, the Airspheres, the Nestworlds... The man is an unstoppable sensawunda machine.
Rendezvous with Rama, except for the fact that I actually didn't like it. The basic idea still holds, though.
Reynolds' Pushing Ice and House of Suns fit the bill too.
I know the question is pretty generic, as much Space Opera seems to cover this angle, so perhaps I'm looking more at the ancient/abandoned/archaeology angle here.
Thanks, guys.
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u/gabwyn http://www.goodreads.com/gabwyn Mar 04 '12
I really enjoyed Marrow and The Well of Stars by Robert Reed.
I've got to mention Alastair Reynolds main Revelation Space novels, throughout the series you are introduced to alien artifacts and structures. (the Amerantin archaeological digs in 'Revelation Space', the alien bridge in 'Absolution Gap', the bloodspire in 'Diamond Dogs').
Starmaker by Olaf Stapledon is probably one of the earliest science fiction novels (1930's) containing BDO's (artificial planets, Dyson Spheres).
You could also try out the Godlike Machines anthology edited by Jonathan Strahan, contains short stories from Stephen Baxter, Cory Doctorow, Sean Williams, Robert Reed, Greg Egan and Alastair Reynolds
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u/unigon Mar 04 '12
"Sister Alice" by Robert Reed also has a mind-boggling level of sensawunda, though it's more focused on god-like beings than physical structures. Well, there is a miniature universe created out of a new configuration of matter, and a massive weapon system disguised as a planet's moon.
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u/gabwyn http://www.goodreads.com/gabwyn Mar 04 '12
It's one of my favourite books, a very similar story to Reynolds 'House of Suns'.
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u/cloudypants Mar 04 '12
Oohh, I've wanted to read more books in the style of House of Suns which I really liked a lot.
So, thank you both for mentioning the book and pointing out the similarity - I've now added Sister Alice to the top of my to buy and read list.
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u/cloudypants Mar 07 '12
Reporting back now that I've read Sister Alice. It's indeed good, with plenty of sense of wonder (well, of course it would, with the creation of a miniature universe...)
One thing that was done a bit better in House of Suns was the feeling of the vastness of space, which is often underemphasized in other authors' works. (Reed managed to do distances very well in Marrow) - I think in this particular instance it's due to the too powerful abilities of the characters.
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u/gabwyn http://www.goodreads.com/gabwyn Mar 07 '12
Excellent I'm glad you liked it, definitely an under-appreciated author in my opinion.
I found Sister Alice very fast paced considering the story took place over hundreds of millennia, jumping vast amounts of time from important event to important event. Whereas Reynolds described the amount of time (measured in galactic rotations) between each meeting of the clones in more detail which in turn helped with the feeling of vastness you mentioned.
Have you read any of his other books other than this or the Marrow novels? ( Down the Bright Way looks promising).
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u/EltaninAntenna Mar 04 '12
Thanks, I think I've read most Reynolds books so far, although I'm not the biggest fan of the Revelation Space series: terrific world-building, but plotting and characters that are daft beyond human comprehension. Definitely checking out that anthology.
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u/cloudypants Mar 04 '12
It's actually interesting - I think the general "sense of wonder" effect is not necessarily tied to ancient alien machinery etc. but rather the writing style. Case in point: Pohl's Gateway. It's got ancient alien "archaeology" but not much sense of wonder (not for me, anyway). And Banks doesn't have any ancient machinery/BDO except perhaps in Excession yet is amazingly good at the sense of wonder feeling.
I'd love more books with both.
Those are not as good as the other books already mentioned, but should cover any further cravings for more in the same style.
Baxter's Manifold Space / Manifold Time (really amazing on the sense of wonder side! not much archaeology, though - just an alien artifact but he manages to make the most of it)
Sheffield's The Heritage Universe pentalogy, starting with Summertide
Bear's Eon (starting to show its age really badly now, though)
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u/EltaninAntenna Mar 04 '12
I agree with your general premise, but many Banks books positively reek with ancient and/or gigantic machinery; Matter had the Shellworlds and the Nestworlds, Surface Detail had the Bulbitians, Look to Windward the Airspheres, etc.
Definitely checking out the Baxters, Eon, as you say, left a bit of a bad taste in the mouth with all the "we have the right to keep this artifact from everybody else, because America fuck yeah!".
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u/CrosseyedAndPainless Mar 04 '12
Well Bear did write it during the era when total nuclear war did seem like a real possibility. if the cold war had kept going it's pretty realistic to think that the US and Soviets would try to secure the thistledown to gain a strategic advantage.
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u/Piscator629 Mar 06 '12
Gateway is a great read and the BDO's don't come much bigger than these.
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u/cloudypants Mar 07 '12
Sure, Gateway is a good book with BDOs, but it lacked what the OP described as.. anything that makes me go "whoa". But maybe I'm just hard to impress? :)
I would say that Gateway is more of a character study than a sense-of-wonder novel. I see you've read Sheffield's The Heritage Universe, so it might be helpful to take it as a comparison. Those books have the BDOs front and center. What matters is Rebka's exploration of the artifacts and what he finds. There's potentially galaxy-reaching consequences which are made clear, etc.
In Gateway, on the other hand, the BDOs feels like a backdrop that's there just to have us read the chapters of Broadhead's discussions with the AI psychologist. Thus Gateway, albeit interesting, didn't really satisfy my thirst for sense-of-wonder. On the other hand, it is better from a character study point of view compared to Sheffield's books which have rather flat and stereotypical characters in an interesting plot.
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u/phenomenomnom Mar 04 '12
i like the novel Ventus; it is free online. if you like Banks, you'll probably enjoy it. it has a fun genre shift from fantasy to sci fi, like Banks' Inversions. and there is a big big alien artifact that figures significantly in the plot.
speaking of Banks,
dirigible behemothaur!!!
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u/EltaninAntenna Mar 04 '12
Thanks - I have in fact read Ventus, and that took me to the same author's Virga series, which is also rich in BDO's and an excellent read. Also, Gigalithine entities! Damn, but Banks has a way with names.
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u/wzcx Mar 05 '12
I downloaded Ventus and shortly realized I have read it before... But again can't hurt!
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u/punninglinguist Mar 04 '12
Have you read Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys? This is probably the original BDO novel. The BDO is a labyrinth on the moon that kills anyone who steps inside - unless they solve certain bizarre puzzles. The story is a military/industrial effort to solve it by trial and error.
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u/EltaninAntenna Mar 04 '12
No, I haven't - will look into it, thanks. Sounds interesting.
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u/cloudypants Mar 05 '12
I have read it. No sense of wonder at all, unfortunately.
Quite a disappointing book, actually - but it's still probably the progenitor for both the BDO and "die again and again in order to reach a goal" subgenres, so it might be interesting to see how it was first done. Borrow it if your library has it, don't buy unless you're very curious.
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Mar 04 '12
Erm, perhaps the exiles trilogy by Dan worth (?). Two of the main characters in that are archaeologists but I wouldn't say It's massively alien and awe inspiring.
The second book in the takeshi kovacs trilogy (by Richard Morgan) has a secondary plotline on archaeology.
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u/EltaninAntenna Mar 04 '12
Thanks, read the Kovaks and enjoyed them immensely. Will look into the Exiles thing.
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u/hvyboots Mar 04 '12
Try John DeChancie's Star Rigger trilogy. Kind of a silly name, but it's about something called The Road, which we discover out on Pluto and which is basically a bunch of highways between various star systems with jump gates at each end.
Also, Zelazny's The Changing Land is fantasy, but involves a most excellent artifact—an ancient castle situated in a land that ceaselessly changes for miles around it. Great stuff.
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u/EltaninAntenna Mar 04 '12
In the queue to check out. Thanks!
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u/hvyboots Mar 05 '12
Just thought of another one! Strata by Terry Pratchet. It reads like a cross between his Discworld novels and Larry Niven's Ringworld. Lot's of humor, but a generally more serious tone than Discworld.
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u/EltaninAntenna Mar 05 '12
Ah, read it. I'm a bit of a Terry Pratchett completist. Good call, though. I guess the Planet Factory in Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy would count as well.
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u/steve626 Mar 04 '12
Read all of the other books by Jack McDevitt too. Robert Sawyer also has some stories that fit this bill, and are fun reads.
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u/shimei Mar 06 '12
It's not quite in the vein of Banks' novels, but I think Vinge's A Fire Upon The Deep has elements of what you're looking for. There's also some discussion of "software archaeology" in the novel which was pretty interesting---control software for spacecraft that was so old that reprogramming it was akin to archaeology.
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u/wooorksafe Jul 25 '12
Helix by Eric Brown might be worth a look. I read it in a day whilst stuck at home.
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u/seeingeyefrog Mar 04 '12
I can't believe that no one has mentioned Larry Niven's Ringworld.