Sci Fi recommendations

[Chosty]

17 hours ago, ZOK said:

There’s a short story that matches that almost exactly, with a small crew trying to deal with the loneliness of long distance space travel and managing their own headspace, but I can’t think who it’s by. Possibly Jack Vance?

Well that's a bit of a tease!

 

10 hours ago, Colonel Panic said:

The latest Andy Weir book, Project Hail Mary, is just one dude on a ship doing what characters in Andy Weir books do.

 

 

Sounds promising, and it's reminded me I should try The Martian.

 

8 hours ago, Nick R said:

 

Alastair Reynolds's Revelation Space has some bits that are kind of like that: a few people on board a ship that's far too big for such a small crew. I wouldn't say it's a major focus of the book, though.

I'll add it to the long-list, thanks.

[dullhorse]

On 13/12/2021 at 20:57, Chosty said:

I watched the film Passengers the other day, and while it left a lot to be desired, I quite enjoyed the first bit when it was just Chris Pratt alone on the ship. It made me want a similar experience in book form, so does anything like that exist? Just one person, or maybe a few, hanging out in space, maybe on some kind of mission or with some weirdness to investigate, with a strong focus on isolation, survival and just wandering around a big empty ship. In my head it would ideally be a mash-up of the first half of the first Red Dwarf book, the beginning of Alien, and Silent Running, with maybe a bit of The Shining thrown in for good measure.

The Black Corridor by Michael Moorcock

[smac]

43 minutes ago, dullhorse said:

The Black Corridor by Michael Moorcock

 

Man, that's a blast from the past. I don't recall if I enjoyed it - it's from his very psychedelic, experimental 60s era, isn't it? Some of those are hard going.

 

46 minutes ago, dullhorse said:

a strong focus on isolation, survival and just wandering around a big empty ship

 

I have so many on the tip of my tongue; Robinson Crusoe in Space was a popular theme in Golden Age SF. There's at least one Heinlein YA, I think.

 

My first suggestion would be Shipwreck, by Charles Logan. I'll see what else comes to mind.

[ZOK]

7 hours ago, Chosty said:

Well that's a bit of a tease!

It’s doing my head in! I’ve already trawled my Kindle to no avail, there’s a strong possibility I could have read it on paper…

[Peter St John]

On 06/12/2021 at 15:11, Colonel Panic said:

I just finished Light by M. John Harrison and I think I enjoyed it, but the whole thing was a pretty bizarre experience.

 

It takes a little time to ramp up, and sometimes it felt like I was reading a post by that Centurion bloke on the forum, but yeah, it ended up being vague but satisfying all at once!

 

I'll have to look at other books by the author in the same universe for sure! 

 

After something a BIT more lightweight!

 

I looked back a few pages and couldn't see anything, so I apologize if this has already been brought up, but if you haven't done so, his Settling The World: Selected Stories 1970-2020 collection that came out last year is great.

 

(on a less sci-fi bent, The Sunken Land Begins To Rise Again gives you a lot of the strangeness but without too much Centurion )

[Colonel Panic]

Thanks for the recommendation, @Peter St John! Hadn't come across it before so I'll put it on "The List".

[Chosty]

8 hours ago, dullhorse said:

The Black Corridor by Michael Moorcock

Sounds intriguing from the Wikipedia entry, thanks.

 

7 hours ago, smac said:

 

Man, that's a blast from the past. I don't recall if I enjoyed it - it's from his very psychedelic, experimental 60s era, isn't it? Some of those are hard going.

 

 

I have so many on the tip of my tongue; Robinson Crusoe in Space was a popular theme in Golden Age SF. There's at least one Heinlein YA, I think.

 

My first suggestion would be Shipwreck, by Charles Logan. I'll see what else comes to mind.

Cheers.

[Miner Willy]

Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shards of Earth is 99p today. I've bought it, but has anyone here read it? I tend to think anything he writes is well worth reading, but so far I don't think he's come close to matching Children of Time.

[milko]

I picked it up today too. I dunno, I wonder if he's too prolific because there's so many books and you're right, Children of Time is a class above most of 'em. But then they go for 99p quite often and for the price it's usually fun enough that I don't mind.

[ZOK]

I think many people in here have recommended qntm’s There Is No Antimemetics Division, which I just got round to reading. What a fantastic book! Many thanks all. Having just got back into SCP Foundation because I recently finished playing Control and only realised afterwards that’s what it’s based on, imagine my joy to find out this was SCP stuff too!

 

I was just reading qntm’s tips on writing and self-publishing on their author page on SCP, some very insightful thoughts here: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/qntm-s-author-page

[Sane]

On 21/12/2021 at 23:12, ZOK said:

I think many people in here have recommended qntm’s There Is No Antimemetics Division, which I just got round to reading. What a fantastic book! Many thanks all. Having just got back into SCP Foundation because I recently finished playing Control and only realised afterwards that’s what it’s based on, imagine my joy to find out this was SCP stuff too!

 

I was just reading qntm’s tips on writing and self-publishing on their author page on SCP, some very insightful thoughts here: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/qntm-s-author-page

Glad you enjoyed it! It's one the best books I've read in the last few years.

 

Thanks for the link, I had no idea what SCP was. And qntm's tips/thoughts were indeed very interesting even though I'm not a writer myself. I can clearly recognize them in the book, especially the one about finishing each chapter as a complete story. This is actually one of the things that works so well about the book, at the start you have no idea what's going on but it never becomes frustrating because each fragment is also a self contained mini story. So you just accept it and keep reading it almost like a loosely connected collection of short stories. And then gradually it becomes more clear how everything is connected.

[ZOK]

10 hours ago, Sane said:

Glad you enjoyed it! It's one the best books I've read in the last few years.

 

Thanks for the link, I had no idea what SCP was. And qntm's tips/thoughts were indeed very interesting even though I'm not a writer myself. I can clearly recognize them in the book, especially the one about finishing each chapter as a complete story. This is actually one of the things that works so well about the book, at the start you have no idea what's going on but it never becomes frustrating because each fragment is also a self contained mini story. So you just accept it and keep reading it almost like a loosely connected collection of short stories. And then gradually it becomes more clear how everything is connected.

Yes, a sign of a good book I always think is how long I keep re-reading after I’ve finished, and I just can’t put this down…I’m basically reading it in reverse now. And as you say, the chapters lend themselves to reading equally well backwards as forwards because they’re so nicely self-contained.

 

SCP is really unbelievable, I’ve only ever pecked at it myself but you could spend a lifetime reading it.

[Flub]

Someone in a discord channel recommended I read The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch. I checked and already owned it so presumed it was in my massive pile of shame.

 

Not so. I started reading it and immediately realised I'd read it before but with two important distinctions. I could only very, very vaguely remember the plot and it's a fucking amazing book. So I'm reading it again. It's bleak, often horrific and has an amazing take on time travel

 

A murdered family. A missing girl. Time is running out...

1997. Shannon Moss of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service is assigned to solve the murder of a Navy SEAL's family - and to locate the soldier's missing teenage daughter. When Moss discovers that the SEAL was an astronaut aboard the spaceship U.S.S. Libra - a ship assumed lost to the darkest currents of Deep Time - she comes to believe that the SEAL's experience with the future is somehow related to this violence.

Determined to find the missing girl and driven by a troubling connection to her own past, Moss must travel forward in time to seek evidence that will uncover the truth. To her horror, the future reveals that it's not only the fate of a family that hinges on her work; for what she witnesses is the Terminus: the terrifying and cataclysmic end of humanity itself.

 

I would love to see this as a TV mini series.

[Flub]

Also I just realised what SCP is and now I have to read all that too

[ZOK]

56 minutes ago, Flub said:

Also I just realised what SCP is and now I have to read all that too

I think Labour have just discovered it as well!

 

[Flub]

Take your sick filth to the politics pit Zok. We're all about imaginary dystopian futures here

[Flub]

Just finished reading There is no antimemetics division. I don't know who Qntm is but he's a fucking hell of a writer.

[ZOK]

Yep, I think it’s the most impressive slice of SF from an unknown I’ve read in years. I bought the rest of their stuff on Kindle on the strength of that one, but I’m reading Cosey Fanni Tutti’s autobiography at the moment so they are stuck on the pile.

[Flub]

I'm going to start on another of his in the morning. Fine Structure. I think in Antimemetics Qntm did in a fairly short novel exactly what Charlie Stross has been cockteasing for years and did it in grand style. Stross has a new one out next week I think but I've been falling off him for a while now. He doesn't seem to have the juice anymore.

 

I dunno if anyone else has noticed but generally sci-fi writers of a certain age are incredibly resistant to scientific and technological change and I have no idea how it happens. I'd have thought that they were the last people to suffer from "Old man shouting at clouds" syndrome but it keeps happening. I like to think Charles Stross cringes every time he remembers he used to call the iPhone the "jesus phone" in his novels but I somehow doubt it. I find it makes their work feel "of an era". The Atrocity Archives was daring, inventive and funny when it released but now many, many books later feels like the series has barely moved. I mean lots of stuff has happened and things are certainly different but CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN was less the end of the world and more "Say hello to the new Tory party". I feel disapointed. Qntm did Charlie's entire series in one sharp book and did it in a far, far more horrifying way that Stross seems to have lost the ability to do (He used to be better at it in some of his early short stories that were more explicitly Chtulhu based).

 

The book I read before that The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch is in a similar vein. An incredibly inventive take on crime, time travel and end of the world eldritch alien horror. I need more like this.

 

 

 

[ZOK]

I’ve never read any Stross as far as I can remember.

[Flub]

Fine Structure was excellent. It starts off with you thinking it's a book of short stories and then rapidly spreads to an ongoing narrative  across millennia. Like Antimemetics it jumps across the timeline to good effect. Ending came a little bit out of nowhere but overall I loved it. Same sort of high concept as antimemetics (Which gets a brief mention at one point). I like the premise that something in the universe is changing physical laws to block major scientific advances as they're discovered. (Especially how it's done)

 

I've now started Ed. Not sure where this is going but it's the stupid adventures of insane college student super scientist Ed who discovers a world ending thread that will eventually destroy the universe. Also full of mega concepts and super hard science.

 

Sam Hughes (Qntm). Seems to release his stuff in serial form a chapter at a time on his website which gives the books a very bitesized chapter focused feel. Which is very welcome.

 

I think so far There is no Antimemetics Division has been the best for sheer inventiveness and absolute horror but Fine Structure is a close second.

[Sane]

13 hours ago, Flub said:

Sam Hughes (Qntm). Seems to release his stuff in serial form a chapter at a time on his website which gives the books a very bitesized chapter focused feel. Which is very welcome.

I've been reading some of their short stories on their site and I found the full books are actually also available to read. And more interestingly there are sequel stories to There is No Antimemetics Division on the SCP Wiki. 

 

Edit: actually I think the stories under Five Five Five Five Five are part of the kindle book I read.

[ZOK]

On 09/01/2022 at 17:24, Flub said:

Fine Structure was excellent. It starts off with you thinking it's a book of short stories and then rapidly spreads to an ongoing narrative  across millennia. Like Antimemetics it jumps across the timeline to good effect. Ending came a little bit out of nowhere but overall I loved it. Same sort of high concept as antimemetics (Which gets a brief mention at one point). I like the premise that something in the universe is changing physical laws to block major scientific advances as they're discovered. (Especially how it's done)

I’ve read the first few chapters now and it seems really good. You should spoiler that end bit though, I totally knew what was going on in the second (first main) chapter because of that! 

[Flub]

38 minutes ago, ZOK said:

I’ve read the first few chapters now and it seems really good. You should spoiler that end bit though, I totally knew what was going on in the second (first main) chapter because of that! 

 

It's actually in the blurb that advertises the book on Amazon

 

Fledgling physicist Ching-Yu Kuang has discovered a Rosetta Stone for all of physics, a treasure trove of advanced scientific breakthroughs beyond all imagination. Exotic energy, teleportation, FTL, parallel universes and near-infinitely more wonders are just within reach; a promise of paradise.

But every attempt to exploit this new science results in sabotage, chaos and destruction. And the laws of science themselves are changing with each experiment, locking out the new discoveries, directly altering the universe to make what should be possible impossible. While Ching watches, humanity's future is being stolen.

Because there's something wrong with his world. There's a fundamental flaw, a defect in its structure.

[ZOK]

19 hours ago, Flub said:

 

It's actually in the blurb that advertises the book on Amazon

 

Fledgling physicist Ching-Yu Kuang has discovered a Rosetta Stone for all of physics, a treasure trove of advanced scientific breakthroughs beyond all imagination. Exotic energy, teleportation, FTL, parallel universes and near-infinitely more wonders are just within reach; a promise of paradise.

But every attempt to exploit this new science results in sabotage, chaos and destruction. And the laws of science themselves are changing with each experiment, locking out the new discoveries, directly altering the universe to make what should be possible impossible. While Ching watches, humanity's future is being stolen.

Because there's something wrong with his world. There's a fundamental flaw, a defect in its structure.

I find what you wrote to be more explicit though - to me the above reads as ‘something is causing a problem’, whereas what you wrote I read as ‘this is what’s causing the problem’.

[Flub]

The new Charles Stross book is starting off well

 

[Danster]

On 29/09/2020 at 14:32, Danster said:

Got vague recollection of an old Bradbury short that dealt with Alien rubbish and its effect on the stupid humans, anybody remember what it was?

 

On 29/09/2020 at 22:21, ZOK said:

Yes I know that story, and I can’t think of it either...there’s a portal that aliens keep dumping ‘junk’ through or something, is it JG Ballard maybe? 
 

 

 

Need to hand in my Iain Banks fan club badge ... it's a short called "Cleaning Up" in The State of the Art.... 

[ZOK]

Me too! 

[Miner Willy]

Just finished Death's End. I think the final third may have broken my brain. 

 

Very enjoyable, but for me The Dark Forest was the pick of the trilogy.

 

Has anyone read the other book in the series written by a fan? 

[joemul]

Evening all. I’m reading There Is No Anti-Memetics Division. I have a quick Q for those who have read it:-

 

Spoiler

There’s a chapter where Adam Wheeler is attacked while playing in an orchestra. The next chapter begins with him being held down by the attackers and then 99% of the rest of it is blacked out. Is that true to the book or is my kindle knackered?