Science Fiction

Links:

• https://floatingworldcomics.com/shop/art-books/object-5-works-by-kilian-eng
• https://eviltender.com/2015/02/26/interview-kilian-eng-talks-object-5-reissue-2/

In the Dune universe, when a laser weapons hits a shield, both are destroyed in a nuclear explosion reaction.

So instead of building nuclear weapons, wouldn’t it be easier to tie a timer and a “parachute” to a laser gun and drop it from orbit onto your enemy’s city?

...but its robot designs were well ahead of the curve for the time.

I've always loved this list of sci-fi books. The 2000s web design compells me.

A while ago I tried to read the ones I hadn't. It was a lovely tour. My biggest surprise was enjoying Childhood's End.

I recently finished Perdido Street Station, and one minor thing that bothered me is how many of the other races were either a humanoid version of earth life (cactus person, bird person) or a literal combination of a human and something (head of a bug, body of a person). That just seems so fantastically unlikely that I wonder if any of the other books in that setting explain it. Like, is it a future earth and the races are results of generic modification in some prior era?

I liked the book pretty well, through it's not exactly uplifting. Thought provoking though.

I've been loving my hard scifi recently. But I feel like it's begun to demonstrate how much easier it is to imagine all the ways things could go wrong. If fiction is how we lay an outline for the future, I wonder if anyone can recommend some more uplifting stories to me? Rather than a cautionary tale I would appreciate a story with a setting where the author dares to risk being wrong about what's right for us. Naturally this may simply be the setting for a somewhat unrelated story, but I'm curious what sorts of literature comes to mind that falls into this category.

Thank you for the great work, Vernor. You'll be missed.

I noticed that one of the monitors in the loom control room had "SKIN?" written on it in the dust that covered it. It seemed pretty mysterious and I was sure it was a detail that was going to be important, but it never came up as far as I noticed. Any theories as to what it's about?

I'm always looking for media featuring aliens, especially multiple races. Came across this on TvTropes. Seems to dismiss the first book and say its unneeded. Anyone here enjoy/hate this one? Any starting point you'd recommend? Most importantly how prominent are the aliens?

Just won the Oscar for best visual

I read Kim's Mars trilogy years ago and liked it. I decided to pick up The Ministry of the Future a couple days ago. It's very different, and without any spoilers, I have to say it's made me hate humanity even more than I already did. If you haven't read it, it's a near-future climate disaster book. Well written, interesting structure, and just pissing me off. I'm about halfway through it, so maybe it'll swing the other way in the second half.

Hello everyone,

Basically, title. You can find the thread using [email protected] or https://lemm.ee/post/25038001 in the search bar

Have a good one

PS : I checked with the moderation team before posting this

cross-posted from: https://diagonlemmy.social/post/6753

Alternative Harry Potter narrative: since the global wizarding wars, many attempts were made by companies to sell their tech to Muggles. It was tolerated by the institute of Magic as long as it was not advertised as such. Above is an example of a banned, confiscated attempt to show the magic more openly. However, over time it turned out that Muggles weren’t even interested in the magic behind it, they wanted their devices easy to use and understand; and everyone else eventually joined the wizards and witches.

Eventually, all regulations to sell magical devices were erased and since the late 80s with the introduction of the world wide web, the rise of wiz-tech has only increased in pace: next came the introduction of the iPhone by young wizard Steve Jobs, introducing wiz-tech to the broad public and lately, even magic itself can be channelled through so-called AI agents and the Floo-Network begins to open up to Muggles as well with the Fediverse.

However, with the rise of bad effects that came with it, too, some Muggles are becoming more and more weary of the whole situation and in the wizarding community, people are calling for bringing their knowledge to the Muggles, taking some responsibility beyond their own magical realm, while others call for the institute to again take a stronger stance on the devices in the muggle world due to the negative effects they caused.

How can a good future for both the wizarding and the muggle world look like?

Based on this information, I cannot consider myself a Hugo winner and will not be citing the 2023 award result in my biographical details, or on this site.

Currently, I have the following books on my wish list that I am thinking about buying.

Salvation by Peter Hamilton. I have read everything he has published except his short stories and love them so this is next on my to-read list.

Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman. Seems kinda cool.

Seven Deadly Wonders by Matthew Reilly. It seems like a book in a similar vein as Jurassic Park, Dan Brown, Clive Cussler type stuff.

Pernasi By Susanna Clarke. I read her first book nearly 20 years ago and thought it was good. I really like creative sci-fi stuff. I am re-reading the Ninefox Gambit series again currently so this seems right up my alley.

Brandon Sanderson Way of Kings Book 3. Yeah, I probably need to start with Book 1 again and catch up. Has anyone read his Secret Books yet?

Do any science fiction book subscriptions exist anymore with reasonably good quality books? About 10 years ago I was able to subscribe to a year of Angry Robot books for about $120 or $150. It wasn’t a bad deal as I remember I got about 24 books for the price.