We saw VERY few nominations for books in December, and I know everyone is very busy with the season. We'll open nominations for January at the end of the month so be thinking about it.

INSTEAD... we are going to be reading some short stories for those that still want to have something to read together.

Let's read:

• This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
• The Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
• The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster

If you have other suggestions we can throw them out here too. I'll create discussion for these three for now.

I finished it just now and thought it was really interesting. I'd be interested to hear people's interpretation of the ending.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/6258115

New story, I hope you like it. Feedback always welcome.

I know this is a busy month for a lot of us. So far we only have 2 nominations for the book club and one of them is mine. It seems like December might not be a great month for the book club. If we don't get a few more nominations I am going to cancel for December and push whatever nominations we get into nominations for January.

What do you guys think? Should we cancel book club for December and pick up in January or do you guys want to move forward (which will some more nominations for a vote to make sense).

Here's the nomination post for convenience. November Nominations

The time has come, friends, to nominate more reading for December! This post will collect nominations for the next few days (I'm thinking into the weekend) and then we'll have us a vote. Please don't hesitate to talk about why you want to share your pick and why you think it will be a good item for discussion.

Which sci-fi titles (movies, books) do you consider comforting, cozy, something you come back to from time to time? For me, I guess it is The Matrix. Still holds up to this day, gets better with every re-watch, and gives me a sense of peace when I need it.

I am enjoying this series so much. We are only 2 episodes in and it's just so creative. Only watching one a week as I understand it's sort of depressing but it is gorgeous.

I'm trying to find good sources for new* scifi content. Google is being extremely unhelpful at finding blogs and I know there have to be a few out there. I'm really focused on games but at this point I would be interested in any writer who covers science fiction content.

Bonus points for any blog that focuses on aliens.

*by new I mean new to me, I dont care if it came out yesterday or 100 years ago

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/14974738

Anybody who uses the Internet should read E.M. Forster's The Machine Stops. It is a chilling, short story masterpiece about the role of technology in our lives. Written in 1909, it's as relevant today as the day it was published. Forster has several prescient notions including instant messages (email!) and cinematophoes (machines that project visual images).

-Paul Rajlich

Seen on this comment.

No really, these books are what you get if you answer the question "What if after the Mist came, the surviving humans rebuilt a Steampunk civilization with magic airships and uplifted cats?"

I was gonna say this is now my head canon, but I actually think he's so obvious about drawing the connections in this book it's a little beyond head canon.

Anyway, since I feel sure it will come up if I start a conversation about these books on Lemmy, feel free to use the space below ↓ to hate on Jim Butcher for his MenWritingWomen problems... They're real and they bug me too. They just don't stop him from telling a fun and engaging story, which this was for me.

As a Sci-Fi fan I've been a huge fan of shows like Battlestar Galactica, The Expanse, Terminator: TSCC, Star Trek, etc. I keep hearing Babylon 5 is awesome.

I was too young at the time to watch the series when it was on. But then as an older teen/ young adult I decided to give it a try. Everything was so cringe it was hard to get through 3 episodes. IMO the whole vibe was "safe..." maybe even a bit corny--not the intense, exciting, politically-tense space opera that I was told it was.

So maybe the beginning episodes are just world-building? What do other people think?

cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/5568383

When she woke up, she immediately sensed that something was wrong.

She stumbled out of bed, went to the window and looked outside. Her heart almost stopped: it was even worse than she had expected. Chaos was unfolding all across her communities. She was seeing and feeling people running headless around the streets, panicking from the incoming influx of screaming noise that seemed to come from everywhere at once. Where the hell did it come from, she thought against the unbearable throbbing in her head that made it almost impossible to concentrate. And then, in a sudden pang of realization that almost hurt her physically, it occurred to her: the Meta Myzel. It had actually arrived.

She pushed herself away from the window and while holding her ears, rushed down the staircase to severe the connection to the Meta Myzel – or was it already too late?

...

Netflix’s 3 Body Problem has a new release date and a promising teaser clip to ease the wait.

So finally got around to watching a recent movie that I won't name since I am not sure if it was part of the marketing, but the premise was that there was an all powerful AI that was going to take over the world and it used a mixture of predictive reasoning, control of technology, and limited human agents who were given a heads up on what was coming.

It was... mostly disappointing and felt like a much tamer version of Linda Nagata's The Red (apologies as that is TECHNICALLY a spoiler, but the twist is revealed like a hundred pages into the first book that came out a decade ago). And an even weaker version still of Person of Interest.

Because if we are in the world where an AI has access to every camera on the planet and can hack communications in real time and so forth: We aren't going to have vague predictions of what someone might do. We are going to have Finch and Root at full power literally dodging bullets (and now I am sad again) and basically being untouchable. Or the soldiers of The Red who largely have what amounts to x-ray vision so long as they trust their AI overlord and shoot where told and so forth.

Or just the reality of how existential threats can be both detected and manufactured as the situation calls for utilizing existing resources/Nations.

Any suggestions for near future (although, I wouldn't be opposed to a far future space opera take on this) stories that explore this? I don't necessarily need a Frankenstein Complex "we must stop it because it is a form of life that is not us", but I would definitely prefer an understanding of just how incredibly plausible this all is (again, I cannot gush enough about Linda Nagata's The Red). Rather than vague hand waving to demonstrate the unique power of the human soul

A new #serializedfiction available! Read part 1 NOW...only on @medium

https://damienlawless.medium.com/beneath-martian-skies-aa3ed454f946

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Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald

We had a lot of selections to choose from this month and it was pretty close race between Luna and Annihilation. I am very excited to experience this book and enjoy the discussion.

Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer

Annihilation is our second place selection for November. We decided to choose a second book for people who want to have a little more variety and want to do more than one book in a month. I am looking forward to the discussion on this one. I saw the movie when it came out but am really interested to experience the story in book form.

The whole "bovine" joke was hilarious on one hand and a little horrifying on the other. It got me thinking: how would I feel if an animal I was about to consume came up to me enthusiastically conveying its consent for being eaten? I will be horrified, just like Arthur! But why?

Will it be better to eat against its consent instead? Why?

Then… what about salad's consent?! Interesting thought experiment…

I am presenting the joke in the form of three extracts from the text:

Extract 1:

"A large dairy animal approached Zaphod Beeblebrox's table, a large fat meaty quadruped of the bovine type with large watery eyes, small horns and what might almost have been an ingratiating smile on its lips. "Good evening," it lowed and sat back heavily on its haunches, "I am the main Dish of the Day. May I interest you in parts of my body?" It harrumphed and gurgled a bit, wriggled its hind quarters into a more comfortable position and gazed peacefully at them. Its gaze was met by looks of startled bewilderment from Arthur and Trillian, a resigned shrug from Ford Prefect and naked hunger from Zaphod Beeblebrox. "Something off the shoulder perhaps?" suggested the animal, "Braised in a white wine sauce?" "Er, your shoulder?" said Arthur in a horrified whisper. "

Extract 2:

"‘You mean this animal actually wants us to eat it?’ whispered Trillian to Ford. ‘Me?’ said Ford, with a glazed look in his eyes. ‘I don’t mean anything.’ ‘That’s absolutely horrible,’ exclaimed Arthur, ‘the most revolting thing I’ve ever heard.’ ‘What’s the problem, Earthman?’ said Zaphod, now transferring his attention to the animal’s enormous rump. ‘I just don’t want to eat an animal that’s standing there inviting me to,’ said Arthur, ‘it’s heartless.’ ‘Better than eating an animal that doesn’t want to be eaten,’ said Zaphod. ‘That’s not the point,’ Arthur protested. Then he thought about it for a moment. ‘All right,’ he said, ‘maybe it is the point. I don’t care, I’m not going to think about it now. I’ll just . . . er . . .’"

Extract 3:

"I think I’ll just have a green salad,’ he muttered. ‘May I urge you to consider my liver?’ asked the animal. ‘It must be very rich and tender by now, I’ve been force-feeding myself for months.’ ‘A green salad,’ said Arthur emphatically. ‘A green salad?’ said the animal, rolling his eyes disapprovingly at Arthur. ‘Are you going to tell me,’ said Arthur, ‘that I shouldn’t have green salad?’ ‘Well,’ said the animal, ‘I know many vegetables that are very clear on that point. Which is why it was eventually decided to cut through the whole tangled problem and breed an animal that actually wanted to be eaten and was capable of saying so clearly and distinctly. And here I am.’ It managed a very slight bow. ‘Glass of water, please,’ said Arthur."

cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/5328368

The idea is to have a piece of fiction that you can give a person to experience the Fediverse while also being moderately entertained in the process. So: would you give this story to a person that doesn’t know anything about the Fediverse? I would love to hear your opinions. I will try to incorporate feedback into the story but no promises!

(based on Feedback now with Fungi-Taylor-Swift, a Moderator character, Fridays for Fungi and MUCH MORE Lemmy-Drama)

For me I would say "The Expanse" is a huge one. If there was ever a self made family, the crew of the Rocinante is one of the best. The amount of time they spend together and how they congeal into life long partners and friends in the face of some truly awful events is really inspiring to me.

Short but enjoyable. I'd totally watch it.

Hello World! Greetings friends! The time has come to vote for the November Book Club selection. Please follow the link and vote for the books you would like to read. I am allowing votes for more than one (we'll see how it goes). If you guys have any comments about this process please let me know. We want to make this the best it can be!

https://poll-maker.com/poll4985854x809f4E8A-153