this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2023
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Science Fiction

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December book club canceled. Short stories instead!

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Lemmy World Rules

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I love Sci fi but I'm very picky (discuss.online)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/sciencefiction
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Most of my favourite books/movies/TV shows are Sci fi - I love Mary Shelley, slaughterhouse five, annihilation (both the book and the movie), The Thing, x files, the invasion, and the OA. This feels like a pretty wide variety of writing styles when I line them up but 90% of the sci fi I read/watch I just don't enjoy at all. It's a shame because when I love something sci fi I feel like it's changed my whole life, but when it comes to finding new things I can just enjoy its easier to go through other genres. Is anyone else like this? Does anyone have reccomendations based on what I do like?

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[–] GrabtharsHammer 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If you want to give him another shot, I’d actually recommend his short story anthologies. I feel like Dick excels with bringing an interesting idea or twist to a story, but is weaker with character development. In a short story, his strengths are accentuated and his weaknesses are diluted or eliminated.

Two titles to look for are “The Father-thing” and “I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon”.

In fact, many of his stories that turned into feature films started as shorts. “Minority Report”, “Total Recall” (originally “We Can Remember it for You Wholesale”), and “Paycheck” were all short stories originally, and hit all the harder for being shorter and more focussed.