Ponderings of science, philosophy, history, society, and many other topics
Alastair Reynolds' new novel, Halcyon Years, starts off as a murder mystery that takes place on an interstellar generation ship, a sealed O'Neill cylinder type environment, with cities, rivers, lakes, and forests. The ship is ruled by two rich families, the Urrys and the DelRossos, who hate each other. And while there are separate municipal … Continue reading Halcyon Years
Excession is one of the novels I missed years ago when reading Iain Banks' Culture series. The main reason, I think, is that for a long time it wasn't published in ebook format, I suspect due to formatting complexity. It just came out in ebook a couple of weeks ago, so I've finally been able … Continue reading Excession
I have a pet theory about good science fiction stories (and maybe fantasy ones). A good story needs to have both a wonder and a conflict element. A lot of classic SF only have the wonder one. Many of Arthur C. Clarke's stories fit in this category. Consider 2001: A Space odyssey. Remove the wonder … Continue reading Pushing Ice
I've done a couple of posts on Robert Reed's Greatship series, about a giant spherical Uranus-sized megastructure moving through space at a third the speed of light. It's discovered in intergalactic space and claimed by humans, who then invite anyone who can pay in some manner (resources, technology, science, or even just interesting stories) to … Continue reading The Dragons of Marrow and Hammerwing
I've noted on this blog many times that I'm not much of a horror fan. But the Alien franchise has always been kind of an exception. Space horror might be a little better than the garden variety, just because it's space. But mostly I just enjoy the sci-fi worldbuilding, usually in the early stages of … Continue reading Alien: Earth, and other TV notes
A few weeks ago, I talked about Robert Reed's story collection, The Greatship. It's about a spherical Uranus-sized megastructure moving through space at a third the speed of light. Humans manage to reach it first and claim it, and then decide to take it on a tour of the galaxy, offering passage to anyone who … Continue reading Marrow and The Well of Stars
For people looking to dip their toe in the sci-fi literary genre, John Scalzi is often a good place to start. A lot of sci-fi literature assumes certain knowledge from the reader (such as what "burning at two gees" means). Scalzi's fiction tends to only assume what you might pick up watching sci-fi TV shows … Continue reading The Shattering Peace, and aliens who have consciousness as an augmentation
I recently finished reading Peter F. Hamilton's book: Exodus: The Archimedes Engine. It takes place in a far future where humanity has fled the solar system in relativistic ark ships, looking for new homes. One group of arks discover a bounty of habitable worlds in the Centauri Cluster about 16,000 light years from Earth. Someone … Continue reading Exodus: The Archimedes Engine, and a different take on mind uploading
I've described Neal Asher's Polity universe many times. It's a future interstellar civilization ruled by AIs, who took over in a basically bloodless "Quiet War", but who seem to rule humanity more or less benignly, providing a society where everyone is immortal, if they choose to be. Although as anyone who's read the books knows, … Continue reading The Technician
In the last post I said I'd get back to Robert Reed's Greatship series. This week I read the main story collection for that series: The Greatship. This is a collection of novellas and novelettes, which seems to be the format Reed really shines in. These are all separate stories, but they take place in … Continue reading The Greatship
SelfAwarePatterns 