Ponderings of science, philosophy, history, society, and many other topics
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
Multiple people have recommended Robert Reed's books over the years. I started to read his Greatship stories many years ago, but got distracted and never made it back. Recently I came across a recommendation for his book, Sister Alice, as an example of hard science fiction space opera, and decided to check it out. Published … Continue reading Sister Alice
When I was young I read a lot of Arthur C. Clarke's books. With one of them, I remember having a strong sense of deja vu. It seemed like I knew the story already, sort of. It was very familiar, yet surprising in many details. I don't remember which one I read first, Against the … Continue reading Against the Fall of Night and its progeny
When I picked up Iain M. Banks' book The Algebraist, I thought I was starting a Culture novel overlooked until now. (The way Amazon listed the book encouraged this belief.) However, while it is space opera on a grand scale similar to a typical Culture novel, it takes place in a different fictional universe, one … Continue reading The Algebraist
A couple of weeks ago I reviewed the movie Mickey 17, which I found fairly intelligent. That movie is based on a book, Mickey 7, by Edward Ashton. The book turned out to be on Kindle Unlimited and didn't look long, and I needed a break from some of the other stuff I was reading, … Continue reading Mickey 7
Over the years I've recommended a number of Neal Asher's books. Although recently I haven't found his stuff as compelling. Dark Diamond represents something of a return to form for him: epic space opera. The story takes place in his Polity universe, one where Earth and its interstellar colonies are ruled by AI. The AIs … Continue reading Dark Diamond
What would aliens look like? Not just another intelligent species, but alien animals, or entire ecosystems? It's very hard for us to imagine them without falling back on variations of Earth animals. So aliens in sci-fi often look like insects, octopuses, or other species we're familiar with. To be sure, aliens would have evolved in … Continue reading Alien Clay
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