Ponderings of science, philosophy, history, society, and many other topics
One of the ideas explored in Sean Williams and Shane Dix's Orphans trilogy is how an early version of uploading might be superseded by later designs, and the attitude the later versions have toward the earlier ones. In this series, the early versions are referred to as "engrams." Echoes of Earth, the first book, starts … Continue reading The Orphans trilogy
I was eleven when Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind came out. In the days after seeing it, I spent a substantial chunk of my allowance on UFO magazines. Reading them, it seemed undeniable that we were being visited by extraterrestrials. My fascination with UFOs didn't last long. Most of the stories in … Continue reading Disclosure Day and other TV notes
I was leery of the show For All Mankind for a long time. The promotional material made it sound more like a political drama than a space adventure. And sure enough, the first time I tried to watch it a few years ago, I largely ran aground on all the domestic soap opera. But the … Continue reading For All Mankind and Star City
In the last post I discussed my recent exploration of Reddit. The one conversation I've started so far was a request for posthuman space opera recommendations, particularly ones without FTL, stories that envision what the future might be like if we can't get around the speed of light limit. One hidden gem recommended was Sean … Continue reading The Astropolis trilogy
The Faith of Beasts is the second book of The Captive's War trilogy, authored by James S. A. Corey, the pen name of the writing duo: Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham, best known as the authors of The Expanse. This book continues the story of a far future human population conquered by an alien empire, … Continue reading The Faith of Beasts
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
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
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
It's been a while since I've read a Greg Egan book. I often love the ideas he explores, particularly in Diaspora. But I sometimes find his stories difficult to get through. That was definitely true of a previous book I read, Incandescence, which takes place in the setting of an interesting interstellar civilization. But the … Continue reading Schild’s Ladder
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
SelfAwarePatterns 