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I have been trying to put into words how I feel about this novel by Greg Egan. This novel leans very far into the "hard sci-fi" side of the spectrum and it isn't for everyone. Egan is a mathematician and a software engineer and those areas of expertise are relied on heavily to craft the world we inhabit in Diaspora. I have read this twice now, both times enjoying the technical masterpiece of Egan's world. The beginning is tough to read, it is slow and extremely verbose. There's no hand holding in the conceptual world you have been thrown into. If you are having trouble, the Wikipedia page is helpful to lean on and the glossary in the back of the book is a must to reference in the earlier chapters. As you get the hang of the world though, the story just flows forward. I enjoyed the pacing and characters journeys as well as the general theme of the novel. Highly recommended if you enjoy a technical and dense sci-fi novel.

https://openlibrary.org/works/OL26513113W/Time_Shelter_-_a_Novel?edition=key%3A/books/OL35858097M

Plot (minimal spoilers)

In the 1800, at the hight of the English colonial empire, a Chinese boy called Robin is taken away from his motherland to study translation at Oxford, where translation is the key to the magical silver works. At Oxford, he is confronted with deep-rooted discrimination. There, he finds friendship and, after all, a sense of belonging. But the Empire's greed knows no bounds, and Robin will have to make difficult choices.

Commentary

This book is a masterpiece, a tapestry of words woven with many theme, each complementing and expanding the others. The recurring theme is language, but that’s just the beginning. This book talks about friendship, about happy days, dedication and success, it talks about exploitation, capitalism, colonisation and deep-seated rage. It uses an empathic, charming writing to talk about harsh truths that are hard to confront. As a reader, you get lulled in, starting the story with a fairly standard beginning for a coming of age story with a steam punk setting, but you soon find yourself in a very different literary landscape, a landscape rarely explored with this much talent.

New short story from Ken Liu published by Tor.com.

I have been on a kick recently looking at novels where ideas become "entities" and this novel is an interesting look at what constitutes a "city".

cross posted from https://aussie.zone/post/1331956 with an edited title

This novella fits well under the larger umbrella of speculative fiction I think. It feels like magical realism with a touch of science fiction and having fairy tale elements.

I also enjoyed Noor and I plan to check out the author’s Binti trilogy.

Would recommend checking one of these out for something a little bit different!

I've read and enjoyed (in random order):

• Broken Earth and Inheritance series by N. K. Jemisin
• Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir
• She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
• The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson
• Teixcalaan series by Arkady Martine
• How High We Go In The Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
• Anything by Octavia Butler

Throwing Rocks: Without spoiling the plot, what are some good books that involve the threat of weaponizing a planet’s gravity well against its population?

Please if possible don’t specify whether the event actually happens in the book to keep it a mystery.

cross-posted from: https://literature.cafe/post/270743 !fiction@literature.cafe

I have been reading the English translations and the characters and especially their dialogues feel very fake. I do appreciate the hard science aspect of the books but the long monologues, kids speaking like middle-aged philosophers, and army personnel being one-dimensional macho men breaks the immersion for me. It has the depth of a 1980s low-budget thriller.

I don’t read a lot of hard science fiction or translations of Chinese books. I don’t know if this is genre-related.

I’ve rarely seen the term “speculative fiction” being used, so I don’t really have an idea of what it encompasses. Would someone care to explain? I remember “Anathem” being described as such - and by the way: what an amazing book! I recommend it to all nerds, in particular those into history/philosophy/scifi.

Currently working my way through The Glass Planet by Christopher Zyck. It's been a very enjoyable and interesting read. Reminds me a little bit of Foundation in the way it tells the story through millennia. I have such a soft spot for grand scale stories like this, they are difficult to get right.