this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2023
2263 points (98.7% liked)

Science Fiction

13588 readers
1 users here now

Welcome to /c/ScienceFiction

December book club canceled. Short stories instead!

We are a community for discussing all things Science Fiction. We want this to be a place for members to discuss and share everything they love about Science Fiction, whether that be books, movies, TV shows and more. Please feel free to take part and help our community grow.

  1. Be civil: disagreements happen, but that doesn’t provide the right to personally insult others.
  2. Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, ableist, or advocating violence will be removed.
  3. Spam, self promotion, trolling, and bots are not allowed
  4. Put (Spoilers) in the title of your post if you anticipate spoilers.
  5. Please use spoiler tags whenever commenting a spoiler in a non-spoiler thread.

Lemmy World Rules

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Tenthrow@lemmy.world
2263
Foundation vs Dune (media.kbin.social)
submitted 1 year ago by downpunxx@kbin.social to c/sciencefiction@lemmy.world
230 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] dnzm@feddit.nl 40 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

Iain M. Banks: we're living in an AI-regulated Utopia, but the AI that we totally trust might be doing some light imperialism on the side.

Pratchett / Baxter: we're headed for some bleak imperialist nonsense, and another one, and another one, and another one, and oops, a blank...

Edit: added the Long Earth one.

[–] veroxii@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

Maybe sometimes there are special circumstances?

[–] tekila@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Fuck I love the Culture series. Such a good read.

[–] 6daemonbag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 year ago

The Culture is so incredibly fascinating. Banks' death was a loss to science fiction.

[–] eestileib@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The Culture stuff is great but nothing tops The Algebraist. A near-perfect standalone sf doorstop imo.

Big ideas, some laughs, a mystery that you can solve if you're paying attention, strong characters, interesting aliens...

The last one that hit that sweet spot for me was Mother of Storms by John Barnes.

[–] dnzm@feddit.nl 1 points 1 year ago

Hadn't read The Algebraist yet, so there's a new one on my list. Thanks! I'll make sure to check out Barnes, too.

[–] NuPNuA@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The Culture weren't actually the future of humanity though right? Non-canon stuff has indicated we join eventually in the future but the society formed independent of us and even visit and examine us in one.

[–] dnzm@feddit.nl 1 points 1 year ago

Actually, you're right.

Oh well, a humanity, then, just not ours.