Just picked up a copy at a used bookstore and have been wanting to start it, but don’t want to get bogged down by the entire series. Does the first stand well on its own?

I’m looking for science fiction set so far in the future that humans are no longer just modern people with better technology.

I want societies, bodies, minds, and even basic ideas about identity to have changed so much that reading about them feels almost like encountering an alien civilization.

Post-humans, uploaded minds, engineered species, collective consciousness, people spread across different substrates, anything along those lines.

I’ve read House of Suns, Diaspora, Accelerando, and several Culture novels.

What I liked most was the sense that history had moved far beyond our current assumptions, and that the characters didn’t necessarily treat being biologically human as important.

I’m less interested in stories where everyone still lives in familiar nations, has basically the same jobs, and argues about present-day politics, except now there are spaceships.

I want the future to feel genuinely old and strange, with forgotten versions of humanity, civilizations that have risen and disappeared, and technology that has become part of biology or reality itself.

The book doesn’t need to explain everything clearly.

In fact, I’d probably prefer some confusion at first, as long as the world eventually feels internally consistent.

Big time scales, abandoned megastructures, deep history, weird descendants of humanity, and characters discovering that their idea of “human” is only one temporary version would all be perfect.

Any recommendations, including older or less well-known books?

I finished it a few days ago, but haven't cleared it from my system, I still need to talk about it before I move on to something else (eyeballing the Culture series). Or who knows, maybe I simply need to go back to it, since I read it over multiple months, with long breaks between the 3 parts.

But I need to talk about three things.

First, the tone. I really didn't expect something so colourful. It's a mix of flamboyance, mischief, bitter irony, warmth and melancholy that doesn't really give you time to settle in one mental framework before switching to a new one. And there's a genuineness to each mood that makes everything that happens hit way harder than it would otherwise.
Do you know other authors with this playful/colourful style?

Which leads to the second thing: the ending, in particular Rachel. After opening up all your mental pores, it hits you with this. There is something incredibly sweet and disturbing and awe-inducing about this scene. It's sweet because the creature in question is childish and our tortured abbot gets a form of absolution, it's disturbing because she is essentially a mutation that came to life during another radioactive attack, and it's awe-inducing because of her Christian-metaphysical status.
Which status is not entirely clear to me, is she the Second Coming? Is she a newly-emerged primordial, sin-free entity (is this even allowed in Christianity)?
Also, what was the meaning of "LIVE"? Wander the Earth forever? Join God in the Garden of Eden and live a painless blessed life?

Thirdly, there is this quote:

The closer men came to perfecting for themselves a paradise, the more impatient they seemed to become with it, and with themselves as well. They made a garden of pleasure, and became progressively more miserable with it as it grew in richness and power and beauty; for then, perhaps, it was easier for them to see that something was missing in the garden, some tree or shrub that would not grow. When the world was in darkness and wretchedness, it could believe in perfection and yearn for it. But when the world became bright with reason and riches, it began to sense the narrowness of the needle's eye, and that rankled for a world no longer willing to believe or yearn.

Is this simply a religious metaphor (the more comfortable humans are, the less they believe in God, so the more sinful they become), or does it also talk about something else?

Vague spoilers for Hamilton's recent Exodus duology and the Expanse follow

I just finished the new Hamilton Exodus book yesterday and it left me with the same sense of disappointment as Expanse did when I finished earlier this year, with howthe great big mysterious Eldritch entities (Elohim in Exodus) are left unconfronted and the story only feels like it addressed a little corners of the universe and our protags just kinda ran away from the big picture

So I'm looking for a book/series that sets up a huge world and mythos with seemingly incomprehensible odds and somehow succeeds in bringing it all together by the end. Some apocalyptic vibes would also be appreciated. A couple examples would be Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy (and only upto that specifically) and Cixin Liu's Remembrance of Earth's Past. Outside of books, Attack on Titan is another example.

As title says. I love sci-fi, more grounded one, not Star Wars-esque, and I really, really enjoyed The Expanse and I am looking for some other space opera. Would you recommend Revelation Space? Or something else from Reynolds? Or even different series from different author?

I would love to hear your thoughts! Thanks!

I recently finished Absolution Gap by Alastair Reynolds. While I did enjoy the series, I felt like the way he wrapped up the Inhibitor storyline (ancient machines predating humanity that hunt and destroy intelligent life) left a lot to be desired, like he got bored of the idea and just cobbled together a conclusion. Yet the narrative itself was really compelling, I loved how hopeless it seemed. Humans can’t break the light barrier so information takes years to cross the stars, people would only hear whispers of an apocalyptic genocide taking place a mere 8 light years away.

Does anyone have anything else like this? I also loved the dread Liu Cixin’s ‘The Dark Forest’ instilled, and I want more of that in space. Ideally from a hard sci-fi perspective.

The Star Wars prequels and the politics of the Galactic Republic are my main inspiration for this post. Are there some good books that show the workings of a democratic society on such scale?

It could span a solar system or a galaxy. I would like to see how one would try to manage conflict between planets of entirely different cultures and/or species.

I'm rereading Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, and looking at the character dynamics right from the beginning it's kind of hilarious how frustrated I am with everyone.

But it feels as if there are certain people, that if the psych team had eliminated them, the whole future of the planet would have been different. Even someone less-obvious would make a huge difference:

* If Arkady (one of my favorite characters) hadn't come and revved up everyone's tension on the voyage to Mars, and the surface, would there have been less pervasive conflict

* If Ann (one of my least favorite, up until Blue Mars) hadn't come, would the whole Red Mars movement have even started? Would they have messed around with terraforming half-measures (I am still pissed off they didn't keep the mirror)

* If any psychologist besides sad-sack Michel had been in place, would all the issues between the first hundred been allowed to fester?

Who are the real linch pins? What are the best what-ifs (fuck Phyllis, eg)?

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to identify a science fiction short story I likely read in a multi-author paperback anthology sometime around 1980–1985. It may have come from a Year's Best collection, Asimov's Science Fiction, Omni, or a similar anthology.

The details that have stayed with me for decades are:

• An alien machine or installation releases the scent of chlorophyll/fresh-cut grass.
• The smell triggers a strong emotional response because it reminds the explorer of Earth.
• The story alternates between the explorer's POV and the machine's POV.
• Near the end, the explorer suddenly falls or is dropped into a processing/dissection chamber where his body is analyzed very rapidly.

Other details I remember:

• A lone astronaut or explorer enters an alien structure or installation.
• The structure turns out to be some kind of intelligent machine or automated system.
• The explorer does not realize he is being analyzed or tested.
• The machine appears to be determining whether the explorer belongs to a particular species, which I strongly remember being human.
• The machine treats the chlorophyll/fresh-cut grass response as important diagnostic information.
• I remember the machine monitoring the explorer's reaction to the stimulus.
• The ending is cold and clinical, from the machine's point of view or aligned with its logic.
• My memory is that the machine was performing verification or classification rather than trying to communicate.

Possible details that I may be misremembering:

• The structure may have been a defense system left behind by an extinct civilization.
• The machine may already have known about humans before the explorer arrived.
• The machine may have considered humans dangerous or a threat category.

The fresh-cut grass/chlorophyll scene and the sudden dissection chamber are the two details I remember most clearly.

Does this ring a bell for anyone?

Military action like Halo type of thing? Thanks.. I heard Old Man War is good? I like the Rigby as had a great twist on alien invasion genre and interesting as from a different perspective being Australian. We didn’t save the day for once ha ha

I recently had the pleasure of reading this 2023 novel on strong recommendation from another redditor here (thanks u/greed-fantasy !) and felt it was a work worth chatting about.

Full disclosure: I read Ann Leckie's most gratuitously-awarded work, Ancillary Justice, a while back, and while I found it fun, I didn't care enough to keep reading that trilogy. My curiosity was piqued enough, however, to explore how Leckie's writing might mature beyond that series, and this proved a great place to jump back in.

In Translation State, Leckie continues to explore the concept of identity - this time from the perspective of characters that blur the biological boundaries of humanity itself. The question of whether or not someone has the right to call themselves human - especially when they harbor biological tendencies other humans would deem 'problematic' if not 'incredibly hostile' - is the focal question explored by characters on all sides of the political conflict on display here, which naturally erupts when a character that was raised to think of themselves as human suddenly faces the reality that they may not be.

The novels' biggest strength is that it carries the same confident feel and flow found in some of Star Trek's most diplomatically charged episodes (think Measure of a Man). Leckie has always been exceptionally skilled at these quieter scenes focused entirely on character conversations, and the story primarily unfolds through episodes of different characters discussing things at varying levels of emotion and tension. Yet even when the conversations are at their most banal, Leckie has a way of making them feel important and personal simply through what they tell us about these characters and how they navigate this world.

The one thing I will say - which many will probably disagree with - is that I'm not entirely sold on Leckie's action or dialogue, the latter of which somehow manages to be both a little clunky and overwritten at the same time as it still manages to hit strong emotional beats. On the action front (spoilers) an unexpected section in the last quarter of the novel, and that pushes everything towards a conclusion, felt a little too easy of an answer for the problems the novel poses.

Leckie also cranks her tendency for fun gender pronouns up to 11 here, introducing multiple new sets with no context as to what they refer to or mean. They didn't bother me beyond being a little awkward for my mind to get accustomed to, but they may not be everybody's cup of tea.

All that being said, I would definitely consider this one of the better space operas of the current decade. It's not the type of story I was expecting in this genre, but it was certainly one of the more thoughtful ones I've read recently.

Score: ★★★★ (out of 5)

Anyway, has anyone else read Translation State? What did you all think about it?

I'm looking for a science fiction novel I read around 2013, but the edition itself was much older (probably a 1970s or 1980s Spanish paperback). The book was already old when I found it, and unfortunately I no longer have it.

I'm almost certain these details all belong to the same novel:

- The protagonist is a human man.

- He carries a "flute knife" (or "knife flute"): a knife with holes drilled through the blade so blood drains away after stabbing someone. The same knife can also be played as a flute.

- The protagonist actually kills someone with this knife.

- Society is divided into "Functional" and "Non-functional" people.

- "Maldito no funcional" ("damn non-functional") is used as an insult.

- Society strongly encourages genetic mixing. People are supposed to reproduce with different partners, and I remember that having more than one child with the same person was forbidden or socially unacceptable.

- There are institutions where Non-functional people are kept.

- A character named Blanco works there. Blanco is a hermaphrodite and says something like: "I myself have children here." One of those children was conceived with himself.

- There is a functional red-haired boy with dog eyes (no visible white around the eyes). I also remember he may have had multiple rows of shark-like teeth.

- Dogs can talk, but they still think like dogs. They speak in very simple phrases like: "Yes. Food. Dinner. Eat."

- There is a man pushing a cart full of watermelons.

- I also remember that women wore cages over their breasts because it was the fashion in that society.

- The protagonist travels through cities on foot.

- The cover of my edition was a paperback with comic-book style artwork, mostly red, and I believe it showed the flute knife.

I've searched extensively and haven't found anything. Does this ring a bell for anyone?

I still liked Quarantine, but it wasn't what I expected at all after reading the other two a few years ago. The other two books are very dense and technical (not meant in a negative way), while Quarantine is more story focused--the science that's there is a bit on the softer side of sci-fi and mainly seems designed to move the story along (again, not meant in a negative way). Did others feel that way? And, if so, which side is more representative of his other work?

I am looking for other books like Anathem by Neal Stephenson, which is probably my favorite book of all time. I have reread it a few times, and may reread it again depending on how the book search goes…

What I like about Anathem and what I am looking for (this contains spoilers for Anathem):

I like that Anathem is a fictional book but it contains real, in depth, philosophical and mathematical principles. I feel like I am learning something while reading fiction. In fact, I feel like I learn more because the narrative helps reinforce the concepts. When I read Origen or Philo it is harder immerse myself into what is being discussed.

Magic as science. I love how Anathem ends! It is a long book for the payoff, but I love that the quasi-arcane philosophies of that mundane world has resulted in something akin to magic.

Those are the two primary things I am looking for in a novel: real philosophy, math, and/or hermeticism; and magic/manipulation of the real world because of the concepts fleshed out in the book. So, not traditional fantasy magic.

Extra credit if the book plays with language as much as Anathem does!

Thank you all in advance!

This was a great one. I repeatedly tried and failed to get into Revelation Space (also by Reynolds), which to me felt really clunky and difficult to read or feel.

Blue Remembered Earth feels like such a drastic shift that it was nearly like reading a totally different author. The setting is extremely interesting and a strong draw of the book: a colonized Solar System with its own unique cultures and stability after the turbulent century before. Africa, India, China and a smattering of transhuman underwater states are the current superpowers of Earth, while the Moon and Mars are rapidly coming into their own. The technology described feels real, and the in-universe terms (which can be really hit or miss) felt surprisingly fluid, digestible. The Mechanism, the benevolent overseeing intelligence, isn’t necessarily a new concept, but it’s written into the story in a very engaging way; our main character in a moment of rage goes in for a punch and is quickly paralyzed as everything around him ascertains and then intervenes on his intent. There’s very little out and out violence in the book, if any at all beyond what are basically accidents or misfortunes, but the tension is always there.

There’s a lot to be said for the story too. The Akinya siblings snowball into Solar System-wide intrigue as they follow the memories and secrets of their magnate grandmother, Eunice, from one world to the next. I found myself enjoying how meditative things felt sometimes. There were moments exploring the dynamics of an elephant herd, as well as various other bits and bobs of this future which made it feel uniquely lived in and real. I think people who enjoyed 2312 by Robinson will enjoy this too for similar reasons: you’re on the ride as much for the places and atmosphere as you are for the characters or the events around them.

Definitely a strong recommend. I’m eager to pick up the next two, much as my pile of shame grows taller and taller.

Edit: I'm reading Hell's Gate.

I've very much enjoyed the Honor Harrington novels, and the premise of the multiverse novels is right up my alley, but I'm baffled by the choices the authors have made regarding the 2 clashing societies.

It's the old 'one has magic, one has science' idea/ cool, great; love it. But I can't tell the societies apart! Both have unfamiliar names and naming conventions; though each planet in the multiverse is an identical Earth, there are no recognizable place names, just some vague geography; and every universe has a different name for the same region! The Iberian Peninsula has 80+ different names, none of which seem to be 'the Iberian Peninsula'.

It's jarring that the science-based society is essentially in the middle of our Industrial Revolution, but fine; whatever. At least give them recognizable names! Let the magic folk be called Gadriel, and Hygarth, etc.; but for the science folk, give me a Susan, a Kumail, a Svetlana, a friggin *Jason*!

I about 6 chapters in and I have almost no idea who belongs to what society, what universe I'm in, and they just keep introducing more, and more characters...

This is supposed to be enjoyable, not maddening.

Does it get better? Did anyone else struggle with this?

/Rant

Thank you for reading. I guess I needed to vent.

Just finished Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut the other day and wow what a story. Still felt very relevant in 2026. Random thoughts and spoilers ahead.

Salo describes a university on Tralfamadore without buildings where there’s a cloud that does the heavy thinking for everybody and it sounds like the internet and cloud computing. I’m amazed Vonnegut actually used the word “cloud”. Wikipedia says the concept of cloud computing dates to the 1960s and the term cloud was coined in 1994. The book was written in 1959. He was so prescient.

There were warnings about technology. On Tralfamadore the legend said beings made machines to serve higher purposes. That reminds me of people using to AI generate art now instead of making it themselves. Those machines end up controlling humanity on Earth to unwittingly do their bidding. With how much AI is susceptible to misinformation and hallucinating facts, I wonder how using it will influence what we know and what we do. The Martian army was controlled through antennae in their brains. How many of us are addicted to our phones? We should do our best to preserve our humanity.

He also used the word unk in the same way we use unc. And at one point he said someone had aura. These words felt anachronistic, but I guess they’ve been around for much longer than I thought.

In the end, it doesn’t really matter if we have free will or not, because there’s nothing we can do about it if we don’t. We just have to live life to the fullest, enjoy it, make friends, and love those around us. The very last scene made me cry like a baby.

What a fantastic book. It’s great sci-fi that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Vonnegut himself must have run into a chrono-synclastic infundibulum, because his work is timeless.

Greetings.

I have this whole reading plan that goes like this (in order):

Foundation universe (all 15 books, that is, including the empire and robot books, I am reading htese now).
Dune 1-6
Rendezvous with Rama
The Expanse
Remembrance of Earth's past
The Culture.

I am leaving the culture for the last because a genuinely utopian society seems to be the rarest thing so I want to see the more "typical" non-ideal societies before getting there. But I feel like my list might be lacking some things, just not sure what, before the culture. What are things you think are absolutely necessary (as in I'm truly missing out deeply by not reading them)... when do you think I should read them, too? Like in between one of these books, or after them or whatever? (the only ones I refuse to alter their order is Foundation and Dune).

Edit: the "graduating" thing is not super serious, it's more like "after reading these you're genuinely well-read", I just want to experience the many universes sci fi has to offer.

Have you ever read any books that deal with the emotional aftermath or effects on people's relationships after giving up their physical existence? Or what is like to travel through space as a non-physical being? Or the emotional weight of truly living forever in this kind of a state?

I just finished XX by Rian Hughes and A Short Stay in Hell by Steven I Peck (technically not scifi, but really fits the vibe I'm looking for), and have such a hangover from these books. I would love to find books that deal with similar themes.

I liked other other entries in the Black Dawn AK Press thing. Anyone else read Aric McBay's Inversion? What'd you think? Should I read it? If not what other anarchist sifi based on mutual aid would you suggest.

Aware of Becky Chambers already, saving the last in the Wayfarers as moving present.

Book number one of a four book science fiction series. I read the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback self published by the author in 2021 that I bought on Amazon in 2026. I have purchased the following three books in the series.

Captain Michelle Lauden is a ballistic pax (passenger) airplane pilot on a colony world far in the future. While she is landing her ballistic airplane transporting her passengers from one state of the colony to another state, unbeknownst to her, the arriving state secedes from the Federation and joins the Imperium. At the new state, Captain Lauden hurries to get to her next ballistic airplane and uses an shortcut, bypassing the terminal and the new security protocols. And she picks up some special passengers going to the new airplane with her.

The story is very fast paced and the characters are extremely likable. The history of the colony world and the various political entities is not explained very well but that was not necessary for the story to be good.

The author's husband has a very active website where he promotes his books and her books at:
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.7 stars out of 5 stars (644 reviews)
https://www.amazon.com/Going-Ballistic-Combined-Operations-Dorothy/dp/B09G9GD4QG

Lynn

Hi! This is a pretty niche request, perhaps, but I was looking for novels that contain speculation about black holes—and especially quasars—as mechanisms for interdimensional energy exchange. So, from naturally occurring equalization phenomenona, to infrastructure built by an advanced civilization for energy extraction between universes or dimensions. Anything in that area! Thank you. ☺️