The Evolution of Science Fiction discussion
2000-2014
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What SF are you reading now, 2000-2014?
Not SF, but not strictly factual either, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari is definitely science & he discusses a lot of fictions, mostly shared ones such as money, ideologies, & empires. It's a look into our possible future that is both fantastic & terrifying. He has a wonderful ability to see overall trends & where we might be going is a strange place indeed. I gave it a 5 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Don't be alarmed by the length of the review. Most of it is notes to myself. The top few paragraphs are for everyone else.
Mod
I gave Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow a 3 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
It wasn't bad for a first book, but I wish the MC had engaged me more.
I just finished a fun book. Where's My Jetpack?: A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future That Never Arrived, by Daniel H. Wilson who wrote a good SF novel, Robopocalypse. In this one, he discusses some of the tech that was touted in SF & has arrived. It's a bit of a comic take on it & pretty light reading. I gave it a 3 star review in part because he completely missed sexbots. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I'm reading The End of the World Running Club. I was quite looking forward to it but it's quite average so far.
I finished Leviathan Wakes. A decent read, but I'm not sure why this series is the juggernaut that it is. The structure is rather simple. About ten pages per chapter, with one central character in the spotlight. It reminds me of Kevin J. Anderson's Dune work. Althought Corey has better prose and character dept. The plot is also more interesting than what Anderson produces, but both are what you read in your commute.
I will not pursue this series.
I stopped after the first book too, Marc-Andre. Part of the reason was because of the TV series which is pretty good, but I also thought the story came to a good enough conclusion. I doubted it would get any better & would too easily disappoint.
One of my colleagues recommended Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. It's a great premise, one night the stars disappear.... I like the concept, and it's started quite well, so i'm hopeful that it's a good book to finish the year with. It's the first in a trilogy,
unfortunately this gets a much higher rating than the sequel.
Mod
Jo wrote: "One of my colleagues recommended Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. It's a great premise, one night the stars disappear.... "I gave it 4 stars, but didn't bother reading any more. It ends at a good point & I didn't think more books would improve it.
Jo wrote: "One of my colleagues recommended Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. It's a great premise, one night the stars disappear.... I like the concept, and it's started quite wel..."
I just finished reading Spin. It had been on my to read list for too long. It's well worth reading.
Wireless by Charles Stross was an excellent collection of short stories. He's quite imaginative & writes really well. A lot of strange ideas & worlds packed into these 9 stories which were really well narrated. I gave it a 4 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Palimpsest and MAXOS were really good short stories contained in Wireless.
ＭＴＢＤ wrote: "ｕｂｉｋ ᴘᴋᴅ"I'm pretty sure that one was written in the 1960s.
Marc-André wrote: "Palimpsest and MAXOS were really good short stories contained in Wireless."Some of the short stories are also available free to read online & I included links to them in my review. MAXOS was one of them.
ＭＴＢＤ wrote: "ｕｂｉｋ ᴘᴋᴅ"Feel free to discuss it either in PKD's topic here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
or in the appropriate age (It was written in 1969.) which is 1960-1979 here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Randy wrote: "I started Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan"I'm curious to see how you found it. I stop halfway through. It just was bad story telling. The plot wasn't moving along and the characters were explored. Instead we get gratuitous sex and violence. It feels like the fantasies of the author. Ashame, as the setting it awesome.
Marc-André wrote: "Randy wrote: "I started Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan"I'm curious to see how you found it."
I've read a few chapters. It's OK but not grabbing me like I'd hoped it would. I generally like cyberpunk novels, probably due to Neuromancer blowing my mind in my early college years. This one seems a bit predictable so far. I will persevere for now.
As part of my new years resolution i'm trying to read some of the books i've been avoiding on my bookshelf. First up from 2002, The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson. An alternative history book, so far it's really slow going and with 660 pages it may take some time to finish.
Mod
When thinking about the evolution of SF over the last 100 years (or more) it is interesting to also consider the evolution of Scientific knowledge over same time period. It is amazing how much of the knowledge that we take for granted now was unknown even 100 years ago. Take for example idea that an asteroid might collide with the Earth, explored in our recent read The Hammer of God. That was considered preposterously impossible just 100 years ago.
The point keeps coming home how much we still don't know. Example: estimates for the number of species on earth vary by factors of 100 or more depending on who you ask.
Even though I have been exposed to most of the material in the book at some point, it was a delight to read. Bryson focuses as much on how we came to know what we know as he does on the facts themselves, and there are so many interesting side notes about the discoverers. Darwin and Mendel knew of each others work but failed to see any connection. Newton once stared at the sun for as long as he could stand, just to see what would happen. Spoiler alert, it hurt!
I've been meaning to read that for years, Ed. It's been gathering dust in my TBR pile, never quite surfacing due to its length. I might just revise that after your post, though. You hit a lot of points that I find fascinating.I read Future Shock not too long after it was published in 1970 & it introduced me to similar points as you found in Bryson's. Tofler laid out human history in a unique way. Instead of 50K years, he said 800 lifetimes of 60 years laid end to end. He mentions some milestones such as 90% of the scientists who ever lived were living in the last such lifetime, I think. He also discusses the speed of travel & how it has accelerated - 8 mph for a camel caravan in 6000 BC, 20 mph for a chariot in 60 BC, etc. & the pace accelerates crazily toward the end.
I've faced the same acceleration just in my reading of popular science articles & books. Broadsides from the Other Orders: A Book of Bugs was great, but it was written in the 1990s. At least a couple of insects were renamed, orders reorganized, & more since then. DNA analysis has changed a lot of what we thought we knew or guessed about the past, so that even books only a decade old are outdated in some respects. How they've traced our evolution through mitochondrial DNA is amazing.
Anyway, thanks for the heads up. I'll look forward to any more like this that you post. It might not be strictly SF, but it certainly shapes what the genre has to work with.
Ed wrote: "Not exactly SF, but I just read A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson and give it 5 stars.When thinking about the evolution of SF over the last 100 years (or mo..."
I read this book a bit more than five years ago. I liked it very much. I remember liking it, but I can't remember a thing that is in it.
Ed wrote: "Not exactly SF, but I just read A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson and give it 5 stars...." This is staring at me in my living room for years too. Never got around to really pick it up, but recently I found my 5 year old son looking at the pictures in it. He already likes reading about the universe. Maybe we'll start reading it together some day.
I'm reading Infomocracy by Malka Ann Older. So far it is a slow start. She's unveiling the political systems as well as the stakes very slowly. It becomes hard to understand what is going on. I'll finish it though.
Mod
This is staring at me in my living room for years too. ... I found my 5 year old son looking at the pictures in it ..."
My version doesn't have pictures. That prompted me to do a bit of research and see that he made a shorter, simpler, illustrated version called A Really Short History of Nearly Everything. That must be the one you have. That is probably even more fun to read, since shorter. But I wonder whether he changes the tone for the younger audience to "this is what we know" rather than "there is so much we don't know".
Jim, Future Shock has also been on my mind. I haven't read it, but I understand the general concept of the rate of progress accelerating and humans having a hard time keeping up. I saw someone reading it in public a few weeks ago, so I guess it still resonates today. Certainly many recent technological changes are having drastic effects on available jobs and careers.
Some, like Ray Kurzweil suggest that this acceleration will lead to a "singularity" in the near future. I think that is hogwash, but it has led to some interesting SF stories.
It might be worthwhile to have a discussion devoted to non-fiction that has sparked SF. Or maybe just continue to mention such books as they come up in other discussions.
Mod
“Science fiction is held in low regard as a branch of literature, and perhaps it deserves this critical contempt. But if we view it as a kind of sociology of the future, rather than as literature, science fiction has immense value as a mind-stretching force for the creation of the habit of anticipation. Our children should be studying Arthur C. Clarke, William Tenn, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury and Robert Sheckley, not because these writers can tell them about rocket ships and time machines but, more important, because they can lead young minds through an imaginative exploration of the jungle of political, social, psychological, and ethical issues that will confront these children as adults.”
The only nit I will pick with that is that he says "young minds" whereas I think all minds can benefit.
" That must be the one you have. That is probably even more fun to read, since shorter...."I doubt it Ed, mine is 640 pages. It is a dutch translation from 2006, indeed called 'illustrated edition.' Loaded with pictures and illustrations.
Ed, I think he did a couple more updates to "Future Shock". I found the first quarter or third really interesting, but the rest was sort of bad SF as he tried to envision how the future would play out, IIRC. I've read a few different things by & about Kurzweil. I don't recall being terribly impressed, but I don't recall specifically why. Perhaps that he doesn't put enough emphasis on hormones & other evolutionary traits that make us up, especially our emotions. I've read a couple of places about how some people get their emotional response deadened completely & then can't figure out what to eat. Still, his ideas on where we are going are worth thinking about.
Harari doesn't get into it in the detail Kurzweil does in Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, but he makes a big deal about how we're algorithms & we're breaking out pieces of ourselves into computer algorithms that can perform functions more efficiently than we can within specific parameters. That certainly doesn't make them human or even intelligent, though.
On Tofler's thoughts on SF, I agree with you & him. I'd guess we all do or we wouldn't still be reading it. It's important to remember that SF wasn't highly thought of in 1970, although I don't get the impression that he was passing judgement, just stating a common opinion.
As for another topic, sure. I've started it here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
I've no problem discussing them within the SF topics, though. Certainly people like we've been discussing are on both sides of the line & science often drives SF.
Marc-André wrote: "I'm reading Infomocracy by Malka Ann Older. So far it is a slow start. She's unveiling the political systems as well as the stakes very slowly. It becomes hard to ..."It looks interesting. 3 of my friends have read it & 2 gave it 4 stars which is quite good for a debut novel. The other one gave it 3 stars, but admitted to election fatigue making it a tougher read than it should have been.
Right now I finished The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin. It is interesting to see how Chinese SF developed. I plan to check a few more Chinese SF writers before making a verdict but as for now it seems their view about the future are very dark.
I'm just about done with Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan. It started off slow but picked up later. I'll probably give it 4 stars which is a bit on the generous side.
Randy wrote: "I'm just about done with Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan. It started off slow but picked up later. I'll probably give it 4 stars which is a bit on the generous side."I see from my review that I gave it 4 stars, but dropped it to 3.5 because it really dragged for me about 2/3 of the way through. I liked it, but not well enough to read the others. One was enough.
Jim wrote: "I see from my review that I gave it 4 stars, but dropped it to 3.5 because it really dragged for me about 2/3 of the way through. I liked it, but not well enough to read the others. One was enough. "I understand the sequels are nothing like the first book. I'll probably read at least the first sequel eventually.
I did not have much luck with my last 2 SF books. I really had high hopes for Amped by Daniel H. Wilson. I thought his apocalyptic robot war one was pretty good, but this one was totally frustrating. It had so many great elements that were wasted on a vapid character in a bad melodrama. Because I managed to finish it, I gave it a 2 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mod
Interesting premise: demonic possession is real. I guess it fits Fantasy more than SF, but some have tagged it as SF.
I did finish Altered Carbon and I did end up giving it 4 stars, mostly because it was so well plotted and also because I'm a sucker for noir and cyberpunk and Morgan fused them better than anyone since Gibson's Sprawl and Bridge series. Now reading All Systems Red by Martha Wells.
I've just finished
Semiosis by Sue Burke. It was excellent. You can see my review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Randy wrote: "Now reading All Systems Red by Martha Wells."Finished this one and gave it 3 stars. Not sure I understand why it seems to be so popular.
Danielle wrote: "I've just finished Semiosis by Sue Burke. It was excellent. You can see my review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show......"
I'm so excited to read this! Glad to hear you enjoyed it. Once I've read it, I'll definitely check out your review.
I'm working on reading all of the nominees for the Philip K. Dick award, to be announced on March 30th. I've just started Nigerians in Space so I can read its sequel (which is nominated) and I'm really struggling with it.However, I did just finish another nominee (Six Wakes) and absolutely loved it.
Next up will be either The Book of Etta or Revenger.
Randy wrote: "Randy wrote: "Now reading All Systems Red by Martha Wells."
Finished this one and gave it 3 stars. Not sure I understand why it seems to be so popular."
I'm sorry to hear you didn't like it. I thought it was wonderful. The key for me to was to accept that it was lighthearted and playful, which gave me room to see the depth within - rather than allowing that playfulness to distract from a deeper undercurrent.
I haven't begun it still, but I'll soon read: « Un milliard de tapis de cheveux » (
The Carpet Makers). It seems very strange. :)
Danielle wrote: "I haven't begun it still, but I'll soon read: « Un milliard de tapis de cheveux » ( The Carpet Makers). It seems very strange. :)"Danielle, this is one of my all-time favorite "off-the-wall" scifi stories. I hope you enjoy it!
I'm not sure if SYLO by D.J. MacHale is really SF. It's a YA dystopia set in today's world, but there seem to be some SF elements. Not my usual read, but it was surprisingly good for YA. Not all the adults are idiots nor are the kids heroic geniuses, anyway. I gave it a 4 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I've always thought of Richard Matheson as an SF author for some reason. I guess because of I Am Legend & The Incredible Shrinking Man, but he's probably more of a horror author. Other Kingdoms is the latest of his that I read. It was a fantasy with horror overtones, one of his last books that he wrote in 2011. It sagged in places, but was enthralling, so I gave it a 4 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This month I'm reading our group reads: 
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey - so far this one is just OK - I'm about 40% through and it's only capturing my attention occasionally
Nexus by Ramez Naam - love this book! It's like someone put Michael Crichton's Next into a blender with William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy and a Blu-Ray edition of The Matrix. Can't hardly put it down.
Just finished Seven Surrenders by Ada Palmer. It is the follow up to Too Like the Lightning. I just devoured the book and it was delicious. Palmer is not only well read, but has vivid prose and weaves a captivating plot and universe.The characters are as campy has ever, but that is part of the game.
As a general rule, I do not do series and stop after the first novel in a series because writers often said all they had to say and just spread the butter a bit too thin on too many toasts, but this series is an exception and I will continue reading it like a school girl in love with some random Youtube star watches every vid from their idol.
It is quit refreshing compared to the current space operas. I'm thinking it will be a finalist for the Hugo for the best series once book four comes out.
Martians Abroad by Carrie Vaughn was a fun YA romp that reminded me very much of one of the Heinlein juveniles. I gave it a 4 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Evolution of Science Fiction
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I've enjoyed some of his short stories, but that novel was a big disappointment to me. The alien planet and it's ecosystem stretched my ability to suspend belief too far. Yet some of the interactions between the humans and aliens were interesting.