Every short description I come up with for this book sounds horrible, so that will have to be: The book follows Marty Hench, a 67-year-old forensic accountant. Add to that that it barely qualifies as SF, taking place ever so slightly in the future from when it was written, and not dealing with any technologies that don't actually exist. All that being said, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's kind of a technological thriller. The characters in it, even the minor ones, all seem very three dimensional, and even though some of them are very bad, overall it's full of compassion and integrity. One thing that feels worthy of mention: Doctorow takes the time at the end to sew up all the loose ends and give all the significant characters a visit, unlike so many books I've read recently that end somewhat abruptly with unanswered questions. Big thumbs up.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/historyphotos/p/1994442/man-with-his-custom-made-bus-cobbled-together-from-a-soviet-helicopter-and-military-tru

Man with his custom-made bus, cobbled together from a Soviet helicopter and military truck, Afghanistan, late 1980s

I just finished reading Parable of The Sower, and while it's probably one of the greatest books I've ever read, most of the book is focused on survival in a world where every random homeless person and drug user wants to kill the protagonist (you can tell it was written shortly after the crack epidemic and when there was a lot of panic about crime). It was strange that most of the book was just about survival. The protagonist knew they must build something new, but they never quite got to that point in the book.

There doesn't seem to be much aspirational speculative fiction where people start building something better after a collapse of society and speculates how that may be done or how the new society may function.

The only fiction I can think of off the top of my head that covers a little bit about rebuilding society is the movie The Postman that I watched when I was a kid (I don't remember if it was good or not). Perhaps Parable of the Talents actually does start covering the building of a better society? (But I read an excerpt, and it looks like it's going to be, very presciently, about a murderous christian nationalist movement that wants to "make America great again"). I know there's stuff like Star Trek, but that's mostly set long after the rebuild; it doesn't cover in-depth how they got to that point (AFAIK).

Happy April 7, 2026!

This is a free-to-read e-Book that deserves to be better known.

The setting is a near-future dystopia. It is written from the point-of-view of an "artificial", a disembodied PDA (personal digital assistant) who has to earn its CPU time. Did you know that reboots are painful and disorienting? Good thing people wear masks with cameras. It is a criminal offense not to transmit your stream in public.

The world is on the brink of collapse because of climate change and waves of viruses like mySARS. I know what you're thinking now, but no: this book was published around 2012. Climate change wasn't even a news topic when I first read it. And anyway, this is just the setting. The plot is about surviving in a surveillance city-state, and the inner struggles of an artificial being.

Later books have more action-packed fights for technology and power inside and outside of the city, while some of the more nerdy elements are dropped (like keeping track of the PID that is running the artificial).

Hi,

I'm a great fan of Isaac Asimov, in particular the stories about the spacers. I was really fascinated about how the societies of the spacers worked and liked the stories on the outer planets. Are there any stories from other authors expanding on the spacer stories you can recommend?

Hi,

I'm a great fan of Isaac Asimov, in particular the stories about the spacers. I was really fascinated about how the societies of the spacers worked and liked the stories on the outer planets. Are there any stories from other authors expanding on the spacer stories you can recommend?

Have they missed any good ones?

March is lining up to be packed with treats for science fiction fans. For starters, we get to return to the universe of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time series, this time in the company of a huge mantis shrimp. We’re also being offered a take on Moby-Dick, set in space, and what sounds like a must-read: a forgotten speculative novel from 1936, which imagines the last woman left alive in Britain after a pandemic. If instead you’re after a cosy sci-fi mystery, a slice of horror or a mission to Europa, then you’re in luck, because all of those are on offer too.

The prompt for the contest asked only that entries have at least a tenuous connection to the Bulletin’s mission; some of those connections were pretty tenuous.

To my way of thinking, the final 10 stories I sent to Stan all seemed at least competent. But I wasn’t sure if they were good only in comparison to the many disorderly efforts at storytelling that my editorial helpers and I had dutifully read. I was, after all, sending them to Kim Stanley Robinson—who, The New Yorker has opined, is “generally acknowledged as one of the greatest living science-fiction writers,” and whose work The Atlantic has called “the gold standard of realistic, and highly literary, science-fiction writing.” His books have been translated into 29 languages. He’s had an asteroid named after him, for god’s sake.

I was ready to apologize for wasting his time at any suggestion that our stories were wanting.

Just watched Marooned as a tribute to him. For the brits: it is all on the iplayer and Rob was involved til season 6

Who's read the original novels? This could be lots of fun

Fans already have the DVD box set and like mentioning it as often as Linux users tell us they use Linux and vegans do their thing.

But this is now the opportunity to win new fans. TV junkies are begging for shows that they can watch continuously for weeks without having to wait a few years for new episodes or for them to be over after a measly 24 or 178 episodes.

Great character chemistry and compelling stories. A fantastic mix of action and humor.

You don't need to know the movie it is based on. Maybe read the plot on Wikipedia if you want to.

I've been listening to X-Minus-One episodes for the last few days and am really starting to appreciate the radio play format. Some of the stories are pretty dated, being from the 40's and 50's, but a lot of them still hold up if you're a little forgiving on the science details.

Genetically and technologically enhanced animals, mostly dogs, have been developed as mercenary soldiers who act on any order given by their masters. Rex is such a soldier, leader of his squad, but what happens when his enforced obedience is removed and he is able to (has to) make his own decisions? This is a fascinating book that probes the ethical boundaries of enhanced biological beings, AI, and free will. I really loved this one and will certainly read the other the books in the series.

I'm going to keep this short and spoiler free. The final main line Laundry Files novel has been out a few days now. There may be more New Management books (he mentioned an Imp book a while back) but he's got a space opera up next.

I finished the new one and enjoyed it. Loved the reference to a couple of terrible 70s flicks. It's a pretty good wrap up to the series.

It is back to Bob as the main character. Plenty of Mo. If you read the New Management books you'll likely recognize a minor character from there. Johnny MacTavish's family comes into play. A couple of the guns were left on the mantle but the big stuff is wrapped and we're not left wondering about the fate of anyone important.

Sequel to The Space Between Worlds, though it's not really marketed that way. In the first book, a method was developed to send people to alternate worlds, but only worlds that were fairly similar to the baseline world, and only if the person going wasn't alive in the alternate. The main character was valuable because she had a rough life and was dead in the vast majority of worlds.The main characters of that first book are more minor characters in this one, though the setting is the same.

Mr. Scales is a “Runner," a soldier of sorts serving the emperor of an impoverished desert wasteland, counterpoint to the domed city where the wealthy elite live. She ("Mr" is a term of respect for men and women alike) watches as a friend is broken apart and reduced to meat and bone, even though no one else is there. Other similar bodies are found, and Scales is pulled in to help figure out what's happening.

Johnson is a master at creating very real, very flawed characters, and Scales is certainly that. There are giant helpings of hurt, anger, torment, love, and desperation throughout this book, yet it's completely captivating. If you liked the first book, you'll probably like this one.

As solar flares and earthquakes wreak havoc upon the Earth, Air Force One and America's president vanish. Ex-Navy SEAL Jack Kirkland must embark on a perilous mission aboard Deep Fathom miles below the ocean's surface to save the world from destruction. Violence and some strong language. 2001.

So the sixth book of the Red Rising series (Light Bringer) has been sitting on my shelf, unread, for over a year now. I really enjoy the series, but in the 4-year gap after the release of Dark Age I've forgotten much of the complex plot.

Instead of trying to find a lackluster video summary, or doing a re-read of ~2700 pages, I'm giving Graphic Audio's release a shot. It's honestly been fantastic. I typically prefer a single narrator if I'm doing audiobooks, but this is a really polished, full-cast production. They use the original text, so I don't have to worry about missing anything in an abridged version adapted for the medium, but it still feels like an audio drama.

If you're like me and want to revisit the series or just getting starting for the first time, this theatrical version is actually really good!