u/SirScaurus

Hey everyone, I'm curious to hear from people who've read most-if-not-all of Gibson's work. I've just finished reading Neuromancer for the second time (which I love), and as I'm starting Count Zero, I'm curious to know more about his other work just because I rarely hear much about it.

How are his other trilogies? How has he matured as a writer, if at all? Do his other works surpass the Sprawl in terms of prose or ideas, or are they too different to really compare? Are there other ones you would highly recommend?

For the record, I do really like him so far. I'm not expecting his other work to be as groundbreaking or impressive as Neuromancer, but I'm also not against reading it in time. I guess I'm more trying to figure out how best to potentially prioritize getting to them among all the other books I have in my backlog.

Hey everyone, I've seen various forms of this argument around the internet over the past few months, but none as eloquently stated as this article does.

Namely, that Tech Titans have been ideologically weaponizing certain works of science fiction - divorced from the actual meanings of these works - in order to recreate those works' more dystopian aspects. In other words, using works like Neuromancer as a blueprint for the type of society (or 'utopia') they want to see.

It's something that has really irked me personally, both as someone who loves and appreciates these works, but also as someone who once was once an enthusiastic supporter of the Tech Industry back when it at least 'felt' like it was in support of egalitarian and humanitarian progress.

And I'm really glad that people like the author are starting to call out this hypocrisy.

What are everyone else's thoughts on the conversation? Is it enough to call out this nonsense where we see it? Or are these texts too geek-centric for most people to care?

I've recently been seeing a ton of buzz around Tchaikovsky's latest release (just came out Tuesday), and was curious if anybody had gotten the chance to check it out yet.

I have yet to dig into Tchaikovsky myself, but everything I'm seeing about this novel seems wildly different from the usual type of sci-fi he writes. I'm tempted to grab it just because it sounds so different and out there.

Anybody here pick it up? Initial thoughts, if so?

My partner and I are moving from Austin, TX to Ventura, CA in the next few days, and we're both very excited. I grew up in Carp/SB, but she's from rural Texas, so this will be a big change for her.

Here's the problem - her favorite kind of taco is a simple bean and cheese. (I know, I know, very Tex-mex.) So I'm looking up all the best Mexican places in Ventura in preparation, and I can't seem to find any spots that offer a plain bean and cheese taco on their menu - just burritos.

Does anybody know of a good local place that actually has bean and cheese tacos?

Or should I cut my losses and opt for the best bean and cheese burrito instead?

Up until about a month ago, I'd been very hesitant to engage with anything Nu Trek. Namely because the things I love most about Star Trek are the ways it manages to be intelligent, philosophical, and damn near literary in its exploration of complicated issues, while also presenting a hopeful, optimistic future where those issues can be answered in just ways. Everything I've seen up until now convinced me that Nu Trek cares more about action sci-fi with Trek-themed aesthetics - basically the antithesis of what I love.

However, my partner and I have been on a big sci-fi kick lately after I finally got her into TNG, and we like to have at least one comedy in our current streaming roster. So after smashing through Futurama (which was also incredible), we decided to give Lower Decks a shot. Something about the idea of Futurama-meets-Star Trek sounded really appealing.

And, well, we didn't get quite that. If anything, we ended up with something way better. So much better we smashed through it in a few weeks.

When I see other fans discuss Lower Decks, the biggest criticism that comes up is the shows' focus on 'member-berries': the idea that Lower Decks runs purely off of nostalgia for older Trek lore. So, as someone who considers himself immune to pure nostalgia-baiting, I was expecting to have to wade through some unpleasant moments focused around it.

But the thing that shocked me right away is how Lower Decks draws on Trek lore in its comedic mechanics. While callbacks are a major facet of the show, they're almost never deployed just for the sake of nostalgia-baiting. In fact, 99% of the time, the show will present a callback specifically for the purpose of offering incredibly clever-but-absurd joke about that lore which the originating series never could have gotten away with. The jokes themselves are so fun, I'm tempted to go back and watch the Trek shows I haven't yet just to get all of them (esp. Voyager).

When it's not doing that, it's often playing with general fan expectations by setting up a situation in which we feel like we're about to witness some dirty, forbidden aspect of the Federation's supposed-utopia - only for the show to pull a massive comedy bait-and-switch that explains "no actually, this is still a utopia - here's how X thing actually works".

And yet in both cases, the jokes are never really mean-spirited. The show continuously impressed me in how its sense of humor was used to present storylines that were profoundly uplifting and optimistic in ways it was hard to predict.

But I think the aspect I love most about it is how it portrays lower officer relationships in the Federation.

When we watch TNG or DS9 or TOS, we're seeing characters at the top of their game in emotional and psychological skillset and maturity, which explains why there's so little interpersonal conflict (on top of Roddenberry's whole edict about not wanting it in his shows). Lower Decks even goes so far as to make a joke about interpersonal conflict essentially being taboo in Starfleet.

Being less mature officers, though, interpersonal conflicts are a core aspect of this show, detailing situations involving characters that are still finding their place in the Fleet. And through that lens, I would argue that Lower Decks manages to provide an emotional blueprint for how futuristic, enlightened humans handle their conflicts.

There's never a situation so zany or outrageous in scope that it can't be overcome by the characters' own good intentions. Their ability to be vulnerable, honest, communicative, and compassionate is continuously portrayed as something that will trump any disagreement or fight they find themselves in. As someone who has always been very conflict-averse, I find it deeply encouraging in a way that makes me want to be more vulnerable and honest with friends and family.

I recognize that an aspect of that triumph is the fact this this is a fictional sc-fi comedy where the writers can do whatever they want. Yet I think the simple act of portraying this possible relational future is incredibly important, in the same way that TNG's goal of portraying a political utopia is important. We may not ever achieve that thing, but it still inspires hope just by imagining that we can.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading what I had to say. I've enjoyed the show so much that I just had to articulate my thoughts somewhere about how and why I love it so much.

Of course, maybe Lower Decks isn't everyone's cup of tea - that's fair too. Let me know what you think either way, I'm always happy for discussion and to hear dissenting opinions.

I've been trying to get a grasp on what would be considered the "best" sci-fi of the past few years, but am having a difficult time with it. This crowd has given me some great recommendations recently, though, so I thought this was a question best suited for y'all.

The challenge, as I see it, is twofold:

1. Sci-Fi is a vast genre to begin with, one that's increasingly fragmenting into separate sub-genres and audiences over time.
2. The major Sci-Fi awards have slowly been pushing more and more into fantasy over time (which is just not really my bag personally).

As far as what I think constitutes "best", I'm looking for one of three things:

• Any stories especially creative or groundbreaking in the scientific technology or concepts they explore, including larger societal side-effects.
  • Ex: Neuromancer, Three-Body Problem, Ancillary Justice, Foundation
• Scientific stories that are exceptionally well-written, especially on their literary and character focus.
  • Ex: Dawn (by Octavia Butler), Ursula K. Leguin's work
• Ideally, novels that manage to do both.
  • Ex: Hyperion, Dune

As far as sci-fi novels released in the 2020's, what comes to mind in these categories for you?