r/printSF

About 6 months ago, I read Princess Of Mars and really liked it. But there's barely anything else like the Barsoom books-I know there's other stuff out there, but there's rather slim pickings.

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After more than 4000 head to head matchups of all the books I've read (to get Elo-like rankings), Asimov reigns supreme. No surprise for me; I've read 11 of his books, Foundation series being one of my favorites of all time (with the Robot detective novels not too far behind).

I acknowledge he's far from a perfect writer (and dated of course) -- but something about the way he tells stories holds a soft spot for me. I've joked that each of his novels is almost like a long drawn-out "court room scene"; as if he just extrapolated on the dialogue of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (for an entire novel, ha).

A few of my other favorites pictured (Murakami for magical realism, Abercrombie for fantasy, and of course Le Guin and Vonnegut for more classic literary scifi).

Who is at the top of your list? Which author(s) do you have a strong affinity for? Find yourself reading everything they publish (the good and the bad)

I’m reading This Is How You Lose the Time War, and the modern cultural references are inexcusable.

These are supposed to be hyper-futuristic time travelers, and this is an actual line from one of Red’s letters: “Ha-ha, Blueser. Your mission objective’s in another castle.” (A Super Mario reference in this book, why??) There’s also “sorry-not-sorry,” “ain’t no mountain high enough,” etc.

Anyone else bump up against these modern insertions? Really takes me out of it, especially for a book that’s supposed to be beautiful poetry.

I wanted to read that book as a sci-fi lover. It is important to say that English is not my first language, I speak it fluently though. And I bought the book in English. But, for instance, the chapters seem to not be in order ? Or the table of element is not ?

So, without spoilers (i have to finish the Castle by Kafka before reading it, give me maybe one more week) what can you tell me to help me navigate through the book. I may be wrong but it seems quite complicated to read.

Hi. Can I ask as an around 70 years old guy with a pretty variable mash up of a memory if anyone can help me with the above title. I think I remember that it features a shopping queue where the more fashionable people pay a premium for clothing etc which disintegrates and requires replacing versus the poor having more durable items. This could be my mix-up and confusion. Any suggestions would help greatly. Thank you, John

Let me preface this review by saying that I generally loved this series. I love how we focus on one main character with a slew of likeable supporting characters, though I would've loved to see some of them recurring.

I love Halley and Andrew's story. Thank god Kloos didn't make him cheat on Halley (even though he tried to make a thing with Hansen). I would've stopped reading then and there.

Would've loved to see more of Dmitry and we never saw Maksim. Would have been nice to see Unwerth again, maybe should've included him in Arcadia. Agent Greene subplot didn't get a satisfying end.

I like his portrayal of the development of military technology somewhat similar to our own before the Ukrainian war. A slow but steady improvement of proven technology. It parallels a lot of real world development of the m16 to the m4 and now m27. While drone dropped munitions have been used by ISIS and other terror organizations in the past, wide spread use of FPV drones wasn't a big thing before 2022. I don't blame Kloos for missing that development in warfare.

Now on to the bad.

Book 8, while a good story on its own seems a bit rushed and anticlimactic. We didn't get to see Andrew grow from his mistakes despite him showing remorse most of the time. >! Didn't listen to Harper advice to at least reign in the doctor when she was trying to get the last sample, which arguably caused the deaths of Mills and the SEAL team. We didn't even get to read about the payoff of their sacrifice! !<

Book 8 should've ended when >! they got back to Willoughby!< and another book to cap it all off for a lengthy epilogue. They don't even need to defeat the Lankiea, just a satisfying closure to Andrew's saga. Maybe the effects of covid got to Kloos when he was writing this book >! (referenced by the time dilation where the world moved forward but for some they feel stuck in 2x20) !<. Maybe he wrote it this way to parallel Andrew and Halley's service in the Corps. Like them, we enjoyed this series for almost 10 years, like them, we barely know more about the Lankies than we did 10 years ago, like them there was no satisfying ending but with no choice but to move on.

Seems a bit like Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet. Will have to wait until he finishes Alex Archer's story before going back to the main plot.

Edit: We didn't even know what he did with the Lazarus Brigade. That part really deserved more than a few paragraphs.

I've had a few issues with the "New Space Opera" style, but the biggest one is that it forgets the "opera" part. Hyperion, Ancillary Justice, Revelation Space-all of these felt short of my wants because they felt so mundane and quiet. When I read space opera, that's not what I want! Spectacular heroes! Bombastic space battles! Epic narratives! SAGAS OF A THOUSAND SUNS! Y'know, that sort of thing. So what are your suggestions?

Examples of what I'm looking for: Lensmen, anything Peter F Hamilton writes, Final Architecture, Sun Eater, Bobiverse, Deathstalker, Dune, and Edmond Hamilton's stuff like Star Kings and Battle For The Stars.

EDIT: Please read the full post before replying.

I love love LOVE the Revelation Space universe. I have read all the books and all the short stories (for some of which I had to go to some lengths to acquire the collections they came in).

Whenever I want to recommend them to people though I am stuck explaining the vast and intricate worldbuilding first, but come short on the characters. This is weird, right? I don't think I can describe a single one like you would describe a friend.

Everybody is driven, relentless, focussed, skilled, somewhat ethically grey, somewhat nihilistic. They all keep secrets. Maybe they have some remorse over some previous bad actions they have taken.

I couldn't describe any major character in here as "likes pets" or "loves romance telenovelas" or "is a dashing rogue" or "gets flustered around the person they have a crush on". Who is the Han Solo here? Or the Harry Potter, or the John McClane? The person you could relate with.

Nobody seems to have a hobby or interest outside their main drive in life, or their current objective. You know, stuff you could say about characters in other pieces of media, or real people.

This is unique to Revelation Space, right? I can't think of another collection of works where characterization barely matters, and the grandness of the universe takes precendent.

I always hear about his stuff and I’m curious about where folks think I should start

Thanks!

The list is as follows:
Light by Harrison
BOTNS gene Wolfe
Vonnegut - cats cradle and breakfast of champions
Octavia butler - dawn and parable of the sower
Philip dick the man in the high castle
Greg Egan - diaspora, axiomatic (short story collection)
Leguin birthday of the world and other stories
Revelation space by Reynolds
Surface detail by Ian Banks
Slow Gods by Claire North
Embassytown by China Mieville
Noumenon by Marina Lostetter
Dark Intelligence by Neil Asher

If you’re seeing a book thats a favourite of yours, or just one you’ve recommended in this sub recently, chances are I got it on your recommendation.

I am considering my reading order for the summer - which work well as companion novels, or which ones provide an interesting palette cleanser, chaser, etc. After denser reads.

I’ll be reading Axiomatic and Birthday of the world alongside the other novels.

Would love to hear people’s opinions of these books, a reading order recommendation would be very appreciated.

Please use spoilers: add > !And ! < before and after the text you wanna cover, just without the spaces after the exclamation mark. >!Like so!<

Thanks!

Just posting this because I’m curious. What SF titles (hard, soft, neither, within genre bounds or extruding beyond into Fantasy, Horror, or LitFic) do you think have the stuff to be reprinted an SF Masterwork? Feel free to be as objective or subjective as you like.

I just finished the audiobook of Exordia on a long drive. Wow, this book is a wild ride. It was uncomfortably visceral, intelligent, and has some really crazy ideas but still felt believable and self-consistent.

One thing that jumped out at me was how much care went into the writing of the human weaponry and military side of things. The amount of detail that went into the descriptions of the modern human equipment and military communications was really refreshing. There were a lot of details about weapon handling and function that made me think "wow, this guy actually knows how to load a pistol and how a rifle works". It is a small thing but I think realistic and accurate writing of real-world weapons really helps sell the experience when you have some exotic alien weapons and destruction flying around at the same time. He also did a great job of using this to add more depth and believability to the characters. Badass professional soldier X effortlessly and naturally moves and uses their weapon while civilian Y may fumble and make common mistakes which real life inexperienced people actually do. I was honestly surprised when I looked up Seth Dickinson's background and it didn't involve some sort of military service or adjacent profession.

I'm far less knowledgeable on the complex math and physics side of things, but it also felt very smartly written and believable while mixing in the fictional ideas.

Does anyone have any other recommendations for books that nail the "military" aspect of Military Sci-Fi?

Hi, can anyone please recommend me a few shorter Sci-Fi books?

I'd like some palate cleansers after reading the expanse, the inhibitor sequence and the commonwealth saga back to back, because I am done with big series for a while right now. ( Not to mention that I kinda alternate between fantasy and sci Fi and I've just caught up on the cosmere before those ).

I am open to any period of Sci Fi. To give you an idea as to what I am looking for, I am looking for books like Tau Zero, the fountains of paradise, rendezvous with rama, childhoods end, the end of eternity, flowers for Algernon, PK Dick stuff, necromancer etc etc.

I am pretty caught up on the BIG classic ( le Guin, the big three ), but not on Poul Anderson and many others

Thank you in advance!

Amazon recommended me an upcoming book, Red State Mars, which seemed right up my alley - a hard military/thriller SF about a planetary invasion. But I was given enormous pause when I noticed that the "customers who bought this also bought" section had Camp of the Saints (infamously hyper racist novel that is a third bible for the far right, akin to the Turner Diaries) as its top result. Doing more research, the author of this has far right libertarian politics

I'm a big fan of military SF where the authors are generally conservative and their characters reflect that, I'm a big boy. But at the same time I'm not interested in financially rewarding somebody if their politics are sniffing camp of the saints territory

For those who have read Corcoran's other works, is this guy closer to a neo nazi or more of a garden variety libertarian?

Howdy folks,

Looking for recommendations similar to Frontlines.

I am specifically interested in series focused on male soldiers fighting aliens or other soldiers on the battlefield. Would greatly prefer the women in the series to serve in non combat roles and easy on the eyes hehe. Looking for that male centered and oriented military science fiction series. Would also enjoy reading authors with prior service. Thanks in advance! Hoo rah.

Prefer ongoing series. Hot chick's in support roles and toxic masculine dudes getting the job done!

Hello! I just finished Clarke’s Rendezvous With Rama and loved it! Can you recommend any other more modern titles with big dumb objects and a sense of wonder? I already know of Eon by Greg Bear. Thank you.

EDIT: Many thanks for the suggestions! I have a lot to look through now.

tyler tried to deceive the trisolarans into thinking humans had hidden military strength. rey diaz threatened to blow up the sun along with everyone in it. hines tried to rewire human psychology so soldiers would fight like they couldn't lose. three completely different approaches, all of them failed.

the pattern is obvious when you look at them together: every plan required an advanced civilization with centuries to study human behavior to believe something that wasn't quite true. that's a bad foundation for deterrence.

luo ji's dark forest threat didn't need the trisolarans to believe anything about humans. it only needed them to believe in their own worldview. they couldn't dismiss the dark forest law. they'd built their entire civilization around it. there was nothing to bluff.

the wallfacer section of the dark forest is kind of underrated because luo ji overshadows everything. but The Three Failed Wallfacers being there makes the whole thing work. you can't appreciate what luo ji found without seeing exactly why every other approach was doomed.

Apart from the big names, what are some of the less obvious yet reputable magazines (print, online) that literary agents still might read?

Esp. for sci-fi &/or horror?

Ideally, I'm looking for pubs. that are routinely open to unsolicited subs., if not year-round.

Fyi, I'm asking this b/c I believe I've done some homework, but still at a loss. . . . Associations like the BSFA and SFWA as well as The Splintered Mind blog have shared some useful resources. (Of course the contributor notes listing other pubs. are helpful, too.) But even a lot of the award nominated short fiction pubs. look very under the radar. This versus more professional pubs. that are either completely closed gates to unsolicited fiction (Tor.com / Reactor) or w/ very narrow, sporadic subs. windows.

After Asimov's, Analog, and Clarkesworld, there just aren't (m)any notable, bigger market (esp. decent paying) pubs. consistently open to unsolicited subs. (AFAIK.)

P.S. Apologies if I'm describing the water here--if this is simply the way it is, what with an increasingly contracting literary "marketplace." I'm just more familiar w/ lit. journals than speculative fiction pubs.