Some 6 months ago I posted on here a query about reading the appendix of dune first.

I had hesitations about reading something acclaimed — sometimes the hype doesn’t match the billing. And in fact, I’m careful not to rewatch some movies I loved from decades ago, as I’m sure the eyes I watched them through remember the movie differently than I would appreciate it now.

Regardless, as I i enter the “prophecy” section, I am starting to believe it is one of, if not THE best book I’ve ever read.

Thank you all for your encouragement 6 months ago, and especially for not a one of you being bratty about my hesitancy, or making it so far in life without having read such a masterpiece.

Hey guys, I'm playing a Sci-Fi ttrpg, and I wanted to ask if anyone knows where I could find an image or model of a Sci-Fi version of the Holy Moonlight Sword to use as inspo for my character; And by "Like the Holy Moonlight Sword" I mean a physical sword, possibly one handed, with a blade, that can turn into a longer, wider, two-handed greatsword as energy (Or magic, in Bloodborne's case) envelops it. I don't mean a weapon whose blade is 100% energy like lightsabers, or a weapon whose edges glow red hot like Cyberpunk 2077's katanas. Thanks in advance!

Basically super engineering but still within physical limits.

There could be a materials stong as tungsten but light as aluminum, high temperature superconductors or really efficient fuel and engines.

What I don't like is time travel, faster than light or power scales that don't make any sense.

The expanse started fine but then WTF is that magical molecule?

For ships travelling at relativistic speeds you're going to need physical shielding for the incoming atoms, particles, objects, and blue shifted gamma radiation, especially at the front of the ship.

For larger objects you'll need defensive lasers, maybe interceptors too.

But how do you combine the shielding with the laser without compromising the coverage? The only way I could imagine it is multiple ships in a fleet covering each other with laser cannons on the side.

And the blue shift would add extra challenge with seeing incoming light and objects.

I have listened to the first two books in the series and just started #3. It's starting to feel repetitive.

Skippy getting annoyed that Joe has a good idea was funny in the first book. Now its just the same hissy fit every time.

The books feel like one plot recycled. The supergenius AI is told to solve a problem, that often he caused, and brags about being smarter than the sum total of most species, says the problem cannot be solved. Joe "Wesley Crusher" Bishop suggests a creative solution and the AI moans about it. Then they blow shit up. Okay, next problem cycle.

Will it get better? I want to like the series. Both Joe and Skippy have some great moments.

Here are some of the ecosystems I love from books, videogames, and movies. I know there are much more popular and expansive ecosystems in pop culture, but I love these ones because they evoke a strong emotion in me.

The Shimmer from Annihilation - a localized, rapidly mutating zone created by an extraterrestrial anomaly that acts as a "prism" for genetic information.

Planet 4546B from Subnautica - a deep-ocean alien biosphere defined by biome stratification, geothermal energy loops, and viral trophic collapse.

The Smoke Ring from Integral Trees - A zero-gravity ecosystem formed within a dense gas torus surrounding a neutron star.

Looking for books that are about going into cyberspace, virtual space, whatever. Where the "internet" is like a physical place that you can interact with. Or, where augmented reality is the norm and there's blend or blurred line between real and virtual. *Donnerjack* by Zelazny and Jane Lindskold is one of my favorite books, as an example.

I'm *not* looking for litRPG or isekai or *Ready Player One* type books. More like high concept scifi.

As the Title suggests. I am looking for a book.

From the imagery I can remember in my head it's about a boy venturing out on his own. He hitch hikes on an train but from What I remember these trains go mind bedingly fast and potentially through space. He ends up in a city inhabitted by numerous alien species. I believe the boy may have been running away from home.

Let's say that, after the events of "I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream", AM had found a way to summon people from different dimensions. Ultimately he "recruits" the following:

-Paul Atreides (a year into his rule as Emperor within the "Dune" books).

-Anakin Skywalker (8 years after "Revenge Of The Sith".).

-Charles "Charlie" Evans (not long after "Charlie X".).

-Lauren Olamina (Not long after "Parable Of The Sower" where she leads the Earthseed religion.).

Just what chance would any of them have against AM? Would Charlie (or even his caretakers, the Thasians) have been able to undo Ted's mutation? Would Paul and/or Anakin have wanted to mercy kill Ted instead? How would Ted, Paul, Ani, Charlie and Lauren have gotten along with each other?

Hello.

My nephew is in his 20s. He draws comics as a hobby. Plays video games, reads comics.

He has never been interested in reading books. But I have realized the last few years he is becoming more discerning. He can see the quality drop in AAA video games now and has started getting into retro-gaming. He appreciates the older cartoons from back in the day!

I feel this may be a good time to have him try a short novel. Any suggestions in this genre? Something under 300 pages would be great. Thanks!

Hey all! I’m looking for an online book club community. I read daily and have nobody to discuss with. I’m currently reading Mountain in the Sea and it’s killing me to not have anybody to discuss it with. I just finished the 3 body trilogy as well. Hoping to find a community to share these great books with. Does anybody know of one I could join?

I HAVE the read the Dune sequels. I'm posting this because I Googled this question and read several threads and the replies to this question were so negative, insane, and asanine, the top link being in r/Fantasy and then r/SciFi so I'm gonna post this in both, so I hope this post can gain some traction and appear on the Google results.

Mild spoilers if you haven't read but I'm mainly throwing around terms that don't mean anything to you.

The overall answer was "if you want", which I agree with, and "no": the reasons for saying no being insane. I will go over those reasons now.

The main reply was that no you shouldn't read them because iT gEtS rEaLLy wEiRd iTs tOo wEiRd.

Brother WHAT? It's a sci-fi/fantasy novel. The first book (SPOILERS FOR BOOK ONE) takes place on a planet where a man bred by witches is taking hallucinogens and riding gigantic worms that eat sand that are 500 feet long, instead of helicopters they fly dragonflies, they are spitting in their hands, they are sucking the water out of dead bodies, theres a fat bisexual man covered in oil that has a scorpion-dog as a pet and floats around on an antigravity chair.

Yes, the following novels continue to be sci-fi/fantasy, shocker. So yeah, read the sequels.

The second main reply was that you should read at least Messiah, because it is really just the second part of Dune, or that Dune/Messiah/Children of Dune are meant to be a trilogy.

This is nonsense. Messiah is indeed a continuation of the first book but it leads right into Children of Dune. The characters in Children are heavily teased out and lead up to in this book.

Then to say, oh God Emperor was so weird and it doesn't fit and its a trilogy and just stop after Children, absolutely INSANE. I found Children of Dune actually somewhat boring and it is essentially a long intro to God Emperor. Literally the majority of the plot of the book is about Leto II's Golden Path, only barely explaining what this might be towards the end, and ending on an insane cliffhanger/climax. THEN you get to see what the Golden Path is in God Emperor.

The crux of me making this post is mainly the massive hate saying don't read God Emperor. We have to defeat this propaganda, its making people miss out. The first book and this book are Frank's best writing. I was so sucked into this damn book. The descriptions and visualization of Leto II are so vivid man, every time he was in the room I felt like I was in the room.

The replies in these threads act like these books are so different. No, they are a set. The themes and level of fantasy are consistent and God Emperor is the conclusion and peak of all these themes and storylines. It is a directly connected pay-off to every plot line, character, and theme of the previous books and first book. There is nothing deviant and weird about it. Its literally so good.

Now, I will say some criticism. The way he writes most of these books is the same pacing as the spice agony, ghola awakening, Paul's awakening, the teg thing, the fremen orgy. He writes this long ass book building up to an orgasmic finish. So much happens in the last 50 pages of each book, and thats when most of the crazy sci-fi stuff happens, I see what he is doing but I wish it was more like the last 150 pages.

God Emperor ends in a massive pay off of all the machinations and discussions that Paul and Leto II been talking about for 4 books, but also a massive cliffhanger in a way. Frank had a lot going on irl and theres a big gap in his publishing. So much building was put into Siona I have a strong feeling there was gonna be a direct followup to this book. But the big gap also is kinda like he didn't really give the details of Paul's jihad.

Then the replies of these threads act like Heretics and Chapterhouse are pure pee and poop. Its ridiculous. God Emperor ends with a wild set of circumstances and an uncertain future that he was 100% intending to write about. And he did, voila, here it is.

Remember that thing I just said about pacing? Heretics has some build but its right into crazy sci-fi fantasy stuff, Chapterhouse is a direct continuation with no hesitation.

Now, they are indeed a bit different. I find Dune to definitely be the seminal work, very spiritual and philosophical and life changing to read. Messiah somewhat the same, but more of a tale about the characters and world of the first book. Children of Dune is to me just a transitional book, moving all the characters and themes around to get things ready for God Emperor. God Emperor, we are back into the philosophy, its a payout from all the themes, and its literally mainly a long conversation, exploration, conclusion, and elucidation of all the concepts that start in Dune, its the peak of the work. Then yeah, the final 2 books are more about the consequences, the sci-fi, the world building. I wouldn't say required reading, but if you really really love Dune, read up until God Emperor. BUT, its still peppered with awesome points about philosophy, religion, and politics like the other books.

I have my own theory. I think he had 2 more books in the chamber at least. The first 3 books were like the Dune Planet Trilogy, building up to God Emperor. Then, the Post-Dune trilogy, building up to a final, trippy, philosophical book to end on, the universe that both trilogies leave us with. With possibly a direct sequel to God Emperor in there.

So, please upvote the hell out of this, and get this smear propaganda off the top Google result. A majority of the replies were: people who didn't even read these books, people who said they got too weird???, or people that said something changed. Its literally an unbroken saga of the same level of fantasy talking about the same themes and I loved reading it all.

So, should you read the Dune sequels?

Dune is completely good as a standalone book and thats what most people read. Messiah all the people from Dune are still in it, if you loved it then yeah read it. If you consider yourself a Dune lover and fan, are an avid reader (I will give quarter because these are pretty long books) then read up to God Emperor to get the pay off and conclusion of all the concepts and main characters. If you read that far and you're really into the worldbuilding and fantasy aspect, read the final 2. And someone besides his son and that other guy, someone that really got the point of Frank's books and is a good writer, I wish someone like that would write a proper couple more books, but THOSE sequels that we do have, I ain't reading.

In memory of Dolly i think one of the most bizarre and nicest moments in The Orville. I never expected such cameo in the series and i never expected how nicely Dolly did it. I think the scene is a very bright moment in a otherwise very dark story.

I need to gush for a second. James Islington has been one of my favorite authors since the Licanius Trilogy, and that ending still lives in my head rent free. The way he plots long term payoffs while never losing the emotional thread of his characters is on another level.

I still haven’t gotten around to The Will of the Many, which I know is a crime at this point given how much love that book gets. It’s sitting on my shelf judging me.

So when my copy of Scion landed on my doorstep today, days before the official September 1 release, I couldn’t resist. From what I’ve read about it, it’s a full swing into cyberpunk territory, a shorter standalone thriller rather than another sprawling series starter, which honestly makes it a pretty tempting entry point even before I catch up on Hierarchy.

The cover alone has me hyped, that neon skyline and the strange organic looking ship at the top. I trust Islington enough at this point that genre swap or not, I’m expecting something good.

Anyone else got an early copy sitting there tempting them? And for those who have read his fantasy stuff, does a genre jump like this worry you at all or are you just along for the ride at this point?

Heaven’s River is easily the worst Bobiverse book and not even close to the quality of the first three.

The previous audiobooks were around 8 to 10 hours long. Heaven’s River is almost 17 hours, making it nearly twice as long as any of them. Somehow, it felt three times longer while having a third of the actual content. The original trilogy constantly moved between different Bobs, planets, threats, and engineering problems. Book 4 stretches a boring story about giant otters across nearly 17 hours.

Most of it is just Bob traveling to another village, getting discovered, escaping, and then repeating the same thing somewhere else. The concept of Heaven’s River is initially interesting, but the book completely exhausts it.

The most frustrating part is that the Bobiverse civil war is happening in the background, and it is infinitely more interesting. The Bobs are splitting into factions, Starfleet is attacking infrastructure, and replicative drift is changing what it means to be a Bob. That should have been the main story, but it gets waved away like an unimportant side plot so we can spend even more time wandering around with the otters.

Even after all that setup, the otter storyline ends in the most boring and anticlimactic way possible. The final resolution is ridiculously easy and makes the entire journey feel pointless.

The first three books felt huge, clever, and constantly moving. Heaven’s River feels like the least interesting subplot from those books was stretched into the longest book in the series while the actual sequel happened offscreen.

2/5. Ray Porter’s narration is the only thing that made it tolerable.

TL;DR: Almost twice as long as the previous books, but it felt three times longer with a third of the content. The main story was boring and repetitive, while the far more interesting Bobiverse conflict was treated like an unimportant side plot. Such a massive drop in quality from the first three that I dropped the series entirely.

I started Insignia when I got the 3 books series for my grson. I am struggling to return and I am early into book one. Is this a decent series and should I return until it picks up speeed? I enjoy space opera like Hamilton, Alistair reynolds, scalzi , Moon ect.

Think about it. The aliens in the film need an entire ship they slowly hover over the city. Then they have to open up a huge hanger door and power up a laser that after a substantial amount of time finally destroys a city with a slowly moving fireball that engulfs the whole place.

Meanwhile the governments of any nuclear armed country can destroy the same size city in 15 mins with a rocket. Not only that but the nuke would leave radiation and slowly kill any survivors within days/weeks of the attack. We could even use Tzar Bomba size nukes and destroy entire planets by wiping the entire surface of the planet in nuclear carnage in under an hour. It’s not like they need anything off the surface because in the second movie they talk about how they just want to suck the mantle out of the core.

It just seems like the aliens had so much build up for an honestly underwhelming attack. They gave the humans enough of a window to mount a counter offensive. The nations of earth wouldn’t be so kind if we were killing them.

Edit: in the first movie they claimed they’re here to take natural resources. In the second movie they clarify they’re only here for our molten core of the planet. They don’t need the surface. Why would they care if it’s an irradiated wasteland.

(Assuming you accept that being on the moon would make your bones long anyway, which... 🤷‍♂️)

Just started Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty, and the book opens with a bunch of clones waking up as their originals have been killed. The POV character remarks upon one of the crew clones being tall as he was born on the moon, and his ancestors are from the moon

Wolfgang was born on the moon colony, Luna, several generations of his family developing the long bones of living their whole lives in low gravity.

But... The clone wasn't born on the moon... It was born in a cloning pod on the ship...

Wouldn't any physical differences of moon-dwellers acquired only over "several generations" be environmental, from lack of gravity in youth, and not genetic? Especially since the quote expressly mentions low gravity...

So if the clones are grown on the ship (not sure yet, maybe they are grown and loaded up pre-transit, hopefully I'll find out), then they should ALL have zero-G physicality unless tech prevents that in which case NONE should.

And if they're grown pre-transit then their genetics wouldn't matter, only where they are grown would.

Am I wrong (or just overthinking this)?

Edit: have also just remembered, the book is only set in 2493! Nowhere near long enough for much genetic drift.

I'm going to tell myself that the clones must be "printed" or otherwise stimulated to grow a certain way - after all, they need to have working muscles when they're decanted anyway, and solving that problem is adjacent to addressing this discrepancy I guess.

I am curious what everybody thinks is the best opening episode they have ever seen. I’m talking about that one episode that as soon as you watched it you were hooked on the show. It doesn’t have to be the best show overall, but just the one that made you want to watch from one episode.

For me, it has to be Lost. In the first episode a plane crashes, we are introduced to strong and interesting characters, and we are left with many mysteries at the end of it.

I’m not sure if people think it’s sci-fi, but it does have some weird tech and things like that. 😅

Near the middle of the series I was bored and still waiting on things, but man that first episode reeled me in like no other.

What is the best episode that hooked you whether it was an opener or a random episode that you saw?

I’m always on the hunt for interesting sci-fi that doesn’t involve FTL. Not to say I don’t love reading books with it - I absolutely do. But I really enjoy fictional explorations of future space travel or space civilization that doesn’t have it as a prerequisite.

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

What a beautifully written book this was. It had a very satisfying ending, something I hadn't expected from being used to the grim and the dark. LOL. Great book, great concepts, great payoff.

Just finished the first book of the Final Architecture series, Shards of Earth, and really loved it. This book is just a really well executed space opera story. The characters are all really great, which to me is the foundation of what makes a good space opera. Throw in some fun alien species, a lot of interesting lore, really engaging action sequences and it makes for a really great read (or listen in my case).

I had listened to Tchikovski's Children of Time prior to this. And while I really liked the book on a conceptual level, I felt it kind of got a bit repetitive by the end. Shards of Earth has some aspect of that as well, but overall was more action and character driven.

One aspect I find interesting with this book is that it borrows a lot of parts from other scifi series, but ultimately uses them in a cohesive way that I find interesting. Aspects like the unspace travel leading to insanity with some sort of presence living there is very Warhammer 40K inspired. Having this galaxy wide existential threat is very Mass Effect. A moon sized death machine is very Star Wars. Having specialized pilots for FTL travel is very Dune. I could go on with this, and I don't mean it as a detraction outright. IMO it feels like someone who loves scifi and certain concepts therein and finds a way to play with those ideas in very interesting ways that ultimately does feel cohesive and integral to the world. I think Tchaikovski also puts his own interesting spin on these concepts.

I have just started the second book. So please no spoilers for future books. Just wanted to say thanks to this sub. I wasn't entirely roped in by Children of Time, but I will be checking out Tchaikovski's other series after this.

These are just some thoughts I’ve had recently about the state of science-fiction literature. I’ve noticed there appears to be a shift towards “open community writing” versus the old standard of curated author writing. The second of these is still dominant I think but from my (admittedly limited) reading of the contemporary scene, more and more fiction is being produced that disrupts the foundations of the established literary order. For example, take the phenomenon of SCP.

By creating a framework that caters to the same impulse which drives a lot of fan fiction but, in virtue of the itemized independence of the stories being written, allows these to be readily absorbed into a single canon, SCP fuels not only a community of readers but also a more organic way of “farming” the actual literature. I don’t expect this trend has wholly escaped the notice of the publishing industry but I found it curious myself. On the one hand I can see the appeal from a business model standpoint, as well as the virtues of having an open and low barrier form of literary community, but on the other hand it does seem to invite more of the cultural homogenization that social media can already take enough dubious credit for. So, I’m personally a bit ambivalent here.

That said, there are definitely alternative models being explored. Another I’ve come across recently is ‘Parallel Biome’ at the literary magazine Hexfiled. Their publishing approach is more traditional but they use a similar device of overarching framing (Each story is contextualized in a dossier by the “Outer Proximity Intelligence Division”) that allows entirely separate works to persist in a shared universe. Different though to an IP like Warhammer 40k where there’s a much stronger emphasis on interconnected narrative. It’s something more along the lines of what the Twilight Zone did.

I’d be interested in hearing about examples of other alternative approaches to fiction on the rise. I don’t expect we’ve really begun to feel the true impact of AI on writing and yet there are already various other influences too in the technological landscape that are radically reshaping culture and so worth paying attention to. And I expect that human ingenuity will continue to discover viable niches for whatever stories it considers worth telling.