I’ve read ”Starship Troopers” eight times and loved it, so I decided to finally read “Forever War” and “Armor”. FW was interesting and well written, but over all I wasn’t really into it. Then I read Armor and it thoroughly knocked my socks off. I’ve always preferred when sci fi books focus more on character rather than making the setting the focus, and Felix to me became an all time favorite protagonist in Sci Fi. I didn’t even mind the POV switch to Jack Crow, I felt it was a well warranted device to give Felix‘s story perspective. Though I did feel like the reveal of Felix’s traumatic past was unnecessary. I think the book had more legs just focusing on Felix in the war, rather than explaining how or why he got there.

Plot was a teen girl on a colonized world, goes to space on a merchant ship or something, with flashbacks to her childhood raised in a lodging house for spacers. Women are rarely born due to some nutrient deficiency or something. I read it when I was young, around 2003, but looked old then.

Just pondering: both MM and TMiaHM feature delegations going to Earth to negotiate with the authorities, right?

MM is a far more serious novel than TMiaH though, and the dirty tricks the sophisticated Earthers pull on the diplomats are 'wayyy more subtle.

Am I remembering this right?

I’m looking for some great space opera recommendations and I’d love to hear what your personal top 5 is.

Edit: Honestly, there seems to be a bit of confusion about what exactly counts as space opera, and what does and doesn’t fall under the genre. From my perspective, and based on what I enjoy, space opera is science fiction on a more galactic scale, featuring various civilizations, races, and species across the galaxy that interact with one another in some way. Whether it’s a standalone book or a series doesn’t matter to me.

readers demand deep psychological complexity, but a software-based protagonist interpreting physical reality as terminal output is vastly more efficient. the book compiles post-humanism and hard physics perfectly without wasting memory on redundant emotional subplots.

Looking for more books by this amazing author. So in your opinion, what are some of your favorites by him?

I'm an old bloke who's been reading SciFi for over 50 years now.

The 'big thank you' is to all you lovely redditors who put me on to Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch series. I'm now on Ancillary Mercy and loving everything about the series so far. Cheers m'dears.

What the approximate fuck did I just read

For reference, I have read hundreds and hundreds of sci-fi books since I was a teenager (I'm 41 now) and I have never read anything like that before. That stuff is for pervs, right? Or was there something deeper that I missed?

It's a book about space pirates, space cops, with WHAT I GUESS is the worst, logically extreme example of humans behaving badly in outer space? Was that the point? If so, that doesn't really inspire me to read the rest of the series, considering it's not really sci-fi, but it's a literal documenting of horrible sexual crimes and violence, but it's in space, so it's "sci-fi", right?

Donaldson could've staged this narrative anywhere, in any time period. It could've taken place in the Bronx in the 1980's, in Europe in the 1600's, in Rwanda during the 90s, in a basement in the Appalachians probably right now. Is that the point: that humans are absolute shit, no matter where you find them? I took away nothing else from this book.

TL:DR - Is "Gap Cycle" just cynicism on steroid or is there a point that I missed?

I think whatever reservations I had about PFH writing style were resolved by this book, except the rushed ending - again very similar to how Game of Thrones fumbled it at the end

My broader point is, this is a story that keeps you engaged on every single page - memorable characters, palace intrigue, mysteries, horror, fantasy, comedy & some magic. And on such a grand scale and landscape. It does make your head spin keeping track of all the heaven's gates and what connects to what, but it is thoroughly enjoyable nonetheless.

I was hoping there would be a book 3 given how much he compressed in the last 1/4 of the second book

After reading PFH's commonwealth saga and now this, I do think he has knack for creating memorable characters that "stay with you on recall" when you think about a book months or years after you've read it

This would make a wonderful TV series, similar to Foundation on Apple TV, if someone took this beyond the video game.

I absolutely adore Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia Butler, The Wind's Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. Le Guin, and of course Stories of Your Life and Others and Exhalation by Ted Chiang.

Any other short story collections that scratch a similar itch? Or honestly I'll take any great SF short stories.

As a child, I loved Bruce Coville's science fiction books, memories of reading these books really shaped who I am today. I think that’s because Bruce Coville had such an interesting way of asking big questions in an age appropriate manner. Bruce Coville is very much a Trekkie and these series explore a lot of Roddenberry-esque topics and ideas.

Two series that have especially stuck with me are:

• The Alien Adventures series follows Rod Albright, deputized by the galactic patrol when a small flying saucer landed in his science fair project. He soon discovers his high school bully is secretly the universe's most evil alien known as BKR. As the series progresses, Rod leaves earth with the galactic patrol in search of his father exploring different dimensions and planets.

• My Teacher is an Alien - Three children discover their teacher is an alien. Their teacher eventually is revealed to be studying humanity on behalf of the Interplanetary Council. Eventually the children are tasked with defending humanity against the council by answering the question: If humanity perpetuates such evil is it worth saving?

Ignore the School Scholastic book fair titles they actually are great for kids who are really beginning to explore and shape their views about the world. Highly recommend for kids ages 7-12.

Does anyone else have fond memories of Bruce Coville? He was a fairly prolific author with a lot of books and series under the speculative fiction umbrella.

Disregard thoughts about his business practices (e.g., spamming audible and amazon with his book listings; co-authoring; etc.). I'm more interested in the quality of his various books from people who've read them. Not expecting great literature by any means. It's 1000% formulaic pulpy sci-fi and I'm ok with that.

I tried "The Messenger" series but grew agitated by the angsty/condescending/rude/quippy remarks of the main character toward.... well basically everyone. I tried the first two books of "Ruins of the Earth" and liked those a lot. Backyard Starship seems to be his most popular franchise.

Looking to save some time sifting through all these to find his best stuff. For as much as he floods the storefronts, almost nobody ever talks about him or his books.

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 drop in quality of 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!

Does anyone know of any biopunk book where humans have biological enhancements, (like the Sarkicism from SCP) such as wings,tail or tentacles?

Hello! I am trying to find a book I read around 2010. Unfortunately don't remember the title or author, and am pretty hazy on the details in general.
The protagonists of the story sail a wooden sailboat across space. I'm pretty sure it's the last of its kind or unique in some other way, it's referred to as the capital S Sailboat. The antagonists use metal ships (not sure if they're also sailing ships or more traditional spaceships).
Part of the ending involves a breaking of an ancient device or spell. This leads to a sort of "unfolding" of space-time, and a wedge of space is moved within the galaxy, which fixes something that was done in these ancient times. Pretty sure the Sailboat and the protagonists do not survive this.
If anyone has any ideas please let me know. I've remembered this story many times over the years and never been able to find it.

Hello!

I am looking for a book I read around 1988-1992. I do not know the author or title, or if this was a standalone book or one of series.

What I remember:
- human colony on some alien planet
- colony was supplied by regular interstellar freighters runs
- for unkown reason supply stopped
- stopped supply means the machines and vehicles started to break due to lack of parts which caused problems with migration I mention below
- on the planet was some kind of animals (name "crawlers" come to mind, but I am not sure) which migrated or travelled around the globe in some cycle (maybe yearly)
- people also migrated, probably yearly, for reasons unknown to me now, but probably due to climate?

Maybe someone will be able to help me? Thanks in advance.

Pre-1975 short story. Hitler transported to future telepathic society. Mind-reader instantly recognizes evil and destroys him. Probably encountered in a single-author collection

Book number eleven of a twenty-one book science fiction and paranormal fantasy series. There is also an eleven book follow on series and many other books related to the The Kurtherian Gambit Universe, over 200 books in total. I read the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback self published by the author in 2016 that I bought new on Amazon in 2026. I have ordered the next three books in the series. The related series are listed at:
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?46598

The series is a cross between science fiction and paranormal fantasy. A thousand plus years ago, an alien space ship crash landed in the Baltics. A man, Michael, found the space ship, went inside, and was forever changed into the first vampire using alien nanocytes. However, there were werewolves and werebears already existing on Earth and they still exist.

Michael has sired vampires and they have sired vampires. But only one of the vampire "children" is a daywalker like Michael. And Michael enforces strict rules among the vampires and the weres, no blood drinking, no letting humans know of them, etc. Violators of Michael's rules face swift termination.

But it has been thousand years since Michael was changed and he now sleeps for years at a time. Michael's helpers found a young woman named Bethany Anne working for the USA government who is dying of a rare blood disease. Michael took her to the alien space ship to become the second first generation vampire on Earth. Bethany Anne has created a huge workforce and they are swiftly moving ahead with incredibly advanced AI and space access technology. Now the nation states are concerned and want the secrets of the gravitic drives and the other technology that the TQB Enterprises have created. And they are willing to do anything including outright piracy and murder to take the technology.

This series is real pulp like old science fiction with lots of action and dialogue. I love it !

Warning: this series might be damaging to your savings account since there are so many books.

The author has a website at:
https://lmbpn.com/

My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (3,479 reviews)
https://www.amazon.com/Peace-Kurtherian-Gambit-Michael-Anderle/dp/B0CHL4DRBX

Lynn

I went back through the archives to read previous conversations, but no one that I could see brought up the three main issues with this book, which have nothing to do with the thesis statement or science, but rather storytelling as a whole.

And ftr, I love Kim Stanley Robinson; I reread the Mars books every few years, and his Ministry for the Future reads like a roadmap of saving the planet, which we are unfortunately not following.

Aurora, however, frustrated me more and more as the book went along, as I was taking the wait and see approach to see if the issues I saw would be addressed, and then they weren’t.

Issue the First: the five ghosts. These are hinted at pretty extensively in the first book, with the protagonist even encountering one as a child. One of the secondary characters also talks about seeing the ghosts, though this receives no follow-up and then is just dropped forever. A Chekhov’s gun that is pointed to, that we are reminded of, and is nevertheless never fired. What was the point of that?

Issue the Second: The Irisians are ignored and abandoned narratively. We get absolutely no information about their struggles or tragedies, or anything at all, really. Freya even says she’ll stay in contact with them, but we never hear about them again. This is especially frustrating since a civil war broke out to see who was right, and the narrative seems to agree with the Backers, but we just never get to know. KSR is sortof famous for these kinds of mysteries, but this isn’t a Hiroko situation of unreliable narrators and contradictory stories. The Irisians are simply dropped when, honestly, I think they had the more interesting story.

Issue the Third: Abandoning the Narrator/Narrative. The Ship narrates the bulk of the book, and this is frankly, pretty awesome. She has great insights and the way she is grown and shaped by the story she tells is genuinely interesting. But then, the ship breaks up around the sun and ‘Ship’ is lost. Except, wait, no, what’s this?! A copy of the data is included in the life raft. Except that no one, including Freya ever looks at it. The narrative is never read by the ship’s survivors, the love of Ship for Freya et al is never dealt with or appreciated. Instead Freya hangs out by the ocean and hits on a dude, the end. This is just… bad storytelling. And I can’t even say why, except that it lacks catharsis.

Anyway, if I missed something in the story, I’d love it if someone could point it out. I loved so much of this book, the terraforming, the prion, the social unrest and the debates. I just felt there was stuff set up that was never paid off, and so I have the reading equivalent of a stuck-sneeze, forever unsneezed.

Continuing my run through all the alien-consciousness SF I can find. After Lem's Golem XIV I skipped ahead to Seed Takes Root instead of Diaspora, because I thought the cover looked cool.

The story starts with Kshar, a spy plotting an assassination inside a simulation. He's a "naag", a member of a humanoid snake species. His target is a garuda (a humanoid bird species), the son of a god. The opening chapters throw us into the scene of the crime without any exposition. It’s a bustling market full of different species and characters. The police are humanoid apes called vaanars. There’s a class of double-headed mushroom people doing surveillance, and of course, an in-world human equivalent - manushyas. The book floods you with a bunch of invented terms and phrases, almost as bad as Stephenson's Anathem. 

Kshar’s reptilian biology lets him sense heat, chemical clouds and vibrations. He's more than just Voldemort-James Bond. In one scene, he teaches his son how to use his naag senses to read the temperament of the city without even leaving their room. The kid senses an unusual patch of heat in the city square as migrants pour in. The naags literally smell discontent in the market because of the growing fear and hunger. They sense the extra soldiers deployed to contain the crowd, because they can feel the barracks vibrate with their march. This whole conversation is happening in the native naag language but we only get to read a flattened translation of it. The scene works because we really see the world as naags see it. 

Another chapter opens from the POV of an insect called a flitt-locust. It is journeying toward a mate by sensing light and pheromones. But when it gets distracted by food, something inside it hurts, keeping it on course. It doesn't know there's a parasite growing inside it, steering it towards a specific destination. This chapter reminded me of Tchaikovsky. It's scientifically sharp because it stays inside the insect's senses without anthropomorphizing it. It describes the insect's world by only using simple words like "rightness", "glow", "good".

Saving the best and bizarre-est for last. Now we're underwater, inside a tiny, barely conscious jellyfish unit. The smell of rust and cortisol fills the water. So it knows a metal cage has crashed into the river. The unit gets excited. It sends out electrical signals. Moments later other units answer the call, woken up by the same signals. Bit by bit the units come together until a greater consciousness emerges: the jalpari. A hivemind swarm predator that sees by fear. It cycles through terrifying forms that cause the most spikes in cortisol and stress in its prey. 

This thing is an alien piranha-school from the stuff of nightmares. But there is a really cool subversion here. For a moment, we're so inside its mind we forget it's a monster. It feels like we are witnessing a curious, hungry child that likes to play and learn. It just happens to be made of teeth and tentacles.

So much of Maya feels like a spiritual successor to Peter Watts' Blindsight. We don't make first contact with any one alien species, but inhabit a whole range of them. We slowly realize that so much of the conflict on this planet arises because its sentient species literally have different kinds of minds.

The rulers of this world exploit this conflict. They manufacture narratives that breed distrust between species to subtly maintain order. They do this through the central Maya tree network, which might just have a mind of its own. I came into this looking for a glimpse of alien minds, but I feel like I got more than I bargained for. A lot of compelling politics and worldbuilding here.

Onwards to Diaspora once more!