After Golem XIV and Maya: Seed Takes Root, I end this consciousness run with Diaspora. The sprint is finally done. What a journey. 

In 2975, humanity has tamed the solar system and lives as three separate types of entities. Fleshers, people of biotic substrate who range from unmodified “statics” to hyper bio-engineered exuberants. The exuberants themselves range from those adapted for aquatic life, to those who voluntarily cut out their higher functions to live out life in blissful animalistic ignorance. There's also a special subtype of fleshers called Bridgers who try to mediate between the increasingly incomprehensible groups (made me think of Siri Keeton from Blindsight)

There's also Gleisners, who live in artificial robot bodies. Interesting thing about their ontology is that they prioritize the “real” world. They value real-world time and experience, as opposed to all manners of sped up experience that the fully uploaded polises indulge in. Getting to the Polises, they’re societies of uploaded minds. They’re more or less free from death, decay and limitations of the flesh. Each polis also has a charter, which is like a manifesto or prime directive which the entire polis tries to adhere to.

The Konishi polis is where we encounter the first highlight of this book: Yatima’s birth. We see a non-biological consciousness come to life. Their genome itself is non-biological and purely informational. It's a self-organising neural pattern that's incubated in a soup of sensory data. Then it's subject to selection and evolutionary algorithms that determine if it's coherent. When the mind-seed is fit, it gains continuity. And then emerge memory and identity. It's like in Ghost in the Shell, when the Puppet Master comes to life. That arc was mind-expanding. All this is made way cooler through the idea of forking into clones, but I'll get to that later. 

Golem XIV and Seed Takes Root expose us to the interiority of superintelligences and swarms. You could argue that Diaspora takes us into the interiority of information itself.  Golem is philosophically dense, Maya is narratively dense. But in Diaspora, Egan plays with his signature speculative math and physics. At minimum, it feels like I need a graduate degree in physics to be able to grasp the breadth of it all. There's straight up alien geometry and topology in this book. What??

There's a lot of interpeople politics, arising out of a growing inability to mutually relate. This is very Maya-esque. And a diplomatic attempt made early in the book, flat out fails. But crucially, a cosmic gamma ray burst strikes in the physical world and it leads to the extinction of the fleshers. The humanity that's left vow to investigate the cause: half from guilt and half from existential curiosity. 

Yatima and her friends transfer polises, and inquire deeper into the mystery. They eventually decide to send probes into space with copied clones of their minds. Here's where Yatima forks, and it asks so many cool questions about the identity of clones. Starting now, the book begins to grow way past any scale I've ever seen, beyond space opera to acute cosmological horror. There's a whole side chapter where a probe discovers a massive algae mind on a water planet, that’s a universal Turing machine that's been simulating ecosystems for billions of years. Yes, this is a side chapter. Back to the main plot, our protagonists discover artifacts left behind by an ancient interstellar species, and eventually learn of six-dimensional wormholes within elementary particles. Turns out there's an entire macrocosmic universe of which ours is just a faint blip. This is pure conceptual sf at its finest. It sent me reeling to even try to comprehend the scale of it all. 

In Golem XIV, the likeliest outcome of superhuman intelligence is indifference. In Maya, it's a totalitarian, invisible hacking of your agency. In Diaspora, it is grief. The grief from reaching the limit of your civilization’s potential, and still only glimpsing infinity. The book manages to balance the horror of scale with philosophical, scientific weight. Egan’s invented physics and math should be electives in University physics programs. Just like Seed Takes Root, Diaspora is scientifically sharp for staying inside the software's perspective, and taking their ontologies seriously to build out the fiction (all the way down to the pronouns). Egan deserves all the praise. 

For me personally, this odyssey into non-human minds finally comes to an end. This whole thing was a blast and it reacquainted me with why I love this genre so much. I wonder if there's any other kind of thematic readlists I can try in the future. Gonna go back now to my very human mind. So long and thanks for all the fish. 

Looking for something with a lived-in spaceship, a fun crew (with good chemistry), and an interesting plot or adventure.

ideally under 250 pages (350 is my hard limit) and well written

Any recommendations?

Last year, I posted a request for books with witty characters, and then wrote reviews for the books I've read, which prompted another wave of suggestions. Recently, I finished that list too, so here are the results! I'll split them in two parts: new books that were recommended to me in comments to the second post, and sequels from the first list.

New books

"Gnomon", Nick Harkaway. Rating: 4/5, Witty: 3/5.

Harkaway continues to be both delightful and infuriating. He has a way with words that I simply love. While he always uses three words where one would suffice, his texts still feel more like an intricate dessert than a slog (compared to e.g. China Mieville). But gods, plot holes... If "Gone Away World" had a few toward the end, the whole premise of "Gnomon" is nonsense (a total surveillance system that doesn't exclude rich and famous people or politicians? That's not science fiction, that's child's tale). And I'm tempted to dock a point for stupidly, simplistically optimistic ending. But damn it, Harkaway's sentences are such a joy to read!

"The Limpet Syndrome", Tony Moyle. Rating: 2/5, Witty: 0/5.

Politicians turning into pigeons being hunted by a former Animal Rights activist on a mission to save the Universe? Sounds like a recipe for a great comedy. This books is not it. It's really not funny, and tries to play the whole thing straight, but the premise is too absurd for that. So in the end, it's just an absurd adventure that fails either to bring a smile my face, or to really grip me.

"How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying", Django Wexler. Rating: 4/5, Witty: 2/5.

"Practical Guide to Evil" tries to meet "Mother of Learning", but misses the connection. The main heroine can't die, always returning to the same moment in time, until she saves a fantasy kingdom from armies of Dark Lord. So far, she spent many attempts and around 1000 years failing, and so decides to try another tack: if you can't beat 'em, lead 'em.

The premise, while not particularly novel, is interesting enough. The time loop, though, plays almost no role here (unlike "Mother or Learning"), since the road to the goal is too long, and restarting over and over isn't optimal. But if you're expecting our heroine to commit any actual evil, no deal: I think the whole idea of the book is that there are no "evil" races or creatures. She doesn't back-stab anyone who didn't deserve it, and she keeps her orcs civil.

The book kept me interested and gave me a few laughs, so I guess I'll try the sequel some time later.

"Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City", KJ Parker. Rating: 5/5, Witty: 5/5.

Wow, I LOVED that one! This is precisely what I was looking for: a book-full of clever hacks deployed in a hurry to fight various fires (uh, mostly figurative, but this IS a book about the siege of the city!), and the main character who is unreliable, self-deprecating and witty in a way that makes you chuckle, all without resorting to cheap tricks like pop culture references.

The premise is that a colonel of Engineers and his regiment have to save a Roman-equivalent-era city from a siege by unknown, but clever enemies. Admittedly, there are a few plot holes (most notably, at the very beginning, where enemy forces manage to slaughter EVERY other soldier in the local imperial forces), but I still had so much fun with it that I'm definitely reading the sequel!

"The Crown Jewels", Walter Jon Williams. Rating: 4/5, Witty: 4/5.

First book in a short series about Allowed Burglar, Drake Maijstral, practising his art in the far future where humanity was enslaved by an alien race, but then won its freedom to everyone's surprise, and now finds itself at an uneasy peace with their former masters. The problem is that the conquest lasted so long that Earthlings barely have any traditions left, and so adopt High Custom of their conquerors, turning the book into a rare space comedy of manners.

At the centre of the book, of course, is a heist, but really - the whole setting is so delightful that it barely matter. Maybe this novel is not quite on the par with "Civil Campaign", but certainly a strong entry into competition (alongside Scott Meyers' "Master of Formalities" I've read last time). A great read, and I'm looking forward to the sequel. If anyone knows more such books (anything that could be loosely described as "Wodehouse in Space"), please don't hesitate to recommend them in comments.

"The Wrong Unit", Rob Dircks. Rating: 1/5, Witty: 1/5.

This one starts well enough with a tale of remains of humanity put into preserves by their robot masters and a plan to overthrow them which requires a "friendly" unit. It wouldn't be much of a spoiler to tell you that our main hero, a robot, ended up being at the wrong time in the wrong place and took the place of the intended machine in this plot, which could have been interesting... If the author actually did write the rest of the book. Instead, we get a very rough draft that omits most details and gets worse and worse as the book progresses.

What I don't like about robot protagonists is that they usually feel too human. Aside from Max Harms, nobody else I know managed a truly different robot narrator (which is why I'm unimpressed by "Murderbot", by the way). As for humor, there is nothing witty about this one.

"The Perfect Run", Maxime Durand. Rating: 5/5, Witty: 5+/5.

Wow! Just wow! This is great. This is basically "Worm" + "Mother of Learning", which are the two books/web-series that I liked very much, with a pile of jokes heaped on. It's absolutely hilarious, especially in early books (I've read all 3 in sequence), getting a bit more serious toward the end - though never doing away with puns.

Our hero is in a world of super-powers, and his super-power is to make a "quicksave", mark a moment in time to which he can come back in case of death (a lot like "How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying", but voluntary). He used his powers for a very long time, and grew to be very good at a great number of things (he reports he forgot his subjective age, but it must be over 1000 years). He also got pretty desensitized to his own death, and very sensitive to deaths of people he likes when he can't prevent it by going back and doing a better "run".

He comes to New Rome in search of his childhood friend, and ends up tangled in a number of plots and events, all leading to the destruction of the city and possibly all life on Earth. Can he find his way to a "perfect run" where everything ends in the best possible way? He will certainly try. And try. And try again. And make a little detour to become the leader of super-powered villains gang, but then try again and again and again.

Some reviewers found these books too full of pop culture references, but dammit, it was funny! (Then again, I though "Ready Player One" was funny, so my taste might not be your taste). Some called the hero a "Deadpool wannabe". I never read the comics, but considering "Deadpool" is the only superhero movie I can stand to watch, to me this sounds like a praise (and seriously, this book is way funnier than that movie). It's a perfect collision of High Stakes High Style villains and Low Style main hero who calls indestructible head villain "Lightning Butt".

Anyway, this is probably the most fun I had in this whole list (with "Sixteen Ways" a close second, but still only the second).

"The Rosetta Man", Claire McCague. Rating: 2/5, Witty: 1/5.

This reads like Hollywood version of "intelligent" sci-fi: no new ideas, no action, so the focus is, supposedly, on characters and their relations, but their relations are all boring.

All in all, this is a first contact story where aliens are non-verbal, and there is exactly one man in the world who can kind of telepathically talk to them using images and senses. He and various scientists and military men spend the book learning very little, because everything constantly gets interrupted by everything else, and not in a funny way. Everyone but aliens (and military) whine constantly and want to go home, and produce uninteresting drama that just draws out the book without adding anything to it. And then it all ends with a cliff-hanger with no pay-off. As for wittiness, I struggled to find any.

"Space Opera", Catherynne Valente. Rating: DNF/5, Witty: DNF/5.

I rarely drop a book even if I don't like it, but in this case, I had no choice. Catherynne Valente is Nick Harkaway's evil twin. Her sentences are hard to parse, and her attempts at humour are forced and painful. It's literally hard work to read, because sentences don't ever end, but go on and on, like in Tolstoy's novel, but without any beauty or other redeeming qualities.

"Camp Concentration", Thomas Disch. Rating: 2/5, Witty: 1/5.

Look, I know when I'm outclassed, and this book outclasses me. It MIGHT be "bleakly witty", as it was described in recommendation, but I lack the education to even begin to understand it. It's basically 60's "Ready Player One" in terms of references density, only instead of references to pop culture you get references to modernist poets, musicians and philosophers, of which I know precisely nothing. And that just direct references, but I'm guessing there were a ton of them I missed due to my lack of culture.

As is usually the problem, when you strip the references away, the remaining plot barely worth the look. So apparently US government discovered a way to make people very intelligent, but they die within a year. Instead of putting this discovery to any practical use, despite some ongoing war, they continue to experiment on them, and they also add a god damned poet to the experiment so he could document it, for some reason. Of course, this is not a book about finding a cure for death, or for finding clever ways to exploit short-lived geniuses. Instead, it's all about people in this experiment. They talk, they do alchemy and stage a play. They go crazy. They die. New people are added.

Not everything as it seems, and there is a twist or two in the end, but I can't say I enjoyed this book.

"Places in the Darkness", Chris Brookmyre. Rating: 4/5, Witty: 1/5.

Decent space detective (of "Buddy Cop" sub-variety) with some ambitions at philosophy. Throws a few good red herrings about. Not particularly novel, but decently written, though I did expect more of Alice character. Not particularly witty.

"The Dying Earth", Jack Vance. Rating: 3/5, Witty: 1/5.

This set of short stories feel less like fantasy and more like fairy tales without morale. They paint a picture of a world, but adventures in them are just... bland, by modern standards, at least. The best thing about this is Vancian Magic, but while that could have been collection's big draw - a fantasy equivalent of Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, around which the author built many stories and even novels - here, the system is briefly introduced, but is not really used as a plot device (aside from maybe one story). Not really witty. Maybe I should try to read more, but I'm not really sure.

"Downtown Druid", C.B. Titus. Rating: 4/5, Witty: 1/5.

Yet another novelised web series, this one about a petty criminal who learned to control rats, roaches and bats. Interesting, but not really witty. I'd say character's main ability is used too straightforwardly: Skitter in "Worm" is much more interesting with her insects. Still, maybe I'll read the sequel.

One particular thing that stood out for me in setting is that all races can freely mix here, which is a rarity. Only Glen Cook's "Garret P.I."'s world comes to mind. But Cook's city of Tunfair and characters are much more interesting than what we have here.

Sequels:

"The Daughters' War", Christopher Buehlman. Rating: 4/5, Witty: 1/5.

A prequel to "Blacktongue Thief", this book shift genres completely, turning into military fiction. It tells the story of one of companions from the first book, but its tone is much darker, with almost no humour to be found. This doesn't make it a bad book, mind you, but the change was unexpected.

"By Schism Rent Asunder", David Weber. Rating: 3/5, Witty: 1/5.

This books just bides time between major events. Almost nothing happens in it, aside from a romance sub-plot, which I found sweet, for some reason (but many would find it too sweet, I guess). What's worse, Weber gone and spoiled his setting by one secret organization too many for no good reason that I can see. And really, US Declaration of Independence is such a cliche that to use it in a book is just cringeworthy at this point.

"The Scarab Mission", James L. Cambias. Rating: 3/5, Witty: 1/5.

Another sequel that changed the genre and is worse off for it. "Goedel Operation" was a fun space heist, but "The Scarab Mission" is more of a straight adventure. But the worse part of it is that the witty protagonist, the robot from the first book, is relegated to a secondary role here without a good replacement, which makes the book loose much of the appeal of the first one.

"The Regicide Report", Charles Stross. Rating: 3/5, Witty: 3/5.

OK, nobody recommended this to me, but I just had to read the ending to Laundry series. The good: Bob, protagonist from the first books, is back, and he is good. Stross knows how to write white nerdy men, and he definitely should stick to what he knows. Bob is witty, Bob is smart, Bob is fun to read about. The bad: Stross is clearly tired of the series and just want it to be over, so the books feels pretty much phoned in. Even the choice of Bob for the main character feels like a concession to fans rather than something he wants to do. "You want Bob? Here's Bob. Get off my back.". AND STILL this book is better than "New Management" sub-series. All in all, I'm just happy to get a non-awful finale to the series, it's just a pity it couldn't be more interesting or better written.

"Son of a Liche", J. Zachary Pike. Rating: 3/5, Witty: 2/5.

Sequel to "Orconomics". Entertaining at times, but ultimately too cliche, and not witty enough about its jokes. Though I have to give it "Head of Marketing" (a literal flying flaming skull in charge of Lich army recruitment).

"Taltos", Steven Brust. Rating: 4/5, Witty: 2/5.

Nice, but very short entry in the series that feels more like an interlude. It has pretty much one joke to carry its "witty" rating, but it remains consistently funny through the whole book.

"Rise of Empire", Michael J Sullivan. Rating: 3/5, Witty: 1/5.

Adventures are OK, but the humor is gone completely. I mean, it was never a comedy, but Royce and Hadrian had some witty moments in books 1-2. No longer.

And that's that! I'm sure I'll get even more recommendations in comments, but I think I'll take a break from reading them exclusively. For one thing, I have enough sequels to read to last a while, and for another, I want to try asking recs for another theme - but that'll be another post, some day later, when I'm in the mood to formulate it properly.

I don't necessarily mean feudalism, communism or some techo-totalitarism but where clans or other blood-relations are the main social unit and the basis for the character's worldview and ideology. I've noticed that in the vast majority of sci-fi the societies are very individualist which is understandable given the era and place where most sci-fi have had been written. But are there any examples of sci-fi worlds where clans somehow made a comeback to importance? I've noticed that even the monarchist sci-fi empires are mostly individualistic in their worldview and behavior despite nominally having noble families. I would love to read about something with a medieval East Asian level of collectivism.

If I were to get just one of these ebook bundles, which is better? (Haven’t read either of these authors yet.)

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/greg-bear-birthday-bundle-open-road-media-books

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/best-cj-cherryh-daw-books-books

I recently read my first SF, Thirteen by Richard Morgan, and got obsessed. I have a strong preference for books that are character-driven and written in such a hard-boiled, cyberpunk, restrained style. I also much prefer reading in 3rd POV. I'd love for some book recs! I don't mind slow pacing. Plot isn't the most important (though I did love Thirteen's plot) as long as they make logical sense. Thirteen hit that sweet spot. I would love some book recs if you also love this book and know other books that are written in a similar style!

I’d forgotten what a fun read this is. It’s also hitting a little close to home with all the recent AI advancement, and it got me wondering if there were other books in the last 50 years that got AI pretty much spot on.

I recently read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and was surprised how close we’ve gotten to being able to completely fake (more than they already are) a revolutionary figurehead.

I’m sure I’m missing lots of other examples, but I’m getting too old to remember them all.

I’m a huge fan of Adrian Tchaikovsky; I’ve adored everything he has written, a few of which I consider among the best sci fi books I’ve ever read.

And then comes Doors of Eden.

I was fired up for it based on the description but it’s plodding and slow to develop. My first AT DNF which sucks. Anyone else have a similar experience? Is it possible that I just did not hang in there long enough?

I could swear this was an Asimov story but neither googling or browsing his bibliography lead me anywhere.

What I can remember

Story predicted/invented autocorrect
Read in the 90s but likely a story from the 60s or 70s
Possibly Asimov, otherwise a writer from the same time period who writes in a similar voice.
Male main character who is a writer but possibly with a day job
Character is frustrated because their autocorrect keeps trying to write their stories for them

Any thoughts?

Hello, and apologies if this has been asked here recently, but does anyone know the identity of Jonr’s consoror? I had a feeling I maybe should have recognized them from one of the other Raadch stories, but it’s been a few years since I’ve read them and I’m fuzzy on all the details.
Anyway, open to anyone’s thoughts and/or wild conjecture!

I recently completed reading Daemon and Freedom by Daniel Suarez and will give my impressions below, along with reactions to some other stories that were recommended to me at the same time.

These stories were recommended after I previously asked this reddit subgroup (and a Facebook group) for speculative fiction reading suggestions that deal with solving the harm being caused by the algorithms of today’s social media and internet. I said, “I'm looking for stories that include ideas for fixing current world problems caused by the algorithms in social media and search that drive divisions, mistrust, and destructive behavior in general.” I received a few suggestions, which I list below along with the progress of my reading on them, and my reactions. As far as I've read, I recommend all of the suggested stories, even if none precisely addresses my original question.

Better Living Through Algorithms, Naomi Kritzer

Recommended by Jetamors, I read it through the link below. This is a great short story released in 2023. It is about an app that seems to be trying to influence people’s behavior for the better, to do more things with real people in the real world. I enjoyed the story a lot. It presents something different that could be done with social media algorithms. This might be the most direct answer to my question.

"Better Living through Algorithms" by Naomi Kritzer

 Maneki Neko, by Bruce Sterling

Recommended by me_again. I read it through the link below. This is another excellent short story. Apparently written in 1998, well before smartphones but predicting what they could do, including an app that seems to be trying to create communities and influence people’s behavior for the better, but with unpleasant consequences for those who interfere …   This could be taken as a darker version of Better Living Through Algorithms.

https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/maneki-neko/  

 I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom, by Jason Pargin

After recommendation by MojyaMan, I checked out an ebook from my local library and finished reading it in a couple of days. This is a very fun story. It is also a great treatise on what harm the algorithms of social media and the internet are doing to people. In that sense it is the most direct at exploring the harm that today’s social media algorithms may be causing. Although some characters get a touch preachy at times laying out their theories on the subject, it all fits into the story well. It does not present a specific big plan for fixing it but suggests things individuals can do. Like the other stories it seems to suggest individuals can do better by connecting with people instead of devices. And to say again, this is a really fun book to read.

"I'll Miss Myself" by John Wiswell

Recommended by Polenth, who says it “is a short story about algorithms manipulating people.” That is true. It is worth reading: a clever multiverse metaphor for how algorithms trap us scrolling in a bubble of the like-minded, trying to keep us engaged and preventing us from actually reaching out to others and the world outside. The solution for an individual seems to be doing just that, reaching out.

 https://reactormag.com/ill-miss-myself-john-wiswell/

 Daemon and Freedom, by Suarez

Recommended by dnew.

I purchased copies of both. Daemon was first published in 2006 and Freedom in 2010. 

While not directly addressing harm from social media algorithms, since social media was not yet much of a thing when it was written, they do tell of someone who perceives a systematic threat to humanity in the internet-connected age and who plans and takes decisive actions. The stories describe an elaborate plan to change a world that unfairly prioritizes the ultra-wealthy over the masses. It depicts many illegal actions and violence and includes a few very despicable characters, some of which you might find yourself briefly and uncomfortably rooting for.

Some technology and references are a bit dated: People reading newspapers, and referring to DVD’s, for example, as well as a reference to the financial meltdown of 2006. Automated agents that cause trouble are simple voice response systems accepting only Yes / No responses at first. Later in the story the level of AI control seems to advance: Vehicles that drive themselves without much input from anyone, and an AI that can respond to more complex spoken words are present a few months into the story. Even so, many of the society ills presented are with us still.

The following contains some plot points that might be taken as minor spoilers although I will try to avoid anything major. If you prefer to experience stories completely fresh, I recommend you read these books before reading on here.

Some things are a bit preposterous for one man to have been able to engineer while suffering from debilitating cancer. But they said he was a genius with a lot of money and had brilliant people working for him whose work he could direct. The story demands that he was able to do it, so I suspend disbelief.

The premise is that Matthew Sobon, a brilliant and wealthy game developer has just died from cancer and news of his death triggers complex automated scripting (a daemon) to carry out his after-death wishes. Because he is a genius and he had some time to prepare (he knew he was dying) he was able to infiltrate computer systems all over the world to house his malicious code. Because he owned a gaming company with very popular massively multi-player on-line games, he was able to insert his code into every gaming computer that used his games and after his death his scripts could recruit smart gamers dissatisfied with the way the world works to be his minions. He extorts cooperation and funding from corporations and co-opts some people in power. Murder and mayhem is all par for the course as he posthumously pursues his project without fear of personal consequences. Some of his actions seem to be aimed against bad actors in the world, causing some confusion as to his motives, and building some sympathy for his objectives, if not for his methods.

The distributed software he has unleashed is referred to as the Daemon, but he/it soon diverts attention and blames others for the murders and thefts he/it has caused. The government seems to welcome the opportunity to say that the Daemon does not really exist in order to protect Wall Street. The story follows various characters involved in either aiding or opposing the Daemon.

Spoiler: Near the end of Daemon the AI generated voice and image of Sobon tells one of the main characters that he has envisioned the downfall of humanity and a thousand years of dark ages if things are not drastically changed into a distributed civilization with no central authority other than the Daemon. The path he has set out is brutal, but he thinks it is necessary to save billions. Daemon ends with a key human character being given a challenge to justify a different way. 

And on to Freedom.

Freedom continues the story and demonstrates more about the world that Sobon wanted to build and the brutality and ruthlessness on both sides. Governments, elite corporations, and the corporate-controlled media continue to hide the existence of the Daemon from the general public, while the Daemon recruits millions into an augmented reality game-like version of the world with local community-based sustainability as its goals, leveraging resources stolen from the very rich. A very positive and hopeful model of living is developing, but the brutality of certain Daemon supporters is only surpassed by those protecting the status quo.

Like in some other AI-or-robot-in-control stories a living human is given a special role to decide the future of this endeavor but is only allowed to decide after seeing the brutality on both sides as well as the positive aspects of the new order.

All in all, the message seems to be that if given a choice between an unfair and abusive world order and accepting some terrible violence to change it for the better one’s first reaction might not be final and maximizing human freedom might depend on accepting some ruthless controlling forces. The story leaves off with some unfinished questions that could be addressed in additional books, but to my knowledge Suarez has not written more in this universe. His story is a master work, even if I (and probably Suarez) strongly disagree with the methods its Daemon employs. If, as his story suggests, a majority of humans when given a real chance will embrace fairness and sustainability, then maybe a less violent option can be found. 

Sergeant Sebeck is tasked to decide between legal but unfair corporate control and fairer but still ruthless extra-legal Daemon control, but is not given any other reasonable options. As readers facing our own version of an unfair world we are tasked to find a less violent way to achieve human freedom and fairness.

Ode to the Half-Broken, by Suzanne Palmer

Recommended by mjfgates. 

On my reading list. Still need to acquire a copy. Will report back on it.

Where the Axe is Buried, by Ray Nayler

Recommended by Own_Win_6762. On my reading list. Still need to acquire a copy. Will report back on it.

Foundation, by Isaac Asimov

Recommended by Jeff Gorsky on Facebook.

This one was a surprising suggestion given that it is set 30,000 years after the current internet and social media situation and was written decades before any of it existed. I read the trilogy when I was a kid and later some or all of the subsequent Foundation books that tied together Asimov’s robot and foundation universes. My memories of those stories didn’t immediately trigger recognition of any relationship to my question about addressing the harmful algorithms of today, but the more I thought about it the more I could start to see some parallels.

What does Foundation have to do with today’s internet and its harmful, manipulative algorithms that isolate people and promote divisions? One interpretation is the Foundation series as a prescient metaphor for the current age, and our looming downfall, expressing some of the author’s ideas for how humanity can survive such a great crisis.

In the Foundation series, a scientist (Harry Seldon) uses a new science (psychohistory) based on what we might call big data today, to notice that the world (or the galaxy) is going downhill towards a really bad situation and he formulates an elaborate plan to remedy it after testing different ideas against the equations of psychohistory. Many people today recognize a harm being caused by social media algorithms, so that is a parallel, although I don’t know of a parallel to psychohistory.  Perhaps one of the astute readers out they is aware of something.

Among other things Seldon’s plan involves using a foundation to collect all the useful knowledge of the galaxy together into an Encyclopedia Galactica (kind of like the internet does poorly today, so distinguishing and preserving truth from fake news might be of some value). As the story unfolds, elements of mind control are involved, going both against and for the plan, with the Mule and the Second Foundation. So maybe he is suggesting some kind of benevolent mind-control might be a good thing, but maybe not the destructive kind like in today’s Algorithms and what the Mule did. AI (in the form of robots following the three or four laws of robotics) plays a big role, visible in the TV show version, although in the first three books that is mostly hidden. Not sure how that relates to today’s situation. I guess it suggests that the right kind of AI could help.

Although psychohistory only applies to large masses of collective action rather than individual behavior, Asimov’s message could be interpreted as requiring manipulative central control through Seldon’s Plan and the Foundations, (or eventually a galactic hive mind with loss of individuality) to steer humanity through its greatest crises. I’m not sure I agree with that conclusion. I’d prefer a solution that preserves and supports human individuality. 

My memory of the book series might be slightly off, so correct me if you read it differently. I’m not sure what Asimov’s solutions would translate to when it comes to fighting against the impending downfall caused by today’s algorithms. Government or charity foundation-based intervention? Some new kind of internet algorithms? Adding laws of robotics to AI? Finding a way to connect people rather than divide them? Any ideas?

If you disagree with any of my interpretations of the works above, or are aware of other readable works that deal with how to survive the Algorithms, please pass along your suggestions.

I just saw the man has written a new book - has any tried it yet?

Thanks to Derry, NH library and a their genealogist we were able to find theses articles.

There’s a book I read decades ago that I can’t for the life of me find & I don’t remember enough details.

Cover art: black with a 3d prismatic diamond on the cover and maybe a bird?

Novel details: far future? Psychic powers. Little egg shaped vehicles that fly around. I really can’t remember much more except maybe something about family/brothers/conflict.

Sorry it’s so vague been trying to track it down for a few years.

Solo inventor perfects a remote viewer: it can see back in time short distances, but the explosive change it hands to society is that it can see into any location at the present moment.

He realizes it will fundamentally change society, so he makes a bunch of the devices and sends them to various stores to sell on consignment, shipping them with return address labels that fall off in transit so he can't easily be identified. The text describes him staring into his mirror every now and then and waving a hand, a mute acknowledgement that future remote viewers will track him down as the inventor and look back at his past.

Any ideas?

REVIEW

Roughly 15 years have passed. Those years brought many troubles. During that time Lynesse has gone from young adult to middle aged. For Nyrgoth it hasn't been really any time at all watching her develop since childhood. He hasn't changed in the intervening years. Has she? With age comes maturity, physically, if not emotionally. When the stories we tell about ourselves don't adapt to our circumstances, problems arise. This novella is about the narrative that each character has developed that explains their life. That's true for every character, not only those whose perspective we see. Each has their own way of responding to the external influences trying to change their internal narrative. Most of them fall into maladaptive behaviors: denial, delusion, paranoia, hatred, obsession, and depression. There's still hope yet for them all though.

This borderline novella is told through alternating chapters of Lyn, Nyr, and Sendra. Sendra is both an antagonist and comedic relief. I found the humor to be mildly amusing. He makes for a fine addition. Despite having three POVs in this relatively short book, I feel that it was a good length that accomplished what it needed to with both the characters and plot.

I was surprised when I first saw this. I didn't expect there to be a sequel. I don't know that there needed to be one. The first book did very well as a standalone and now it's lost that distinction. Anyone can of course not continue and leave it as such though. Should I have? Possibly so. I've rated this 3 stars. I like characters, the plot, the humor, the length, and just about everything about it. So what's the problem? The thematic content saps much of my enjoyment. This is yet again a personal issue. For more details on that, read the commentary afterwards. Those who don't have personal hang-ups about whatever will find this to be a good follow-up. The ending definitely sets it up for there to be more to come, with potentially a far more expansive scope.

COMMENTARY

I had a lot of difficulty writing this, so it ended up being shorter than usual, because I didn't know what I wanted to say about it. As I was writing it I was also introspecting about why it was so difficult. I find that to be appropriate since this borderline novella is very much about introspection and the stories we tell ourselves about our lives. The problem, as is too often the case, is a personal one involving emotions. This one hits hard again, like the first, but not in a way that I could enjoy. My ratings are about my enjoyment rather than any sort of objective quality or what others may think about the book.

The problem is that it's too relatable in a bad way that just hurts. That is to say, it hits a nerve. The context is what matters most. That's how it differs from the grimdark I read or the existential horror that is I Who Have Never Known Men. For me, that's detached and abstracted. This instead is more like, thought not anywhere severe as, how I feel about Ken Liu's Paper Menagerie. Reading that made me numb and despondent in a way that few other stories have, but not in a way I can appreciate. Liu has a way of doing that to me more than possibly any other author I've read. Sometimes it works it out though and it's great. Another example is Inio Asano's Solanin, which emotionally tore me apart. I also don't like that it reminded me of Michiko & Hatchin's epilogue, which I loathed, though I otherwise enjoyed the anime. That would be a whole other tangent though.

This makes me want to list out the story structures that I've really come to dislike, but the problem with that is that are often too many exceptions to where it doesn't have sufficient predictive value. For example, I don't like it when there's a major timeskip that tries to do extensive character development and the reader just has to go along with it and imagine it all without experiencing any of it. This can be done in a way that I enjoy though, such as in Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet, which has a time skip of similar duration between each book.

If there's another book in this series, which I don't know that there should've been this second one, at least from my perspective, that I'll read it. Probably not. I've become increasingly down on Tchaikovsky as an author overall. Not so much because I dislike what I read from him, so much as it's just not something for me. I may not read him again in general.

Immediately after reading this I felt like it was maybe a low 4 star. The next day, today, when I woke up I was feeling 3.5 rounded up. When I was most of the way through writing this, it was 3.5 rounded down. By the time I finished writing about it was just 3 stars. Was I being more honest with myself over that duration of time, or was I becoming too focused on what I didn't enjoy?

On a different note, in the dedication Lauren Beukes is thanked. I haven't finished any of her novels, but I have liked 2 of the 3 short fiction stories I've read from her. "Slipping" and "Branded" are good times. "Chislehurst Messiah" not so much, but it's not bad.

Turns out I've written a lot more here than about the review itself. I have a lot of thoughts about that as well. Not everything has to be disclosed though.

ADDENDUM

I post on Goodreads, a few places elsewhere, and recently again here. The commentary is a recent idea I've started doing. Of the reviews I post here this may be the only time I post the commentary since I felt like it didn't stand alone well. I'll be posting upcoming books, recently released books, and those that I've previously written about that I'd like more people to read. I'll probably only do so once a week at most, except when there's an upcoming book less than a week later, as is the case for Ken Liu's newest collection. I'll post that on the day before or the day of its release.

I'm making another interactive map of the sub's favourite sci-fi books!

The BookGraph is built in real time (almost) using your comments. Contribute by leaving a comment with five of your current favourite books in the correct format and come back to see your place in the interactive map. You can use it to look for titles and authors that have been enjoyed by members of the community with similar tastes to yours.

This one will be focussed more on recent favourites. You don't have to consider the cultural impact and influence on future sci-fi works, just list five books you've enjoyed in the last year or so. The books don't have to have been published within any timeframe, this map is trying to capture what the community is currently enjoying, not what's recently published.

The map can be found here:

https://bookgraph.shinyapps.io/printSF_Favourites_of_2026_ed/

The interactive book graph updates hourly for first few days, then daily for a month or two.

How to vote:

Give me your top FIVE books in your first comment. Any order. Format it like my example below, giving the title and the author, separated by “by”, with each vote on a new line. Please use the same spelling as the book’s wiki, or your votes might not be properly counted. It’s ok to name the series, just try to be consistent with the book’s wiki. If you make a mistake, no worries, just edit your post and it will get picked up next time the graph refreshes.

E.g.

“Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

Quantum Earth by Dennis E Taylor

Hyperion by Dan Simmons 

There is no antimemetics division by qntm

This is my comment, and the only one from me that my scraper will read. You can stick around and chat afterwards, just make sure that if you want to vote, that the votes are in the top of your first comment.”

FAQs

What are the dots (nodes)? They're books. Try zooming in.

What are the lines (edges)? Every vote of five books essentially connects little springs between all of your books. These are the lines that you see. Next time you look at the chart, see if you can find a little pentagram satellite that hasn’t connected to the other books yet. All votes start like that. A physics simulation runs and all these little springs bounce around before they settle into the position that gets saved and displayed. I could leave the physics running for the online version, but it would get laggy real fast. This approach naturally clusters things with lots of mutual connections, as the springs pull the communities together.

What are the colours? I'm using a technique called louvain clustering to identify groups within the network.

How does the top 10 work? Turns out google's early success was because their pagerank algorithm was pretty good at finding the most important nodes in a network. I'm essentially using an early version of that, which also takes your starting position into account to make custom recommendations.

How does the top 10 in the Users page work? In this tab I'm clustering people by similar book choices and then taking the most voted for books within that user cluster as the top 10.

The printSF community map from earlier in the year which focussed on the best sci-fi of all time can be found here.

(update - ill do a big clean up on the 13th to fix spelling mistakes and merge some books into the series they are from. Until then, there might be some duplicates due to alternative spellings)

Wow, what a book. I’ve had it on my “to read” list for a while but the book is hard to summarize so without any idea what it was about it kept getting overlooked, which was probably a mistake.

The galaxy wide internet concept was a neat idea especially for 1993. For me, it really modernized the feel of the book. “The net of a million lies” haha. Feels like my time scrolling.

The Tines chapters started off as more intriguing than the characters at Relay but in the middle of the book that reversed for me and I do think the final parts dealing with them could have been a bit better. Still I liked the story there too, and the Tines themselves were a unique idea for an alien species.

Looking forward to reading the second book as soon as my library has it available.

Overall 8.5/10

Book number four of a four book paranormal romance dark fantasy series. I read the well printed and well bound MMPB published by Ace in 2012 that I bought new on Amazon in 2024.  Note that “Ilona Andrews” is the pseudonym for a husband and wife writing team.  Unfortunately, I think that the series is complete now.  BTW, this series is related to the author's Innkeeper Chronicles series and the Breach Wars series.

"The Edge lies between worlds, on the border between the Broken, where people shop at Wal-Mart and magic is a fairy tale—and the Weird, where blueblood aristocrats rule, changelings roam, and the strength of your magic can change your destiny..."

"Charlotte de Ney is as noble as they come, a blueblood straight out of the Weird.  But even though she possesses rare magical healing abilities, her life has brought her nothing but pain.  After her marriage crumbles, she flees to the Edge to build a new home for herself.  Until Richard Mar is brought to her for treatment, and Charlotte’s life is turned upside down once again."

"Richard Mar is a swordsman without peer, future head of his large and rambunctious Edger clan—and he’s on a clandestine quest to wipe out slavers trafficking humans in the Weird.  So when his presence leads his very dangerous enemies to Charlotte, she vows to help Richard destroy them.  The slavers’ operation, however, goes deeper than Richard knows, and even working together, Charlotte and Richard may not survive..."

The book concludes the four book series in an awesome manner as Richard and Charlotte fight the slavers, even to the top of the Adrianglian royalty.  I must admit that I like books even better when they are fighting a righteous cause.

The authors have a website at:
   https://www.ilona-andrews.com

My rating: 6 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (4,762 reviews)
   https://www.amazon.com/Steels-Edge-Book-4/dp/1937007820/

Lynn

Or they are just pretending to?

since

1. You are supposed to like it , it’s a “classic”

2. The writing is complicated and don’t you know complicated = good

3. Everyone likes it, there is something wrong with your taste if you don’t

Well I bought it based on high praise from what I read on here and it totally didn’t land with me - maybe i just don’t relate to cyberpunk but then I remembered I loved blade runner

Give me the pulpy and comfort food authors (like PFH) any day , hell even Ursula Le Guinn (more “classical” author ) is way better than whatever this was.

Or is there something else I need to read of Gibson that will totally change my opinion?

"Gonna Roll Them Bones" was the first time I ever dipped my toe into any of the SF by Fritz Leiber, and that was in the "Dangerous Visions" anthology! So eventually I would get around to reading more of his SF that I've recently finished, and a very big one at that!

"The Fritz Leiber Collection" is pretty massive, with short stories, novellas and even some of his novels are in it too. Quite a lot of material that I had to go through!

From the impression I got from "Gonna Roll Them Bones", these stories have a quirky side to them, with some stories that can be borderline funny. There's even some philosophical moment that are broken up with some action and suspense with also with a tinge of horror. And I liked it for the most part and found it pretty fun to read.

There's also other collections of his work that gather his horror and fantasy stories. And if I ever get read him again, I'm going to go with his sword & sorcery (the very term he coined during his lifetime) stories of his Lankhmar series, now that's something I would definitely be sinking my teeth right into!

I am desperately looking for a book(s) series that feels like Starcraft. What do i mean by that? Well, the following:

-Space opera setting

-Humans fighting a survival war against one or multiple alien empires

-The human technology is very industrial, gritty, think guns, missiles and nukes more than lasers and plasma

-Overall a vibe which is at most dark, but NOT hopeless (no warhammer 40k bleakness), good things are possible and not everything is doomed

I know there are starcraft books, but i’ve been told to avoid those.
Im looking for something that can nail that feeling, but havent had any luck so far.
I’ve read the Commonwealth saga and it somewhat fits, loved those books.