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Science Fiction

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Lemmy World Rules

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In the mood for engineering / competence porn. What are your favourite novels / series? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works to c/sciencefiction@lemmy.world
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As an example, I love the Martian, and I think a lot of older books from authors like Asimov are heavily into engineering / competence porn. Other favs in this category include the standalone novel Rendezvous with Rama to leave you wishing for more, most of the Culture series for happy utopian vibes, Schlock Mercenary for humor, Dahak series for fun mindless popcorn.

Edit: I'm so happy to have found a replacement for r/books and the rest of them.

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[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

"Quarter Share: Tales from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper" is a good one. It's usually not at high stakes as 'The Martian", but it's a journey across a well developed science fiction galaxy with a thoughtfully detailed societies and economies. And keep an eye out for the author, Nathan Lowell, here on the Fediverse. He seems nice.

"The Long Earth" is another in that the starting premise is deceptively simple, and then every social, economic and political upheaval stems directly from the single core science fiction premise.

[–] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I really loved the concept and worldbuilding of the Long Earth. However I felt that the books didn't focus as much on the nitty-gritty as I'd like, instead becoming really metaphysical. I'd have loved to see how every aspect of society changed over time, but instead got a human interest story about a few people. Fun, but ultimately I felt like a lot of potential was wasted.

Solar Clipper looks like some nice cozy slice of life SF, will put that on my list for when I'm in the mood for that :)

[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 2 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

Agreed on "The Long Earth". It was fun, but on the light side of what the premise begs for.

I keep hoping we get more entries that explore the possibilities even further.