Post ApdpcsBZgwZtLHuu0m by semitones@tiny.tilde.website
(DIR) More posts by semitones@tiny.tilde.website
(DIR) Post #ApdeCdozNNxRlddqZU by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-01T12:44:05Z
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Books I read this year that made a big impact on me:An Immense Worldby Ed Yong (The audiobook for this one is good.)Trilobiteby Richard Fortey (No audiobook yet? Why!)KaBy John Crowley (His name really is CROWley! This is a fiction book, but it has its talons gripped firmly into natural history)ChrysalisBy RinoZ(This is an TRPG but it's informed by the real biology of ants) The TeraformersAnnelee Newitz(A fiction book about alien ecology)What are your books of the year?
(DIR) Post #ApdeT3QNx59fo7xZYW by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-01T12:47:02Z
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I don't think of myself as a "nature person" but looking at my books... well that seems to be the running theme. I wish someone would write a book about microscopic creatures, hydras and single-celled organisms. A crazy fiction book about the Great Oxidation Event or something. Has anyone tackled this in an imaginative way yet?And of course there can never be too many stories about ants, though I hoover up the little ant fictions as soon as I find it.
(DIR) Post #ApdepPIVJGO612vqhE by privateshufti@mastodon.social
2025-01-01T12:51:01Z
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@futurebird Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow, Gabrielle ZevinProphet Song, Paul LynchIn Ascension, Martin MacInnesEmperor of Rome, Mary BeardJuice, Tim WintonCreation Lake, Rachel KushnerThe Bezzle, Cory Doctorow
(DIR) Post #Apdff2Yp5cQ4YcBa2i by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-01T13:00:12Z
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@privateshufti Reading the blurbs for these "In Ascension" sounds good. I like a good science fiction ocean mystery. What did you like about this one?
(DIR) Post #ApdfptWz0BpfjnV76u by albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz
2025-01-01T13:02:09Z
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@futurebird Books by Joan Slonczewski are close: about intelligent microorganisms. A Door into Ocean, the Brain Plague, and the Children Star. Brain Plague is my favorite. #scifi
(DIR) Post #ApdfwZZnai4nsQ0Cye by gsymon@mstdn.social
2025-01-01T13:03:31Z
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@futurebird Ooohh... I think I can see a tempting title: " Ant Elopes "
(DIR) Post #ApdfyQ9XbAP5EHbMW0 by keira_reckons@aus.social
2025-01-01T13:03:51Z
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@futurebird what are your favourite ant stories?I only know of one, the Cixin Liu novel, Of Ants and Dinosaurs. And one about bees. Other than that, I haven't heard of many insect characters.
(DIR) Post #ApdgMLNezds1NWc4um by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-01T13:08:14Z
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@keira_reckons I'm pretty opinionated about ants. And I've had to start writing my own ant stories since the ones I want don't exist. But the book that gets the closest to "getting" ants is obscure:"Busy: The Life Of An Ant" (1919)by Walter McCaleb This is a realistic tale of an ant colony on a small farm and explores how one ant sees the world. It's a great book to read to children on summer vacation while staying in a cabin by a lake and getting lost in nature.
(DIR) Post #ApdgTA4TRKrWKVtEEi by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-01T13:09:28Z
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@keira_reckons My only issue with "Busy" is it isn't ... big enough. Although the interactions between different ant colonies are delightful and based on real ant species.
(DIR) Post #ApdgVDRZs5nvMwfyNc by keira_reckons@aus.social
2025-01-01T13:09:50Z
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@futurebird this year mine were: The Last Devil to Die by Richard OsmanOne of us Knows, Alyssa Coleman The Bandit Queens, Parini ShroffWhat we don't talk about when we talk about fat, by Aubrey Gordon
(DIR) Post #Apdgbn78ABsJjgFP9c by keira_reckons@aus.social
2025-01-01T13:11:00Z
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@futurebird I'll keep an eye out, it sounds fun
(DIR) Post #ApdgnI8t8nvv9bYNNo by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-01T13:13:08Z
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@keira_reckons You probably won't stumble across it. It's over 100 years old and half-way out of print. But, nice old editions can be purchased from used book shops for not very much. I make a point of leaving them in summer cabins as it's the kind of book you find in a cabin and read for two days and then never forget.
(DIR) Post #ApdgwV3eUU1ToiUkzo by SordidAmok@mastodon.social
2025-01-01T13:14:44Z
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@futurebird The PencilHenry PetroskiHieroglyphic Tales Horace WalpoleOn Tyranny (Graphic)Timothy Snyder/Nora KrugImprovisationDerek BaileyCurrently reading - At Swim-Two-BirdsFlann O'Brien
(DIR) Post #ApdgxrYkJeo3tTgm7k by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-01T13:14:56Z
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@keira_reckons In fact... you know, it's so old I could probably record my own audiobook version of it. That could be a fun project!(Putting this on the list of possible projects which is far too long.) #projectIdeas #ants #audiobooks
(DIR) Post #ApdhDTo8OOHgrWKjVA by econads@mendeddrum.org
2025-01-01T13:17:46Z
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@futurebird @keira_reckons Last time you recommended this someone posted an online version that I started to read. Maybe archive.org?=
(DIR) Post #ApdhPkL2l0BfbfZkJM by rdviii@famichiki.jp
2025-01-01T13:18:21Z
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@futurebird I read thirty books, mostly very good, but none that will leave a mark on my soul. In 2023 it was Kettle Bottom and Demon Copperhead, both coincidentally set in Appalachia, that did. Nothing in 2024 was that profound.
(DIR) Post #ApdhbVCOs3Qs7y8dY8 by nora@blob.love
2025-01-01T12:55:09Z
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@futurebird i loved the terraformers!!
(DIR) Post #ApdhbW9bJwmt5ZpupE by nora@blob.love
2025-01-01T13:06:15Z
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@futurebird i think the books that really hit for me this year were "wild faith" and "ringmaster" which together gave me a set of lenses for the roots of authoritarianism and the aesthetics of american fascism, respectively.
(DIR) Post #Apdhhiq54QvwAWfGLo by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-01T13:23:17Z
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@nora Which one is the least depressing? I've been avoiding fiction that deals with such subjects too directly. I'm very interested in authors who explore more positive visions of the future... I get how it works when it's broken, you know?
(DIR) Post #Apdhodc4tldXzKPdaK by louisffourie@c.im
2025-01-01T13:24:31Z
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@futurebird @keira_reckons There is also "Die siel van die mier," published in 1925 in Afrikaans, and in 1970 in English as the "Soul of the white ant", by the poet and naturalist Eugene Marais. Sadly, many of Eugene's ideas were plagiarized by the Nobel laureate Maeterlinck's "The life of rhe white ant", published in 1926.
(DIR) Post #Apdi284KyYyiD440hM by privateshufti@mastodon.social
2025-01-01T13:26:57Z
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@futurebird It was a really unconventional story with an unusual end that I'm not sure I fully understood. Made me want to reread it - always a good sign! Juice is dark & devastating, as is Prophet Song, though in very different ways
(DIR) Post #ApdiLqPsJkIVFjXSvQ by nora@blob.love
2025-01-01T13:30:25Z
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@futurebird they're both very depressing! they're nonfiction though, i should have specified.have you read ada palmer's terra ignota? it's my favorite weird imagining of the future but it also comes with a list of trigger warnings as long as my arm-- i think they're in the book but i don't think they're adapted in the first audiobook.have you read any of the culture novels? i like those because they're sort of about how people would live when all their needs and most of their wants are met
(DIR) Post #ApdiZjy15oCNIx8OB6 by odaraia@mastodon.green
2025-01-01T13:33:00Z
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@futurebird We liked Trilobites! too. Fortey is a very accessible writer; we also enjoyed Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms. Amazing ideas about arthropod evolution.#paleontology #arthropods #evolution
(DIR) Post #ApdjBs0vcfAvGYg5vE by 3janeTA@beige.party
2025-01-01T13:39:54Z
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@futurebird @nora I just read a bunch of Becky Chambers (Psalm for the Wild Built was first for me) and described them to my mom as sort of positive future sci-fi. There’s still story and conflict but the setting is utopian and egalitarian. Psalm for the Wild Built was the most calming book I think I’ve EVER read. I assume I’m late to the party on these but certainly have enjoyed them.
(DIR) Post #ApdkSLzQ2dGAozOb8i by SharonCrockett@toot.community
2025-01-01T13:54:03Z
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@futurebird James by Percival Elliott, Adventures of Huck Finn by Mark Twain, Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler, Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, The Heaven and Earth Grocery by James McBride, On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder (illustrated version), African-American Women of the Old West by Tricia Martineau Wagner
(DIR) Post #ApdkZsF8WQimsgKjKq by marymessall@mendeddrum.org
2025-01-01T13:55:26Z
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@futurebird Not microorganisms, and you've probably heard of it, but... "Children of Time" is about intelligent spiders. (I haven't read them yet, but I believe its sequels are about octopuses and ravens.)And of course there is a chapter of my favorite book, The "Once And Future King," in which King Arthur gets turned into an ant (by Merlyn) and lives among ants, but they are mostly a metaphor for a militarized society. He also gets to be a fish, a hawk, a goose, and a badger.
(DIR) Post #Apdo1ZCPDjrRmtx808 by xris@ecoevo.social
2025-01-01T14:34:04Z
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@futurebird There's a short story, "Surface Tension", that gets into this a bit from the perspective of a human-engineered species.
(DIR) Post #ApdpcsBZgwZtLHuu0m by semitones@tiny.tilde.website
2025-01-01T14:52:01Z
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@futurebird Did you ever read the books with space aliens based on ants? Semiosis AND Interference by Sue Burke?Thanks for these recommendations, I'm especially into the one with alien ecology.
(DIR) Post #ApdrixfuOZvM0r8VUm by michael_w_busch@mastodon.online
2025-01-01T15:15:32Z
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@futurebird For fiction; I have just finished my re-read of all of Le Guin's "Earthsea" and am working my way through Martha Well's "Murderbot".For non-fiction I read last year; Ajay Singh Chaudhary's "The Exhausted of the Earth" keeps being relevant.
(DIR) Post #Apdth3UdzYsJO45Ouu by reinier@carelesswhisper.nl
2025-01-01T14:06:32Z
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@futurebird I wrote a thing a couple of days ago about the three books that made an impact on me in 2024https://reinierladan.nl/blog/sci-fi-2024/
(DIR) Post #ApduAN8A3l7AgnY7H6 by catselbow@fosstodon.org
2025-01-01T15:42:54Z
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@futurebird @keira_reckons Please do! I love the narration you've done on your ant videos.
(DIR) Post #ApdwBljsFgSLCyz0MK by econoprof@mastodon.social
2025-01-01T16:05:32Z
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@futurebird @keira_reckons what an interesting guy! https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/mccaleb-walter-flavius
(DIR) Post #ApdyAXHMjAZLysBijY by econoprof@mastodon.social
2025-01-01T16:27:45Z
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@futurebird @keira_reckons at this point, even if renewed, the copyright should be expired. It’s odd if it wasn’t renewed as he was still publishing things well into the 60s. I notice a copy for sale on Amazon in Kindle format for 99¢ that someone has edited and it still bears the 1919 copyright.
(DIR) Post #Ape4GnMYRPUJKGz0m8 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-01T17:36:09Z
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@econoprof @keira_reckons He doesn’t write like a banker. I credit his liberal arts education for that perhaps. He comes across as very contemplative. Although like nearly everyone he makes his ant protagonist male — which I always find annoying (because it doesn’t really matter yet in stories for children of unsocial insects so many authors shrink from the reality of ant colonies which are all female from the soldiers to the queen.)
(DIR) Post #Ape4QF0r0aJvgfKxJA by econoprof@mastodon.social
2025-01-01T17:37:50Z
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@futurebird @keira_reckons i’m here for the story about soldier ants on campaign!
(DIR) Post #ApeCh7U33PUKtNYGTw by Anne_Delong@musician.social
2025-01-01T19:10:30Z
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@futurebird There's Fantastic Voyage, but it was a movie first, then made into a novel by Isaac Asimov
(DIR) Post #ApeDEBM7g7DsSRbsjw by Anne_Delong@musician.social
2025-01-01T19:16:29Z
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@futurebird Here's a story about microscopic people who have to deal with tiny creatures who live in a pool of water.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_Tension_(short_story)#science fiction
(DIR) Post #ApeExkchVA5Qp5emy8 by Anne_Delong@musician.social
2025-01-01T19:35:56Z
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@futurebird This year I've been culling my science fiction paperback collection by re-reading ones I've had for decades and giving them away for someone else to read before they fall apart. The main impact these have had on me is nostalgia!Some I couldn't part with, though; for example:With Friends Like These.... Who Needs Enemies - Alan Dean FosterEnder's Game - Orson Scott CardNeedle - Hal Clement#books #sciencefiction
(DIR) Post #ApeJ4hNgM1JebxCUca by IngaLovinde@embracing.space
2025-01-01T20:21:57Z
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@futurebird many good books, but only three that made an impact: * The Saint of Bright Doors, by Vajra Chandrasekera(A speculative fiction book about uhhh it's about so much stuff (politics, magic, revolution, gods (?), refugee camps, other dimensions, abuse, basic income...), I don't even know where to start. Blurb starts with "Fetter was raised to kill, honed as a knife to cut down his sainted father. This gave him plenty to talk about in therapy.") * Hoshi and the Red City Circuit, by Dora M. Raymaker(A speculative fiction book with blurb starting with "Due to their unique neurology, only the enslaved Operator caste can program the quantum computers that run 26th century Red City"... does this ring a bell?..)* The Genesis of Misery, by Neon Yang(A speculative fiction book that's promoted as a modern telling of Joan of Arc but with mecha, "This is the story of Misery Nomaki (she/they) – a nobody from a nowhere mining planet who possesses the rare stone-working powers of a saint")
(DIR) Post #ApeN3jkyR4RjVRtMJs by BashStKid@mastodon.online
2025-01-01T21:06:40Z
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@futurebird @JeniParsons Trilobite is very good.
(DIR) Post #ApeNEMiyPRPdG51ZC4 by barrygoldman1@sauropods.win
2025-01-01T21:08:34Z
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@futurebird microscopic creature fiction?i hope you've read"surface tension" by james blish? i love it.dunno if this is a reliable rendition of ithttps://metallicman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/surface-tension-full-read.pdf
(DIR) Post #Apeetl2gbCUVlyZGkK by Archergal@wandering.shop
2025-01-02T00:26:27Z
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@futurebird LOL, we read Ka a while bk in our SFF book club. I thought it was ok, others really didn’t like it. We’re not really a very literary sort of group I guess. I think Translation State by Ann Leckie was prob the best book I read last year.
(DIR) Post #ApfUjR9esfk8oUEGAa by titaniumbiscuit@nerdculture.de
2025-01-02T10:07:15Z
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@futurebird I thoroughly enjoyed "Les Fourmis" and its sequel by French author Bernard Weber when I was 13. It's English name is Empire of the Ants and it's a SF whodunnit involving humans, ants and humans in league with ants. Not sure how well it still holds up nowadays though. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_the_Ants_(novel) @keira_reckons #bookstodon #ants #sf #entomology