[HN Gopher] The Realism of Our Times: Kim Stanley Robinson on ho...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       The Realism of Our Times: Kim Stanley Robinson on how science
       fiction works
        
       Author : tws
       Score  : 76 points
       Date   : 2021-07-22 20:36 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.publicbooks.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.publicbooks.org)
        
       | BLKNSLVR wrote:
       | Seeing this on HN, reading the article and the comments, really
       | reminds me of how much I respect KSR.
       | 
       | His 2312 brought me back to reading hard sci-fi after too long
       | not really reading much fiction at all for a long time. The ideas
       | presented in it reminded me of a sense of wonder at the scope of
       | future possibilities that had previously been lost under an ever
       | increasing pile of marital, parental, and financial
       | responsibility.
       | 
       | The problem I have now is, he somehow seems to write 'em faster
       | 'n' I can read 'em (the responsibility pile still exists and is
       | as demanding as ever)
       | 
       | Anyway, thanks KSR.
       | 
       | (Mostly off topic, but I'm currently reading Patrick O'Brien's
       | Master and Commander, the first in a series of 20 nautical-
       | historic fiction novels, and it's incredibly tough going with
       | O'Brien's detailed and accurate nautical terminology, of which I
       | know nothing - I just loved the movie. A challenging read - and
       | I've covered The Mars Trilogy and some lighter Pynchon).
        
         | Freak_NL wrote:
         | What a coincidence. I've just finished David Brin's _Existence_
         | (2012). The edition I have has a few pages of 2312 at the end
         | as a form of  'if you liked this, you might like...'
         | advertising. I guess I should look into this book.
        
         | dkarl wrote:
         | Do you have A Sea of Words, the lexicon for reading O'Brian's
         | novels? I highly recommend having it by your side while you
         | read. It helps a lot.
        
       | everyone wrote:
       | Can ye recommend any novels / authors that are as hard sci-fi as
       | KSR or Arthur C Clarke?
        
         | adrianN wrote:
         | I enjoyed Permutation City by Greg Egan and the Zones of
         | Thought books by Vernor Vinge.
        
           | PicassoCTs wrote:
           | Vernor Vinge is so good, shame he dropped it in Rainbows End.
        
             | arethuza wrote:
             | I think _Rainbows End_ is excellent. However, I was
             | disappointed with _The Children of the Sky_.
        
               | PicassoCTs wrote:
               | It had an interesting take on industrialization with a
               | hivemind though. Manchester capitalism is not really bad
               | if you are borg, after all its just a hand assigned to
               | boredom.
               | 
               | Rainbows End explored a society which went full AR, but
               | in my opinion most of the shots if fired missed the
               | target.
        
               | germinalphrase wrote:
               | Even so, I would love recommendations that take full AR
               | as seriously.
        
         | renke1 wrote:
         | * Seveneves (I haven't read much else from Neal Stephenson, but
         | I've heard good things)
         | 
         | * Children of Time / Children of Ruin (both really good)
         | 
         | * Remembrance of Earth's Past (even the fan fiction one is
         | good)
         | 
         | * A lot of stuff from Alastair Reynolds (House of Suns being my
         | favorite)
         | 
         | * Classics like Tau Zero, The Forever War etc.
         | 
         | * A Deepness in the Sky / A Fire Upon the Deep
         | 
         | Although not all of these are strictly considered hard scifi, I
         | guess.
         | 
         | Btw, I love it when somebody asks this question every now and
         | then on HN. Lots of stuff for one's (ever growing) reading
         | list.
        
           | throw1234651234 wrote:
           | Neal Stephenson's earlier work has "more soul" - Snow Crash /
           | Diamond Age actually has characters you care about and like,
           | his later novels get increasingly more abstract, though even
           | better in the technical sense. I think the only character I
           | remember from Seveneves is the cannibal leader, that's it.
           | 
           | "A Deepness in the Sky" was REALLY good. The Forever War was
           | good for the concept.
           | 
           | In short, yours looks like a great list I will come back to,
           | thank you.
           | 
           | However, I do strongly dislike Remembrance of Earth's Past /
           | The Three Body Problem - it's vastly overrated in my opinion
           | and the characters make no sense. The best part of it was the
           | intro to the first book which gave an interesting glimpse at
           | history.
        
             | seer wrote:
             | Remembrance of Earth's past had some of the weakest
             | protagonists in a book I've read. It also has this weird
             | thing where characters plan for things and that just ...
             | happens. It was strange seeing book arching plans go
             | without a hitch.
             | 
             | But I think it was incredibly interesting for me to see the
             | Asian perspective on the west. I've read it more as an
             | allegory of the different peoples of the world, shown from
             | a perspective totally different than my own.
             | 
             | I do think though that you have to be a bit of a hard sci-
             | fi fan to finish it, but the science-y ideas are very
             | interesting. I think it changed how I view the vast cosmos,
             | at least a little bit.
        
             | arethuza wrote:
             | I really couldn't get into Snow Crash and I didn't finish
             | Diamond Age but I _love_ everything from Cryptonomicon
             | forward.
             | 
             | Jack Shaftoe is one of my favourite fictional characters!
        
               | throw1234651234 wrote:
               | I know what you are talking about, despite being on the
               | opposite end of that spectrum. Snow Crash / Diamond Age
               | are cyberpunk/post-cyberpunk ala Gibson and completely
               | different from Stephenson's other books.
               | 
               | I couldn't even get through Cryptonomicon, and Jack
               | Shaftoe did not strike me as a believable genius, nor his
               | story. Anathem kind of strafed the line - it had SOME
               | character development, and SOME action, but was mainly
               | world-building / intellectual exploration. Stephenson's
               | other books fall too far on that spectrum for me.
        
               | arethuza wrote:
               | Are you by any chance referring to "Bobby" Shaftoe the
               | WW2 Marine Raider or his ancestor King of the Vagabonds,
               | L'Emmerdeur, Half-Cocked Jack, Quicksilver, Ali Zaybak,
               | Sword of Divine Fire, Jack the Coiner...
        
               | the__alchemist wrote:
               | This gentleman, by whatever named you call him, is
               | perhaps my favorite Stephenson character. I hated him
               | after the first book... it felt too difficult to related
               | to his decisions and mistakes, but loved him by the end.
        
               | the__alchemist wrote:
               | I can't remember a single character from Anathem, but its
               | world and some of the scenes are burned into my
               | connectome.
        
             | the__alchemist wrote:
             | I agree, re The Three Body Problem. It's a fun story, but
             | not hard sci-fi in the way Stephenson etc are. I also
             | enjoyed the dive into mid-century communist China - it was
             | a jarring, immersive journey into living-memory history I
             | hadn't learned about before.
             | 
             | I think Diamond Age was my favorite overall Stephenson
             | story in terms of both story and neat scifi concepts, but
             | all of them were enjoyable. I agree on Seveneves chars all
             | being forgettable. Dodge (The most recent one) had perhaps
             | the dullest start, but I really liked the Dodge, Corvis,
             | and Daisy characters.
        
           | BLKNSLVR wrote:
           | +1 for Seveneves. I found it so engrossing that just thinking
           | about it now I can picture the shapes of that chain in
           | zero-G, and the unexpectedly long-lasting hellscape
           | consequences of the very early reveal. The CB radio...
        
             | jsymolon wrote:
             | eh, 1st 1/2 great. 2nd half ... really falls apart
        
               | yongjik wrote:
               | Also, the author has an inexplicable obsession with
               | chains moving in free space. (Okay, I get it, it's cool
               | physics, but how is it any more practical than using a
               | mega-catapult as an airport?)
        
               | tartuffe78 wrote:
               | Agreed, the first half was semi-realistic hard science
               | fiction, the second half felt more like fantasy almost.
               | It wasn't bad, but such a huge shift from the first half.
        
               | totoglazer wrote:
               | Strong agree. Luckily you can just stop reading at the
               | end of part 1 and it's still a very satisfying book.
        
               | Robotbeat wrote:
               | Yeah, they're really 2 different books.
               | 
               | BUT, I enjoyed the 2nd half as well. The 1st book is
               | already obsolete technologically in some ways (launch
               | technology has progressed a lot in the last 5 years)[0],
               | although very interesting. Which is one reason I like the
               | 2nd part in that it extrapolates from the
               | sociocultural/technological developments of the first
               | book to see what the ultimate consequences could be.
               | 
               | The book is also a sharp commentary on the
               | destructiveness of social media...
               | 
               | [0]side note: the speed of progress that SpaceX is
               | achieving with Starship in Boca Chica is comparable to a
               | pace you'd want in the first book... They're going so
               | fast in Boca Chica, as if the Moon fell apart and they
               | only have a couple years left before the Hard Rain to
               | make humanity a multiplanetary species...
        
               | seer wrote:
               | To be honest I think I really like "long jumps in time".
               | It's like the author builds up a world that you
               | understand and care about, and then it becomes a backdrop
               | of this new world, which adds another layer of
               | complexity. There are parallels to notice and explore,
               | "how things might turn out" tales, etc.
               | 
               | The one other author I've seen pull it off was Brandon
               | Sanderson in his Mistborn trilogy, though he does it 2
               | times (once for each book) where the previous one becomes
               | "the legends" for the next one, with all the
               | misunderstandings that this usually entails.
        
           | andyjohnson0 wrote:
           | I hated Seveneves. The first part was grim and unremitting
           | and almost everyone died. It left me feeling kind of
           | depressed, and unwilling to put up with what seemed to be a
           | self-indulgent second part. Plus the premise was so unlikely
           | and the ending felt unsatisfactory. I should have known:
           | Stephenson doesn't really do endings.
        
             | jefurii wrote:
             | The "Stephenson doesn't do endings" meme again. Sigh. Yes,
             | the novel ends and it's obvious that the characters' lives
             | keep going. Lots of authors do that. Real life often
             | doesn't have endings or clear resolutions.
        
               | andyjohnson0 wrote:
               | I wasn't aware that it was a meme. My comment was based
               | on my own observations from reading a number of his
               | books.
               | 
               | > Yes, the novel ends and it's obvious that the
               | characters' lives keep going. Lots of authors do that.
               | Real life often doesn't have endings or clear
               | resolutions.
               | 
               | The characters lives _do_ end with the end of the book
               | (unless there 's a sequel). You can certainly imagine how
               | their lives might proceed, but a satisfactory ending
               | doesn't preclude that either. Drawing together the
               | elements of a story, completing the arcs, creating some
               | kind of resolution: these are part of the storytellers
               | craft.
               | 
               | With Seveneves I thought he just ran out of steam. It
               | felt like leaving a film ten minutes before the end and
               | stumbling out into the daylight. Pretty dissatisfying at
               | the end of a long book.
        
         | kryptn wrote:
         | I really like Dragon's Egg by Robert L Forward, and its sequel
         | as well.
        
           | sweetheart wrote:
           | I didn't know there was a sequel! How exciting.
        
             | AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
             | Starquake. It's not as good as Dragon's Egg in my opinion,
             | and seems much more focused on development of interesting
             | characters. That's not a bad thing, mind you.
        
         | sbierwagen wrote:
         | The Martian by Andy Weir, if you haven't seen the movie yet. If
         | you have, he's had another similar novel out recently, Hail
         | Mary.
        
           | BLKNSLVR wrote:
           | Andy Weir also published Artemis in between The Martian and
           | Project Hail Mary.
        
         | the__alchemist wrote:
         | In addition to the existing ones (I'll throw another vote
         | towards any Neal Stephenson or Andy Weir novel):
         | 
         | Contact by Carl Sagan. It's a nice tale about a passionate SETI
         | scientist, by an author known more commonly for nonfiction and
         | TV.
        
         | seer wrote:
         | Apart from the great suggestions (Vernor Vinge fan for sure) I
         | think one would I would recommend would be the "Remembrance of
         | Earth's Past" (a.k.a three body problem). It presented
         | plausible hard sci-fi bits, while the human aspect was
         | incredibly weird, especially from a western perspective.
         | Definitely opened my eyes to a lot of how Chinese people
         | probably feel about their place in the world and their legacy.
         | 
         | But the scope of the series is just breathtaking, I don't think
         | I've read anything that spanned as much in space or time, and
         | made it believable too, highly recommended.
        
         | johnchristopher wrote:
         | Baxter, the manifold trilogy.
        
         | jillesvangurp wrote:
         | Beyond what other people list here:
         | 
         | - Hugh Howey. His Silo series is worth a read. He published it
         | in some episodic form. However, I'd recommend just getting the
         | whole thing. Beacon 23 is a bit shorter and also nice.
         | 
         | - Ramez Naam. His nexus series is a decent series. Not the best
         | written but I enjoyed it.
         | 
         | - James S.A. Corey, the expanse series. Makes you appreciate
         | the tv series more.
         | 
         | - Authors others already mentioned: Neal Stephenson & Peter
         | Watts.
         | 
         | Other authors that go more in the direction of space opera: Iam
         | M. Banks, Ernest Cline, John Scalzi, Ann Lecky, Richard K.
         | Morgan (Altered Carbon).
        
         | hyperpallium2 wrote:
         | Larry Niven. His older stuff: _Ringworld_. and all his short-
         | story collections, especially _Neutron Star_.
         | 
         | He also did a scifi take on magic, in _The Magic Goes Away_.
         | 
         | I see Vinor Vinge's AFUTD and ADITS as the closest thing to
         | Niven.
        
         | V-2 wrote:
         | Some works of Stanislaw Lem should fall into that category -
         | such as my favourite "His Master's Voice".
        
         | throw1234651234 wrote:
         | Not the The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin - recommending it is
         | when the Nebula awards became a joke.
         | 
         | Other than that, it used to be a trusted resource:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebula_Award_for_Best_Novel
        
         | jayesh-bhoot wrote:
         | Flood; Ark; and Evolution from Stephen Baxter will always stay
         | with me.
        
         | Herodotus38 wrote:
         | Peter Watts has a good biology background so his books are
         | pretty accurate when it comes to sci-fi advances with biology.
         | Definitely better than most authors who usually focus more on
         | physics/engineering.
         | 
         | I liked "Blindsight" and "The Freeze-Frame Revolution"
         | 
         | I would also appreciate any recommendations for hard sci-fi
         | authors with a biology focus, I'm sure there are many more I
         | don't know.
        
           | kryptn wrote:
           | I really enjoyed Blindsight, I'll have to check out your
           | other suggestion. Thanks!
        
           | arethuza wrote:
           | Ken MacLeod has a zoology degree - which is presumably where
           | names like "The Stone Canal" came from...
           | 
           | I like most of his novels, particularly "Learning the World"
           | - which I guess is a reverse first contact novel.
        
           | BLKNSLVR wrote:
           | Blindsight was great, Echopraxia not as good, but I still
           | enjoyed it. I'll be searching out "The Freeze-Frame
           | Revolution" for sure, thanks.
           | 
           | Hard sci-fi / biology crossover:
           | https://www.gregegan.net/TERANESIA/TERANESIA.html
        
             | PicassoCTs wrote:
             | https://www.tor.com/2014/07/29/the-colonel-peter-watts/
        
         | er4hn wrote:
         | Alastair Reynolds, especially his Revelation Space trilogy are
         | great hard sci Fi novels. He's a former astrophysicist so he
         | knows the hard limits.
         | 
         | I find most of his works to be good musings on humanity with a
         | bit of alien horror.
        
         | BLKNSLVR wrote:
         | Quarantine by Greg Egan:
         | https://www.gregegan.net/QUARANTINE/Quarantine.html
         | 
         | Upon re-reading your question, I don't think this
         | recommendation exactly fits, but, damn, it's a good book anyway
         | and Neal Stephenson doesn't do things by halves: Interface by
         | Neal Stephenson (under a pseudonym and in conjunction with
         | another author also using a pseudonym). This book only becomes
         | more relevant with each presidential campaign:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interface_(novel)
        
           | JadeNB wrote:
           | Greg Egan in general is a solid recommendation for diamond-
           | hard sci-fi; I actually think _Quarantine_ is one of the
           | weakest in this respect, though it 's a fantastic book. Who
           | else would think to write a series of books
           | (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Egan#Orthogonal_trilogy)
           | about what would happen if you flipped a sign in the
           | Lorentzian metric?
        
         | fouc wrote:
         | Accelerando by Charles Stross, The Diamond Age by Neal
         | Stephenson, Diaspora by Greg Egan, Distraction by Bruce
         | Sterling
        
           | elygre wrote:
           | I just read Diaspora, and find it far from hard sci-fi.
           | 
           | The Wikipedia page says "Egan invents several new theories of
           | physics", and that to me is not hard sci-fi.
        
             | fouc wrote:
             | I think the best hard sci-fi can include cutting edge
             | theories or even ideas that the author themselves are
             | proposing, based on a reasonable understanding of the
             | existing science.
             | 
             | At the time many of Greg Egan's early books from the
             | 90s/00s were written, there were a lot more competing ideas
             | or theories in quantum mechanics compared to now. In his
             | books he basically explores some of those ideas, and pushes
             | the boundaries.
             | 
             | The best sci-fi to me inspire future scientists or
             | engineers to explore novel approaches.
        
           | PicassoCTs wrote:
           | Sorry, but Accelerando is horrible. I recommend Singularity
           | Sky, the weird one, not watered down for the mainstream. The
           | characters are flat, but the weirdness on route, is captured
           | much better.
        
             | fouc wrote:
             | I have a soft spot for Accelerando because it was my first
             | encounter with the exo-cortex (or perhaps more accurately
             | called cybernetics) concept, aka computers as an external
             | brain. Also it was my first encounter with the concept of
             | smart contracts, laws & corporations run purely as code.
        
         | AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
         | Depends what you mean by 'hard'.
         | 
         | Anything by Greg Egan is probably going to be the hardest sci-
         | fi you've ever read. Dude wrote a book where he considered the
         | ramifications of a universe built on a positive-definite
         | Riemannian metric, and another one where the universe has 2
         | time dimensions.
         | 
         | Robert L. Forward's Dragon's Egg explores what life might look
         | like if it evolved on a neutron star.
         | 
         | Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time and Children of Ruin
         | explore the evolution of other earth species if they were given
         | a kick towards sapience.
         | 
         | Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep is half space adventure
         | (not very hard) and half an exploration of a lifeform which
         | only achieves sapience in small groups. A Deepness in the Sky
         | is generally harder and explores a lot of things, including the
         | power of focused human attention, the difficulty of galactic
         | scale civilization, and alien life evolved in a star system
         | where the star periodically dims.
         | 
         | Steven Baxter and Clarke collaborated on The Light of Other
         | Days, which explores the technical and sociological
         | consequences of a device which allows you to see the past.
         | 
         | With a broad interpretation of 'hard' I can highly recommend
         | Ursula Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness and The
         | Dispossessed, which have soft science but hard humanity.
         | 
         | Similarly The Long Earth series, a collaboration between
         | Pratchett and Baxter, where it seems Baxter handles the
         | sociological and technological consequences of the science
         | while Pratchett handles the characters and philosophy.
         | 
         | Asimov's I, Robot is an exploration of what happens when you
         | try to constrain intelligence with rules.
         | 
         | Asimov's Foundation Trilogy gets a lot of hype, but it isn't
         | very hard and I also found it utterly mediocre. Instead I
         | recommend The God's Themselves, which is so good it's like
         | Asimov was channeling a much better writer to get his ideas
         | down. It explores the limited interaction of our universe with
         | one that has slightly different physical properties.
         | 
         | Also perhaps stretching the definition of 'hard', but I want to
         | recommend it because it's relatively unknown, is Leonard
         | Richardson's Constellation Games, in which an incredibly
         | advanced multi-species anarchic alien civilization makes first
         | contact with humanity, and the protagonist really just wants to
         | play their video games. It's actually harder sci-fi than it
         | sounds.
        
         | bsenftner wrote:
         | I strongly recommend Greg Bear. His first novel "Blood Music"
         | is a unique take on an AI out of control, and he continues with
         | a series independent of novels which all take place in a
         | unified "future history". One of my favorite aspects of his
         | future history is the combination of the bio-genetic, cosmetic
         | surgery, and pop media artist industries to create
         | transhumanist pop media artists, and spawning a transhumanist
         | youth movement and a counter transhumanist political movement,
         | with all the human chaos that would result wonderfully
         | illustrated by his prose.
        
           | kcartlidge wrote:
           | Definitely Greg Bear.
           | 
           | When I started reading grown-up SF decades ago it was with
           | Bear, Bova, Niven, Pournelle, and the like. Back then Eon,
           | Blood Music, and Ringworld (for example) were mind-blowingly
           | vast concepts.
           | 
           | As an aside (and purely because it's probably my turn for
           | some hefty downvotes) I'd definitely agree with the comment
           | elsewhere in this thread about the Foundation books being
           | overrated. Almost unreadably dull and feeling more like any
           | concept of 'plot' is just a carrier for a couple of mediocre
           | ideas.
        
             | bsenftner wrote:
             | Agree on the Foundation criticism. From what I've seen of
             | the Apple series based on it, it's gonna be a politically
             | correct mess.
        
         | e12e wrote:
         | Many good suggestions here - I definitely recommend to check
         | out Vernor Vinge. I've heard a lot of praise for The Expanse
         | series (James S. A. Corey / pen name for Daniel Abraham and Ty
         | Franck) - but I've only seen the TV series, not read the books.
        
           | e12e wrote:
           | I would kind of consider the stand alone books Black
           | Man/Thirteen, Thin Air (two books, same universe) and the
           | Altered Carbon trilogy by Richard Morgan "hard" sci-fi to an
           | extent - and be aware that the TV series, while entertaining,
           | butchered much of the political content in the books.
        
             | BLKNSLVR wrote:
             | If you like the "Takeshi Kovacs / Altered Carbon" trilogy,
             | you'll almost definitely like the "Greg Mandel / Event
             | Horizon" trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton.
             | 
             | And they're not bible sized tomes like some of PFH's later
             | space operas (some of which I own, but am too intimidated
             | by their size to have considered starting the journey).
        
               | e12e wrote:
               | True, I was considering mentioning Hamilton, but it's
               | been so long since I read those books - so wasn't quite
               | sure if I'd call them hard sci-fi or not :)
        
         | pp19dd wrote:
         | Hard sci fi is hard to define for me personally. But, Children
         | of Time by Adrian Czajkowski is worth a look, and maybe Saturn
         | Run by Ctein and John Sanford.
        
           | jeffwass wrote:
           | Just out of curiosity where are you located?
           | 
           | Here in the UK his name is spelled "Adrian Tchaikovsky", as
           | well as his account on Twitter (@aptshadow), where aside from
           | writing novels he's insanely productive creating digital
           | artwork (often including insect characters).
        
             | pp19dd wrote:
             | My apologies, did not mean to rename the man. I'm an
             | ignorant hick from USA. Though to be fair I think that's
             | his legal name.
        
               | jeffwass wrote:
               | No probs, I was just curious if that's how it was spelled
               | elsewhere.
        
       | Gravityloss wrote:
       | Does he only read things written originally in English?
        
       | jnsie wrote:
       | Mars Trilogy changed how I look at the world, nation states and
       | the future. Love KSR!
        
         | yesenadam wrote:
         | > Mars Trilogy changed how I look at the world, nation states
         | and the future.
         | 
         | In what way? (if that's practical/possible to answer)
        
           | jefurii wrote:
           | He introduced me to the idea of worker cooperatives
           | (businesses/organizations owned and run by the workers
           | themselves) and I wish I could like in a world where they
           | were more normal.
        
           | maxhille wrote:
           | For me while reading it was the first time I thought "hey
           | nations are purely social/political constructs and not set
           | into stone at all". Sounds trivial but that book changed my
           | perspective on that matter.
           | 
           | I suppose that the cultural background (Old World here) might
           | play a role here - I can imagine an American thinking "of
           | course you can just get rid of the people exploiting your
           | kind, we did that before already".
        
           | AltonWells wrote:
           | He proposes a novel way of thinking about the
           | economy,ecology,and political governance nicely bundled in a
           | meta epic about terraforming Mars.
        
       | hiidrew wrote:
       | I recently listened to KSR on Exponential View, Ministry of the
       | Future has an intriguing premise and hope to read that soon.
       | 
       | Recently began a fiction kick after starting my full-time job for
       | the first time, nice way to break screen-time instead of gaming.
       | There's something nice about visualizing worlds instead of seeing
       | worlds built by someone else.
       | 
       | Currently reading the first Dune book and love it. Reminds me of
       | GOT on Mars.
        
       | jpm_sd wrote:
       | Really loved the Mars trilogy when I was a teenager. The clunky
       | character development and invented politics haven't aged super
       | well, but the stories are still interesting. I also enjoyed The
       | Memory of Whiteness and The Years of Rice and Salt.
       | 
       | More recently I tried reading Aurora (2015), but the book is a
       | downer and a slog. Not recommended. Didn't finish it.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(novel)
        
         | jefurii wrote:
         | I came across Memory of Whiteness while taking my college music
         | theory classes. It's very fantastical but I loved how he
         | connected various compositional techniques with physical
         | processes. It's a very underrated book.
        
         | arethuza wrote:
         | Isn't the narrative of Aurora slightly odd (at least at first)
         | because of who the narrator is and how the narrator develops
         | over time?
         | 
         | I really liked it.
        
           | Arrath wrote:
           | Yup! That's part of what intrigued me so much about it.
        
         | Arrath wrote:
         | I actually really enjoyed Aurora and have been through it three
         | times. It is a bit of a downer, sure. It felt quite fresh to me
         | though, as I took it as a 'coming of age' story, but for the
         | ship's AI.
        
         | anyonecancode wrote:
         | Currently reading Ministry for the Future, which in some ways
         | is a very optimistic book, but is still quite grim. Also, I'm
         | thinking perhaps next time I'm tempted to read a book with
         | climate change as the subject, I'll wait until winter to do it,
         | rather than in the summer when the described scenes are a bit
         | too easy to imagine by simply stepping outside.
         | 
         | Read the mars trilogy and Rice and Salt as well. I like his
         | optimism in humans' ability to actually make radical political
         | change. I suppose this is what I mean by his being both
         | optimistic and grim -- severe outcomes aren't avoided in his
         | books, but in the end societies do change before the absolute
         | worst comes to pass. A "hard optimism" I suppose, which I find
         | valuable.
        
           | infoseek12 wrote:
           | I like Kim Stanley Robinson and Ministry for the Future has
           | some interesting ideas but it reads a bit like a white paper
           | disguised as a novel.
        
           | AniseAbyss wrote:
           | Human history is filled with change, it's the only constant.
           | 
           | Unfortunately we don't see that when we're in the centre of
           | the storm.
        
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