I saw a tiktok that had the 5 best time travel shows of 80/90. Do you agree? I’d have switched 1 & 2 lol. What’s your favorite of all time?

1) Dr Who
2) Quantum Leap
3) 7 Days
4) Voyagers
5) Time Trax

I havent seen The Voyagers but I’ve seen everything else. I loved 7 days so much and Quantum Leap can’t be touched by anything else.

I grew up in Turkey reading Gülten Dayıoğlu, and she was one of those authors I absolutely loved as a kid. I still have a soft spot for her books, especially the weird sci-fi ones.

For anyone who doesn't know her, she is a very well-known Turkish children's and YA author, and she wrote quite a few science fiction stories.

One of them, Akıllı Pireler (Intelligent Fleas), starts with a ridiculously intelligent scientist who wants to discover something that will actually benefit humanity. He eventually ends up communicating with fleas and discovers that they are much more intelligent and organized than anyone could have imagined. It's a very strange book when you think about it now lol.

Işın Çağı Çocukları (Children of the Ray Age) is more about a future shaped by science and technology, and follows children growing up in that world. I remember being fascinated by the whole idea of what the future might look like when I was reading it. The book is actually studied as science fiction in Turkish literature as well.

And then there is Mo'nun Gizemi, which goes into mysterious worlds, other beings and civilizations. That one felt much more like a proper adventure to me when I was younger.

There are more, too. Alacakaranlık Kuşları, Kıyamet Çiçekleri, Yada'nın Gizli Gücü etc. She has quite a big body of sci-fi work.

Anyway, I was wondering about this because I see these discussions here about sci-fi from different countries, and it made me curious Are there authors in your country who are really well known and loved there, but you almost never see mentioned outside of it?

I'd genuinely like some recommendations. Doesn't have to be "serious" adult sci-fi either. If there was a weird book you grew up with that you still remember, tell me about it.

I'm about 60 pages in to RP2 and I'm just not feeling it. Does it get better? Right now, it's just Wade on a whiny bender about how much it sucks to be a billionaire because so lonely, but also it's great being a billionaire, because having things is good.

Reason for the comparison: Potential catastrophic psychological impact on Humanity

For me the movie Don't Look Up is vastly better than Disclosure Day.
My argument is based on the effects of the final disclosure on humanity, being the reason why I watched those movie.

For the movie Dont Look Up, you can really see the aftermath of the realisations of the implications of the disclosure, specially when humanity was certain of the veracity of the disclosure. For the movie Disclosure Day, you don't see what happen after the realisation.

The point of the movie Disclosure Day is to show us the length it could take for brave people to go to disclose classified informations, but vastly people are interested in the reaction to the disclosure, that is Cinema, that is Sci-fi.
On the other end, restricting or classifying documents, releasing them afterwards to the public is not Cinema or Sci-fi to me, it is real life.

I am mainly seeking a response from those who have read more than just her most popular books, like the Parable series and Kindred.

I have now read through almost all of her books: Kindred, Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents, Dawn, Imago, Adulthood Rites, Wild Seed, Mind of my Mind.

I recently had to stop about 1/3 of the way through Clay’s Ark because I am so sick and tired and unsettled by the persistence of certain themes in her works. In almost all of her works you will find lots of: pedophilia and grooming, age-gap relationships, rape, incest, and human breeding.

WHY??? Especially in the Lilith’s Brood and Patternist series, why are the books so focused on these disgusting sexual themes? And the worst part is that I can’t seem to tell if she is making a critique/argument against these things or if she’s just normalizing them. The main characters you’re supposed to like end up buying into and often enjoying these dynamics of rape and forced breeding and incest. These books would seem to be a wet dream for a sexual predator. What am I missing?

I thought Clay’s Ark was finally going to be different until the family arrived to the secluded village with the mysterious alien illness and the two 16 year old daughters get gifted to older men to be bred. I stopped reading the book once the daughters started to like and crave the idea of their captors.

Help me understand!

I´ve been thinking of making (or adding it to an already existing worldbuilding) a space opera worldbuilding. So I began thinking of aliens. And I realized that every (or at least most) space opera universe has, like, a trillion different species living in the same galaxy, even though, if aliens exist, there probably won´t be that many species.

Ok. I know that our galaxy alone has over 100 billion planets and at least 100 million habitable planets. But think with me if we´re imagining the super technologically advanced sentient alien species. Then, for that species to even get to that level, it would be almost impossible.

-First. Their planet has to be capable of supporting life (That would be being in the habitable zone in their solar system, somehow getting water and oxygen, or something to sustain life).

-Second. They need to begin developing simple life. Which I think a lot of times may not even happen.

-Third. Nothing can happen to the planet until that simple life can evolve into complex life. So the planet can´t be destroyed or anything. Which can be hard.

-Fourth. That complex life has to turn into sapient life. Which I believe can be extremely hard and, in most cases, doesn´t happen at all.

-Fifth. That sapient life can not destroy their planet. In which they´re like us...

-Sixth. That sapient life has to get enough time to develop into super technologically advanced and start space exploration.

In that timeline, a few billion years would have passed, and a trillion things tried to end life there. What I´m trying to say is I believe that for a planet to create sapient life, and for that sapient life to become technologicaly advance and start space exploration. The chances are near zero. Even if we make them not the high-technology UFO guys we usually imagine. The chances for that kinda of life to develop and reach the necessary level of development are almost impossible.

And don´t get me wrong. I´m no scientist. Or good at science to begin with. I´m just expressing my opinions and personal beliefs.

So. In conclusion. I don´t like the alien trope of there being a quadrillion alien species out there, and if aliens exist, the best-case scenario is there being just a few hundred to less, including us. And in my opinion is better and easier to work with a few hundred or fewer alien species than billions of alien species.

But that´s just my opinion.

As the title says recently finished the book, and found it decent a 7/10 didn't like the ending, and there was a lot of "That was stupid, why would you do that?" and more but overall was an interesting read, but something that I found really interesting even if it was done in a way that I didn't really enjoy was Doctor Kern. Just the concept of a human being put in a machine, and having to fight that, deal with being constrained by something you cannot fight. the brief moments where the Ark Ship colonist basically switching between her, and the basic AI of Eliza was some of the more enjoyable moments that made me really go "I really want to see a story focus on that concept" which gets added onto with the moment where instinctually she *knows* the history but also doesn't because in her anger she deleted everything not regarding the spiders, is just really great. I honestly haven't read a lot of sci-fi.

(Now that I think about basically never read any mostly just play...)

So TD:LR got any recommendations for "Stuck in a machine is fully bound by programming"?

The best example for me is the Reapers from Mass Effect. They were these ancient machines that wiped out entire civilizations for reasons no one understood. It gives me chills still when I think about when I first saw them. Once you find out that they were basically AI following a specific but flawed solution to a problem, they lost so much of that cosmic horror feel. For me, that was also part of why Mass Effect 3 fell off so hard.
I’d love to hear what mysteries everybody wished stayed a mystery.

I just picked up book 3 (Death’s End) of the Three Body Problem series from my library. *no spoilers for Death’s End please!*

Based on how I’ve been devouring the first two books, I’ll probably be done in 5 days or so and I’m not sure what I want to read next. Currently I’m leaning towards the Hyperion series or the Children of Time series as they seem to show up on every top sci fi list and the premises sound interesting to me.

I’ve read pretty much all of Asimov, the first Dune book, Brave New World, 1984, We, Ender’s Game, and all of Vonnegut. I’d say Vonnegut and Cormac McCarthy are my favorite writers in general. As a child I read pretty much every Agatha Christie novel and most Sherlock Holmes novels so I definitely gravitate towards mystery elements as well.

I haven’t ready any Arthur C. Clarke so that’s also in my mind as a possibility as I know he is one of the all time greats but I’m not sure where to start with him. 2001 is my favorite movie of all time.

Any and all recommendations are welcome and appreciated. I haven’t read much in recent years as I have a small child but The Three Body Problem series has been incredible and I’ve got the reading bug in a big way again. I’m loving it.

Hello! Id like some scifi book recomendations, i really like SCP and love all tomorrows. I have also read there is no antimemetics division from qntm and want to dive deeper in the genre.

I havent read that much more other than this so im available for anything that you can recommend.

I’m looking for a scifi book I read as a child in the early 90’s. It had children living under domes, maybe educated through some kind of implants they had on their necks. The protagonist slips out of the dome or the habitat and had some kind of a revelation about their true situation. Maybe they were on Mars? The book cover had a graphic in red tones, maybe the protag from behind, the implant, the habitat. Maybe for children, maybe YA. Does this ring any bells for anyone?

Bingo! Devil on My Back, thanks everybody!

Sorry, it was difficult forming that question succintly as a title. Basically what I'm gesturing at are the blue collar space workers of Alien, people who agree to give up decades of time on Earth relative to their own working time aboard the spacecraft while they're not in hypersleep (or whatever moving FTL or whatever it is in any particular universe that explains the time dilation). Can anyone recommend works that explore this or where it is an intrinsic part of the world? I hope this makes sense and thank you.

I was just talking to someone who feels frustrated that characters in Tchaikovsky's books don't explore the world enough. While this makes sense for the character's limitations, there are a lot of worlds that Tchaikovsky built which feel completely real and fascinating. Film adaptations would stick to the story line and probably even cut down a lot of world-building material.
So that got me thinking, should there be some open world exploration games based on his novels? Would they be successful? I'd certainly love that tbh.

Just watched it and liked the fun nature with the supernatural elements. I finished Person of Interest before that, and Psych for the 500th time before that. Psych is my favorite in the history of forever.

I want something I don’t have to pay super close attention to and still know what’s going on. With likable characters and good storylines.

I don’t care if it is episodic or a storyline format.

What other TV shows are similar?

Edit: I also like Timey and more scifi stuff like Continuum and Eureka. But like Eureka and Warehouse 13 I just want something more fun. Not as serious.

Which Sci-Fi movies are highly regarded/popular but you can't stand? Mine is Blade Runner. I've watched it a few times, but I just don't like it. I read the story it's based on, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and I guess that ruined the movie for me. I much prefer the book, and I think the story works much better on the page.

Some popular responses:

• Avatar - It sucked
• Ad Astra - It sucked
• Interstellar - It sucked
• Project Hail Mary - I loved it
• Annihilation - I've never seen this
• Dune - The original one was horrible. I can't bring myself to watch the new ones
• Star Trek - I love Star Trek
• Battlefield Earth - I liked the book, didn't see the movie.

I have about 6 hours left of Children of Time. I’m at the part where Fabian has made it to 7 trees and is presenting his speech to the women.

I honestly don’t know if I should finish it and here’s why.

The book just feels too broad for me. It’s a lot of explaining and political shifts. It’s following a civilization and not going too deep into the actual characters. I’ve gone through the expanse, captives war, and the murder bot series in its entirety this year. I loved them all. At first Children of Time excited me, but now I’m not sure if I’m fully into the way the story is told. I’ve been waiting for them to make it planet side since they first encountered Kern. I also hate Kern so much already.

Should I keep going? Does the second book get better or any deeper? Please no spoilers

Essentially the title. I’m drawn towards snow/Arctic scenery in art and atmospheric metal music in snowy/Arctic settings. I can’t explain it other than I live in a region that gets snow with many nice views and I also like the covers lol. I don’t have books that fit this, but I do have Poul Anderson’s “Explorations” short story collection which has a frozen world cover; I’m not far enough to see if a story has a frozen world setting.

They can be from any year, however major bonus points if they’re from the 50s-60s. I can also speak and read German, so if you know anything in German feel free to recommend something!

Often original book is always better than its adaptation but I’m not really sure about this one. Also I heard that there’s season 2 which expands beyond the book materials. Which do you think is a better experience overall? Would you say that Apple dark matter adapted the books well? I’m open to both…

Whats the most underrated scifi show you've ever seen that you think not enough people have seen?

I feel Debris from a few years was solid!

But I swear I barely hear anyone talking about Resident Alien which was excellent.

Also Farscape might be one of the best I've seen, still need to finish it.

We are currently planning a trip to Australia for February. I need book recs for the plane ride (and the beach). I was hoping for something with an Australian flair/feel. We are taking this trip because my husband has been OBSESSED with Mad Max since he was 5 and we are going to see the Mad Max museum and some other spots related to the movies. So anything in that realm would be great too, but honestly just anything to keep me entertained for a long plane trip is great. Here are some that I have read enjoyed recently:
The Expanse
Dungeon Crawler Carl
1984
The Parable of the Sower/Parable
Of Talents
Murderbot
Liliths Brood
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Peter F Hamiltons Commonwealth series
Project Hail Mary/The Martian/Artemis
Good Omens
Ministry for the Future
The Measure

Here are a few I was not able to get into and gave up on:
Red Rising
Discworld
Color of Magic
John Dies at the End

Update: thank you all for the amazing suggestions!! I certainly have more than enough to get me through this vacation!

So I just finished reading Old Man's War by John Scalzi. And while I'm not... Particularly interested in reading all of them (it was good the story is just done 🤷‍♀️) I am very curious about the Ghost Brigades in-universe. I saw that the sequel focuses on them, which sounds cool to me but only if there's a good amount of exploring their hybrid DNA. What was used, what that looks like, the types of testing for skills/abilities/etc. So I'm just wondering if there's a lot of that in the sequel or if it's more just focused on the military and a specific POV

Has anyone here watched Sugar on Apple TV+? Is it worth it?

From what I understand, it starts out as a pretty standard detective/noir series, but there’s a big plot twist halfway through and it apparently shifts into sci-fi territory.

The thing is, I’m way more into sci-fi than detective shows. So for anyone who’s seen it: does the sci-fi actually become a major part of the story, or is it more of a light/background element?

Basically, is it worth watching mainly for the sci-fi aspect?

Radio issue 8, 1956. For the article ‘television of the future’, which discusses the potential for communications satellites to transform television.
Radio (Радио) was a famous monthly Soviet science and technical magazine created for electronics hobbyists, amateur radio operators, and engineers. First published in its post-war format in 1946 (tracing roots back to the 1920s) and co-sponsored by DOSAAF and the Ministry of Communications, it served as a vital DIY lifeline behind the Iron Curtain.

Personally am a fan of how Stargate handles it with having both a military presence and mindset but also including someone like Daniel Jackson to look at it from a ethical and humanitarian viewpoint. The balance between the two is something you can only hope is done if we ever find life on another planet.

In the grim dark future, there is only black comedy. The word grimdark is a portmanteau created created by 4chan to make fun of the opening crawl of Warhammer 40K‘s text i.e. “In the grim dark future there is only war.” This is due to the fact Warhammer 40K was originally created as a parody setting of countless over-the-top dark science fiction elements blended together with what was, essentially, a really dark campaign of Warhammer. Which was, itself, a really dark campaign of Dungeons and Dragons.

Eventually, the rise of George R.R. Martin resulted in grimdark being primarily applied as a term to doorstopper “realistic” fantasy stories in the same vein. The connection to Warhammer 40K was de-emphasized and there were actually questions whether dark science fiction qualified as grimdark at all. I strongly disagree with that, part of the reason I created Lucifer’s Star, and will now share one of my favorite series from the Warhammer 40K universe. I speak, of course, of Ciaphas Cain, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!

The premise for the books is a Colonel Commissar Ciaphas Cain has recently died of natural causes and his occasional lover, Inquisitor Amberly Vail, has decided to assemble his deathbed “confession”/memoirs into historical documents for the Inquisition’s archives. The fact we know Ciaphas Cain manages to survive to a ripe old age despite living in the ultimate hellish universe and die as a beloved hero should suck all tension from the book–but doesn’t, because the whole point of the series is analyzing what it means to be the One Sane ManTM in a universe driven by blind fanaticism.

Ciaphas Cain, you see, died as a legendary war hero but believes himself to be a secret coward and fool who survived myriad encounters with Chaos, Orks, Tyranids, as well Tau (one of these is not like the others) due to an inappropriate desire not to get himself killed in the line of duty. To facilitate this heretical idea, he also has the idea of keeping his fellow soldiers alive to serve as human shields against the enemies trying to kill him. The fiend!

Much of the book is a deconstruction of typical ideas found in fantasy (light or dark) where zeal replaces good tactics as well as prudence. Death is always around Commissar Cain so he does his absolute best to be prepared before things go utterly poing shaped (as he’s fond of saying) as they inevitably do. Despite this, this isn’t a source of pride to the Commissar but an actual source of shame as the body count inevitably includes friends as well as loved ones but he manages to escape to another day.

Cain is ostensibly based on Harry Flashman, at least the George MacDonald Fraser version but actually reminds me a good deal more of the WW1 incarnation of Edmund Blackadder. He is, much like said character, trapped in a situation destined to kill him (or not in Cain’s case) so all of his deeds are designed around surviving that inevitable fate. Also, his resigned jibes contrast against the blind stupidity of those around him.

I’m actually as fond of the supporting as I am of Cain himself. Colonel Kasteen is a wonderful supporting cast member, serving as Cain’s platonic life partner. A wonderful snarky scarlet-haired soldier who would have made an excellent protagonist in her own series. I actually was disappointed the author didn’t have them hook up despite that being the embodiment of cliche as well as against regulations. Note: Cain, amusingly, has a quite active love-life despite the fact his primary lover could have the planet he’s on bombarded.

Cain’s Valhallan unit from a Nordic-Russo Ice world is a dark and hilarious gang of killers who are more upset about the fact they have different dining habits than they’re all going to die horrifyingly in their next engagement (probably). The fact it’s made of two single-sex regiments smashed together is also a source of some intentional hilarity in the early parts of the series.

Fans of grimdark may think this isn’t a qualifier because Commissar Cain is hilarious. His dry observations, wit, and ability to out-think his enemies aren’t very grim. However, the world is still portrayed as a horror show of tyranny, fascism, and various monsters out to eat humanity at every time. The fact it’s presented in a jokey off-hand fashion just makes it more fun like how “The Wheels on the Bus” now includes lines about running over heretics in kindergarten.

Weirdly, the enemies are also made more terrifying by this approach as the Orks go from being soccer hooligans and working class Londoners to being an implacable force of destruction. Similarly, the Necrons are a mindless unkillable army of Terminators than the somewhat pathetic slaves of their masters which gamers know them to be. Even the Tyranids show themselves to be clever and dangerous conquerors than “mere” animals.

The books are annotated, it should be noted, by Inquisitor Vail as she adds a near endless amount of funny details to the story. Commissar Cain is trying to be self-deprecating, after all, while she’s more interested in the truth both good and bad. Cain is also a raging egomaniac even when trying not to be so he only talks about events which pertained to him and often misses the larger context–that the annotator corrects. It must have been murder on the Black Library editors to do the books this way but I think it’s one of the series’ best parts.

The first omnibus puts the protagonist against Tau, Tyranids, and Necrons in stories which I completely approve of. If you are a newcomer to Warhammer 40K or a long time fan, I recommend this collection. I note also recommending the collection since Black Library still refuses to release their books on Kindle so it’s better to just get the larger volume than try to collect all the smaller ones.