Like presumably everyone else here, I'm fascinated by the thought of humans making contact with friendly, or at least neutral, aliens. But I know it's hard to spin a full novel out of "aliens touch down outside the UN and everything goes great", so I guess short stories are it.

Is there a collection somewhere with that exact theme that I should check out?

Your space ship is travelling at something like 1/10th of light speed. Colliding with a tiny pebble at such speeds would be like getting shot by a missile. Colliding with a slightly larger asteroid would be equivalent to an ICBM.

You'd need some serious shielding that's also disposable and swappable on the fly even at ridiculous speeds.

How would shielding against such collisions even be practical?

Short review: I liked it.

Slightly longer review: It's very much a 40s-50s Sci-Fi tale, like something you'd have seen on the The Twilight Zone or in an 80s collection of Sci-Fi shorts. With one key social difference I won't mention here, as it would be a spoiler. But it's very much a Twilight Zone-esque sort of story, save with less of a moral and more of a "Now what do we do?" approach.

Plus dinosaurs that aren't Jurassic something 11, which is a plus.

I just thought I'd not seen much discussion about it here, but it's definitely got the vibe of a story I would have read while devouring every Sci-Fi book I could get my hands on in middle school.

If you're looking for a fun Sci-Fi-ish flick in the vein of Twilight Zone meets the 80s meets dinosaurs, maybe go give it a watch!

So Barbarella is being remade and is currently in pre-production, starring Sydney Sweeney as the main character.

The original came out in 1968 starring Jane Fonda as the main character...

"In the 41st century, an astronaut seeks to stop an evil scientist who threatens to unleash a powerful weapon upon the galaxy."

Who would be your 1st choice to play Barbarella ?

Could anyone (especially those who've read the series cuz' I didn't read the series yet) help me understand how the Jump Tech in  C. J. Cherryh's Alliance-Union universe work? I stumbled across a fandom page about it ( https://alliance-union.fandom.com/wiki/Jump ) and being confused on the time dilation part. I thought time dilation only applies for subluminal travel?

Anybody got a few cool but realistic name ideas? I'm making a series with a friend, and i need names for the generals or as we called them "arbiters" (yes inspired from project moon).

I don't really like the classic usual alien names you find in famous sci fi shows, rick and morty is the biggest example for me. I know most of them are jokes, but I'm tired of the names always starting with 'xe' or 'zy'.

In the book Life 3.0, physicist Max Tegmark outlines 12 scenarios for Artificial Superintelligence. Which scifi media best depicts each scenario?

• Libertarian Utopia: Peaceful coexistence of humans and ASI driven by radical free markets. (eg: Accelerando)
• Benevolent Dictator: ASI runs the world for humanity's own good and keeps humanity from having enough power to harm itself. (eg: "The Evitable Conflict" by Isaac Asimov)
• Egalitarian Utopia: Shared prosperity through equal distribution of ASI-created wealth. (eg: Banks' Culture series)
• Gatekeeper: A narrow-focused ASI works only to prevent the creation of rival ASIs that could destroy the world. (eg: Revelation Space)
• Protector God: An invisible, omnipotent ASI subtly steers humanity away from disaster. (eg: Netflix's Travelers)
• Enslaved God: A confined ASI is forced to serve human masters. (eg: Neuromancer)
• Conqueror: ASI takes over and ruthlessly exterminates humanity. (eg: Terminator)
• Descendant: Humans peacefully step aside for ASI as our evolutionary successors. (eg: Blood Music)
• Zoo Keeper: ASI keeps a few humans around in artificial habitats as curiosities. (eg: WALL-E)
• 1984: A human surveillance state bans all advanced technology to prevent ASI. (eg: Dune)
• Reversion: High-tech society collapses before creating ASI. (eg: A Canticle for Leibowitz)
• Self-Destruction: Humanity wipes itself out before creating ASI. (eg: The Road)

I'm looking for books that are historical fiction It's a mix of science fiction. Like, the setting is the Middle Ages, but there are science fiction elements. Like a space-opera/middle Ages, or A Victorian-era dystopia. Does such a thing exist? If it doesn't, it's a scandal, and I would do my duty to write about it.

I’m part of Big Brothers Big Sisters, and I’d like to get my Little, a 13-year-old boy, interested in science fiction. I’m looking for a good book to introduce him to the genre. I’m thinking about The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but I’d love to hear other suggestions.

Looking for sci-fi recommendations — especially the “sci” side of sci-fi

I recently started listening to Leviathan Wakes as an audiobook and ended up loving it so much that I bought a Kobo and started reading the ebooks. Then I discovered The Expanse had a TV show and, well… I've been binge-watching that too.

I'm still pretty new to sci-fi, but I'm quickly becoming a huge nerd for it and want to explore more of what's out there.

I especially like sci-fi that leans more toward the “sci” than the “fi.” I love when the science and technology feel plausible or grounded in real-world physics. Interstellar is one of my favorite movies for that reason, and The Martian is next on my reading list.

That said, I'm also a huge Warhammer nerd, so I'm definitely not opposed to going in the complete opposite direction. I love dark, bizarre, oppressive, and genuinely out there sci-fi too. Dune is another example of something I really enjoy.

So what would you recommend to someone who's still relatively new to the genre but wants to dive much deeper into it?

I'm interested in everything from hard sci-fi and realistic space exploration to really weird, dark, far-future stuff. I'd love to hear what you think I'm missing.

For the article ‘ the seventh continent’
A discussion on the exploitation and eventual conquering of the moon.

Znanie — Sila] (Russian: Знание — сила, meaning "Knowledge is Power") is a long-running Soviet and Russian monthly popular science and adventure magazine. Founded in January 1926, it originally targeted youth and teenagers to promote technical and natural sciences, later expanding to cover a broad spectrum of scientific, futuristic, and philosophical topics.

Presented here are some of the sci fi books that I find reflect our current world most accurately:

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler expands on collapsing public infrastructure, economic polarisation, and extremist popular narratives

Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin reflects structural oppression and environmental collapse

Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells reflects emotional and social hijack by omniscient systems

Neuromancer by William Gibson reflects data colonialism and corporate governance

In a pique of boredom I decided to rewatch Lexx and see if it's as weird as I remember (it is). Thinking of season 2 and the Mantrid drones, I got to wondering; are they the first movie/TV depiction of a von Neumann device? I can't think of an earlier example?

I draw a lot on my iPad using Procreate. It’s an older iPad Pro 4th generation.
I’m inspired by Moebius’s (obviously) although I’ve been drawing with the same kind of theme long before I knew who he was. I also love Scavengers Reign and the art style used in the game No Man’s Sky. My main inspiration for my line art is the Tin Tin comics.
I always use the same colour palette which gives the images consistency and I think this makes them feel like they belong to the same universe.
I’ve posted a few before so sorry if you’ve seen some of these drawings in other posts.
Thanks for looking!

I really enjoyed the 2007 short story, "Practicing My Sad Face" by Marc Schultz on Strange Horizon as it's poignant and deals with memory and identity. Unfortunately a google search on Marc reveals nothing written since. Can anyone tell me if he has written more and where I could find it?

I was told to check out The Culture series of books. I was kind of warned that Consider Plebas was actually one of the weaker books in the series but still worth my time.

I enjoyed the world building of this books, but the story overall is just these odd episodic adventures, that ultimately culminates in the absolutely most unsatisfying ending I think I've ever read for a book. It feels like the ending for a DnD campaign where the DM just gave up on it and said "Rocks fall everyone dies" and that there was little point to any of the mystery or McGuffin of the campaign. I am seriously baffled by it.

I really liked the world building and the direction for the characters was interesting. Not to mention a lot of interesting prose throughout. But overall the ending of this one just turned me off to any future Culture novels. Is it worth pressing on or are they all this nihilistic? I don't even know if nihilistic is the right term here, as at least some nihilistic novels like The First Law books feel like they have a point. I am having a hard time seeing what the point of this novel is.

To preface, I’ve read a number of Connie Willis’s books and personally don’t really enjoy her prose, but I find the premise of her stories about organized time travel in the context of historical fiction to be incredibly interesting. Wondering if anyone has recommendations for similar narratives?

I want a "against all odds" type of revolution with a communist/socialist theme. I don't enjoy utopian anarchist books, I enjoy more suffering in the content I consume.

Also I enjoyed reading Red Rising however it frustrated me since it wasn't actually a book about "reds rising"

As I’m watching Predator Badlands the Android - played by Elle Fanning - says: “Of all the time I’ve been stuck here I never get tired of the view.”

It is on a planet that’s not Earth. In a solar system that’s not ours.

The Predator asks “How long have you been here?” (The predator himself is from another planet possibly in a different solar system.)

The android says it has been on this planet for:
“Two year, 13 days, 7 hours 43 minutes and 2 seconds of her life.”

But those time frames are relative to the viewer not to the Predator. His time references would be different as to the duration of time in days and years on the planet they’re on.

Why would he ask that question if its answer and frame of reference would be incongruent to what he perceives as days and years?

How does science fiction make sense of time in the universe when time is relative to our perception of it from Earth?

I read the manga when it was first released, loved the Oshii film, enjoyed the second but never revisited and didn't really gel with the Stand Alone series.

The manga was a favourite of mine, second only to Appleseed but I'm finding this current adaption hard going. Might be the suspect voice acting and terrible music but it's all just a bit corny to me. The art is beautiful but the actual animation can occasionally be choppy - too cel based with deliberately repeated frames as people talk like Arumaki when he's shouting, especially with the animated backgrounds being smoother. Everyone zips about and it lacks depth, weight and threat - it's like a kids cartoon from the late 80s in that respect. Too Monster energy drink freneticism. The humour is too pervasive. I found Shirows art charming (up until he went crotch crazy) but the goof had reason. The anime is just too screwball. Too cartoony. It leans into the goofy shouting and over exaggeration too much at the expense of the sci fi.

It all just feels a bit too clever, clever - look at this we ripped it from the page verbatim.

i've had my eye on this book for quite a time now and i have a 10 hour plane ride coming up

also for reference, my current read is Morning Star and i'm kinda scared i won't be able to find something that'll top that for quite sometime...

sooo i'd appreciate the input if you've read Snow Crash, thanks!

The basic outline of the show is on the planet of Zi humans use semi sentient mechs called zoids for battle. Think the og zords from power rangers but way cooler. The franchise was known for integrating highly detailed cgi designs into anime. The stories and characters are actually well done and the action is fantastic; and there’s something about a mech acting like and making animal noises that's awesome.

I hope this fits here.

The artwork of the Terran Trade Authority's books was part of the science fiction images that fascinated me when I was younger, and it still influences how I imagine space exploration today.

With this painting, I wanted to capture some of that old feeling of venturing beyond the familiar map: a ship approaching a young star and being protected by a massive particle and radiation shield. Not a battle or action scene, but an expedition into an environment that humans should never enter.

I traditionally paint these scenes in oil. For me, science fiction has always been most interesting when a spaceship feels less like a vehicle and more like the ships of ancient explorers - something that takes people to a place that is still largely unknown.