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Tag: hard SF

Exhalation–Ted Chiang

This is a collection of short stories. Some of them really stuck with me, some of them dragged on far too long and I wouldn’t have kept listening had I not been on an airplane. I enjoyed the author commentary after each story. Two stories really stuck with me. The first, Exhalation, is about some robots who begin to learn who exactly they are and how their universe was created, due to the fact that…

Skyward Inn — Aliya Whiteley

I am still trying to process this read. Due to some personal things, I have not been able to read or write in about 2 months. I tried to read and listen to several books, and just couldn’t get anywhere. I saw a post about this author on Bluesky, and her writing was described as literary, surreal, and unexpected, but also this novel was fairly short, so I decided to give it a try. Apparently…

The Handmaid’s Tale–Margaret Atwood

At this point in the theocracy/dictatorship/oligarchy that is brewing in the US, I figured it was well past time for me to read this book. It’s been on my TBR pile for a while and with a 4 day trip without internet, and with lots of down time, it was a good opportunity for me to finally make it happen. This is an important book and everyone should read it. I’m classifying it as hard…

Usurpation–Sue Burke

I was glad to come back to this world. I enjoyed learning about Pax and Steveland and how the plant live on that planet worked. At the end of book two, Steveland sent seedlings to earth, as well as a Glassmaker, so I was looking forward to seeing that interaction. Instead, this book took a quite different turn, showing the aftermath of a global war (the Insurrection) that took place within the last few decades.…

Semiosis and Interference — Sue Burke

I am really behind on my reading log and as such I am not going to be able to do a very good job with these two books. I’m classifying these books as “hard SF” because it seems very realistic. No FTL, no “magic” science, and an interesting extrapolation of observed plant biology in outer space. I listened to these two mostly on my walks to and from work during the month of October and…

Permafrost–Alastair Reynolds

I have only read some of the epic, galaxy spanning space opera novels by Reynolds, so when I was looking for an audio book for a road trip, this author was not what I was expecting. However, coming in at about 4.5 hours, it was perfect for my weekend getaway road trip. This climate fiction work was published in 2019 and is about 175 pages. Reading the description, I knew that it was climate and…

The Three-Body Problem — Cixin Liu

I really struggled reading this book. It was extremely slow paced for the first 60-70% and I had a difficult time differentiating the characters from each other. Unlike other reviewers I read about online, I didn’t have a hard time with the fact that the book jumped around in time. But I wanted to expose myself to something outside my comfort zone. I am a little bit familiar with the big picture of “Eastern Literary…

All Systems Red — Martha Wells

This book has been on my TBR pile since my first Flights of Foundry con; it seemed like every panelist was recommending the book. I finally purchased it a few months ago and I was in the mood for a shorter, quicker read after all the space opera epics I’ve been reading. Wow, it was a lot of fun and i am so happy that there are apparently 5 more novellas and 2 more novels…

Dune Messiah — Frank Herbert

I have decided to reread all 6 of the Dune books as my next reading adventure. I have read the first 3 several times, and the last 3 only once, but with my more advanced understanding of writing and craft, I am hoping to learn from this epic which inspired so much of my own world building over the years. This book is set 12 years after the events of Dune. It continues with political…

The Martian — Andy Wieir

the Martian — Andy Weir I read this book (about the first quarter of it) when it was still serialized on his website, and then about 8 or 9 years ago I read it. I remembered the basics of the plot. I saw the movie. I decided to reread it based on the recommendation of one of my writing group members. Honestly, I don’t remember why she suggested it but I think it was to…