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Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read

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Re: Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read

#291

Post by Keysh »

ahmedfromtunis wrote: post #58
hnmullany wrote: post #11

These are all painfully mid reads. (The alien in Hail Mary is about as alien as a rival fraternity brother.) If you want real alien aliens, read Blindsight (Peter Watts).

Thanks! I really like it when authors shock my neurons with ideas they never even came close to entertain. Alien aliens are always rare in sci-fi books. Although I really struggled with the octopodes in Children of Ruin, so I'm not sure if I'm ready yet. Can someone please suggest books with novel, really alien forms of life, social structures, etc.?

The Tines in Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep are pretty good example. (The aliens in A Deepness in the Sky are physically alien, but psychologically pretty close to humans.)

Re: Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read

#292

Post by bwb »

mnky9800n wrote: post #288
bwb wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my hopes for the website is I could help books that are lesser known get noticed and "pop." Working on getting more to help in that capacity as there are so many good books that don't get enough notice. Aiming to come out with some features this Winter to help around that.

Are you asking for help because I will help you. I love to read sci-fi novels as well as discuss them.

I'd love to talk! Do you know Python/Django :)

My email is ben@shepherd.com and I'd love to chat!

Re: Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read

#293

Post by azemetre »

TheCloven wrote: post #187

The Bobiverse series is one of my favorites, sense of humor meets Bob the von Neumann probe. Well written and plenty of theory explanations of technology. They even pull in Expeditionary Force's AI Skippy as a faction group, which is another good series if you like technical theory in detail explained mostly by the asshole AI. Murderbot has become a must listen at bedtime, the self deprecating, funny and lovey dovey…

Bobiverse is fun to read but it’s just pulp nerd fantasy. Not exactly great literature that will stand the test of time.

Re: Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read

#294

Post by ak2372 »

TrapLord_Rhodo wrote: post #250
exar0815 wrote: post #148

If you liked The Martian and Project Hail Mary, two books I cannot recommend enough are Daniel Suarez' Delta-V and Critical Mass. Highly technical focused hard-sci-fi about asteroid mining and human dynamics in high-risk envrionments. I can't vouch for the absolute factual correctness, but it has an appendix listing the papers the author indirectly references for the book. https://daniel-suarez.com/index.html

Do you know any other hard sci-fi books like this? I loved the Delta-V series, and have been looking for hard sci-fi like it ever since.

Rich man's sky series, Wil McCarthy.

Re: Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read

#295

Post by dunefox »

bwb wrote: post #47

hi all, founder of Shepherd here :) If you want to share your 3 fav reads of the year, you can do that here -> https://shepherd.com/bboy/my-3-fav-reads You get a cool page like this -> https://shepherd.com/bboy/2024/f/bwb Plus, it goes into our "best books of 2024" voting -> https://shepherd.com/bboy/2024 I am slowly getting more into place on this website, I have been working on it for 3.5 years now.

> You get a cool page like this -> https://shepherd.com/bboy/2024/f/bwb

How do I get to my page? The profile section is very spartan. I'm not even sure whether my profile picture was submitted.

Re: Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read

#296

Post by bwb »

dunefox wrote: post #295
bwb wrote: post #47

hi all, founder of Shepherd here :) If you want to share your 3 fav reads of the year, you can do that here -> https://shepherd.com/bboy/my-3-fav-reads You get a cool page like this -> https://shepherd.com/bboy/2024/f/bwb Plus, it goes into our "best books of 2024" voting -> https://shepherd.com/bboy/2024 I am slowly getting more into place on this website, I have been working on it for 3.5 years now.

> You get a cool page like this -> https://shepherd.com/bboy/2024/f/bwb How do I get to my page? The profile section is very spartan. I'm not even sure whether my profile picture was submitted.

Yep go here: https://shepherd.com/bboy/my-3-fav-reads

To submit your 3 favorites, and then we will email you once the page is ready.

Ya sorry, brand new and working on the profile to improve it and the image bit.

Hit me up at ben@shepherd.com if you need any help.

Re: Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read

#297

Post by dunefox »

bwb wrote: post #296
dunefox wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You get a cool page like this -> https://shepherd.com/bboy/2024/f/bwb How do I get to my page? The profile section is very spartan. I'm not even sure whether my profile picture was submitted.

Yep go here: https://shepherd.com/bboy/my-3-fav-reads To submit your 3 favorites, and then we will email you once the page is ready. Ya sorry, brand new and working on the profile to improve it and the image bit. Hit me up at ben@shepherd.com if you need any help.

> then we will email you once the page is ready.

Ah, I completely missed this part. Long day.

> Ya sorry, brand new and working on the profile to improve it and the image bit.

Don't worry, so far I like the site quite a bit, especially since there is much more about ancient mesopotamia than I had thought!

Re: Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read

#298

Post by bwb »

dunefox wrote: post #297
bwb wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep go here: https://shepherd.com/bboy/my-3-fav-reads To submit your 3 favorites, and then we will email you once the page is ready. Ya sorry, brand new and working on the profile to improve it and the image bit. Hit me up at ben@shepherd.com if you need any help.

> then we will email you once the page is ready. Ah, I completely missed this part. Long day. > Ya sorry, brand new and working on the profile to improve it and the image bit. Don't worry, so far I like the site quite a bit, especially since there is much more about ancient mesopotamia than I had thought!

Sweet thanks!

I am going to work a ton this winter to improve topic/genre accuracy, as I think we have more on Mesopotamia but the system is struggling to tag it correctly. We are using an older NLP/ML system that isn't working as well as newer ones. Update coming soon.

Re: Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read

#299

Post by dunefox »

bwb wrote: post #298
dunefox wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> then we will email you once the page is ready. Ah, I completely missed this part. Long day. > Ya sorry, brand new and working on the profile to improve it and the image bit. Don't worry, so far I like the site quite a bit, especially since there is much more about ancient mesopotamia than I had thought!

Sweet thanks! I am going to work a ton this winter to improve topic/genre accuracy, as I think we have more on Mesopotamia but the system is struggling to tag it correctly. We are using an older NLP/ML system that isn't working as well as newer ones. Update coming soon.

Great to hear. Also, a very interesting topic for me since this is close to my masters degree and current job. For a niche topic like ancient mesopotamia I was surprised. Is there a blog post or something about how the site works behind the scenes?

Re: Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read

#300

Post by Vecr »

GoblinSlayer wrote: post #281
Vecr wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something being logically consistent doesn't mean it's correct. It's possible someone could make a fully logically consistent version of string theory including future gravitational predictions. They say "doesn't describe this universe", but that really just means it's wrong. Edit: replying to pavel_lishin: Yes, I'm sure Egan knows that, I'm partially replying to the statement "Sci fi so hard, you don't find any crac…

It's a philosophic question. Some believe physics is mathematics. Roger Penrose believes the Mandelbrot set exists, because it's logically consistent and reproducible.

Huh? Like one of the Tegmark levels? Even then, a whole lot is not true anywhere near here.
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