Blue remembered Earth
One-hundred-and-fifty years from now, the moon and Mars are settled, and colonies stretch all the way out to the edge of the solar system. But something has come to light on the Moon--secrets that could change everything--or tear this near utopia apar
Stats for nerds
5recommend
11mentions
9people
2015–2026years
64% recommend36% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I would not recommend 3 body problem. It may be because the French translation is bad but it felt really subpar.
I get the feeling 3 body problem is considered one of the best sci-fi books only by people who don't read sci-fi.
Not really recent but I'd recommend Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds (but I'm partial to Reynolds after the Revelation Space series and House of Suns) or if you like military sci-fi Marko Kloos' Frontline series.
- I think it’s worth properly segregating VR from AR.
VR shuts you off from the world, and only permits you to interact with people digitally. My view is this is only ever going to be a niche play for gaming and some commerce (e.g architecture, game design).
AR on the other hand at its most minimal is a set of specs, and you only seeing reality. Nothing has to be always on, as someone who wears glasses this is my current world. Now introduce the ability to insert virtual objects (e.g a virtual computer screen) and my world is a little bit better. Wire it together so people can share the augment, and possibilities become limitless.
Alastair Reynolds wrote a good series of books (Blue Remembered Earth) where AR was envisioned rather extensively and it was compelling. As such I view AR as the future of all computing and the market correspondingly huge.
- Constellation Games, The Martian, Too Like the Lightning, Moving Mars, Nexus, Blue Remembered Earth,and The Caryatids are some hopeful SF that's come out recently that I recommend.
- You would probably enjoy the Blue Remembered Earth sci-fi trilogy by Alistair Reynolds. It has quite a lot of enhanced-elephant drama.
(I had a time Googling the real title because in my head it was just called "Elephants In Spaaaaaaace").
- I've yet to read "Seveneves", but I felt the prologue to Alastair Reynolds' "Blue Remembered Earth" was very moving too. It involves our protagonists coming across a left-over AI tank, long buried. A sort of futuristic take on land-mines disguised as toys.
There's also some rather nightmarish scenarios in Richard Morgan's series about Takeshi Kovacs (I enjoyed beginning in the middle, with "Woken Furies") involving weaponized nano technology.
Neither are world-ending, but touches IMHO on some of the same things.
- I'll second Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon (but not the sequels) and Vinge's Rainbows End. You might also consider some of Bruce Sterling's stuff, Distraction, Holy Fire, and The Caryatids. Sterling has a more instrumental view of AI but I think he does a better job of addressing the social issues of technology than most of the other recommendations here.
Halting State, Rule 34, and Glasshouse by Stross might also be up your alley.
And Blue Remembered Earth by Alistair Reynolds but probably not the sequels.
Oh, and Nexus by Ramez Naam.
I'd certainly recommend Ken MacLeod in general but I'm not sure he's exactly what you're asking for unless you're also interested in examinations of radical political philosophy.
