The God engines
Devoted to the Bishopry Militant and to his crew, ship captain Ean Tephe is given a secret mission to a hidden land.
Stats for nerds
2recommend
4mentions
3people
2022–2024years
75% recommend25% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- "A Canticle For Leibowitz"
"The Sparrow"
"Lord of Light"
"The Immortal"
"Hyperion"
"The Last Question"
"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"
"Stranger in a Strange Land"
"The City and the Stars"
"Childhood's End"
"Anathem"
"Eifelheim"
"A Case of Conscience"
"VALIS" trilogy
"The Book of Strange New Things"
"Behold The Man"
"The God Engines"
"Book of the New Sun"
"The Parable of the Sower"
"The Dosadi Experiment"
"Grass"
"Project Pope"
"Calculating God"
"Factoring Humanity"
"Jesus on Mars"
"Surface Detail
- * Blindisght by Peter Watts. Great story with a less "antropomorphic" first contact experience, but also a very modern take on awareness/consciousness/reality from a hard-sci-fi perspective. https://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm
* Anything by QNTM. You can start with short story Lena which I think would appeal to HN crowd: https://qntm.org/mmacevedo
Both of these writers make phenomenal amount of their work available for free online; I've also purchased a lot of their hard-copies for friends :)
* Open Borders by SMBC guy. I'm a fairly liberal guy AND I'm an immigrant to North America, and still this very short read transformed my position on immigration: https://www.smbc-comics.com/openborders/
* SnowCrash and Neuromancer; have to put it out there as I re-read them every year or two - I know the story by heart but they are like places and towns and countries I like visiting for the atmosphere and company :)
* In that cyberpunk vein, I only recently read Hardwired and it was surprisingly good; first few pages felt like a bit of a variation on the theme, but then it built its own identity.
* The God Engines by Scalzi. ~50 page novella (novelette?). It's a... sci fi fantasy religious tale of space travel and manifested gods? It's different and inventive and sobering and one of those books that you put down after finishing and just stare at the ceiling for a bit. Cathartic.
* And for anybody who hasn't yet, Culture Series by Iain m. Banks. I don't personally love the very first entry, Consider Phlebas, but everything from Player of Games onward is just gold.
- Rest of the series is pretty decent up to last book which is a collection of stories.
My favourite though is the independent novella God Engines.
- List of books mentioned till now:
"The Man Who Folded Himself" by David Gerrold A fascinating exploration of time travel, despite its poor writing quality, according to the commenter.
"Dreaming: A Very Short Introduction" by J. Allan Hobson A hard science neurophysiological overview of dreaming.
"Material World" by Ed Conway A detailed look into basic minerals like sand, salt, oil, their supply chains, and the process of converting ores to materials.
"Blindsight" and "Echopraxia" by Peter Watts Sci-fi novels that deal with themes of consciousness and first contact with alien intelligence.
"The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again" by M. John Harrison Noted for beautiful writing and vivid descriptions.
"The Thursday Murder Club" by Richard Osman A light and amusing mystery novel; the beginning of a series.
"The Roman Empire in Crisis" by Paul N. Pearson A detailed account of the Crisis of the Third Century in Rome, incorporating recent archaeological discoveries.
"The Good Virus" by Tom Ireland Introduces phages and their pivotal role in advancing human health through phage therapy.
"Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness" by Richard H. Thaler A book about behavioral economics that suggests ways policies can be designed to "nudge" people into making better decisions.
"Blindsight" by Peter Watts A sci-fi novel that offers a less "anthropomorphic" first contact experience.
"Open Borders" by SMBC guy A book that presents an argument in favor of more open immigration policies.
"Snow Crash" and "Neuromancer" Classic cyberpunk novels, recommended for annual re-reading by the commenter.
"The God Engines" by John Scalzi A novella that is described as a sci-fi fantasy religious tale of space travel and manifested gods. Culture Series by Iain M. Banks A series of space opera novels set in a post-scarcity society.
"Art & Fear - Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking" by David Bayles & Ted Orland A book about human nature and creativity.
"The Case for God" by Karen Armstrong A book about the history of religion and how much is misunderstood in modern times.
"Years of Lyndon Johnson" by Robert Caro A detailed and well-researched biography of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson.
"The Captured Economy" by Lindsey and Teles "American Revolutions" by Alan Taylor "Everything Flows" by Vasili Grossman "Silk Roads" by Peter Frankopan A history of the world from a Central Asian perspective.
"Too Perfect: When Being in Control Gets Out of Control" by Allan Mallinger "The E-Myth Revisited" by Michael E. Gerber A book about why most small businesses don't work and what to do about it.
"Prisoners of Geography" by Tim Marshall An exploration of how borders and geography shape nations.
"Impro" by Keith Johnston A book with unique and radical views about how society functions.
"Peter Singer's books" Noted as being worldview-changing, but specific titles aren't listed.
"Two Years Before The Mast" by Richard Henry Dana An account of the cattle hide trade along the California coast in the 1830s.
"Empire of the Summer Moon" A book about the Comanche tribe and their conflict with settlers in the American West.
"Dune" by Frank Herbert A classic science fiction novel about politics, religion, and ecology on a desert planet.
"God, Human, Animal Machine" by Meghan O’Gieblyn Traces parallels between Christian theology and transhumanism.
"The Water Knife" A dystopian future novel set against a backdrop of water scarcity in the western United States.
