Skip to content
HomeVideosBooks
AllTopicsTrends
BlogsPodcasts
HistoryListsWatch laterLiked videosFollowing

The videos, books, blogs and podcasts Hacker News keeps recommending, all in one place.

VideosBooksBlogsPodcastsAboutPrivacySettings

Data from Hacker News, HackerTube, HackerBooks, HackerBlogs and Open Library. Credits · Not affiliated with Y Combinator.

HomeVideosBooksBlogsPodcasts
Ctrl K
    Cover of Saturn Run

    Saturn Run

    John Sandford, Ctein · 2015

    "The year is 2066. A Caltech intern inadvertently notices an anomaly from a space telescope--something is approaching Saturn, and decelerating. Space objects don't decelerate. Spaceships do. A flurry of top-level government meetings produces the inescapable conclusion: Whatever built that ship is at least one hundred years ahead in hard and soft technology, and whoever can get their hands on it exclusively and bring it back will have an advantage so large, no other nation can compete. A conclusion the Chinese definitely agree with when they find out. The race is on, and a remarkable adventure begins..."

    Science FictionFiction & Literature
    Open LibraryAmazon
    Stats for nerds
    6recommend
    13mentions
    7people
    2020–2025years
    92% recommend8% neutral

    Mentions per year

    202020212022202320242025

    What Hacker News says

    1. pavel_lishinDec 2025
      Sci-fi nerd recommendations follow.

      I binged the entirety of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. The cover, & the fact that it was on Kindle Unlimited, made me think it was probably cheap crap, but I was impressed with how well-written it was, and how much I empathized with the characters. (I probably should have read it slower; by the last two books, I was just flowing with the text, not paying as much attention to the overarching plot.)

      Heinlein's "Orphans of the Sky" was pretty bad. So much early scifi is considered great because it's groundbreaking, writing about things nobody else has before. The concept of a generation ship was pretty new at the time Heinlein was writing it, and it has some very interesting concepts, but the book has some really bad problems. If you've read it, you know; if you haven't, and decide to, you'll see it for yourself.

      I binged a few Brandon Sanderson books. The standalones are great; the Stormlight Archive is a huge slog through some beautiful writing, but I'm not sure I'm willing to spend so much time in beautiful books that move the plot forward so slowly.

      Exordia, by Seth Dickinson, started off incredible, kept going, but the ending felt like both a fizzle as well as a cliff-hanger for the next book. I'm glad I read it, but I wish it had a clear conclusion it wanted to reach.

      Adrian Tchaikovsky's "Children of Memory" delivers more of the great philosophical questions & answers about the nature of consciousness and personhood that the previous books did, A+. No idea where he could possibly go from there, but if he does, I'm going along for the journey. (Honorable mention: Alien Clay. Dishonorable mention: Service Model.)

      Eric Flint's "Fenrir" was a fun BDO near-future space adventure. (As was John Sanford's Saturn Run, but that wasn't a 2025 book I read.)

      thread
    2. zingerlioOct 2025
      The book Saturn Run has an interesting design utilized for a spaceship.
      thread
    3. pomianJun 2025
      Reminds me of the book Saturn Run, by John Sanford - which has a lot of effort put into the technology and radiation of heat in their space ship. Fun science fiction book.
      thread
    4. pomianMar 2023
      A fun fiction novel by John Sanford, Saturn Run, presents a neat solution for the problem of heat dissipation, in space. Fun read.
      thread
    5. thedrbrianJan 2023
      if you want some interesting sci fi. I've just finished "the Saturn Run" by John Sandford and Ctein.

      One of those stories like Portal 1/2 I'd like to forget and be able re-experience for the first time

      thread
    6. pomianAug 2021
      All of Andy Weir's books are really good. There is even a surprising one that's fun. Also recommend Saturn Run, by John Sandford, while we are on this topic.
      thread

    Related

    Cover of COSM
    2010–2026

    COSM

    Gregory Benford
    4 recommend · 4
    Cover of The Clockwork Rocket
    2011–2026

    The Clockwork Rocket

    Greg Egan
    17 recommend · 33
    Cover of Saturn's Children
    2012–2026

    Saturn's Children

    Charles Stross
    15 recommend · 38
    Cover of Dune
    2007–2026

    Dune

    Frank Herbert
    193 recommend · 630
    Cover of Artemis
    2018–2026

    Artemis

    Andy Weir
    19 recommend · 52
    Cover of Snow Crash
    2007–2026

    Snow Crash

    Neal Stephenson
    364 recommend · 1,283
    Cover of The Martian
    2013–2026

    The Martian

    Andy Weir
    117 recommend · 220
    Cover of Anathem
    2008–2026

    Anathem

    Neal Stephenson
    207 recommend · 561