Science Fiction Recommendations

[TheVat]

The ant crawling on the gravestone's letters had me rolling my eyes, but otherwise, the 3BP novel and the limited series we pretty good.

The scene of Judgement Day in the Panama Canal still haunts me to this day.

Yes, taking a nanowire cheese slicer to the ship and its passengers...the stuff of nightmare. I had to wonder, as I did in several places in the novel, if Liu might have used this sort of thing as veiled critique of the ruthlessness of his government, their willingness to sacrifice relatively innocent lives.

The ltd. series didn't have time to get into all the high-concept material, I get that - the Sophon chapter in the book, for example, was a mind blowing exploration of many ramifications of unfolding the curled dimensions of a proton and inscribing integrated circuits on a 2D surface, and so on. The whole sophon thing was so technically brilliant it almost made me believe in the "rubber science." Same with the Trisolaran evolutionary adaptations to their highly volatile climate.

Interesting contrast with the Stephen Baxter novel, "Proxima."

 

[DaveC426913]

Yes, taking a nanowire cheese slicer to the ship and its passengers...the stuff of nightmare.

Uh. spoilers...

Interesting contrast with the Stephen Baxter novel, "Proxima."

Was that the one where the first part of the novel involved sailing in high winds around a mountain, or some such?

I love Baxter, but I admit I gave up on Proxima before it found its legs.

 

[TheVat]

Was that the one where the first part of the novel involved sailing in high winds around a mountain, or some such?

I love Baxter, but I admit I gave up on Proxima before it found its legs.

The first part is setting up a penal colony on the exoplanet, with tons of details about a planet orbiting a red dwarf, and being tidal-locked so there are interesting climate zones and ecologies - it's Baxter showing off. I don't recall any sailing around mountains, but can't rule it out - the story gets far more interesting in the final chapters, with much cosmic weirdness. (There are lightsails to propel the colony ship IIRC, but they are propelled by microwave beams and not wind, solar or otherwise)

I saw spoiler, but edit window had closed unfortunately.

 

[DaveC426913]

I don't recall any sailing around mountains, but can't rule it out

Chatbot had a hard time with my descriptions but finally spit out this:

When the narrative shifts to the colony planet Per Ardua, Baxter spends a good deal of time establishing everyday life there before the larger plot escalates. Among the details:

• Colonists use small personal flyers because the terrain is rugged and distances are large.
• The protagonist and others fly recreationally, not just for transport.
• Baxter describes strong atmospheric dynamics and mountain winds, with pilots riding turbulent air currents and thermals.
• These sequences are partly world-building—showing how humans adapt to the alien environment.

 

[TheVat]

Chatbot had a hard time with my descriptions but finally spit out this:

When the narrative shifts to the colony planet Per Ardua, Baxter spends a good deal of time establishing everyday life there before the larger plot escalates. Among the details:

• Colonists use small personal flyers because the terrain is rugged and distances are large.
• The protagonist and others fly recreationally, not just for transport.
• Baxter describes strong atmospheric dynamics and mountain winds, with pilots riding turbulent air currents and thermals.
• These sequences are partly world-building—showing how humans adapt to the alien environment.

Missed this Sunday, sorry. Yeah, I'm starting to wonder if I skimmed parts. No pun on skimming intended.