We’re nine days into 2025, and it’s already full of exhausting levels of controversy before we’ve even had a turnover in power in my home country of the United States. We’ve seen resignations of world leaders, wars continuing and getting worse and worse (you know where), the owner of Twitter continuing his tirade of lunacy and demonstrating why the billionaire class is not to be revered, California ablaze with a horrendous and large wildfire, right wing thinktanks developing plans to out and attack Wikipedia editors as any fascist-friendly organization would do, Meta rolling out and rolling back GenAI profiles on its platforms, and, just yesterday, the same Meta announcing sweeping changes to its moderation policies that, in a charitable reading, encourage hate-based harassment and abuse of vulnerable populations, promotion and support for disinformation, and other problems, all of which are so profound that people are talking about a mass exodus from the platform to…somewhere. It’s that last thing that brings me back to the blog today. Since the takeover at Twitter, social networks have been in a state of chaos. Platforms have risen and fallen — or only risen so much — and nothing I would call stability has formed. Years ago, I (and many others far more popular than me) remarked that we’ve ceded the territory of self-owned or small-scale third party spaces for massive third party platforms where we have minimal to no control or say and which can be stripped away in a tech-scale heartbeat. By putting all our ducks into a bin of unstable chaos, we’re also expending our time and energy on something that won’t last, requiring us to expend more time and energy finding alternatives, rebuilding communities, and then repeating the process again. In the present environment, that’s impossible to ignore.1 This is all rather reductive, but this post is not the place to talk about all the ways that social networks have impacted control over our own spaces and narratives. Another time, perhaps. I similarly don’t have space to talk about the fact that some of the platforms we currently have, however functional they may be, have placed many of us in a moral quagmire, as in the case of Meta’s recent moderation changes. Another time… ↩
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6 Responses
The UK hard science scene is quite good currently. Alastair Reynolds, Charles Stross and such.
Alastair Reynolds "Revelation Space" series is quite good, though some of his novels not set in that universe are just kinda… strange. The most accessible of the Revelation Space series is the titular novel, and probably the novel Chasm City. Outside of that series, Century Rain is kinda cool, but strange and confusing and it gave me a headache. Pushing Ice isn't very good, but it has some interesting high concept stuff and unintentionally hilarious word-use. (Vat-grown wood is called wangwood. lol) House of Suns I never ended up finishing, but I enjoyed it until the story just kinda stalled.
Charles Stross is a lot of fun, I think he's an awesome writer. Everything by him is awesome. It's not hard sci fi, but check the Atrocity Archives, because it has space nazis and demons.
Richard Morgans newest novel is a non-trad fantasy with a queer protagonist, but my local 2nd hand bookstore guy said, and I quote; "It's fucked up." Not sure if that is a good review.
Steph Swainston's The Year of Our War is quite cool alt-fantasy. A little bit tangled, though.
Mary Doria Russell wrote a novel called The Sparrow, which is cool if you like your sci fi with a bit of theological theory. Tragic novel, and a little bit Christian Martyr complex but a lot of fun to read.
Unfortunately that's the best I can do. I haven't bought any science fiction novels which were written past about 1975 in the last six months or so. Good luck, hope this came in on time.
Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life and Others" is the best example of literary SF/F in the short form. His stories transcend the form and are works of pure art. 'Division by Zero' will make you rethink SF short stories.
Ok, I am going to make a out of the dark recommendation to you, it is a considered mass market book, but I really want you to think about getting this one.
I am a huge fan of the combination of Douglas Preston and Lincoln CHild. I picked up "DEEP STORM" because I was in the devourer era. It satisfied the craving for a fantastmic view into the Earth that has never been glimpsed!
I don't summarize things very well so I will not ruin its chances with a shoddy one. Please just give it a chance, this book changed my way of thinking about the earth, its role in the universe and humans palace in the puzzle. Very engaging and it really makes you have to think thoughts bigger than yourself.
Again the novel is DeepStorm by Lincoln Child
You could try Acacia by David Anthony Durham, it's relatively literary Fantasy.
I'm not sure how to classify Anathem, but it probably fits into "High Concept", and it's sort of sci-fi.
Riadan: I have Reynold's stuff! Some of it anyway. I also have Stross's Atrocity Archives. And the Sparrow. I have a whole bunch of those. I will look up Swainston and the new Morgan novel. Thanks!
Adam: I'll look up some Ted Chiang. Thanks!
Jodi: Deep Storm shall be looked upon by mine eyes. Thanks!
Jonah: I own Acacia. Anathem, however, is not on my shelves, so I shall look that up. Thanks!
I have no suggestions, but I'd like to veto Swainston. Tried that book and the writing was imo, horrible. Definitely not something you need to be reading right now, Shaun.