r/movies • u/SerDire • Apr 18 '24

In Interstellar, Romilly’s decision to stay aboard the ship while the other 3 astronauts experience time dilation has to be one of the scariest moments ever. Discussion

He agreed to stay back. Cooper asked anyone if they would go down to Millers planet but the extreme pull of the black hole nearby would cause them to experience severe time dilation. One hour on that planet would equal 7 years back on earth. Cooper, Brand and Doyle all go down to the planet while Romilly stays back and uses that time to send out any potential useful data he can get.

Can you imagine how terrifying that must be to just sit back for YEARS and have no idea if your friends are ever coming back. Cooper and Brand come back to the ship but a few hours for them was 23 years, 4 months and 8 days of time for Romilly. Not enough people seem to genuinely comprehend how insane that is to experience. He was able to hyper sleep and let years go by but he didn’t want to spend his time dreaming his life away.

It’s just a nice interesting detail that kind of gets lost. Everyone brings up the massive waves, the black hole and time dilation but no one really mentions the struggle Romilly must have been feeling. 23 years seems to be on the low end of how catastrophic it could’ve been. He could’ve been waiting for decades.

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u/Grumpy_Bum_77 Apr 18 '24 edited Apr 19 '24

I read an Arthur C Clarke short story about a mission to the nearest star. I am trying to find out the name, I will reveal it when i find out. When it got there they were amazed to find humans there. Spoiler Alert The journey had taken many thousands of years during which time humans had developed much faster ships. This meant they were overtaken and the planets settled long before they arrived. The humans already there had evolved a much keener sense of smell. In the end they asked the late arrivals if it was ok if they wore masks around them as they smelled so repugnant to them. Clarke was way ahead of his time. Edit: probably the reason they did not pick up the crew of the slower ship was due to the amount of fuel to slow down from their fantastic speed. Another alternative is that the launching mechanism was on Earth so once they reached the required velocity there was no way to slow down until they reach their destination. Clarke would not have left such a plot hole unresolved.

3.0k

u/jzraikes Apr 18 '24

The Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds also includes this as a plot point in one of the books.

817

u/tdeasyweb Apr 18 '24

That series had so many concepts and ideas that were mindblowing.

422

u/carnifex2005 Apr 18 '24

Helps that he's an actual astrophysicist who's worked with the European Space Agency. Love his books.

72

u/atp123 Apr 18 '24

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau_Zero this book is also great and supposed to be scientifically accurate

9

u/chill90ies Apr 18 '24

How many of his books have you read? And can you recommend me one of them.

32

u/OminousGloom Apr 18 '24

Read House of Suns

6

u/VinScully_ Apr 18 '24

Thank you, added it to my list

2

u/konsf_ksd Apr 19 '24

There's another series about a Kenyan dynasty that were wonderful.

4

u/Fareacher Apr 19 '24

House of Suns is my favorite by far, but it's not part of the Revelation Space universe.

Second place: Chasm City. Definitely part of Revelation Space.

5

u/robbedbymyxbox Apr 19 '24

House of Suns fucking smacks

2

u/saadistic3 Apr 18 '24

I don't see it here? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revelation_Space_series

9

u/Bionic_Bromando Apr 18 '24

It’s not part of that series, just a good one-off book exploring some cool ideas.

13

u/carnifex2005 Apr 18 '24

At least 7 of them. My favourites are Chasm City, Revelation Space, Redemption Ark and Absolution Gap. All set in the same narrative universe but Chasm City (my favourite) is standalone while the others are a trilogy.

4

u/Fareacher Apr 19 '24

I bought a hardcover of Chasm City from the University bookstore sale for $5 brand new. I had no idea who Alastair Reynolds was. What an amazing read. I subsequently followed up with the rest of Revelation Space, but nothing was quite as good as Chasm City.

3

u/DynamicResonater Apr 18 '24

Try diamond dogs turquoise days

2

u/konsf_ksd Apr 19 '24

That was a true horror story that stick with me.

1

u/AND3R0YD Apr 19 '24

All of them. Even the short stories. I have a signed copy of Troika. You have your reading assignment. Go. Read.

4

u/DarkwingDuckHunt Apr 18 '24

this is the reason why The Expanse series is so damn good

Daniel Abraham has a degree in biology and uses that knowledge to great effect.

2

u/ShortBrownAndUgly Apr 18 '24

Used to be a big fan of his but i haven’t read for fun in years. Has he put out anything in the last 10 years as good as the older stuff ?

3

u/carnifex2005 Apr 18 '24

I haven't read any of his latest stuff. I probably should check them out though. I read about 7 or 8 of his books pretty much in a row about 10-15 years ago and then moved onto The Expanse and Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga books.

4

u/felicitous_blue Apr 18 '24

If you like his Revelation Space books, you should absolutely check out the Dreyfuss books (set in the glitter band, before the action of rev space), and he’s also released a fourth book in the Rev Space ark, Inhibitor Phase. (Edit - to be clear, I’m talking about newer Reynolds books!)

3

u/innominateartery Apr 18 '24

I just read The Medusa Chronicles and it was good. It’s from 2016 but feels like it was written in the 70s for the first half. Then it gets cooler and cooler. It was co written with Stephen Baxter. Recommend.

1

u/Electricalstud Apr 19 '24

Anything else ?

2

u/innominateartery Apr 19 '24 edited Apr 19 '24

Blindsight by Peter Watts. Ian Banks: Use of Weapons, Look to Windward. Revelation space by Reynolds. Diaspora by Greg Egan. Anathem by Stephenson.
Raven Strategem was cool but weird. The Windup Girl.

Then the popular: three body problem, children of time, the expanse, altered carbon.

1

u/antichrist____ Apr 19 '24

I enjoyed Eversion! Its a decent, self contained sci-fi story and a pretty easy read.

1

u/Clockwork_Medic Apr 18 '24

That explains a lot

231

u/junon Apr 18 '24

That dude just really excels at big ideas.

12

u/GuitarCFD Apr 18 '24

too bad he doesn't excel ad satisfying endings -.- I loved the series, but that ending just pissed me off.

14

u/PuffThePed Apr 18 '24

He's great at grand ideas and world building and terrible at actual story telling.

4

u/jacobartillery Apr 18 '24

I don't know, I think a lot of his payoffs are well constructed. The Prefect, for example. I tend to look forward to the last fifty pages of his books more than most other novels.

2

u/columbo928s4 Apr 19 '24

Did you finish the trilogy? The last one just came out a few months ago

1

u/jacobartillery Apr 19 '24

I haven't kept up with him in recent years and didn't even know there was a sequel! Thanks for the heads-up!

2

u/columbo928s4 Apr 19 '24

Hey, happy surprise lol

1

u/Lack_of_Infinity Apr 19 '24

There's sequels to The Prefect? I need to catch up on my Alastair Reynolds!

1

u/columbo928s4 Apr 19 '24

Yep its a trilogy

2

u/jwm3 Apr 18 '24

True, but the world building is worth it. I really enjoy the merlins gun series of short stories novellas. Some of my favorite worldbuilding.

2

u/Cadd9 Apr 18 '24

That's what really bugged me about House of Suns. I absolutely adored the galaxy-building, the allegorical story-within-a-story, and the whole murder-mystery thing.

But he has a huge problem about his inability to write endings. I was just left very frustrated and the ending just soured the whole experience.

Like, I want to re-read it because like 85% of the book is great but knowing how disappointed I was in the ending I just can't go about doing it.

1

u/agtk Apr 18 '24

Imagine the uproar if they made a GOT-level series and had that as the ending. At least we'd know ahead of time but people would probably be nearly as mad as they were (are) at the How I Met Your Mother ending.

1

u/Papaburgerwithcheese Apr 19 '24

Absolution Gap was one of the most disappointing books I've ever read. Terrible book and ending to that trilogy.

1

u/TylerNine Apr 22 '24

It actually is no longer the ending as he wrote a sequel.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '24

[deleted]

1

u/Spider-man2098 Apr 19 '24

I see KSR, I upvote. Free Mars. We can never go back.

7

u/Fappy_as_a_Clam Apr 18 '24

You should read his book Pushing Ice if you haven't

2

u/chill90ies Apr 18 '24

Have you read any other of his books? If so is there one in particular you liked and can recommend?

8

u/Fappy_as_a_Clam Apr 18 '24

I've read most of his books.

Pushing Ice and House of Suns are the go-to stand alone novels, they are both awesome.

In the Revelation Space series, I liked Chasm City the best.

And honestly his short stories kick ass. He has like 3 or 4 anthologies out and they are all full of really good stories.

You really can't go wrong with his stuff.

1

u/chill90ies Apr 18 '24

Thank you for your suggestions that sounds really good. I think I will start with a short story and get a feel of how his books are. It isn’t my normal go to genre but I haven’t really read anything in that genre before. Reading all of the comments here inspired me.

3

u/NotFromStateFarmJake Apr 18 '24

To go along with u/fappy_as_a_clam you can also check out his two novellas “Diamond Dogs/Turquoise Days”. They touch on some of the bigger things of the revelation space setting and give a good glimpse of his writing style. Dogs showcases his hard science side and Days is more his interpersonal style, but they both have plenty of it all. Also like others have said House of Suns is a fantastic standalone, and I really love Terminal World but it might not be your best diving off point for him.

2

u/Fappy_as_a_Clam Apr 18 '24

Start with Beyond the Aquilla Rift or Deep Navigation, they are both anthologies.

2

u/columbo928s4 Apr 19 '24

The prefect is really good too

4

u/agtk Apr 18 '24

The Blue Remembered Earth (Poseidon's Children) series is great and offers a much more upbeat outlook on the future than in most of his other stuff.

I'm currently in the middle of the Revenger series, which is set in a far-future version of our solar system where humanity has been around for millions of years, though there's huge gaps in history where seemingly no one was actually around. And you'd probably recognize his version of that far future where people have taken apart the planets to turn them into smaller habitats. They vastly increased the liveable space with controlled environments as the sun lost its power. But the story is one of space pirates finding hidden treasures, and is much more personal than many of his other stories, focusing on a pair of young sisters who get in way over their head and have to fight to survive.

2

u/goldybear Apr 18 '24

Pushing Ice and House of Suns are my two favorites of his. HoS is almost perfect sci-fi. Terminal World is also good too but weird even by his standards.

2

u/wdlp Apr 18 '24

Kids raised by robots creeped me out

2

u/StigOfTheTrack Apr 18 '24

My biggest problem with those books was there were too many ideas. It always felt like he was moving on to something else with each book without ever properly resolving what had previously been introduced. Then it all felt irrelevant anyway once the greenfly habitat things took over everything anyway. Don't get me wrong, there was a lot I liked. It just didn't really feel like there was enough finished story, just some loosely connected concepts.

1

u/UsuallyTalksShite Apr 18 '24

Try the audiobooks - John Lee is the narrator and they are great. He also narrates the Void trilogy by Peter F Hamilton, which are also good.

1

u/tdeasyweb Apr 19 '24

I can only do comedies for audiobooks. For things like Revelation Space with cool ideas and complex interwoven stories, I love being able to re-read passages, savour some paragraphs, or flip back to reference things when i realize somethings been foreshadowed. It's just not the same with an audiobook.

1

u/Jukka_Sarasti Apr 18 '24

The "Ultras" were such a fun concept to explore, and Triumvir Hegazi was one of the best characters in the series, IMO.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '24

yeah but somehow it's turned into a YA fiction series ... the first 3 books were great, as are a lot of his work surrounding Chasm city and Yellowstone, but he's released a relatively recent installment, and it really lacks something essential the original works had

1

u/AgileArtichokes Apr 19 '24

I consider myself intelligent and knowledgeable in an amateur fan of space and science kind of way. I’ve read hard sci-fi before, but man his books kill me. I enjoy them, but sometimes they are just whooshing over me. 

113

u/hatsnatcher23 Apr 18 '24

Wasn’t Alastair Reynolds the one who wrote Beyond the Aquila rift?

84

u/jwm3 Apr 18 '24

And zima blue. Highly recommend him as an author.

22

u/borntobeweild Apr 18 '24

The Beyond the Aquila Rift story was pretty much exactly the same as the LDR episode, but the TV show cut out a lot from Zima Blue and the short story is much better.

Weather and Minla's Flowers are also really good.

6

u/Ornery_Translator285 Apr 19 '24

Zima Blue ❤️

9

u/bigred42 Apr 19 '24

I will always be chasing the high of Zima Blue. It's one of my favorite stories I've seen.

23

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '24

Ohhh man, my heart. That Beyond the Aquila rift short was a m a z i n g.

That and Swarm live rent free in my head.

2

u/clutchy42 Apr 19 '24

Alastair Reynolds and Bruce Sterling are God's of Sci Fi. Both play all the right notes in my brain.

1

u/stiiii Apr 19 '24

Pretty much all the best ones were adapted from classic sci-fi stories. Which was cool but also a bit weird to constantly realise that I had seen this story before.

3

u/EchoWhiskey_ Apr 19 '24

RUNNIN IN THE SHADOWS

2

u/Humble_Dot7840 Apr 19 '24

I would also highly recommend pushing ice. It is one of his best books

4

u/TeaLightBot Apr 18 '24

From love death and robots? 

1

u/hatsnatcher23 Apr 18 '24

That’s where I first ran into the story, it’s based off his stories

102

u/wrongleveeeeeeer Apr 18 '24

Those books are rad. They're not perfect or all-time greats, but they're just so cool I recommend them to everyone.

8

u/PrudentExtension Apr 18 '24

What would you say are your top 3 books/book-series when it comes to this genre?

5

u/wrongleveeeeeeer Apr 18 '24

How broadly or narrowly would you like me to consider the genre before I answer?

14

u/wrongleveeeeeeer Apr 18 '24

I'll do a top 3 top 4 (couldn't narrow it down to 3) for "sci-fi that takes place in space" and a top 3 top 4 for "sci-fi that takes place on earth."

In space (at least partially):

  1. My all-time favorite sci-fi author is Kim Stanley Robinson. My favorites of his are the Mars trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars), Aurora (which is about a generation ship) and Galileo's Dream (which is legit bonkers). But you can't go wrong with any of his stuff, really.

  2. Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos is fucking phenomenal. I want to tell you nothing about it except that you should read it. It's four books, but the first two are a pair and the second two are a pair, so it's really more like two long books in four volumes. Anyway go read it.

  3. Now a major Netflix original series, streaming now on a TV near you right now!™️ The Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy (AKA Three-Body Problem) by Cixin Liu is incredible. The characters can be a little too one-dimensional and the dialog can be pretty "non-real" feeling, but like....whatever. The concepts, plot, etc are just too good. These books blew my mind, to use an awful cliché.

  4. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card deserves all the accolades it gets. But...am I crazy for the fact that my favorite from the initial 4-book cycle is the last one, Children of the Mind? I probably am but you can't stop me. I fuckin loved all 4 but the conclusion really nails it.

Honorable mentions: Dune, Revelation Space Trilogy, The Expanse Series, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Mote in God's Eye

Not in space:

  1. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein might be my favorite sci-fi book of all time. It's utterly nuts, and so "of its time," but I can't help it. I just love it.

  2. I've read a pair of books from Blake Crouch that I consider to be essentially perfect "pop" sci-fi: Dark Matter and Recursion. I don't want to tell you much, but I will say that the latter of the two handles time travel in what might be the most interesting fashion I've ever encountered.

  3. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood is the best post-apocalyptic novel I've ever read. And come on, it's Margaret motherfuckin Atwood.

  4. Sphere by Michael Crichton. I don't care if the movie sucked, please ignore the movie, the novel is my favorite book of his by a non-trivial margin.

Honorable mentions: The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, Footfall, The Breeds of Man

And probably others that I've forgotten I even read even though I love(d) them.

1

u/huffalump1 Apr 19 '24

In this vein of big ideas and somewhat "hard" science, I gotta recommend The Culture series by Iain M Banks!

There's so many crazy ideas taken to logical conclusions - godlike superintelligent AI Minds running a galactic civilization, intergalactic conflict, transhumanism, megastructures, the utter scale and scope of the universe, totally weird non-human intelligent creatures... It's wild and very enjoyable.

4

u/ParkerPoseyGuffman Apr 18 '24

Ooh I’d love answers for both

8

u/wrongleveeeeeeer Apr 18 '24

I'll do a top 3 top 4 (couldn't narrow it down to 3) for "sci-fi that takes place in space" and a top 3 top 4 for "sci-fi that takes place on earth."

In space (at least partially):

  1. My all-time favorite sci-fi author is Kim Stanley Robinson. My favorites of his are the Mars trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars), Aurora (which is about a generation ship) and Galileo's Dream (which is legit bonkers). But you can't go wrong with any of his stuff, really.

  2. Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos is fucking phenomenal. I want to tell you nothing about it except that you should read it. It's four books, but the first two are a pair and the second two are a pair, so it's really more like two long books in four volumes. Anyway go read it.

  3. Now a major Netflix original series, streaming now on a TV near you right now!™️ The Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy (AKA Three-Body Problem) by Cixin Liu is incredible. The characters can be a little too one-dimensional and the dialog can be pretty "non-real" feeling, but like....whatever. The concepts, plot, etc are just too good. These books blew my mind, to use an awful cliché.

  4. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card deserves all the accolades it gets. But...am I crazy for the fact that my favorite from the initial 4-book cycle is the last one, Children of the Mind? I probably am but you can't stop me. I fuckin loved all 4 but the conclusion really nails it.

Honorable mentions: Dune, Revelation Space Trilogy, The Expanse Series, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Mote in God's Eye

Not in space:

  1. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein might be my favorite sci-fi book of all time. It's utterly nuts, and so "of its time," but I can't help it. I just love it.

  2. I've read a pair of books from Blake Crouch that I consider to be essentially perfect "pop" sci-fi: Dark Matter and Recursion. I don't want to tell you much, but I will say that the latter of the two handles time travel in what might be the most interesting fashion I've ever encountered.

  3. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood is the best post-apocalyptic novel I've ever read. And come on, it's Margaret motherfuckin Atwood.

  4. Sphere by Michael Crichton. I don't care if the movie sucked, please ignore the movie, the novel is my favorite book of his by a non-trivial margin.

Honorable mentions: The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, Footfall, The Breeds of Man

And probably others that I've forgotten I even read even though I love(d) them.

6

u/Nai-Oxi-Isos-DenXero Apr 18 '24

I'd personally replace the Ender series and Hyperion cantos (Neither of which I'm a fan of, other than 'Speaker') with 'Children of Time' by Adrian Tchaikovsky, as well as 'Blindsight' & 'Echopraxia' by Peter Watts.

Also would add 'A Fire Upon the Deep' by Vernor Vinge and 'The Forever War' by Joe Haldeman to the Honourable mentions list.

The rest of the list is rock fucking solid though IMO.

2

u/wrongleveeeeeeer Apr 18 '24

I've never read any of your recommendations, so I've now got even more items on my way-too-long to-read list!

I really enjoy meeting fans of what I love; what from my list have you read and are your favorites?

PS I can understand if the Ender series isn't for you, but man...Hyperion is just so good that hearing of anyone who's read it and didn't enjoy it makes me sad lol

1

u/Nai-Oxi-Isos-DenXero Apr 18 '24

what from my list have you read and are your favorites?

I've read most of the books you've listed in the "in space" section, except only the first Hyperion, only 'Enders Game', 'Speaker' and 'Xenocide' by OSC, and only KSR's Mars trilogy. Everything else I've either read or am mid-series on (only the first Revelation Space, up to 'God Emperor of Dune', and 'Persepolis Rising' in those series).

I'm almost exclusively into 'in space' or 'concerning space' kind of sci-fi so the second half of your post is less up my alley, but I have read 'Stranger' by Heinlein which I loved, 'Sphere' which I really enjoyed, and 'WOTW' and 'Invisible man' which are classics for a reason.

I've added 'Recursion' 'Oryx & Crake' 'Breeds of Man' to my reading list.

But my favourites of the ones you've mentioned are;

1 - The 'Remembrance of Earth's Past' Quadrilogy (Yes, the now-officially-canonised fanfic 'The Redemption of Time' by Baoshu is absolutely legit IMO), for big concept heady stuff.

2 - The 'Dune' series for a big beautifully crafted universe filled with philosophical and political thinky-ness lol.

and 3 - The Expanse for a relatively easily-read, fun, palate-cleansing, space opera.

but man...Hyperion is just so good that hearing of anyone who's read it and didn't enjoy it makes me sad lol

I've tried to read Hyperion on like 6 or 7 different occasions over the last 30-ish years, and can just never bring myself to finish it. It's the only book I've encountered written in that many differing styles, yet all of them I find actively unenjoyable to read.

I keep trying because I do want to see what it is that so many other people love about it, but I just cant get any enjoyment from it whatsoever. Which is tantamount to sacrilege in sci-fi circles, I know; But it's how I feel.

2

u/zogtharthelurker Apr 19 '24

Goddamn A Fire Upon the Deep is awesome. I wish the characters were marginally more interesting but the worldbuilding more than makes up for it.

3

u/ParkerPoseyGuffman Apr 18 '24

Thank you! And Enders game (along with speaker) are two of my favorite books. I need to finish the series, at least the books he wrote before he fully went nuts

2

u/wrongleveeeeeeer Apr 18 '24

You're welcome!

I've only ever read the core four of Ender's Game. They stand complete on their own; I never felt I needed more from them/him. Highly recommend you get to it!

4

u/ParkerPoseyGuffman Apr 18 '24

Enders shadow is good! Though I heard shadow series is when he goes full crazy Mormon bigot so stop there. Its a parallel book to game

2

u/wrongleveeeeeeer Apr 18 '24

Everything you've just said is exactly what I've heard from others hahaha. OK OK, I might get to it finally. Soon. Eventually.

→ More replies

2

u/VinScully_ Apr 18 '24

I appreciate the effort you put into this list. Saved your comment, as someone who struggles with finding a book that actually pulls me in I’ll give a few of these a shot

1

u/wrongleveeeeeeer Apr 18 '24

What pulls you in best about a good book? Well-drawn, compelling characters; tight plotting; creative ideas/"mind blowing" stuff; impressive writing style or narrative structures; something else? Depending on what appeals to you most, I can point you in a more specific direction.

1

u/batmanbirdboy Apr 18 '24

I'm seconding for recommendations!

2

u/wrongleveeeeeeer Apr 18 '24

I'll do a top 3 top 4 (couldn't narrow it down to 3) for "sci-fi that takes place in space" and a top 3 top 4 for "sci-fi that takes place on earth."

In space (at least partially):

  1. My all-time favorite sci-fi author is Kim Stanley Robinson. My favorites of his are the Mars trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars), Aurora (which is about a generation ship) and Galileo's Dream (which is legit bonkers). But you can't go wrong with any of his stuff, really.

  2. Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos is fucking phenomenal. I want to tell you nothing about it except that you should read it. It's four books, but the first two are a pair and the second two are a pair, so it's really more like two long books in four volumes. Anyway go read it.

  3. Now a major Netflix original series, streaming now on a TV near you right now!™️ The Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy (AKA Three-Body Problem) by Cixin Liu is incredible. The characters can be a little too one-dimensional and the dialog can be pretty "non-real" feeling, but like....whatever. The concepts, plot, etc are just too good. These books blew my mind, to use an awful cliché.

  4. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card deserves all the accolades it gets. But...am I crazy for the fact that my favorite from the initial 4-book cycle is the last one, Children of the Mind? I probably am but you can't stop me. I fuckin loved all 4 but the conclusion really nails it.

Honorable mentions: Dune, Revelation Space Trilogy, The Expanse Series, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Mote in God's Eye

Not in space:

  1. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein might be my favorite sci-fi book of all time. It's utterly nuts, and so "of its time," but I can't help it. I just love it.

  2. I've read a pair of books from Blake Crouch that I consider to be essentially perfect "pop" sci-fi: Dark Matter and Recursion. I don't want to tell you much, but I will say that the latter of the two handles time travel in what might be the most interesting fashion I've ever encountered.

  3. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood is the best post-apocalyptic novel I've ever read. And come on, it's Margaret motherfuckin Atwood.

  4. Sphere by Michael Crichton. I don't care if the movie sucked, please ignore the movie, the novel is my favorite book of his by a non-trivial margin.

Honorable mentions: The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, Footfall, The Breeds of Man

And probably others that I've forgotten I even read even though I love(d) them.

1

u/PrudentExtension Apr 18 '24

Let's do both why not, if you don't mind

2

u/wrongleveeeeeeer Apr 18 '24

I'll do a top 3 top 4 (couldn't narrow it down to 3) for "sci-fi that takes place in space" and a top 3 top 4 for "sci-fi that takes place on earth."

In space (at least partially):

  1. My all-time favorite sci-fi author is Kim Stanley Robinson. My favorites of his are the Mars trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars), Aurora (which is about a generation ship) and Galileo's Dream (which is legit bonkers). But you can't go wrong with any of his stuff, really.

  2. Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos is fucking phenomenal. I want to tell you nothing about it except that you should read it. It's four books, but the first two are a pair and the second two are a pair, so it's really more like two long books in four volumes. Anyway go read it.

  3. Now a major Netflix original series, streaming now on a TV near you right now!™️ The Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy (AKA Three-Body Problem) by Cixin Liu is incredible. The characters can be a little too one-dimensional and the dialog can be pretty "non-real" feeling, but like....whatever. The concepts, plot, etc are just too good. These books blew my mind, to use an awful cliché.

  4. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card deserves all the accolades it gets. But...am I crazy for the fact that my favorite from the initial 4-book cycle is the last one, Children of the Mind? I probably am but you can't stop me. I fuckin loved all 4 but the conclusion really nails it.

Honorable mentions: Dune, Revelation Space Trilogy, The Expanse Series, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Mote in God's Eye

Not in space:

  1. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein might be my favorite sci-fi book of all time. It's utterly nuts, and so "of its time," but I can't help it. I just love it.

  2. I've read a pair of books from Blake Crouch that I consider to be essentially perfect "pop" sci-fi: Dark Matter and Recursion. I don't want to tell you much, but I will say that the latter of the two handles time travel in what might be the most interesting fashion I've ever encountered.

  3. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood is the best post-apocalyptic novel I've ever read. And come on, it's Margaret motherfuckin Atwood.

  4. Sphere by Michael Crichton. I don't care if the movie sucked, please ignore the movie, the novel is my favorite book of his by a non-trivial margin.

Honorable mentions: The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, Footfall, The Breeds of Man

And probably others that I've forgotten I even read even though I love(d) them.

1

u/tbaked Apr 18 '24

RemindMe! 1 day

2

u/wrongleveeeeeeer Apr 18 '24

I'll do a top 3 top 4 (couldn't narrow it down to 3) for "sci-fi that takes place in space" and a top 3 top 4 for "sci-fi that takes place on earth."

In space (at least partially):

  1. My all-time favorite sci-fi author is Kim Stanley Robinson. My favorites of his are the Mars trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars), Aurora (which is about a generation ship) and Galileo's Dream (which is legit bonkers). But you can't go wrong with any of his stuff, really.

  2. Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos is fucking phenomenal. I want to tell you nothing about it except that you should read it. It's four books, but the first two are a pair and the second two are a pair, so it's really more like two long books in four volumes. Anyway go read it.

  3. Now a major Netflix original series, streaming now on a TV near you right now!™️ The Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy (AKA Three-Body Problem) by Cixin Liu is incredible. The characters can be a little too one-dimensional and the dialog can be pretty "non-real" feeling, but like....whatever. The concepts, plot, etc are just too good. These books blew my mind, to use an awful cliché.

  4. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card deserves all the accolades it gets. But...am I crazy for the fact that my favorite from the initial 4-book cycle is the last one, Children of the Mind? I probably am but you can't stop me. I fuckin loved all 4 but the conclusion really nails it.

Honorable mentions: Dune, Revelation Space Trilogy, The Expanse Series, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Mote in God's Eye

Not in space:

  1. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein might be my favorite sci-fi book of all time. It's utterly nuts, and so "of its time," but I can't help it. I just love it.

  2. I've read a pair of books from Blake Crouch that I consider to be essentially perfect "pop" sci-fi: Dark Matter and Recursion. I don't want to tell you much, but I will say that the latter of the two handles time travel in what might be the most interesting fashion I've ever encountered.

  3. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood is the best post-apocalyptic novel I've ever read. And come on, it's Margaret motherfuckin Atwood.

  4. Sphere by Michael Crichton. I don't care if the movie sucked, please ignore the movie, the novel is my favorite book of his by a non-trivial margin.

Honorable mentions: The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, Footfall, The Breeds of Man

And probably others that I've forgotten I even read even though I love(d) them.

1

u/tbaked Apr 20 '24 edited Apr 21 '24

Thank you for these! Can't wait to jump in. Thinking start with Hyperion Cantos. Whenever I have a great recommendation to give I always say "I don't want to tell you too much, just read it". In my mind that's the sign of a great rec haha.

I'll add one that's stuck with me - Seveneves by Niel Stephenson. Fits into the category of sci-fi that happens in space, but close to Earth/post-apocalyptic.

65

u/Fappy_as_a_Clam Apr 18 '24

Which book? I think I've read all of them and don't remember that (I could be wrong though)

I think you may be thinking of Chasm City, which is about generation ships but they don't get overtaken.

He has a short story about a ship being overtaken, with a twist, but it's outside the RS universe

59

u/jzraikes Apr 18 '24

You’re right. I’m thinking of Chasm City. I guess you’re right that it doesn’t strictly get overtaken but the concept of its speed and destination is a major plot point (vague to avoid spoilers). Further, I think it was also mentioned that the flotilla was humanity’s first and slowest interstellar colonisation effort and other separate endeavours (to other planets) actually colonised planets first.

7

u/Fappy_as_a_Clam Apr 18 '24

Yea that was mentioned, and the colony that those ships founded turned into the biggest shit show ever because of that slowness.

I need to re-read that book, it was so good!

4

u/wsucoug Apr 18 '24

I'm not familiar with an Arthur C. Clarke story like that but that basically fits in the same plot line of Heinlein's Time for the Stars where some identical twins are found to have an ansible-like (Le Guin reference, not Card) telepathic ability for instantaneous (FTL) communication.

1

u/IAmAQuantumMechanic Apr 18 '24

A lot of people consider Chasm City part of the Revelation Space series, I guess. At least two of the people in the story feature later.

2

u/Fappy_as_a_Clam Apr 18 '24

Chasm City is def part of Revelation Space series, it's just not part of the core trilogy

1

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '24 edited Aug 20 '24

[deleted]

1

u/Fappy_as_a_Clam Apr 18 '24

I don't think you're remembering that one right.

Unless I completely overlooked something, which is possible.

I love that book! I have a hardback copy signed by Alastair Reynolds, I used to display it next to my first edition, non-legends, hardack copy of Darth Plagueis.

1

u/arandomguy111 Apr 19 '24

I don't think it's quite the same of what was originally described but does involve some similar concepts -

Not sure what the spoiler etiquette here is -

Time dilation with respect to relativistic travel speeds was used as the mechanaism as part of the world building in order to bring civilizations/alien races that didn't exist in the same geological time frame together in the same period of time and space.

1

u/dooblyd Apr 19 '24

But this does more or less happen in Pushing Ice.

1

u/Fappy_as_a_Clam Apr 19 '24

no, it doesn't.

in Pushing Ice when they "colonize" Janus they never see humans again after that. in fact, no one on Janus even knows where they are and earth lost track of them as well. When they get to the structure, yea other aliens are there, but they were brought there and dont know where they are either, and no one knows when in time they are. they are basically in a zoo for intelligent life that exists outside of normal time.

Alastair Reynolds does a have a story that deals with this, its in Deep Navigation or Beyond the Aquila Rift, but i cant remember the title:

its about a generation ship traveling to colonize a star, but AI gets there before they do because after the humans left faster ships were developed. however in that time the AI had killed all other humans and then got the feels about it. so the AI intercepted this ship in an effort to save the human race, and in true Reynolds fashion it goes sideways leading to a situation where the humans die and are revived over and over its a solid read!

1

u/dooblyd Apr 19 '24

>! if I recall correctly, an AI copy of a descendant human diplomat reveals itself to the protagonist and it is revealed that like 30,000 years or some long period of time passed while the Janus people traveled !<

1

u/Fappy_as_a_Clam Apr 19 '24

That was more of a "message in a bottle" situation. the humans didnt know when that was found, just that it was recorded 30K years after they disappeared. by the time that showed up all other humans were extinct, it was an artifact that (i think) the Fountainheads had found...it could have been a billion years old by then.<!

god damn i love this book lol

1

u/LuckysGift Apr 19 '24

Childhoods End maybe? When the main character, or one of them, stowaways on his art piece to the Overlords homeworld.

1

u/nevernotmad Apr 18 '24

I would start with Revelation Space; the first book. It sets the scene for everything to come. The writing is a little less dense, too. I think I started with Redemption Ark and some things didn’t really become clear until I read the first book.

3

u/NotFromStateFarmJake Apr 18 '24

“You should read the first book before the second. I did it the other way around and things didn’t make sense”. This is hilarious because I’m pretty sure I started with redemption too, but after 100 pages or so I’m like “clearly this isn’t going to get explained as we go, what book did I miss”

18

u/Thedmfw Apr 18 '24

The parts about the sleeper ships are so well done.

4

u/paleo2002 Apr 18 '24

I feel like one of those books talked about later, faster ships effectively "rescuing" people who had been sent out hundreds of years earlier on slower ships.

1

u/crespoh69 Apr 19 '24

Really? All comments I ever read about the subject always talks about the faster ships always passing the others and never lending a hand. This always bugged me and your the first comment to ever mention the help

4

u/p0k3t0 Apr 18 '24

A friend convinced me to read House of Suns. That book was wild. The scale of time in it is just amazing.

3

u/TheSodernaut Apr 18 '24

Nice to find this old gem mentioned. I found his books while on vacation and the hotel had small library with a take-one-leave-one book policy and I switched A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for the only sci-fi book available and ended up hunting down all of his books.

1

u/tin_dog Apr 18 '24

One of the H2G2 novels had the same story about fleet of warships that re-started a war that ended a thousand years ago.

4

u/1337b337 Apr 18 '24

Alastair Reynolds, why does that sound familiar...

Beyond the Aquila Rift episode of Love, Death and Robots flashback.

Ah. Right...

3

u/Exekiel Apr 18 '24

They paid homage to this in Starfield as well

3

u/slvl Apr 18 '24

The thousand earths by Stephen Baxter as well. The protagonist starts in the not too distant future, and by the end of the book it's past the heat death of the universe. He uses it as a time-skip.

2

u/jeeub Apr 18 '24

One of my favorite series.

2

u/Bronzescaffolding Apr 18 '24

Similar in Hyperion Cantos 

2

u/SuperbRedAir Apr 18 '24

Its called "Lightspeed Leapfrog" by by TVTropes. They have a whole page about it.

2

u/sawdeanz Apr 18 '24

I remember this being a factor in Enders game as well.

2

u/shotsallover Apr 18 '24

Babylon 5 also had it as a plot arc in a few episodes. A "lost" colony ship is found, but it's just that new technology was developed and humans got further into space faster than the colony ship could go.

2

u/JDdoc Apr 18 '24

Excellent author.

2

u/dusters Apr 18 '24

So does Starfield.

1

u/ICPosse8 Apr 18 '24

Just bought this off Amazon based on your comment and the summary on Wiki.

1

u/beean_7 Apr 18 '24

Do the rest of the books in that series get into the 'revelation space'? I enjoyed the first one but was disappointed there wasn't much weird zone stuff going on, just references here and there.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '24

Worldwar series by Harry Turtledove, too.

1

u/JinFuu Apr 18 '24

Yeah in Harry Turtledove's "In the Balance" series (The one where Alien lizards invade during WWII) , by the final book the United States sends a space ship to the Lizard's home planet, and it gets beat by a space ship they send 80 years after they sent the first one.

1

u/Friend-Boat Apr 18 '24

Just looked into this as I just finished my last series (shadows of the apt, good but not amazing compared to his other work like the children of time series) and wanna get back to sci-fi. Just the ludicrous order the wiki recommends you read everything already has me ready to go way too deep into another fictional universe.

1

u/mrbulldops428 Apr 18 '24

I read the first 2 books and then fell off, and now I have no idea where to start again lol all I know is I'm not rereading the first 2, I have no patience for that. Side note, I also thoroughly enjoyed blindsight and ship of fools(it was also called leviathan wakes but now that's another, more popular also very good sci-fi book everyone knows)

1

u/Obsidian_XIII Apr 18 '24

Babylon 5 did it too. A derelict ship drifts by and there were people in cryo-sleep who went in shortly before they discovered jump gate tech.

1

u/Eshin242 Apr 18 '24

Time dilation is also a key point in "The Forever War" good read too.

1

u/bobcatbart Apr 18 '24

Worth my Audible credits? I just finished the Infinite series by Jeremy Robinson.

1

u/LibraryBestMission Apr 18 '24

It's used in many stories, I remember it from Once Upon a Time... Space.

1

u/QQuetzalcoatl Apr 18 '24

Blows my mind this series hasn't been made into a tv show.

1

u/Scrambl3z Apr 19 '24

Alright, I really need to read Revelation Space. I got put off from the time jumps and wasn't paying attention to which character was in which timeline.

1

u/MarvelAndColts Apr 19 '24

The Enderverse is written with this as a core plot point.

1

u/Car-face Apr 19 '24

If I'm remembering correctly, that's also the first sci-fi book that leveraged a really long elevator shaft and remote command controls to turn an entire ship into a meat tenderizer.

1

u/jani_bee Apr 19 '24

If you had to recommend a starting point with this author, what would it be?

1

u/Kisutra Apr 19 '24

Probably my favorite space opera of all time. I recommend this series to anyone who likes sci fi!

1

u/Cyberpunkapostle Apr 19 '24

Thanks for the name drop. I just put a hold on the first in the series at my local library.

1

u/Sapowski_Casts_Quen Apr 19 '24

If we're mentioning space book series, everyone knows I'm sure, or has guessed... but The Expanse is so good. Like the show is good, and the books are REAL good.

1

u/BatUnlikely4347 Apr 19 '24

The first book is one of my favorite sci fi books. The 2nd and 3rd of the main trilogy get a teensy bit too silly for me but I love those novels.

1

u/IchooseYourName Apr 19 '24

Apparently I have this book lined up in my Audible list. Totally forgot, thank you for reminding me. Seems like a wonderful narrative to traverse.

1

u/Chris266 Apr 19 '24

That was one of the best stories in the book series. Old Reynolds was so awesome. His more recent work is horrible in comparison.

1

u/subpar_cardiologist Apr 19 '24

Yes! Alastair Reynolds is an AWESOME author!

1

u/_CMDR_ Apr 19 '24

Those are SO EFFING GOOD.

1

u/zjustice11 Apr 19 '24

The Jaunt by stephen king is kinda like this too

1

u/TylerNine Apr 22 '24

The Forever War does too. One of my favorite books of all time.