Yet another “recommend me a book” thread, but I think I am going to narrow this one down a bit. I like hard science fiction, though I do like the “softer” stuff as well. I think though I would prefer to have some harder stuff to read. What I really like is the stuff that has optimistic outlooks on the future, though some dark qualities are not that bad, if done right. Recently I read A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge, and really enjoyed it, though it was a bit slow at the begining.
I also read a book called Tomorow and Tomorow by Charles Sheffield. I really enjoyed the journey through the eons and would love to find books similar. Another one that I recently read is a Trilogy Echoes of Earth, Orphans of Earth, andHeirs of Earth by Sean Williams and Shane Dix. A wonderful trilogy, and they write another trilogy I cannot quite remember: Evergence or some such. It was also a great Trilogy.
What I have trouble finding is similarly themed books. Anything with man transending, man becoming immortal, man interfacing with machines, man struggling with ancient and powerful aliens, etc. I would eat up any books with a decent plot dealing with cybernetics, time travel, and anything mentioned above.
Well, ok, the narrowing down didn’t do much good, because much of science fiction is similarly themed I suppose.
Also, if anybody knows of any good non-fiction books dealing with the singularity, transhumanism, sociological consequences of the rapid change in technology, or other philosophical ideals in dealing with change due to techonolgy. please tell me some of them!
A.E. Van Vogt wrote some interesting ones along those lines, such as Slan. Jack of Eagles, I think by James Blish, had a transcendent theme, and all of E.E. Smith dealt with superhumans fighting it out with advanced but evil alien races with the aid of advanced but good alien races (this is Golden Age stuff and not up to modern standards in all respects – the E.E. Smith stuff, though fun, is ankle deep in many respects). Colin Wilson wrote some metaphysically-oriented SF about transcenden humans, one of which got made into a movie.
Iain Banks’ Culture novels deal with a human race under the guidance/protection of transcendent artificial intelligences with advanced intellects and powers compared to humans and most organic species. They are also great reads – I consider Fire Upon the Deep one of the best SF stories of the last several decades, but Banks is a better writer than Vinge.
There’s a novel, the Cassini Division, by Ken McLeod, that’s often called “Vingian.” It’s not all that much like Vinge, though it does pick up on some of Vinge’s ideas, and it was a pretty good read.
For short stories, try “Billion Year Spree” vols. 1 and 2, collections edited by Brian Aldiss. I never liked his stories, but he can definitely pick good stories by other writers.
For nonfiction, try “Great Mambo Chickens And Transcending The Human Condition.” Or google “extropian.”
One of my favourite books is Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. (Often compared to A Fire Upon the Deep, interestingly enough. Also adapted into the film Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky.) Some twenty years after an unknown, unseen form of life visited Earth, the weird stuff they left behind – strange materials, alien technology, odd physical phenomena – is still being sought by scientists, as well as by scavengers-for-hire. A humanistic story about existence and co-existence, told by two of former USSR’s finest novelists.
(Note: Although Gollancz recently published this book as part of their “Gollancz SF” series – recognizable by their bright yellow trade paperback bindings – it might be hard to find; you might need to resort to abebooks.com and similar services for a used copy. It is worth it, however.)
Also, have you read William Gibson? He has two trilogies (in the true sense of the term; they can be read independently, but together they form a continuum): the Sprawl series starting with the magnificent Neuromancer, set in the far future and concerning everything from computer hacking to AI to body modification and cybernetics; and the Bridge series, starting with Virtual Light, set in the near future and featuring less tech, more culture.
Techie nerds – the ones that really care whether the physics principles underlying Larry Niven’s Ringworld are flawed – seem to shy away from Gibson’s brilliant, lyrical prose, preferring the harder cyberpunk of Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash) instead. YMMV.
As for “man transending [sic], man becoming immortal, man interfacing with machines”, sounds like Cordwainer Smith’s classic The Rediscovery of Man could be your cup of tea.
I certainly agree with gentle about Cordwainer Smith - great stuff! The intro to one collection of his stories says it seems like he intended some sort of transcendence for the humans and the Underpeople; that seems plausible to me. Unfortunately, he died before he finished.
A more material sort of ‘transcendence’ shows up in Michael Moorcock’s Dancers at the End of Time trilogy, which shows what might happen to people who have almost unlimited technological power. I’m sure it’s not quite what you’re looking for (except for the sociological observations), but it gives something to think about.
I think that you will like just about everything that Vernor Vinge has written, with a couple of exceptions…Tatja Grimm’s World and The Witling, I think they’re called. He excels at very hard SF, and those two are not SF. There’s a sort of sequel to A Fire Upon the Deep, which is A Deepness in the Sky. It’s very absorbing. It also has one of the most interesting, terrifying, tempting and fascinating form of abusing sentient beings that I’ve ever encountered. He’s got a combo volume, Across Realtime, which has the novels The Peace War and Marooned in Realtime plus a short story, “The Ungoverned”. GET THIS BOOK. You will thank me later.
Also in the “V” section, you might like John Varley, especially his more recent works. I haven’t read Red Thunder yet, but I believe I’ve read everything else, and liked it.
H. Beam Piper, although dead for over forty years, and probably mostly out of print, had a Future History to rival Heinlein’s. There were short stories and novels. For the former I would recommend the collections Federation, Paratime, The Worlds of H. Beam Piper, and Empire. For novels try LIttle Fuzzy, Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen(this is alternate history), and Uller Uprising. There are lots of others, I even have some duplicates I would send you if you can’t find any.
I’m sorry, but H. Beam Piper? Most of his stories do have super-powerful creatures, but they’re mostly about how the big, powerful super-people (The Lords of the Instrumentality) mistreat the poor little half-people. Really, his stuff is cloyingly sentimental and not a likely “hit” for someone looking for a Vinge fix.
Evil Captor, you must be mistaking Piper for another author. His stories did not deal with "super people’ and “half people”, nor do I remember any group called “The Lords of the Instrumentality.” His work is not what I would call sentimental either.
Perhaps you should check your books and find out which author you were actually thinking of, because it certainly wasn’t Piper.
For “man struggling with powerful and ancient aliens”, you might like the David Brin Uplift trilogies: Sundiver, Startide Rising, and The Uplift War, and Brightness Reef, Infinity’s Shore, and Heaven’s Reach. The first set of three are a pretty loose trilogy, while the second set is more one really long novel in three volumes (a sort-of sequel to Startide Rising). They deal with a universe where races generally become sentient by being “uplifted” (genetically engineered) by a “patron” race, to which they then are indentured for some centuries. When humans are discovered with no identifiable patron (but two “client” species - chimpanzees and dolphins), it causes all kinds of upheaval in the galaxy. I think Sundiver is probably the weakest of the six, but it is a pretty good hard-science whodunit.
I have a feeling you’d like ‘A Bridge of Years’ by Robert Charles Wilson. It has time travel, cybernetic interfaces, virtually immortal people, and very well-written characters. There’s something about RCWs science fiction that makes it feel very realistic and personal.
