I just read China Mieville's The City and the City and really enjoyed it. I have a long train ride tomorrow and would like to download some more books for the road. Can you recommend some intelligent, literary speculative fiction, including perhaps others by Mieville?
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posted by foxy_hedgehog
on Apr 19, 2013 -
28 answers
I'm halfway through
A Canticle for Leibowitz and am enjoying it so much that I'm doling it out slowly. It reminds me in a lot of ways of another favorite book
The Name of the Rose. I'd love recommendations for books that have that combination of erudition and imagination/fantasy.
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posted by the sobsister
on Feb 6, 2013 -
46 answers
As a reader of fiction (especially if you're a devotee of
speculative fiction), how much do you like detailed descriptions and/or lists as part of the story? What if the story switches between detail and expediency?
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posted by batmonkey
on Dec 28, 2012 -
12 answers
A world with binary suns and multiple satellites that can still be livable by a diverse (even lush) assortment of life forms - true or not?
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posted by batmonkey
on Nov 30, 2012 -
11 answers
As a reader, how do you feel about invented language versus familiar words in imaginary worlds?
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posted by batmonkey
on Nov 21, 2012 -
67 answers
Speculative fiction about historical gradualism: I'm looking for SF stories which begin in the real historical world (past or present) and then gradually diverge from it,
without any single decisive turning point.
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posted by RogerB
on Sep 19, 2012 -
11 answers
Help me find more speculative/science fiction novels like Geoff Ryman's The Child Garden and Michael Swanwick's Stations of the Tide!
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posted by overglow
on Apr 20, 2012 -
10 answers
I'm looking for the best sci-fi and speculative fiction written
by women in the past 10-or-so years. I don't care if it's hard or soft sci-fi, merely that it creates a realistic world and is well-written. If it helps, my favourite authors include Umberto Eco, Susanna Clarke, and George R. R. Martin. I'm still chewing through Perido Street Station, so I don't quite know if I like Mieville or not. Any recommendations?
posted by flibbertigibbet
on Feb 20, 2012 -
38 answers
Help me construct a typology of fictional (but familiar) technological epochs -- along with the genre-conventions and stock-elements that characterize each.
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posted by foursentences
on Jun 28, 2011 -
7 answers
What is the most thought-provoking speculative fiction you've read on the subject of human consciousness and thought?
posted by Bookhouse
on Jun 13, 2011 -
30 answers
Speculative Fiction Filter: Has anyone written a book, story, or website about what the world would look like had Al Gore been elected as president in 2000?
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posted by juniperesque
on Jan 18, 2011 -
9 answers
I working on a piece of fiction, and I would like very specific, esoteric information about Saturn's moon Titan. Who should I ask? What is a good source?
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posted by fuq
on Mar 1, 2010 -
14 answers
I read and very much enjoyed
The Diamond Age. What work(s) by Neal Stephenson should I read next?
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posted by alms
on May 5, 2009 -
38 answers
What would be the conditions required on the moon of a gas giant to support Earth life?
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posted by Electrius
on Jan 12, 2009 -
17 answers
I just found out that the dystopian/futuristic movie
Children of Men is based on a novel by P.D. James. It made me think of the excellent short story
The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster. It made me wonder: are other examples of mainstream authors experimenting with speculative fiction?
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posted by nanojath
on Apr 22, 2007 -
36 answers
I want to talk with people about potential future trends as background research for near-future speculative fiction. Where wouldn't this be chatfilter?
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posted by Alterscape
on Oct 4, 2006 -
7 answers
I recently took a college course in Sci-fi and Fantasy (awesome course) and it really opened up a desire to read some of the recent speculative fiction that I've been missing. (more inside)
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posted by Slimemonster
on Aug 31, 2006 -
28 answers
Can anyone recommend some very very good speculative fiction books that I can read that are maybe along the lines of the Parable books by Octavia Butler (They don't have to deal with apocalypse though). Reading those was just bliss for me and I look forward to finding similar novels.
posted by Slimemonster
on Mar 30, 2004 -
7 answers
