Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with speculativefiction

What Neal Stephenson work should I read next?

alms — Tue, 05 May 2009 18:54:15 -0800

I read and very much enjoyed The Diamond Age. What work(s) by Neal Stephenson should I read next? I recently purchased a remaindered copy of Cryptonomicon. Should I read that, or is there some other work (or set of works) by NS that I should get to next?

I doubt I'll read everything he's written, so I'd like to optimize what I do read.

Earth-Like Gas Giant Moons

Electrius — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:11:54 -0800

What would be the conditions required on the moon of a gas giant to support Earth life? Let's say you have a moon of a gas giant in some fictional star system much like our own. If a spaceship from Earth came there, what would the parameters be if the settlers wanted to touch down and build some cities without being under domes?

My thoughts are that it would need to be a small gas giant, and the moon would have to orbit very close to it (since moons of gas giants seem to inevitably experience tidal lock, and you need to have days that are relatively in sync with Earth days, right?) but this would mean that only half the planet would receive sunlight and be habitable-- thereby making the rest into a featureless icescape, with a permanently crepuscular region between the two? Can I solve this by giving the moon a strong ecliptic tilt? Would this put the moon too close to form in the first place or too close to maintain its shape? Would it bathe the surface in too much radiation for life to exist? Would tidal forces turn it into a barren volcanic wasteland? If it had an orbit at something of an angle to the gas giant's orbit, would the problems be mostly resolved?

In addition to the parameters of its physical location, what kinds of unusual astronomical phenomena could inhabitants expect to see on the surface, if any?

I'm a Latin major who has only a casual and mostly science-fictional interest in astrophysics, and I only want a relatively vague idea. If you know of a book or article that basically answers this question, please point me to it. Google turned up some things but I want more and more complete answers, since of course this is kind of a bizarre subject and I doubt much concrete research has been done on it.

So this is why I wrote so much about Tarzan...

overglow — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:22:02 -0800

Help me find this short story about Edgar Rice Burroughs in hell. I think that I read the story in the mid 90s, so it would have been published at that time or before. The main thrust of the story is Edgar Rice Burroughs gradually realizing that he is sexually attracted to men (there's a small chance that the main character was some other famous early speculative fiction writer). The hell of the setting contains numerous historical warlords, who are constantly fighting one another; if one dies they simply reawaken the next morning in their bed. Anyone else read this?

Is Cory Doctorow Worth a damn?

humannaire — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:45:46 -0800

Who to read besides Coupland, Stephenson, Gibson, and Sterling? I need an informational intake of this sort of highly-regarded (speculative? cyber?) fiction on a regular basis, or else I become irritable.

One other thing, I prefer contemporary writers who have produced notable work post-'01.

Mainstream slumming on the sci fi side of the street?

nanojath — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 12:02:51 -0800

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? I'm particularly interested in the case where the author is primarily known for mainstream, literature, or a different genre fiction - I thought of the example of Margaret Atwood (who's entry in Wikipedia, incidentally, has singlehandedly destroyed what marginal faith I had in that "reference") but she's really crossed that line several times in more than one fashion.

SciFiSoundingBoardFilter

Alterscape — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 17:08:03 -0800

I want to talk with people about potential future trends as background research for near-future speculative fiction. Where wouldn't this be chatfilter? I have an idea for a speculative fiction story set in the somewhat-near future. To develop it, I'd like to have a conversation with some knowledgable people along the lines of "if you assume [some initial conditions], what might realistically be expected to happen?" in the areas of agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, politics (local and global), etc. I have some ideas already, chosen more because they fit the needs of the story than for accuracy, but I'd like to make the backstory as plausible as possible without losing the elements I need, and get the esoteric details right while I'm fleshing out the world.

I know I can't do that here, since it would be considered chatfilter. Can anyone here suggest a forum where this kind of discussion would be welcome? My google-fu has failed me!

Recent sci-fi?

Slimemonster — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 20:10:06 -0800

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) So I would love some recommendations that are very similar in style/setting/characters to the following:

I should also mention that we read Wicked and GUT Symmetries and I HATED them both. Oryx and Crake and Anansi Boys were my absolute favorites.

What has come out recently that would capture my imagination the way that these books have?

Looking for speculative fiction recommendations

Slimemonster — Tue, 30 Mar 2004 00:47:02 -0800

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.