Please Help Me Find Some Sci-Fi
March 21, 2018 1:43 PM Subscribe
Fiction can't hold my attention post-Trump. I haven't read science fiction since middle school in the early 90's but perhaps if I read about the future, it will provide better commentary on the present than fiction that takes place in the present or past. Can I get some recommendations?
Lately, I can't find _anything_ to read. I was a literature major in college and an avid reader of fiction up until some time around November 2016. Lately, my interest in Cambridge Analytica has gotten me thinking I may be better served by science-fiction than what I normally go for. I'm particularly interested in stuff about social media. Something that can speculate on where we will be in 10 or 50 years as opposed to 500 years.
Here are some qualifications. No deal-breakers.
1. I'm not into big series. Never liked Battlestar Galactica.
2. No space operas, please.
3. Writing must be competent, but it doesn't have to all come off like some kind of futuristic Herman Melville. Concise is fine.
4. I don't like 'hard science' stuff. Not interested in details. Looking for big ideas.
5. Has to be written recently. Best would be post-Trump or something near now.
Lately, I can't find _anything_ to read. I was a literature major in college and an avid reader of fiction up until some time around November 2016. Lately, my interest in Cambridge Analytica has gotten me thinking I may be better served by science-fiction than what I normally go for. I'm particularly interested in stuff about social media. Something that can speculate on where we will be in 10 or 50 years as opposed to 500 years.
Here are some qualifications. No deal-breakers.
1. I'm not into big series. Never liked Battlestar Galactica.
2. No space operas, please.
3. Writing must be competent, but it doesn't have to all come off like some kind of futuristic Herman Melville. Concise is fine.
4. I don't like 'hard science' stuff. Not interested in details. Looking for big ideas.
5. Has to be written recently. Best would be post-Trump or something near now.
William Gibson's The Peripheral should be up your alley. Not to spoil too much, it discusses both "in 10-20 years" and "in 50-80" in ways that feel very real.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 2:02 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by I claim sanctuary at 2:02 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
I was going to recommend William Gibson Pattern Recognition. I would read the blurbs for this and the Peripheral and pick one.
posted by typecloud at 2:05 PM on March 21, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by typecloud at 2:05 PM on March 21, 2018 [4 favorites]
Stephenson, _Reamde_ -- is about gold farmers in an online game and running afoul of the mafia and islamic revolutionaries. Others will chime in to note that Stephenson is not a great writer. Also Stephenson is no longer home to Mr. Concision.
I haven't read most of it but looking at William Gibson's and Bruce Sterling's recent fiction is a good place to start.
It's older and a series of three books, but Robinson's _Forty Signs of Rain_ and followons are about climate change and responses thereunto.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 2:07 PM on March 21, 2018 [3 favorites]
I haven't read most of it but looking at William Gibson's and Bruce Sterling's recent fiction is a good place to start.
It's older and a series of three books, but Robinson's _Forty Signs of Rain_ and followons are about climate change and responses thereunto.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 2:07 PM on March 21, 2018 [3 favorites]
I never read Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson... not sure why, I just never got around to it. I'm only a little way in right now, but it's really resonating as topical to me, even though it's 25 years old or so. It hits all your other criteria for sure.
posted by Huck500 at 2:08 PM on March 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Huck500 at 2:08 PM on March 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
Super Sad True Love Story (2010) by Gary Shteyngart.
Social media is an important theme in the book.
posted by dadaclonefly at 2:12 PM on March 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
Social media is an important theme in the book.
posted by dadaclonefly at 2:12 PM on March 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
David Brin's "Existence," a thought-provoking spec-fic about the world that's a few decades away after the haves and the have-nots came to an agreement about their respective roles in the rule of the people. It's an alternate universe to his "Uplift" books, where the events of Earth happened the same in both books, but the contact from aliens takes a different form, this one precluding the other.
posted by Sunburnt at 2:15 PM on March 21, 2018
posted by Sunburnt at 2:15 PM on March 21, 2018
New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson couldn't be more relevant to right now without being about the present.
posted by hobgadling at 2:20 PM on March 21, 2018 [8 favorites]
posted by hobgadling at 2:20 PM on March 21, 2018 [8 favorites]
The Collapsing Empire
posted by tilde at 2:26 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by tilde at 2:26 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
I mean, I love _Snow Crash_ with the fiery heat of a thousand suns, but OP asked for competent writing, and Stephenson's inability to craft an ending kinda rules him out. You should still READ it, for sure, just be prepared for the "i ran out of paper so here's an ending" ending
_Ready Player One_, while often looked down upon here and on the blue, is a pretty decent-but-light look at social media / MMO games in the near future. If you're of a certain age, you might enjoy the pop culture references contained within.
You might also give Cory Doctorow's 2008 novel _Little Brother_ a shot.
posted by hanov3r at 2:31 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
_Ready Player One_, while often looked down upon here and on the blue, is a pretty decent-but-light look at social media / MMO games in the near future. If you're of a certain age, you might enjoy the pop culture references contained within.
You might also give Cory Doctorow's 2008 novel _Little Brother_ a shot.
posted by hanov3r at 2:31 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
The Expanse is a big series, hard science and a space opera, but it does offer an incisive commentary on a wide range of contemporary social and political issues. There's a new volume every year so it's as recent as it can be.
posted by elgilito at 2:32 PM on March 21, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by elgilito at 2:32 PM on March 21, 2018 [4 favorites]
I only held off on recommending Snow Crash because it's old, but it is super relevant and I found it very fun to read (despite the length and Stephenson's writing foibles). So strongly seconding Huck500 on that!
posted by snaw at 2:33 PM on March 21, 2018
posted by snaw at 2:33 PM on March 21, 2018
Response by poster: So far, Gnomon is winning! Thanks for all the recs!!!!
posted by shushufindi at 2:35 PM on March 21, 2018
posted by shushufindi at 2:35 PM on March 21, 2018
Ready Player One (2011) by Ernest Cline and The Circle (2013) by David Eggers might be of interest according to this review.
I agree with the recommendation above that Snow Crash hits your topical criteria. But I'd argue that it's not a good read (IMO, of course, YMMV). The opening chapters do a decent job of drawing the reader in, but the rest is mostly exposition: just one long world-building data-dump with periodic action scenes to break the monotony.
posted by Boxenmacher at 2:39 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
I agree with the recommendation above that Snow Crash hits your topical criteria. But I'd argue that it's not a good read (IMO, of course, YMMV). The opening chapters do a decent job of drawing the reader in, but the rest is mostly exposition: just one long world-building data-dump with periodic action scenes to break the monotony.
posted by Boxenmacher at 2:39 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
Infomocracy and Null States by Malka Older are political speculative fiction with perhaps a narrow audience but you might be one of them too. I also enjoyed Sourdough by Robin Sloan. It is not quite science fiction as the setting, like Gibson's Pattern Recognition, is a sort of almost future.
posted by Botanizer at 2:43 PM on March 21, 2018
posted by Botanizer at 2:43 PM on March 21, 2018
The Restoration Game by Ken MacLeod is astoundingly good, free-standing, and not too long. It also has a brilliant ending. Ken MacLeod treats politics in a much more sophisticated way than most sci-fi writers.
posted by heatherlogan at 2:53 PM on March 21, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by heatherlogan at 2:53 PM on March 21, 2018 [3 favorites]
Seconding Heather Logan's recommendation of Restoration Game (and the rest of Macleod's work).
posted by sebastienbailard at 2:56 PM on March 21, 2018
posted by sebastienbailard at 2:56 PM on March 21, 2018
Infomocracy is definitely about the politicization of the modern internet and might be exactly the thing. If you have any interest in short fiction, Slate hosted a series of dystopian short stories about life after Trump, and the ones I read were very good.
posted by restless_nomad at 2:59 PM on March 21, 2018
posted by restless_nomad at 2:59 PM on March 21, 2018
Malka Older (Infomocracy) suggests Autonomous, An Excess Male, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street (though it's steampunk), and Prey of the Gods.
Because of how slowly publishing moves, there's undoubtedly a lot more of the type of thing you want in sf short fiction than in novels at the moment.
posted by wintersweet at 3:44 PM on March 21, 2018
Because of how slowly publishing moves, there's undoubtedly a lot more of the type of thing you want in sf short fiction than in novels at the moment.
posted by wintersweet at 3:44 PM on March 21, 2018
I recently read Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower (and have the sequel on hold at the library) and while it wasn't written post-Trump, it certainly describes a near future in the same vein.
Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale or the Maddaddam trilogy might also fit the bill, although they are also not quite that recent.
posted by abeja bicicleta at 4:07 PM on March 21, 2018 [7 favorites]
Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale or the Maddaddam trilogy might also fit the bill, although they are also not quite that recent.
posted by abeja bicicleta at 4:07 PM on March 21, 2018 [7 favorites]
I thought Kill Decision and Freedom(tm) by Daniel Suarez (Book 1 & 2) were no less likely than Block Chain or engineered national elections, and I found them to be good reads. Just throwing them out there, read the summaries and reviews and see if you think it's for you.
posted by forthright at 4:29 PM on March 21, 2018
posted by forthright at 4:29 PM on March 21, 2018
Seconding the MaddAddam trilogy - those books are a little too in the realm of possibility sometimes and well worth the read.
posted by kokaku at 4:30 PM on March 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by kokaku at 4:30 PM on March 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
Gnomon is great, but Harkaway's first novel, The Gone-Away World, is one of my favorite books of all time. Dexter Palmer's Version Control also fits - the advent of self-driving cars plays a major role.
posted by Ragged Richard at 4:36 PM on March 21, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by Ragged Richard at 4:36 PM on March 21, 2018 [3 favorites]
Oh! I almost forgot! I just read Cory Doctorow's Walkaway, and it definitely fits the bill.
posted by Ragged Richard at 4:40 PM on March 21, 2018
posted by Ragged Richard at 4:40 PM on March 21, 2018
Seconding Dexter Palmer's Version Control. Excellent writing, with interesting ideas and extrapolations about technology, politics, and our social relations.
posted by mixedmetaphors at 6:01 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by mixedmetaphors at 6:01 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
I have heard/read good things about (but haven't read yet) The Wanderers by Meg Howrey.
The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne also seems to meet your criteria.
And here are some interesting recs from Scientific American.
posted by spamandkimchi at 3:12 AM on March 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne also seems to meet your criteria.
And here are some interesting recs from Scientific American.
posted by spamandkimchi at 3:12 AM on March 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
A few recommendations above for William Gibson; I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention Neuromancer (assuming you're not already familiar, having mentioned early '90s). Written in 1984 but surprisingly prescient about a lot of things, and has the dystopic/cyberpunk feel of Blade Runner.
And +1 to The Expanse.
posted by myotahapea at 5:47 AM on March 22, 2018
And +1 to The Expanse.
posted by myotahapea at 5:47 AM on March 22, 2018
Wow, yes, thirding Version Control, it's super good. It didn't pop up for me as meeting your criteria when I was thinking about books I've read recently, but I forgot about the subplot, which totally does. Also thirding the MaddAddam trilogy, incredible relevant, even if a little older.
I will argue against New York 2140 - the description of pretty basic math/finance concepts were so slavering as to be almost unreadable, plus the characters were walking cliches (I like some of Kim Stanley Robinson's other books, it's just this one that bugs me). Obviously, YMMV, since I like Stephenson and other people find him unreadable :) I think The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi is a much more interesting post-climate change novel if you're interested in going that route.
posted by snaw at 7:32 AM on March 22, 2018
I will argue against New York 2140 - the description of pretty basic math/finance concepts were so slavering as to be almost unreadable, plus the characters were walking cliches (I like some of Kim Stanley Robinson's other books, it's just this one that bugs me). Obviously, YMMV, since I like Stephenson and other people find him unreadable :) I think The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi is a much more interesting post-climate change novel if you're interested in going that route.
posted by snaw at 7:32 AM on March 22, 2018
Maybe Red Clocks by Leni Zumas? It's only marginally science fiction -- it is set in the future but like next year. I found it very powerful and well written.
posted by maurice at 10:00 AM on March 22, 2018
posted by maurice at 10:00 AM on March 22, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by snaw at 1:54 PM on March 21, 2018 [2 favorites]