News has sadly broken that Priscilla Tolkien, the only daughter and youngest child of J.R.R. Tolkien, has passed away at the age of 92.
Priscilla Mary Anne Reuel Tolkien was born on 18 June 1929 to John Ronald Reuel Tolkien and his wife Edith. She had three older brothers, John (1917-2003), Michael (1920-84) and Christopher (1924-2020). Her father read *The Hobbit* to her brothers as it gestated in the early 1930s, and later on to her before it was published in 1937. During the gestation of The Lord of the Rings, Priscilla helped her father by typing up some of the manuscript as it developed (Tolkien wrote his first drafts in longhand). Tolkien initially named the protagonist of the book “Bingo” after a stuffed bear Priscilla owned; he later changed it to Frodo.
Priscilla noted her father’s “complete belief in higher education for girls; never in my early life or since did I feel that any difference was made between me and my brothers, so far as our …
I’m not even talking about when a character’s race is switched, I’m talking about in general. Even original content gets complaints when there are Black characters. There is never any explanation for why 90% of a fantasy or sci fi world is white despite the majority of the world being non-white. Nobody cares that the entirety of Avatar was Asian. But if Black, there is immense backlash if not explained why they exist. I’m tired of the racist double standard and hypocrisy applying even to original content. People can suspend their disbelief for mythical creatures but not Black people. It’s honestly incredibly dehumanizing and reminds me that we haven’t improved as a society at all. I simply want to see women that look like me thriving in a world where we aren’t hated on sight.
Black people want escapism and fantasy stories of our own outside of slavery but the reason we have so few is because Hollywood studios only greenlight things that showcase slavery and overcoming oppression or …
I have never read anything like the Liveship Traders Trilogy, I love it to bits, but I need a break at every chapter because the characters are so human.
Reading her books is like seeing every single flaw of mine, of everyone around me, exhasperated and made into a character of its own. Reading her books I experience a mixture of absolute fascination, empathy and revulsion against each character and against myself, it’s worse than a therapy session. It’s impossible to look away from some despicable patterns I recognise in myself, and that makes it so, so hard to read further.
The way she describes frustration, manipulation, stubborness, misunderstandings, obsession, is so understandable, I can’t imagine anyone exists who has never experienced similar things to some extent, whether as a perpetrator or a victim. I’ve always found characters in books with which I identified, but never this much and never mostly with their most despicable qualities. I’m …
Just to preface, I was never a huge fan of The Hobbit trilogy but I really enjoyed the LotR trilogy. I always felt like three movies was too much for such a short book and it feels very much like nostalgia bait to Lord of the Rings.
After finally getting round to read The Hobbit, the movies sre completely ruined for me.
While the main plot of taking back Erebor is very similar, the story is modified and told in a very different way that doesn’t improve the movies over the books in any way.
Thorin feels extremely arrogant and is very contemn to other who aren’t him. In the books, he comes across as slightly arrogant but never that it’s blatant.
I thought Martin Freeman did a great job as Bilbo and his character was quite true to the books.
However, all of the LotR subplots and side characters are such waste of time and just bloat. Tauriel, Legolas, the barrel riding, the orcs and Azog, the Sauron sub plot, it all feels like massive nostalgis bait and takes away from some great …
To clarify, my first ever dog I had died two weeks ago. So it’s my first dog death I’m experiencing. I bought a new book of poetry, curled up on the couch, then two poems in a dog gets its legs crushed by a train and I’m like absolutely not. Nope not ready for this.
Have you ever had a moment like that with a book where you realize that no this time in my life is absolutely not the time for this?
I just finished the audiobook of Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary, narrated by Ray Porter. What a ride! I haven’t gushed this much about a book to my partner in a long time. It left me wishing there was more, in a good way, but I also feel that it finished in a good place.
I loved the journey, the story building and the relationship between the main characters so much. Will they be able to accomplish their goals? Just as you think you have your answer, something happens and a new challenge arises.
And despite the book being full of science, Weir wrote it in such a way that even I, someone who has very little understanding of it, had no problem following.
Porter also did an excellent job narrating the story. He really helped the characters come alive! So much so, that I wonder if my enjoyment of the story might have been less had I read it in ebook/physical book form and left to “voice” them myself in my head.
Thank you to everyone who recommended this book. …
I recently read Hal Clement’s Needle from 1949. The nature of the novel’s plot leads to some discussion of viruses, and what struck me is Clement, though clearly an educated and thoughtful author, did not understand what viruses are in the way we think of them now.
Watson and Crick’s work on the structure of DNA was still in the future, and in 1949 no one save perhaps a few cutting edge biochemical researchers really understood that viruses are primarily bits of genetic code that hijack cellular machinery to replicate themselves.
There are other bits of the novel that demonstrate how science and technology have changed since it was written, but it was the discussion of viruses that really stood out to me.
I have found I have a taste for reading old sci-fi, as it provides a sort of archeological record of how scientific understanding has changed over the decades. Is this deeply weird of me or do other readers find discovering these bits of changed scientific …
(In no particular order)
And I Awoke and Found Me Here On the Cold Hill’s Side - James Tiptree Jr.
There’s much more here for the imaginative reader than what Tiptree puts on the page. This is a story about biological determinism, with a rich world built around the periphery of the text. Humans find themselves preoccupied with aliens to the point of obsession.
The Stone City - George R.R. Martin
A crew becomes marooned, after a fashion, on a distant market-world. Excellent world building, great aliens, and an itch at the back of your mind which tells you the universe Martin created has rules and history.
The Island - Peter Watts
An excellent tale of space exploration and the discovery of the unknown. Don’t want to spoil it. It’s great.
Passage of Earth - Michael Swanwick
An autopsy conducted on extraterrestrials produces surprising results.
Cat Pictures Please - Naomi Kritzer
What if a super-human artificial intelligence really liked looking at …
I finally got around to reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? And absolutely loved it. I couldn’t put it down, hadn’t been that immersed in a book for awhile.
This is the first book by Philip K. Dick that I have read, and I know he has many well regarded books. Curious what some of your favourites are and what you’d recommend I add to the list?
Hello r/printSF!
Thank you again for all your discussions and recommendations for me. Most recently I read my first Neal Stephenson book, Snow Crash. I gave it an 8⁄10
as I read through the first chapter I realised this was my first SF book where I actually enjoyed the humour.I enjoyed the subtle cyberpunk satire.
the start was a bit of a slog. It works to set the scene of a privatised and fractured US but I feel NS made his point but went on a bit long.
I found both main characters kinda cringe. Hiro is an (maybe the) archetypal neckbeard. YT is a cool teenage girl written by a middle aged man and it feels like NS tried to hard with hip lingo and attitude.
the way Stephenson links linguistics, history and philosophy is really impressive but makes me wonder if he is a bit like the Dan Brown of SF. Does he take a lot of historical liberties?
the metaverse had some great elements and was a big step up from other earlier written vr worlds.
I want to compare it to Neuromancer …
Looking for recommendations for a new series similar to Hamilton’s commonwealth series.
I recently started relistening to Pandora’s Star. It has a lot of flaws— some chapters are way too long, the fantasy elements with Ozzie (which I enjoyed the first time around) are boring on a reread, and of course the sex scenes and general descriptions of women are eye roll worthy.
But I just love all the descriptions of the different worlds, the jobs and lives of various people, the way technology (rejuvenation, wormholes, etc) has shaped society. The science and engineering, the politics, the economy, police forces, all of that stuff. And the main story is actually really good, and it’s enriched by the world building even if it’s a little long winded at times.
So I’m looking for something else in that vein.
Some stuff I’ve read that is similar but not quite what I’m looking for
revelation space series— probably my favorite of all time but decidedly not utopian
Hyperion cantos— there’s a …
I recently saw a post about the idea that in the future a prisoner would serve a 1000 year sentence in only a few hours, due to certain drugs altering the way we perceive time. I wondered whether there were any SF novels or stories that explored this sort of idea and if any were worth reading. Thank you