Sad news, Nichelle Nichols who played Star Trek’s LT Uhrura has passed.
https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/nichelle-nichols-lt-uhura-star-trek-died-89-87714729
Of all the stars I have ever had the privilege to meet in person, this lady had incredible class. Kind, caring, considerate of her many fans and admirers and a graceful presence in speech and manner.
She broke ground no woman had trodden before. There will never be another like her. She will be sadly missed. May her legend live on forever.
Obligatory grains of salt: this topic is a difficult and emotionally charged one. People are going to disagree with me and with each other, and that’s perfectly fine. I just ask that we all remember the person on the other end of the argument and do our best to be respectful.
If you spend any amount of time lurking in online spaces that discuss fantasy media, you’re bound to eventually come across a heated discussion about depictions of sexual assault in fantasy. People will have wildly diverging opinions about trigger warnings; Thomas Covenant will be simultaneously described as a work of genius and the most horrible thing ever written; someone will say authors should NEVER write about [X, Y, Z] and someone else will reference 1984 in response to that. I’m something of a lurker myself, so I’ve seen these arguments play out many times over. I’ve thought about this topic a totally normal amount that shouldn’t be concerning at all, so today I thought I would explore some of the main …
Ash: A Secret History is brilliant, probably unique within fantasy, and in many respects groundbreaking. But it is also almost completely forgotten today.
“I can find survival and victory where there’s no chance of one,” she says, smiling crookedly. “What do you think I’ve been doing all my life?”
It is the story of a beautiful young woman, a 20-year old mercenary captain, leading a company of 800 souls, who saves the world. But stated like that it doesn’t exactly sound compelling. Actually, it sounds lame and kind of overdone. It has fighting, cross-dressing, daring escapes, competence porn, incest, perilous sieges, twins, miracles, and a total eclipse of the heart sun. It is epic fantasy and military fantasy and historical fiction and more all rolled into one. But that still isn’t convincing you, is it?
Here’s a teaser of the 13 reasons:
All right, we’ve all seen these great Fantasy first lines before, on this subreddit or elsewhere:
Sam Vimes sighed when he heard the scream, but finished shaving before doing anything about it.
There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.
The building was on fire and it wasn’t my fault.
It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size.
What are some gems we might not have heard yet? What’s your favorite?
Just another update that the chapter has yet to be released and Patrick Rothfuss has not posted a blog mentioning it since December. This is just to bring awareness to the situation, please please be respectful when commenting.
For those interested in the full background:
Here’s the best article I’ve seen in the last couple of days about it: https://apnews.com/article/stephen-king-government-and-politics-a90ec7fb88505213ba1292c424ec6287
Here’s my best attempt at a TLDR; Penguin Random House (largest book publisher in the world) wants to buy Simon & Schuster (fifth biggest), which would turn the big 5 publishers into the big 4, and give the new company nearly half of the book market.
The government argues that the merger likely wouldn’t result in higher book prices for customers, but does think it would result in lower incomes to authors. As someone who loves authors, that seems like it would be an awfully bad outcome to me, and in general I can’t really see any way this would benefit anyone - both companies seem big enough to me that I can’t imagine there are a lot of new economies of scale in the actual printing of books or back office functions, so I can’t imagine any possible world where book prices …
This is a very annoying issue that I’m faced with, whatever book i read, the content and the story etc, start fading away almost immediately starting the next day.
It doesn’t impair me when I’m reading, i get tons of pleasure out of it. But when I’m done with a book , it will simply fade away impossibly quick in a matter of days and leave me with zero recollection aside from some tidbits. Same thing happens when i watch movies as well, I’m very envious of people who can quote dialogues from movies they watch and books they read years ago and here I am going “bruh i didn’t even know i read this book 5 years ago”. Funnily enough this never happens with songs as i can remember lyrics instantly and can recall complete songs even with a 15 yr gap in listening. Rant over.
Guys I read all culture books and non culture books by Iain banks 2 years ago. After that I read more than 50 books but most of them didn’t even come close to what was banks offering
I enjoyed house of suns and star maker. I really like banks’ storytelling and his style and the big ideas of culture books. Almost all books have one of these but none have all of these things together.
I actually enjoyed some literary classics in past few years too. Here is what I m looking for
A. Any modern sci fi books(post 2000) that go big with great characters B. Any old sci fi writers similar to banks C. Any writers outside of sci fi (no fantasy) genres similar to banks D. Any post scarcity like culture books
Any recommendations will be appreciated
So I just finished this novella, which was released last year and is nominated for the Hugo award next month.
All I can say is “wow”, I recommend it. Not only do we get the “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” trope executed extremely well. We continuously switch between perspectives so you always understand where the confusion comes from, but also this book deals with depression in an amazing way. It deals with the crippling, overwhelming nature of it and adds a science fiction element.
Reminds me a bit of Le Guin as a novel and probably the best thing I’ve read all year, plus it’s short, so give it a go ;-)
What I mean is like, settings where an apocalypse happened, all the trappings of post-apocalypse, are there, but the world and civilization the character lives in are visibly healing and there’s a strong undercurrent of hope. One where people aren’t just struggling to survive, but taking steps toward the possibility of thriving.
Anyone here know anything that fits the bill?
I’m looking for books where the protagonists (presumably humanity) come up against some threat that’s so big, so powerful, millions of years older etc., that they can’t even conceive of how they could win. Some archetypes for this that I can think of: the Shadows from Babylon 5, a lot of the Culture series, the Xeelee sequence, A Fire Upon the Deep. What books have the most mismatched, ridiculously powerful enemies in a space sf context?
Note: I’m looking for books where the nature of the problem is the wildly advanced age/scale/technology of the threat, not just “we’re one ship against 1000 and outnumbered” but the enemy is just another set of humans or comparable faction (so NOT The Lost Fleet, for instance). And yes, I am aware The Expanse exists. Wouldn’t consider it to fall into this category. Also not looking for “random good sf books that happen to have a space battle” - trying to find books that specifically match …
I’ve spent the last two years trying to catch up on 30 years of science fiction. And it seems weird that some authors get lost in the mix. Poul Anderson, Frederik pohl, C.S. Friedman, Julian May, and so on any ideas?
Hey y’all, I am a 9-12 grade teacher and I currently teach a semester long Sci-fi elective. It’s a opportunity to explore the genre. We explore the genre in content as well as authors. What are some “must reads” for teens getting into the genre?
Bonus points if you include why you recommend it!
Edit: We do around 15-20 short stories (depending on how fast the students are/ how much they want to discuss them) and 3 novels they read in literature circles (like individual book clubs, so read simultaneously)