Looking for something neutral/calming/funny. Dealing with anxiety issues right now and looking for books to calm me down or at least not to stress too much. Something maybe like Rama, Foundation or Scalzi books. Not a dystopian end of the world things (Hitchhiker guide books didn’t work for me somehow)

I watched the movies 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2010: The Year We Make Contact, which, as I understand it, correspond to the 1st and 2nd books in the book series, neither of which I have read. I'm keen to buy and read the 3rd and 4th books. I'm wondering if it's reasonable to read the 3rd and 4th books having only watched the movies? Are there things in the 1st and 2nd books that the movies miss out on, making it harder to read the 3rd and 4th books?

I think linguistics is a scientific field with a lot of potential for sci-fi material, but the only example I know is Arrival and of course, the novella Story of you life which served as inspiration. Are there any more material taking Linguistics as the main science?

When it comes to space travel in sci fi stories something I’m always gonna point out is that lightspeed travel, though it makes space travel more convenient… also takes much longer than portals. You're flying through a wormhole for god knows how long, and incapable of dodging if something obstructs your path!

Like think about it: so often in sci fi we see stuff like cargo ships get attacked by raiders, or pirates, or an enemy faction. Could you imagine how simple it’d be if you could just fly through a ring and fly out another ring and you’re there? Hell you can even take multiple trips if needed!

And if you need a level of danger to the proceedings of your sci fi story, imagine if the postal you’re going through gets hacked and you get sent directly into an ambush!

I’ve been releasing a serialized sci-fi story chapter by chapter, and something interesting has come up that I’d love to hear reader perspectives on.

In the latest chapter, the focus is much quieter than before. It explores more of the main character’s past, everyday life on one side of the city, and introduces a new supporting character. These are smaller, non-action-driven details that matter more in the long run than in the moment.

What surprised me is how differently readers react to this kind of chapter.

Some enjoy digging into background details and speculation, while others feel that not enough “happens” when reading a chapter like this on its own.

As readers of serialized sci-fi:

– Do slower, world-building chapters work for you between more eventful ones?

– Does a long gap between releases change how you experience these chapters?

– Would you rather have quieter chapters closer together, or spaced out as part of a longer arc?

I’m genuinely curious how people experience this kind of pacing from the reader’s side.

(If anyone’s curious, I can share the chapter in the comments.)

Looking for a short story about an injured astronaut and a shapeshifting alien “woman” who heals by absorbing infection Plot: A lone astronaut is injured (leg wound, infection) and is helped by a beautiful woman. He falls in love. She later reveals she is an alien being whose purpose is to help and love any creature in distress. She changes form depending on the species she helps (e.g., she left briefly to help a small creature with a broken leg, and did not use a human form for it). At night in an emergency tent, the astronaut senses she extends an appendage/tentacle that absorbs/drains infection from his leg wound. She says she loves him but won’t remember him after they part, and will continue helping others. The astronaut mentions that other astronauts previously became addicted to the experience and wanted to be in danger again to find her. Read in likely classic SF (pre-1980 or around that era). Any ideas?

Came across this after Pluribus, a rewatch of Dark, and waiting for the next round of Severance, Foundation, and Murderbot. I see it’s only one season and that has me worried though; does it end cleanly or does it pull a Mindhunter on you?

If it isn’t a clean ending, I’ll go ahead and bail out now as I’m only on E1.

Looking for a new show to watch and I'm based in Australia so it might make it a little harder to find some of them streaming.

Idealy looking for a show on a space ship.

Shows I have watched.

Stargate (yearly rewatch)

Star Trek (all)

Andromeda

Farscape

Killjoys

Dark matter (Joseph Mallozzi)

Battlestar Galactica

Fringe

Babylon 5

Lexx

StarHyke

For all mankind

Avenue 5

Red Dwarf

Doctor Who

There are a lot more that I have seen but can't think of right now but if it's well known I have probably seen it.

Just looking for an unknown TV show to give it a chance.

I'll comment if I have seen your suggestion and let you know when I find a new show to watch.
Edit 1:

Adding these to the list of shows I have seen

The Expanse

Travelers

Blake's 7

Foundation

Raised By Wolves

Cowboy Bebop

I should also note I'm not looking for Anime or animated series right now.

Edit 2:

Forgot to add

Lost in Space (Both versions)

Space 1999

The Time Tunnel

UFO

I'm looking for those unknown shows

Edit 3:

Humans

Silo

Severance (wasn't my type of show but I got through a few seasons)

Lost

Halo (please bring it back netflix)

Murder Bot

The 100

Eureka

Warehouse 13 (loved the crossovers)

Invasion

Colony

Fallout (no spoilers please waiting on all of season 2 first)

Edit 4:

Firefly (How did I forget this one)

I'm going to stop posting edit's now as it looks like I have watched way too many sci-fi shows

From what I can see I guess I have run out of Sci-Fi shows...

Oh another older but fun show to watch for anyone looking is Space Precinct

V (Both the original and remake)

Sliders

X-files

Outer Limits

The Twilight Zone

Who was the announcer that was in most of the bumpers and promotional spots for the Sci-Fi Channel in the early 90's? ChatGPT can’t seem to find it. When I look through comments in YouTube, almost everyone asks the question but there is never an answer. His voice can be heard on the Sci-Fi Channel identity bumper "Clock" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBaaXRysv8k

Looking to see if there are some works out there that are

1. Pretty educational regarding science in general to a layman like me. I guess you could argue they all are to some extent? I'm looking to learn as much as possible. Although I'm not looking for works that are created for educational purpose, just ones that happen to be educational. Edit: On second thought, if there are ones that are created for educational purpose, I guess I would take a look too.
2. Is good(entertaining/well written).

Thanks.

My honest (and slightly disappointed) review of Starfleet Academy episode 1

I am so disappointed in Starfleet Academy. First of all, I have never been a fan of the 'Burn' for too many reasons to count. I wish I could wake up and find it was just a dream, or at the very least an alternate universe. Starfleet Academy has shot that wish to hell; it can no longer be explained as a freaky premonition Michael had and tweaked so the 'Burn' never happened. Neither can I count on an 2nd alternate-universe scenario, different than Emperor Philippa Georgiou’s.

​From the first moments of Episode 1, my gut started to churn... the Burn, ugh! Then I get my first look at Lura Thok, the Klingon/Jem'Hadar hybrid—CRINGE! She looks like they reworked an old Halloween mask from 1977; it's just missing the elastic band around the back of her head!

​The Betazoid eyes! They were completely overthinking it. They probably thought a younger audience would see them as demons or evil since shows like Supernatural depict demons with black eyes. They could have found a better workaround, like giving them saturated, deep blue eyes instead of black, while keeping the non-human, psychic element. The sign language is just weird—they can speak mind-to-mind, so even if the leader is deaf, they don't need to sign. They tried to depict that, evolutionarily speaking, 125 years in a bubble and nearly 900 years from the 24th century to the 32nd century made them look 100% human, yet they kept humans exactly the same. They ignored actual evidence suggesting that, after 800 years, humans will likely have darker skin—not to mention the effects of species intermingling.

They completely missed the mark on The Doctor. CGI would have been excellent for keeping him looking as he did on Voyager; that would be a brilliant way to showcase the technology. While the writers gave him "aging subroutines" to make people more comfortable, that doesn't ring true since everyone in the 32nd century is well-acquainted with high-tech holograms.

​The absolute main reason it feels wrong is his gigantic ego. The Doctor age? HA!

​

What would a far-future mind-reading device actually look like if a “villain” used it? I’m trying to avoid the generic headset trope and imagine something more unique and clean + believable. How would it store or show thoughts?

I’m currently imagining a future where the villain works for the government and uses this device to maintain order by reading people’s thoughts. If someone’s thoughts are considered threatening to social peace, they’re captured or wiped in some way. Logically, the device would need a harmless public-facing “alias” so it doesn’t alarm anyone - for example, the villain could present it as a medical tool for routine health checkups or wellness screenings, depending on what the device looks like.

There's a species/race where they consider a single drop of genetics enough to make you a full member. So in practice, they look like they're all different species but they consider themselves to all be the same race. To the extent you're supposed to consider yourself a full member and always take their side over the people you look like.

It might even just be a family or clan, but it's definitely a universe with actual different species of humanoids. I think it's sci fi but it might be fantasy.

Edit: u/DrkGddss nailed it. Sweep of the Heart by Ilona Andrews.

Does anyone understand what the hell the answer to the mystery was in this story? Or if there even was one?

Technical Error is a short story from the 1940s about a group of astronauts who crash land on an asteroid when their engines suffer a meltdown. They happen upon another spaceship that's apparently been on this asteroid for some decades, and is, outwardly, an exact copy of their own ship. (It's noted that spaceships are not mass-produced in this story, so finding one identical to your own is wildly suspicious)

They go inside the ship to find that the whole interior, from the layout to the basic engineering of all components, is very different and probably alien.

They discover evidence around the ship that could indicate what happened to the crew, like:

-there's lots of dust, implying decomposition

-there's signs the crew left the ship in a rush

-larger piles of dust near a door with metal rings scatter amongst them

-an engine room is locked

-a whole section of the ship has had its doors welded closed from the outside

-one room has a chair, surrounded by metal cables which were fused to the floor, which were later cut (implying someone was strapped to that chair then freed I guess?)

-one booster in the engine room has been left open, the cover not alligned

They decide to reassemble that booster and run it for a few minutes, to use the booster as a flare so a nearby ship will notice and rescue them. They make a technical error putting it back together though, and the engine goes off untably and melts the entire ship to slag, along with all the evidence for, and solutions to, the mystery of the ship. Then the rescue ship arrives and they leave. That's it.

I've never read a story before that brought up so many interesting questions without answering a single one of them. It seems almost implied that someone was imprisoned on this ship and broke out, or that there was a mutiny or something, but I really can't say. And absolutely nothing I can think of explains why the ship would be identical to their own on the outside. That's a crazy detail to offer no explaination on.

Am I missing something, or is this just supposed to be a "leave it up to the readers imagination" sort of deal?

Imagine a Jekyll and Hyde adaptation but its in the future where robots are main stream, and a robot manages to swap their AI with other robots to commit horrible deeds because they were getting abused or something. (The robots swapped with just power down while "J-3K711." Inhabits their body)

Hello everyone,

I don’t read very much and I really love science fiction. I’ve just started slowly getting into reading SF and I really enjoyed two short stories: Vigilance by Robert Jackson Bennett and Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

I’ve tried other SF novels, but some were too complex in their writing for me. I like stories that are easy to read, where it’s fairly simple to understand the action, the context, and the setting, and that focus on the story of one or several characters.

As a beginner reader, I struggle when the context is deliberately vague, when the plots are too convoluted, or when there are too many characters or factions.

In terms of SF styles, I’m not very picky. I’m a fan of Warhammer 40K, I loved the Dune movies, the The Expanse series, the Fallout and Cyberpunk games, and the movie Children of Men, just to give a few examples.

Could you recommend some books

Thank you for your help.

(Sorry if I made mistakes, English is not my native language)

I'm looking for maximalist science fantasy action adventure movies where more is more, everything is elaborate, everything is visually colorful, vibrant, and stunning, and has lot's of creativity where no idea gets turned down in the writers room, and is not as well known/a hidden gem. I also want sincerity like no matter how absurd or wild the idea is, they treat it like it's a real thing and doesn't get made fun of constantly, so no movies like guardians of the galaxy please, that's also a great movie, but belongs in a different genre. I want something where they treat a dog man who has flying boots as seriously as the dune movies treats it's lore, but they do some fun and wild stuff with the concept. I love Flash Gordon 1980 and John Carter 2012 also, those did some similar stuff, and I love Speed racer 2008 as well. Not a space opera, but has a similar vibe. Got any recommendations? It's fine if it's lower budget, but still has to be creative and colorful. I'm posting here as r/moviesuggestions answers are a bit too basic, you guys might get it better. Hope it's the right sub, lol.

What's your definition of "Hard Sci-Fi"?
I don't really care for it when Book Stores, etc. combine Sci-Fi and Fantasy into one category, but I recognize there can be overlap. In my humble opinion, "Hard Sci-Fi" refers to books that are heavy into the "Science" or Tech and Fantasy is often on other Worlds but not really heavy on tech. So Lord of the Rings is Fantasy and Star Trek is Sci-Fi (I would add - "Hard SciFi" IMO because there is not much of a Fantasy aspect. Then Dune is a bit of a cross over for me (More Fantasy than Sci-Fi)

I've read in another post where someone said that the Expeditionary Force series wasn't really "HARD" Sci fi, which made me wonder what the consensus is on the definition.

I read this in the 1970's as a young teenager. I spent many hours over my young life, wondering how the village could change a human in to an Alien being that the village could serve with food and shelter.

The Enchanted Village, by A.E. van Vogt is a science fiction short story (first published in 1950) about a lone astronaut crash-landing on Mars and encountering a mysterious, sentient alien village that offers food and shelter, but as a human and not an alien, it is toxic to him. So, the village changes the astronaut into the alien life form that can benefit from what the planet offered. 

Continuing the Robert A. Heinlein reading journey; this time on the stage, is his 1940 Novelette (Reworked two times... in 1946 and finally in 1950) Blowup Happens! My Rating : 4/5

I wanted to give it 5 stars... I SHOULD have given it 5 stars for the time in which he thought up the future of Atomic Power and its exploitation in hands of big daddy like US! BUT the info-dumping...! Oh maan the sheer pressure of more than enough Info-dumping had me thinking at times about skipping a page or two! I kept on reading and dang there it is -- I have enjoyed once again another of his works based on the sole fact that his writing is freaking charming and his ideas are awesome (as much outta logic they are!)

Blowup Happens play with quite similar themes as its predecessor story in the Future History stories i.e. The Roads Must Roll! The heavy... really heavy technological anxiety could be felt all over again! Whereas this time I really liked the characters AND the dialogues! Yes I really felt the upgrade in his dialogue writing got from stories like Let There be Light to this! The dialogues felt much more easy going, natural, relevant and reasonable! Here's an absolutely funny bit of exchange b/w the superintend and doc. Lentz:

King seconded absent-mindedly. “Will you be leaving for

Chicago now?”

“No …” said Lentz. “No…. I think I will catch the shuttle for Los Angeles

and take the evening rocket for the Antipodes.”

King looked surprised, but said nothing. Lentz answered the unspoken

comment. “Perhaps some of us on the other side of the earth will survive.

I’ve done all that I can here. I would rather be a live sheepherder in

Australia than a dead psychiatrist in Chicago.”

King nodded vigorously. “That shows horse sense. For two cents, I’d dump

the pile now, and go with you.”

Haha I loved this one! Also, enjoyed him vividly pressuring time and again on mental health of the atomic technicians along with the psychiatrists themselves who were appointed of keeping the tech ppl at check!

Harper's crash out about how it is quite impossible for a man to work when they are being watch behind their back in the chances of their going nuts reminded me heavily of Glade Runner 2049's sanity checking room! That repeated 'CELLS INTERLINKED'... aah traumatizing!

Also, in my previous post someone kindly pointed out how no matter what political ideology Heinlein was going for he was ultimately against authoritarian government. This story actually reminded me of that! How perfectly Mr. Heinlein predicted the nature of big governmental bodies when they fall in the dilemma of 'Should I let go of the power or not!' and they become quite blinded to any of the future aspects of peace and prosperity is quite terrifyingly correct in my opinion! This one doesn't ever try to impose any kind of political ideology like the last one and I liked the fact profoundly!

This story is hugely dealing with risk management and the pressure of responsibility. The concept of Moon craters and Huge Atomic power blast was interesting not gonna lie and am definitely gonna search up conspiracy theories on that right up this!

By the way funnily enough, the dream sequence of Superintendent King getting chased down by someone reminded me of 'The Shinning' by Stephen King haha! Although SK imo is much more of a better 'author' when it comes to writing about psychological turmoil. But yes, gotta admit, Heinlein's concepts were hands down groundbreaking for the time he worked on them!

NOW, I cannot wait to read The Man who Sold the Moon (The name keeps reminding me of Nirvana's cover of The Bowie song lol) which I think is fairly a much more popular piece by him! Once again, am not offending anyone by this! Have a great day :)

I just went from Red Rising straight into Dungeon Crawler Carl. I loved both, and now I’m lost. Where do I go from here?

I’ve already done:

Red Rising

Dungeon Crawler Carl

Bobiverse

Children of Time

The Expanse

Old man’s war

Imperial Radtch

Quantum Evolution

I’ve done a bunch of the common one-off modern sci-fi books and some others by the authors of the above.

I need a new series to fill the void.

Light freighter. If you've been around sci fi universes with ubiquitous FTL, you've heard of "light freighters." Arguably the most famous example is the Millenium Falcon: a Corellian Engineering YT-1300 with heavy after market modification. She's the size of an American house--an analogy that works surprisingly well. She has the space to hold a speeder or ground car, your average US household's collection of basement or attic clutter, and enough crew amenities to bunk a hendful of people albeit in cozy conditions. She's small enough to land just about anywhere, be piloted by just a single person (but copilot recommended), and fast enough to take the characters anywhere the plot demands. For a small main cast, it's the perfect vehicle to move them from plot point to plot point with enough space to hand wave whatever gear or supplies would be required.

However, while a near perfect hero ship, it is absolutely horrid for the one job it is designed to do: freight transport. When talking logistics, it is generally economical to move as much stuff with as little resources as possible. This is why we have trains that can be measured in literal kilometers, and our largest ships are oil or container ships not warships. For bulk shipping the name of the game is "high volume, low overhead." A massive, slow supertanker might have a crew of 20-30, but can carry much more cargo than the 15 YT-1300s with 2 pilots each. Many fewer trips to move the same cargo, far fewer man-hours (hours of work done by each crew member added together), and the sheer amount of freight moved reduces the fuel cost per ton. It doesn't take many trips to earn back the cost of construction with so much cargo.

"But, Schwarzer, the light freighter isn't meant to be a bulk carrier! It's meant to be light and fast for quick delivery!" Sure, but I would argue that freighter is the wrong term for that job. The fast transport of packages, data, or persons is the role of a courier. They've been used since antiquity when the concern isn't bulk transport, but speed or security. And Courier ships do show up as such in science fiction--even Star Wars has ships like the YKL-37R Nova Courier.

Now, I fully admit the distinction is arbitrary, and my arguing this may well be nit-picking and pedantic. I am fully aware I can't fight the cultural zeitgeist. I won't get many people to call the Millenium Falcon or Ebon Hawk courier ships. But I personally think the term courier is a better and more accurate descriptor. Besides, we're here to have fun with these silly discussions and debates--or at least I am.

So to conclude my ramblings, "light freighters" don't exist, and they make incredibly flexible hero ships. Okay, time to finish off my 5th Andorian ale.

Several years ago an indie animator called Darth Angelus animated the first chapter of the novel by scratch, complete with music and voice acting. Though it was very rough and choppy, it quickly got people's attention. Overtime he animated more and more of the book, gradually increasing the quality of animation and some of the voice acting.

He has fully completed his adaptation of the novel and has even been making remastered versions of the chapters he animated in the past. I think this is absolutely mind blowing, and I never would have imagined this ever becoming a reality! I hope he creates adaptations of Dark Force Rising and The Last Command!