sciencefiction

191d

“I can’t begin to convey to you the power of Lindsay’s vision; I found it overwhelming when I first read the book, thirty years ago, & I’ve seldom seen its equal outside Blake.”
—Philip Pullman

David Lindsay (1876–1945) was born #OTD, 3 March – author of A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS & other weird works

A 🎂 🧵

@bookstodon

1/4

#Scottish #literature #ScienceFiction #fantasy #metaphysics #20thCentury #cultfiction

A battered paperback book cover, spread out to show front, back, and spine. The book title is A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS, by David Lindsay. A puff quote reads, “One of the most brilliant flights of pure fantasy ever recorded” – London Times.

The cover shows a dark purple-black cliff-face. In front of it, from the back to the front cover, a slender dragonish creature coils. It has multiple green wings, and is covered in multi-hued scales: blue and blue-green on top, and yellow and orange beneath. Two slim, androgynous figures are mounted on the dragon's back. Both are dressed in loose robes. The leading figure sits upright, holding reins and directing the dragon; they are wearing a large, flowing red headdress. The figure behind is darker, with their arms wrapped around the leading figure's chest, and their head resting on the other's shoulder.

Edited 191d ago

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

191d

📚 When the Moon Hits Your Eye by: John Scalzi

The moon has turned into cheese. Now humanity has to deal with it.

For some it's an opportunity. For others it's a moment to question their faith: In God, in science, in everything. Still others try to keep the world running in the face of absurdity and uncertainty. And then there are the bi...

https://bookblabla.com/book/when-the-moon-hits-your-eye

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #sciencefiction #humorous

The moon has turned into cheese. Now humanity has to deal with it.

For some it's an opportunity. For others it's a moment to question their faith: In God, in science, in everything. Still others try to keep the world running in the face of absurdity and uncertainty. And then there are the billions looking to the sky and wondering how a thing that was always just there is now... something absolutely impossible.

Astronauts and billionaires, comedians and bank executives, professors and presidents, teenagers and terminal patients at the end of their lives over the length of an entire lunar cycle, each get their moment in the moonlight. To panic, to plan, to wonder and to pray, to laugh and to grieve. All in a kaleidoscopic novel that goes all the places you’d expect, and then to so many places you wouldn’t.

It's a wild moonage daydream. Ride this rocket.

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

71d

Hello, Fediverse!
I write books. Science fiction & fantasy. Sometimes in the same book.
Choose between a gritty near-future hopepunk series, a series about midlife superpowers, & a short story collection (sampler pack FTW!)

DRM-free ebooks w/discounts: https://kmherkes.com/the-bookshop1
kindle: https://www.amazon.com/stores/K.M.-Herkes/author/B00GRLYEL2
Kobo, B&N & more, incl. print & audio: https://books2read.com/kmherkes

Or request for your library via Biblioboard, Hoopla or Libby

#books #ScienceFiction #Thrillers #Fantasy #IndieAuthor

The covers of seven books by K. M. Herkes shown against a green background with blossoming cherry branches.
The book titles are: Rough Passages, The Sharp Edge Of Yesterday, Relics From A Traveling Show, Controlled Descent, Flight Plan, Weaving In The Ends, and Novices.
Various included tropes are shown as if falling down around the book covers:
chosen family
heists
hopepunk
science fiction
fantasy
short stories
romance
novels
disability rep
feisty heroines
superpowers
suspense

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

114d

Ebook and paperback: https://books2read.com/TheThirdWish

Spies, aliens, trolls, wizards and a disowned prince use a time machine, to improve their place in history, but Levi Jacobs stands in their way, despite having just lost his parents in war. Will he stop them or will the time travelers kill his father at a pivotal moment, on which the fate of the galaxy hangs?

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books

(Left) The cover of The Third Wish, by Owen Tyme, illustrated by Ryan Johnson.

A wizard in a black robe that glitters with hints of gold stands on a mountain and looks down at a city of sky scrapers covered in greenery. In his shadow lurks a creature with glowing red eyes.

In the background, the sun is setting and stars are becoming visible.

(Right Background) Four images separated by black lines, with the silhouette of a woman wielding two swords laid over them. She's outlined in black and her interior is yellow clock-based imagery that spirals outward from the center.

The upper left quarter is a queen in a red, furred robe, wearing a gold and diamond crown. She has dark eyebrows and blond hair.

Upper right is a planet seen from orbit.

Lower left is a symbolic wire frame representation of the view inside a wormhole, in green and yellow.

Lower right is dandelions among grass.

The angle of the planet, one of the woman's swords, the yellow highlights of the wormhole and some of the dandelions form a line that draws the eye along a sweeping curve.

(Right Foreground) The following quote:

He admired the flawless beauty of the insane swordswoman’s fluid movements as Ida took desperate step after step, backwards!

He felt waves of mental energy pour off the panic-stricken troll, but the energy bounced right off of Nicole’s mind, as though she’d shut herself inside a solid, red-hot, steel box of rage!

(Bottom) https://books2read.com/TheThirdWish

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

190d

25% off @ Smashwrods: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1657116

After encountering the worst life has to offer, including the death of his wife and child, destruction of his home world, an addiction forced on him by the one responsible and a third of the galaxy falling under the heel of that tyrant, Levi Jacobs, a wizard, seeks to unravel the secrets of time and fate.

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books

(Left) The cover of The Inverted Glass, by Owen Tyme.

The Background is a pink and purple nebula in space.

The foreground is largely line art, in white, with a black shadow outline.

At the center is an hourglass. The bottom has black sand, with a white figure standing in it. The top has is an inverted mirror image of the bottom, with a black figure in white sand.

The hourglass serves as the balance point for a set of scales, which hold a heart and a feather. The heart is on the left and the feather on the right. The heart is lower than the feather.

(Right) Lying in blue sand is a heart made of the same sand, full of cracks. It glows from the inside in a warm, yellow color. Over that is the following quote:

Nicole felt an extreme kind of loss, realizing she’d been stolen away from the afterlife, just before finding out if she deserved punishment or not!

“How dare you do this to me? Why?”

“I’m always in need of strong spirits and I’ve seen none stronger. You have unique talents I refuse to see go to waste.”

(Bottom) https://books2read.com/TheInvertedGlass

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

190d

📚 Alien Clay by: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Professor Arton Daghdev has always wanted to study alien life in person. But when his political activism sees him exiled to the planet Kiln, condemned to work under an unfamiliar sky until he dies, his idealistic wish becomes a terrible reality.

Kiln boasts a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem. Its monstrous alien life means Arton wil...

https://bookblabla.com/book/alien-clay

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #sciencefiction

Professor Arton Daghdev has always wanted to study alien life in person. But when his political activism sees him exiled to the planet Kiln, condemned to work under an unfamiliar sky until he dies, his idealistic wish becomes a terrible reality.

Kiln boasts a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem. Its monstrous alien life means Arton will risk death on a daily basis – if the camp’s oppressive regime doesn’t kill him first. But, if he survives, Kiln’s lost civilization holds a wondrous, terrible secret. It will redefine life and intelligence as he knows it – and might just set him free.

They travelled into the unknown and left themselves behind...
Alien Clay is a thrilling tale of alien encounter – from the acclaimed Arthur C. Clarke Award-winner Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Unputdownable – Stephen Baxter, author of Proxima

Heart-in-the-mouth fantastic – New Scientist

Restlessly brainy and utterly involving – Daily Mail

The perfect gateway into what makes Tchaikovsky great – SciFiNow

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

189d

Anathem by Neil Stephenson, a Sci-Fi masterpiece is on sale on Audible for 6$ until the end of March.

It was recently rereviewed for the SFBRP Must-Read List.

https://www.sfbrp.com/archives/2412

(Note that since the book was published in 2008, this is a spoiler rich episode).

For a spoiler conscious discussion you can go back to Luke's 2009 review of Anathem:

https://www.sfbrp.com/archives/127

@bookstodon @audiobooks

#SFBRP #NeilStephenson #anathem #ScienceFiction #BookSale #audible #podcast

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

161d

A Review of Mendala: https://lydiaschoch.com/a-review-of-mendala/

#BookReview #ScienceFiction #Books

Book cover for Mandela By Rudolph Kohn. Image on cover shows a white, slightly square-shaped dodo egg sitting on the floor of a forest filled with ferns and trees.

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

184d

Ebook and paperback: https://books2read.com/LegacyOfNewts

The undead witch that rules the space pirates, known as the Dead Queen, has finally been defeated. That only makes it worse for the witches that pulled it off. She’s livid and coming for them, at least once she gets her star ship back under control…

@bookstodon #author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books

(Left) The cover of Legacy of Newts, by Owen Tyme.

In the background dawn, as seen from space, above a blue world.

In the foreground is a line drawing of a red spotted newt, in white. The lines of the newt are outlined in black, to help it stand out. The interior of the line drawing has been filled with the image of a spiral galaxy in red, orange and yellow, with a blue color that shades to white at the center, which lines up with the newt's head. The galaxy almost looks like fire.

(Right) The background is a blue and orange nebula, with the following text over it:

“You gotta be real strong, real bright, real quick, or real lucky to survive drawing *attention*. Which are you?”

“I’m quick, Amelia is bright, Marta is strong and all three of us have been lucky, after a fashion: if we didn’t have bad luck, then I suppose we wouldn’t have any luck at all.”

(Bottom) https://books2read.com/LegacyOfNewts

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

187d

Currently on BBC Sounds: THE STATE OF THE ART by Iain M. Banks

In 1977, the Culture starship GCU ARBITRARY discovers Earth: a primitive society on the edge of self-destruction.

When Contact agent Dervley Linter decides to go native, can Diziet Sma change his mind?

@bookstodon

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00hv1dz

#Scottish #literature #sciencefiction #scifi #IainBanks #IainMBanks #TheCulture #audiobook

3 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

175d

Chapter 27 of Princess of Kurg is available to read on #RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/108234/jigsaw-city

Aurora meets with Kontoti again, while the two of them sit on the edge of volcanic caldera, with a lake in the bottom.

They watch a human woman being run down by wolves, who barely makes it into the valley, but just as the wolves leap for the kill, she asks for help...

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #actionadventure #fiction #fairies #webseries

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

175d

A Review of The Visitor: https://lydiaschoch.com/a-review-of-the-visitor/

#BookReview #Books #ScienceFiction #LGBTQ

Book cover for The Visitor by Neil Shooter. Image on cover is a photo taken of a one-story ranch-style house after dusk. You can see the road bend in front of the house, some trees on the left, and the house itself sitting quietly, but all of this is shrouded in the darkness of night that obscures most details about any of them.

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

114d

Science fiction has failed us.

#SciFi #ScienceFiction #prediction #future

The function of science fiction is not always to predict the future but sometimes to prevent it.

Frank Herbert

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

173d

Chapter 28 of Princess of Kurg is available to read on #RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/108234/jigsaw-city

Kazic visits Nicole's birth mother, Lyra, because he wants to ask permission to seek Nicole's hand in marriage.

Lyra is overcome with joy and he asks her advice on the right approach to proposing...

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #actionadventure #fiction #fairies #webseries

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

173d

Ebook and paperback: https://books2read.com/WrathOfTheSky

Zechariah Jacobs has angered a vast empire that spans a third of the galaxy, which is far too much for his planet to stand against, but in a clash of wizards and magic versus technology, it’s hard to say which will win.

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books

(Left) The cover of Wrath of the Sky, by Owen Tyme.

On a black background, a planet much like earth burns, set aflame. The flames are on the top and sides, but haven't yet reached the bottom.

(Right) An ogre stands on a rocky cliffside path, clearly quite upset, with both his head and arms raised as he cries out! The background is blue sky with white clouds. The following quote is laid over the top of the scene:

Winzon grinned evilly. With great slowness and ceremony, he undid the draw-string of his sack and up-ended it, dropping an ogre skull at the brute’s feet!

The massive ogre’s entire demeanor changed in an instant! He backed away, carefully stepping out of reach of Winzon’s ax, even though it was still strapped to his back!

The brute whispered, “Ogre-slayer!”

(Bottom) https://books2read.com/WrathOfTheSky

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

124d

📚 The Last Contract of Isako by: Fonda Lee

Isako is a legendary swordswoman, but every legend must come to an end. When her long-time client unexpectedly retires, she plans to follow—to walk out into the frozen wasteland of their planet with her head held high and her family enriched by her dea...

https://bookblabla.com/book/the-last-contract-of-isako

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #sciencefiction #cyberpunkfiction #dystopianfiction #actionadventure

Isako is a legendary swordswoman, but every legend must come to an end. When her long-time client unexpectedly retires, she plans to follow—to walk out into the frozen wasteland of their planet with her head held high and her family enriched by her death. But when she's offered a final mission, she can't refuse, especially when she realizes who lies at the center of it all: Martim, her last—and worst—apprentice, who's somehow made his way to the top. As she's thrust into a world of corporate espionage and shadowy secrets, what she uncovers could forever change humanity's existence among the stars.

The Last Contract of Isako is epic science fiction like only Fonda Lee can write it—set in a world where money trumps loyalty, the elite have the power to extend life or end it, and one woman in the twilight of her calling must decide what's ultimately worth living—or dying—for.

A battle-worn corporate samurai undertakes one last mission on a merciless planet where death is always a mere breath away, in this standalone dystopian epic from the author of the modern fantasy classic Jade City.

LIVE BY THE CODE. DIE BY THE KNIFE.

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

84d

I've finished: Terra Nullius by Claire G. Coleman

I couldn't put Terra Nullioius down. The compelling characters and their struggle to survive kept me glued to my headphones.

I did not read the blurb and enjoyed the transition from the historical to the futuristic section of the novel.

My enjoyment was marred by the constant reminders of the authors intent. Coleman hits the reader repeatedly over the head with a 5kg hammer: THIS IS A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE COLONIAL TREATMENT OF THE AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL PEOPLE TO AN ALIEN INVASION.

There are allot of clues in the story itself and a couple of explicit references would have been enough.

But, I must repeat, I really enjoyed this novel.

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/997f6bdb-5b9f-46d0-a994-7e60f6c30fe4

@bookstodon @audiofiction
#ScienceFiction #historical #australia #aboriginal #bookstodon #amReading #Audiobooks

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

183d

Publication alert! My essay about how ISFDB indexes translations, translator invisibility, and a straightforward fix the ISFDB admins could implement is live over at the #SFinTranslation blog!

https://www.sfintranslation.com/?p=16513

#scifi #fantasy #sciencefiction #translation #metadata #indexing

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

139d

Ender’s Game is a brilliant #ScienceFiction about relationships - brothers and sisters, children and adults, group dynamics… and #loneliness

A war that begins because they cannot simply talk to each other.

And love for the enemy, without which true victory is impossible.

#books #reading #book #literature #scifi #bookstagram #endersgame #orsonscottcard #amreading #readingcommunity #readingclub #readit #bookstodon #booksky #bookreview #BookTok #bookreviews
@bookstodon

Enders Game

1 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

168d

📚

Hayo just finished reading All Systems Red by Martha Wells

I was sick and watched the series. I loved the main character. But as we all know, the book is always better. So I read the book. It is indeed much better. But desperately short. I love that the book is much more no-nonsense, doesn't feel the need to explain every single thing and goes forward in a much brisker pace than the series. So I will definitely read all the other parts as well.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

🔗 https://hayobethlehem.nl/library/book/all-systems-red-679934

#Reading #Bookstodon #Fiction #ScienceFiction

Cover of book: All Systems Red by Martha Wells

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

125d

My full catalogue of ebooks is now available as a Patreon collection! Want a taster menu for a Superhuman pledge? $5 gets you all standalone short stories and novelettes, in perpetuity. And while you're there, check out the flash audio collection as well!

https://www.patreon.com/collection/70036

#SciFi #ScienceFiction

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

165d

Chalk Scribblers meet the author: Ken MacLeod
1 April, free online

Ken MacLeod’s first novel, The Star Fraction, was published in 1995 and earned him a place among the cohort of British science fiction authors who were gaining prominence at the time. He’s been nominated for every genre award worth being nominated for & he’s won more than a few of them.

Recurring themes in his work include socialist theory & marine zoology.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/chalk-scribblers-meet-the-author-ken-macleod-tickets-1984677623197?aff=oddtdtcreator

#Scottish #literature #scifi #Sciencefiction

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

165d

My third #TransRightsReadathon book was The Left Hand of Dog, an excellent recommendation from @Knien . It's just the kind of audiobook I like -- lots of distinct voices, and all British as a plus. 😂 The story is good silly fun, full of geeky references -- Spock's brain, I about died! -- but also has a lot of humanity, as femme-agender-asexual-disabled Lem finds herself feeling home at last with the motliest crew of silly aliens imaginable.

I think it might have felt too twee for my tastes in print, but the audio really sells it. First in a series.

@bookstodon
#LGBTQBooks
#ScienceFiction
#FunnyBooks
#Audiobooks

1 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

139d

Ebook omnibus: https://books2read.com/TheWizardsScion

Levi Jacobs always dreamed of being like his father, the greatest wizard in the world, but had no understanding what it would be like. Follow Levi’s journey from bumbling teen to a great hero, while the young wizard learns to master magical powers that are initially completely beyond him and barely under control.

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books

The ad flyer for the series The Wizard's Scion.

(Background) View of a planet from space.

(Top Center) A black flying saucer surrounded by this text:
Trolls, boogeymen and witches, oh my!
Just another day for a young wizard.

(Top Left) The cover of Troll Song displays a woman in battered, muddy armor with her two swords crossed against the neck of a dwarf.

(Lower Left) The cover of Forgotten Legends displays a child reading in bed as a black, smoky monster with red eyes peeks out from under the bed.

(Lower Center Left) The cover of The Third Wish displays a wizard on top of a mountain, looking to the sunset, over a city of sky scrapers that have plants growing on them. In his shadow is the red eyed creature from Forgotten Legends.

(Lower Center Right) The cover of Dark Moon displays a witch and wizard fighting back to back, holding pistols, while objects fall around them, with the moon behind their heads.

(Lower Right) The cover of The Inverted Glass displays a line art hourglass with a white figure in black sand at the bottom, with a black figure in white sand upside-down in the top. Balanced on a scale are a heart and a feather.

(Upper Right) The cover of The Wizard's Scion: The Complete Series displays several figures in silhouette representing the main characters, as they traverse a wormhole. Behind them is a red-eyed octopus.

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

138d

I've finished: What We Are Seeking by Cameron Reed

This is a first contact novel in multiple forms.

There is very interesting alien biology and sentience to study and one of the main characters is a translator.

But there are also a number of human cultures that have been shaped by different environments and most of the novel observes them from an outsiders point of view.

This is a very anthropological novel in the vain of Le Guin. As a queer man from a poly-amorous matriarchal culture observes a monogamous patriarchal culture.

In the end this novel is about the freedom to become your true self. It is not utopian, there are downsides, but it is unrelenting in it's respect of consent.

I highly reccomend listening to the Wizards Vs. Lesbians bonus episode on What We Are Seeking ofr an in depth discussion of the novel.

https://wizlez.libsyn.com/bonus-what-we-are-seeking

@bookstodon @audiofiction #ScienceFiction #lgbtqia #FirstContact #bookstodon #amReading #AudioBooks

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

Previous Page Next Page