Doesn't need to be explicitly political can just be vibes. I'm just getting very tired of every main character being either a gruff rugged individualist or a bazinga nerdy individualist. Thanks
Very much interested in this, need some reading for an upcoming vacation
i like the culture series
they are like a flawed version of falgsc
because if it wasn't flawed there wouldn't be much room to have a storyI'm still working through "Use of Weapons". But the books I've read so far are great. Really enjoyed "The Player of Games".
player of games is probably one of my favourite books bar none
Yeah "The Player of Games" was so incredible it ruined the momentum I was building into the series. "Use of weapons" hasn't really hit the same highs and I've not been able to just blast through like I usually do.
Like unfortunately I stopped reading it for now because I'd rather finish out the Books of Babel books ("The Fall of Babel").
Culture series was a great rec. Just finished and I loved it. Thanks comrade
Murderbot series (A MUST READ) by Martha Wells
Ancillary justice series by Ann Leckie
Old Man's War series (especially the later books) by Scalzi
Honor Harrington series (so-so politics, but has a great female protagonist) by David Weber
Terms of Enlistment series by Markos Kloos
The Collapsing Empire series by Scalzi
Velocity Weapon series by Megan E O'Keefe
Bobiverse
I would also recommend Banewreaker by Jacqueline Carey - think LOTR from the "bad guy" perspective
Honor Harrington
Aren't the bad guys for the first (few?) book(s) vaguely communist? And of course she's fighting for a liberal space monarchy.
In their defense, it's a lot better than having to explain why the space senate parliamentarian won't allow free healthcare, and more believable than a system of government where 9 appointed old fucks wearing robes rule a country
Yep that's why I put the note in about the politics being so-so. It's a mixed bag.
The pluses are the hereditary monarchy is African descent/ dark skinned (I'm pretty sure, but I could be getting this confused with Collapsing Empire. I think they both use this theme), Harrington has a huge emotional range from courageous and awesome commander, to the most hurt and emotionally vulnerable, a polycule, etc.
The downsides are exactly what you listed. I still think it's worth reading
I only read the first Novella, didn't realize there was more. Putting that on the list for sure. First one was awesome.
Ancillary justice rules. One of the major factions is a post gender society that only uses female pronouns.
It's well done too, she doesn't come out and say it explicitly, she instead treats you like an adult and allows you to slowly figure it out
Anything by Charles Stross. I'd start with Glasshouse, Neptune's Brood, The Atrocity Archives, or Singularity Sky. Edit: some of his stuff veers into fantasy and horror. If you're into that sort of thing check out The Laundry Files series or the Merchant Princes series.
The Murderbot series by Martha Wells is pretty fun and a quick read.
Cory Doctorow is also good, if a bit of a silly lib.
Sorry but i got to go on a wierd tangent , its so wierd with people from the Anglo Culture realm ,
you allways have this fucking trove of biographical knowledge you carry around with you .. every artist is always assosciated with ,.. a "X" , a .. Did X .. and it is so very wierd , because i know literally "nada" zero about the Author , and i can not even imagine where and how i could "pick up" thinks like him beeing a
"Ancap Wierdo" or other stuff... like the Amount of Gossip i needed to indulge in to know that this author from the Book i was so impressed with because it touched so many "strings and Horizons" . And its also pretty selfdefeating because no one ages more poorly then US Artist.. why should one not be interested in the Prime Time when he sees the Ruins.. ?
Book is good.
A bit older now but Ken Macleod's Fall Revolution series (and most of his novels really) are about the intersection of wierd leftists of stripes ranging from proudhonists to leninists to wierd trots to eco anarchists. And the books have a conciet that the thesis of the previous book is negated in the next.
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine and Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee are my picks.
I liked A memory called empire, I'll have to try Ninefox Gambit thanks
word of warning for ninefox gambit: it doesn't explain its worldbuilding very well, so you're kind of always floundering for meaning, making it a tough read. but it's worth it imo
Not terribly recent, but Agustin de Roja's trilogy of sci-fi books (A Legend of the The Future, The Year 200, Spiral) are excellent and set in a future in which communism has won
Wayfarers series talks about politics in a mature way even if it's nowhere near the focus of any of the four books
David Brin's Uplift series presents a plausible universe with politics built on Patron species and the Client species they uplift into sapience, and how humans are weirdo outliers since they claimed to have evolved naturally and don't have a clear Patron, plus had already been uplifting chimps, dolphins, and elephants by the time they met the other aliens.
Also as others have pointed out, the Murderbot series is great. Really realistic depiction of how future megacorps would act (murdering people to save a little money).
It's good but he starts to get on thin ice near the end. Still worth reading.
His newest work Termination Shock he completely loses it. Avoid
Some of the recent ones I've read and enjoyed were the Rosewater series, Annihilation, Blindsight, 3 Body Problem
2312 is also by Kim Stanley Robinson but with post-capitalism firmly established (at least in space; I forget what was going on on Earth). If you like worldbuilding you might like it. The main character is kind of individualist though...
The wandering earth
These are 2 movies on Netflix btw, for anyone interested. Over the top Chinese Action flix, but a fun watch.
They're about 2 major events that happen within the Wandering Earth universe, I guess? A close call with Jupiter and a prequel in the building of the engine system.
Edit: I haven't read the book, so....🤷♂️
spoiler
Execution? Not really? I don't think so? In both movies, there's mass death events, but not an execution... In the prequel they have the mass self-sacrifice to get the moon propelled away? The second movie starts with the elevator blowing up and ends with the moon being propelled away/ Earth starting up.
spoiler
Ah, no, i don't remember either of the movies covering that. The prequel happens at a point where everything is accepted and there's factions arguing over how humanity should be preserved. But really the movies are about the fight against nature rather than factions.
The Mars Trilogy is great, I just finished it. Some weird bashing of the Soviet Union, but otherwise there's a pretty decent political backdrop to the story.
Have you read the sequels to Annihilation yet? If you haven’t, you should, they’re very good
