Basically the title, can anyone recommend some good sci fi books with leftist themes?

  • discontinuuity [he/him]
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    edit-2
    4 years ago

    Walkaway by Doctorow is a fun anarcho-communist adventure. Most of his stuff is pretty leftie but not explicitly socialist, especially the short story collection Radicalized

    Singularity Sky by Stross is sort of a retelling of the October Revolution but with nanotech and godlike AIs. His work is also mostly vaguely leftie, especially some of his Lovecraftian horror series The Laundry Files, which is partly inspired by Thatcherian austerity

    Edit: Doctorow and Stross also wrote Rapture of the Nerds together, which is a silly and weird story about FALGSC. Glasshouse by Stross is also a great mystery/thriller with a FALGSC setting that touches on gender dysphoria and body horror

    • PrincessMagnificent [they/them, any]
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      4 years ago

      As a fan of both Charles Stross and Richard k Morgan (of Altered Carbon fame) I was completely surprised to find out that the tech nerd turned out to be a cool lefty, and the guy I thought was cool turned out to be a lib dem

      • discontinuuity [he/him]
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        4 years ago

        Didn't know that about Morgan, after reading the 3rd book I thought he was more of a revolutionary

        IIRC Doctorow was raised by Trotskyites and went through a brief libertarian phase around the dot-com boom, now he's probably a rad-lib

        Stross was interviewed on the Trash Future podcast, it's a good one

        • PrincessMagnificent [they/them, any]
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          4 years ago

          I also didn't know it, but I followed the guy on Twitter and his takes during the recent elections were, well he's a liberal Democrat voter.

            • discontinuuity [he/him]
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              4 years ago

              Oof, that "However"

              You'd think that the guy who wrote 3 novels about people switching bodies would have a better understanding of trans people. I'll continue to not pay money for his books

              Glad to see Charlie supporting trans rights