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A few years ago I read a great sci-fi book, "Children of Ruin", by Adrian Tchaikovsky[1]. The book features, among other things, an octopus civilization. It's
by efitz 3y ago
A few years ago I read a great sci-fi book, "Children of Ruin", by Adrian Tchaikovsky[1].
The book features, among other things, an octopus civilization.
It's the second book in the series; the first features a spider civilization.
I highly recommend both; they explore concepts of what civilizations would look like with intelligences very different from our own.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Children-Ruin-Time-Adrian-Tchaikovsky/dp/031645253X https://www.amazon.com/Children-Ruin-Time-Adrian-Tchaikovsky...
- roughly 3y agoHe’s got a third now, Children of Memory - it also is quite good. The whole series is really fantastic, although I think I enjoyed the second book with the octopi the most.
- not_your_mentat 3y ago*octopuses. XD
- thom 3y agoOctopodes.
- smitty1110 3y agoFor the curious, Meriam-Webster had a discussion about this on their blog (and a video that’s harder to find on mobile): https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/the-many-plurals-of-octopus-octopi-octopuses-octopodes https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/the-many-plura...
- Rexxar 3y agoAn octopi is indeed a quadritau
- roughly 3y agoYou know, I even looked it up before posting: https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/the-many-plurals-of-octopus-octopi-octopuses-octopodes https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/the-many-plura... tl;dr there’s no right answer, and consequently no way to say “more than one octopus” on the internet without yours being the first response :-)
- vram22 3y agoWhat do you say when you get an 8-core Pi? Hi, OctoPi!
- avdlinde 3y agoThe first book is one of my all time favorites, highly recommend. I didn't know there were 2nd and 3rd ones!
- celticninja 3y ago2nd is good and Third is ok
- whimsicalism 3y ago+1
- roflc0ptic 3y agoStarted reading this series last Monday, on book three now. Fantastic sci-fi, enjoying how optimistic and not grimdark it is
- Frotag 3y agoI like the author (read through a few of his other series) but it gets a little tiring how often he switches between perspectives. Each perspective is a different plotline and they all tie together in the finale but it feels like a 50-100 page story is being stretched into 300. Especially since the dialog can be a bit boring imo (each character has some quirk and all their lines / actions tend to be predictable when taking this into account). IIRC, the Children of Time books aren't so bad in this regard (less drama, more reverse-engineering alien tech), but I definitely think the newest book for The Final Architecture kinda suffers from this. But yeah nonetheless I really enjoy how creative the world building / overall plots are and would definitely recommend his stuff to anyone who likes sci-fi.
- jorvi 3y agoSounds like he’s been heavily inspired by Vernor Vinge’s “Zones of Thought” trilogy.
- essentialfloss 3y agoWhich, whole it suffers from some of the same issues, has some great world building and creative ideas.
- essentialfloss 3y agoWhich, while it suffers from some of the same issues, has some great world building and creative ideas.
- pschuegr 3y agothankyou.gif Nothing turns me off an author who can write prose well faster than switching perspectives every chapter - you're throwing out one of, if not _the_ biggest advantage of long-form narrative : the ability to get deeply into the head of a character. I had to stop reading Cloud Cuckoo Land because of this. And while I'm shouting into the void, this goes for you too, TV/movie producers: Just tell the damn story straight. If you can't do that and make it interesting, you need a better story.
- awinter-py 3y agopretty sure there is a discworld about this too, iirc it also features sapient shopping carts
- tambourine_man 3y agoNice podcast episode with him on the Ezra Klein show. https://podcasts.apple.com/br/podcast/the-ezra-klein-show/id1548604447?l=en https://podcasts.apple.com/br/podcast/the-ezra-klein-show/id... https://overcast.fm/+oiPVWKYM0 https://overcast.fm/+oiPVWKYM0 Couldn’t get a direct link to the show at the NYT that didn’t involve a paywall.
- no_butterscotch 3y agoWow! Thanks, I've read Children of Time, while people thought it was boring (according to some reviews) I liked the exploration of the concept. I knew it was a series but everyone said the others weren't as good, so I just never bothered. But that sounds interesting enough that I just placed a hold on it in my library app (81st in line?! Children of Ruin is that popular? shh I also placed it on hold in a different library app).
- joshstrange 3y agoI literally just finished the series. I think I liked book 3 more than book 2 (book 1 was the best IMHO) but they are all worth reading.