3 ms·

This might come off as trite (and it probably is) but why don't we get novels this creative nowadays?

PaulHoule 2y ago
I liked this one https://www.amazon.com/Terraformers-Annalee-Newitz/dp/1250228018 https://www.amazon.com/Terraformers-Annalee-Newitz/dp/125022...
jmdeon 2y ago
Honestly sounds like you're just disconnected from the culture. There are plenty of creative novels coming out these days. For a specific example check out Adrian Tchaikovsky's work. Also you may want to subscribe to a short story publication like Clarkesworld. You'll have a drip feed of aspiring creative writers and can follow the ones you find especially good for when their forthcoming novels come out. One that especially blew me away from Clarkesworld recently was Axiom of Dreams by Arula Ratnakar. https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ratnakar_09_23/ https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ratnakar_09_23/
yau8edq12i 2y ago
Have you actually read recent SF novels? Think what you will about awards, but I've never been exceedingly disappointed when I read a novel that won a couple out of Hugo, Locus, and Nebula. I'd suggest you start there.
com2kid 2y ago
Laundry Files just recently had some novels that involves cool weird dimensions. The last Bobiverse book was about infiltrating a spaceship that is an artificial world. Heck Bobiverse in general has some cool ideas. The Andrea Vernon books are a hilarious take on the superhero genre.
- PaulHoule 2y ago
  The Bobiverse books are great IMHO.
  - ghusbands 2y ago
    I've read them and somewhat disagree. The protaganist(s) in the book almost never choose a sensible course of action for their goals, even given elapsed decades in which to make them. If I can come up with much better plans on the fly while reading, the main character surely could in decades.
    - com2kid 2y ago
      The main character is not perfect, he has several major personality flaws that break through and screw up his actions again and again. I think taking every thing into account, his actions are consistent with his personality. That said, the first book's exploration of combat in space was, IMHO, some of the best Sci-Fi work in the series. Although I get why the books gave up on even trying to be hard sci-fi at all early on, science was pushed out of the way to make writing the story easier.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
TheAceOfHearts 2y ago
Stories with creative magic systems are still being produced. Check out Unsong, by Scott Alexander. It's about a world that's programmable by Hebrew and Kabbalah.
pas 2y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora_(novel) and of course other Greg Egan works
- mr_toad 2y ago
  In particular Dicronaughts is quite mind-bending, with its two time dimensions.
moomoo11 2y ago
I wonder that as well. And the same for movies, games, etc. I think in order to "play it safe" against the 1% of people who cry over the dumbest shit, but who happen to screech the loudest, creators make everything about someone's feelings, edge case stuff you hardly see represented in day to day. You weave that web enough and you end up with the "creative" output of something like Gemini lol.
- drdeca 2y ago
  Huh? I would imagine that content that is about people’s feelings and the things those feelings are about, would be more likely to offend? Who gets offended by content about like, “How navigation would be different if space were like X?” or, “How would sheet music for music in a world with two time dimension look? Might we have music where along one direction the frequency is increasing in magnitude, but decreasing along another, played to depict a scene in which a pursuer gets closer to a target along one direction of time but further along the other?” ? (Though, I’m not sure if two time dimensions exactly makes sense, because like, R\{0} has two connected components, which seems connected to the distinction between the past and the future, while R^2\{0} is connected (though not simply-connected) , so I’m not sure if the distinction between past and future, can still be made? Maybe if instead of a 0-dimensional point we have a 1-dimensional curve? ) As I imagine it, for the most part, the further something is from human experience, the less it would tend to remind people of whatever things in life they find objectionable.
  - moomoo11 2y ago
    Because in trying to tell that kind of interesting story today, the creators would force the current day politics and other bullshit into it and make that the front and center instead of the cool math or science stuff. If even simple children's stories can't escape it with the remakes, forget it when it comes to something interesting. I'm always happy when there are exceptions to this of course, but it is quite rare. One of my goals if I ever make it to the 9 figure club is to start a media company based outside the US where we can make great content about interesting concepts like this, without injecting politics into it or having to work with people who inject nonsense into everything. (on a side note, this is why I enjoy working with E. Euro and S. American engineers - they just focus on working and problem solving, not feelings and shit based on half truths they made up from taking drugs or whatever) Anyway I was just responding to why stuff like that isn't made anymore. That's my opinion.

I liked this one https://www.amazon.com/Terraformers-Annalee-Newitz/dp/1250228018 https://www.amazon.com/Terraformers-Annalee-Newitz/dp/125022...

jmdeon 2y ago

Honestly sounds like you're just disconnected from the culture. There are plenty of creative novels coming out these days. For a specific example check out Adrian Tchaikovsky's work. Also you may want to subscribe to a short story publication like Clarkesworld. You'll have a drip feed of aspiring creative writers and can follow the ones you find especially good for when their forthcoming novels come out. One that especially blew me away from Clarkesworld recently was Axiom of Dreams by Arula Ratnakar. https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ratnakar_09_23/ https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ratnakar_09_23/

yau8edq12i 2y ago

Have you actually read recent SF novels? Think what you will about awards, but I've never been exceedingly disappointed when I read a novel that won a couple out of Hugo, Locus, and Nebula. I'd suggest you start there.

com2kid 2y ago

Laundry Files just recently had some novels that involves cool weird dimensions. The last Bobiverse book was about infiltrating a spaceship that is an artificial world. Heck Bobiverse in general has some cool ideas. The Andrea Vernon books are a hilarious take on the superhero genre.

PaulHoule 2y ago
The Bobiverse books are great IMHO.
- ghusbands 2y ago
  I've read them and somewhat disagree. The protaganist(s) in the book almost never choose a sensible course of action for their goals, even given elapsed decades in which to make them. If I can come up with much better plans on the fly while reading, the main character surely could in decades.
  - com2kid 2y ago
    The main character is not perfect, he has several major personality flaws that break through and screw up his actions again and again. I think taking every thing into account, his actions are consistent with his personality. That said, the first book's exploration of combat in space was, IMHO, some of the best Sci-Fi work in the series. Although I get why the books gave up on even trying to be hard sci-fi at all early on, science was pushed out of the way to make writing the story easier.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

TheAceOfHearts 2y ago

Stories with creative magic systems are still being produced. Check out Unsong, by Scott Alexander. It's about a world that's programmable by Hebrew and Kabbalah.

pas 2y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora_(novel) and of course other Greg Egan works

mr_toad 2y ago
In particular Dicronaughts is quite mind-bending, with its two time dimensions.

moomoo11 2y ago

I wonder that as well. And the same for movies, games, etc. I think in order to "play it safe" against the 1% of people who cry over the dumbest shit, but who happen to screech the loudest, creators make everything about someone's feelings, edge case stuff you hardly see represented in day to day. You weave that web enough and you end up with the "creative" output of something like Gemini lol.

drdeca 2y ago
Huh? I would imagine that content that is about people’s feelings and the things those feelings are about, would be more likely to offend? Who gets offended by content about like, “How navigation would be different if space were like X?” or, “How would sheet music for music in a world with two time dimension look? Might we have music where along one direction the frequency is increasing in magnitude, but decreasing along another, played to depict a scene in which a pursuer gets closer to a target along one direction of time but further along the other?” ? (Though, I’m not sure if two time dimensions exactly makes sense, because like, R\{0} has two connected components, which seems connected to the distinction between the past and the future, while R^2\{0} is connected (though not simply-connected) , so I’m not sure if the distinction between past and future, can still be made? Maybe if instead of a 0-dimensional point we have a 1-dimensional curve? ) As I imagine it, for the most part, the further something is from human experience, the less it would tend to remind people of whatever things in life they find objectionable.
- moomoo11 2y ago
  Because in trying to tell that kind of interesting story today, the creators would force the current day politics and other bullshit into it and make that the front and center instead of the cool math or science stuff. If even simple children's stories can't escape it with the remakes, forget it when it comes to something interesting. I'm always happy when there are exceptions to this of course, but it is quite rare. One of my goals if I ever make it to the 9 figure club is to start a media company based outside the US where we can make great content about interesting concepts like this, without injecting politics into it or having to work with people who inject nonsense into everything. (on a side note, this is why I enjoy working with E. Euro and S. American engineers - they just focus on working and problem solving, not feelings and shit based on half truths they made up from taking drugs or whatever) Anyway I was just responding to why stuff like that isn't made anymore. That's my opinion.