[nesfa-reading-group] “The King of Elfland’s Daughter”: Reading Group on 2/2/2024

[Aleksander Slominski (NY10)]

On Mon, Jan 29, 2024 at 2:51 AM David G. Grubbs <dggrubbs at gmail.com> wrote:

> If we don't hear from enough of the "rarely attending" group, then these
> regular suggesters are next up to bat. Please pick three books you'd offer
> if we need them. If your suggestions are not needed this week, you'll have
> them ready for the next batch.
>
>    - Alek Slominski
>    - Louis Galvez
>    - Chip Hitchcock
>    - Tracy Marks
>
>
> my 3 book selection for future

1) Critical Mass by Daniel Suarez
This book stands against the current trend of depicting the near term
future as depressing, which is particularly interesting as the book is
tackling climate change and space exploration. Very well researched with
big ideas, may be the most optimistic book i read in years. Especially
impressive as it goes against current dogma that the only way forward is
conservation, no growth or shrinking, and billions of poor people are
supposed to stay poor for the sake of the environment and Earth's future
....
I recommend watching one of author interviews about the book on youtube
where he talks about the research he did about the ideas and technologies
available
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/60149528
4.39 on 1,056 ratings and 110 reviews
Blurb:  "In New York Times bestselling author Daniel Suarez's latest
space-tech thriller, a group of pioneering astropreneurs must overcome
never-before-attempted engineering challenges to rescue colleagues stranded
at a distant asteroid--kicking off a new space race in which Earth's
climate crisis could well hang in the balance.
...
In the process they'll need to establish the first spin-gravity station in
deep space, the first orbiting solar power satellite and refinery, and
historic infrastructure on the moon's surface--all of which could alleviate
a deepening ecological, political, and economic crisis back on Earth, and
prove that space-based industry is not only profitable, but possibly
humanity's best hope for a livable, peaceful future.
Note: it is second book in series - it stands on its own and i would ignore
the first one (read only if you really this book - i found the first one
very boring)
Note: audiobook is very good, Jeff Gurner is one of the best narrators imho
ymmv

2) Valuable Humans in Transit and Other Stories by qntm , Sam Hughes
self published short book of short stories (101 pages) that includes "Lena"
and "I Don't Know, Timmy, Being God Is A Big Responsibility" - very popular
stories available for free on Internet for years - the collection has new
stories exclusive to the book such as "Driver" followup to "Lena"
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63198504-valuable-humans-in-transit-and-other-stories
4.46 on 499 ratings and 48 reviews
Blurb: "[D]elivers a refreshing dose of existential despair at the
transhuman condition." — Charles Stross
...
"qntm has been writing science fiction for most of this millennium. His
works start from elegant, deep hypotheticals and wind entire universes
around them, pushing science, technology, time and logic to breaking point
and far beyond.
https://qntm.org/vhitaos
Note: it is hard to get in library (not available in NYPL) but the author
sells it directly with very reasonable price (linked from URL above)

3) The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu
short stories collection - some stories are available online for free
https://kenliu.name/stories/
My favorites are Byzantine Empathy, The Hidden Girl, and those used for
Pantheon TV show
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52163147-the-hidden-girl-and-other-stories
3.93 on 6,380 ratings 1,093 reviews
One more story I can highly recommend even though it can be very emotional.
That story won trifecta (Hugo, Nebula, and  World Fantasy Awards) and was
on his previous book "The Paper Menagerie":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paper_Menagerie
Pantheon TV show:  https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/pantheon/s01
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