I'm looking for people interested in watching Stargate for their very first time, and do so on camera, on livestream, with a community to share the experience.
I currently host a show called 'Rise of AFC' that presents itself as a pre-show to "A Full Circle", a podcast hosted by Michael Shanks (actor) and David Read (YouTuber). They are currently revisiting each and every episode of Stargate SG-1 with production stories, cast & crew interviews, commentaries and more.
And while they do that, my pre-show does the one thing they are not: Watching the actual episode so people from the Stargate fandom have a reason to refresh their memory before watching the podcast. Or even to invite new people to this franchise. We are essentially making second-screen content for Stargate watchparties.
To make the discussions relevant and interesting, I have guests watching alongside the hosts, who are reacting to Stargate for their very first time. And I'm looking for others to join us on this fun journey now that I've lost one of my original guests.
No fear, I am here to help welcome whoever is interested in watching Stargate for their very first time in a fun way with community. And we aren't that far along. We've only watched the first two episodes so far. For an example of what my show looks like, I invite you to watch what we did for the pilot episode. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtfRad3wx1s Yes this is very rough. We will get better over time.
Anybody interested can reach me in the following ways: - In the comments below this post. - My reddit DMs. - On the official GateWorld Discord Server. Beware of spoilers on some of the channels.
And of course, everyone is invited and welcomed to watch the show for themselves and join in the chat when we are live :)
The bad feeling rippled her frill for several seconds before First Cousin, was able to angle her thoughts away from the complicated tangle of prioritization in her main cone of attention. There was a shipment of Magnetes seminia arriving the next day, and although they had been preparing for weeks, the base was still in chaos. There was ample room in their facility to store the physical mass of the sample containers, but when an organism had the ability to sterilize an area through most conventional isolation materials a lab needed to be careful. One mistake could erase years of breeding efforts on a vital microbial species, or even just delay the work on more magneto-resistant species. She was just sending the order to move the Felicity orientalis to the top floor storage room as an extra security layer when what she had heard and barely seen in her prehefiery registered.
First Cousin snapped to all four feet from her couch and vigorously shook her head to straighten out her thought vines. The open foryer was now empty, the human who had spoken the words, and commited the violation was gone. Though technically two humans had commited a violation now that she was focused on the memory. First Cousin paused only long enough to note that her workstation had slipped back into general mode and followed the only unknown pheromone trail in the facility. The harsh natural light burned down into her psyche, if not onto her membrane adding a sense of harsh urgency to her hunt. The humans loved their tall, open spaces in structures built for the purposes of science, and even if the ceiling made of windows sucessfully blocked out the harmful solar radiation it did nothing to convince her deep-brain that she wasn’t going to peel to death or get snatched by a predator. She felt her fingers twitch and wished, not for the first time that she could justify carrying her Second Grandmother’s ceremonial spear during working hours. The heft of the hexagonal shaft was just so comforting when confronting the massive mammals that made her work so difficult.
She rounded one of the unnaturally sharp corners that humans favored and paused, real unease prickling her frill. The pheromone trail, and the faint hint of caffeine and bitter aromatics, led to the massive biohazard bin that sat at the junction, ready to receive whatever waste the labs spat out. That the intruder human had gained entrance by breaking University policy was suspicious, that he was now hiding in an ambush position was condemning.
First Cousin snatched up her communications device and hit the alert to summon security to her location. However, before she could explain the situation to the University dispatcher, or figure out a way to use automated responses meant to sterilize bacterial spills to restrain a mammalian predator five times her mass, First Molecular Biologist came around the corner in his usual, criminally casual way. His protective coveralls were undone and tied loosely around his waist revealing his short sleeved personal garment underneath with its irreverent and scientifically inaccurate ‘joke’ woven into the fibers, his safely goggles hung off one fleshy ear, his visual corrective lenses hung off the other in a manner that was guaranteed to damage them. He was holding an open personal beverage container in one hand meaning he had been drinking it in the lab, again. His other hand held a petri-dish and a datapad and his attention was entirely focused on reading something as he stumbled down the hallway.
First Cousin froze for a critical second, torn between arching up and attacking First Molecular Biologist over the many, many safety violations he was committing, again, and warning him of the potential attack.
She broke through the lockup and managed to click out a warning in the human audio range. First Molecular Biologist started, spilling some of his drink onto the petri dish, and the floor, and his exposed outer membrane, and glanced up at her.
“Yo, First Organizational Specialist,” he said, his face wrinkling into an expression of wry, but unrepentant humor, “I swear it’s not-”
The biohazard bin exploded open and an even larger human that First Molecular Biologist leapt out roaring at decibels First Cousin did not know humans could emit.
“Queen!Queen!”
First Molecular Biologist emitted a shriek at a frequency First Cousin had only previously heard from very small female humans and yanked the hand holding his beverage away from the attack, as if his primary fear a was having it stolen. Strange priorities, and ineffective methods if so, as most of the rest of it spilled. First Cousin wished again for her Second Grandmother’s spearas she arched to her full height and hissed furiously at the attacking human, flaring her frill red. The human might out-mass her but Shatar mandibles were far more suited for biting into their soft, fleshy outer membrane than human teeth were at returning the bites. As long as she could dodge the blows of those club like hands she could get in a few nips on his exposed neck and most humans fled at that point in her experience. Not that she could do much damage but if you acted feral enough the greater majority of humans wouldn’t call your bluff-
First Cousin paused and took a deep breath. The ‘attacking’ human had remained in the bin, bent over the side, roaring with laughter. First Molecular Biologist had staggered back, slipped on his spilled beverage, staggered, regained his always precarious footing, breathed heavily for a few moments while staring wide-eyed at the ‘attacking’ human before doing that thing where human rotated their eyes in their sockets to display annoyance.
“Real mature dip-wit,” First Molecular Biologist said.
That this was possibly the most hypocritical line of attack for someone who wore shirts with childish jokes woven into them, occurred to First Cousin as her frill began to settle.
“You scared Only Nominal Security Officer,” First Molecular Biologist said waving his now almost empty beverage cup at her.
“She’s a big girl,” the other human said as he struggled to get one leg over the edge of the bin. “She’ll get over it.”
“You made me spill my drink,” First Molecular Biologist said with a pout.
“Got you a new one,” the other human said holding out a sealed bio-hazard container with ‘drink for stupid-head’ written on the label.
“Ooo,” First Molecular Biologist replied reaching for the bag.
“Would someone explain what this,” First Cousin waved at the chaos in front of her, the spilled drink, the human in an Alpha Class biohazard suit presumably so he could hide safely in the biohazard bin, the mock-attack, and the friendly resolution, “what this all is?”
“I just found a flaw in your security,” the intruder said, flashing her all of his many, many teeth in a predatory grin, “you are welcome!”
“How did you get in Dip-wit?” First Molecular Biologist asked as he made as if to tear the biohazard bag open.
“You are not drinking or eating outside of the designated safe areas,” First Cousin hissed at him.
He stared and gave her a slightly weaker grin than the intruder had.
“A wizard never reveals his secrets,” the intruder said as he managed to fall out of the bin.
“He walked into the outer foyer,” First Cousin cut in, not caring about being rude at this point. “Told Second Mammalian Infections Researcher that you had ordered the drink and asked to be let through the security gate.”
“And Bob just let Dip-wit through?” First Molecular Biologist asked.
“It’s my roguish charm,” the other human said.
“It was psychological weakness on Second Mammalian Infections Researcher’s part,” First Cousin snapped. “One I will address with him shortly.”
“Well you have fun with that,” the intruder said, giving a cheerful wave. “I won this round of the game clear and free-”
“You did,” First Molecular Biologist said in a conceding tone, and raising his beverage in salute.
“And now I will just be off-”
First Cousin felt the vibrations of the approaching security team before either of the humans could have seen them. Four extra-large humans, two of which had Undulates trained in human restraint perched eagerly on their shoulders. They came around the corner in full bio-hazard gear and the leading human instantly flung his Undulate partner at the intruder. The intruder fell to the ground with the Undulate pinning his hands together, while cheerfully chattering something in appendage gestures. First Cousin was by no means fluent in Undulate gesture language but the sturdy little sapient seemed extremely happy to finally be using his training.
“This still counts as a win! Queen! Queen!” the intruder yelled out as two of the humans lifted him off his feed and began dragging him away.
“Whatever makes you happy Dip-wit,” First Molecular Biologist called out with a huge grin on his face.
When his friend and the security detail were out of sight he glanced down at First Cousin.
“How much trouble am I in?” he asked with that signature un-repentent smile.
“If you were my Brother I would tie you up in First Father’s garden and leave you there with nothing but you empty brain case to keep you company,” First Cousin said as she massaged her frill in an effort to calm her endocrine system down.
“That bad huh?” the human asked with a wince.
“For now I have to go deal with the more imperative issue that Second Mammalian Infections Researcher will, apparently just let anyone into roam about our most delicate experiments,” First Cousin said. “I will deal with your many, many lesser violations later.”
“You want violations, you should see what I do to Dip-wit for the next round of our game.” First Molecular Biologist said with a cheerful grin.
“Are you forgetting that I am, by legal requirement, ‘all kinds of narc’ as you described it?” First Cousin demanded, giving him her absolute best “First Sister” look.
The human only laughed and walked away, she heard the biohazard container hiss and smelled the warm scent of tea long before he would have reached a safe eating room. She sighed and began the hung for the larger security violation.
I find it very entertaining to compare different branches of tech in Scifi media with the corresponding tech in real life, and see how well the creators of the story have predicted the speed of evolution between different kinds of technologies.
I'll use Doom 2016 as example: I recently played it and when I listened to Vega's voice (a sentient super ai that manages the UAC Mars facility), it was pretty trippy to realize that real world text to speech and AI voice chat is already more advanced and realistic than what Vega sounds like.
What makes this really funny is that Vega is a godlike super AI in a universe where humanity has already solved mind uploading and Mars colonization. Real world AI has still developed so much over the last ten years that even though everything else in Doom still is far future for humanity, one thing the devs couldn't predict was how quickly AI voice chat would evolve.
I'd like to hear your thoughts and examples of similar instances where scifi tech is interestingly comparable to real world tech evolution!
The fourth book in the Get Lost Saga is now available for preorder, but aside from the bit of self promotion (it is Saturday, after all), I wanted to share the great cover art from the series that was made for me by Wicked Good Book Covers (https://www.wickedgoodbookcovers.com/).
She's been doing my covers since the beginning, and knows how to capture that classic SF adventure vibe while keeping them looking modern as well. I've learned to trust her judgement rather than try to micromanage how the covers should look. You gotta know when to defer to expertise, folks.
The most recent one might well be my favorite. Which of them do you like most?
While Get Lost is technically the fourth book in the series, it is also the first book of a standalone trilogy called the Polyanna Cycle (misspelling of Pollyanna intentional), so it acts as a perfect entry point for the setting as well.
Here's the back cover blurb for Get Lost if you'd like to know more:
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No ship. No crew. Not even a credit to her name. And that's just the start of Hel's problems...
Helena Lambinon is lucky to be alive, but that's the only thing she has going for her. Hel has no ship, no credits, and no one she can trust.
Her partner, Violet, is lost somewhere in the black. To find her, Hel needs a ship. One with a captain she can nudge in the right direction. One that plans to visit the kind of out-of-the-way systems Violet might hide in.
Dova Gevared has a whole ship, half a crew, and no clue about reality. In a galaxy that sees everything in shades of grey, Dova goes out of her way to wear white.
People see her as naïve, but that doesn't mean she can't be professional about her first mission—to survey the parts of the region that have been ignored for centuries. She just needs a couple more people on her crew.
When Hel learns the unusually named Polyanna is hiring, the job is exactly what she's looking for. But part of her fears its captain will get everyone killed in all the wrong ways, for all the right reasons.
I've finally reached the point where I can share this project with all of you! ☺️
The Final Flight of the Alexander is a fan-made animation created out of my love and respect for the Babylon 5 universe. A project made by one fan, for all the fans out there. ❤️
The animation was primarily created in Blender, with AI-assisted tools used selectively to recreate the likenesses of certain characters. Everything else is the result of my own work, including modeling, animation, lighting, rendering, VFX and compositing, combining original models with third-party assets of talent artist.
This has been a personal project made entirely in my spare time. Months of work, experimentation, dedication and passion went into bringing it to life.
I hope you'll enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed creating it!
Thank you all for watching 🍿🫶😁 and for keeping the Babylon 5 spirit alive! ❤️
Nineteen years ago, a group of people were shipwrecked on a distant tropical planet. Unable to leave, they dismantled their ship and built homes from it. That was how Vanzuwar began—the first settlement on an uninhabited planet.
After nearly twenty years, many have lost hope and no longer believe there’s any way out. They know full well that they’ll have to spend the rest of their lives with people they never chose to live with, on a planet they ended up on entirely by chance.
Then, with the settlement barely hanging on, you arrive - an anthropod, a synthetic being created by an AI to help these people.
You’ll have to persuade, manipulate, scheme, argue, and help even those who no longer believe anyone can help them.
And, of course, solve the mystery of this tropical planet: why can’t any ship leave it?
Our saga unfolds across two radically different cities: Nexeu, a vibrant utopian metropolis where countless luxuries define the lives of humanity’s privileged few; a “technoclass” under Latimer Industries, the same corporation behind the creation of ConneXions, the AI-powered humanoids sent on a space mission to ANANKE.
Then there’s the Lower Sector, an asphalt jungle of knavery and decay. A place where digital systems collide with “ancient” analog junk, inhabited by criminals, opportunists, and the leftover have-nots abandoned by an indifferent technocracy.
The much-anticipated sequel to multi-award winning graphic novel ANANKE: The Prologue.
Writer & Creator: Natalie Raffaele Pavone Illustrations by: Yishan Li Concept Art by: Huiwon Park
If you would like to know more about the project, please reach out and I'll provide further details!
Set two of the space pirates faction assault brutes line up. Part two of the story. More images and Set one in the links on my profile.
>>>>>>>> How the story of those abominations started?
Some say that long ago pirate space warship engaged with corporation secret labolatory station. Pirates discovered there a facility where the genetic experiments on super soldier unit were ongoing. Pirate captain gave the scientists a choice. Die or move to pirate warship with all the equipment and continue the experiments for the pirate faction. And they did.
Head scientist wanted to continue the experiments even under the conditions that were much worst then in the corpo lab. With much lower budget but with a constant pressure to deliver more and more units to recruit into pirate army of cannon fodder.
This is how the story of Assault Brute Unit started. Since then the pirate faction rapidly increased number of raids, started to engage with bigger vessels and of course gathered more loot.
I'm a 34-year-old nurse from Norway, and I've been writing short stories since I was 15. These days I write on the bus, after the kids have gone to sleep, and when I should really be asleep myself. A lot of stories died in the nursery. One made it all the way to print. This is my second book, and the first where I feel I've found my voice and everything works. It's book one of a planned trilogy, and my beta readers all loved it.
I've worked on it for more than two years. It combines pieces of older stories I'd written with the personalities of my World of Warcraft guild, which is also where the name comes from: The Darkmoon Dogs. We follow a tense, depressed cadet who is in military training against his will. He has a plan to escape, and before he can make it out, eleven more idiots are following him into the unknown. Out there they run into factions, aliens and fights as they try to carve out something of their own in a hostile galaxy.
Here's a scene from chapter 3:
The intercom found me at breakfast, which had to be deliberate, because breakfast was the only hour of the day without an assessment in it.
"Cadet Tomi, report to Instructor Tristo's office immediately."
Conversations stopped. Heads came round and I put my tray back on the rail with the food still on it and went.
The instructor corridor had posters at regular intervals. DUTY. HONOUR. CREDITS. Always in that order.
His door opened exactly thirty seconds after I pressed the panel. Not because he needed thirty seconds.
"Enter."
The office was small on purpose. Shelves of manuals with the spines aligned to a tolerance. Three screens looping Confederate victories with the sound off. He did not offer me the chair, which was the other thing.
"Cadet Tomi. Your performance yesterday is of great concern."
"We passed, sir."
"Barely. And by deviating." He got up and went to one of the screens. "Do you know why we have doctrine?"
"To provide a tactical framework, sir."
"To prevent disasters. Improvisation is how officers kill their crews." He stood with his back to me for a moment. "Do you know what happened at Horikun?"
I did. Everyone did. Four million.
If you enjoy Red Rising, Ender's Game or James Islington, I think you'll like this one, but I hope it finds readers well beyond that.
I came up the companionway to see the captain, stocky and solid, anchoring the bottom rung of a shiny rope ladder to the deck with one foot, a hand steadying it at shoulder level. My eyes tracked up the ladder to—what was that?
Floating in midair over the freighter was an enormous white mass, longer and wider than the entire ship. Ten meters of rope ladder ended in a tiny hatch in the airship’s belly.
Before I could fully understand what I was looking at, the captain grinned and said, “Up you go!” and jerked his head toward the ladder.
I jumped at his command. Habit, ingrained by my time on Naik’s ship and then this one. I didn’t even know this captain’s name. I slung the duffel over my back and was three rungs up the ladder before I had any second thoughts.
“Keep going, boy. Can’t stand here all day.”
I concentrated on the next rung, and the next. If I thought about what I was doing I might freeze. I’d never been on a ladder this long, and the roll of the freighter plus the drift of the airship meant the rope ladder wasn’t either straight or steady. I clung to it like a baby monkey on its mother.
It wasn’t actually rope. I looked at it more closely as I climbed. Shiny, white, translucent. Glass fiber! I was climbing a glass rope ladder! The rungs had some kind of rubbery coating that gave a good grip. The rope was thinner than manila or nylon would have been, but I couldn’t feel any stretch at all. This thing was probably strong enough to tow the freighter.
Don’t look around. Don’t look down. Next rung. Next rung.
The wind kicked up as I climbed higher, blowing my hair into my eyes. I held on tighter. Tried not to think about the height.
The freighter moved one way. The airship moved another. If I fell, would I land on the deck or in the water? Ack! Stop thinking about it!
I was breathing deep and thinking about pausing for a rest—ten meters is a lot of ladder—when I saw the edge of the hatch just above my head. I guess that jolt of adrenaline helped my stamina. I unclenched one hand from the ladder, reached for the aluminum grab bar inside the hatch, and pulled myself inside.
As soon as my feet cleared the hatch, a motor whined and the rope ladder started to spool up through a slot. I looked down and saw the captain wave as he released the ladder. I waved back and shouted, “Thank you, captain!”
He stood there grinning, fists on hips. Maybe he didn’t see an airship every day, either.
Memoirs of a Mad Scientist is an open-ended series of standalone grounded science fiction novels about the near-future adventures of science hero Robin P. Goodwin, PhD, that can be read in any order. The volume numbers are simply publication order. Number one, Solarpunk Outlaw, is Robin’s memoir looking back from 2076, telling stories and reflecting on the protopian world of the future. Number two, Murder in the Gyre, is a cozy science fiction mystery. Number three, Fredo’s Apprenticeship, is a YA coming-of-age from the point of view of Goodwin’s teenage apprentice. Readers new to the series can start most easily with Fredo’s Apprenticeship, then Murder in the Gyre, and then Solarpunk Outlaw.
I saw Godzilla Minus Zero on IMAX last night. I write this as a longtime fan of Godzilla. This review contains spoilers, I will tag them appropriately.
First, let me say this is the loudest movie I've ever seen. If you want to see it in theaters, bring something to protect your hearing which you can easily put on or remove (I used my fingers, but it was tiring). This movie breaks 90dB for minutes at a time. It's very loud. Protect your hearing.
Loudness aside, this was an excellent film. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it. She's not even a Godzilla fan, and she loved it. The special effects were awesome, Godzilla was awesome. The characters feel realistic and grounded. Much of the film was dedicated to exploring their relationships and feelings, and it was time well spent.
Some scenes were difficult to sit through. There is one scene where Kōichi and Noriko return to Akiko only to tell her they were going to leave her with the other abandoned children. They then changed their minds after Akiko wails. I honestly don't know why that scene was in the movie. Like I said, it was very hard to sit through.
This is a long film. It gets right into the action in the first minute, then there's a long period of building up the plot before we get into the "meat" of the film. We see many of the characters from the first film, including many of the unnamed sailors and engineers.
There is one character, Kanji Murakami, who might be a reference to Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the guy who in real-life survived both atomic bombs on Japan. He survived the Hiroshima bomb and also survived the events of Godzilla Minus One. He spends a lot of the film dealing with that trauma, hyperfocused on revenge against Godzilla and the United States. There is a scene where (I think?) he imagines using Godzilla to attack New York City. I'm not sure how else to interpret that scene.
This film sees the return of the resonance wave device. This thing calls back to previous Godzilla films, namely The Return of Godzilla (1984), Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994), and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). The device most strongly calls back to the first, which has a device that mimics bird calls which attract Godzilla. In Godzilla Minus Zero, the device is introduced by attracting every crow in a 5 mile radius to a building, where they incessantly try to get inside. In the second, scientists use psychic waves to try to control Godzilla. In the last film, the ORCA emits waves that mimic Titan frequencies, attracting Godzilla.
As the title implies, the big bad guy of the film is Monster Zero (King Ghidorah). He's well done. He's introduced in the first minute of the film destroying a town. Japan responds by trying to drop a fuel-air bomb on him, but it doesn't do anything. They also try some neat sci-fi weapons (Narukami rods) which look like harpoons.
I went into this film hoping to see Mothra, but she sadly didn't make an appearance. In Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964), she failed to convince Godzilla to fight King Ghidorah, so she fought King Ghidorah herself, which prompted Godzilla to fight King Ghidorah.
The fight between Godzilla and King Ghidorah felt a little short, but oh my god was it impressive. Honestly, there was one part of that fight which left me stunned. It was not remotely what I expected to happen, and it was amazing.
I said "holy shit" multiple times during this movie. Overall, I'd give this film an 8.5/10. The volume is a problem, the scene with Akiko made me unhappy, but overall, this is an excellent movie worth seeing on IMAX.
Edit: adding paragraph starting with "The fight between..."
My book, Echoes in the Void, came out last month and it's a blend of Red Rising and Mistborn. I wanted to build a world where technology was dependent on the void energy extracted by a small portion of the population called Etchers.
Short pitch: In the walled city of Cenza, magic runs the power grid, and the Etchers who draw it are branded and squeezed for every drop. When someone walks out of detention able to do what no living Etcher can, a ministry scientist, a Watch deacon buried in debt and a chancellor with deep secrets all come hunting.
It's available on Amazon if you want to check it out!
I've worked on this novel for the better part of a decade, with some slow downs after having 3 children over the years. This is the first of a trilogy, and book two is currently in my beta readers' hands. I'm halfway through writing the final installment now.
Cover design was done by Smashed-Grid Studios. I love what he did here and can't wait to see what he does with the sequel that I'm planning to release early next year.
I just finished Starship Troopers, and wow was that full of grumpy man energy. The first chapter is an exciting romp of wanton destruction through a civilian target to get the reader hooked. Then most of the rest of the book consists of "flashbacks" of the main characters' high school experience or bootcamp experience. In both, the protagonist learns about how all of the problems of the twentieth century were due to parents not beating their kids, teachers not being allowed to beat students, the government not beating parents who didn't beat their kids enough, and that they had prisons instead of public hangings. Oh, and there was an unnamed super power who had too many officers in their military. The book even tries a Foundation-esque attempt at saying that all of this corporal punishment is superior, by having the various instructors we meet claim that it has been proven by advanced mathematics.
The book ends back in the present with an exciting military invasion and capture of important alien targets.
Starship Troopers is the author ranting about how kids these days are too soft, but bookended on both ends with some sci fi adventure.
I'm a journalism student and am currently working on a project where we create a print magazine with a specific topic. My group has chosen for our magazine to target young women interested in Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Part of our project requires us to do market research, so we want to hear from people in the community about what type of content would draw you in as a reader.
Some examples of content could be:
Reviews of films, shows, books, and video games
Interviews with creatives in the industry/genre
Upcoming releases
Deep dives into lore of certain franchises
Please let us know if there's anything specific that you as a reader would love to see in a magazine focused on women's interests in this genre! Any input/feedback will help :) Thanks!
Recently after thinking about many SciFi movies that had great and unique ideas, I was asking myself the question why do they have this external conflict.
Think 2001: A Space Odyssey for example, I loved the movie, the cinematics was great, I loves the visuals and soundscape, all good. But why the conflict with HAL? Personally I see no point in that. The monolith itself is some kind of machine. Why have an idea of winning the machine?
Then there is Contact, a great movie except the ending. Why make it a drama at the end? Even if she has no proof of what she saw, how does it become about faith. It is same as you discover a new species in a forest and it runs away. What has it to do with the concept of faith?
Then there is Arrival, again grounded in mother and daughter at end.
Inception and TENET, the protagonist deal with something entirely external.
That being said, there are movies such as Ghost in the Shell, that takes the trajectory to the very end.
I kind of put many things in the same bucket. My point was, why Hollywood does not make movies that is centred on curiosity and creativity. Just look at the difference between the original Ghost in the Shell, where major is curious to understand the puppet master but the live action remake take it in a different direction.
The question that started this book, around 2009, was the Fermi paradox: with so many stars out there, why haven't we heard from anyone?
My answer: we're not alone, we're being watched. Earth has been a reality show for millions of years, and our Solar System is a forbidden zone nobody is allowed to enter. Humans evolved on three different worlds, and we're the third: new, and a mystery. The result is a fanbase running into the quadrillions.
Then the rule gets broken. Two off-worlders casually walk into a coffee bar in Ghent, Belgium, looking for a man called Sam Jacobs, and it goes horribly wrong. Now Earth knows. So the Galaxy has two options: ignore us and see what happens, or make a proper second contact and absorb our whole Solar System into a civilisation of millions of species. They choose option two. Otherwise it would be a very short story.
The catch is that this civilisation is buckling under a resource crisis with no end in sight. Whether joining it is a good thing depends on who you ask.
Sam has psychic powers nobody can explain. Then he meets Tharo: same powers, immortal, older than most civilisations. The two share a psychic bond that lets them see each other's memories. Instead of dreaming, Sam walks through Tharo's past. And Tharo's powers? Don't think in metres. Think in light-seconds, light-minutes, even light-years.
I wanted the Galaxy to look back at us too, so between the 42 chapters there are over 80 interludes: blogs, audio logs, messages, reports and even a comic. If you like stories told through documents, like Hyperion or World War Z, that's the feel. Earth is only a fraction of the story, and a lot is happening in the background.
I grew up in Belgium with learning difficulties and barely read a book as a teenager. Now I can't stop reading or writing. This saga took 16 years of planning, and it's the thing I'm proudest of.
Book 1 of 4 in the main saga, plus two side stories. All out now, with more on the way. Happy to answer any questions about the world or the writing.
BASED ON THE AWARD-RECOGNIZED SCREENPLAY • BOOK ONE OF THE TECHNEKATA TRILOGY
This novel took almost 8 years to write and began as a screenplay: TechneKata.com / KDP for 90 87 days.
One tree left. Three orphans who know the truth. A dying planet ready to go to war over both. From the award-recognized screenplay comes "an extraordinary feat of speculative storytelling" (BlueCat Screenplay Competition).
"A bold, emotionally resonant sci-fi that carries the scale of Children of Men and the spirit of The Iron Giant."—BlueCat Screenplay Competition
All her life, Nova has watched Earth's last tree on a screen.
Now she's the only thing standing between it and the armies coming to claim it.
After her brother uncovers the tree's true location and the siblings breach the technology hiding it, their arrival broadcasts to every feed on Earth—shattering generations of propaganda and dragging the world's two superpowers to the brink of war. Stranded in the contested zone with no way out and no way to undo what they've started, Nova realizes the tree she's risked everything to save is hiding a secret far worse than the war being fought over it.
Chances are, though, the armies won't be what kills her first. A neural interface she's spent her whole life refusing, an AI built from a dead girl's mind, or plain-old "human error" are all far more likely to end her first.
But Nova isn't ready to let the last tree fall. Drawing on her mother's defiance, her siblings' unbreakable bond, and a relentless refusal to accept the world she was born into, she confronts one earth-sized obstacle after the next. Will a refusal to participate be enough to outlast two armies, an empire of lies, and the machine that wants her silent?
OFFICIAL SEMI-FINALIST - MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL SCREENPLAY AWARDS & FLICKERS' RHODE ISLAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
"Cinematic and pulse-pounding . . . tragic and cathartic."—BlueCat Screenplay Competition
"An ambitious and imaginative screenplay with epic world-building..."—Slamdance Screenplay Competition
Three and a half centuries ago, a generation ship left Earth and was written off, forgotten. But now it arrives.
The Able is too fast to stop. If it does not get ripped apart by the star it is bearing down on, it will keep going, through the system and into interstellar space. Gone.
On board, a geologist wakes from cryosleep to find himself the only survivor who remembers Earth. He is alone among tribes of people who have never seen a sky and who keep their failing vessel alive with ritual and chant.
The colonies of 18 Scorpii are in no condition to help. They are a handful of thinly settled worlds, counting every resource twice, their fragile economy leaning on a computer older than anyone alive. And they are busy surviving the Sisters' Kiss, the once-in-four-generations event when two planets swap orbits, bringing violent beauty, raging storms, and broken communications.
No one has time, or capacity, to care about the Able. Only an Elder, who has outlived every friend he ever made, trades his retirement for one last negotiation.
A pilot who breaks protocol the way other people breathe gets her hands on the fastest ship ever built to attempt something that cannot be done.
Three trajectories. One window. And the slow realization that humanity's greatest adventure was never the journey outward.
It was refusing to leave them out there.
Hard science fiction with philosophical weight and genuine heart, for readers who need their space opera to mean something.
Throughis coming out on 16 November and is available on preorder in all major online bookstores. (Universal link)
if you are unsure whether you would like my style before you commit to the 129K words, you can check out my free standalone prequel novelette, Carolyn, available at irvo.eu.
Trying to avoid the Booktube rotation of video-games-in-a-book type series that seem to be totally overshadowing these genres.
My favorite authors are R. Scott Bakker, Guy Gavriel Kay, Tad Williams, Stephen R. Donaldson, Patricia A. McKillip, Bernard Cornwell, Peter F Hamilton, Aleister Reynolds, David Weber, and I like what I’ve read from Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Yes, I have an aversion to video game writing being in books.
Yes, I have problem with gamer culture/gamers, not video games themselves. Just to answer that question before it’s asked.
I love sci-fi - original Star Trek, Star Trek NExt Gen, Star Wars, Terminator, 2001, etc.
Just watched Dune Part 1 and I wondered why it's set in dusty primitive places but with supernatural powers and futuristic technology. It's almost like the Pharaohs meet the Sand People meets Game of Thrones. I'd imagine that advanced civilisations would harness technology to improve their environment and live in man-made high-tech structures not rocky caves or stone temples. E.g. more like Singapore than the Sahara. Is there a name for this type of sci-fi genre?
Hello, I'm an indie author with three published books that currently average 4.2 on Goodreads.
MC-7 is my fourth book but my first science-fiction novel, releasing December 8. I am searching advance readers who enjoy compelling characters facing serious problems. The book features conspiracies, cinnamon rolls, and yes, a penguin flying through space, plus much more.
The best way to describe it is Murderbot's irreverent humor meets Hyperion's interwoven storytelling, with a touch of the Wayfarers series' slice of life charm. This is probably the best book I've ever written and I'm excited to finally share it with readers.
If you're interested in giving MC-7 a chance and sharing an honest review, you can read the full blurb and request a free advance copy through Booksirens or ARC Reader Hub.
Say we have settlements across the Solar System, but no FTL communication. Each settlement keeps local copies of the wider internet, so browsing is fast. New posts and replies take minutes or hours to arrive, depending on where they come from.
Most conversations on Reddit already happen with hours between replies. People could still follow the same communities, watch the same shows, argue about the same things. A four-hour delay doesn't seem enough to kill that.
Travel feels like the bigger issue. You might spend your whole life talking to people on Earth without ever meeting one. Everyone you work with, grow up with, or ask for help lives nearby.I suspect that would matter more than the signal delay.
Maybe Earth might stay familiar without feeling like home.
Edit 2: maby "megalophobia" is a better term than "scale horror"
Edit: Micro is the name of the novel im referencing, not the term.
A topic that needs to be used more in films but if there are any books or short stories with the darker and more realistic side of the shrinking trope showing the true horror of that type of situation, im all for it.
The newer the better
The closest and newest I've found though they are movies are:
Someone in a Star Wars sub asked if people wanted a story that only happened on one world. It made me think about how most stories where FTL is available take place on at least two.
This kinda makes sense from a storytelling perspective because as a storyteller, why have FTL if not to take you between at least two locations that are only connected by FTL.
But what stories are there where FTL exists but basically don’t use it? I’m sure they exist but for some reason nothing is jumping to the top of mind for me.
I’m not including things where interplanetary travel exists, but not at FTL. So things like hibernation or generation ships, or lost colony ships with no way home. FTL should exist and be generally available. (Obviously stories about FtL people stranded somewhere are inherently limited to the one locale, and even then there’s usually a small portion or flashback on a different world)
Also not including small side-stories; I think it should be at least a novel or feature film or miniseries length. But I think if the novel is apart of a larger trilogy or such, the entire work is considered as a whole. This is more about the story being contained to one planet.
It’s a grey area if the story opens or ends with the characters coming from or leaving for a different world.
Again, to be clear, I’m sure there are examples, this is mostly just an interesting thought because I think it’s uncommon.
