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posted by martyb on Wednesday October 03 2018, @03:20AM   Printer-friendly
from the hit-the-hit-books dept.

October: Foundation by Isaac Asimov
November: The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin.
December: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

October's book is Foundation by Isaac Asimov, meaning the collection of 5 short stories first published in 1951. It is the first published entry in the Foundation series.

Please discuss last month's book, Mars, Ho! below if you haven't done so already. You can also suggest books for January 2019. I can include titles that were already suggested, such as in the comments on the poll. We may be able to increase the maximum number of poll options to accommodate more books.

Previously: SoylentNews Book Club is Alive


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 03 2018, @09:39AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 03 2018, @09:39AM (#743313)

    Some SF fans love to say that SF predicts the future, but by reading the "classics" that are now over half a century old, it becomes obvious this is not true.
    If you approach the classics as antique ideas of their time and peculiar to their author, it becomes easier to read them. Old SF is not futuristic at this point.

  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday October 03 2018, @03:51PM (3 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 03 2018, @03:51PM (#743446) Journal

    SF people don't claim that SF stories predict the future. None that I know of, anyway. SF asks questions, instead. The question is, "What if?" As a result of exploring that question, in regards to any number of possibilities, sometimes a SF author DOES "predict" something that eventually happens. Usually, they "predict" possible futures. "What if Aunt Hazel had not married that crazy bastard? Would I still have my cousing, Lori, Corey and Leo? Would I have cousins I like better? Or would I have cousins that I hate worse? Would I have cousins at all?" If it's SF, then the author is asking about something or other that seems possible to him. In the case of this question, he's about to fire up an old, dusty, forgotten time machine, and go find out about his possible cousins in some alternate reality - or something like that.

    • (Score: 2) by kazzie on Wednesday October 03 2018, @05:46PM (2 children)

      by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 03 2018, @05:46PM (#743510)

      In addition to this, I find classic Sci Fi to be an interesting illustration of the past: what questions authors felt needed asking back then, what aspects of contemporary culture needed changing, and what was so natural that it would surely be part of everyday life in the future (e.g. smoking).

      • (Score: 2) by canopic jug on Wednesday October 03 2018, @06:46PM (1 child)

        by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 03 2018, @06:46PM (#743559) Journal

        In addition to this, I find classic Sci Fi to be an interesting illustration of the past: what questions authors felt needed asking back then, what aspects of contemporary culture needed changing, and what was so natural that it would surely be part of everyday life in the future (e.g. smoking).

        The Forever War by Joe Haldeman was a bit like that. It's probably time for me to look at it again and see what still holds up. Certainly there was no faster than light travel by the late 1990s. On the other hand TV, and its online replacement, has become quite fake rather like in the book. There have been quite a few major outlets presenting doctored videos as bona fide during the last year. Some were as simple as skipping a few seconds at a time. Others have been completely synthetic.

        --
        Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 04 2018, @10:07AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 04 2018, @10:07AM (#743967)

          Thank you so much. I've been meaning to go back over that again.
          I'm halfway through the Wheel of Time right now. Perhaps after.