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March: We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse #1) by Dennis Taylor
Discuss The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein in the comments below.
Fiasco was translated into English in 1988 by Michael Kandel:
Fiasco (Polish: Fiasko) is a science fiction novel by Polish author Stanisław Lem, first published in a German translation in 1986. The book, published in Poland the following year, is a further elaboration of Lem's skepticism: in Lem's opinion, the difficulty in communication with alien civilizations is cultural disparity rather than spatial distance. The failure to communicate with an alien civilization is the main theme of the book.
Previously: Announcement post • Mars, Ho! • Foundation • The Three-Body Problem • Snow Crash
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SoylentNews Book Club - Discuss: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Start Reading: Fiasco
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The world is full of people who have never, since childhood, met an
open doorway with an open mind.
-- E. B. White
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday February 13 2019, @10:53PM
Very interesting. I generally take a dim view of fantasy. Especially when it is perceived as science fiction.
Now there is the stuff where "science fiction", or really technology, is just a back drop. Like Star Wars. It's not really meant to be taken seriously. The heroes and villians could be a Western instead of immersed in technology that they make very little reference to.
Then there is sci fi that has supernatural elements, which I also don't generally care for.
But then there is the "more serious" sci fi. I would compare Star Trek to Star Wars. I'm a Trek guy. But really, it is just a question of where you draw the line on suspension of disbelief. I can suspend my disbelief about transporters, replicators and warp drive. But I can't suspend my disbelief about a planet being made into a sooper dooper death star. And being visible in the sky from another planet in the system, as it moves and prepares to fire. If two planets were that close together their gravitational pull would . . . well, you know. Star Wars is too easy to criticize as "unrealistic" where Trek is "realistic" -- yeah, right.
So I find myself amused by your post where you draw the line maybe even further than I do towards realism. Or plausibility. I definitely agree that good sci fi would have aliens that are not actors in this week's prosthetic make up. That has gotten quite old by now.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.