November: The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin.
December: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.
A poll for the January 2019 book will be around the 15th, unless you want it sooner (not sooner than the U.S. midterms).
Discuss Foundation by Isaac Asimov in the comments below.
As for Liu Cixin's best known novel:
"Wildly imaginative, really interesting." ―President Barack Obama on The Three-Body Problem trilogy
The English translation for The Three-Body Problem was published in 2014 by Ken Liu under Tor Books.
Consider using <spoiler>text</spoiler> wherever you feel the need to do so.
Previously: Announcement post • Mars, Ho!
(Score: 5, Interesting) by jelizondo on Sunday November 04 2018, @03:38PM (4 children)
In my mind, reading Asimov is like listening to the old Frank Sinatra records: full of optimism and a can do attitude. Maybe the end of WWII and the many technological advances of the 50s had something to do with that feeling.
There was a sense of wonder and the thrill of the future in the stories of that period, quite contrary to our current pessimistic, dark and nihilistic view of the future.
Of course, there is no denying that our present is perceived as more dangerous, corrupt and uncertain but one would think that such concerns would inspire people to overcome the difficulties and not to slide into a dark dystopia.
As a matter of fact, world-wide, there are less poor people (as a percentage of population), more education and we have access to devices (i.e. cell phones and computers) that were dreams in the 50s, why are we so pessimistic in our stories?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 04 2018, @05:40PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday November 04 2018, @11:09PM
Is economy the purpose of humanity?
The perspective seems to matter when assessing the necessity on humans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Sunday November 04 2018, @10:01PM (1 child)
It might also have something to do with the fact that there was much to be objectively optimistic *about* - in addition to the war being over, in 1950 ~77% of people were better off than their parents, while by 1984 we were down to 50% and falling. Social mobility has died, and today the majority of people can expect to be less well off than their parents, despite the fact that the per-capita GDP has continued to grow.
When the neo-nobility claims new wealth faster than it's generated, the majority of the population has good reason to be pessimistic. Project forward from today's trends, and a corporate-owned dystopia is pretty much what we can expect. That was very much not the case in the 50s
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Monday November 05 2018, @02:05AM
Do you not know that Foundation is a loosely reskinned history of Europe from the last days of the Roman Empire through the Dark Ages and on? The Galactic Empire is Rome. The Foundation adopts the strategies of the Medieval church, then shifts to become like merchant powers such as Venice, and so on.
The Dark Ages was definitely not a time of optimism.