The Associated Worlds - recommendations

Channel rule: Post once per rec. Things that attract general acclaim will be pinned by the owner or the moderators. Discuss recommendations over in #otherworlds or #random . No pinging for attention; people who want recs can come and look for 'em. One recommendation per post, please. Discussions of recs should be moved to #random . Things posted more than once will be deleted. So will their poster. (edited)

Overmind 10/05/2019 6:31 PM

What do we recommend here? Games, movies, books, Discord servers? Websites? Restaurants? (edited)

If it can be recommended, it may be recommended.

inb4 obligatory Tronzoid In The Black and Eva recs (edited)

recommendations (some of which may already be known): Useful websites: Atomic Rockets (http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/) - Contains lots and lots of info about space, spaceflight, and other sci-fi-y stuff ranging from real tech to Phlebotinum aplenty. Includes both references and sections of texts from disparate fictional works. Web Worldbuilding: Eldraeverse (ha ha) Orions Arm (https://www.orionsarm.com) - hard/firm sci-fi worldbuilding project with quite a lot of detail and work put in. Focuses on the far future, in a world where superhuman intelligences have exponentially improved themselves and created a singularity... six times in a row. Contains painstakingly detailed societies, technologies firmly rooted in real science and physics (with shown work), moon brains aplenty, and more. Authors: Greg Egan (http://www.gregegan.net/) - An author with a focus on mathematics, quantum mechanics, and consciousness, Egans works cover everything from "What if you could control wave function collapse" to "What if there was a entire universe with two dimensions of time". Abandon all hope, ye who fear physics, because Egan has created at least two entire fictional models of physics from scratch and he hasn't stopped yet. Peter Watts (https://www.rifters.com) - Best known for "Blindsight" and the Rifters trilogy, Watts focuses on diamond-hard sci-fi involving biology, neuroscience, AI, and the nature of consciousness. Emphasis on "hard"; Blindsight and some of his other works feature a citation page as long as a entire chapter, listing where he got all of his information and his justifications for putting it in the story. If you want a interesting yet well-grounded picture of the future, touching on concepts and ramifications that you've never considered, look no further. Downside: most of his works are depressing as fuck. (edited)

19:13

Books: Accelerando (https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelerando/accelerando.html, Charles Stross) - A intriguing book that details the progression of the modern world through a technological singularity. Web Fiction: Worm (https://www.parahumans.wordpress.com) - A interesting, and dark, world that builds on and deconstructs the superhero genre, and also dabbles a bit in sci-fi (and horror). Also quite long, with a word count rivalling that of entire book series. With This Ring (https://forum.questionablequesting.com/threads/with-this-ring-young-justice-si-thread-fourteen.8938/) - A fan fiction that drops a reasonable person into the insane and nonsensical world of DC Comics, with a powerful but insanity-inducing Orange Power Ring. A long work featuring a reasonable and rational adult trying to figure out why half of the world has gone insane, why everyone around him insists on wearing brightly colored spandex, and trying to instill some semblance of sanity in a insane world. Fall of Doc Future (https://docfuture.tumblr.com/post/62787551366/stories) - A superhero work starring a astonishingly powerful speedster named Flicker. A rationalist work, it focuses heavily on conflicts brought about by limited information, interpersonal conflict, transhumanistic self-improvement, and a battle between those who can see the future. (edited)

Kissed by a Muse

Stories

W. Dow Rieder - Fiction I will keep this page updated with links to my stories, and to buy them, when the time comes, so bookmark it if you want to be able to check one place to see if you've...

Recommendation: Vignettes of the Star Empire and The Core War and Other Stories by Allistair Reynolds

19:15

Great books :V (edited)

The Pride of Parahumans and Tales of the Para-Imperium by Joel Kreissman are in dire need of reviews.

The Last Angel: https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/the-last-angel.244209/ Humanity is almost exterminated, broken and subjigated under alien species. The Red One, Nemesis, first, last and only AI-powered Dreadnaught of humanity, waged war alone for last two thousand years. But critical point is fast approaching. (edited)

The Last Angel

A new project (one among many) that I'm working on. With winter break here, I hope to be able to devote more time to this series. Comments and...

oh. oh Yes. I will second The Last Angel

She's beautiful, insane and hurting.

I suggest checking out https://joysteak.com/ (edited)

Songbird Symphony by Joysteak Studios

Songbird Symphony is a Disneyesque pixel art musical adventure game that tells the story of a young bird named Birb going on a grand adventure to search for his parents and a place to belong. The game is made by Joysteak Studios, a Singapore-based indie game studio started in...

I imagine lots of people here will have already read (some of) them, but the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett is very good. Fantasy, though, not sci-fi.

The All Guardsman Party. 40k, but the poor SOB’s have to actually live there while working for the inquisition. Incredibly funny, and decently episodic as well. http://www.theallguardsmenparty.com/index.html (edited)

The best way to salvage grimdark is to scale things down to where one person can make a change.

Well said

20:07

But salvage doesn’t do this one justice

might want to provide a link, I have no idea if that's a book, a web series, a comic, a game...

Link added

if we're doing RPG stories, Old Man Henderson is amazing: https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Old_Man_Henderson

Old Man Henderson

I didn't know there was a continuation of that. Thanks.

The Expanse is a TV show on Amazon Prime, based on a series of books written by James S.A. Corey. It is a masterpiece of hard sci-fi, with a great plot, compelling characters, and good realism. Seriously, watch it if you haven't already. It's great.

If you play Eve Online, The Expanse has been described as a docudrama set in the early days of the Minmatar system.

Also, SPACE MORMONS

so who's the Amarr then?

Earth, I presume

Before contact or the acceleration gates.

Last book I finished: Extremely warm and human creepy horror. Yes that is a thing, and it's probably only this author who could have made it a thing. The Twisted Ones, by T. Kingfisher. Was only $7 on Kindle last week.

Updated the pinned channel-rules post.

Overmind 10/18/2019 2:38 PM

Webcomic: https://grrlpowercomic.com/ Neither the humor nor the cheesecake hurts, but seriously, I read it for the worldbuilding.

Book: Nexus Nine by Mary E Lowd. https://furrybookreview.wixsite.com/blog/single-post/2019/09/09/Nexus-Nine-by-Mary-E-Lowd An uplifted cat tries to find her identity after merging with a precursor memory bank that's passed from host to host longer than she can remember. Bit of a "Trek-like" universe, fairly easy to digest, but explores a variation of brain uploading that isn't seen much.

Home | Furry Book Review

Speaking of that sort of brain uploading, A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine is a heady political intrigue set in the heart of an empire enveloping human space. A tiny space station in the empire's path desperately sends out a new ambassador to stave off their annexation and discover what happened to the last one, aided only by an out-of-date memory backup of her predecessor.

Uncleftish Beholding , by Poul Anderson. Science in a Latin-free world! https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/complexity/people/students/dtc/students2011/maitland/fun/

Uncleftish Beholding

Essay written in Anglish (English with all non-germanic words replaced)

oh god

what?

https://critical-hits.com/blog/category/critical-hits/columns/dungeonomics/

Dungeonomics — Critical Hits

11:53

Applying economics to RPG worlds. Much funnier than it sounds.

That reminds me of this Pratchett-wannabe parody of heroic fantasy with modern economics https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O2NDJ2M/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i3

Chris Lester’s The Raven and the Writing Desk fiction podcast just finished a five-part story in a setting where people use low-grade forks for telepresence, but full-time brain uploads are somewhat unheard of. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-raven-and-the-writing-desk/id1016265861

‎The Raven and the Writing Desk on Apple Podcasts

‎Books · 2019

Most of the time it's a science-fantasy universe called "Metamore City" set in a heroic fantasy world that teched up to the cyberpunk age.

Administrative: I'm going to start duping recommendation posts over on the Discourse for greater visibility. Anyone who doesn't want their post duped or would prefer to dupe it themselves, let me know.

Game rec: Frostpunk

20:19

Very well put together city-builder with an interesting premise:

20:20

Sometime in the Victorian Age, Earth decides to go Snowball Earth again and starts killing everybody with the cold

20:20

You must survive with the POWER OF STEAMPUNK

https://youtu.be/qqEpSOFDXGA

11 bit studios

Frostpunk | Official Launch Trailer

20:40

It’s actually really good

Darkish colony management but you can keep the darkness at bay

Yes

Featuring the grit-o-meter!

qntm (writer of Ra and Fine Structure which are pretty good too)'s Antimemetics Division is an SCP Foundation thing dealing with "antimemes". The page conveniently describes an antimeme as "an idea with self-censoring properties; an idea which, by its intrinsic nature, discourages or prevents people from spreading it". Probably not for you if you don't really like the SCP horror-ish stuff, but good if you're into that. http://www.scp-wiki.net/antimemetics-division-hub

Antimemetics Division Hub - SCP Foundation

Oooh, I loved all his stuff back on Everything2

https://www.orionsarm.com/page/596 yeah, Orion's Arm got nice stories sometimes

Gunbuster. Old, sci-fi anime of a world with consistend set of physics not quite our own (Ancient physics of Newton, classic physics of Einstein and modern physics of Tannaeuser) telling the tale of a girl growing up in an age of relativistic time dilation and existential threat to humanity.

In Research Of: https://podtail.com/en/podcast/in-research-of/ Podcast taking a skeptical look at the 1970s show In Search Of

In Research Of – Podcast

The show where we watch the 1970s TV show "In Search Of..." and look at possible explanations the producers didn't consider. – Listen to In Research Of instantly on your tablet, phone or browser - no downloads needed.

10:49

They often bring in actual experts on the episode topics. That Easter Island one could be a useful resource for ways first contact can screw up a civilization, from plagues to disrupting the economy with hats.

The_Girl_Who_Poked_God_With_A_Stick.txt

20.5 KB

12:08

The internet cannot allow anything to die

12:09

And this is a good story

Chernobyl

Just binge-listened to an authorized reading of Legal Systems Very Different From Ours, https://player.fm/series/the-podcast-very-different-from-ours I'd say it's helpful for speculative fiction writers and essential for historical fic (edited)

The Podcast Very Different from Ours

An authorized reading of Legal Systems Very Different from Ours by David Friedman, Peter Leeson and David Skarbek. Citations and footnotes are omitted for clarity, but you can find them in the book at https://www.amazon.com/Legal-Systems-Very-Different-Ours-ebook/dp/B07MTPZVX9

The Last Angel has been recommended right?

04:25

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/the-last-angel.244209/

The Last Angel

A new project (one among many) that I'm working on. With winter break here, I hope to be able to devote more time to this series. Comments and constructive criticism welcome. Table of Contents: Rank structure of the Compact A Citizen's Guide to Space Travel Prologue below C...

Parcast’s “Mythical Monsters” is covering Cthulhu this week. Last week was Changelings.

07:59

I also recommend their episodes on the Kraken, Tanuki, Behemoth, and Nephilim.

https://www.sleeplessdomain.com/

Sleepless Domain

Sleepless Domain is a comic about an isolated city in the middle of a dangerous world filled with monsters. During the day, the city is perfectly safe. At night, however, the populace locks themselves inside as the city streets fill with monsters. The only ones who can combat ...

13:57

Good magical girl comic

I'd like to recommend The Moon's Apprenice, an MLP fanfic. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/196256/the-moons-apprentice

Forthwith

The Moon's Apprentice

Twilight Sparkle failed her entrance exams for Celestia’s school. Worse, she is a danger to both herself and others, resulting in her magic being suppressed. Dreams crushed and now one of the weakest unicorns, a nightmare comes to her.

20:56

Filled with dramatic revelations and questions of identity, memory, and personality death. Stumblng over it completely shot my sleep schedule for a couple of days, I can tell you that.

I can second that recommendation. Except with the caveat that it blew my sleep schedule for at least a year and a half while I chased down all the good writing on that damned site. Stupid writers putting tons of free (and occasionally even good) stuff where I can find it.

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/who-loves-the-sun-jojo-pillarman-si.695968/ This is, as said in the title, a JoJo Pillarman self-insert. Our little SI, Velvet, fights against train stations of canon with all her might. There's a problem with that. A number of problems.

I'm sure you'll love this project. In fact, it is my favorite worldbuilding along with the Orion's Arm and Eldraeverse.

00:35

You can see view it from https://www.reddit.com/user/ardcernius/ (edited)

ardcernius (u/ardcernius) - Reddit

00:35

It also has its own subreddit https://www.reddit.com/r/Infinitum_Ad/ and worldanvil https://www.worldanvil.com/w/ad-infinitum-ardcernius (edited)

r/Infinitum_Ad

Ad Infinitum

Set three billion years after the destruction of Earth, mankind's billion species now live in the shadow of their former kin who became living Gods. The few remaining relevant human players - posthuman demigods and AIs created by ancient empires - continue to play their games ...

(could you clean that Google search result URL?)

Feel free to ask author-I've PM'd with him for almost two years, and he's been very kind and thoroughgoing... as exhaustive as Cerebrate, if not more so. You can use either reddit message and subreddit!

00:38

Of course!

It's a Google search result URL, instead of the URL of the site itself.

00:41

So actually open the site and grab that URL instead of just off the search results page.

Done

thankee

You're welcome!

00:47

I actually did that. I think it is a matter of... selected UPL?

Sometimes the clipboard doesn't behave as you expect. Happens to all of us.

Indeed. Thank you for help!

o7

Three billion years?

09:33

@Endymion That's a more powerful recommend than you think for me. Though

09:34

There's an important caveat

09:35

which is that when including long timescales you have to have some respect for them

09:35

3 billion years is the better part of a supereon

This came up on another server as a resource for military sci-fi. Mostly it seems like a compilation of military fiction and history with some commentary. The articles on super soldiers and mechs vs. tanks are pretty interesting but the one on women in the military kind of rubbed me the wrong way in places http://futurewarstories.blogspot.com/

Future War Stories

A Blog Devoted to Exploring and Explaining the World of Military Science Fiction.

Podcast of sci-fi short stories, current season is a serial about a posthuman AI seeking vengeance for humanity's extinction at the hand of an alien race, and another species' diplomats trying to uncover a galaxy-shaking scandal. https://open.spotify.com/show/0iydLHOV7qx7z8FWsiFhn0?si=RZmO4YgfSQamfylsFEBNyw

DUST - Gunpowder & Sky

DUST is the premier destination for immersive science fiction audio stories.New to DUST? Start with Season Three: CHRYSALIS, starring Corey Hawkins, Toni Collette, and more. New episodes every Monday and Wednesday!Season Three, CHRYSALIS: When an AI awakens after the genocide ...

I remember this when it was but a Reddit short story

yeah, i remember reading it back on HFY. Seems like it's gotten popular!

https://gumroad.com/l/qoheleth-ebook/occ1 A book of the transhuman future following two parallel story threads. One in the 22nd century where users of a new immersive virtual reality system have been spontaneously dropping dead. And the other in the 24th century when a newly uploaded English professor is hired by one of the sim's oldest fork-clades to ferret out whoever uncovered a secret core to their collective identity.

Qoheleth (ebook)

“All artists search. I search for stories, in this post-self age. What happens when you can no longer call yourself an individual, when you have split your sense of self among several instances? How do you react? Do you withdraw into yourself, become a hermit? Do you expand un...

Netflix did an “Alien Worlds” documentary, four episodes. https://youtu.be/2YTYleNFaPE

Netflix

Alien Worlds Season 1 | Official Trailer | Netflix

3

11:53

They've got a high-gravity world with flying grazers and blob monsters. A tidally-locked planet ruled by five-legged tentacle beasts. A binary star system with six-armed monkeys preyed upon by fungi that infect their prey. And a star-scorched world of robots tending brains in jars.

POGGERS

Looks spiffy!

Whoaaaa

the brain in a jar episode is kinda meh and with very small ambitions

@Cornflakes this is true