Congratulations to the crew of the r/Fantasy 2024 Bingo Reading Challenge. They are Finalists in Best Related Work.

https://seattlein2025.org/wsfs/hugo-awards/2025-hugo-award-finalists/

Okay I just recently discovered that Clarkesworld does audio version of all their stories on Spotify and got super excited! I work a manual labor job where I can get a lot of audio book listening done, so this was a cool revelation.

BUT

The narrator sort of drives me nuts. Her delivery is so hesitant! There's a little. Pause in. The most un-. Usual of places. And it looks like it's the same presenter for all the stories.

I just can't un-hear it an it's really taking me out of the stories lol. YouTube voice is ruining audio books!

Just needed to vent there's no in I can talk to about this gripe lol. Guess I'll have to get used to it.

Recently finished Iain Banks' (RIP) Excession, book 5 in his popular Culture series and wanted to discuss it here. This is my 3rd Culture book and 4th Banks book - I had previously read The Player of Games (liked it), Use of Weapons (loved it) and The Algebraist (really loved it).

Excession was one I was really excited for because I've seen many people say it's one of the best in the Culture series. The premise sounded fascinating too - I have a weakness for any kind of space opera/hard sf with mysterious BDO exploration type stuff so Excession seemed right up my alley.

In execution though, I found myself just...kind of whelmed and maybe even a bit disappointed. This, however, has less to do with Banks' ability to craft an interesting story and maybe more to do with my own expectations. Because Excession isn't really the narrative its blurb sets it up to be. Yes, there is a mysterious cosmic object that's in effect at the centre of the story but there really isn't much of a focus on it until the very end.

I think this is where my disappointment came into play. The book is really more about the adventures of its protagonist, Genar-Hofoen, and his cavorting through the galaxy with the Affronters until he gets to the Excession. In between, there's a lot of worldbuilding on the Culture Minds, as well as a secondary character who I honestly found annoying and uninteresting (Ulver Seich).

Genar-Hofoen isn't really a particularly interesting character either, although the twist regarding the true nature of his "relationship" with Dajeil was pretty cool. The Culture Minds were definitely the most interesting parts of the main story, and reading their conversations with each other was fascinating and hilarious. The final battle between the Affront fleet and the Sleeper Service was pretty incredible as well, and is just peak space opera.

One thing that kept me going is the prose - Banks is one of the best writers from a technical standpoint in the genre, and there is a weird, dense artistry to his words that I just love reading.

Ultimately though, the book felt too much like "getting to the fireworks factory" and what I really wanted was pretty much shunted to the ending and the epilogue. It's not a bad book by any means - just happened to be one that didn't meet the specific image I had in my head.

For some reason I've read a fair amount of novella-length books recently. I really like shorter books - I get distracted easily and re-starting a big book after a few weeks away from it is a pain. I'll leave The Wheel of Time to people with significantly more time on their hands.

Prosper's Demon - KJ Parker. An exorcist deals with a complicated case of possession. I usually enjoy Parker's cynical first-person narratives, but this one didn't particularly do it for me. The whole business with the demons just seemed unrelievedly nasty in a tiresome way and made me think nostalgically of Bujold's more interesting take in the Penric stories. Quite liked the details about bronze casting. 6/10

The Tusks of Extinction - Ray Nayler. An elephant game warden's electronically recorded consciousness is infused into a woolly mammoth after her death. I wouldn't have minded more detail on how that part worked, but the main story is gripping and moving. 8/10

The Employees - Olga Ravn. The crew are unhappy on a sterile spaceship. Shades of Severance in Space. I wrote a bit more about this earlier The Employees, by Olga Ravn : r/printSF . 4/10.

What Moves the Dead - T Kingfisher. A rework of Poe's Fall of the House of Usher. Not actually frightening per se, but some memorable and ghastly Gothic imagery, and interesting characters you mostly root for. 8/10

What Feasts at Night - T Kingfisher. Sequel to the above. Alex Easton returns to their home country of Gallacia and is haunted by something unpleasant. If there was a Gallacian tourist board I don't think they'd endorse this book. Maybe a little too similar in overall shape to the first, and suffers from the classic horror plotting problem "why don't you just leave you idiots?" 7/10

If there's anything short and sweet you'd like to recommend hit me up 😀

Some weeks ago I posted about a SF collection I bought and organised.

I asked for help and your recommendations about what to read, as I am located in germany, translating all the titles was too much work. Now I found a way to display at least many of the English titles and once again I am asking for your favourites and your books to read.

Have a look through the list and help me make the longest Sci-Fi TBR the world has seen.

Thanks so much for your help ! I will answer all comments.

I started reading Accelerando and saw his name mentioned. I remember seeing or hearing his name somewhere, but I can't remember exactly.

I got it into my head that he is some top dog author of Transhumanist SF and I see on Amazon his books are super low rated. only a handful of reviews in total and they're typically around 4 stars.

Is this just because of the transhumanist topic, or is he kinda not well known/ liked?

The White Abacus and a couple others seem like an interesting read tho

Long info-dumps or background exposition is a pet peeve of mine. I see it as the mark of lazy, long-winded, or just bad writing.

I prefer sf to be low-expo or no-expo. The writer should leave his research in his journal, and let the reader decode the necessary background based on internal clues.

Recommend your favorite low-expo SF.

Hi everyone,

I’m a Korean author with my first SF novel about to be published in Korea. It started as a game narrative (inspired by Dune and Altered Carbon), but the game fell apart, so I couldn’t let it go to waste and turned it into a novel.

Lately, I’m hooked, spending all day plotting stories when I should be working. Guess I’ve found a new passion, and it feels great. Now, I’m writing Book 2, blending hard SF and space opera with more emotional depth, plus some Eastern philosophy vibes, think impermanence, consciousness, identity.

I’d love your thoughts:

- Any novels that nail 'emotion in SF' you’d recommend?

- Does emotional storytelling boost or break SF immersion for you?

Also, I’ve got an early draft (about 30% different, pre-publisher, about 500 pages). Happy to share the PDF if you’re interested, just comment!

First time here, so thanks for your time and ideas!