🧵 I lied; not done. The most mind-bending, “think about it all the time”, scifi of the past 5-10 years for me: @adapalmer ‘s Terra Ignota.

It wasn’t in the original 🧵 on 🐦 because it is not an easy set of books for a newcomer to scifi. Reading scifi is a bit of a skill—you have to figure out the puzzle pieces. And Terra Ignota pushes has a lot of pieces, but they are so rewarding.

https://social.coop/@luis_in_brief/111978182314117767

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🧵 Ending on the same note I started the thread, now several years ago: short stories in translation. The thread started with Chinese; these are from Spanish. Unlike the other short story collections I’ve tended to recommend, this one takes a longer view (including some very old pieces), and is a bit academic, so it is a bit more uneven to the modern ear. But still some good stuff in it.

https://www.weslpress.org/9780819566348/cosmos-latinos/

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🧵 Nisi Shawl’s Everfair was great if you’re into alternate histories of power and colonization; I need to read the (recent) second book in the series ASAP.

https://www.npr.org/2016/09/07/490101943/everfair-looks-into-steampunks-dark-heart

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🧵 @AnnLeckie ‘s Ancillary/Imperial Radch series is a great ripping read, and extremely sharp on gender and class. Can’t recommend enough for any fan of “hard” science fiction.

http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/articles/ancillary-pronouns-transgendering-the-imperial-radch-trilogy/

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🧵 From Rivers Solomon, An Unkindness of Ghosts is a grim but well-done take on the traditional science fiction sub-genre of the generation ship.

The Deep is… hard to explain, but powerful and recommended, especially if you’re an experienced reader of fantasy wanting to push your boundaries.

https://rivers-solomon.com/

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🧵 Cairo and New Orleans magico-steampunk? Cairo and New Orleans magico-steampunk! Really like everything I’ve ready by @pdjeliclark. His “The Black God’s Drums” is particularly sharp and idea-driven; his Dead Djinn series is more fun, though still incisive on being an outsider (in keeping with the best detective noir).

https://pdjeliclark.com/books/

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🧵 Indigenous Americans are very under-represented in this list. Only thing I’ve knowingly read in that category is Rebecca Roanhorse's Between Earth and Sky, and it is amaaaazing fantasy, reminiscent of Tolkien or RR Martin. Incredibly rich worldbuilding, compelling characters. Final book in the trilogy just came out, but it is complex enough that I want to re-read the first two before I jump in.

https://rebeccaroanhorse.com/2024/06/09/mirrored-heavens-is-here/

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🧵 Cuban sci-fi? Cuban sci-fi! I can’t say I loved either the works of Yoss (“Super Extra Grande) or de Rojas (The Year 200, A Legend of the Future)—I’d probably only recommend to people looking to go pretty far afield—but interesting and different.

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/galaxy-90-miles-away-view-cuban-science-fiction/

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🧵 These 25 post-dystopias are good (post-! recovery! optimism!) but they are about *beginnings* of recovery. Which also means a lot of grim detail about the recent or still-ongoing dystopia. Powerful in many places but also lots of triggering.

https://www.npr.org/2019/02/09/692484737/new-collection-asks-what-might-the-peoples-future-look-like

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