[Results] Book of the Month (August 2023)

https://lemmy.world/post/4136077

[Results] Book of the Month (August 2023) - Lemmy.world

# Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir [https://i.imgur.com/UAezzh8.jpg] We had a pretty good turnout for our first book of the month vote. To be honest I did not anticipate the problem of there being a tie. I took the liberty of flipping a coin which came out heads for Project Hail Mary. In the future I might have to come up with a better method of tie breaking. I’m figuring this out as I go and it is all just for the fun of it anyway so please don’t take this too seriously. 1) Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir [https://bookwyrm.social/book/102060/s/project-hail-mary] - 20 votes 2) Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky [https://bookwyrm.social/book/318855/s/children-of-time] - 20 votes 3) Neuromancer - William Gibson [https://bookwyrm.social/book/886299/s/neuromancer] - 17 votes 4) Hyperion - Dan Simmons [https://bookwyrm.social/book/151613/s/hyperion-hyperion-cantos] - 13 votes 5) Leviathan Wakes - James S. A. Corey [https://bookwyrm.social/book/662565/s/leviathan-wakes] - 13 votes 6) A Memory Called Empire - Arkady Martine [https://bookwyrm.social/book/5273/s/a-memory-called-empire] - 11 votes 7) Wool (Silo Series Book 1) - Hugh Howey [https://bookwyrm.social/book/116789/s/wool] - 10 votes 8) Red Rising - Pierce Brown [https://bookwyrm.social/book/17739/s/red-rising] - 4 votes 9) 22/11/63 - Stephen King [https://bookwyrm.social/book/1035492/s/221163] - 1 vote https://bookwyrm.social/user/ScienceFiction [https://bookwyrm.social/user/ScienceFiction]

Some humble proposals for a few other sci-fi options for the next round that are a bit fresher than Gibson:

  • Venomous Lumpsuckers by Ned Beuman - winner of this years Arthur C Clark award for science fiction, a dark satire environmental disaster page turner touching on cryptobros, greenwashing, carbon credits and short selling late stage capitalism
  • Terraformers by Analee Newitz - another extremely welcome breath of fresh air by Newitz, a sci fi epic spanning millenia also focused on environmentalism and capitalism with her refreshing approach to non-human sentience and fluid sexuality (Check out her “Autonomous” too if you haven’t already!)
  • A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers - beautiful prose and descriptions of a colorful and diverse cast of misfits on a worker class intergalactic highway construction ship. Some of the best descriptions of characters I’ve seen lately and some really interesting aliens.
  • Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi - imo MUCH improved offering from Scalzi over Red Shirts but still his characteristic pop-culture drenched page turner. One of the most face-punchingly terrible antagonists in recent memory.
  • Exhalation by Ted Chiang - incredibly evocative and thoughtful collection of short stories