Others: Mostly positive The year is 2100 A.D.… And Man no longer stands alone in the universe. Now there are other worlds, other living beings. Alien beings who mate in threes and live on pure energy. New breeds of humans who have created their own environment and freed themselves from every social and sexual taboo. Yes, it is the future of new worlds, ever-changing worlds. And yet among them there is still Earth. Earth, where Man still strives to be the best. To advance himself beyond all other beings and their worlds. And this final, glorious step in mankind’s technical progress has been achieved: the discovery of an unlimited, non-polluting energy source. But what seems to be progress may, in reality, end in complete tragedy. Earth’s unlimited energy source is about to trigger unlimited destruction—and the end of a universe.
Genres: science fiction
Lists: …
Vernor Vinge
1999 · 606 pages · 12 reviews
Others: Mostly positiveFrom inside cover Tor First Edition March 1999: Thirty thousand years before the events of A Fire upon the Deep, Pham Nuwen is living in anonymity among the Qeng Ho interstellar trading fleet. In high orbit above the planet Arachna, they wait for the awakening of its dormant population, the Spiders, who have burrowed deep into the planet, awaiting the relighting of the On/Off star their planet orbits. For when light returns, Arachna will at long last explode into a Golden Age of technology and commerce. But the slumbering Spiders' vulnerability has attracted another lurking presence -- the Emergents, a band of traders whose plans for Arachna are more sinister than anything the Qeng Ho could envision. Reluctant to share their spoils with the Qeng Ho, the Emergents unleash an attack unlike any seen in the Qeng Ho's millennia-long history of exploration, reducing their fleet to serfdom... and then to something worse. Reaching into memories so old and painful he can barely recall them, Pham gathers the other "survivors" about him and makes a final attempt to be worthy of a reputation as ancient and storied as the history of the Qeng Ho itself. But time is running out, for soon the Emergents' assault will strip Arachna bare. As Pham's underground resistance cell struggles against its torturers in space, a wondrously gifted clan of Spiders on the planet below fights another battle - to advance their technology quickly enough to defeat their terrestrial foes, and to somehow overcome the invisible enemy lurking above.
What made the match, strongest first
Vernor Vinge
1992 · 613 pages · 19 reviews
Others: Mostly positiveThousands of years in the future, humanity is no longer alone in a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures, and technology, can function. Nobody knows what strange force partitioned space into these "regions of thought," but when the warring Straumli realm use an ancient Transcendent artifact as a weapon, they unwittingly unleash an awesome power that destroys thousands of worlds and enslaves all natural and artificial intelligence. Fleeing this galactic threat, Ravna crash lands on a strange world with a ship-hold full of cryogenically frozen children, the only survivors from a destroyed space-lab. They are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle.
What made the match, strongest first
Arthur C. Clarke
1952 · 220 pages · 9 reviews
Others: Leaning positiveChildhood's End is a 1953 science fiction novel by British author Arthur C. Clarke. The story follows the peaceful alien invasion of Earth by the mysterious Overlords, whose arrival ends all war, helps form a world government, and turns the planet into a near-utopia. Many questions are asked about the origins and mission of the aliens, but they avoid answering, preferring to remain in their ships, governing through indirect rule. Decades later, the Overlords eventually show themselves, and their impact on human culture leads to a Golden Age. However, the last generation of children on Earth begin to display powerful psychic abilities, heralding their evolution into a group mind, a transcendent form of life.
What made the match, strongest first
John Brunner
1968 · 576 pages · 6 reviews
Others: Leaning positive"Originally published in 1968, Stand on Zanzibar was a breakthrough in science fiction storytelling technique, and a prophetic look at a dystopian 2010 that remains compelling today. Corporations have usurped democracy, ubiquitous information technology mediates human relationships, mass-marketed psychosomatic drugs keep billions docile, and genetic engineering is routine. Universal in reach, the world-system is out of control, and we are all its victims...and its creator"--Cover p. [4].
What made the match, strongest first
George Rippey Stewart
1949 · 368 pages · 2 reviews
Others: MixedThe story of rebuilding civilization after a plague nearly wipes out the human race.
What made the match, strongest first
Theodore Sturgeon
1952 · 214 pages · 5 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveFrom the back cover of Del Rey paperback November 1978: The coming of the superman without a superego! Take six people -- extraordinary people. And stir in the melting pot of creation. Take away their human frailties. Burnish their strengths. And create a superman -- Homo gestalt, the last step in man's evolution. Now step back... and learn the meaning of fear!
What made the match, strongest first
MixedIn conclusion, I really, really liked part one. I absolutely loved part two, but I was bitterly disappointed with part three. A score for The Gods Themselves. It goes 8 9 5. And I think if you average that all out, the book itself comes in at a bed 7 out of 10.
Loved itthis was such an incredible alien species that Isaac asov invented for somebody who was one of the big three fathers of sci-fi or whatever he's known as I think this book is criminally underrated I found his characterization to be very good in this story
Loved itthe first of the three parts I think is azimov at his absolute best it's really funny really satirical it's about science and the power dynamics of being a professional scientist and then part two I thought was amazing world building and Alien biology
