Others: Overwhelmingly negative All eyes were watching the eclipse of the Moon when the Wanderer--a huge, garishly colored artificial world--emerged. Only a few scientists even suspected its presence, and then, suddenly and silently, it arrived, dwarfing and threatening the Moon and wreaking havoc on Earth's tides and weather. Though the Wanderer is stopping in the solar system only to refuel, its mere presence is catastrophic. A tense, thrilling, and towering achievement. Winner of the Hugo Award for Best SF Novel of the Year!
Genres: science fiction
Lists: …
Robert Charles Wilson
2005 · 364 pages · 3 reviews
Others: Leaning positiveOne night in October when he was ten years old, Tyler Dupree stood in his back yard and watched the stars go out. They all flared into brilliance at once, then disappeared, replaced by a flat, empty black barrier. He and his best friends, Jason and Diane Lawton, had seen what became known as the Big Blackout. It would shape their lives. The effect is worldwide. The sun is now a featureless disk--a heat source, rather than an astronomical object. The moon is gone, but tides remain. Not only have the world's artificial satellites fallen out of orbit, their recovered remains are pitted and aged, as though they'd been in space far longer than their known lifespans. As Tyler, Jason, and Diane grow up, space probe reveals a bizarre truth: The barrier is artificial, generated by huge alien artifacts. Time is passing faster outside the barrier than inside--more than a hundred million years per day on Earth. At this rate, the death throes of the sun are only about forty years in our future. Jason, now a promising young scientist, devotes his life to working against this slow-moving apocalypse. Diane throws herself into hedonism, marrying a sinister cult leader who's forged a new religion out of the fears of the masses. Earth sends terraforming machines to Mars to let the onrush of time do its work, turning the planet green. Next they send humans...and immediately get back an emissary with thousands of years of stories to tell about the settling of Mars. Then Earth's probes reveal that an identical barrier has appeared around Mars. Jason, desperate, seeds near space with self-replicating machines that will scatter copies of themselves outward from the sun--and report back on what they find. Life on Earth is about to get much, much stranger.
What made the match, strongest first
Alastair Reynolds
2012 · 565 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveOne-hundred-and-fifty years from now, the moon and Mars are settled, and colonies stretch all the way out to the edge of the solar system. But something has come to light on the Moon--secrets that could change everything--or tear this near utopia apar
What made the match, strongest first
Arthur C. Clarke
1961 · 224 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveAn early Arthur C. Clarke novel that takes place on the Moon. The setting is a future in which the Moon has become a tourist destination, and one of the attractions is a huge dust bowl on which one can sightsee from a "dust cruiser". Then there's a serious accident...... This is an excellent hard SF adventure.
What made the match, strongest first
Algis Budrys
1960 · 180 pages · 3 reviews
Others: Leaning positiveIt was there on the dark side of the Moon, waiting for the first human explorers to discover it -- an alien formation, a trap for the unwary, a place into which many men would venture but from which none would return.
What made the match, strongest first
Mary Robinette Kowal
2018 · 432 pages · 4 reviews
Others: Mostly positiveOn a cold spring night in 1952, a huge meteorite fell to Earth and obliterated much of the east coast of the United States, including Washington, DC. The ensuing climate cataclysm will soon render Earth inhospitable for humanity, as the last such meteorite did for the dinosaurs. This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated effort to colonize space, and requires a much larger share of humanity to take part in the process. Elma York's experience as a WASP pilot and mathematician earns her a place in the International Aerospace Coalition's attempts to put man on the moon, as a computer. But with so many skilled and experience women pilots and scientists involved with the program, it doesn't take long before Elma begins to wonder why they can't go into space, too. Elma's drive to become the first Lady Astronaut is so strong that even the most dearly held conventions of society may not stand a chance against her. This description comes from the publisher.
What made the match, strongest first
Iain M. Banks
2012 · 517 pages · 3 reviews
Others: MixedSuspected of involvement after the Regimental High Command is destroyed as they prepared to go to a new level of existence called Sublime, Lieutenant Commander Vyr Cossont must find a nine-thousand-year-old man to clear her name.
What made the match, strongest first
Not a fanI don't know if you checked out my other video, but this story starts out really interesting and then just kind of degrades into furry porn in a way that I'm just so lost and incredulous that this was ever published and somehow won this award that I am very confused. It's just it was just awful.
Not a fanthe best thing about it is the cover art with the perky cat lady it's it's over long it was 100 150 Pages too long
