Here Be Dragons: Science, Technology and the Future of Humanity

Here Be Dragons: Science, Technology and the Future of HumanityThe title, "Here Be Dragons", refers to the uncharted territories of knowledge and technological abilities, where we might discover unknown threats. The mapmakers of old just hinted at possible dangers, but the message of this book is that we should do our best to prepare for situations where we might hold tools or knowledge that could destroy us.

The Red by Linda Nagata

The Red by Linda NagataHow much of your privacy would you give up to have superpowers? For Liutenant James Shelley it doesn't seem like he has a choice. He is monitored every single moment as long as he is in the army. He also seems to have a source of information that he cannot explain himself, something that makes him feel when there is some imminent danger.

The Red by Linda Nagata is the first book

My Real Children by Jo Walton

We are already in the future. In a future. A high-tech environment, in many ways different from every other earlier part of history. Of course, there were many possible futures, and we inhabit only one of them. Where are the moon bases, for example?

In Jo Walton's My Real Children Patricia Cowan lives in two futures, with two different pasts. The year is 2015, and she is old and confused. It's dementia, but it's also the weirdness and vertigo of two sets of memories of two very different lives. She has three children. Or she has four. There was a bomb over Europe. Or there wasn't.

The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne

The Girl in the Road by Monica ByrneThis is the story of two women and two journeys, of passion and madness and longing for a lost mother. Meena leaves her home in India fleeing from a danger she is sure is coming for her. She tries to make her way over the sea to Djibouti, travelling along a wave power generator that stretches almost all the way. Mariam is also running, a child escaping from slavery and making her way across Africa to Ethiopia.

Lagoon

Lagoon by Nnedi OkoraforAdoara, a marine biologist, Anthony, a famous rapper, and Agu, a soldier who's gotten into trouble for not condoning a superior sexually assaulting a civilian, all met on Lagos' Bar Beach when the aliens arrive on earth.

iD av Madeline Ashby

 iD: The Second Machine Dynasty; Madeline AshbyWho loves all humans, completely and unconditionally, with all of their faults? Some will tell you that God loves us like that. But what if we made robots, to be like us, but hardwired to love and help and serve us?

The Ace of Skulls: A Tale of the Ketty Jay by Chris Wooding

The Ace of Skulls by Chris WoodingThe Ace of Skulls concludes the saga of the Ketty Jay. In the previous three books we have followed captain Darian Frey through a series of disastrous adventures which he has sometimes just barely managed to survive.

The Killing Moon

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N. K. Jemisin - The Killing Moon (Dreamblood #1) Ancient cities. Why haven't we seen more stories exploring ancient cities? They have existed in various shapes and forms for perhaps 10000 years, depending on what you count as a city.

Revenge of the Redshirts (Redshirts, by John Scalzi)

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John Scalzi – Redshirts: A novel with three codasThis book was exactly what I expected it to be. Plus a bit more. In fact I was a little surprised when I put it down, surprised that this turned out to be a story that lingers in my head. I keep thinking about it.

The structure of this novel is a bit unusual, and could have failed completely. But I think it works.

The eagerly awaited 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson

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2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson

Is there a tendency among us humans to always think that our own time is the endpoint of history? An assumption that things are basically going to continue the way they are now, only maybe a bit more polished. Science fiction can bring back perspective, and make us see that perhaps our piece of human history is just one small part.