• Blog
  • About
  • Reviews
  • Great Series Read Project
  • Archive

SciFi Mind

Visions of Future Worlds

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Goodreads
You are here: Home / Archives for human survival

Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky for #SciFiMonth

By John Folk-Williams

Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

By now, I just accept the fact that Adrian Tchaikovsky can write about anything in SFF and do it brilliantly. Children of Memory, which follows the award-winning Children of Time and Children of Ruin, continues this great saga of human evolution and species uplift in multiple star systems. There is a moving and exciting story […]

Filed Under: Great Series Read Project, SciFiMonth, Space Opera Tagged With: Adrian Tchaikovsky, human survival, identity, memory, sentient beings, space colonies, terraforming

Otherlands and More Science Books for Science Fiction Readers

By John Folk-Williams

Otherlands - Science Books for SciFi Readers

Here are three excellent books about science that I’ve found helpful for updating ideas about the origins of life, the nature of the mind and the vanished worlds of extinct creatures and environments that preceded our present precarious moment. Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth’s Extinct Worlds by Thomas Halliday is one of the most extraordinary […]

Filed Under: Science Books for SFF Readers Tagged With: alternate worlds, brain, cognition, evolution, genetic change, human survival, life forms, navigation, species, subminds

A Storm of Wings – A Novel of Viriconium by M. John Harrison

By John Folk-Williams

A Storm of Wings Viriconium

From the beginning of M. John Harrison’s A Storm of Wings (1980), you know you’re entering a shattered world with a diminishing human presence, but it is also a dazzling world captured in densely brilliant and beautiful prose. This second novel of the Viriconium series caught me by surprise. The first, The Pastel City (1971), […]

Filed Under: Fantasy Fiction Tagged With: alien life forms, city, civilization, consciousness, human survival, M. John Harrison, memory, rebirth

Needle by Linda Nagata (Inverted Frontier Book 3)

By John Folk-Williams

Needle by Linda Nagata (Inverted Frontier Book 3)

Needle is the third book in Linda Nagata’s compelling Inverted Frontier series that began with Edges and continued with Silver. This is an epic story of the search for remnants of human civilizations reaching back from the farthest reach of settlement toward the origin of it all. Urban and the crew of the Dragon encounter […]

Filed Under: Indie SciFi, Space Opera Tagged With: alien minds, consciousness, human survival, Inverted Frontier, Linda Nagata, memory, power

These Lifeless Things by Premee Mohamed – A Review

By John Folk-Williams

These Lifeless Things by Premee Mohamed

There is a moment in Premee Mohamed’s brilliant novella, These Lifeless Things, when the narrator, an anthropologist exploring a post-apocalyptic landscape, says in frustration with her “hard” science colleagues that there is more than one way of knowing. That gets to the heart of this absorbing narrative. She has found a treasure in the ruins […]

Filed Under: Post-Apocalytic, Reviews Tagged With: alien life forms, city, human survival, knowledge, narrative, post-apocalytic, science

Inhibitor Phase by Alastair Reynolds – A Review

By John Folk-Williams

Inhibitor Phase by Alastair Reynolds

Alastair Reynolds brings us back to the Revelation Space universe with the magnificent Inhibitor Phase. It’s a story about sacrifice, redemption, rebirth and basic human bonds of friendship, love and loyalty that builds to a powerful conclusion. Now, a confession here. When I started reading science fiction seriously almost 20 years ago, Alastair Reynolds and […]

Filed Under: Reviews, Space Opera Tagged With: Alastair Reynolds, alien life forms, consciousness, human survival, identity, inhibitors, memory, rebirth, redemption, Revelation Space, sacrifice

Subscribe to SciFi Mind Posts



About SciFi Mind

nebula SciFiMind

Something is struggling to be born in this damaged and inspiring world, and I believe science fiction and its speculative cousins are helping us figure out what it is. It’s pushing the imaginations of fiction writers to bend and twist familiar forms to try to capture the forces that are hurling us into a barely conceivable future. This blog is my small way of exploring the half-perceived … Read More about About

Search SciFi Mind

Recent Posts

  • Nine Princes in Amber by Roger ZelaznyNine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny – #VintageSciFiMonth
  • Isle of the Dead by Roger ZelaznyIsle of the Dead by Roger Zelazny – #VintageSciFiMonth
  • Ringworld by Larry NivenRingworld by Larry Niven – #VintageSciFiMonth
  • Do Androids Dream of Electric SheepDo Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick – #VintageSciFiMonth

Categories

Twitter

John Folk-Williams Follow

SFMind

alwsparrow Thank you for following me!!

Reply on Twitter 1621424477350363137 Retweet on Twitter 1621424477350363137 Like on Twitter 1621424477350363137 Twitter 1621424477350363137

Elizabeth Adwoboa Thank you for following me!!

Reply on Twitter 1621288679166689286 Retweet on Twitter 1621288679166689286 Like on Twitter 1621288679166689286 1 Twitter 1621288679166689286

jenny Thank you for following me!!

Reply on Twitter 1620533386765897730 Retweet on Twitter 1620533386765897730 Like on Twitter 1620533386765897730 Twitter 1620533386765897730

Now this is scary: The Space Review: Space-to-ground capabilities are the answer to deterring invasion of Taiwan https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4522/1

Reply on Twitter 1620416035601154049 Retweet on Twitter 1620416035601154049 Like on Twitter 1620416035601154049 1 Twitter 1620416035601154049

Top Ten Tuesday: first encounters in 2022 https://onemore.org/2023/01/31/top-ten-tuesday-first-encounters-in-2022/ via @imyril

Reply on Twitter 1620414490222432258 Retweet on Twitter 1620414490222432258 Like on Twitter 1620414490222432258 1 Twitter 1620414490222432258
Load More...

© 2023 Copyright by John Folk-Williams · Dynamik-Gen On Genesis Framework