#paolo bacigalupi
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Bleak and disturbing science fiction reading list
A list of science fiction novels and short story collections with dark themes and gloomy settings. The selection includes dystopias, post-apocalyptic and climate fiction, as well as unsettling sci-fi horror. See the full list on my website for more titles and links to Goodreads and Wikipedia.
#dark books#book recs#book recommendations#reading list#book list#science fiction#sci fi#grimdark#peter watts#iain m banks#alastair reynolds#paolo bacigalupi#harlan ellison
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Cover art by Yasushi Suzuki (Ikaruga, Sin & Punishment) for the Hayakawa edition of The Windup Girl.
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You'll find the other polls in my 'sf polls' tag / my pinned post. I also have a 'fantasy polls' tag and 'fairy tales' tag in my pinned post.
#polls#sf polls#science fiction#on basilisk station#david weber#a deepness in the sky#vernor vinge#the cith and the stars#arthur c. clarke#parabole of the sower#octavia e. butler#octavia butler#the wind up girl#paolo bacigalupi#uses of weapons#iain m banks#iain banks#the lathe of heaven#ursula k. le guin#ursula le guin#anathem#neal stephenson#the caves of steel#isaac asimov
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If she were to scrub for a thousand years she would not be clean, but she is too tired to care and she has grown accustomed to scars she cannot scour away.
Paolo Bacigalupi, The Windup Girl
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Cyberpunk saved science fiction
Paolo Bacigalupi:
Science fiction was stuck in a complacent groove by the 1980s. You could go into a bookstore and find Arthur C. Clarke’s next Odyssey installment or Isaac Asimov’s books about the three laws of robotics. Robert Heinlein was still churning out sex and philosophy.
But despite the efforts of a variety of literary insurgencies, science fiction felt very much like it did 20 or 30 years before. It was a La-Z-Boy-recliner experience of the future. Competent men of science did competent things, aerospace was the coolest tech, and politics revolved around the conflicts of nation states.
Via Cory. Thanks!
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The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi is one of the best books I've read in a while. I'll be thinking about this one for a while, I believe.
It's the first time I've ever read a cyberpunk book that wasn't set in a "cyberpunk setting," and instead this post-modern setting has significantly lesser technoloy than modern day (with the exception of the lasting genetic technology existant in this universe).
This book is a perfect example of what I mean when I say that cyberpunk media isn't so much about a setting, but about having a cyberpunk story. It's not about neon lights and cyberspace and cyborgs, though don't get me wrong, I love that shit too. It's about the story formula, it's about marginalized and impoverished people fighting a system, it's about mega corporations and their dehumanizing practices and monopolies on things that should be a human right.
#by my logic here there are examples of media that is in a cyberpunk setting but fails to tell a cyberpunk story: the matrix. do androids-#-dream of electric sheep / blade runner#the matrix is just dune rebranded in a cyber noir setting masquerading as a tech noir movie and i will die on this hill#paybreposting#cyberpunk#the windup girl#the windup girl by paolo bacigalupi#paolo bacigalupi
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Sometimes I still think about The Water Knife’s ending. Yeah, it was that good.
Maria shooting Lucy over the rights is such a surprising moment, and yet a perfectly logical choice considering all that she has learned so far about the world she lives in; few twists manage to balance shock and narrative coherence so well. The bittersweetness of it all is just the cherry on top of a great novel about climate change and ecodisasters.
#eng#fandomposting#the water knife#the water knife spoilers#paolo bacigalupi#the windup girl is also very good
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There are times when he thinks he understands how the world works, and then, every so often, he lifts the lid of some new part of the divine city and finds roaches scuttling where he never expected.
Paolo Bacigalupi, The Windup Girl
#razreads#book quote#the windup girl#paolo bacigalupi#world#people#politics#queue have a good day now
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Looking at pictures and video of Florida right now, and yup, the Drowned Cities just got real.
#Paolo Bacigalupi reference#Ship Breaker/The Drowned Cities/Tool of War#not QUITE to how it is in the book#but the flooded out cities are real enough#bad enough it's been feeling very#The Water Knife#out where I am
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2024 Release TBR
🏳️🌈 - queer MC 🇨🇦 - Canadian author
⭐️ - BIPOC MC 📘 - have an ARC bold - newly added
The Secret History of Bigfoot - John O'Connor (travel/history) - February 6
Ending the Pursuit - Michael Paramo (sociology) - February 8
Remedial Magic - Melissa Marr (fantasy/romance) 🏳️🌈📘 - February 20
The Butcher of the Forest - Premee Mohamed (fantasy) - February 27
Tomorrow’s Children - Daniel Polansky (post-apocalypse) - February 27
The Deerfield Massacre - James L. Swanson (history) - February 27
The Baker and the Bard - Fern Haught (YA cozy fantasy) 🏳️🌈- March 5
The Tower - Flora Carr (historical fiction) 📘 - March 5
Parasol Against the Axe - Helen Oyeyemi (literary fiction) ⭐️📘- March 5
Those Beyond the Wall - Micaiah Johnson (science fiction) ⭐️📘 - March 12
The Mars House - Natasha Pulley (science fiction/romance) 🏳️🌈 - March 19
The Floating Hotel - Grace Curtis (cozy science fiction) 🏳️🌈 - March 19
The Angel of Indian Lake - Stephen Graham Jones (horror) ⭐️ 📘- March 26
This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances - Eric LaRocca (horror) 📘- April 2
Catchpenny - Charlie Huston (science fiction) 📘- April 9
Dear Wendy - Ann Zhao (YA contemporary) 🏳️🌈 - April 16
A Letter to the Luminous Deep - Sophie Cathrall (cozy fantasy) 📘 - April 23
The Tomb of the Mili Mongga - Samuel Turvey (memoir) - April 16
The Demon of Unrest - Eric Larson (history) 📘 - April 30
The Proper Thing and Other Stories - Seanan McGuire (fantasy) - May 1
The Library Thief - Kuchenga Shenjé (historical fiction) ⭐️ - May 7
The Honey Witch - Sydney Shields (cozy fantasy) 🏳️🌈 - May 14
Every Time We Say Goodbye - Natalie Jenner (historical fiction) 🇨🇦 - May 14
How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying - Django Wexler (fantasy) - May 21
A Gentleman From Japan - Kevin Lockley (history) ⭐️ - May 21
Dreadful - Caitlin Rozakis (fantasy) - May 28
Tidal Creatures - Seanan McGuire (contemporary fantasy) - June 4
Running Close to the Wind - Alexandra Rowland (fantasy) 🏳️🌈 - June 11
Echo of Worlds - M.R. Carey (science fiction) - June 25
The Briar Club - Kate Quinn (historical fiction) - July 9
Navola - Paolo Bacigalupi (fantasy) 📘- July 9
Bury Your Gays - Chuck Tingle (horror) 🏳️🌈 - July 9
Peking Duck and Cover - Vivien Chien (cozy mystery) ⭐️ - July 23
Chaos at the Lazy Bones Bookshop - Emmeline Duncan (cozy mystery) - July 23
Nicked - M.T. Anderson (historical fiction) 📘 - July 23
Last Seen Online - Lauren James (YA mystery) 🏳️🌈 - August 1
The Pairing - Casey McQuiston (romance) 🏳️🌈 - August 6
A Sorceress Comes to Call - T. Kingfisher (fantasy) - August 20
Radiant Sky - Alan Smale (science fiction) - August 27
The Salmon Shanties - Harold Rhenisch (poetry) - September 10🇨🇦
The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society - C.M. Waggoner (fantasy) - September 20
Villain - Natalie Zina Walschots (superhero fiction) 🇨🇦🏳️🌈 - October 1
The City in Glass - Nghi Vo (fantasy) - October 1
Swordcrossed - Freya Marske (fantasy) 🏳️🌈 - October 8
My Kind of Trouble - L.A. Schwartz (romance) - October 8
Shoestring Theory - Mariana Costa (fantasy) 🏳️🌈 - October 8
Sorcery and Small Magics - Maiga Doocy (cozy fantasy) 🏳️🌈 - October 15
The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door - H.G. Parry (fantasy) - October 22
Usurpation - Sue Burke (science fiction) - October 29
The Improvisers - Nicole Glover (historical fantasy) - November 5 ⭐️
October Daye #19 - Seanan Mcguire (urban fantasy) - date unknown
My Love, in Stitches, Vol. 1 - Emily Gossman (contemporary fantasy) 🏳️🌈🇨🇦 - date unknown
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𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐤𝐲 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞
𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐈 𝐰𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤
the temporary nature of life has been weighing rather heavily for the past few weeks... isn't it weird how these men we love are all dead? how their memories have been woven into the fabric of our lives, even if we haven't shared words with them? anyway, may their memories be a blessing and so too shall their souls be righteously judged.
↪ All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque / Frozen Pines by Lord Huron / East of Eden by John Steinbeck / Frozen Pines by Lord Huron / The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi
↪ All photos from pinterest
#hbo war#easy company#band of brothers#dick winters#richard winters#lewis nixon#harry welsh#carwood lipton#edward shames#john martin#Floyd talbert#bill guarnere#joe toye#don malarkey#buck compton#Ralph spina#Eugene roe#babe heffron#edward heffron#joe liebgott#joseph liebgott#george luz#shifty powers#Frank perconte#bull randleman#skinny sisk#warren muck#alex penkala#david kenyon webster
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Machine is Perfect, but Flesh is Free
Act One
Another short story, in four parts. This one has many influences: Paolo Bacigalupi's "The Fluted Girl", @cakeinpants's Pat, chronic pain conditions, and cyberpunk augmentations. This protagonist is unnamed, nonbinary/agender, as well.
This is specifically not a horror story, but due to the mentions of chronic pain and body augmentations, I do advise caution if those things are triggering to you. While the pain is frequently mentioned, the story is told from the perspective of a ballet dancer, and pain is part and parcel of that. None of the body augmentations happen on screen, I promise. They are all years in the past before the story.
Please enjoy!
Act One
“One day, when I’m famous, I’m going to buy you a house.”
The childish voice, vibrating with confidence, echoed the foolish promise in my head, just as it had before every rehearsal and every performance since. I had been barely five years old, and too excited from looking up the mountain at the city - my future home - to sleep. My parents had laughed at my words, and at the time I was so proud that I’d made them happy.
Now, as pain shot through my entire body while someone else tied my performance shoes on, I was well aware they had been trying not to cry. Only years of practice kept my own tears at bay as I was forced out of my wheelchair and to my feet, every muscle and joint in electric agony with the movement. A set of hands pulled my costume over my head and started lacing up the back, while a much more familiar pair held a tool in front of my face.
“Time to turn the little doll’s key,” Urus sneered. The head of my security team thought I was a waste of his time and took entirely too much pleasure in each and every time he was able to stab me with the wicked tool.
I stared numbly at his face as I felt the impacts to each hip joint, silently wishing he would use it on my neck. Instead, all of my pain subsided as the nerve blocks implanted in my bones activated, washing a pleasant numbness throughout my legs and back. The orchestra silenced, indicating that the curtain was about to part, and Urus spat at my feet before leaving the stage.
No broken wrist this time. He was starting to warm up to me.
The next thing I knew was thunderous applause and blinding lights, followed by the swell of music. I fixed the dreamy look on my face that Master Arik expected and started going through my paces with mechanical precision. A modified pas de deux, choreographed for only one dancer, with as much of the partner work left in as humanly possible.
Well. Mostly humanly.
Where most, if not all, of the audience saw a young dancer of incredible skill, Arik was watching only for the slightest flaw he could punish someone for. Any physical sign of the cybernetic or gene-hacking enhancements that gave me perfect stability and balance, textbook ideal form, or disgustingly petite feet would have the entire staff of doctors whipped bloody - after they corrected it, of course. An undisciplined totter on my part, an arm a single degree out of position, and I would be forced to do all my rehearsals with full sensation, even in my mutilated feet.
I was, it turned out, entirely too expensive to break. Torture was still an option, though.
As I made my way through the gravity-defying leaps that replaced the lifts in the sequence, I fantasized about walking barefoot through wet grass. I had done it as a child, I could remember it vividly. Cool, damp, soft blades tickling between my toes as I walked and ran. I would give anything to be able to walk again. Or have toes.
The music started to wind into its inevitable end, and I pulled myself from my reverie. Composing my face, I focused on executing the last bits of footwork without flaw, reveling in what my body could do when I wasn’t in pain. When I completed the performance, picture perfect and stone still, the crowd erupted into thunderous applause.
My teacher had informed me that it was supposed to thrill me, that any other dancers would be thrilled.
I only knew that I would be in pain again within a minute, the closest thing to freedom taken from me again.
Sure enough, Urus was less than a meter behind the edge of the curtain - no encores for this performer - one of his cronies pushing my chair. Roughly, I was inspected for any flaws before being stripped down and perfunctorily stabbed in my hips. Quickly and without complaint, I sat in my chair before the block wore off. Urus even stifled a laugh as the costumer looked offended that I had already shoved my tights down to my knees.
“Sir, she is very uncovered - “
Urus lashed out with a foot, laughter gone. “You are here to inspect their costume for damage that could expose Master Arik. You are not here to be offended.”
I schooled my features into a slow blink only through years of practice. There were no illusions that Urus was getting soft or feeling anything related to sympathy - as long as I existed, he would never see promotion to a position he felt was important. No, Urus was extremely strict that I was property, not a person, and calling me anything else was a quick way to draw his ire.
It was the only thing we openly agreed on, frankly.
As much as we were likely both hoping that my shoes had come apart again - three seamstresses had already lost hands to such failures, and the current one was a sadistic demon - they were disatisfyingly intact. With a grunt, Urus gestured for me to be covered in a thick poncho and we headed to our next stop. Every dip and jostle in the corridors was a new shock of pain, but the majority of them felt familiar. I mapped my locations within Master Arik’s estate by sensation rather than turns: left hip, up through the ribs… tailbone, right knee left knee… “Urus, my feet hurt,” I advised coldly.
He held up a hand to stop us. “What did you say?”
“My feet hurt. My heels, specifically.” My heels hadn’t touched a floor for long enough to even have calluses in nearly a decade, as he was well aware. Even now, they rested above the back of my foot supports as the biological parts of my legs cramped.
No amount of discipline made up for twelve years of constant forced companionship. Two slow breaths for him was the equivalent of practically vibrating with excitement. “We will have the doctor look for any abrasions or bruising at your check up.”
I nodded, and he gestured for us to continue. The doctor gave me a very thorough and impersonal check, scolding my heels before anyone could say anything. He applied a salve and wrapped them, explaining that an analgesic would interfere with ‘the healing’.
“You mean my implants,” I blurted out, impertinently. “Topical only on the feet, but no oral or injected because it could damage the fibers in my muscles.”
“My - “
“Don’t apologize, you aren’t sorry,” I cut him off. “You are doing your job, as instructed, under threat of who knows what. Please, just apply the topical and give a small supply to Commander Urus for whoever is going to be bringing me food while they heal.” Hopefully he was feeling semi-gracious enough to do at least that much.
“Miss, I am not allowed to give you - “
“They did not ask that you give it to them,” Urus growled. “They asked that you give it to me. And last I was aware, I am responsible for all security regarding Master Arik’s property.” He glowered and held out a hand, demanding silently.
A tiny tin of analgesic was dropped in his paw, and I was whisked away fast enough to set every joint in my body on edge. Clenching my teeth, I managed to keep any indication of discomfort from escaping. Only a few minutes later, one of my guards was unlocking and about to inspect my quarters, only to stop short and salute before bowing deeply.
Ice trickled down my spine before she even spoke. “Master Arik, I - “
“No concern, no concern,” came the oily voice as my owner stepped out. “As much as I would love to have our little doll at the reception, we cannot have anyone that close, now can we?” Disregarding any objections he may have received, he stepped forward and leaned close to my face. “Mmm, the newest treatments are working, even this closely. Perfect, porcelain skin.” Standing abruptly, he faced Urus. “The inspections?”
“Nothing visible, even up close,” he confirmed. “Although they do have blisters to their feet. I request - “
Arik waved nonchalantly. “Yes. Please deal with that out of my sight. I cannot have anyone damaging my investment. And you were informed how?”
Urus tried to lie, but apparently I wasn’t the only one who had been biohacked. He grimaced and rubbed his head as he replied. “They told me before we ever reached the doctor, but the doctor confirmed it without prompting.”
Tutting to himself, Arik grabbed my chin and turned my face side to side, observing it. “You never did like this seamstress.”
“I do not put on my shoes, sir,” I replied carefully. “And I do not know who made them. I only know that my heels hurt.”
He seemed to be satisfied, standing straight again and releasing me. “A cool bath, a meal, and then rest. My doll is to have a day of rest tomorrow, as weather permits, as a reward. Commander, I want your best attending me, and everyone else outside this room tonight.” Glancing down at me, he murmured “They have made me very, very rich, and I won’t have anyone taking that away.”
Masterpost Next>>
#machine flesh#cyberpunk#humans are strange#body augment#bio hacking#fiction#science fiction#original sci fi#my fiction#my writing
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Have you read any cli-fi? In my discussion group today we got to discussing how climate activism in action is often missing from fiction (whilst talking about the ministry for the future). Since you are so well read, I figured I'd ask you, if you have come across anything good you could recommend? Thanks in advance:)
I've read a few cli-fi novels yeah, or at least what I think count!
The Wall by John Lanchester
New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson
Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
A lot of Solarpunk stories are adjacent to cli-fi so I've included those:
Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation
Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers
Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Winters
Special mention to Pacific Edge by Kim Stanley Robinson and Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach which are cli-fi adjacent.
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"The problem with surviving was that you ended up the ghosts of everyone you'd ever left behind on your shoulders."
-Paolo Bacigalupi
#Hal Jordan#okay loneliness post cancelled again I might be thinking about survivor's guilt and hal again#Quotes
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Suffering. Pain is the only truth. But it is better for young ones to laugh a while and feel the softness, and if this desire to coddle a child ties a parent to the wheel of existence so be it. A child should be indulged.
Paolo Bacigalupi, The Windup Girl
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hi rot, sorry to hear you have covid! I hope you're feeling better and taking care of yourself. I just wanted to ask you for some book recs? I know you've given recommendations before, but I can't for the life of me find them T_T
can’t believe i lost a whole month to it but i am fully recovered now, just have lingering covid brainfog.
unfortunately i can only point to the old books post, i didn’t get around to reading much last year. if i ever come across the older ones, i’ll add them to the rot recs tag. i am in the middle of a few things but not far enough to recommend them yet (specifically iron widow by xiran jay zhao, titan by mado nozaki, and like a third of everything paolo bacigalupi has ever written gifted to me for christmas). yes i do write how i read, which is ten things at a time until one gets finished)
#rotpeach answers#i am alive!!!!!#ive got a ton of asks to get through and will be going through them super slowly to not get overwhelmed so give me a few days
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