What’s a piece of SF that you just couldn’t get into, even though you feel like you should?

I tried to watch Babylon 5, for instance, and just couldn’t connect to it. I know it’s popular and people love it, but it never hooked me.

Another is The Three Body Problem. I tried reading it after a friend’s glowing recommendation, but I couldn’t get past the first chapter. I even tried reading it in another language in case it was the translation I couldn’t connect with, but the same thing happened.

Both are things I feel like I should like, but just don’t.

  • sethw
    5•1 year ago

    Foundation is probably the best harder scifi going right now, just the idea of the clone kings dawn dusk and day is worth it let alone the prime radiant and foundation itself.

    Raised by wolves is a good one in a similar style, but it got cancelled before it was able to answer the bigger questions of the world building which is frustrating

    • RheingoldRiver
      2•1 year ago

      Wow I had no idea there was a tv adaptation of it! I was talking about the books haha

      • sethw
        2•1 year ago

        ha funny, I’m not a reader so it never even crossed my mind that you weren’t talking about the show. well still, I highly recommend the show!

        • RheingoldRiver
          2•1 year ago

          hey I watched the tv show last night thanks to your accidental recommendation and it’s great!! I was under the mistaken impression that s1 and 2 were all out and s3 was being released so now i’m devastated but I’ll binge s2 as soon as this season is finished and then wait for more haha

        • RheingoldRiver
          1•1 year ago

          Glad you mentioned it though, because indeed I might be interested in a tv version that’s easier to get into than the books.

    • @PineapplePartisan
      1•1 year ago

      Harder sci-fi? It leans hard on religion and philosophy and royal court intrigue.

      I was coming to post Foundation for all those reasons. I wish there were more choices for people who want “hard” sci-fi.

      The last decent one I came across was “Braking Day” by Adam Oyebanji.

      Does anyone have recs for hard sci-fi that doesn’t lean on “magic”?

      • oo1
        2•1 year ago

        there was a conversation on here about Greg Egan the other day.
        thats what i call hard scifi.
        i used to read that at lot and was glad to be reminded to look it up again.
        http://www.gregegan.net/
        permutation city, all the short stories, diaspora, i started on quarantine, still think that’s a cool idea, even if it is improbable (thats a joke, it’s not a spoiler until you observe the story).

        i think i gave up around teranesia which might’ve started to go over my head.
        but reading this group has inspred me to go back and revisit.

        damn ive got to start buying Interzone again.

        edit >>>> link to actual thread: https://lemmy.world/post/1892921
        maybe it was a different group . . .

        • @PineapplePartisan
          1•1 year ago

          Good rec. I’ve already read a bunch of Egan. I especially enjoyed “Diaspora”. Most recently I am revisiting some of the Iain M. Banks “Culture” books. It is refreshing to read about space battles that occur at distance and as fast as the AIs can fight. None of the b.s. of space ships being 200m apart and fighting with WWII era plane tactics. No stupid sword fights. No “going manual” to accomplish the mission. Basically it’s the anti-trope masterpiece and it’s so readable as well.

    • effingjoe
      1•1 year ago

      Raised by Wolves was pretty bizarre. I loved the first season, up until the weird flying worm thing, and second season just seemed off-the-rails batshit insane. haha

      I was definitely intending to watch season 3, though I didn’t really understand what was going on. I’m not completely surprised it was canceled.