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Reading well-written narrative non-fiction has all the benefits of reading fiction, with the added benefit that some (most?) of it is true.

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What are your must-read scifi books besides the obvious ones i.e Gibson, Stephenson, Dune, Ender's, Hitchiker's, etc.? I've been enjoying Asimov and Blake Crouch lately. (Finished The Dark Forest Series late last year). Looking for underrated/ rough diamonds here!

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Have you tried the Three Body Problem? The English is a bit wonky since it's translated from Chinese, and the first book isn't as good as the second, but the trilogy *is* quite good. (It's also refreshing, because it is a *very* Chinese take on sci-fi. Not optimistic.)

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Oh wait, unless by Dark Forest series you mean Remembrance of Earth's Past (which is the name of the trilogy to which Three Body belongs to). In which case, hmm — N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth Trilogy? I'm also greatly enjoying The Expanse, which is due to end next year.

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I was about to order Jemisin before I read her GQ and New Yorker profiles (I like to do a bit a research first to understand the author's social-cultural context); seems she's bring a Cultural Marxist & Postcolonial perspective to "subvert" SciFi tropes - does that sound right?

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I think if you squint you could say that she does bring that view, but it’s not as overt as, say, Heinlein with his ideology in Starship Troopers. Broken Earth is just a good story. (That said, I don’t recommend her earlier trilogy, those aren’t particularly good stories, imo.)

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Two more caveats: 1) Jemisin does bring some narrative innovation into play with the series. (She writes in first, second and third person, and there is a valid in-story reason for it).

8:59 AM · Jun 15, 2020TweetDeck

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2) I grew up in Malaysia, so I read post-colonial narratives into the story. Which is probably why it didn’t bother me — much of the fiction in my part of the world grapples with the after-effects of colonialism.

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Gotcha...I've read and would recommend Rohington Mistry's 'A Fine Balance' if you're interested in something very different. He writes Dickensian stories about people in Bombay, without any decolonial stuff but with very rich character development, but it's not scifi sadly haha

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