A Colder War by Charles Stross.
Discussion prompt: IIRC we've hit a couple Cold War-based stories in the past. Would you say that this one is using the Cold War as a setting to make a statement about that era in any way?
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I’m a sucker for sci-fi unknown phenomenon investigation, and combining that with the Cold War intrigue was a nice touch for the appeal of the piece. I was definitely left with a sense of wanting more exploration into the world, so maybe I’ll have to look into the author’s series that has a similar setting. It’s pretty common to see Cold War fiction sending a “look what destruction we would bring on ourselves” message. Also not the first one I’ve seen mentioning this as an answer to the Fermi paradox (see Fermi and Frost).
Same same same same same same. I LOVE that shit. Slides click through a series of black and white photographs. 'These were taken by our spy planes last night over REDACTED. You'll see they show REDACTED and elements of the REDACTED REDACTED' I don't care what it is I am HOOKED. It's probably why I love the SCP Foundation so much, even if I don't read much of it these days.I’m a sucker for sci-fi unknown phenomenon investigation, and combining that with the Cold War intrigue was a nice touch for the appeal of the piece.
Are you fucking kidding me. One of the complaints sci fi writers generally have about sci fi is the fact that most sci fi fans tend to venerate The Old Gods and by The Old Gods I don't mean all things Lovecraftian I mean the guys who started writing before WWII started. But you know what? There's a reason for that. Charlie Stross sat down at the computer and typed "the sub comes out of the water like a giant yellow bath toy." You know what we oughtta read next? So long as we're reading Mary Sue Lovecraftian fanfic? Who Goes There. One of these authors gives a shit. The other does not. That's a Kindred Horror right there - "a turbocharged, armoured hagfish with side-skirts and spoilers." Stross had the whole of Lovecraft and the whole of batshit '60s nuclear projects to romp among and he can't quite get to the level of excitement of the Dyatlov Pass report. Would I say that A Colder War uses the Cold War to make a statement about that era? I would say that it's an attempt to couch a story in the limits of bureaucracy but the story doesn't so much dwell in an era as it namechecks it. Stross somehow manages to take the Ctulhu mythos and the batshit nuclear era and combine them into something about as scary and interesting as Stephen Universe. I would earnestly like to read some new, good scifi. Bacigalupi may get there. He may not. At least he's grappling with new ideas. Richard K Morgan is trying. He's had a couple bursts of inspiration. Hugh Howey is garbage. Ernest Cline is garbage - Ready Player One is Snow Crash for idiots. And Snow Crash wasn't that great and it was 30 years ago. Bruce Sterling observed that Neuromancer made the impact it did because it was the first sci fi novel to presuppose a future that wasn't a clean-slate rewrite after a nuclear war. And ever since, we've devolved into bleak dystopias where the problems we're dealing with this very minute cause boring, predictable capers wrapped in sci fi capes. Yet somehow Andy Weir couldn't sell The Martian to agents. Harry Potter started a virtual religion because it had wonder. How do you take an era where young men in white t-shirts wandered into cafes on Hollywood blvd to fly secret missions over the USSR in planes that didn't officially exist, cross it with the most evocative horror fiction of the past 100 years and come up with "gigantic yellow bath toy?"The sub comes out of the water like a gigantic yellow bath toy, a cyborg whale designed by a god with a sense of humour.
Yet somehow, through all that reek of human beings and their associates dogs, machines and cooking came another taint. It was a queer, neckruffling thing, a faintest suggestion of an odor alien among the smells of industry and life. And it was a lifesmell. But it came from the thing that lay bound with cord and tarpaulin on the table, dripping slowly, methodically onto the heavy planks, dank and gaunt under the unshielded glare of the electric light.
The thing looks a bit like a weird fish -- a turbocharged, armoured hagfish with side-skirts and spoilers, or maybe a squid with not enough tentacles.
The branches are broken off on the tree itself. Half burnt branches in a hole under the cedar are indicating a makeshift fire. Around the campfire are discovered charred sock and a checked shirt. In the shirt money - 8 rubles. Charred balaclava greenish color. To the north of the fire at a distance of one meter heads west, feet to the east two bodies lie next to each other. Identified by: Yuri Alekseevich Krivonischenko face up, wearing a checked shirt, torn pants. Head thrown back, eyes closed, mouth closed, lips pressed, right arm above his head, left arm bent, the wrist is raised to the chest. Right leg extended, left - slightly bent at the knee. Right foot barefoot on the left wearing a torn brown sock identical charred sock found in the fire. On the back of the left hand skin is missing. Blood between his fingers. Index finger is peeled. The skin on the left lower leg is torn off, blood present. Other bodily injury by external examination is not established.
Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy and Mr. Scott beamed down with Lt. Mary Sue to Rigel XXXVII. They were attacked by green androids and thrown into prison. In a moment of weakness Lt. Mary Sue revealed to Mr. Spock that she too was half Vulcan. Recovering quickly, she sprung the lock with her hairpin and they all got away back to the ship.
I write and speak badly in english. But since I read it, since forever, I consider myself a pretty decent reader. The Colder War, was the first time (since I read the novella shipped with the game Dungeon Master when I was 10), first time, I really doubted my English comprehension. The vocabulary is way above my pay grade
Of course Klein, that's the curse that come with being part of the cultural master of the world, you don't need other language to get some good entertainment. We are not so lucky Humm it look like a hopelessness story... that's not how I like my sci-fi. But I may give it a try. At least Russian usually have an original way to approach written words, in all genre. Thanks for the recommendationYour English kicks the ever-loving shit out of my French
I read it on zebra2 account that the story addressed Fermi paradox. So far I never found Sci-fi addressing my favorite paradox. May be it is not an interesting fictional plot device , or I'm more illiterate than I want to admit. I had some hard time getting through the beginning : I don't like 20 minutes into the future setting. And having famous president (and Saddam!) making an appearance, dont help with immersion. At least, we dont see a "Megacomputer with more than 500 Mo of memory!" , that tend to appear in those settings written 20year ago. My interest raised with the apparition of the alien (because everything is better with alien). It was original to have the Great filter being the inevitable use of alien weapon. But in the end, it's just Nuclear annihilation concept with Bigger sticks I loved the use of alien world as an last ditch escape. Except it totally contradict the point of the great Filter being finding alien world, and using their tech, if we can fly there and start again. The use of Cthulhu mythos Name without Lampshading it, sound uninspired, and is a bit off putting. So, in the end, some Good ideas that dont go well together.. I mean Saddam launching WW3 and Cthulhu over america...If you launch a nuclear head on Cthulhu, he will come back 15 minutes later, and he will be radioactive
So, the 'shelter' they had set up on the alien world is really that, a shelter. People can talk about starting a colony all they want, but it's not going to happen. The world is dry, the air too thin, the sun too dim to really support the kind of high energy metabolism of Earth biology, even if you could make enough changes to the atmosphere. XK-Masada isn't a new Earth, it's just the desert island where last lifeboat washed up.I loved the use of alien world as an last ditch escape. Except it totally contradict the point of the great Filter being finding alien world, and using their tech, if we can fly there and start again.
And having famous president (and Saddam!) making an appearance, dont help with immersion. At least, we dont see a "Megacomputer with more than 500 Mo of memory!" , that tend to appear in those settings written 20year ago. The story's not based in the future, though: it's an alternate history version of the 60's – 80's, which is also why Saddam or "old man Ruhollah" et al make appearances. Why'd period-accurate politicians break your immersion? I had some hard time getting through the beginning : I don't like 20 minutes into the future setting.
Because If a read sci-fi, and it talk about Kennedy, and Saddam, it doesn't quite feel like a fiction anymore... But as I said, I dont like all those alternate reality setting (or it's just the use of famous figure that despise me) nothing specific with these one, just personal taste I like my sci-fi being out there. And I like my James Ellroy books set in the 60' joking about the Kennedy.. I'm a simple mind
I agree with the Cthulu thing totally. Re: the paradox—I can think of a couple that handle it offhand. Fermi and Frost is one I mentioned previously. This one is really more of an alternate history story than sci-fi, but with a chilling sense of realism. Another is The Crystal Spheres, which would be my personal pick for the worst work to win a Hugo. I would love to have a sci-fi club for this one just to rag on it. Every line reads like a Lyttle Lytton entry. Other than that I think it mostly gets mentioned in passing rather than tackled as a main concept because it's difficult to work a narrative around, as you said.
thanks for the links. Crystal Spheres is not that bad. The overuse of portmanteau words get tiring real fast, but the premise (solar system encased in spere) is good. The resolution is a lack luster. At least it got point for giving an happy solution to the Fermi paradox. Unsatisfying happy ending, but at least it is not a gloom unavoidable Great Filter
The most interesting attempt to deal with The Fermi Paradox I know of is the Spin trilogy by Robert Charles Wilson. But if you don't like sci fi, you're not going to want to put three novels worth of effort into it.
I love Sci-fi. Must be the only genre I like. Except.. beside Frank Herbert, I never found some good sci-fi. Asimov is good, but with stupid character sometime. And most of the other, from Dan Simmons to C. Clark , F. Leiber (the one who wrote the same story twice, in 2 trilogy) , Jack Vance, Van vogt (at least, this one is funny for his personal heel face turn ), they all lack constructed clever story.. and as I said, I dont like sci-fi close in the future, like all the cyberpunk sub-genre. Ok Zelazny, get a pass. He is funny with real original setting. Herbert> Zelazny> Asimov > Every one else > K.Dick So thanks for the recommendation. I'll read the summary .... Ok I just read it on wiki Now, I remember!! I read that Book. I should have remember It has the same title in french. I loved the premise. and was disappointed by the solution. On the grip hand, at the time I read it (if I remember well, I took it in my small local library under the Sacré Coeur.. or my modern library in Strasbourg... or I should check in my bookcase if I bought it)... anyway , at that time, I had no idea of the Fermi paradox. But imho, it is still a lackluster resolution, so I never read anything else from the guy. That's the problem: when I love the basic mystery, the author better deliver on the resolution, or I get real pissed. Maybe the 2 others tome are better. Guess I'll never know
Which is interesting because I had a really hard time with Frank Herbert. Spin is a better book than the next two but Spin doesn't really resolve the Fermi Paradox. The other two books do. Right there with ya. That's probably why I hated Three Body Problem so much.That's the problem: when I love the basic mystery, the author better deliver on the resolution, or I get real pissed.
The description of the main character reminds me of Owen Meany.