/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.11854762]

Are there any first contact novels that even come close to this?

[Anonymous No.11854778]

>>11854762
I don't think so but I'd like to know.

[Anonymous No.11854785]

Yes.

[Anonymous No.11854807]

>>11854762
Do they even make contact with anything? They book it the fuck out of dodge the minute the ship starts waking up and I absolutely refuse to read any of the sequels.
Read pic related if you haven't already.

[El Arcón No.11854819]

>>11854785
great book

[Anonymous No.11854906]

>>11854807
No they don't make first contact with anything but the ship and some machines, but the exploration of the ship made my sense of wonder reach heights I haven't experienced in any other scifi novel. I think it counts.

Contact seems like an interesting book, but I wonder how good Sagan really is as at storytelling and worldbuilding in comparison to his scientific accuracy. I'll definitely read it to find out at some point.

[Anonymous No.11854918]

I remember I had an autistic prof 1st year of undergrad who made us read "dragon's egg" which is a 1st contact novel. it was somewhat physical at least

[Anonymous No.11854979]

>>11854906
>but I wonder how good Sagan really is as at storytelling and worldbuilding
Pretty good. Just power through the chapter where Sagan talks about Ellie's blossoming sexuality.
The movie does an okay job of adapting the book in that it keeps the core of the narrative but because of the constraints of adapting a full length novel to a screen play it cuts out a lot of stuff and compresses the time.
In the book its decades from the first time the signal is detected, to when they even start building the machine, and it's not a one-man craft.
It's also pretty genius the way they reveal the true intent of the whole contact protocol.
The book is different enough that you're not going to be completely spoiled by the movie.
Also check out Stephen Baxter's Manifold books. The first one is about the absence of ayy lmaos and the contact they make is with human descendants at the end of time in a universe where only humans exist. They create a vacuum collapse in out universe to spawn daughter universes where there is more life, which is what the second book is about. The third one is about the down stream humans sending the moon through different universes in the manifold to take samples of all of the alternative-reality humans to study. It's the weakest of the three by far, but a lady does jerk off a cro magnon man, so it's not all bad.

[Anonymous No.11854991]

>>11854979
Manifold Space (The second one) is my favorite of the books.

It’s what got me into the whole space thing. I remember reading it in 2014 like a week before SpaceX revealed dragon 2. Blew my mind and here I am hoping to retire on mars.

Also manifold origin (the third one) sucked. Baxter should’ve just fucking made sequels to the first two. They both end on a cliffhanger

[Anonymous No.11855022]

>>11854991
In the first one the universe is destroyed to create the multiple universes you see in the sequels.
Time pretty much predicted Elon Musk, I mean we're just one genetically uplifted reef cuttlefish trained to operate a space mining rig away from it being real.
I'd also suggest "Odd John" by Olaf Stapledon. It's sort of a first contact, but instead of aliens it's just the next stage of human evolution. It's a really old book, but the way it deals with Odd John is just so bizzare and upsetting and alien that it's definitely worth checking out.

[Anonymous No.11855115]

>>11855022
Got it.

Wait so I’m confused does Malenfant die at the end of Time? Or is he like “reincarnated” as SpaceMalenfant.

Cause I know SpaceMalenfant gets turned into a Gaijin and spends billions of years in agony.

And is OriginMalenfant a separate timeline to SpaceMalenfant?

[Anonymous No.11855250]

>>11855115
He gets his consciousness downloaded into the gaijin and they reconstituted him whenever they needed his drive to keep the grand plan on track, which was diverting the neutron star collision that would sterilize the galaxy during the next cycle of life.
It was too late to deflect the neutron star collision that was dooming the current cycle of life. The end of the book was malenfant "waking up" again as the project was nearing completion and reflecting on the difficulty they had holding everything together.
The idea was that neutron stars colliding and GRBing would sterilize the galaxy periodically, being the solution to the fermi paradox.
By delaying the next event they're giving the next cycle of life a chance to survive long enough to become extra galactic.

[Anonymous No.11855260]

My favorite

[Anonymous No.11855280]

>>11855260
I keep holding out hope for a better english translation of solaris.
I'm half way tempted to learn polish just to read based Lem in the original language.

[Anonymous No.11855301]

>>11855280
Ironically Solaris is the only Lem I haven’t read. Read His Master’s Voice, trust. The translation’s good on that one.

[Anonymous No.11855304]

>>11855301
Its really good, but I've always heard the english translation is sub par. Supposedly the french translation is 10/10 though.
It really captures the absolute alienation of the individual.

[Anonymous No.11855534]

>>11854762
First contact
With an abandoned zoo

[Anonymous No.11855569]

>>11854762
Blindsight by Peter Watts
His Masters Voice and Invincible by Lem

[Anonymous No.11856324]

This thread was moved to >>>/lit/15746970