rec for books with coherent future narratives

[MikeTennant]

hello!

I'm hoping that somebody can help me with a few book recommendations.

I'm looking for stories that have a coherent future narrative that is different from the world we know today. In particular, narratives where the actions that people perform are strongly and consistently aligned with radically new ways of thinking about things and doing things.

For example, Middle Earth has a coherent context (language, extensive history, magic) and the characters play by the rules of that world. Are there analogous sci-fi novels? This could be different presents (e.g. parallel universes), far-futures (e.g. space opera) or something else.

I'm hoping to use this info to develop a research proposal that develops ideas about at how we could think about living in a world where we have to do things differently e.g. climate change, resource depletion, crowded planet.

thanks for any help!

Mike

 

[chrispenycate]

The alternative society is one of SF's four or five principal themes; ther are tens of thousands of different examples, Like Huxley's 'Brave New World', extreme social interaction in Herbert's 'Helleströms Hive', individualism in Heinlein's 'Beyond this Horizon' (and I'm still in the 'H's). Ursula LeGuin (Left hand of Darkness), Anthony Burgess (the Wanting Seed) and Philip Jose Farmer look at human sexuality; Varley, Niven and a host of others explore life extension and its effect on society as a whole. Sometimes aliens are the anvil against which a new humanity is formed (Octavia Butler, 'Xenogenisis', CJ Cherryh, 'Serpent's reach', sometimes technology, overpopulation, apocalypse, pollution, religion, or just social evolution: Cordwainer Smith's instrumentality grew out of change everywhere, nothing specific.

If you require more specific examples of any of these I'd be glad to oblige, but really the field is wide enough I could go on for hours. Better to get some other opinions.

 

[antiloquax]

I agree with chrispenycate - there are a huge number of SF works that might be of interest. Of things that I have read recently, Unquenchable Fire by Rachel Pollack stands out. A fascinating future America in which eveyone lives by mystical religion based on stories told by "The Founders".

 

[psikeyhackr]

Voyage from Yesteryear by James P. Hogan.

Doug's Book Reviews: Voyage From Yesteryear

It would never occur to me to compare it to Middle Earth though.

The Door into Summer by Robert Heinlein

Incredibly readable: Robert Heinlein

This is an interesting case in that the story is now all in the past. But the robots that Heninlen was describing being manufactured in 1970 are being developed now. The Drafting Dan is like AutoCAD that has been around since 1982 years and getting more sophisticated as hardware improved.

psik

 

[farntfar]

Ursula Leguin again. The Lathe of Heaven.
Where the history of the world is changed several times during the story.

 

[Bick]

... ideas about how we could think about living in a world where we have to do things differently ...

Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson?
Riverworld series by Philip José Farmer?

Both good size series of novels that explore mankind's survival, way of life, on other worlds, with different challenges. While quite different from each other, they both have good internal consistency.

 

[MikeTennant]

thanks for all of these suggestions - very much appreciated. I've already ordered a couple that look particularly promising and am planning to head up into the attic and dig out my Riverworld books - very long time since I've read those!

If I could refine my need a little more maybe one or two of these books would stand out:

It's my contention that an immersive narrative (whether in the present or in the future) has to include a big picture concept and link that with the lives of ordinary people, rather than just heroes or one or two main protagonists.

Do any of these books, or any others, describe what its like to be a normal person in what we would consider an extraordinary world? e.g. what its like to get up, go to work (if there is work), what relationships look and feel like etc.? I guess that to us, living in the present, these "ordinary" activities would seem anything but, given that they're predicated on a completely different set of norms, values, perceptions.

thanks again for the help,

Mike

 

[Timba]

This book is essentially about right now and where we are going. I found it disturbing and yet promising. Amazon.com: Manna: Two Visions of Humanity's Future eBook: Marshall Brain: Kindle Store


Also available free here http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm


It is only .99 on Amazon though so price is not a big deal.

 

[Mirannan]

For something so far in the future that it's difficult to recognise, try "Hardfought" - Greg Bear I think. Near future but with one really major change, try the series of Niven books that describe a world in which teleportation is discovered - well, about now actually. It's not the same universe as the Known Space series, incidentally, although it's similar.

Of course, Asimov's robot stories depict a society like ours except... it's not.

BTW, anyone know of a setting in which Orion actually got off the ground in the 1960s, and things went on logically from there? I'd be interested in something like that.

For something a little less exotic, Clancy's Jack Ryan novels depict a world that diverged from ours in maybe 1980 or thereabouts. The USA with competent people in charge...

 

[Timba]

For something a little less exotic, Clancy's Jack Ryan novels depict a world that diverged from ours in maybe 1980 or thereabouts. The USA with competent people in charge...

You made my morning with this comment. Same thought has crossed my mind on more than one occasion.

 

[psikeyhackr]

Oh yeah, economics.

The Space Merchants (1952) by Frederick Pohl

The Space Merchants - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Subversive (1962) by Mack Reynolds
DigiLibraries.com - eBook: "Subversive" by Reynolds, Mack

Cost of Living (1952) by Robert Sheckley
https://senjibqa.wordpress.com/2011/06/17/cost-of-living/

Personally I think double-entry accounting should have been mandatory in our schools since the 50s, the US should have been on a 3-day work week by 1990 and economists should have been lecturing us about planned obsolescence since the 60s.

The Laws of Physics do not care about economics, they do not change every year. For a man to get his ego wrapped up in his car 45 years after the Moon landing is hilariously stupid. I like watching some car commercials because they are so funny. I wonder if more computing power is used to produce the commercial than to design the car.

psik

 

[Toby Frost]

How about Iain M Banks' Culture novels? They involve humans in a pretty different society to ours, although not an unpleasant one. At times the books feel a little like satire of our own world, but Banks never makes obvious comparisons. Dune would also work, I think.

Brave New World and 1984 would probably just about count, too (although I think a lot of well-written SF would).

I suppose there's also Starship Troopers by Heinlein. Personally, I think it's rubbish, but a lot of people love it.

 

[MikeTennant]

hi,
thanks again for all your help with this. After some searching around it turns out that there's a specific sub-genre that seems to fit the bill: anthropological sci-fi.


cheers,

Mike

 

[Ursa major]

The previous poster wanted to link to an article by Jo Walton.

Here's that link.

 

[Timba]

A fascinating future America in which eveyone lives by mystical religion based on stories told by "The Founders".

At least 30-40% of my fellow Americans appear to already be well along on this journey