Science Fiction

So I am currently rewatching Stargate SG1 and thinking about certain things that always rub me the wrong way when watching or reading SciFi. Now, I know that Stargate in particular doesn't really take itself too seriously and shouldn't be scrutinized too much. It's also a bit older. But there are still some things that even modern SciFi-Worlds featuring outer space and aliens have or lack, that always slightly rub me the wrong way. I would love to hear your opinion.

1. Lack of any form of camera surveillance technology

I mean, come on, the Goa'uld couldn't figure out a way to install their equivalent of cameras all over their battle ships in order to monitor it? They have forms of video/picture transmitting technology. Star Trek also seems to lack any form of video surveillance. (I'm not up to date with the newest series.) Yes, I get that having a crew member physically go to a cargo bay and check out the situation is better for dramatic purposes. But it always rubs me the wrong way that they have to do that. I would just love to see a SciFi-Series set in space where all space ships are equipped with proper camera technology. Not just some vague "sensor" that tells the crew "something is wrong, but you will still have to physically go there and see it for yourself". I want the captain of a space ship to have access to the 200,000 cameras strategically placed all over the ship to monitor it.

2. Languages

I have studied linguistics, learned several foreign languages and lived in a foreign country for a while, so my perspective is influenced by that. I always find it weird when everybody "just talks English". Yes, I get that it's easier to write stories in which all characters can just freely interact with each other. But it's always so weird to me when an explorer comes to a foreign planet and everybody just talks their language. At least make up an explanation for it! "We found this translator device in the space ship that crashed on earth". There you go. I love the Stargate Movie where Daniel Jackson figures out how to communicate with the people on Abydos. During the series most worlds will just speak English, with some random words in other languages thrown in. As someone interested in linguistics I love Stargate for how much it features deciphering languages, though I still find it weird when they go to another world and everybody just speaks English.

3. Humanoid aliens

Especially with modern CGI I would just love to shows get more creative when it comes to alien races. We don't need a person in a costume anymore. Every once in a while you will have that weird alien pop up, but all in all I feel like there's still a lot of potential. Also changes in Human physiology due to different environmental conditions on foreign planets.

That being said, I would also like to mention some SciFi-titles that in my mind stand out for being very creative in this regard:

• The writing of Julie Czerneda is very creative when it comes to alien species. She was a biologist and uses her knowledge to create a wide variety of alien life forms
• The forever war (Without spoiling the end, so I'll leave it at that. Just liked it as a creative take on an alien race so different it's incomprehensible to us)
• I very much appreciate Douglas Adams for the babel fish.
• I also liked The expanse for including the development of a Belter language and changes in human physiology due to different gravity.

What do you think? Do you know any good examples of SciFi-Worldbuilding, that solve some common inconsistencies?

(Edited because it looked weird :P) Also, I rembered one more thing: I have two serious food allergies and I always cringe when I see characters take some random food from an alien civilisation and eat. It's especially bad right now while rewatching Stargate. SG1 just keeps happily eating and drinking anything that is offered and there are so many scenes of them eating without asking much. Maybe it's just because I can't even do that in my own society and am so used to always asking "What is in it? Can I eat it?" Although some shows have good solutions like standard nutrient packs in a military context or food replicators that create any food you want.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mercy_of_Gods

Just watched this on streaming. It's about a young woman who stops aging and her difficulty in maintaining relationships as an ageless person. Blake lively is great in it and Harrison Ford is remarkable. Has anyone else seen it?

Good-looking infographic

In a post a couple days ago in this comm where I asked for book suggestions, Eon was one of the most often recommended ones. As a result, I went into it with pretty high expectations. To my surprise, I didn't like it all that much. I'm bad at putting my feelings down on ~~paper~~ electrons(?), but I'll try to kickstart the discussion.

Please remember, this is my personal opinion and is no more valid than how you feel about the book. If you loved it, more power to you! I'm not here to bash it, rather I'd like to find out what others liked about the book that I might have missed.

What I loved:

• The scale and setting of it. BDOs have had a soft spot in my heart since the days of Ringworld. Imagining an O'Neill cylinder that stretched forever, with links to worlds every several hundred km, was a treat to my imagination.

What missed the mark for me:

• Characterisation. I never really felt connected to any of the characters. None of them were really memorable to me. Considering how much of the story was focused on political happenings and human drama, that was a bit of a turn off.
• Exploration of the technologies / artifacts. Almost everything was introduced with little to no investigation. The exploration of Thistledown (both the city and the asteroid) was done offscreen, and all we see is one character's reaction to being carefully introduced to it all. A lot of stuff was told, not shown.
• Mysticism. The weird sudden focus at the end on ~~souls~~ Mystery, magical divining rods that only obey their master to open portals to new worlds, etc.
• Visualisation. This is probably a 'me' problem, but I just found it impossible to visualise / understand Greg's descriptions of most of the structures.
• Little to no exploration of the future civ (other than some pretty incomprehensible political exchanges) or any of the numerous other alien civs humanity has partnered with.
• Contrived situations. Why did humans have to evacuate Thistledown to move into the Way? Why, after centuries (millenia?) is there only a single city of humans? There's no shortage of resources or space. There's no reason Thistledown and the entire length between it and Axis city couldn't have been occupied, especially given travel speeds. Why is it this very moment where the Jart finally decide to get off their asses and nuke the Way? Why haven't the Naderites already colonised a thousand planets in alternate universes, given their religious beliefs?

Anyway, I'm interested in hearing other viewpoints about the book, now that you don't have to hold back about spoilers. What did you love or hate about it?

As an example, I love the Martian, and I think a lot of older books from authors like Asimov are heavily into engineering / competence porn. Other favs in this category include the standalone novel Rendezvous with Rama to leave you wishing for more, most of the Culture series for happy utopian vibes, Schlock Mercenary for humor, Dahak series for fun mindless popcorn.

Edit: I'm so happy to have found a replacement for r/books and the rest of them.

It's about the end of the year, and I know there will all sorts of lists of the best books published this year, so this is a different question: regardless of when published, which SF books that you personally read this year did you enjoy the most. I'm also asking which you enjoyed instead of which you thought were the best, so feel free to include fluff without shame.

I'll go first. Of the 60+ books I read this year, here are the ones I liked most. No significant spoilers, not in any order.

Children of Time, Adrian Tchaikovsky

• A project to uplift monkeys on a terraformed world, at the peak of human civilization, is sabotaged by people who don't think humans should play god. There follows a human civil war that nearly destroys civilization. A couple thousand years later, an ark ship of human remnants leaving an uninhabitable earth is heading towards that terraformed planet. This is a great book, with lots to say on intelligence, the nature of people, and both the fragility and heartiness of life.

Kiln People, David Brin

• Set a couple hundred years in the future, technology is ubiquitous that lets people make a living clay duplicate of themselves that has their memory and thoughts to the point they were created, lasts about a day, and whose memories can be reintegrated with the real person if desired. The duplicates are property, have no rights, and are used to do almost all work and to take any risks without risking the humans. A private detective and some of his duplicates gets pulled into an increasingly complex plot that could reshape society. This is a thoroughly enjoyable book, with lots of twists, and an interesting narrative as we follow copies who may or may not reintegrate with our detective.

Sleeping Giants, Sylvain Neuvel

• A little girl falls down a deep hole in the woods and lands on a gigantic, glowing, metal hand that's thousands of years old. This is a wonderful alien artifact story with some interesting twists. I really enjoyed this book. Not exactly hard SF, but checks a lot of the boxes for me, including the wonder of discovery.

The Peripheral, William Gibson

• A computer server links the late 2020s to a time 70 years later, allowing communication and telepresence between the two times. A young woman in the earlier time witnesses a murder in the later time and gets sucked into a battle between powerful people in both times. This is a great book; I think I could have recognized it as Gibson's writing even if I hadn't known it in advance. Very interesting premise, engaging characters, and fun without feeling like fluff.

The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin

• A coalition of human planets has sent the first envoy to an icy world where the people are gender neutral and sterile most of the time, but once a month become male or female (essentially randomly) and fertile. This is a classic, written in 1969, and my second reading - the first being in the late 80s. Le Guin creates an amazingly rich world, even with its harsh, frozen landscape. The characters grow to understand how gender impacts their cultures, and the biases they didn't know they had. It's also aged remarkably well for an SF book written 55 years ago. There's nothing about it that feels outdated.

A couple notes:

• If I hadn't stuck to my own "enjoyed" constraint, the list might have looked different. For instance, Perdido Street Station, by Meiville, is a really great book, but there's so much misery and sadness that it's hard to say I "enjoyed" it.

• I hesitated to put The Left Hand Of Darkness on the list, simply because Le Guin is so widely recognized as a great master, and the book one of her greatest, that it seemed unfair. In the end, it seemed unfair to exclude it for such an artificial reason.