Classic Sci-Fi- Stations of the Tide

For the June Classic Sci-Fi Meetup, we discussed Stations of the Tide (1991) by Michael Swanwick.

The Nebula-award winning novel is a bit difficult to categorize: set on a planet about inundated by massive floods, it follows a nameless bureaucrat as he attempts to recover some stolen technology. There's lots of magic (maybe), as well as chemically/spiritually/virtually altered reality, AI questions, and shape-shifting aliens.

This is a novel that is near and dear to my heart, and I always jump at the chance to hear what people think about it. At Classic, we had decidedly mixed feelings, some really liking it, others really not connecting with it—we generally agreed that it's both really quite weird and extremely well-written, however. Brief notes below!

WC Recap: Does SF Still Affect the Way We Think about the Future?

Does SF Still Affect the Way We Think about the Future?
Adam-Troy Castro, Michael Swanwick, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Cynthia Ward

• Castro: depending on the age of fans, they've lived through SF and come out the other side.
• Is SF still shaping the future we want to see, as opposed to dystopias we want to avoid, or highlighting negative situations we're already caught up in.
• Refrain that we would be return to: where's my flying car? We return to in the sense that: flying cars are impractical, why do we focus futuristic hopes around them?
• Nielsen Hayden makes a great point about SF being not just about whizzy tech. It was and is important for a much larger group of people than scientists, engineers: activists, artists.

Think Galactic- Stations of the Tide

For January's Think Galactic, we discussed Michael Swanwick's 1991 novel "Stations of the Tide".

The novel is set an indeterminate but considerable time in the future. Humans have colonized other solar systems, and our action mostly takes place in the Tidewater region of the planet Miranda, which is periodically flooded. Our protagonist, a nameless bureaucrat, has been sent from the advanced space-borne societies to track down Gregorian, a Mirandan who may have stolen some dangerous replicating technology.

On one level, it's a straightforward science-fictional riff on the noirish detective tale, flavored with some bureaucratic spook business. Despite its relative brevity, though (250ish pages), there's a surprising number of levels here, threads and allusions and alternate plot interpretations constantly seeping in.

So, as you can imagine, a nice discussion. Spoilers below!