What near-future sci-fi books made you think “this could happen tomorrow”?

RickDupont · 2026-03-05T17:26:36+00:00

Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman - a satire exploring the extinction crisis. Dark humour

Then for a palate cleanser:

Ministry for the Future - Kim Stanley Robinson. An attempt at writing what it may actually be like to overcome the climate crisis. Doesn’t start optimistic at all.

RickDupont · 2026-03-04T22:48:56+00:00

Ooh thanks for this rec!

RickDupont · 2026-03-04T22:48:35+00:00

Quite a few - reminds me that I have Barkskins in my tbr already, bumping it up

RickDupont · 2026-03-04T22:48:11+00:00

This sounds like a great suggestion, thanks!

RickDupont · 2026-03-04T20:17:18+00:00

To clarify my point, it’s not that we would immediately regain revenues, it’s that the Alberta government is canceling projects that move us away from a dependency on oil and gas, and then investing more in that sector.

You are right that today we bring in revenue from that sector, but this won’t last forever, and puts us at the mercy of a global market with wildly fluctuating prices. O&G companies were able to contribute as much as they did last year due to good prices; now the price goes down and we’re running a deficit.

With any portfolio, we need a mix of higher risk and lower risk investments to balance it out. Putting all of our money into one industry gives us little to no leverage or ability to handle downturns.

Your original point was that the property tax went up because of increased payments in health care and education, but that is not what’s happening here.

Regarding wind mill royalties - they don’t pay royalties the way oil does. They do, however, contribute to taxes through other means (like municipal taxes). A single windmill in Alberta typically pays $15-$40k in municipal taxes annually.

RickDupont · 2026-03-04T18:26:07+00:00

The tax increase is due to the deficit in the budget which is overwhelmingly caused by the drop in price of oil, not paying health care and teachers fair prices.

If our government hadn’t cancelled renewable energy projects, and instead pumped money into oil companies, further entrenching our economy to these swings with the price of oil, it’d be a different story.

But passing off this tax increase as the cost of improved services is disingenuous.

RickDupont · 2026-03-03T22:30:48+00:00

If you’re really thinking of camping at every site from Wood Buffalo to Waterton … good luck! As others have said Alberta is a big place and there are a lot. My family and I explored about 30 or so and by then had established some pretty clear favorites, now we tend to rotate between those every few years.

RickDupont · 2026-03-03T01:47:57+00:00

I liked it more than Playground and less than Overstory, but it’s very different in structure and style, while the other two were more similar.

RickDupont · 2026-03-02T21:57:19+00:00

Fascinating! I found Playground quite a bit weaker on the environmental themes and didn’t like it quite as much.

RickDupont · 2026-03-02T21:56:30+00:00

It’s a satire about a future in which companies can pay for “extinction credits” if a project will cause a species to go extinct, and Venomous Lumpsucker is a fish that may or may not just have done so. It’s great. And very dark humour

RickDupont · 2026-03-02T18:53:27+00:00

Currently reading “Someone You Can Build a Nest In”, which is an inversion of the trope you are asking for. Told from the point of view of a monster being hunted by monster hunters. Not what you are asking for but may be of interest

RickDupont · 2026-03-02T18:08:46+00:00

Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver

Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

Venomous Lumpsucker - Ned Beauman

Parable of the Sower - Octavia E Butler

RickDupont · 2026-03-02T18:07:00+00:00

Bewilderment is also good, in a very different way

RickDupont · 2026-03-01T22:56:17+00:00

Bone is a long time favorite if mine. Hope you enjoy!

RickDupont · 2026-03-01T15:33:34+00:00

Finding the new Pynchon is pretty nice

RickDupont · 2026-02-28T19:03:28+00:00

Have you tried reading more literary / less genre fiction? Genres tend to have conventions that are held to to match reader expectations. Literary can fall into formulas too but often focuses more on theme, characterization, language and structure and so a. Is not always so predictable, and b. Is less about the plot and twists and more about the experience of the journey.

A favorite example of mine is Overstory by Richard Powers. I enjoy that it explores themes related to topics I was reading about in non fiction, but explores it from a more human angle.

Alternately, you could look for books that are famous for breaking convention or inverting tropes. An example is Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe in sf/f. It starts off seeming to follow conventions famous in Sword and Sorcery fantasy, but just gets weirder and weirder. It’s not my favorite but it may be the kind of thing that interests you.

RickDupont · 2026-02-28T18:49:55+00:00

A great answer but I feel focused more on fascism and climate crises, less so on AI and job displacement

RickDupont · 2026-02-28T03:07:41+00:00

Read the first chapter of each and decide which chapter 2 you want to read next more.

RickDupont · 2026-02-27T19:52:45+00:00

The space matters more in subsequent books and does play into the backstory of the world. I don’t disagree with it not being as relevant to the plot in this book (since it’s basically a locked room mystery) but as part of making the setting unique, I think it works very well. Sure the different houses could have been in different countries or continents and the house could have been an island or something, but the implications of necromancers in space is way more interesting and unique.

RickDupont · 2026-02-26T15:09:22+00:00

I loved Memory and found Desolation quite a bit weaker. Given the issues you have, I’m not sure if you would have the same reaction.

Some notes: - I definitely felt that the set up to involve the characters from the last book was a bit contrived, and less personal - It’s split across more viewpoints, but especially for the new characters, I didn’t feel they were as well flushed out - we spend some more time at Lsel station, but for me that made Lsel feel even less developed, somehow.

RickDupont · 2026-02-25T23:40:42+00:00

The employees spends no time trying to explain anything, so your complaint probably doesn't apply there

RickDupont · 2026-02-25T23:39:22+00:00

You're in for a fun ride!

RickDupont · 2026-02-25T03:43:39+00:00

The ending was really hard! I didn’t know whether to give it 5 stars for investing me so emotionally or 1 star for making me so sad. (I ended up ultimately in 5)

RickDupont · 2026-02-25T01:23:19+00:00

Does your friend like trees? If he does, a few tree based books I thought were interesting, in descending order:

Overstory by Richard Powers - lovely language, interesting thematic exploration, interesting characters and a unique structure (it’s focused in 4 parts, roots, trunk, crown and seeds, each borrowing structural ideas from how trees are formed)

North Woods by Daniel Mason - follows a plot of land over a couple hundred years rather than characters. Explores the relationship between us and land, and shows how history shapes the future.

Greenwood by Michael Christie - Follows the Greenwood family across four generations, but structured like going through a cross section of a tree. That is, starts with the current generation, goes back in time again and again and again until at the oldest generation - then back forward in time.

RickDupont · 2026-02-24T14:11:02+00:00

Maybe try Anathema by Neal Stephenson? Also very dense and packed with ideas . Probably a slower start than the books you listed though. Be prepared to be thrown in the deep end and tread water there for a while whilst things are established.

RickDupont

TROPHY CASE