It’s a slightly click-baity title, but as we’re still generating more content for our magazines, this one included, why not?
My Sci-fi unpopular opinion is that 2001: A Space Odyssey is nothing but pretentious, LSD fueled nonsense. I’ve tried watching it multiple times and each time I have absolutely no patience for the pointless little scenes which contain little to no depth or meaningful plot, all coalescing towards that 15 minute “journey” through space and series of hallucinations or whatever that are supposed to be deep, shake you to your foundations, and make you re-think the whole human condition.
But it doesn’t. Because it’s just pretentious, LSD fueled nonsense. Planet of the Apes was released in the same year and is, on every level, a better Sci-fi movie. It offers mystery, a consistent and engaging plot, relatable characters you actually care about, and asks a lot more questions about the world and our place in it.
I think sci-fi writers constantly make their stakes far too high, stack the odds far to heavily against the protagonists, and go for a scope far to broad. I don’t need 3 people to save the entire intergalactic population from a super mega back hole bomb with .002 seconds to spare. I’ve seen it and read it a thousand times.
Give me the guy who thinks maybe his spaceship could take on exploring one planet, tell me what he finds and why it was wise for him to run home and call for extra resources to be redirected to that planet. Tell me how the technology of your imaginary world brought 2 characters together and allowed them to build a beautiful life together.
That’s why I adore The Martian and can’t get excited about Star Wars.
This is exactly the problem I also have with Marvel movies. Once you’ve raised the stakes so far it’s impossible to go back without seeming less than your predecessors. It’s why Iron Man worked so damned well as it was a pretty small, personal story… same for most of the early Avengers movies. Ever since Endgame it seems like everyone wants to either make it even bigger still (???) or challenge these people who have saved literally the entire universe with… emotional trauma? I don’t know… I’ve seriously lost interest.
And the earth apparently is to the Marvel Universe what New York is to aliens.
Yes! This helped me put it together why I like origin stories better than team-ups and other sequels. The quickly switch from one person finding their place to suddenly saving the entire world (of new York City)
Becky Chambers books tend to be pretty low stakes, so you might want to check those out.
Was going to recommend them, and also point out that they go pretty far in the other direction. Once I digested Long Way to a Small Angry Planet and kind of actively decided I was cool with her approach, I really enjoyed her stuff. That first one felt like a bait & switch in the moment, though.
Not read any of her others (yet) but that book is lovely
My other unpopular scifi opinion is I hate Becky Chambers books with the fire of a thousand suns. Like I don’t just not like them, they actually make me angry with how twee they are.
In general I feel that way about any “cozy” books, I also ragequit The House in the Cerulean Sea.
ME TOO!!! I HATE BECKY CHAMBERS SO MUCH!!!
I’ve ranted on /r/fantasy a few times but her books are NOT HAPPY. I don’t know how to post spoilers here yet so I will not say everything I have to say about Becky Chambers, but in particular when you really examine A Long Way To a Small Angry Planet, she advocates for some pretty horrific things, and the ending either is pretty damn tragic or you are a huge giant hypocrite.
The House in the Cerulean Sea was written as a way to okay the taking of Native American children from their parents, so you didn’t miss out on liking it.
I hate-read it for some reason and couldn’t get over how Hallmark sanguine everything was and how much of a bumbling idiot the mc was. Plus, he was gay and I resented his inclusion into queer lit.
Have you read Murderbot by Martha Wells? Because that’s exactly this.
I started listening to it long enough ago that I forgot why I didn’t get very far with it. Maybe should pick it up again, it’s one of those that is always in my recommendations.
If you haven’t seen it, you might like Prospect
If you’re interested in an anime recommendation, check out “Planetes.”
It’s about a scrappy underfunded crew of people that are tasked with keeping the area around Earth clear of debris that could cause issues for spacecraft. It’s relatively low-stakes for sci-fi, but it’s absolutely dripping with personality and drama.
I highly recommend it, even to people that don’t normally watch anime.
You know, typically I would agree with you on this, but without going into spoilers I would highly recommend the book Brute Force by Scott Meyer. It’s got a small group of protagonists with high stakes, but in a hilarious way. Like a “how the hell does this all come down to us?” sort of way that had me rolling the whole book.