(Drivebycuriosity) - I love science fiction. But there is a problem - the genre and the term are not protected. Anybody can write anything and call that science fiction; there is no law against that. Unfortunately the majority of the so-called science fiction is just garbage, there is no science in it.
I just tried "Blindsight" by Peter Watts, a book that got nominated for the "Hugo" and other prestigious awards ( amazon). The novel is called hard science fiction, a genre usually based on logic and science. But there is no logic in Watts`tale - and no real science.
The author mixed a hip cocktail of popular themes like identity, consciousness, free will, artificial intelligence, neurology, and game theory as well as evolution and biology ( wikipedia). There are vampires (!) and fancy terms like a "Kurzweil Institute", referring to a famous futurologist. There a bacteria "who thrived with carefree abandon on the skins of space ships". What about vacuum? near zero Kevin? radiation?
Suddenly fast-moving nine-legged aliens appear out of nowhere and shell the earth with "fireflies". For what purpose? Where do they come from? How did they travel so many light years? Apparently Watts tries to impress readers who are not familiar with the genre. I assert that Blindsight may pass as a young adult book (that´s cool, Dude).
If you want to read real science fiction of the 21rst century - written for adults - then you might try Cixin Liu´s "Three Body Problem", the start of the "The Remembrance Of Earth`s Past" trilogy ( driveby). Alastair Reynolds`space opera "Pushing Ice" (driveby ) or James L. Cambias "A Darkling Sea" (driveby ) are also much more worth the time.
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