Science Fiction @lemmy.world Grimy @lemmy.world 1y ago

Sentient spiders

I've just finished A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge. It was amazing and coincidentally my two last books where children of time(1 and 2) and (as to not spoil the reveal) a certain book involving spiders/crabs that live in high pressure environment.

I'm thoroughly enjoying the theme I have going on even if it was purely accidental, what would be some good recommendations involving sentient spider to pursue next?

31 comments

Children of time is a fantastic book about intelligent spiders. One of the best sci-fi I've read
- Kid named reading comprehension:
- Wholeheartedly agree. It quickly became one of my favorites.
Rocky from Project Hail Mary is kind of spiderlike
- That's actually who I was mentioning last haha. He definitely fits the bill! I was quite surprised when the author introduced him, I was not expecting it.
  
  I listened to Children of Time (and Children of Ruin) earlier this year. Just listening to PHM now and that was my first thought with meeting Rocky.
  
  I am not a fan of earthly arachnids but space-spiders seem pretty cool IMO
- Not a huge deal, but if you see this message would you be able to put a spoiler around the book title? 👽
I read A deepness in the Sky years ago and loved it, and just today got a copy of Children of Time :)

While not Spider related, A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge is really good. It's sort of the prequel to A Deepness in the Sky.
- I love Fire Upon the Deep so much! Love the slow release of details in those first few chapters that build the world without giving it all away up front! Also thought it was really clever how the author avoids making the book feel quickly dated as tech evolves past what was around when he wrote it, especially around the 'what the internet will be like in the future' bits by focusing more on human behaviour and how we would use futuristic versions of the internet instead of getting to specific about the way the future tech itself works. Cause human behaviour doesn't really change haha.
- While not Spider related, A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge is really good. It’s sort of the prequel to A Deepness in the Sky.
  
  You have that backwards, actually. Deepness in the Sky is the prequel, set about 20k years before A Fire Upon the Deep. Both are good books though!
  
  Ahhh, thanks! It's been quite a while since I read them.
I just started Children of Time and can’t put it down!
- One of my all time favorite books! I love how deep he goes into their culture and communication, as well as the time jumps. The book is fantastic.
Giant alien spiders are no joke!
- jazz hands
One of the alien species in Matter by Iain M Banks is a spider like insectoid.
- I've seen matter recommend on this sub not too long ago, I'll give it a go. Thanks!
If you like frightening giant space crabs, the Prador in Neal Asher's books are great. Absolutely vicious and villainous.
- I'll definitely look into it. I love a good villain. I guess il start with prador moon as per my theme but all his series look pretty interesting after giving his wiki a glance. Thanks!
A Darkling Sea by James L Cambias. Not spiders but I found this one similar to Children of Time in the way the non-human species viewpoints were described. It deals with an underwater species on another planet making first contact with humans.
The aliens in the Three-body Problem trilogy are never described, but the unofficial sequel, Redemption of Time, retroactively describes them as bugs with some hive mind, I think. It's interesting to go back to the trilogy with that in mind, as it really makes a lot of sense.

Dragon's Egg apparently has some hyperintelligent bug-like creatures that live on a neutron star in an accelerated time frame. I hear it's a good book, haven't gotten to it yet.

And I think The Chessmen of Mars has some spider-like things... I.e. aliens that look like spiders with large heads.
- Read dragons egg. It’s a little dated but a great story.
Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement has sentient centipede-like aliens. A very good book even 70 years later.
- Centipede-like seems quite novel, definitely added to my list.
A.A. Attanasio’s The Last Legends of Earth. This book is absolutely bonkers, and I don’t mean that as a slight. It has, among other things, a race of sentient spiders called the zotl which feed off of the pain of sentient creatures. It’s a wild ride.
Have you read It by Stephen King? Not really Scifi but there is a spider in there!
- I've read a couple of his books but never IT for some reason. I'm bound to get back on the Stephen King wagon eventually, I'll start with that one.
  
  Oh man, I totally forgot. Expeditionary Force is so good! Its funny like hitch hikers guide to the galaxy but more modern and the writing is not as clever. But there is a HUGE story arc dealing with super smart spiders. I listened to it and I’m pretty sure it was made for audiobooks first.
Out of curiosity, what is that spoilered book?
- Naming the book would be a spoiler because the spoiler was already described. The only way to not spoil the book is to not know what book it is that was spoiled in the description.
Expeditionary force has spiders as the alpha race of the galaxy. 15 books.

31 comments