this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2026
103 points (100.0% liked)

news

24592 readers
540 users here now

Welcome to c/news! We aim to foster a book-club type environment for discussion and critical analysis of the news. Our policy objectives are:

We ask community members to appreciate the uncertainty inherent in critical analysis of current events, the need to constantly learn, and take part in the community with humility. None of us are the One True Leftist, not even you, the reader.

Newcomm and Newsmega Rules:

The Hexbear Code of Conduct and Terms of Service apply here.

  1. Link titles: Please use informative link titles. Overly editorialized titles, particularly if they link to opinion pieces, may get your post removed.

  2. Content warnings: Posts on the newscomm and top-level replies on the newsmega should use content warnings appropriately. Please be thoughtful about wording and triggers when describing awful things in post titles.

  3. Fake news: No fake news posts ever, including April 1st. Deliberate fake news posting is a bannable offense. If you mistakenly post fake news the mod team may ask you to delete/modify the post or we may delete it ourselves.

  4. Link sources: All posts must include a link to their source. Screenshots are fine IF you include the link in the post body. If you are citing a Twitter post as news, please include the Xcancel.com (or another Nitter instance) or at least strip out identifier information from the twitter link. There is also a Firefox extension that can redirect Twitter links to a Nitter instance, such as Libredirect or archive them as you would any other reactionary source.

  5. Archive sites: We highly encourage use of non-paywalled archive sites (i.e. archive.is, web.archive.org, ghostarchive.org) so that links are widely accessible to the community and so that reactionary sources don’t derive data/ad revenue from Hexbear users. If you see a link without an archive link, please archive it yourself and add it to the thread, ask the OP to fix it, or report to mods. Including text of articles in threads is welcome.

  6. Low effort material: Avoid memes/jokes/shitposts in newscomm posts and top-level replies to the newsmega. This kind of content is OK in post replies and in newsmega sub-threads. We encourage the community to balance their contribution of low effort material with effort posts, links to real news/analysis, and meaningful engagement with material posted in the community.

  7. American politics: Discussion and effort posts on the (potential) material impacts of American electoral politics is welcome, but the never-ending circus of American Politics© Brought to You by Mountain Dew™ is not welcome. This refers to polling, pundit reactions, electoral horse races, rumors of who might run, etc.

  8. Electoralism: Please try to avoid struggle sessions about the value of voting/taking part in the electoral system in the West. c/electoralism is right over there.

  9. AI Slop: Don't post AI generated content. Posts about AI race/chip wars/data centers are fine.

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
top 36 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] take_five_moments@hexbear.net 51 points 2 days ago (1 children)

weird how all the popular fiction right now is post apocalyptic huh wonder why

i actually had this talk with some friends the other day: people don't see a better world as possible anymore merely trying to find some semblance of peace sifting through the ashes and that is 100% reflected in the stories we tell

[–] TraschcanOfIdeology@hexbear.net 46 points 2 days ago

This is a tired point to make, but popular fiction is usually about making manifest the contradictions and anxieties of the time it was written in by dislocating them in time and seeing how they play out.

[–] purpleworm@hexbear.net 42 points 2 days ago (1 children)

What do you mean? My favorite subreddit, HumanityFuckYeah, keeps pumping out quality literature on the most epic of pogroms. If anything, it's more sci-fi now that half of it is written by AI!

[–] KobaCumTribute@hexbear.net 29 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The last time I looked it was mostly fantasy isekai slop, with users treating it as like a chapter by chapter web publishing thing except it's reddit posts lmao.

[–] purpleworm@hexbear.net 17 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I didn't realize they were doing harem slop (I've never looked at anything but a few directly linked threads) but I guess it makes sense. It sounds like a trashy shounen manga publication (or perhaps that type of seinen that's really still just meant for teenagers) where you don't even need to be decent at highly procedural drawing.

[–] KobaCumTribute@hexbear.net 12 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I couldn't help myself, and went and looked again. Here are some highlights of the titles from the past week:

  • Everyone's a Catgirl! Ch. 332: Rice to the Occasion
  • Oops! I Accidentally Started an Industrial Revolution in Another World (24/?)
  • [Brian The Isekai] - Chapter 27: Staff Time
  • [Reverse Isekai] A Ninja from 1582 gets stuck in modern Tokyo.
  • The Villainess Is An SS+ Rank Adventurer: Chapter 486
  • There Will Be Scritches Pt.219
  • Villains Don't Date Heroes! 3-25: I Hate Being Right
  • How I Helped My Smokin' Hot Alien Girlfriend Conquer the Empire 2-71: Pre-Ass Kicking Checklist
  • How I Helped My Demon Princess Conquer Hell 27: A Promise To A Pretty Girl
  • Why isekai high schoolers as heroes when you can isekai delta force instead? (Arcane Exfil Chapter 61)
  • Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (158/?)

I do see a lot of titles that sound like sci-fi, but it's a pretty even mix of that and what are clearly fantasy, and there's a bunch of obvious isekais too. A lot of the ones I listed showed up multiple times, too, and three of them are from the same author. I'm assuming a fair bit of it is AI word vomit too, but I really don't want to fry my brain by looking any closer.

[–] purpleworm@hexbear.net 7 points 2 days ago

That really is just an impressive volume of cookie-cutter trash. I do have some sympathy for reverse isekai though.

[–] KobaCumTribute@hexbear.net 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

At least some of it, I think. I'd gone and looked at it again after the thread about the youtube videos that were just AI gibberish stories either lifted from old r/hfy posts or themed after them, and saw a lot of like "Going to a Magic School as a Human in Another World Where There Are Catgirls Chapter 63" (I made this title up because I can't remember the exact one, but I'm riffing on a specific one that was really close to that) sort of posts. Even morbid curiosity couldn't get me more than a few skimmed paragraphs in, between how terrible the writing was and also the fact that that was the actual length of those "chapters" lmao.

I assume there is still some of the old style sci-fi stuff too, but it felt like it had largely shifted away from the old one-off short story form "empty slop to trip up certain emotions relating to fear, pride, loss, and accomplishment" to serialized "empty wish fulfillment escapism" slop. I think I even saw a post complaining about exactly that change in the content lmao.

It sounds like a trashy shounen manga publication

It's like the jankiest, lowest grade imitation of LN web publishing you could imagine. Like I think there are comparable English sites for doing chapter by chapter publishing for webnovels, although they may be less popular than that sort of thing is in Japan, but "a subreddit where you post like 500 word chapters several times a week" is just the worst medium for it.

[–] ElChapoDeChapo@hexbear.net 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Where's the polycule slop that I want? Where's the story where the protagonist has like 5 girlfriends but they each also have their own other partners and the whole thing is really about scheduling with a bit of drama sprinkled in here and there, where's that?

[–] KobaCumTribute@hexbear.net 9 points 2 days ago

I think that's just Watanare, although I don't know where it goes past the first season of the anime because I haven't read it, nor watched the movie/5-episode continuation.

[–] Le_Wokisme@hexbear.net 28 points 2 days ago (3 children)

optimistic SF was killed by 9/11

[–] jackmaoist@hexbear.net 20 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Optimistic SF died with the Soviet Union. Cyberpunk is the only future reality now, atleast for Americans.

[–] InexplicableLunchFiend@hexbear.net 14 points 2 days ago (2 children)

We're not even gonna get cyberpunk, we're gonna get children of men from global ecological collapses and microplastics and shit. We're so cooked

[–] red_giant@hexbear.net 8 points 2 days ago

Best case is Wall-E but the fat blob people are very racist

[–] jackmaoist@hexbear.net 8 points 2 days ago

That's the end game for cyberpunk as well. All Cyberpunk worlds I've seen are heavily polluted undergoing ecological collapse.

[–] InexplicableLunchFiend@hexbear.net 17 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Nah, 9/11 killed the detached and enui filled stories from gen x office workers about how boring and fake and easy their lives were like The Matrix (1999) and Fight Club (1999). After that it either got cheesy/didactic/preachy/patriotic like Transformers/AVP/iRobot or Dark and Edgy like The Bourne Trilogy, Dark Knight, Children of Men, etc.

[–] Arahnya@hexbear.net 6 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Star Trek was killed with the Soviet Union.

I dunno, Ds9 is really popular and highly regarded.

Star Trek Deep Space Nine Runtime : January 3, 1993, to June 2, 1999

DS9 is also not utopian or the same tone as the originals

It was good but not utopian at any point and if i get a dollar for every time i heard "latinum" there i would have more dollars than i ever had.

[–] Pikache@hexbear.net 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Hollywood has never really liked portraying aliens as benevolent beings.

Arrival was pretty good on this, one of the only I can think of

[–] Homer_Simpson@hexbear.net 24 points 2 days ago (3 children)

It is hard to find good scifi books, an it only gets harder as you keep reading more.

[–] Pikache@hexbear.net 5 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Have you tried Children of Time?

[–] Homer_Simpson@hexbear.net 1 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)
[–] AOCapitulator@hexbear.net 1 points 1 day ago

Seconded, fascinating and optimistic series!

I love how much empathy and cooperation is emphasized as the books progress

[–] Formerlyfarman@hexbear.net 1 points 2 days ago

I was going to say this, that author seems to be big right now.

[–] yogthos@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 2 days ago

I find I tend to stick the authors I've liked before. There are a few people writing really solid sci-fi, and I haven't read through all their books yet. For example, I just discovered that Greg Egan published Morphotrophic in 2024. Going to be my next read.

[–] rentasintorn@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You just gotta avoid stuff written by straight white men.

[–] Homer_Simpson@hexbear.net 1 points 20 hours ago

That would just reduce my content pool even more.

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 14 points 2 days ago (2 children)
[–] ClathrateG@hexbear.net 19 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

I haven't read much personally but 3 Body Problem and it's sequels are amazing, best hard sci fi in decades

[–] jackmaoist@hexbear.net 10 points 2 days ago

Dark Forest my beloved

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 12 points 2 days ago

Thanks, I'll check it out! I've heard it mentioned I didn't realize it was from China.

Actually since it's a translation anyway maybe I'll go for the Spanish edition and work on my Spanish lol

[–] fox@hexbear.net 13 points 2 days ago

They keep giving movie deals to Liu Cixin, it ain't pretty

[–] D61@hexbear.net 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Sci-fi or speculative fiction?

This article just seems to be focusing on "science as magic" stuff... which I think of as "fantasy stories where there's space ships instead of dragons". Which, makes sense with the successes of the Game of Thrones and Twilight franchises. Publishers are going to green light more manuscripts with supernatural critters to get horny over and sword swinging hack and slash renfaire setpieces that might have dragons.

[–] yogthos@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 day ago

My experience that it's been increasingly difficult to find any sort of hard sci-fi.