r/scifi Oct 19 '25

Community Do not buy T-shirts from any site that's "Powered by GearLaunch"

230 Upvotes

If you purchase from a "Powered by GearLaunch" website:

  • You might receive a terribly low-quality product.
  • You might not receive a product at all.
  • The site is probably selling stolen IP.
  • Don't count on a refund.

We get a few of these scam posts each month.

How the Scam Works

  1. The Bait: The post is a picture of a t-shirt, hoodie, or similar. The OP's account is generally less than a year old and has very little activity.
  2. The Hook: A second account, an accomplice, comments asking where to buy it. The accomplice account is generally less than 3 weeks old with very little activity.
  3. The Pitch: Then the OP links them to a "Powered by Gearlaunch" website.
  4. The Validation: Lastly, another account thanks them and says they bought one. They do this to lend legitimacy to the pitch. These accounts are generally less than 3 weeks old with very little activity.

The domain name is always changing, so you can't tell it's bogus from the link alone. If you click the link, scroll to the bottom. If you see "Powered by Gearlaunch", leave the site immediately.

Do not fall for this scam.

Protect yourself by reading more about it

What to Do

Be mindful that it's possible, though unlikely, the Bait is a legitimate user telling us about their cool new shirt. Use your best judgment.

If you see the Bait, please check the OPs account. If you feel certain the post fits the Bait, please downvote it and report it to us so we know about it.

If you see the Hook, please downvote them and report those to us too.

If you see the Pitch, please downvote, report, and leave a comment warning people away. Report the post and the pitch to Reddit as spam. Thank you, LxRv

Keep your shields up and be safe out there.


r/scifi Nov 19 '25

Community How to write an engaging Self-Promotion Saturday post: an ideal example

24 Upvotes

We want to improve engagement on r/scifi, particularly on Self-Promotion Saturday posts. In addition to inaugurating SPS, we’ve made it clear in the subreddit’s rules that AI ‘writing’ and ‘art’ won’t be tolerated. We’ve also had to implement a 250-character minimum for the text body of posts.

While discussing this with my fellow moderators, I mentioned reading a blog post or two where a guest entry made me want to read the book under discussion. Quoting myself:

Hopefully, the 250-character post minimum will be enough to make the content creators realize we’re actually serious about engagement. They should be bursting to tell us, in their own words, what makes their creation special to them (and they hope, to us). I can think of at least a couple of essays I read on blogs where the guest author took the time to tell readers a little about their book—thereby encouraging me to give their book a try. Content creators posting here on Self-Promotion Saturday should want to make similar connections to a potential audience.

Thinking back on that discussion, I think one of those blog posts to which I referred above might serve as a useful example of why taking the time to engage with the audience you seek is worth it. Using myself reading that guest blog entry in 2011 as an example:

  • I had never heard of this author before—in spite of her career beginning in the 1990’s.

  • I didn’t ordinarily read fantasy, but I was intrigued by the fantasy novel for which the guest author wrote the blog entry.

  • I liked that book so much, I purchased and read the author’s entire back catalog, and the sequels to the book which the blog entry was about. I also began reading more fantasy—like some, I had just assumed it’s all medieval sword-&-sorcery. It’s not.

Relevant to this subreddit, that author later pivoted to including more science fiction in her writing, and created everyone’s favorite neurotic cyborg security unit, Murderbot. I speak, of course, of Martha Wells.

To be clear: I am not saying you must write what amounts to a guest entry in a blog to promote your work here. But you should want to. Without further ado, here’s the blog entry that introduced me to Martha Wells 14 years ago:

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2011/03/15/the-big-idea-martha-wells/


r/scifi 19h ago

Community How does sci-fi tackle the G-Forces required to quickly accelerate to and from any appreciable fraction of light speed?

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1.1k Upvotes

Has there ever been an explanation as to how they might deal with humans in sci-fi media managing the loads on the body making these accelerations, both positive and negative? Not being nit-picky, just wondering if anything you’ve come across has attempted to provide a solution?


r/scifi 13h ago

Recommendations Random pickup at used bookstore

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311 Upvotes

I picked it up at a used bookstore a few days ago and now that I’m done with my most recent read, I thought I’d give it a try.

Anyone here has read it? Is Kloos really as good as Heinlein, Haldeman & Scalzi, as is stated on the back cover?

(No spoilers please)


r/scifi 4h ago

Recommendations So I read 2001: A space odessey

13 Upvotes

I really enjoyed the first 41 chapters of the book, because they stayed as true to science and physics as it could. (Aside from aliens and monoliths) but, the ending was (as we probably all know) very... confusing. I want to know if i should read 2010 or if not (or even if) i should read other sciencey novels


r/scifi 11h ago

General How do you feel about 1 or 2 fantastical supernatural elements being plopped into an otherwise fully science fiction setting?

42 Upvotes

Not thoroughly explained as part of the universe

Not framed as exotic physics or exotic tech

But genuine, supernatural, MAGIC

It doesn’t necessarily get explained enough to defend its existence within the setting, it’s just there

The characters and world does not react to it as though it’s a supernatural and alien phenomena. They treat it as just another fact of life

Would it break your immersion?


r/scifi 12h ago

General C. J. Cherryh books available via Humble Bundle

49 Upvotes

A whole shedload of C.J. Cherryh books, including most of the Foreigner series, her Chanur books, short story collections, and some of her fantasy works, are up for grabs at the Humble Bundle. Thirty-eight (38) books in all for a song, and you support charity as well.

The only drawback I see is that they have "Regenesis", but not "Cyteen", but that's about it.

Link is here.

Oh, and while you're there, check out the Timothy Zahn stuff too...


r/scifi 18h ago

General Just finished children of ruin

55 Upvotes

I don’t get why it’s considered a let down compared to the first book. Sure, the idea is still the same, and some people find it more of a slow burn. But I thought it was just as interesting with expansions into dense information storage capacities of alien parasites and the nuances of technological advancement as an aquatic species. The ending didn’t appear as repetitive for me but more as reinforcements for the core theme of the series as a whole. I mean I might need some breaks into other series like the 3rd book of Hyperion or the Culture series, but I am definitely going to read the sequel to children of ruin at some point


r/scifi 16h ago

Recommendations Media that deals with fixing time paradoxes

19 Upvotes

I'm looking for books/movies/shows that deal with fixing reality after a paradox is created.

What I mean is that in time travel stories, there is often a warning that creating a paradox could alter the fabric of reality or something like that. Are there any solid stories that revolve around finding a way to repair a reality that's coming apart due to a paradox or something similar to that?


r/scifi 1d ago

TV What is your favourite SciFi TV show franchise

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895 Upvotes

Mine is most likely Stargate with a special place in my heart for SG-1 followed closely by Battlestar Galactica. These were franchises I watched often with family as a child and as such keep fond memories of. I would like to expand my horizons however and would like to hear your ideas.


r/scifi 1d ago

Print Just finished this masterpiece and I need to talk about it!

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1.1k Upvotes

I know, I know, this book has been out for nearly 20 years… But I just got around to reading it and WOW! I did not expect to love it the way that I did. The characters, the setting, the pacing…

Total package. What did you think of it? Any recommendations for a next read?


r/scifi 1d ago

Recommendations Buddhist Robots - Bachelor's

14 Upvotes

I'm writing my Bachelor's about robots/ai in buddhism and im looking for any pieces of media, pop culture that have ai/robotic monks or any that reference buddhist practices or lifestyle

I already have : the monks from Stray , Zenyatta from Overwatch , the Becky Chambers novels and Douglas Adam's Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Academy - Electric Monk!


r/scifi 18h ago

Recommendations Looking for a cyberpunk vs human purism story.

4 Upvotes

Do you know of a sci-fi book that's sort of a reversed cyberpunk? What I mean by that is that cyberpunk is usually about widespread cybernetics and biological enhancements being accesible and as socially acceptable as tattoos.

What I'd like to see is a book where the world hasn't yet accepted the concept and is actually fighting for that acceptance. Like a populace that wants to embrace artificial augmentation gets into conflict with a zelous government that tries to outlaw the practice stating that the human form is pure and divine and to alter it through bionic replacements or genetic engineering is a heretical abomination.


r/scifi 2d ago

Print Found these beautiful 70’s Science Fiction Monthly magazines

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1.1k Upvotes

I just bought 24 beautiful sci-fi magazines from the mid 1970’s from a very nice Greek gentleman who has been a sci-fi art lover his whole life. He said he had been a subscriber while he was living in the UK. I think they look amazing and I wanted to share some of the cover art with you all.


r/scifi 1d ago

Recommendations books involving saturn

11 Upvotes

i've been sort of obessesd with saturn and titan lately, i just want books where people go to either of those places or where people live on titan and saturn is in the sky and stuff. any recommendations of any length welcome as long as it's saturn and it's a focal point


r/scifi 1d ago

Recommendations Seeking Recommendations on Sci-fi Books that Ask Good Questions

29 Upvotes

As said in title. I am looking for sci-fi book recommendations. I prefer books that ask good and deep questions. I will also list out some of my recommendations for reference. Thanks!

To me, good questions can be personal (self-esteem/ identity/ friends or family relationships...), social (morality/ cultural differences/ environmental issues...) or more speculative (implications of technological developments/ space-time travel/ totally different alien society...) as long as they are well-thought through and well-discussed.

Books I liked:

- Foundation series & Nightfall (Asimov)

- The three body problem (Lui Xicin)

- Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes)

- The neanderthal parallax (Robert J Sawyer)

- From the new world (Yusuke Kishi)

- 1984 & Animal Farm (George Orwell) if that's also scifi

Books that didn't work so well for me:

- Dune

- Star wars

Books on my bucket list:

- Children of time (Adrian Tchaikovsky)

- Left hand of darkness (Ursula K LeGuin)


r/scifi 2d ago

TV Hot take: Scifi TV series are better than Scifi Movies

120 Upvotes

I think on average, Scifi stories are better suited for tv than movies. Sure there are outliers, but i find that good scifi stories are often pretty long and have a lot of information to get across to the viewer.

I really hope that my favorite scifi books get adapted into mini series’ or TV shows rather than movies, especially Hyperion.


r/scifi 2d ago

ID This Does this book exist?? Am I totally misremembering??

59 Upvotes

Sorry if this is a dumb post but it’s been driving me NUTS. I just started Dungeon Crawler Carl and have been enjoying it, and it’s reminding me of a book but I can’t remember the name of the book. It was a piece of classic science fantasy from I’m pretty sure last century where the mmc was a standard warrior/barbarian type in a medieval stasis world, except it was actually his job and he was featured on a show or something for other planets. The rest of the world didn’t know, just him. It wasn’t Dark Lord of Derkholm, and iirc it was written prior to the modern litrpg and isekai genres, and I don’t think?? it incorporated a dnd/video game based scoring system. Maybe it doesn’t even exist and I’m misremembering, for some reason my dumb ass thought it was Conan but no, apparently Conan is straightforward swords-and-sorcery fantasy without the science fiction television show element in there. I remember reading about it on Wikipedia back in high school while looking for sci fi but I never picked it up, and I recall the author/series being sort of famous??


r/scifi 2d ago

Films A hazy movie memory.

66 Upvotes

I have a hazy memory of a movie from an 80's childhood.

An alien boy (I believe the actor had Progeria?) comes to Earth and is shot by a local on the ramp of his spaceship.

I remember this made me cry so hard, I was inconsolable, but have very few other memories of this movie (TV movie possibly?). It may have been set in the Old West?

Sorry I'm so vague.


r/scifi 3d ago

Recommendations Just Saw The Dog Stars. I Don't Get the Hate Spoiler

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229 Upvotes

I just watched Ridley Scott's new post apocalytpic film The Dog Stars. I almost didn't go. Reviews were very mediocre and general sentiment here and elsewhere leaning towards negative. I had the ticket and said screw it, how bad can it be and went.

I had read several comments from Redditors who's main gripe was they felt the movie didn't have a point or they didn't get what it was supposed to be about. This is a real headscratcher as the main character Hig's actions and the script conveyed very well the reason for the journey he was taking.

SPOILERS: The film is about loss, dealing with loss, and finding the strength to move on and do your best to start a new life after tragedy. Pretty simple and I thought the film converyed this well.

I didn't ever feel The Dog Stars was boring or plodding. I thought all the actors were fantastic. I've never seen Jacob Elordi (Hig) in anything and thought he carried the film well. Brolin was Brolin and perfect in his role. Great to see Guy Pearce and he had a great character.

I don't think The Dog Stars is a perfect film. I didn't like the Grand Junction twist very much. I felt it was a little over the top, but it was still interesting and made sense in the overall message of the film.

I would recommend this film to anyone who like post apocalytpic stories. Maybe some reason for the negativity it's an attention span thing as this is not a fight or flight constant action movie. In the end I thought it was paced well, had beautiful cinematography and I was invested in the main character. Sometimes you just have to go see for yourself. Glad I did.


r/scifi 2d ago

General Just read The Dog Stars...

0 Upvotes

I just finished The Dog Stars book, and while I liked the style, the story and the book overall, it just kept bothering me that it seems like a male fantasy. The fishing, the hunting, the flying, THE GUNS, living the simple life, and also what happens in the second part. The postapocaliptic setting almost feels like a background to it, just to make it more interesting.


r/scifi 3d ago

General VALIS, by Philip K. Dick Spoiler

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56 Upvotes

This blew my mind, in its calm yet manic way. Reading it was like lifting weights for me, slow but calculated. As opposed to the energetic movements of doing cardio. Slowburn into mindfuckery.

Although the ending was quite anti-climactic, a bit of a let-down if I am being honest, it was also human. Horselover Fat came back, and when he did, he was better (although being separated again from Phil after being healed made me question: is he really better? LOL). I like the part when he started seeing the world in his quest. And seemed healthier and happier.

It may not have the action I normally go for, but it was cool enough to see through to the end.


r/scifi 4d ago

Recommendations One of the best sci-fi books I’ve ever read.

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2.4k Upvotes

Neuromancer is remarkable, the environment and the advanced yet deteriorating technology strongly evoke the feel of Blade Runner.

This is the work that either created or significantly brought attention to the cyberpunk genre.

While it has its flaws and isn’t exactly a simple read, it possesses a vitality and foresight of what the future might hold that few can rival.

If you appreciate darker, immersive, and thought-provoking sci-fi, it is certainly worth your time, if i search, i read the neuro 2, is really cool.

(The post is deleted, but i fixed The image, this is not AI)


r/scifi 3d ago

Recommendations Recommendation needed for a new sci-fi series - based on prior taste in series.

20 Upvotes

I need a new sci-fi book series. What do you recommend based on the below:

LOVED Hamilton's Commonwealth saga and everything in that universe. All three trilogies. I would read 100 books set in that universe.

Loved Robinson's Mars trilogy.

Liked Baxter's Xeelee Sequence books. Generally liked his other books too, although the quality varies.

Liked Aldiss' Heliconia trilogy (although the end was depressing).

Did not like the Expanse. I like the universe but find it poorly written (although maybe I should give it another chance).


r/scifi 3d ago

Art Where ça i find decorative pictures about spaceships ?

6 Upvotes

Hello there,

I want to decorate one of my room with a SF style, and more precisely with spaceships paints, print, canvas etc, any support that i can pin on the walls.

But while searching on the net i dont find any good things. So did some of us know a good site who propose quality arts of iconic starships ? Like the Enterprise, Rocinante, Daedalus, Battlestar etc...

Thx :)