this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2024
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[–] theywilleatthestars@lemmy.world 9 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

Canonical answer is The Homecoming Saga by Orson Scott Card, since it turns out that if the good guys have a mind controlling god computer that's always right on their side it gets really hard to have meaningful conflict.

[–] caseyweederman@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 hours ago

You didn't make it past the first book??
Lucky.

DISCLAIMER: Orson Scott Card is a bad person and I have since gotten rid of my collection and tell everyone not to support him because he uses his platform to hurt marginalised groups of people for religious reasons.

Now, I would argue that you're skipping over a lot of interesting stuff.
The Overseer (mind-controlling satellite robot) was built by humans to keep rewriting human brains so they would perpetually forget how to invent the wheel until they proved that they'd evolved beyond their barbaric nature and would not go on to invent the nuclear bomb. The satellite then dies of old age millions of years later because humans are just kind of shitty. The book ends with the main character's family hopping onto an Ark rocket back to Earth aaand... Hundreds of years have passed and all the characters you've invested in emotionally are long dead, here's some bat furries I guess.

Some pretty cool ideas in there, despite who it was written by.

Now, the worst thing I have ever read was also by Orson Scott Card and I refuse to speak about it.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

You're saying that the book couldve been an essay?

[–] theywilleatthestars@lemmy.world 5 points 11 hours ago

I don't think it would've made a very good essay either