The Fifth Science Paperback – 13 Feb. 2019

Ever since reading Asimov’s Foundation series, which I consider to be the prototype to all great sci-fi stories that came later, I’ve been searching for an author crazy enough to match its scope. Cixin Liu gave me a sort of similar excitement with the insightful sociology in the Three Body Problem trilogy, but I think Exurb1a comes even closer with The Fifth Science.The one thing that sets Foundation apart from every other kind of science fiction is the fact that it tells not the story of a single human, or even of a well defined group of humans, but rather the story of all of humanity across a very wide timescale. It requires great insight into human behaviour and History to make it work, but Foundation played right into Asimov’s strengths, so it’s very hard to reproduce.By presenting us with an anthology of short stories sharing the same underlying lore, The Fifth Science does just that, however. Like in Foundation, each segment gives us characters to relate with, and provides us with an unique perspective on historical developments that span the rise and fall of galactic empires. Differently from Foundation, however, human society plays a secondary role here, and the true protagonists are their sucessors - lifeforms of pure conscience, the Fifths. This new direction elevates the book to its own right as a standalone introduction into great sci-fi.Asimov’s masterpiece is not the only marked influence here, though. Great ideas from contemporary fiction made it to the short stories, too - most notably, there are strong undertones of Black Mirror in some of them. The author even acknowledges that in The Caretaker, but in my opinion Water for Lunch is the best example of this - I had strong flashbacks of Nosedive, The Entire History of You and Hang the DJ. This is not unexpected - Black Mirror revolves around the subjects of conscience, artificial intelligence, and the reshaping of human interactions with technology, and those are all topics which The Fifth Science approaches centrally.Beyond that, I can name The Prisoner, All You Zombies (or Predestination) and Childhood’s End as other potential inspirations. Exurb1a’s signature is of course all over it as well, so if you enjoyed his other works, or if you enjoyed any of the things I mentioned, I strongly recommend this book. If you know nothing about any of this... It might be better to start elsewhere (some stuff here is very weird and might scare you away). But this was definitely a great and enjoyable book.

The Fifth Science is an incredibly well-crafted piece of art which deserves a much higher price than what it's currently being sold for. Personally, I feel this is more refined than previous masterpieces: Exurb1a - a true Da Vinci of our time - tackles innumerate deep, philosophical questions seamlessly melded with logic and physics in this collection, many of which are directly linked to our lives today. (Although that could be said of any of his books.) It spans an extremely long period of time, mostly set in the future, taking on various perspectives, sometimes deviating a little from the timeline/overall plot. Don't get me wrong here, I feel that this makes the book better. If you're not a big fan of heavy reading, don't be put off by the introductory chapter. The rest of the book is made up of self-sustaining short stories, which deserve to be novels in their own right. One of these stories, The Lantern, is available on Youtube as an audiobook if you want a deeper taste of what you're buying, but I personally feel that The Lantern is the least extraordinary out of the collection, so if you were floored by that, prepare for something unimaginably beautiful. And if you need another incentive to buy the book, well...remember Polly Hare from Logic Beach, part one? There's an ingeniously subtle hint/tip-off for fan theories as to what happened to her/where she went encrypted in here, but I'm not spoiling anything. All I will say is: her work was REALLY groundbreaking, wasn't it?Anyway, you should stop wasting time reading this inexplicably long review, and BUY THE BOOK.What's a few quid for a unique insight into the depths of human nature and an unflinching stare at the fabric of our existence itself? Let's not forget that this is immaculately woven into some of the best prose I have read in a long, long time.Seriously. Buy and read this. Go on. It'll be worth it. You have my word.

Both a philosophy and sci-if book. The short stories cater well to my attention span and it provokes deep thoughts. Just as expected from exurbia I thoroughly enjoyed it

I've been reading avidly for decades. This collection of stories is different. The writer is gifted. Wise and evocative.

What an excellent book of linked short stories. The author is clearly modest and the price seems too low. This book reminded me of the classic sci-fi I used to read when I was younger: brilliant and novel ideas wrapped in an interesting story. This isn't the 'space opera' type, but really an astonishing set of stories from a brilliant mind that really makes you think. As a scientist I often here about some sci-fi authors 'this author writes in a very scientific way' only to find the ideas are completely out of touch with real science, but are overly verbose to make it sound technical. This is the opposite: genius ideas that are extremely imaginative and not at all irritating from a scientific perspective, and described simply and appropriately within the context of enthrawling stories.I found this a real page turner. Some of the stories could easily have been novels. This is some of the most original thinking I've read in a while and this author, though I've never heard of him before, seems destined to be one of the all time greats.The stories range from humans being inhabitated by an alien consciousness to guide the future to water worlds where human descendants sail on huge living rafts. Throughout there is a timeline and a theme and in places some gentle moral points or questions. I look forward to reading more. If you like scifi I would read this. Of course it is short stories so character development, whilst there, is limited by the format, but he ideas are astounding and accessible.

really enjoyed this melancholy (in a good way) romp through time, def worth keeping an eye on this author

Very well written and thought provoking collection of short stories. Excellent!

I enjoyed this book. I bought it on a whim and found it unexpectedly good. The science itself didn't matter to me so much as the application and implications toward humanity. I like that someone had the imagination to think this book up. All good fun.

As this was my first book I can't really say what's right or wrong about the book but I still enjoyed it in a way I thought I wouldn't do by reading. I'm happy this was my first book.

Me gusta que el libro sea sencillo de leer y las historias sean super interesantes :D

I would have liked to see more references and hints to previous stories/chapters. Overall, it was a great experience, and even though the author writes that the stories can be read in any order, I found some linearity in it. Great stuff