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Why sci-fi novelist Iain M. Banks was an ‘astounding’ world-builder

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Why sci-fi novelist Iain M. Banks was an ‘astounding’ world-builder

The 51�� Book Club is currently reading the late Iain M. Banks’s Culture novel The Player of Games. Fellow science fiction author Bethany Jacobs reveals how his work inspired her

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Astronaut sits in a window frame inside a space ship and reads a book about science. Concept of exploring space.

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The 12 best science fiction books of 2025

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Young woman, wearing a orange jacket, is reading a book on an ebook reader during sunset over Himalayas. She is sitting on the top of a mountain and holding the e-reader.The afternoon sun on the background. Mount Everest National Park. This is the highest national park in the world, with the entire park located above 3,000 m ( 9,700 ft). This park includes three peaks higher than 8,000 m, including Mt Everest. Therefore, most of the park area is very rugged and steep, with its terrain cut by deep rivers and glaciers. Unlike other parks in the plain areas, this park can be divided into four climate zones because of the rising altitude. The climatic zones include a forested lower zone, a zone of alpine scrub, the upper alpine zone which includes upper limit of vegetation growth, and the Arctic zone where no plants can grow.

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The 13 best popular science books of 2025

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Kim Kardashian has wrangled an invite to NASA HQ. Can we get one too?

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Kim Kardashian has wrangled an invite to NASA HQ. Can we get one too?

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Rhea Seehorn in

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Breaking Bad showrunner uses sci-fi for smart dive into happiness

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2JHKP8X LAURENCE MASON, MATTHEW LILLARD, ANGELINA JOLIE, JONNY LEE MILLER, JESSE BRADFORD, HACKERS, 1995

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51�� recommends the cult film Hackers – 30 years late

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Is a robot programmed to prank you annoying? Yes

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Is a robot programmed to prank you annoying? Yes

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UNITED STATES - MAY 9: An inverted image of the U.S. Capitol is reflected in puddle on the East Front on Tuesday, May 9, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

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The Trump administration is playing peekaboo with reality

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The best new science fiction books of November 2025

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The best new science fiction books of November 2025

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Our verdict on Our Brains, Our Selves: A mix of praise and misgivings

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Our verdict on Our Brains, Our Selves: A mix of praise and misgivings

The 51�� Book Club has various issues with Masud Husain's prize-winning popular science book about neurology

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If you could upload your mind to a virtual utopia, would you?

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51�� recommends Never Let Me Go

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Minecraft fan may be most committed hobbyist out there

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Owning our own data is the only way to stop enshittifcation

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