Constellation Games
by Leonard Richardson · first published 2012
80% recommend20% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Funny, clever first-contact sci-fi about a game developer who studies visiting alien civilizations by reviewing their video games; readers call it fun, unusual, and worth seeking out.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
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I thoroughly enjoyed “Constellation Games” by Leonard Richardson who coincidentally also wrote BeautifulSoup, the python HTML parser.
on “Ask HN: What are the best unknown books you have read?” ↗I will always use the themes of first-contact, intergalactic civilizations, and video games to plug the excellent scifi novel Constellation Games, by Leonard Richardson: http://boingboing.net/2013/02/20/constellation-games-debut-s... You may also know Richardson's other writing, such as the O'Reilly books RESTful Web APIs and RESTful Web Services,…
on “Carl Sagan's idea for Contact video game (1983) [video]” ↗You might also enjoy Constellation Games, by Leonard Richardson (http://constellation.crummy.com/).
on “14 People Make 500K Tons of Steel a Year in Austria” ↗…universe with one that has slightly different physical properties. Also perhaps stretching the definition of 'hard', but I want to recommend it because it's relatively unknown, is Leonard Richardson's Constellation Games, in which an incredibly advanced multi-species anarchic alien civilization makes first contact with humanity, and the protagonist really just wants to play their video games. It's actually harder sci-fi…
on “The Realism of Our Times: Kim Stanley Robinson on how science fiction works” ↗…Revolution books are probably the best known and explore various radical leftish ideas for organizing society across the nearish future. And this last is a bit of an oddball but Leonard Richardson's Constellation Games was a book I really enjoyed that starts with aliens coming to Earth looking to help out and our protagonist, a video game reviewer, asking for alien games to review but ends up in a place that resonated…
on “Consider Phlebas Published by the Folio Society” ↗Just because they're both books that are hard to stumble upon and are a bit out of the usual recommendations, and yet everyone I have recommended them to have /deeply/ enjoyed them: "Constellation Games" by Leonard Richardson (also known for the Beautiful Soup Python library!) https://constellation.crummy.com/ "Happy Snak" by Nicole Kimberling https://www.nicolekimberling.com/happy-snak
on “Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read” ↗It's not just kids. About 6 months ago, I started reading "Constellation Games," a really fun and clever sci-fi novel. Yet it now sits on my desk about 2/3 complete. I didn't lose interest or anything -- I simply find it increasingly difficult to set aside time for pleasure reading,…
on “U.S. children read, but not well or often: report” ↗Constellation Games, The Martian, Too Like the Lightning, Moving Mars, Nexus, Blue Remembered Earth,and The Caryatids are some hopeful SF that's come out recently that I recommend.
on “The Expanse UI Design” ↗The author also wrote a novel called Constellation Games which I enjoyed a lot https://constellation.crummy.com/
on “Beautiful Soup” ↗I really liked the novel "Constellation Games" (c.f review at https://boingboing.net/2013/02/20/constellation-games-debut-...). A federation of alien civilizations pays a visit to earth, and a game developer decides to investigate their cultures…
on “Doug Engelbart’s 1968 demo” ↗…complexity-limit reached in Greg Bear's Blood Music, or the 'zones of thought' in Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep et al. (And if my hunch is right, perhaps also the 'ragtime' in Leonard Richardson's Constellation Games.)
on “At the Far Ends of a New Universal Law” ↗…that an undisclosed entity might choose to observe. All of this is similar to the circumstances described in the following novels: - Blood Music by Greg Bear - A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge - Constellation Games by Leonard Richardson
on “At the Far Ends of a New Universal Law” ↗I need to re-read Constellation Games soon. Lately I keep coming back to considering the expectations that its alien society has for the caretakers of artificial intelligence. Spinning up AI isn't hard for them from a tech standpoint, but…
on “AI Agent Bankrupted Their Operator While Trying to Scan DN42” ↗