Completely agree about watching the privacy destruction ramp up significantly in recent years. The one silver lining is that deciding how much and what to allow for myself and my children is just a lot easier, and even in less abusive scenarios, less smartphone use is good for basically all of us.

Hmm, I don’t remember much, and not in his books in general. Although I am the kind of reader that’s wholly uninterested (no shade to those who feel differently!) - but it’s entirely possible it’s there and my brain doesn’t really hold onto it! But put bluntly his stories are usually bleak, romance would fit a little oddly.

You say complacent, I say complicit.

Awesome!! And I don’t think it was a series when I read it, so been a while for me too lol. And yeah, Revelation Space books are just so, so good. Can’t say enough good things about the worlds this guy builds. Artifact in the meme would fit right in, lol

This post really doesn’t call for this comment but here we go -

One of my favorite authors wrote at least one book in a setting where many galactic civilizations have come and largely gone, and treasure hunters try to “crack baubles” - break into old vaults and such left behind. Think Space Indiana Jones! But what’s really compelling and brain melty to me is that these civilizations used entirely unknown tech and physics in some cases. So they’re trying to break into and steal things they cannot possibly even comprehend, which is SO foolish and so fucking cool, and if that were available to me, my curiosity would utterly demand I keep at it until dead or worse.

Book is Revenger by Alastair Reynolds. Plus it’s got one of the scariest fuckin pirates ever, so I mean, Space Indiana Jones with horrifying unknown tech treasure and implacable, immortal(?) pirate villains…that’s gonna be a strong recommendation for the right flavor of reader lmao.