re: #57 Decatur Deb

Will check him out. For a very early example of an AI ‘running’ a doomed ship, find Harry Martinson’s poem Aniara.

Cordwainer Smith’s Lady Who Sailed the ‘Soul’ still might be the finest SF story. Both men had very atypical non-writing lives.

“Retro” where travel can go FTL but communications is still SOL is not that uncommon. It’s often a way to bring in old pre-radio/telegraph concepts like courier ships, mail packets, etc. and apply them to a SF setting. An example of this (in combination with limited FTL travel distance in a single “jump”) is the old (70s) Traveler RPG setting.

Set this against the development of an “ansible” - FTL communication in a STL transportation network. I believe Orson Scott Card’s Ender series has this sort of set-up going for the most part.

And I recommend Banks as well. Very interesting backgrounds, characters that grow on you, and he delivers sense of wonder IMO as well.