Me
Why do I keep giving sci-fi books 5 stars but sci-fi films only 4?
✦
Looking at your ratings: you've given 5 stars to 7 sci-fi books (Hyperion, Children of Time, The Three-Body Problem…) but only 4 stars to most sci-fi films.
The pattern suggests you value ideas over spectacle. Your top-rated books are all hard sci-fi — civilisational scale, rigorous world-building, slow philosophical payoff. Films like Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival score well because they have that restraint, but most sci-fi cinema trades depth for action.
You also rate Tarkovsky (Stalker, 5★) highest of all — pure idea, no compromise. That's your north star.
Me
What should I read next given that pattern?
✦
Given your love of hard SF at civilisational scale, three strong candidates:
A Fire Upon the Deep — Vernor Vinge. Zones of thought concept = your kind of rigorous world-building. You'll finish it in four days.
Blindsight — Peter Watts. Radical hard SF about consciousness. Darker than your usual taste (you flag bleak as a mild dislike) but intellectually exactly your register.
Exhalation — Ted Chiang. Short stories, but each one is a philosophical proposition disguised as fiction. Matches your 5★ threshold better than a novel might.
Input disabled in demo. Clone the repo and add your Anthropic API key to try it live.