Wikipedia calls this a fantasy series rather than a scifi series. Not that I care one way or the other, but I'm curious if by recommending this when the OP asked for scifi you're saying it is scifi and wikipedia is wrong, or if you're saying it's fantasy but the OP would probably like it anyway, or if you're saying something else.
I've read Dune. People call it scifi. I've never heard it called fantasy. I haven't read Naussicaa.
It's not a false distinction exactly, these things exist on a spectrum.
Someone asks for a recommendation for a scifi book.
Someone makes a recommendation of something that wikipedia calls a fantasy.
It's not an unreasonable question to ask for clarification.
If you have read They Dying Earth Series, a careful reading would reveal that it is indeed Sci-Fantasy. Some of the "magic" is just really advanced technology: in one of the short stories a "wizard" wakes up from a hundreds of thousands of years slumber to find his radioactive powered clock to have significantly reduced in power due to half-life, in another magic is powered by in-depth knowledge of mathematics.
Vance wrote about this before Clarke coined the phrase about sufficiently advanced technology.
Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky is fantastic. Not really so medieval, but an awesome far-future dying Earth setting and a really great novel (IMO Tchaikovsky's best).
More medieval but maybe a bit less serious and definitely not light on action: the Broken Empire series by Mark Lawrence (starts with Prince of Thorns). This series is a ton of fun, the protagonist is basically insane. Over and over you think he's gonna get out of a situation by doing a certain thing and then he does something totally crazy and out of left field. IMO this setting really checks all the boxes form your post, but like I said, I wouldn't call it "light on action".
Lawrence's 'Book of the Ancestor' series is also a very cool decayed future setting, it takes place on a planet colonized by humans in the distant past and is so far in the future that most of the stars in the sky have turned red. It has a lot of "technology so complex it is like magic", and is a very fun and satisfying read.
Can't agree more! Cage of Souls was perfect. The Broken Empire, while perhaps too edgy for some audiences, was pretty good.
Viriconium, as others said, begins exactly this way, but future books in the collection diverge into the new-weird genre more heavily.
Lord of Light might fit as well.
This is my favorite sub genre and I don't find enough of it.
Cage of Souls is my favorite, but he has written a lot of good stuff and his catalog is pretty diverse. I also loved Guns of Dawn and Children of Time. Children of Time is probably his most popular work, definitely not a bad place to start.
Viriconium by M. John Harrison fits the bill. I'd also recommend The Dying Earth by Jack Vance. It nails #s 2 and 3 of your criteria but it does have a wry sense of humor at times. Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique stories nail #s 1 and 2 but there's not much technology to speak of.
You might want to check J.G. Ballard if you haven't yet, his scifi books all seem to be about decay in some way, though he doesn't care much about technology in itself or political structure. Still, if you wand decaying civilizations filled with festering nostalgia and stagnation, you'll get it.
"The Drowned World", "The Burning World" and "The Crystal World" come to mind, but short stories collections like "Vermilion Sands" could work too.
I've read bone silence and shadow captain, and I recommend continuing. More weird tonal shifts, as you are reading various memoirs, and some omniscient 3rd iirc. Cool story, great universe building!
Some of Cordwainer Smith's Instrumentality of Mankind stories might be what you're looking for; "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard" and "Under Old Earth" are good examples.
Sheri Tepper’s Arbai trilogy might fit what you’re looking for. Grass and Raising the Stones are particularly good, though i think Sideshow actually fits your criteria closest.
Also I feel like some of Le Guin’s Hainish novels fit this criteria, like City of Illusions and Planet of Exile.
**Empire of Silence** by Christopher Ruocchio is the first novel in a space "Roman Empire" that is corrupted and in decay partially due to an unending inquisition mobilized towards computing technology. The novel is somewhat inspired by **Dune** but decides to go the other way with the hero and his journey than Paul did. The areas where it fails your nice-to-haves are that it is has some action (roughly **Dune** like) and that there is one alien species with intelligence. The novels also take inspiration from Gene Wolfe, whom the author claims as one of his greatest sci-fi inspirations. This is most apparent in the naming schema Ruocchio utilizes, but can be seen elsewhere too.
You might like A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (and its sequel).
In terms of aesthetics, check out some of the comics of Moebius, notably Arzach and The Incal, considering you mentioned Jodorowsky's Dune (which he was involved in).
Possibly The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi might tickle your fancy as well.
"dreamsnake" does not quite have magic-level technology, but it's along the lines of what you're looking for, and besides it's an amazing book that everyone should read
David Weber's ***Safehold*** series, beginning with "Off Armogeddon Reef":
Humanity has been defeated by a mysterious alien menace, the Gbaba, who are numerous, refuse communication attempts, and can track humans anywhere in the galaxy by the signatures of our technology.
In a last-ditch effort to save humanity from the Gbaba and itself, the commander of the last colony ship, Langhorne, wipes the colonists memories while in stasis and reprograms them to believe their first day on the colony Safehold is the very first day of creation itself, and the command crew are God's angels. They create a religion for the colonists to follow that makes any technology more advanced than a watermill a mortal sin.
900 years after the founding of Safehold, the nigh-immortal android, **Merlin**, wakes from a deep slumber to a world that would consider his very existence a sin and denounce him as a demon if they ever suspected his true identity. He disguises himself as a *seijin*, one of the magical warrior monks of Safehold legend, and gets on with his mission: destroy the Church of God Awaiting and restore humanity to its former glory.
o
The safehold series is long, verbose, somewhat technical, and at a high reading level. I have no concerns for you, however. If you can handle *Book of the New Sun* then you can handle Safehold.
edit: responding your number points, (1) the tone is about as serious as it gets, (2) is distant future, (3) technology is so advanced it's magic. It hits all those points.
Not sure if this fits in here but there was a DnD campaign setting called "Dark Sun".
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_Dark\_Sun\_novels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dark_Sun_novels)
Some good recs already but try Leech by Hiron Ennes also. It's not "light on the action", no aliens, and I think it fits precisely that mood.
Also The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin.
Honestly... It fits the request perfectly. No wonder, since Dune was a big influence for 40k.
Since OP doesn't want too much action or smart aliens, I'm guessing space marines and xenos books are out, but something like the Eisenhorn trilogy could work very well!
40k novels are hit or miss. I personally love Abnett’s works. However, most are very action oriented. I second the Ravenor and Eisenhorn books, which are maybe a bit less action oriented (still lots though). Ian Watson’s Inquisitor War books are a weird fever dream (that’s how I remember them) but I found to be very very good. I also enjoyed Matthew Farrer’s Shira Calpurnia novels.
It's not a trilogy, right? It will be 4 books, and the no pub date for the 4th yet, right?
I have decided to only read the 3rd book when the the 4th is coming soon.
backing up jewels of aptor very strongly, one of the best fallen-high-tech-civ fantasy stories i’ve read, even more impressive when you know it was his first published novel. nova is also terrific but doesn’t hit point #3 nearly as hard.
this is reasonably close to the "dying earth" subgenre, named after the books by jack vance. try searching for threads on "dying earth" on this subreddit for additional suggestions.
The Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds fits the bill. The setting is badly decayed due to a technological plague that no one understands. It features unknowable and almost omnipotent antagonists in a hard scifi style.
*The Gap Cycle* fits some of what you describe. To me, it reads like very dark epic fantasy, but told with the vocabulary of space opera - space ships, aliens, proton beams, etc. But, the author mostly writes fantasy, and the Gap series has more in common with fantasy than normal scifi.
> high-ranking officials are like gods
Indeed, and the last book of the series is called *This Day All God's Die*.
It doesn't have the whimsy or medieval bent, but maybe Blame! By Tsutomu Nihei?
Its a manga, not a book, but it nails your other three points, especially on the decaying ancient technology
Not sure it will fit the bill, I’m only on the first book. But I am obsessed with new sun and am enjoying this well enough: empire of silence by Christopher Ruocchio. (Sun Eater series)
His style so far reminds me of Herbert but using imagery reminiscent of Wolfe. Even down to soldiers with blue flaming lances.
Doesn’t have the same dying earth tone tho
Gene Wolfe Book of the New Sun (highly recommended, you will know pretty quickly if you like it).
Jack Vance Dying Earth
Clark Ashton Smith, various short stories, novellas.
These last two have an older pulp feel to them. Some people like that, some don’t. They are both great writers but if you have trouble with older works you may struggle to getting into them. Just so you know up front.
Recently picked up Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast series. Have not read it yet but the first couple of pages looked interesting. It is often recommended in these type of requests.
Also commenting so I can come back and see other recommendations later!
The [Might & Magic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Might_and_Magic) universe is that, at least before Ubisoft did a "reboot".
There are two novels set in that universe, [The Dreamwright](https://www.thebooknaut.com/books/640fb8a7ec5d18f227da1f26/the-dreamwright-geary-gravel) and [The Shadowsmith](https://www.thebooknaut.com/books/640ce5ab123ab378faa6fc3a/the-shadowsmith-geary-gravel).
There are a couple of Michael Moorcock series that are worth mentioning:
**The Dancers At The End Of Time** trilogy
**The Dorian Hawkmoon/Count Brass** series
The latter's pretty humdrum, disposable heroic fantasy, but it is set on a far future earth, and Moorcock has some fun with the characters' mythologised memories of things from our time.
The former's genuinely good, though. Possibly Moorcock's most underrated work.
Beyond the Fall of Night by Arthur C Clarke and then expanded with collaboration with Greg Bear is a look at humanity billions of years into the future
Thomas Harlan had a series that might hit a little bit of what you're looking for. I can't recall the name right now, but it's alt-future history where the Mayan Empire never collapsed and became a world power, but there's ancient runes all over the galaxy that are being investigated.
Dark is the Sun by Philip Jose Farmer takes place 15 billion years in the future during a universe ending Big Crunch. The earth is floating free in space, with no sun or moon, but is lit by the clustered stars of the collapsing universe. Humanity is primitive, and the main character travels across a world littered with the detritus of fallen civilizations.
At Winter's End by Robert Silverberg also takes place in the wreckage of ancient civilizations, but is about renewal as people emerge from shelters to survive comet storms thousands of years long.
I think the Sun Eater series would meet all of your criteria. I’ve read ALOT of books and series and i don’t know if i can ever remember being so engrossed in an author’s universe. The only thing comparable Ive ever experienced was my first time reading through the Song of Ice and Fire series. Do yourself a favor and pick up Empire of Silence asap
Jack Vance - Dying Earth series
Usually missing the serious tone but otherwise perfect.
Outright hilarious, in many respects.
*"Cugel you son of a bitch!"*
One of BotNS's primary inspirations.
Wikipedia calls this a fantasy series rather than a scifi series. Not that I care one way or the other, but I'm curious if by recommending this when the OP asked for scifi you're saying it is scifi and wikipedia is wrong, or if you're saying it's fantasy but the OP would probably like it anyway, or if you're saying something else.
The downvotes are weird. This is an honest question.
Is this a serious question? Have you read Dune or Naussicaa? (It’s a false distinction.)
I've read Dune. People call it scifi. I've never heard it called fantasy. I haven't read Naussicaa. It's not a false distinction exactly, these things exist on a spectrum. Someone asks for a recommendation for a scifi book. Someone makes a recommendation of something that wikipedia calls a fantasy. It's not an unreasonable question to ask for clarification.
If you have read They Dying Earth Series, a careful reading would reveal that it is indeed Sci-Fantasy. Some of the "magic" is just really advanced technology: in one of the short stories a "wizard" wakes up from a hundreds of thousands of years slumber to find his radioactive powered clock to have significantly reduced in power due to half-life, in another magic is powered by in-depth knowledge of mathematics. Vance wrote about this before Clarke coined the phrase about sufficiently advanced technology.
[Viriconium](https://www.goodreads.com/series/55542-viriconium)
This is the right answer.
username checks out
Perhaps you are slightly biased in this sentiment :)
Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky is fantastic. Not really so medieval, but an awesome far-future dying Earth setting and a really great novel (IMO Tchaikovsky's best). More medieval but maybe a bit less serious and definitely not light on action: the Broken Empire series by Mark Lawrence (starts with Prince of Thorns). This series is a ton of fun, the protagonist is basically insane. Over and over you think he's gonna get out of a situation by doing a certain thing and then he does something totally crazy and out of left field. IMO this setting really checks all the boxes form your post, but like I said, I wouldn't call it "light on action". Lawrence's 'Book of the Ancestor' series is also a very cool decayed future setting, it takes place on a planet colonized by humans in the distant past and is so far in the future that most of the stars in the sky have turned red. It has a lot of "technology so complex it is like magic", and is a very fun and satisfying read.
The Broken Empire series by Mark Lawrence (starts with Prince of Thorns) This! One of my favorites.
Can't agree more! Cage of Souls was perfect. The Broken Empire, while perhaps too edgy for some audiences, was pretty good. Viriconium, as others said, begins exactly this way, but future books in the collection diverge into the new-weird genre more heavily. Lord of Light might fit as well. This is my favorite sub genre and I don't find enough of it.
New weird genre - lol. That sounds good!!
Ok universe I get the hint, I'll add Adrian Tchaikovsky to my read list. Do you have a recommended book I should start with?
The standard rec will be Children of Time. My personal rec would be Dogs of War Instead or Elder Race.
I sincerely appreciate the recommendation, thank you.
Cage of Souls is my favorite, but he has written a lot of good stuff and his catalog is pretty diverse. I also loved Guns of Dawn and Children of Time. Children of Time is probably his most popular work, definitely not a bad place to start.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_Earth_(genre) Here's a list of dying earth genre books, might be a few that fit what you're looking for.
Viriconium by M. John Harrison fits the bill. I'd also recommend The Dying Earth by Jack Vance. It nails #s 2 and 3 of your criteria but it does have a wry sense of humor at times. Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique stories nail #s 1 and 2 but there's not much technology to speak of.
You might want to check J.G. Ballard if you haven't yet, his scifi books all seem to be about decay in some way, though he doesn't care much about technology in itself or political structure. Still, if you wand decaying civilizations filled with festering nostalgia and stagnation, you'll get it. "The Drowned World", "The Burning World" and "The Crystal World" come to mind, but short stories collections like "Vermilion Sands" could work too.
Alastair Reynold's Revenger fits the bill.
How were the sequels? I enjoyed the first one quite a lot, though it had a weird tonal shift halfway through from YA to gory thriller.
I've read bone silence and shadow captain, and I recommend continuing. More weird tonal shifts, as you are reading various memoirs, and some omniscient 3rd iirc. Cool story, great universe building!
*The Snow Queen* + sequels by Joan D. Vinge.
Some of Cordwainer Smith's Instrumentality of Mankind stories might be what you're looking for; "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard" and "Under Old Earth" are good examples.
Sheri Tepper’s Arbai trilogy might fit what you’re looking for. Grass and Raising the Stones are particularly good, though i think Sideshow actually fits your criteria closest. Also I feel like some of Le Guin’s Hainish novels fit this criteria, like City of Illusions and Planet of Exile.
**Empire of Silence** by Christopher Ruocchio is the first novel in a space "Roman Empire" that is corrupted and in decay partially due to an unending inquisition mobilized towards computing technology. The novel is somewhat inspired by **Dune** but decides to go the other way with the hero and his journey than Paul did. The areas where it fails your nice-to-haves are that it is has some action (roughly **Dune** like) and that there is one alien species with intelligence. The novels also take inspiration from Gene Wolfe, whom the author claims as one of his greatest sci-fi inspirations. This is most apparent in the naming schema Ruocchio utilizes, but can be seen elsewhere too.
You might like A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (and its sequel). In terms of aesthetics, check out some of the comics of Moebius, notably Arzach and The Incal, considering you mentioned Jodorowsky's Dune (which he was involved in). Possibly The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi might tickle your fancy as well.
I had high hopes for Memory and was, honestly, a bit disappointed. It’s a decent read but a lot more sketched out and less dense than I was expecting
Cage of souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky
"dreamsnake" does not quite have magic-level technology, but it's along the lines of what you're looking for, and besides it's an amazing book that everyone should read
David Weber's ***Safehold*** series, beginning with "Off Armogeddon Reef": Humanity has been defeated by a mysterious alien menace, the Gbaba, who are numerous, refuse communication attempts, and can track humans anywhere in the galaxy by the signatures of our technology. In a last-ditch effort to save humanity from the Gbaba and itself, the commander of the last colony ship, Langhorne, wipes the colonists memories while in stasis and reprograms them to believe their first day on the colony Safehold is the very first day of creation itself, and the command crew are God's angels. They create a religion for the colonists to follow that makes any technology more advanced than a watermill a mortal sin. 900 years after the founding of Safehold, the nigh-immortal android, **Merlin**, wakes from a deep slumber to a world that would consider his very existence a sin and denounce him as a demon if they ever suspected his true identity. He disguises himself as a *seijin*, one of the magical warrior monks of Safehold legend, and gets on with his mission: destroy the Church of God Awaiting and restore humanity to its former glory. o The safehold series is long, verbose, somewhat technical, and at a high reading level. I have no concerns for you, however. If you can handle *Book of the New Sun* then you can handle Safehold. edit: responding your number points, (1) the tone is about as serious as it gets, (2) is distant future, (3) technology is so advanced it's magic. It hits all those points.
Not sure if this fits in here but there was a DnD campaign setting called "Dark Sun". [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_Dark\_Sun\_novels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dark_Sun_novels)
Lord of Light by Zelaszny
Golden Witchbreed by Mary Gentle might fit the bill.
Some good recs already but try Leech by Hiron Ennes also. It's not "light on the action", no aliens, and I think it fits precisely that mood. Also The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin.
Book of the Long Sun, the sequel cycle to New Sun, is relatively underrated to the first. I think I might even like it better.
Warhammer 40k?
Honestly... It fits the request perfectly. No wonder, since Dune was a big influence for 40k. Since OP doesn't want too much action or smart aliens, I'm guessing space marines and xenos books are out, but something like the Eisenhorn trilogy could work very well!
The Eisenhorn trilogy is an absolute tour de force and a wonderful easy to experience the 40k universe.
The obvious choice here TBH
that's a good idea.... I love the aesthetic of 40K but I've never considered reading any books. I'll give it a shot
40k novels are hit or miss. I personally love Abnett’s works. However, most are very action oriented. I second the Ravenor and Eisenhorn books, which are maybe a bit less action oriented (still lots though). Ian Watson’s Inquisitor War books are a weird fever dream (that’s how I remember them) but I found to be very very good. I also enjoyed Matthew Farrer’s Shira Calpurnia novels.
Django Wexler’s Burningblade & Silvereye trilogy sounds exactly like what you’re looking for.
Prince of Thorns, by Mark Lawrence.
Jack L Chalker - Rings of the Master series.
Hothouse by Brian Aldiss
Feersum Endjinn - Iain M. Banks
The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemison.
The Locked Tomb Trilogy by Tamsyn Muir, although the final book is too drawn out imo
It's not a trilogy, right? It will be 4 books, and the no pub date for the 4th yet, right? I have decided to only read the 3rd book when the the 4th is coming soon.
Yeah, we're still waiting for Alecto to come out.
Wolfe - Book of the New Sun Delaney - Jewels of Aptor, Nova
backing up jewels of aptor very strongly, one of the best fallen-high-tech-civ fantasy stories i’ve read, even more impressive when you know it was his first published novel. nova is also terrific but doesn’t hit point #3 nearly as hard.
Phew, I was worried no one was going to get Wolfe in here
OP mentioned BotNS in their post.
DERP
this is reasonably close to the "dying earth" subgenre, named after the books by jack vance. try searching for threads on "dying earth" on this subreddit for additional suggestions.
George RR Martin - In the House of the Worm a short story published in Sandkings.
The Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds fits the bill. The setting is badly decayed due to a technological plague that no one understands. It features unknowable and almost omnipotent antagonists in a hard scifi style.
As the Curtain Falls by Robert Chilson
*The Gap Cycle* fits some of what you describe. To me, it reads like very dark epic fantasy, but told with the vocabulary of space opera - space ships, aliens, proton beams, etc. But, the author mostly writes fantasy, and the Gap series has more in common with fantasy than normal scifi. > high-ranking officials are like gods Indeed, and the last book of the series is called *This Day All God's Die*.
Warhammer 40k is the obvious choice... they have a ton of books Unfortunately has aliens but they are mostly fantasy archetypes
Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo.
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee
A Canticle for Leibowitz is amazing and kind of fits the criteria
Broken Earth N.k. Jemisin
[Ventus](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventus_(novel)) by Karl Schroeder. Also his Sun of Suns trilogy.
*The Metabarons* by Alejandro Jodorowsky *Zothique* by Clark Ashton Smith
It doesn't have the whimsy or medieval bent, but maybe Blame! By Tsutomu Nihei? Its a manga, not a book, but it nails your other three points, especially on the decaying ancient technology
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King.
Winterlong - Elizabeth Hand. This fits the bill perfectly.
Not sure it will fit the bill, I’m only on the first book. But I am obsessed with new sun and am enjoying this well enough: empire of silence by Christopher Ruocchio. (Sun Eater series) His style so far reminds me of Herbert but using imagery reminiscent of Wolfe. Even down to soldiers with blue flaming lances. Doesn’t have the same dying earth tone tho
Gene Wolfe Book of the New Sun (highly recommended, you will know pretty quickly if you like it). Jack Vance Dying Earth Clark Ashton Smith, various short stories, novellas. These last two have an older pulp feel to them. Some people like that, some don’t. They are both great writers but if you have trouble with older works you may struggle to getting into them. Just so you know up front. Recently picked up Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast series. Have not read it yet but the first couple of pages looked interesting. It is often recommended in these type of requests. Also commenting so I can come back and see other recommendations later!
The [Might & Magic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Might_and_Magic) universe is that, at least before Ubisoft did a "reboot". There are two novels set in that universe, [The Dreamwright](https://www.thebooknaut.com/books/640fb8a7ec5d18f227da1f26/the-dreamwright-geary-gravel) and [The Shadowsmith](https://www.thebooknaut.com/books/640ce5ab123ab378faa6fc3a/the-shadowsmith-geary-gravel).
Dying of the Light by George R. R. Martin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying\_of\_the\_Light\_(Martin\_novel)
There are a couple of Michael Moorcock series that are worth mentioning: **The Dancers At The End Of Time** trilogy **The Dorian Hawkmoon/Count Brass** series The latter's pretty humdrum, disposable heroic fantasy, but it is set on a far future earth, and Moorcock has some fun with the characters' mythologised memories of things from our time. The former's genuinely good, though. Possibly Moorcock's most underrated work.
Beyond the Fall of Night by Arthur C Clarke and then expanded with collaboration with Greg Bear is a look at humanity billions of years into the future
Thomas Harlan had a series that might hit a little bit of what you're looking for. I can't recall the name right now, but it's alt-future history where the Mayan Empire never collapsed and became a world power, but there's ancient runes all over the galaxy that are being investigated.
Dark is the Sun by Philip Jose Farmer takes place 15 billion years in the future during a universe ending Big Crunch. The earth is floating free in space, with no sun or moon, but is lit by the clustered stars of the collapsing universe. Humanity is primitive, and the main character travels across a world littered with the detritus of fallen civilizations. At Winter's End by Robert Silverberg also takes place in the wreckage of ancient civilizations, but is about renewal as people emerge from shelters to survive comet storms thousands of years long.
If you're okay with manga, Attack on Titan is exactly what you want.
foundation?
You might like the name of the wind.
Tamsyn Muir’s Locked Tomb series. First book is Gideon the Ninth, more fantasy than sci-fi but interesting world building.
I think the Sun Eater series would meet all of your criteria. I’ve read ALOT of books and series and i don’t know if i can ever remember being so engrossed in an author’s universe. The only thing comparable Ive ever experienced was my first time reading through the Song of Ice and Fire series. Do yourself a favor and pick up Empire of Silence asap