It is: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dog_and_Its_Reflection

They don’t give a fuck? You can hear em, moan and yuck

They are already being sold in Australia, which has fairly strict safety standards

s/ecosystem/monopoly

So they now make 5k a year?

Is this just a weird rip off of Project Hail Mary?

I recommend re-reading some of the series that you “remember liking”. I have done it with a bunch of series, including some large ones like WoT and Malazan, and have gotten wayy more out of them after a second reading and at a later age, than I have reading a bunch of new sci fi and fantasy authors.

The bar to publish today has never been lower, so even though I still read a lot I don’t often recommend anything. Obviously there are a few stand outs, Andy Weir is a good example, the Expanse guys, etc. but they seem few and far between…

One thing that worked for me when I was struggling to find good new sci fi was to go back through Hugo and Nebula award winners and nominations and read anything I haven’t read before. Found some gems in there I had never heard of that stick with me.

Good luck with the search

Roger Zelazny - Book Of Amber Liu Cixin - Dark Forest trilogy David Weber - Honor series David Drake, lots of good series to choose from Timothy Zahn - again heaps of series