Any Sci Fi fans here?

[Carillon]

Sir Winston,

I was one of those who mentioned Ender's Game. And I agree completely with your comment about being left feeling both sad and hopeful. My heart breaks for Ender every time I read it. He is such a mix of innocence and experience, of ruthlessness and compassion.

With such contradictions and conflicting characteristics in the protagonist himself, it is no wonder I always find the novel's ending somewhat bittersweet.

~Carillon

 

[Guest]

I think someone mentioned Ender's Game in this thread a while back, but I'm not going to look to see who it was but since my hardback copy seems to have disappeared in one of the 4 moves in the last 7 years, I picked up a paperback copy recently, and re-read it - for about the 10th time. Now I'm going to have to get Speaker and Xenocide, and re-read them. Ender always leaves me sad but hopeful.

*sigh* That reminds me ...I had an original of "Glory Road" Probably my favorite Heinlein book...The original was printed the year I was born ...And I think someone "disappeared" it for me.

 

[Carillon]

Oh dear, Evitkar. I hate it when that happens too. Was it a consensual borrowing gone wrong, or did "someone" forget to ask?

 

[Guest]

Oh dear, Evitkar. I hate it when that happens too. Was it a consensual borrowing gone wrong, or did "someone" forget to ask?

*sigh* Not sure...But that was a first edition..Library edition..

And if I find out who got it, they are in for a Lebowski...

THEN I'm gonna kill em...Damn book theives...

 

[MastrJ]

Does anyone here have what I regard as one of the Holy Grails of science fiction? I'm talking about the asbestos covered edition of Fahrenheit 451? That's going to be one of the first things I buy if I ever win a lottery.


I just got my roomie to start reading the Riftwar Saga. She was saying that the first book wasn't really doing anything for her, but then she hit about half way and her tune changed.

 

[Vancouverite]

"The Stars My Destination" by Bester is a powerful and under read book. In the UK I still think its published under the original title "Tiger, tiger"

Or, for a change of pace, go and read Arthur Clarke's collected short stories. Some weak ones, of course, but some damn funny ones too.

 

[FungiUg]

Magician is good like that. It starts off like "classic" epic-fantasy -- young orphan boy growing up will become the world's greatest magician and marry the princess. But about half way, it suddenly takes a right turn and becomes INTERESTING! It's like Raymond Feist got bored, and threw out the story he was working on and turned it into something quite different.

The three that Feist wrote with Janny Wurts are probably my favourite (Daughter of the Empire, Servant of the Empire, Mistress of the Empire.) Although the recent stuff (Talon of the Silver Hawk) is also very good.

In regards to Alfred Bester -- well, he was a visionary. I've read The Stars My Destination under both titles (don't you hate it when they change the title of a book? The first time I ran into it was Ray Bradbury's Silver Apples of the Sun vs Martian Chronicles). But just as I struggle with post-apocalyptic and cyberpunk, I'm not too keen on his bleak outlook.

For visionary, I much prefer Arthur C. Clarke's The City And The Stars. I'm not much of a fan of short stories -- Clarke and Heinlein are probably the only two authors where I read ALL of their short stories. And I still remember Heinlein's All You Zombies fondly! (How with the aid of a sex change and a time machine, you can become your own mother and father.)

 

[Carillon]

I'm not much of a fan of short stories -- Clarke and Heinlein are probably the only two authors where I read ALL of their short stories.

How interesting you should say that! I was just thinking today that many of my favourite works of science fiction were probably short stories. I admire the genre in general. I think it takes a lot of control to write such tight little pieces. It's like poetry -- you don't have a lot of words to play with, so you have to make each one count. You will almost never find anything unnecessary in a short story. There is never any filler. Each one is just a highly concentrated dose of that science fiction creativity and the energy of a fresh idea (ideally, of course).

True, compared to the length of a novel the average short story is just a blink of the eye, and that isn't enough to catch the attention of some people. Still, I think that -- at least for me -- it is sometimes those little flickers that shine the brightest.

All that said, I'm still unbelievably fussy about which stories and authors I like and don't like.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

I've decided I'm going into George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones next. Somehow, I've missed that one... at least, the jacket blurb doesn't sound familiar.

Of course, at my advanced age, I may have read it last week and not remember.... <Sigh>

 

[FungiUg]

It's okay -- I do like the sex! But it's very reminiscent of Tad William's Dragonbone Chair.

 

[Vancouverite]

Then read PKD, and you get both extremes of amazing short stories and great novels.
Possibly a bit bleak again though.
'The Pre-persons' still hits me, although the ending just doesn't really take you anywhere.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

Hmmm... Yes, I have read it before (A Game of Thrones) but it's been quite a while. I remember some small bits and the general thrust of the story, but the details keep the story "new." So I'll finish re-reading it, probably by sometime tomorrow.

 

[ShyGuy68]

Yay I just got my copy of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Five Disc Collector's Box Set) *oh happy day, oh happy day*

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B0002GX9KA.02.PT01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

 

[FungiUg]

It's good! I love the drinking competition between Legolas and Gimli.

I had to buy the same collectors edition, because they had sold out of just the extended DVD edition. Oh well.

 

[ShyGuy68]

It's good! I love the drinking competition between Legolas and Gimli.

I had to buy the same collectors edition, because they had sold out of just the extended DVD edition. Oh well.

I haven't had time to watch it yet, but I did watch some of the extra material when I had a long dinner!

I think the figure of Minas Tirith is very cool!

 

[FungiUg]

In the one day (Saturday), I dashed out and bought a copy, then sat down and watched the movie and then both discs of documentaties. Just over 9 hours! It's all good stuff.

If you were having to do any research into Tolkein for a literary project, those discs would be a gold mine.

I haven't watched the additional DVD around the symphony yet.

 

[little william]

Trekie, Stargate and farscape, what an end to the latter. One you US folks may not know of Blakes 7 from the BBC. Looks very dated now but then
For LOTR fans who havent read the books please for your own sake do so and try David Eddings the Belgriad and the Mallorean, IMO, they are the only fantasy books that come close to Tolkien

 

[FungiUg]

Well gee, there's a challenge!

The David Eddings aren't very Tolkeinish as far as I am concerned. They really only have the one "race" predominantly, broken up into men. Whereas a large part of Tolkein was the clash of cultures. That's not to say the Eddings aren't good, but they're only Tolkeinish in that they are "Epic Fantasy".

If you want something Tolkeinish, try Tad William's Dragonbone Chair. It's huge, but at least it will keep you awake (by landing on your face whenever you fall asleep.)

Blakes 7 is very dated! Some of the stories were good, and the central character being an anti-hero (Avon) turned out to be rather cool. (They got rid of the main character, Blake, in less than a season.) The full collection is available on DVD now.

Then you can do all of the other English SF series as well... Space 1999, all of the various Gerry Anderson series, Dr Who (of course), Saphire and Steel, etc, etc. They all appealed far more than the US equivalents of the time did. The BBC seemed to have the knack of pulling off credible SF with only a phone box and an old quarry as sets.

 

[little william]

Agreed David Edding's stuff is mainly human but he is the only other writer with the imagery of Tolkien or that's how he struck me.
Re the likes of space 1999 and UFO, they were good at the time but Thunderbirds, oooh I can still enjoy that. I was gutted when the film changed the tail of thundrbird 2 and although I enjoyed the film it left something to be desired. I suppose all those 'huge' wheeled vehicles blowing out tires etc.
Rose tinted glasses might be applicable,
I will have a look Tad William's Dragonbone Chair.
Thanks

 

[FungiUg]

The thing about Tolkein is the combination of scope (40 years of background and work in languages and mythology) and the fact that it was so ground-breaking. Various other authors have done bits and pieces of what Tokein did since, and sometimes even in a more enjoyable fashion (so far as I am concerned anyway.) But none have the breathtaking scope, and Tokein pulled it all together first.

You might also check out George RR Martin's "Game of Thrones", Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry and Raymond Feist's "Magician" (Riftwar Saga and so on.)

 

[Guest]

Agreed David Edding's stuff is mainly human but he is the only other writer with the imagery of Tolkien or that's how he struck me.
Re the likes of space 1999 and UFO, they were good at the time but Thunderbirds, oooh I can still enjoy that. I was gutted when the film changed the tail of thundrbird 2 and although I enjoyed the film it left something to be desired. I suppose all those 'huge' wheeled vehicles blowing out tires etc.
Rose tinted glasses might be applicable,
I will have a look Tad William's Dragonbone Chair.
Thanks

Well, I can officially do the Happy Geek dance..I found Thunderbirds on old VHS at a local video store..For sale..
Picked up the first two tapes (which was all they had).
Hmm Haven't seen the movie yet.

Does anyone know if UFO is available on video????

 

[Mamid]

oh no.. we're not sci fi fantasy fans here.. not at all..

Just because our son is named after the Master Harper of Pern and our daughter after Callisto Prime. Although it was a hard heated argument between Callisto Prime VS Nimitz's human...

Do you know these words/terms?

• Frell.
  Frak.
  Frag.
  Feldercarp.
  Smeg/smeghead.
  Klick.
  Starbucked.
  MacGuyver.
  Reverse(d) Polarity of the Neutron Flow.
  42.
  Thanks for all the fish.
  By the first egg.
  Shells!
  Shards!
  Puckernuts.
  I've got a bad feeling about this.
  I don't care what it smells like, get in there!

If you do, you could be a scifi fan.

 

[FungiUg]

Someone's been watching too much Battlestar Galactica...

 

[Bikewer]

A new author I've been enjoying is China Miehville. Perdido Street Station, The Scar, and The Iron Council all out so far, centering around his created city of New Corborozun.

Dunno if his stuff is strictly Science Fiction (I'd so name it) as there are elements of magic and such. Still, it's a very "scientific" sort of magic; all properly reseached and such.
Very clever, very "literate". Lots of dense, clever prose. Not for the types that like the short, simple, declarative sentence.