Sci fi...love or hate?

[Keroin]

Science fiction, I have found, tends to be a genre that people either rabidly embrace or won't go near with a ten foot pole.

So I'm wondering, do you love it, like it, or hate it? Why?

And if you read sci fi, who are your favourite authors?

 

[00Syd]

Love sci fi but... there are words to the Star Wars theme? Huh?

My absolute favorite sci fi author is Philip K. Dick, without a doubt.

 

[Keroin]

Love sci fi but... there are words to the Star Wars theme? Huh?

'Twas a joke, Miss Syd.

I think the lyrics are...

Duh duh, duh-duh-duh, duh...duh...

etc.

My absolute favorite sci fi author is Philip K. Dick, without a doubt.

I am also a fan of dick.

But seriously....

I haven't read a lot of his work but I did enjoy "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep"

Any particular reason he's a fave?

 

[rosco rathbone]

When I was a kid, I couldn't get enough of it. From Larry Niven, Arthur Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Joe Haldeman, Isaac Asimov, and Jack Chalker to the classics of the Golden Age.

I never really got into the modern heirs of the hard sci-fi tradition. To grown-up sensibilities it seems too nerdy. I like some things about Iaian Banks but his books are too long and repetitious for me.

Authors with a lot of non-genre literary appeal like Philip Dick or David Ohle I still read and enjoy.

 

[Keroin]

When I was a kid, I couldn't get enough of it. From Larry Niven, Arthur Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Joe Haldeman, Isaac Asimov, and Jack Chalker to the classics of the Golden Age.

I never really got into the modern heirs of the hard sci-fi tradition. To grown-up sensibilities it seems too nerdy. I like some things about Iaian Banks but his books are too long and repetitious for me.

Authors with a lot of non-genre literary appeal like Philip Dick or David Ohle I still read and enjoy.

I absolutely devoured sci fi up until my late teens, when I discovered "literature" and got all snobby about books. I never lost my love of cinematic sci fi, though.

However, recently I picked up "Wild Seed" by Octavia E. Butler and I feel myself being pulled back into the genre.

Heinlein and Asimov were two of my childhood faves.

 

[FloggingMolly]

I'm a take-it or leave-it tbh. I have read very little, but I do like Andromeda/firefly/star trek next gen./hitchikers guide. I like my sci-fi with a ton of comedy on the side.

 

[VelvetSin]

And if you read sci fi, who are your favourite authors?

I'll go with my favorite TV / movies, because we've been on a movie kick lately versus reading (I forgot how to read ) and most of the movies or TV series have been sci-fi.

Cloverfield - I'll admit, most of the movie I was cheering for the monsters because the people irritated me. (Seriously, I wanted to beat them myself and B had to pause the movie because he was laughing too hard when whats-his-face camera man finally got eaten because I kept whispering leading up to it, "bite him! bite him in the butt! YEEAAH!")

Firefly - Seen it many times, and love it! They never should have cancelled it.

Farscape - I was so sad when it went off the air.

There are many others, but I'll leave it at that. Take that, you readers!

 

[graceanne]

Sometimes I like it, and sometimes I don't. I'm so sick of SG1 I could puke, but I really enjoyed the movie StarGate.

 

[Keroin]

Sometimes I like it, and sometimes I don't. I'm so sick of SG1 I could puke, but I really enjoyed the movie StarGate.

Seriously, it boggles my mind that SG1 stayed on for a billion seasons and Firefly didn't even make one. WTF?

I worked on SG1 a couple of times. Lousy pay, great cast and crew, amazing catering.

 

[graceanne]

Seriously, it boggles my mind that SG1 stayed on for a billion seasons and Firefly didn't even make one. WTF?

I worked on SG1 a couple of times. Lousy pay, great cast and crew, amazing catering.

Seriously. I LOVE Firefly. We own Serenity, and one of our next purchases will be the whole season of Firefly. K likes both of them. SG1 is just a sci-fi soap opera. I do not consider it complimentary to humans, in general, that SG1 was as popular as it was.

 

[callinectes2]

I can take some and leave some, I don't have a strong feeling about the genre as a whole. Having said that, I adore The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy series.

 

[Bandit58]

I like sci fi TV. Right now I'm watching Warehouse 13 and Caprica. I liked BSG, Stargate Universe, Star Trek (especially Next Gen), Farscape, V.

I tend not to read sci fi, I'd rather watch it

 

[DeepGreenEyes]

Love it. From goofball funny to incredibly grim and apocalyptic; There's usually something there to think about.

 

[teknight]

Science fiction, I have found, tends to be a genre that people either rabidly embrace or won't go near with a ten foot pole.

So I'm wondering, do you love it, like it, or hate it? Why?

And if you read sci fi, who are your favourite authors?

Hold on now, there's sci-fi and then there's sci-fi. I mean, Star wars is in the category, and that's just crap (princesses in space and knights that fight lasers with magical swords using magic and WWII naval combat tactics? No thanks.

I think that good sci-fi can
- throw light upon some aspect of the human condition/society in general by creating circumstances to emphasize that aspect.
- help to analyze society
- make you think "What if" and "How can we get there"
- some of it helps to illustrate difficult scientific concepts (some of the crazier quantum physics type stuff
- it's an allegory for the author's contemporary society.
There's AI, the singularity (the moment in human history when machines achieve human like sentience and above, which in turn results in an economic revolution that would dwarf the Industrial Revolution), nanomachines (my favorites), world building (and not just from the author's point of view as creator of a new world, but literal terraforming, robots, aliens (and not just actors with stuff glued to their foreheads)...etc

Fave authors: Asimov, especially his Foundation series.
Kim Stanley Robinson- The Red-blue-green Mars trilogy and The years of rice and salt
Harry Turtledove- he does alternate history- what would happen if x event in history had gone the opposite way, or had not happened at all....

Ursula K LeGuin....

 

[00Syd]

I love Philip K. Dick because he was the craziest motherfucker, and I haven't yet read a book or story of his that I haven't absolutely loved. Come back to me when I'm not running around like a chicken without a head, and I'll try to better explain his genius.

 

[FurryFury]

I love selected sci fi. Much of what is popular, isn't what I'm into. I do like some hits but mostly go to obscure things.

 

[ultramarineblue]

I absolutely love Firefly. Like others have stated, I don't understand why the better ones are canceled early while the ones that are less than interesting last forever.

 

[teknight]

I absolutely love Firefly. Like others have stated, I don't understand why the better ones are canceled early while the ones that are less than interesting last forever.

Given that it's a sci-fi thread, I hafta ask: any connection between your username and the Warhammer Ultramarines?

 

[ultramarineblue]

Given that it's a sci-fi thread, I hafta ask: any connection between your username and the Warhammer Ultramarines?

Nope. I was thinking of the paint color when I chose it.

 

[teknight]

Nope. I was thinking of the paint color when I chose it.

yeah...that was my 2nd choice...much as the color was more probable....

 

[sb2009]

I could not live without sci fi.

 

[YourCaptor]

When I was young I would read animorphs like efin crazy. I’d read it all the time, on the bus, during recess, etc. The The Hork-Bajir Chronicles were awesome.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5120WJKHYSL.jpg

Hmmm, it’s kind of sexual isn’t it?

The purple pony thing was indeed a princes, and the green dude the hero trying to save his peoples. They did hock up and she became his bitch and baby maker.

Now I only watch it.

Sunshine is really good. It sounds lame as fuck, but they have realistic spacecrafts and you can’t predict that plot.

Red Planet was cool, I like the nematodes, and the robot, and the breathing on mars. It just had a lot of really cool stuff.

Moon is very low key, depressing, the story seems to be themed right after the lunarscape. However it is very different and very unique. Plus Gerty is a real pal, I wish I had a Gerty.

28 days later is a masterpiece. You must also worship it’s ass for fast zombies. Without 28 days there would be no LFD/2.

Primer is a total nerdgasm.

Pi, Pi isn’t totally scifi. I don’t want to give away anything, but if you can entertain the notion that the answer to the theory of everything is religious, then it’s sifi. If you can’t, then watch it anyway because it’s a ride. The movie really takes your brain for a roller coaster ride.

 

[hd8001]

I like some sci fi as long as it is some what realistic. Some of it is way out there that it just doesnt make any sense.

 

[rida]

I fell in love with Sci-fi with Japanese robot's anime when I was a little kid, and nobody had heard of them outside of Japan, starting with Testuwan Atom (Astro Boy).

First TV series that had me hooked was "Space 1999" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space:_1999.

Among the first movies I'll have to say Space Odyssey 2001 and Blade Runner.

As for books I'll have to say that Asimov's Foundation Series left a very deep impression and I devoured all the books. I especially loved the concept of psychohistory, while the 3 laws of robotics always left me uneasy, for some reason.

Why do I love it? Because for as far back as I remember, I've always been fascinated with what's "out there", hence my young days' dream to be an astronaut and astronomer.

 

[teknight]

Why do I love it? Because for as far back as I remember, I've always been fascinated with what's "out there", hence my young days' dream to be an astronaut and astronomer.

But you can still be an astrologer!