Good scifi thread (96)

1 Name: Bookworm : 2006-01-31 02:40 ID:iCCThARF

Well?

47 Name: Bookworm : 2006-02-23 21:54 ID:W2UdEKZI

I was gonna say something about how funny it was that a pomo apologist would write a post like that!

But >>44 actually makes a good point, so nevermind

48 Name: Bookworm : 2006-02-26 23:02 ID:XZC+7dkT

>>43
Relevance is overrated. When did "relevancy" become a criterion for art?

PS: I was there when the "relevant to my interests" meme was born.

49 Name: !WAHa.06x36 : 2006-02-27 14:23 ID:r73me2S+

>>48

Postmodern literary criticism isn't postmodernism as art, it's postmodernism as science. And it fails, as I said. I have no beef with postmodern art, that's some funny stuff right there.

50 Name: Bookworm : 2006-02-27 14:56 ID:Heaven

>>49
oh ok

51 Name: Bookworm : 2006-02-27 18:24 ID:sQhP9ai7

literary criticism should make sense not make up shit. ergo per se postmodernism sucks balls

52 Name: Bookworm : 2006-02-27 20:59 ID:HSDpS5ri

Traditional literary criticism sucks because it just tries to perpetuate stereotypes...

53 Name: Bookworm : 2006-03-02 19:31 ID:wrjQcsLg

>>48

What?
Literary criticism is never science, postmodernist or not.

54 Name: Bookworm : 2006-03-03 05:15 ID:AzQwMTz8

Hello I also enjoy good sci-fi.

55 Name: Bookworm : 2006-03-03 05:36 ID:nlG4yEl7

>>52 irony

56 Name: Bookworm : 2006-03-03 21:49 ID:Heaven

I like pulpy sci-fi sometimes. The kind where the dude wins and impregnates at least one woman. early 60's ho!

57 Name: dmpk2k!hinhT6kz2E : 2006-03-04 09:14 ID:Heaven

Sounds like Gor.

58 Name: Bookworm : 2006-03-04 13:05 ID:Heaven

Oh! "Odd John"! That's a title I was trying to think of.
There's another one where this guy takes down an entire planet because he's an ass. He lives in the woods and the woman rapes him so she can further his superior genepool. Her reasoning.

59 Name: !WAHa.06x36 : 2006-03-04 14:04 ID:Heaven

>>53

I assume you were addressing me. I should have made it clearer that I didn't say it was science, but that it tries to be science. I did say it fails, though.

60 Name: Bookworm : 2006-03-04 22:35 ID:ew3/8mwR

>>59
I was indeed and it seems we agree :).

As for good scifi, most of William Gibson's post-Neuromancer output is great. I'm not trying to denigrate the influence Neuromancer had on science fiction at the time it was released, but I do think it's the worst book he's written.

61 Name: Bookworm : 2006-03-07 03:59 ID:W2UdEKZI

Octavia Butler ("Shyness is shit")

does anyone have an opinion on her? I heard some interview about her on NPR the other day and then read her "Bloodchild" collection of short stories. Although they don't "grab" me, in my limited experience they seem very original.
Are her novels better or worse?

62 Name: Bookworm : 2006-03-27 23:28 ID:PFldrLwn

adam roberts.

go.

63 Name: Bookworm : 2006-03-28 12:28 ID:Heaven

>>62

Gee, thanks for the enlightening post!

64 Name: Julian : 2006-03-29 03:54 ID:zDZk1oSy

I have yet to find a good scifi book that isnt too campy or too deep [aka boring]

I think the only scifi stories I really liked were those from DC Vertigo [Transmetropolitan, Y - The Last Man, etc] and short stories.

65 Post deleted by moderator.

66 Name: the feared postmodernist from before : 2006-04-01 14:51 ID:HSDpS5ri

Stanislaw Lem is teh win, actually.

67 Name: the feared postmodernist from before : 2006-04-01 18:53 ID:HSDpS5ri

I really liked the Star Diaries, especially the story where he travels to a planet where everyone is a hostile Robot and then there would be spoilers if I went on.

68 Name: !WAHa.06x36 : 2006-04-02 14:07 ID:Heaven

>>67

I think my favourite Star Diaries story is the one where he's being a stereotypical tourist at the planet where you're killed every other day by a meteor strike.

69 Name: Bookworm : 2006-04-03 12:54 ID:rmQ6ESRr

>>67 I liked his story where he found himself in a time paradox, and was surrounded by many of himselves. "I'm the thursday me!"

And of course, the tale of the Demolition Friars.

70 Name: Alexander!DxY0NCwFJg : 2006-04-06 22:21 ID:hTqFwtsZ

Asimov - End of Eternity (the?)

Definitely has much of the shallowness that often plagues his characters, and clumsy sex.

Still, I think the story itself has awesome personality. Some people think time travel just destroys stories. This story is about 100% time travel. Very nice ending which maybe points to...

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73 Name: Bookworm : 2006-05-17 18:07 ID:ejmXE9p4

Gene Wolfe

74 Post deleted by moderator.

75 Name: Bookworm : 2006-10-28 18:18 ID:WtI2J3c6

One of my favorite SF books lately is "Metaplanetary" and it's sequal "Superluminal" by Tony Daniel. It's sort of a sprawling transhumanist space opera. It's not ultra-super-literary writing, but a rollicking good read and an imaginatively created setting that literally made me say "Wow" after closing the back cover.

76 Name: Bookworm : 2006-11-23 13:41 ID:0aMavtFf

I liked Charles Stross's Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise.

77 Name: Bookworm : 2006-11-29 15:41 ID:bVYA10RH

>>76

God, Singularity Sky was kind of insufferable with its hip pop-culture references every other page. They totally ruined any and all suspensions of disbelief.

78 Name: Bookworm : 2007-03-31 21:27 ID:MXjXbS+/

What? No Philip K. Dick?

79 Name: Bookworm : 2009-07-18 00:33 ID:FLBgIj3+

Try out Alastair Reynolds, especially his Revelation Space universe novels. The books take place from 2200 to 40'000 AD and feature a rather dark and gritty setting. One of the best sci fi authors out of the UK.

Check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alastair_Reynolds#Revelation_Space

80 Name: Bookworm : 2009-07-19 14:05 ID:0+5yy5cv

>>79

Eh, I've read a number of short stories and novellas by Alastair Reynolds, and I didn't like him all that much. Too military and old-school. There are lots of different kinds of flavors of SF out there, each appealing to different tastes, so it's kind of hard to really just say "Good scifi."

>>77
Stross is a controversial author...it seems people either love him or hate him. Therefore, I'd like to read one of his books. Might start with "Glasshouse."

81 Name: Bookworm : 2009-07-22 02:10 ID:nx9581QI

Space Odyssey.

The first one was amazing, but they kinda went downhill from there.

EVERY BOOK IN THE KNOWN SPACE UNIVERSE

82 Name: Bookworm : 2009-08-29 01:54 ID:D4xYx0Nq

>>78
We all have read him already I guess. There is no need to even reccomend it.

83 Name: dmpk2k!hinhT6kz2E : 2009-08-29 18:50 ID:Heaven

I recently read Sun of Suns. It's what happens if you take an artificial star, inflate a dyson sphere around it, fill it with air, and populate it with a steampunk culture. I found it quite enjoyable.

I'm in the middle of reading Mortal Engines, which is about cities that eat cities. Literally. The author isn't afraid to leave a cliche or two in shambles either. It's promising so far.

84 Name: Señor Cool : 2009-09-17 13:38 ID:xRTFV4EB

Isaac Asimov's "I, Robot" is just a masterpiece. Will Smith not inclueded.

85 Name: Bookworm : 2009-09-25 13:00 ID:lDGwP6OW

Vernor Vinge: A Deepness in the Sky.

86 Name: Bookworm : 2015-04-01 07:45 ID:tMSYzi9e

A Call To Arms — Alan Dean Foster — is an interesting reversal of the space stereotype, where humans are the weaklings of the universe.

I am surprised that the Dune series has not been mentioned. It is a great masterpiece, and if you can read the whole series that was written by Frank Herbert, then I applaud you. Also don't read the awful sequels that are written by his son.

87 Name: Bookworm : 2015-05-05 16:36 ID:22JcR2tb

The Ender Quartet. Ender's Game is meh, but the other three are FANTASTIC. Read it, it is not shoot n' toot sci-fi, it's actual quality literature, it's beautiful.

88 Name: Bookworm : 2015-05-31 20:09 ID:AAyIZPaA

>>87
Isn't that a series about a boy who kicks other naked boys in the balls and kills them?

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91 Name: Bookworm : 2015-06-19 00:26 ID:+OacWUQL

What are some good "generation ship" SF novels? I'm trying to find a book I read decades ago, but don't remember the author or title. I don't even remember anything about the story! Just that it was pretty good (hey I was barely a teenager, give me a break!)

Anyway my favorite SF stories:

The Time Machine (H.G.Wells)
A Wrinkle in Time (M.L'Engle)
Alien (A.D.Foster) - I read this first before seeing the movie
Rendez-vous with Rama (A.C.Clarke)
From the Earth to the Moon (J.Verne)
Snow Crash (N.Stephenson)

92 Name: Bookworm : 2015-08-13 00:28 ID:buNgkBtJ

>>91
Wolfe's "Book of the Long Sun" might count.

Pretty much everything I've read by Wolfe that's science fiction should count for this thread. "The Death of Dr. Island" was one of the most enjoyable reads I've had in a long time. Some of his stuff (e.g. "Tracking Song") is frustratingly opaque, however. Sometimes I finish one of his stories and feel as though I have just witnessed a master craftsman deliver the punchline to a fantastic joke I didn't realize was being told. This feeling is heightened by the fact that he has a reputation for doing this sort of thing (e.g. "Fifth Head of Cerberus", although he shoves many of that one's highlights in the reader's face).

Following the line of generation ships (although this one is a severe stretch of the term), Frank Herbert's "Destination: Void" has one of the coolest moments of any novel I've encountered (provided you don't spoil yourself). His non-Dune stuff, while completely eclipsed, is still worth a read, especially if you're looking for what comes between western science fiction's 1950s "robots and laser guns and babes with skin-tight space suits" and 1970s "let's take copious amounts of drugs and write metaphors for the human condition".

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96 Name: Bookworm : 2015-11-12 18:25 ID:Heaven

>>88
The first book contains a scene of that, and very much follows the idea ‘Children fight dirty’. The remaining books of the series, however, take place after a timeskip, and just happen to share the characters and setting.

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