DTH
Ghostbuster
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Posts: 582
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Post by DTH on Oct 18, 2005 6:39:36 GMT -5
Michael Crichton... well... I didn't get on with him at all. I tried to read Andromeda Strain and I just didn't like his writing at all. The rest of my judgement is based upon the plethora of dumb movies that are out based on his works (Timeline, 13th Warrior, Congo amongst others). But we all know that an author's work can translate very poorly in to film. Although, having just checked out his bibliography, I never knew he did a couple of classic 80s sci-fi films that I liked (Looker and Runaway). And Sphere had its moments. Dammit, I guess I'm being overly harsh on Crichton...I will have to investigate his stuff more closely (even if he did think that Aliens with Apes was a good idea for a book  ). Curse you, Poolman!  |
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DTH
Ghostbuster
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Posts: 582
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Post by DTH on Oct 18, 2005 6:49:40 GMT -5
I've actually read considerable PK Dick and am familiar with the filmography. He's not someone I necessarily like, he's more in the category of "reading for self-discipline because it's supposed to be a classic." I do see your point. I really liked his stuff and for similar reasons. He's not the greatest writer ever but his ideas are interesting and that's all I want from a short story. I am convinced that his works would make a great "Outer Limits"-style tv series. There's one particular story about a supercomputer and the devil that I think is genius  I figured that was the case. On your recommendation, I will pick up Tek War when I next have a long haul journey somewhere. However, I've got "Postal" and "Thud!" by Terry Pratchett, "A Feast for Crows" by George R R Martin and "Judas Unchained" by Peter F Hamilton to pick up first Interesting, I might have to pick this up Hmm - nothing wrong with sex in books as long as it isn't Shaun Hutson-unnecessary (I feel the same way about movies, like Matrix Reloaded, didn't see the point in the Neo/Trinity scene...yes, I get that they were likening the rave experience to the primal emotions of sex but WHAT PURPOSE DID IT SERVE!?). LOL Fair enough Seriously, if you've not read Dune, I urge you to do so. If only so that we can argue over whether its any good or not Its funny actually, Frank Herbert in his last two Dune novels starts introducing sex in to his work. Weird how authors do that. However, I would also comment that those same two books, sex notwithstanding, represent a maturation in his writing style. |
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Post by Head Mutant on Oct 18, 2005 7:19:25 GMT -5
If you read the Vorkosigan series, it might be a bit hard to know where to start. There's a two-book prologue about Miles Naismith Vorkosigan's (he's the main character) parents, how they met, and how they shaped their planet's political sphere -- which is incredibly good reading in and of itself. But that can certainly be skipped, for the time being, to go straight to The Warrior's Apprentice, one of my all-time favorite books.
Miles is as anti-heroic as you can get physically. On a planet of tall, physically perfect Russian decendants, he's a misshapen dwarf with highly brittle bones -- but he's got an extremely sharp, witty and clever mind. Bujold has the ability to make him into an epic figure without ever making him perfect, and the books fluctuate wonderfully between gripping action, hysterical laughs and sobering moments of the harsher parts of life.
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Post by Spiderdancer on Oct 18, 2005 17:19:40 GMT -5
I've read few authors who could do angst as well as Bujold. For one thing, her character actually has reasons to BE angsty, unlike the host of pretty parentless pouters so beloved of mainstream fiction. Plus her writing is frequently very interesting in its psychology, though I don't reread Mirror Dance very often because of its more disturbing elements.
I'm also EXTREMELY fond of C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner and Chanur books, but I've read them so many now... My favorite SF is almost always that in which humans are NOT the center of the universe and aliens are NOT inevitably hordes of giant bug lizards bent on conquering the Earth. Oh, and if anyone tries to talk to me about that horrible Lucas series with the fringy lizards with the ridiculous biology, I will mail them my scorpion. Or at least one or two members of his Dead Cricket Posse.
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DTH
Ghostbuster
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Posts: 582
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Post by DTH on Oct 18, 2005 17:30:22 GMT -5
My favorite SF is almost always that in which humans are NOT the center of the universe and aliens are NOT inevitably hordes of giant bug lizards bent on conquering the Earth. Then check out the Galactic Mileu stuff by Julian May. She's written an intelligent series of books where humans just about make the grade to join a big galactic confederation. These federation types then basically tell humanity that either they shape up or ship out. That's when the fun starts |
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Post by dajaymann on Oct 18, 2005 21:45:16 GMT -5
Steer clear of anything by Michael Crichton. Wow, for real? I actually quite liked the original Jurassic Park (the novel, the film was okay). And Sphere seriously freaks me out. I'm also gonna show my love for the Crichton. I've always loved the just-out-of-our-reach modern science in his novels. Jurassic Park and Sphere were my favorites when I was a teen, and The Terminal Man is also pretty nifty. Also, a couple of days after Hurricane Ivan struck, I was without electricity and mega-bored, so I went to the closest Wal-Mart that was actually open (about 30 miles away) and bought Timeline in paperback. It was pretty far out (the whole sub-quantum extra-dimensional thing I never figured out) but it served it's purpose of keeping me significantly less bored until the power got turned back on. |
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Post by Spiderdancer on Oct 19, 2005 14:57:17 GMT -5
I'm not so very into the "humans always screw stuff up" ouevre either. See Alan Dean Fosters "The Damned" series, in which humans are considered hyperaggressive freaks by the "peaceful, advanced" aliens who use them to fight other aliens. Or pretty much anything by Pol Anderson, but Narabedla Ltd. is a good example. Oops. Apparently that's not by Anderson, it's by Frederick Pohl, and I've gotten these two completely mixed up. Next: See Shalen confuse Stanislaw Lem with Isaac Asimov!
I actually meant more in terms of "humans are not present" or "humans are the exotic other instead of the POV." Cherryh does this very well, though apparently there's not much demand (or she would be far more popular). I just love her close third person; so few authors do it well.
I did like Sphere, but not really anything else of Crichton's that I've tried. I mean, he might as well just have a character say to another, "Hey, we're both cute and we're in a thrilling story without tremendous background detail! We should be in a movie!"
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Post by Spiderdancer on Oct 31, 2005 17:03:27 GMT -5
It looks like no one is reading this now, but if anyone is:
I just read "A Brother's Price" by Wen Spencer, and I recommend it highly. It's hilarious in many subtler ways, though I expect women might enjoy it more than men. It's basically very much like a regency romance, but with all the roles reversed. It's set on a world where men are such a huge minority (uneven birthrates) that they are a carefully sequestered property item. They are treated somewhere between "regency woman" and "woman in fundamentalist Iran." All marriages are highly polygamous as a result, and "husband raids" are not uncommon in some places.
It follows the adventures of a somewhat atypical guy named Jerin, although I suspect none of you fellas out there are going to be holding him up as a role model soon. There is definitely some female wish fulfillment going on. But anyway, the prose is tight, the plot is fairly interesting, and the world-building is thorough and effective.
I've always sort of liked Wen Spencer... But she usually writes teen fantasy, not adult sci fi.
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DTH
Ghostbuster
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Posts: 582
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Post by DTH on Nov 12, 2005 2:57:42 GMT -5
Hiya,
I recently picked up "Ringworld" by Larry Niven. This has always been sold to me as one of the sci-fi greats and I've been meaning to check it out for ages.
Being only a fraction of the way through it, my snap judgment is favourable. It is interesting and there's a lot going on. It also reads a lot like early 20th century pulp novels (and consequently reminds me of Lensmen).
I will give a fuller report when I've done with it.
Message Ends.
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Post by Magill on Dec 4, 2005 16:59:36 GMT -5
I just read "A Brother's Price" by Wen Spencer, and I recommend it highly. It's hilarious in many subtler ways, though I expect women might enjoy it more than men. It's basically very much like a regency romance, but with all the roles reversed. It's set on a world where men are such a huge minority (uneven birthrates) that they are a carefully sequestered property item. They are treated somewhere between "regency woman" and "woman in fundamentalist Iran." All marriages are highly polygamous as a result, and "husband raids" are not uncommon in some places. I just read this based on your recommendation. I did find it rather interesting. One thing took me out a bit--if men are so rare, it seems doubtful that they'd be charged with domestic chores and child-raising. Some families wouldn't have sons old enough to look after their younger siblings. I know the author was trying to reverse all gender roles, but that in particular didn't make much sense. I also enjoyed thinking about what a society like that means from a biological perspective. The "sisters" would be more closely related to each other than they would be to either of their parents or to their children (this assumes that the same man is the father to all of the sisters' children). That's sort of like social insects like bees and ants--the workers are more closely related to each other than they are to the queen, but in this case the "workers" can also reproduce. I was also wondering if the book was supposed to take place on Earth, in the distant future. Perhaps there was some sort of war that caused the technological level to go down. A chemical/biological agent used in such a war could also have caused the uneven birthrates. |
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Post by Spiderdancer on Dec 4, 2005 19:16:54 GMT -5
It does seem more likely that if men were so few in number, they would be more like drones in a social insect context in terms of their work load. (Ahem.) It seems it would make more sense to have the juniormost wives help out (except when they are small children, and believe me, THAT aspect creeped the heck out of me). Logic doesn't always play a part in what people do, I guess.
I think the chemowarfare theory is fairly plausible. It's possible that someone came up with a Y-targeted chemowarfare agent, on the theory that a nation with all its males sterilized would have problems filling its armed forces and maintaining its infrastructure at the same time after a generation or so. Let's face it, it would take a while before social standards adjusted to where women were willing to screw doped-up slaves in a brothel in order to get pregnant.
Of course, it seems like it would just make more sense to kill your enemies now than sterilize them later, but what the heck.
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Post by Thumbscrews McGee on Mar 25, 2007 21:12:53 GMT -5
I'm not really a science fiction person, but I would recommend anything by R. A. Lafferty, especially his short stories. His books can be hard to find though and they're hard to describe so here's a link. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.A._Lafferty |
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maxtype
Mini-Mutant
The Ace Pilot Of Bad Movies!!!
Posts: 2
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Post by maxtype on Apr 24, 2007 23:22:30 GMT -5
I read some sci-fi....working back through David Drake's Hammer's Slammers now that I've got them in hardcover.....love Heinlein,LOVE Weber-Honor Harrington is Cool!!!
Walter Jon Williams is another fave...Voice Of The Whirlwind and Angel Station,especially....
I'm unusual in that I didn't enjoy Ender's Game all that much....
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Post by Spiderdancer on Apr 25, 2007 14:40:12 GMT -5
Another Drake/Weber fan at long last! Huzzah! Read any Eric Flint? He's usually the third part of that triumvirate, with the three of them frequently switching around as coauthors. I heartily recommend the March Upcountry series (Weber/Flint) and the Belisarius books (Drake/Flint).
I don't know of any books written by all three of them yet, other than possibly short story collections, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time.
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sirgallahad2
Boomstick Coordinator
RUN!! Get to de CHOPPA!!!!!
Posts: 280
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Post by sirgallahad2 on Jun 11, 2007 8:44:26 GMT -5
One of my favorite sci-fi writers is Joe Haldeman. He's a vietnam veteran so all of his war books (The Forever War and Forever Peace) ring VERY true. "Old Twentieth" is another fantastic novel by him. Kent Anderson is another excellent writer. He's not a sci-fi writer, but his writing is phenomenal. As far as I know, he only has 2 books. They involve the same character at different stages of his life. The first one is called "Sympathy for the Devil ". It's a story about a young man who gets drafted into the army during Vietnam. He see some Special Forces guys during basic training and decides he wants to be one of them. It is some of the most realistic writing I have ever been witness to.
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