Everything Science Fiction (1 Viewer)

[Serius]

For me, sci-fi is my true love. I love everything about reading a good sci-fi book and i dont mind the odd space opera which has a mix of every genre. Lately i have been getting into some extremely large books which have many many sequals, which is kind of odd because in the begining i loved the short stories.

I remember i once read a collection of sci-fi from the early 1900s and it was all exceptionally good, especially the way the concepts were described. Alot of people think sci-fi is just about ships, lasers, wormholes and interstellar flight, wierd aliens called Klingons and it always is in the future. Not so, one of the best sci-fi i read was set in a universe very similiar to ours at our time, the only difference being that Rome had infact gone on to take control of the world so everything had these latin concepts attached to it.

Thats what sci-fi is all about, the concepts. If an author finds a good enough concept that is plausable then they can write a masterpeice. Most authors focus on basic what if questions e.g in the future how will we travel the vast distances of space? FTL is almost a given but some say we will use ships that are powered by a warp drive, others think wormholes are the way and still more feel that ftl cannot be acheived and cold stasis to preserve oru bodies for the long flight is a good way.
One of my favourite authors Richard Morgan. beleived that ships would always have a hard time traveling ftl, and that for travel it would always be easier and cheaper to send an information wave rather than a ship, hence is said that humans will have their mind uploaded, sent along a carrier wave and then re-sleeved into a body waiting on the other side of the galaxy. That concept allowed him to write altered carbon.

post some of your favourite sci-fi books and authors here and discuss any sci-fi concepts you wish

my all time favourite author: toss up between Geg Bear and Orson Scott Card
favourite book: 'Ender's game' hands down.

reccomended reads: will add to this as i remember them.

 

[sam04u]

Yeah, I don't really like books but I like the idea of 'science fiction' anything. (Isn't that what modern agnoticism is based on lol jk) Nah, really though a good sci-fi with the correct sci and minimal fi is a perfect combination for a movie/book which gets you thinking. It depends on the person though, I was always more intersted in medievil-fantasy, because it was more appealing and seemed more real.

I bet I could make a bad-ass science fiction novel/movie.

I'll pitch a story, there is life on the other side of the universe, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_5194, It's a life form which is almost 'Identical' to ours physically. Technologically and Culturally though they are completely different. And, our planets look very similar. Untill, their space-ships land on our planet. However, the only difference is, we all look like their 'deformed', like do you know how people with downs syndrome have a particular 'look'? It's how we look to them. They're also alot more intelligent then us, and they notice use when we first start 'leaching resources', from our neigbouring planets (like mars, we take water and stuff through 'entangled' teleportation. They notice the 'portal' with their ships when they land here.

They teach us things like, (My scientific theories which I wont disclose on the internet Lol), and we then some diplomatic things arise, like we don't accept their ideas on 'neglecting religion', and neglecting our ideas on social/morals and also on homosexuality, music etc. So we wage endless wars on each other (mainly using their intelligence which they shared with us), we use their 'processed' colonisation skills and we fight for the universe, small battles arise, new technologies etc.

It pwns.

 

[kami]

post some of your favourite sci-fi books and authors here and discuss any sci-fi concepts you wish

my all time favourite author: toss up between Geg Bear and Orson Scott Card
favourite book: 'Ender's game' hands down.

reccomended reads: will add to this as i remember them.

I adore sci-fi as well, one series that particularly stand out for me is Dune; I just loved the idea of humanity evolving socially and biologically to replace machinery(mentats, reverend mothers, navigators etc.), I also love the way we get an almost anthropological look at the different cultures and why they are the way they are (like when we suddenly become immersed in the fremen culture in the original Dune, its almost like an ethnography).

There is also the Pearl Saga by Eric Van Lustbader which is cool to see how the various people's cultures developed after clashing with the foreign 'other' from outerspace - it was an interesting parallel with contemporary settler cutlures but with a few cool twists.

 

[Emma-Jayde]

I love science fiction too, and I agree with Kami about Dune being a stand-out series. And most of H.G Wells' sci-fi novels like The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds
I also enjoy the sci-fi/fantasy genre crossover.

 

[turtleface]

Star Trek = owns other sci fi

 

[Seryn]

I also enjoy the sci-fi/fantasy genre crossover.

I've always been much more of a fantasy fan than a sci-fi fan, but my number 1 favourite series is actually a crossover of genres: Otherland by Tad Williams, a fantastic mix of sci-fi, fantasy and historical themes.
As for Dune though, I personally found it way too dull and political for my liking. I couldn't even finish the first book

 

[Emma-Jayde]

I've always been much more of a fantasy fan than a sci-fi fan, but my number 1 favourite series is actually a crossover of genres

Ditto.
Actually, I started reading Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn recently, and I've been considering picking up the Otherland books too.

 

[PaleReflection]

Star Trek = owns other sci fi

lol Morn

<3

 

[Trillium]

I tend to stick with my fantasy, but a mention of altered Carbon was too much to resist...
I love that book.
And i have to add, like fantasy, sci-fi is good in that it both enables people to look at aspects of their own society, and it hypothesises on the possible ramifications of that society, all ina removed kind of way.
I really like sci-fi to be consistently written. By that i mean that i find some authors do tend to include some teleportation and laser weapons and some neat science speculations and that's it, but others, and the ones i thinka re the better ones, tend to consistently refer to things in their created society that make it futuristic and fully realised.
Such as the mention of christianity being a 'werid cult' in altered carbon... continuoulsy developing political environments that do show a link back to the past and so on.
*shrugs*
Of course, most of this applies to science fiction that is indeed based upon a future stemming from life on this planet, in this reality.

~Trill

 

[Ennaybur]

i loved Dune. i also liked red mars but i dont read nearly enough scifi as id like to .. well i dont read nearly enough full stop atm..
but anyway .. yeah..

 

[Aznpsycho]

Neal Stephenson writes some excellent hard science fiction. In particular, The Diamond Age. It is essentially an extrapolation of society on Earth post-Nanotech revolution. It is scientific to the core - no silly grey-goo doomsday scenarios, no Star Trek utopian anti-materialism, but some excellent social commentary about the cultural conflicts between different societies.

A second note is that, unlike many traditional science fiction authors whose character's personalities belie the author's social anxiety, each and every character is well rounded and interesting. There are no set villains in this story - everybody has their own motivations, and their conflicts between what they want and have drives this novel. The cultural relativistic theme is also a crucial lynchpin of the story, with the conflict between the Neo-Victorians and the Confucians how societies should be organised - Neo-Victorians trying to maintain the status quo and monopoly of molecular sources, and the Confucians trying to wrest a new and decentralised technology from their hands.

The ending is awfully weak though - with far too many plot points left unresolved, and the feeling that there is far far too much to come.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diamond_Age

Also, a soft-sci-fi recommendation as well: The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons. Book no. 1 is a Canterbury Tales-esque story of 7 pilgrims and their motivations for going to a mysterious temple inhabited by the murderous Shrike - a bizarre murdering machine. Book no. 2 is best described as horrific mindfuck after mindfuck, Simmons really shows his roots as a horror writer when you get to the Labryinths.

 

[PterodactylFace]

A series I would highly reccomend is Julian May's Saga of the Exiles, which consists of four books. Here's a brief summary from Wikipedia about it:

"[Saga of the Exiles] is a narrative surrounding the adventures of a group of late 21st and early 22nd century misfits/outcasts who travel through a one-way time-gate to Earth's Pliocene epoch, in the hopes of finding a simple utopia where they can finally fit in.

However, the reality is far removed from the dream. The time-travellers arrive to discover the Pliocene is already inhabited by a dimorphic race of aliens ('exotics'). The exotics, who have fled their home galaxy because of religious persecution, are marooned on Pliocene Earth as well. The exotics have difficulty reproducing on Earth, and so have enslaved many of the humans in an effort to overcome this problem, interbreeding with the more robust humans.

Understandably, relationships between the exotics and the humans tend to be somewhat strained, and are complicated further by the exotics' metapsychic powers."

That doesn't really do it justice. It focuses highly on those metapsychic powers, in fact, that's what most of the books revolve around. There was also the Galactic Milieu series by her which dealt with some of the same characters prior to the events in Saga of the Exiles.
Oh, and, obviously, all Asimov's work is highly reccomended.

 

[Serius]

Heres a few more:

Idlewild by Nick Sagan: what if humanity is finally wiped out by a super virus? how would we try and survive? The people of earth genetically engineer some new humans, version 2.0 to be able to resist the plague. The thing is that they are only babies and death for every1 except these 10 or so is imminent. How will they be raised? by programs, thats how! So they grow up in a virtual world[ IVR immersive virtual reality] almost identlical to ours pre-destruction and awake when they reach adulthood. Well thats the plan anyway.

The saga of seven suns - Kevin J. Anderson. This series is a work in progress, but you will be amazed by the scope of it. Each book is massive and ive read 3 of em so far[pretty sure theres about 5 or 6 out though] Its very much a massive space opera with the universal story that humanity encounters an old old old civilisation that lives inside gas giants and wants to be left alone. The thing is gas giants are harvested for FTL fuel[FTL yes, but it still takes weeks and months to get anywhere]and the humans [ and 2 or so other races] have inadvertantly pissed off the gas giant inhabitants. Did i say pissed off? i meant made steaming mad.
Thats the universal plot, but there are about 8 sub plots of each character, one little robot gets captured by much larger, evil robots, a race of human/tree symbiois is able to communicate instantly accross space through the use of their saplings. The roamers [group of humans who live in isolation and harvest space e.g asteroids, gas giants, metals from hot planets] suffer extreme losses and fight back in clever ways [because they have almost no military]. Its a really well rounded series.

Gravity dreams - L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

This book shows an incredible amount of duality. In one way its a story about a guy who becomes a starship captain [ not big starships starwars style but tiny little ones with room for maybe a dozen passengers style] which is amazing because only about 100 people in the known universe have the skill to pilot the needleships. FTL is acheived by dipping breifly into another universe made up of sounds, bright colours and geometric shapes and then reinserting into wherever you want to go.
The other side of the story is a detailed exploration of ethics. If you are a startrek fan, it isnt anything like the prime directive, its more like interpersonal ethics, honesy and dealing ethically when the primitive human civilizations on earth. Everyone is made accountable for their actions, and this is facilitated by nanites, which increase everyones inteligence and physical prowess. The downside is the nanites can monitor everyone, hence the completely honest society becomes self regulated. No one is willing to step out of place, because they know somewhere someone will know.
This accountability is best demonstrated where a girl is sexually assulted by some guy, she keeps trying to bring it back to what he did but the comitee informs her that " he will be dealt with seperately" the learn that she promised sex if he bought or stuff, or if he took her to dinner or acted in certain ways. She is punished for fraud and they move on.

This book is set in the distant future where we have achieved, but not mastered, faster-than-light space travel. The main character, Tyndel, is born and raised in Dorcha, a religious culture that has rejected nanotechnology. He is a master of Dzin, the religion of Dorcha, which emphasizes moderation in all things, including knowledge. He is forced to leave his home after he is forcibly exposed to nanites, which infect him and give him exceptional strength and endurance and the ability to accurately judge distances and time. Because of this, he is labeled as a demon and is hunted until he reaches a neighboring country of Rykasha which has not rejected this technology.

The government of Rykasha welcomes him by replacing the primitive nanites that he was exposed to with more modern ones. Because of this service, he must pay back the government for the expense. He is shown how to function in this new community and is presented with a job opportunity. Unlike Dorcha, which has rejected technology, Rykasha is actually an interstellar society, spread over many planets and space stations, and places a high priority on honesty, both personal and public. Tydel has the talent to become a “needle jockey” or someone who is capable of piloting the faster-than-light space craft of Rykasha, in part due to his Dzin training. He turns down the offer and is sent to pay his debt to society on a far-off space station around a planet being planoformed.
[serius] He then decided its a shit job and ends up training to be a space pilot again[/serius]

It doesnt go into it much but he comes into contact with a supreme being called EM who argues ethics with him and Tyndel ends up doing EM a favour.


About to start reading a book called "Hominids" lets see how it turns out eh?

 

[Aznpsycho]

Saga of the 7 Suns comes off as ridiculously cliched space opera in the vein of those godawful Star Wars EU books. Some of those SW EU books were by Kevin J Anderson. Also, KJA has been pumping out those Dune prequels like some coke-crazed welfare mother, and my god does it give off a poor impression of his shitty hack writing in general.

Also, I must get into Altered Carbon - after I've finished Idoru and Pattern Recognition by William Gibson, and The Baroque Cycle by, you guessed it, Neal Stephenson.

 

[KeypadSDM]

Foundation.

Nuff, said.

 

[k_stroud22]

Doctor Who novels (especially doctor's 9 & 10) and everything LOTR

 

[rusty_rouge]

I've always been much more of a fantasy fan than a sci-fi fan, but my number 1 favourite series is actually a crossover of genres: Otherland by Tad Williams, a fantastic mix of sci-fi, fantasy and historical themes.
As for Dune though, I personally found it way too dull and political for my liking. I couldn't even finish the first book

Can someone actually define for me the difference between science fiction and fantasy?

These are my favourite types of books, but I've never quite been sure how to discern one genre from the other - to me, they have many inherent similarities. Any takers?

 

[kami]

Can someone actually define for me the difference between science fiction and fantasy?

These are my favourite types of books, but I've never quite been sure how to discern one genre from the other - to me, they have many inherent similarities. Any takers?

In general, science fiction contains elements of science to some superior degree to that of today e.g spaceships, clones, mutants, aliens etc. are all conventions of science fiction (though of course there are many others). Fantasy is more based on rituals, mysticism, spirituality and the unexplained however it often does share the idea of different species (think orcs, goblins, elves, unicorns, trolls etc.) with sci-fi just in a different way. Both are in of themselves part of the speculative fiction genre which explains the many similarities.

 

[Emma-Jayde]

Edit: Beaten to it

They can be very similar, and in many cases cross over.

Fantasy generally uses magic of some sort as a major part of the plot, and it's often loosely based on legends and mythology.

Science Fiction usually involves scientific elements or advanced technology; eg space travel, time travel, life on other planets or advanced life on Earth.