Science fiction

Well as stated I don't read a lot of fantasy as most series I start them and then get disillusioned when at in the middle of the third book I can figure where it's going and usually how. (Far too many fantasy writers seem incapable of plotting in a deacent plot twist in the last installment, to intent on tidying things up prettily)

So I wondred if anyone here read Peter F Hamilton - vast space opera
or Bryan Aldiss - too many varied stories to tell

(Steph Meyer of twilight fame also wrote a sci fi I love - the host)

I love Sci fi for the same reason I love Austen, the really good stuff is about human nature and where that may take us in the future.

The first of Hamilton's books I read was the reality disfunction, which is set centuries in the future. A random encounter with an alien species opens the ability for dead 'souls' to take over living peoples bodies. This and the rest of the trilogy deal with the effects as this spreads and how humanity deals with the problem! One of the really interesting concepts to me is the 'edenists'. With Genetic engineering they incorperate an 'affinity' which allows telepathy, so no-ones true feelings can be hidden.

His second big series is about a universe in which we crack how to reverse aging and so wealthy humans 'rejuve' every forty years or so, creating massive dynasties (again there is an alien threat and a response), but it is his social observation in these premises that I enjoy

Sorry, never read Peter F Hamilton. I will have to look him up it sounds interesting.
I don't read a huge deal of sci-fi although I've read a few, most of the traditionally considered classics H.G/ Wells, Asimov etc But not much modern stuff.

Someone might be able to help me find the title to a sci-fi short story I read as a kid and have always wanted to read again. I think its by one of the big names.The premise is simple, an alien insectoid race is observing earth- waiting on it to blow up- they are an observation ship for an empire of races, and none of them are mammalian. This is because anything evolving down the mammal root is too violent. At some point they either invent weapons that can destroy their whole race or wreck the environment and destroy the whole race. The aliens wait for it to happen on planets with intelligent mammals and then get the resources.
They were all ready to begin as the Cuban missile crisis peaked- then it didn't happen, and it kept not happening. And the insect captain, who was on a contract and a schedule, considers whether or not just to trigger a war because it'll happen eventually anyway, or to wait in the one in a billion chance these apes don't blow themselves up.
I wont give away the end- but if anyone knows the name of the story or the author please let me know!

I'm afraid I haven't read any of the books you mention, though a friend told me that The Host was actually pretty good, which surprised me given the author (for what it's worth, said friend does not care for Twilight). I watch more sci-fi than I read, so if you're okay with movies and TV I'd have more to talk about. For literary sci-fi, two things in particular come to mind.

The first is the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov. I only read the first trilogy and the prequel, but all are brilliant, though I wouldn't call them Asimov's finest work (I prefer some of his short stories). I never finished the fourth book in the series, sadly, and I haven't touched the Robot or Empire books. Part of that is because I prefer fantasy, and part is because I watch more than I read these days.

The other is a broader category: Warhammer 40,000 novels by various people. Yeah, I know they're novelizations of a tabletop war game, but some of them are actually really good and seized my attention with the characters and setting. It's set in a "science fantasy" setting, complete with alien races based on Tolkienian orcs and elves. It's a very dark setting with the tagline "In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war", although the novels do show a lighter side at times. It's kind of hard to explain, but TV Tropes does a fair job.

Sorry Petty, not one I've come across although it sounds worth a good read

Eldo, I can try discuss tv or film sci fi although I read more than I watch!

A recent suprise for me was Haven - I have never read or watched Stephen King, but this caught my attention, athough it is not an adaptation of the book, it is inspired by the colorado kid and film wise a late night telly find was Jumper which has a sequel in the works

I can talk in reasonable depth about War of the Worlds and in the Days of the Comet from H.G. Wells, the Time Machine to a much lesser extend (I've only read it once many years ago). And the Hitchhikers series, which comedy aside is also great inventive sci-fi.
Most of reading of Asimov and Arthur C Clarke I did in my teens and memory is a little dim on the details now. Like you Eldo I too prefrred Asimovs short stories to his long, and so a lesser extend the same is true of Clarke.
But outside of those and book versions of scifi films I'm pretty much in the dark.

Oh Hitchhikers is great... but so long since I last read it........mmmmmmm something ealse to add to the list!

Did you catch the BBC radio adaptations of the books after where the original radio series finished? Its brilliant- all the original cast except for the voice of the book- who I believe is sadly dead- but the new voice is superb and they work it in well as part of new software upgrade at the start.
Best of all the 'modernizing is nicely done'- 'a planet whose ape-like descendants are so amazingly primitive they still think ring-tones are a cool idea.'

Oh yes, I did read the first Hitchhiker's book! I laughed more than I think I ever have while reading, but I didn't finish the second on account of being distracted by some other book. I think it might have been Ringworld, so go ahead and add that to my list. It was pretty good.

As for film and TV, my all-time favourite sci-fi has to be the original Star Wars Trilogy, largely because I grew up with it but also because it's awesome. I've raved about that in the Star Wars thread enough already though. A few other sci-fi films that I've seen that were pretty good are Stargate and Serenity (both have relationships with TV shows mentioned below), though they weren't my favourites. If you count Inception, then that's another sci-fi favourite.

I don't watch a whole lot of TV in general, but a number of people have told me that I should watch Firefly or the new Battlestar Galactica, and I'll try to get around to it. I watched the first season of Stargate Universe as it was coming out (my brother is a big Stargate nerd) but I lost interest towards the end and couldn't finish the first episode of the second season.

My favourite TV sci-fi (so far) would have to be Cowboy Bebop. It's an anime show set in the late 21st century as man has expanded among the solar system, and it follows a group of bounty hunters (known as cowboys) as they try to catch interplanetary criminals. It's sort of a fusion of space opera, western, detective, film noir, action, and crime stories, except it's actually really cool even though I probably didn't explain it well. I'm told it's similar to Firefly, though Bebop is older.

Well my recent reading did throw up a new find, a space opera series by Randolph Lalonde called spinward fringe. It is a space opera set in a far future galaxy that is about to experience the fourth fall of man. Written in shortish novels a bit like TV episodes, each move the story on a little further, have multiple storylines and have yet to reach that resolution moment (0-6 already avaliable, 6.5 novella and 7 due soon!) Even better as he mainly releases through e book they are each only around £2 and Broadcast 0 is avaliable free to download!

series webpages

Sounds intriguing I will have to give those a go.
I can recommend the Heechee saga by Fredrick Pohl, not the greatest written books ever but some fantastic ideas. I started on the second book Gateway without knowing there were any others- its perfectly readable as a single book. The first however if you want to start there is called 'The Merchants of Venus' and is a novella which appeared in the collection 'TheGold at the Starbows End' - I have never read it though only from Gateway on, I read them years ago preinternet and could never get hold of it. If you do decide to give them a go I would recommend not finding anything out about them before you start as the very idea Gateway is about would ruin it to know before hand.

I liked the Robot short stories of Asimov - a long long time ago. Farenheit 451 I remember thinking was excellent too.

A quesion: when I think of science fiction writers I think of Ray Bradbury, but he's not, is he, nor was he a fantasy writer as such, nor contemporary fiction. What genre does he belong in?

On a personal note Saorise Ronan is not done annoying me yet! The reason suggested for her not being in TH is she is going to be in the adaptation of the host (steph meyer of twilight fames book) as the lead. NOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooo! i all I can say to that piece of possible casting!

Kafria wrote:On a personal note Saorise Ronan is not done annoying me yet! The reason suggested for her not being in TH is she is going to be in the adaptation of the host (steph meyer of twilight fames book) as the lead. NOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooo! i all I can say to that piece of possible casting!

Well all I can say to that is that I'm glad it's not Kristen Stewart!

True, but I want an unknown, non of the commonly suggested actreesses seem right to me!

I could take up acting, Kafria.

I'de rather see Saorise Ronan in TH than Evangeline Lily. Just saying. No matter what the character, Itaril/Tauriel.

I could take up acting, Kafria.- Porgy

I thought you already had? What about those palantir shows you made with that dwarf company, Dirty Diggers I think it was called?

their version of Dwalin Does Dallas was an eye opener to say the least.

Sci-fi is one of my favorite genres of anything. Gaming, film, and books are all fantastic.

I have to say my favorite sci-fi books are the Star Wars and Halo series.

In film, its hard for me to choose. Id say all six Star Wars films, particularly the prequel trilogy are on top. After that it gets more difficult to decide, there are a great number of good ones.

Gaming is obviously Halo and Star Wars. I would through Mass Effect in there as well

Have you seen Firefly Lorient?

I'VE SEEN FIREFLY!

Good isn't it.

Very good.

I've not seen firefly, I do want to watch it though. Wonder if it's on Amazon as well...

Have you ever seen Cowboy Bebop, Petty? Or anyone else? It's a very similar show to Firefly in a number of ways, being a space western of sorts (though it's a bit hard to pin down the genre) but it actually predates the show by a few years. It's an anime series but it has a fantastic English dub. Each episode is like a vignette so you don't have to watch it in order but the first episode is one of the best. I highly recommend the show as it's one of my favorite works of sci-fi in any medium.





(You've recommended so many shows to me, I thought I'd mix it up and recommend one myself. )