Jump to content

The Space Opera, Military Sci-Fi, and Interstellar Sci Fi thread


C.T. Phipps

Recommended Posts

2 hours ago, TheRevanchist said:

That's it...unless we count the Star Wars book, in which case The Thrawn trilogy is absolutely magnificent, probably the only sci-fi novels I have in pair with Hyperion, and Darth Bane trilogy is quite good too.



The best Star Wars novel imo is pretty definitely Traitor by Matthew Stover, albeit it does make a lot less sense without at least some context from the (variable quality) NJO series before it.

 

@Darth Richard II Yeah.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎11‎/‎8‎/‎2017 at 1:39 PM, WarGalley said:

Can I ask why you would recommend the chronological order over the publication order? I expect I'll start this series in the next month and was planning to read it in publication order. There doesn't seem to be a strong sentiment about which way to read the series other than a minor spoiler that's revealed if reading in chronological order. 

I've read them all for the first time this year and just finished Deepness in the Sky today.  I'd say go head and start with A Fire Upon the Deep, but either way, I found Children of the Sky to be the runt of the litter.  The first two are quite good, the last, just OK in my opinion.

Starting with Deepness would probably make its ending a little less fulfilling...

Spoiler

...in that knowing that Pham manages to survive the conflict with the Emergency to launch his next fleet, you get a bit more closure.  Or if you do go the other order, just reread the last couple of pages of Deepness when you're done with Fire, I suppose. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, mcbigski said:

I've read them all for the first time this year and just finished Deepness in the Sky today.  I'd say go head and start with A Fire Upon the Deep, but either way, I found Children of the Sky to be the runt of the litter.  The first two are quite good, the last, just OK in my opinion.

I think it is the general consensus that Children of the Sky is the weakest of the three. The Tines are still one of my favourite alien races, but I agree the plot is just OK. Vinge did have an odd career, three classic SF novels (I liked his far future murder mystery Marooned in Realtime a lot as well) but the rest of his writing isn't as memorable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

Altered Carbon has a Netflix show coming soon right?

February, but the lack of a trailer or any noise on it makes me wonder if they've dropped it back. They could also be doing a Punisher-style last-minute publicity blitz on it I suppose.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Werthead said:

February, but the lack of a trailer or any noise on it makes me wonder if they've dropped it back. They could also be doing a Punisher-style last-minute publicity blitz on it I suppose.



Netflix seem to have picked up a habit of late publicity for their shows. Not usually for the higher-profile ones necessarily, but lower profile ones sometimes seem to get the first trailer like two weeks before it hits.

Might be based on the idea that, unlike trad tv where you'd have to persuade people to set aside specific timeslots for weeks at a time, the looser, binge-based Netflix format means they prefer the show to be close at hand so anyone subscribed can just go look it up and anyone not subscribed has something immediate to entice them, not three months down the line?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/20/2017 at 3:10 AM, C.T. Phipps said:

Interestingly, I was debating making a cyberpunk thread as well. :) There is quite a sci-fi dearth in threads here.

What exactly makes a book cyberpunk? I’ve heard it throw around a few times, but can’t seem to pin down what it is. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Ghjhero said:

What exactly makes a book cyberpunk? I’ve heard it throw around a few times, but can’t seem to pin down what it is. 

http://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/search?q=what+is+cyberpunk

I wrote an essay on the subject which I've linked above. The short version is it's a cynical dystopian vision of the future where technology has continued to advance but the social ills of humanity are just as prevalent, if not more so, because of the abuse of said technology the rich. It tends to take a noir view of reality and elements from detective as well as crime fiction reflecting present day or hypothetical future social ills.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, C.T. Phipps said:

http://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/search?q=what+is+cyberpunk

I wrote an essay on the subject which I've linked above. The short version is it's a cynical dystopian vision of the future where technology has continued to advance but the social ills of humanity are just as prevalent, if not more so, because of the abuse of said technology the rich. It tends to take a noir view of reality and elements from detective as well as crime fiction reflecting present day or hypothetical future social ills.

I like the sound of this a lot actually. Now that you’ve mentioned it I think I’ve heard The Mortal Engine quartet classified as Cyberpunk. I’ll have to see what else is out there. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, Ghjhero said:

I like the sound of this a lot actually. Now that you’ve mentioned it I think I’ve heard The Mortal Engine quartet classified as Cyberpunk. I’ll have to see what else is out there. 

Hold up, Mortal Engines is actually steampunk not cyberpunk. I gotta investigate that genre more. 

On another thread, Rama was brought up in relation to that interstellar asteroid that recently whizzed through the solar system. I remember I tried reading Rama in high school before giving up on it as it was a lot more slow moving than I had anticipated. I'm considering picking it back up again, but I also just noticed that it is part of a six book series. How good is the series? Is it worth reading all six or are they disjointed enough that I could get away with just reading the first one?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The first one is pretty much self contained.   Iirc the rest were written 30 years plus later.  If you like the first one then keep going but I think the rest of the books were pretty much entirely a new set of characters from the first.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The later Rama books are...interesting and certainly have some reasonable ideas, but explaining the origin of Rama and its builders was not a good idea, and the final explanation was trite. There are some horror moments in Rama II which are quite effective but otherwise I'd say that the sequels were really not necessary, and they completely ignore the hints to the true nature of the aliens given in Rendezvous, which is weird.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
On 11/4/2017 at 3:46 PM, polishgenius said:


A Fire Upon the Deep/A Deepness in the Sky, Vernor Vinge. The second in particular is a masterclass of tension and plotting and scullduggery, though the first is a cracking read too.
 

 

So I was perusing this thread awhile back looking for a new scifi author to saddle up on and, despite all the praise I hear from everyone, A Fire Upon the Deep isn't really captivating me the way people here and on Goodreads claim.  So if I'm nearing page 200 and I'm finding the storyline (especially the Tines arc) mediocre at best, is it safe to say I'm wasting my time, or is the revelatory shit about to hit the fan??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2017-11-24 at 2:42 PM, Werthead said:

The later Rama books are...interesting and certainly have some reasonable ideas, but explaining the origin of Rama and its builders was not a good idea, and the final explanation was trite. There are some horror moments in Rama II which are quite effective but otherwise I'd say that the sequels were really not necessary, and they completely ignore the hints to the true nature of the aliens given in Rendezvous, which is weird.

I just remember that it got *really* trippy in... The third book? And then it kind of ended on a cliffhanger and I never got to read the 4th. book... 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...