Science Fiction Thread

[bijaz]

Anything Sci-Fi
If anyone has read any good Science Fiction Novels or Short stories, and would like to discuss them I was hoping we could do it here.
I've read lots of great Sci-Fi literature over the years and it truly is a passion of mine. I was hoping there may be at least a few here who might have at least something to say on the subject.

Any Ideas for stories or excerpts from your own stories would be awsome to hear.

Hopefully, there are at least a few others here who might enjoy a discussion on this topic.

[Trickster]

Generally, I think of sci-fi as being stories about intergalactic space wars, and that sort of thing annoys me... However, I really enjoy the stories of Philip K Dick and Michael Marshall Smith. I like to read a writer who's pushing my idea of science-fiction, and I think they both do that really well.

[Feeling Brackish]

I'm quite a Phil Dick fan. I've read many of his books. I just re-read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and I started re-reading The Cosmic Puppets last night. I was waiting for a book I ordered from Walden Books, Solaris by Stanislaw Lem, to come in, so I was re-reading books I've enjoyed. Then today, I found Solaris and bought it. I've never read any Lem though, but I've heard good things.

I also really enjoy, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov, and Stephen Baxter.

[bijaz]

I'm quite a Phil Dick fan. I've read many of his books. I just re-read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and I started re-reading The Cosmic Puppets last night. I was waiting for a book I ordered from Walden Books, Solaris by Stanislaw Lem, to come in, so I was re-reading books I've enjoyed. Then today, I found Solaris and bought it. I've never read any Lem though, but I've heard good things.

I also really enjoy, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov, and Stephen Baxter.

Yeah, Herbert and Asimov are obviously two of the greats. I always try to remember how long ago they wrote their great novels when I read them. (Especially Asimov) It puts into perspective how revolutionary their thinking was in their time.

A writer I really enjoyed is Orson Scott Card. He really reflects on the conflict between religion and science in his books. I believe it comes from his strong Mormon upbringing but for whatever reason it has always made his writings interesting for me. I especially liked "Speaker for the Dead" and "The Worthing Saga." Thats really just one author I like a lot.
To be honest I've never read anything by Philip K Dick but it is now tops on my list the next trip to the bookstore.
To be honest, I have never discussed Sci-fi lit with people before or been in any related groups so I've always just picked what looked good. Many times chosing an award winning Sci-Fi novel and then reading a lot of the authors other stuff after. Admitidly this has left some holes in my readings, especially in the newer stuff.
Thanks for the update on Dick, lol

[bijaz]

Generally, I think of sci-fi as being stories about intergalactic space wars, and that sort of thing annoys me... However, I really enjoy the stories of Philip K Dick and Michael Marshall Smith. I like to read a writer who's pushing my idea of science-fiction, and I think they both do that really well.

I think there is a big misconception about Sci-Fi Literature. I have read a lot of BAD Sci-Fi, really a lot. It's kind of hit or miss when your basically just browsing for books like I ussually do. Fact is, most of the bad Sci-fi is about intergalactic space wars, although there are a few on that topic that are not terrible. That is the main reason I think this topic is important. I mean, lets help each other find the good stuff so we can all steer clear of the crap, of which unfortunately, there is a lot of in the Genre.
Confession- I started out (In Highschool) reading Star Wars Novels. I didn't realize how terribly written they were until several years later. I must have read three dozen of the bastards! I might as well have been reading comic books! Once I moved on to some better stuff I realized how really awsome this Genre can be. I mean really, A Genre of literature where you can discuss Anything and disguise it in a veil of the almost supernatural.
Possible futures must be what, (Infinate) Oh yeah. There is sooo much good stuff out there if you look hard and have an open mind.

[TheImplodingVoice]

I'm not a big Sci-Fi fan (except for Huxley, Philip K. Dick and a few others) but boy, Frankenstein is great, great, great.(some consider it the first sci-fi book)

[Nak Nak]

no, it's the first cyberpunk book.

[TheImplodingVoice]

ha! Are you into cyberpunk, Craig? some of it is quite interesting methinks

[Nak Nak]

of course i am i am the cyberpunk man on blamo don't you know

[TheImplodingVoice]

cyberpunk ninja you mean

[i]

I am amazed Kendra hasn't posted in this thread yet. She really likes Orson Scott Card. I've only read Ender's Game (ok) and Speaker for the Dead (pretty good).

[Static Split Screen]

I prefer fantasy to sci-fi, but I don't mind a good sci-fi book.

[Intern Kate]

i was into fantasy as a pre-teen. Golden Compass trilogy, anyone? (sorry i know this is a science fiction thread bye)

[Trickster]

For some reason I always imagine Intern Kate is hot.
In my head, anyway.

[Intern Kate]

sometimes i imagine this too. :D

PS i'm studying abroad in Edinburgh someday in a yearish, tell me that it's the greatest.

[Trickster]

Edinburgh is the greatest! I've been to a lot of other cities, and it really is one of the nicest I've been to.

(And if you are hot, we should meet up! Wow, I'm shallow!)

[TheImplodingVoice]

BACK OFF, Richard!!! I'm kidnapping her tomorrow

[Trickster]

sorry! :(

[kendra]

I wouldn't say I'm a sci-fi buff because I don't study the authors and subgenres and I haven't read every single one of their works, but it certainly is one of my favorite genres.

I've read H.G. Wells, some Isaac Asimov, Ben Bova, Orson Scott Card, Kim Stanley Robinson, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury (I especially enjoyed The Martian Chronicles), Aldous Huxley, Michael Crichton, George Orwell, and I really liked adolescent scifi authors like William Sleator, Peter Dickinson, and Robert C. O'Brien when I was growing up. Wellll..Sleator and Orwell might not be as much scifi as political novelists but since the stories took place in the 'future' with plenty of scientific and social change I've stuck them in there. Dean Koontz might count but he's kind of umm...bad? I kinda liked the Dune stuff, it was mildly enjoyable.

[Nak Nak]

H.G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, Ben Bova, Kim Stanley Robinson, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Aldous Huxley, Iain M. Banks, Frank Herbert, Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, Pat Cadigan, Bruce Sterling, Jeff Noon, Olaf Stapledon.
Gene Wolfe is probably my favourite. one of the best around, in any genre.

[bijaz]

I also liked C.J. Cherryh . I really liked Cyteen and the Faded Sun trilogy.

I posted an excerpt from "Cyteen" on the bits of books you like thread.
I picked a section about sex because I figured most of us, once starting to read a section like that might be more likely to finish it. I know this would work on me anyway.

[Trickster]

I hadn't really thought about Orwell being sci-fi. I guess he is. I love 1984.

Also, Kurt Vonnegut has written a similarly dystopic view of the future. As has Huxley. Arthur C Clarke is ... alright, I guess.

And does Douglas Adams count? Pretty funny stuff.

Why is sci-fi only ever set in the future though? (At the time of writing at least.)

[Nak Nak]

Why is sci-fi only ever set in the future though? (At the time of writing at least.)
incorrect

[bijaz]

incorrect

How so? I mean besides Star Wars

"Long long ago, in a Galaxy far far away" lol

[Nak Nak]

a lot of s/f i've read has been set in sort of ambiguous time scales.
+ there's a whole sub genre set in a faux-past - steampunk

[Feeling Brackish]

I've read many sci-fi books that aren't in the future. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick comes to mind, so does The Cosmic Puppets, also by Dick. I just bought a Stephen Baxter book called Coalescent, and takes place in modern times.

[bijaz]

I just finished "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" Phil Dick
recomended by Brackish boy. I liked it. I will grab another of his books this weekend.
Impressions~ I liked how the book moved along with some pop. I liked his vision of the future, with overcast and brooding undertones throughout. I also enjoyed the skill in which he presented the various moral delimas brought forward. Like I said... I liked it.

[Kinbote]

The last science fiction book I read was something called The Jehovah Contract, by a "Victor Koman," and it wasn't bad, except for its dumbassed ending. It contained some agorism stuff, which was fun.

[kendra]

a lot of s/f i've read has been set in sort of ambiguous time scales.
+ there's a whole sub genre set in a faux-past - steampunk

Yeah think about this possibility . . . the alternate world you're reading about is on the same time scale us, but far more advanced. So in 1800 we're thinking about junking up the planet with coal smoke, and they were figuring out the Toyota Prius or whatever :oh: