h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I read Ringworld and really enjoyed it. And I also thought the Puppeteers were very interesting. However I was reading a Banks book and threw it out after the first 100 pages.

Fair enough, I don't like him either...

I'd disagree about Ringworld, to be honest. There's not much of what you could reasonably call civilisation on the Ringworld. I think Niven has done MUCH better characterisations of alien civilisations in "The Mote in God's Eye", and to a lesser extent "Footfall". And if you allow "alien" to mean "human but REALLY different environment", you can't do much better than "The Integral Trees" and "The Smoke Ring". Totally with you about Banks, though - the Affront and the Idirans are both well-characterised and pretty alien.

Another good one would be "Dragon's Egg", by Robert L. Forward - millimetre long intelligent life-forms living on the surface of a neutron star. Forward did get off on inventing weird places for intelligence to be found - he also wrote "Saturn Rukh" (gasbag creatures in a gas giant atmosphere) and "Rocheworld" (whale-like things on a planet-system at Barnard's Star which defies a quick description).

H.

I do like the line from Ringworld though
Human - "When did civilisation collapse?"
Ringworlder - "What? Our civilization will collapse?"
Not the exact words, but made me wonder how civilization is defined.

If you can find a copy of Clifford Simak's 'The Goblin Reservation', it has a pretty interesting race of aliensd avillians, the Wheelers, who are collective intelligences. Funny book, though Simak is rather out of vogue at the moment.

As to Niven, well, I've not read that much of him, so I'll defer to HVL on that.

or even 'aliens as villians' * at keyboard*

Now I got what you meant. I was wondering what Davilians were.

Hmm!I've just got Peter Hamilton's Pandora's Star.However I've still got Absolution Gap to finish.They are both monster books and I've not dared start them until I had some free time.

I've also got a fantasy by Fiest,King of Foxes,to read as well as the last in the Tawny Man series to read.Thats only a quarter of my TBR pile.I'm now getting the cash but not the time to read.

So what is everyone else reading SF/fantasy wise?

I don't think I can add to the rather extensive SF list, but I did recently start A Game of Thrones by George Martin. Excellent book so far. Lots and lots of different developing characters...and the author's not afraid to let bad things happen to them, either.

Reply to post 1.

"The Day The Earth Stood Still."
An old film, depite being about a UFO landing, and the 'first' robocop... The SF, a metal stronger than anything on Earth yet being 'thier' softest. Less a story about aliens more about stupidty, arrogance of mankind. Global stupidity, and pesonal stupidity... You're a soldier and a bloody great UFO lands, then some twit starts shooting a gun - yea OK! It's also a story about toleration, and hope.



"Starship Troopers"
Ooh ray-guns, interstellar travel, thinking-bugs etc. etc. I didn't watch it as a SF, or even a "glory glory" film. I found it quite dark, the uniforms, very 1930's European. Very "1984" you have to sign-up to guarantee citizenship and thus get a licence to have children. *nice* A SF with a retro horror story.

The Day the Earth Stood Still! I haven't seen that for years - that inspires me to go read and/or watch it again.


I saw the movie Kpax the other day. It's about an alien who spends a few months in a psych ward after he tells some humans who he is. The story follows his relationship with his psychiatrist who starts to wonder if his patient is telling the truth. Very interesting ending.

Back to post 1. It always amazes me when people think SF is unintelligent or crap. Maybe I've been lucky and mostly only read quality SF. But then I'd say that is true about most of the fiction I've read - I'm pretty fussy about what I read. How is it that so many people end up reading bad SF - is it because they don't know how to find the good stuff? Or is it that the place that SF is written from is so far from what some people are wanting that they are then disappointed?


I read alot of Heinlen and Asimov when I was young which fits the intelligent criteria. Now I would recommend writers like Le Guin or Octavia Butler who go a step further taking SF out of the male space drama paradigm.

There are also alot of SF writers who write one or two novels alongside their careers as something else (often scientists). I've read some great work about things like nano technology - not in a geek tech context but in the context of society and human value systems.

If you like K-PAX the film, try the books - much deeper -still to read the third one, but you never really know who is the mad person.

CHawke

I didn't know there were books. Thanks Hawke - sounds good

I just found genebrewer.com - so that is the author's name plus the name of the psychiatrist?

The books are writen as if gene Brewer was the name of the Doctor - I "hope" they are pure fiction. I guess they changed the name in the film to stop certain less intelligent viewers getting confused.

The books have K-PAX as a much more complex character and very cynical about humanity, and explores how his world lives much more.

I really must buy the third or see if all three are together in one volume.

CHawke

Right... I've just read The Reality Disfunction by Peter F Hamilton, a bbok that seems to have polarized views between loathing and loving with nothing in between - I have to say I loved it.

Revelation Space is sat in my ATBR (Awaiting To Be Read) pile - is it good? Should I just get on with it?

Although I am reading 'What does a Martian Look Like' right now - a scientific speculation on how life out in the cosmos might appear. I'd say worth a read...

Before the Reality Disfunction I read Dune for the very first time. Now, I could be sacriligeous here, as I've never read any opinions about this book that differ from the 'best SF novel in the history of everything ever....' category - It's why I decided to read it.

Now I'm not saying it was a bad book, infact I enjoyed the majority of it and it is a good story. But I'm not convinced it's the be all and end all of SF like I was led to believe.. Has anybody else not seen what all the fuss is about, or am I victim of unrealistic expactations formed from all the hype?

Regarding Dune - the 1st book is good, but the series degenerated fast - I got the feeling the author was trying to make the most of the series for maximum cash

just got the K-PAX trilogy all in one volume for £9.

CHAwke

I'm a huge John Wyndham fan - mainly because of the human aspect of his stuff. Try 'The Kraken Wakes' It might be a bit dated, but it's good!!

I just finished Ringworld 2 actually. I also quite enjoyed that one. I wonder if the Klingons were inspired by the Kzin.

Dune was groundbreaking at the time it was produced.At the time the height of SF sophistication was DR Who Star Trek.Dune was a breath of fresh air and very much a break from Asimov,Clark and the Classic SF of the 50/60's.

However I WOULDN'T recommend any of the follow ups especially the ones produced by Herbert's son after his death.

Incog.

Well, I can see how that would work... If Dr Who and Star Trek were the benchmark then yes, Dune would be mind blowing...

Cheers