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Science Fiction

Frasier Buddolph said:
I'm puzzled that more of these "Greatest Science Fiction" compilations don't include any works by Stanislav Lem. IMHO, his writing is on an entirely different level from mainstream commercial writers like Bradbury, Asimov, and Heinlein (All of whom I enjoyed growing up, but as an adult not so much.) ...

Solaris, Fiasco and His Master's Voice are three of my all-time favorite SF novels, and Golem XIV remains the most thoughtful treatment of AI that I have read. Highly recommended.
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I agree on all points. Lem was operating on a different, higher, plane when it came to delving into the implications and ramifications of SF scenarios. Moving from the most popular SF writers of that era to Lem was like switching from soft drinks to hard liquor, and this transition was too much for most casual SF readers.

On the other hand, Lem's deep treatment of certain topics sometimes made his writings dense to the point of being textbook-turgid. This would understandably turn off anyone seeking no more than light entertainment. Back in the 1980's (when AI was my specialty ... ) I read Lem as the most thoughtful SF writer on that topic, but I had to admit some of his stuff could be as much a slog as the technical literature in the field.

I also know what you mean about the most popular writers of one's youth becoming wince-worthy as one ages and develops more appreciation for what well-crafted literature can be. I'd pick Asimov as the SF writer I most enjoyed as a teen, yet most despise as a more mature reader. He played with / on a lot of good ideas, but by the time I was in my twenties I had to concede he was one of the least competent fiction writers I'd ever read. "I, Robot" isn't just his best-known title - it's a spot-on description of every character he created.

One other point ... The weaknesses of most commercial SF writers became more evident as they attempted longer works. It's typically within the short story or novella range where any of them managed to express something deep or interesting without drifting off into incoherence, outright fluff, or obvious filler. As a result, I tend to prize short story collections over novels for just about all the 'big names'. There are also lesser-renowned SF writers whose short works (in some cases, all they ever produced ... ) equal or exceed the quality and topical depth of more famous authors.
 
EnolaGaia said:
One other point ... The weaknesses of most commercial SF writers became more evident as they attempted longer works. It's typically within the short story or novella range where any of them managed to express something deep or interesting without drifting off into incoherence, outright fluff, or obvious filler. As a result, I tend to prize short story collections over novels for just about all the 'big names'. There are also lesser-renowned SF writers whose short works (in some cases, all they ever produced ... ) equal or exceed the quality and topical depth of more famous authors.
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I'd generally agree with this.
Short story collections are a good way to sample the works of various writers, and I found myself buying mostly anthologies back in the 80s.
 
Hulu is expanding its drama roster.

The streaming service has handed out a straight-to-series order for drama The Handmaid's Tale, starring Mad Men grad Elisabeth Moss, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The 10-episode drama is set to debut in 2017.

Based on the book of the same name by Margaret Atwood, The 100's Bruce Miller penned the script and will exec produce alongside Daniel Wilson (The Handmaid's Tale feature film), Fran Sears (The Sophisticated Gents) and Warren Littlefield (Fargo). Atwood is on board as a consulting producer on the property, which was previously adapted as a feature film in 1990 starring Natasha Richardson, Faye Dunaway and Robert Duvall.

The drama tells the story of life in the dystopia of Gilead, a totalitarian society in what was formerly part of the U.S. Facing environmental disasters and a plunging birthrate, Gilead is ruled by a twisted religious fundamentalism that treats women as property of the state. As one of the few remaining fertile women, Offred (Moss) is a handmaid in the commander's household, one of the caste of women forced into sexual servitude as a last desperate attempt to repopulate a devastated world. She is forced to navigate between commanders, their cruel wives, domestic marthas and her fellow handmaids — where anyone could be a spy for Gilead — all with one goal: to survive and find the daughter that was taken from her.

"Hulu has established itself as a home for blockbuster television events and what better way to expand our originals offering than with a series based on this acclaimed, best-selling novel,” Hulu head of content Craig Erwich said. “Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale was seen as ahead of its time and we look forward to bringing it to life on our platform.” ...

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/elisabeth-moss-star-hulu-straight-888858
 
SCIENCE FICTION author Cory Doctorow has made a name for himself as a leading thinker of the internet age. As a co-editor of the tech blog Boing Boing and special advisor to the digital advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation, he has been on the frontlines of international debates about privacy, copyright, and the freedom of information for over a decade. ...

I spoke with Doctorow after he delivered the keynote address at UC Riverside’s Writers Week Conference this February. The speech was riveting. Doctorow flowed for 45 seamless minutes, addressing privacy, crypto, and surveillance. ...

You have many roles: sci-fi author, activist, blogger, speaker, and journalist. All of these aspects of your career work in concert, but if you were forced to choose only one, what would you choose?

I used to have to choose only one when I filled out the landing card coming into the UK, before I became a citizen. I would put “writer” in that tiny little box. I think “writer” holds all that other stuff together. I used to have a business card that said, “internet user,” and I liked that. I thought that was pretty accurate. ...

Especially when you see Edward Snowden in Citizenfour packing up a copy of your YA novel Homeland among his possessions.

Although — I have to come very clean about this. Laura Poitras, the film’s director, brought that book to Snowden for two reasons. The first was that she thought he’d enjoy it. And the other is that if they needed a book code, and it was a book full of terminology about leaks, whistle-blowing, and crypto.

So they used it as a book code? How cool.

Yeah, a book code is when you tell the other person to check a certain page, or line, to create the message they need. She thought the specialist vocabulary necessary to talk to Snowden required a book that has some overlap with “Snowdenian” subject matter. But my understanding is that he enjoys my work. We have corresponded very little. ...

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/internet-user-cory-doctorow/


 
io9 Was Founded on the Idea That Science Fiction Belongs to Everyone

When I started working on io9 in 2007, we didn’t have a name for the site yet. We hadn’t come up with any real plans for how we were going to cover science fiction, science and futurism. But there was already a central idea that the site was based around: That science fiction is for absolutely everybody who enjoys it.

This was something that we talked about endlessly, for the six months before io9 launched in January 2008. Gawker Media impressario Nick Denton, who came up with the idea for io9 in the first place, really wanted to create a website that had something to say. He didn’t want it to be just a collection of news and trivia, but something that would challenge people. And at the same time, Nick was passionate about the idea that science fiction is mainstream pop culture, and that we shouldn’t ever aim our coverage at a niche audience.

So io9 founder Annalee Newitz and I worked on a central thesis for io9, based on Nick’s brief, and this is what we came up with:

1) We’re living in a science fictional era, thanks to all the incredible technological and scientific discoveries we’ve made. (At the time, we were just starting to discover exoplanets and sequence the DNA of individual people.) In some sense, science fiction has “come true.”

2) This means science fiction is uniquely qualified to comment on the era we’re living in, and is the only pop culture that accurately reflects the world around us.

3) Meanwhile, science fiction itself has clearly gone mainstream. Absolutely everybody was talking about Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars, Batman and William Gibson’s novels. Knowing about those things was a matter of basic cultural literacy. ...

http://io9.gizmodo.com/io9-was-foun...m_medium=sharefromsite&utm_source=io9_twitter
 
This Day in Jewish History 1993: A Warrior, Sci-fi Writer and Orthodox Jew Dies
Though by the time he died, Avram Davidson, inventor of 'magical realism', had yanked the yarmulke and warmed to Shinto.

On May 8, 1993, the writer Avram Davidson died, at the age of 70. Davidson is generally classified as a fantasy and science-fiction author, but he experimented with too many different themes and genres during a lengthy writing career to be so easily pegged. As his friend and colleague sci-fi writer Robert Silverberg wrote in the foreword to a 1998 anthology of Davidson's stories, he possessed “an utter indifference to commercial publishing values that encouraged him to follow his artistic star wherever it led.” As a consequence, perhaps, Davidson often struggled to make ends meet, and could be personally difficult as well. Late in his life, he had a spell living in a Veterans Administration home for the indigent.
Nearly every colleague and friend who eulogized Davidson after his passing described him as “rabbinical” in appearance. That is probably because he had a thick, long beard through most of his life, but also because he was the rare Orthodox Jew in a circle of sci-fi writers, many of whom were Jewish, but few of whom were religiously observant. ...

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/this-day-in-jewish-history/.premium-1.718055
 
I am familiar with Avram Davidson as the editor of F & SF magazine, but I've never read any of his books. Perhaps one or two short stories (I can't remember).
Bob Silverberg I've met.
 
11 Sci-Fi Reads to Make You Put Down Your Controller and Pick Up a Book

The act of video gaming in and of itself is a wonderful form of entertainment, allowing players to leave behind the real world and exist in a digital one for a short time. As virtual reality and augmented reality gaming are about to hit the world big-time, it’s worth taking a look at how authors have explored the virtual world and ferreted out the consequences and adventures only possible in the gaming world.

Press Start to Play, edited by John Joseph Adams and Daniel WilsonJohn Joseph Adams is one of the genre’s leading anthologists, and one of his latest collections (with co-editor Daniel Wilson) is all about gaming. This is a great, diverse collection of stories, considering the medium from the earliest text-based adventures, all the way up to first person shooters. What’s even more awesome: the huge and diverse collection of authors: Charlie Jane Anders, Seanan McGuire, Cory Doctorow, Chris Kluwe, Austin Grossman, and quite a few more.

Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
When it comes to books about games, Orson Scott Card’s fantastic military science fiction novel is hard to beat. This isn’t your typical gaming book: the stakes are enormously high for Andrew Wiggin and the rest of humanity as they face extermination from the alien Formics. Ender is sent to the military’s Battle School in orbit, where he undergoes a rigorous training cycle on a war simulator, intended to prepare him to lead humanity’s fleet. Even as he’s an unwitting player a larger game, one that will test him to the limits, he must cope with another type of game: a virtual reality fairy tale exploration of his innermost psyche.

...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/...-put-down-your-controller-and-pick-up-a-book/
 
Desperately Looking for Others
By Pepe Rojo

The publication of the fourth volume of The Apex Book of World SF, which gathers science fiction stories from 26 different countries around the world, offers a hopeful contrast to the Hugo controversy — it shows that there’s a readership interested in how others fictionalize their relation to science and technology. What do others imagine as others? The promise of alien-ness bristles throughout the volume — the thrill of getting “past a certain point […] [where] the thread snaps […] the narrative breaks,” as Zen Cho (Malaysia) describes in “The Four Generations of Chang E,” a poignant story about the descendants of a human who migrated to the Moon, becoming, truly, others. Editor Mahvesh Murad, a writer “born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan, where she still lives,” wisely introduces readers to the anthology, claiming that “this is not a book of diverse stories,” but a book of “really great stories from all over the world.” And it is a really interesting place to look for others. ...

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/desperately-looking-others/
 
Mythopoeika said:
I am familiar with Avram Davidson as the editor of F & SF magazine, but I've never read any of his books. Perhaps one or two short stories (I can't remember).
Bob Silverberg I've met.
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What was he like? I always liked Silverberg. Born with the Dead which includes Going was brilliant.
 
I only exchanged pleasantries and shook him by the hand. He seemed pleasant enough.
He was with a group of other famous SF authors, so I didn't feel free to engage him in conversation.
I was 20-something back then and shy as heck, so it was slightly intimidating.
 
CkVmjD-WEAAJmAZ.jpg
 
GNC said:
Watched Tomorrowland tonight, which was a big flop for a movie based on a Disney theme park. Painfully well-meaning, but I thought it was ironic a film so set on promoting how precious optimism is should fail to convey that so badly. I liked the way it was a science fiction movie without 'splosions and violence, until about 45 minutes in they lost their nerve and put in 'splosions and violence.....
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I've just has a chance to watch most of this movie, and whilst not being entirely bad, it is punctuated with some really clever concepts.

Visually, it succeeds by masses more than it's tortured storyline.

Has anyone viewed the deleted scenes on the Director's Cut DVD?

The 'Plus Ultra' concept is strangely-familar to me....has this been done elsewhere? It feels a bit Terry Nation.

"Originally, the film included overt references to Walt Disney's involvement with Plus Ultra, the fictional organization founded by Gustave Eiffel, Jules Verne, Nikola Tesla, and Thomas Edison—including the idea that Disneyland'sTomorrowland was intended to be a cover-up for the real one developed by the group—however, the scenes and dialogue were omitted from the final cut of the film".

By far and away, these are my favourite quotes relating to the movie...

"A. O. Scott of The New York Times gave the film a negative review, saying "It's important to note that Tomorrowland is not disappointing in the usual way. It's not another glib, phoned-in piece of franchise mediocrity but rather a work of evident passion and conviction. What it isn't is in any way convincing or enchanting."

And....
" Lou Lumenick of the New York Post gave the film two out of four stars, saying "The film never adds up to the sum of its parts, effectively a two-hour trailer for a movie I'd still be interested in seeing"

 
Intelligent Life - A Scifi Short Film: A rather dim and ruthless colonel attempts to communicate woth an Alien in a First Contact scenario. 14m 25s. 6/10.

 
21 Best Alien Science Fiction Books

Aliens have always been a great way for authors to explore new ideas or hold a mirror to humanity, reflecting both our brightest hopes and darkest fears.

(Note that there’s already a list of 29 Best Alien Invasion Books, so I tried to steer away from invasion stories in this list.)



21

Galactic Pot-Healer
by Philip K Dick – 1969
No, not that kind of pot. The clay things that hold stuff.

One of Dick’s more absurdist titles (and that’s saying something), the story concerns a man who thanklessly heals pots in a totalitarian future Earth, only to find a job offer floating in his toilet.

He’s been recruited by a godlike alien known as Glimmung, who has recruited the pot-healer as part of a multispecies specialist team sent to Plowman’s Planet for a mystical quest, which is to raise the sunken cathedral of Heldscalla from a surreal alien ocean.

According to the author’s biographer, Laurence Sutin, Dick didn’t much care for this book. See if you agree.


20

Foreigner
by C.J. Cherryh – 1994
Foreigner is the first of a thirteen-book series, so if you like it, you’re in luck. It’s a little slow-moving and introspective, so if you’re looking for a rapid-fire page-turner, this isn’t it.

Survivors of a lost spacecraft crash-land on a planet inhabited by a hostile, sentient alien race. The humans are relegated to second-class citizen status, and it remains that way for generations, until a human survives an assault by the aliens. ...

http://best-sci-fi-books.com/21-best-alien-science-fiction-books/
 
ramonmercado said:
21 Best Alien Science Fiction Books

Aliens have always been a great way for authors to explore new ideas or hold a mirror to humanity, reflecting both our brightest hopes and darkest fears.

(Note that there’s already a list of 29 Best Alien Invasion Books, so I tried to steer away from invasion stories in this list.)



21

Galactic Pot-Healer
by Philip K Dick – 1969
No, not that kind of pot. The clay things that hold stuff.

One of Dick’s more absurdist titles (and that’s saying something), the story concerns a man who thanklessly heals pots in a totalitarian future Earth, only to find a job offer floating in his toilet.

He’s been recruited by a godlike alien known as Glimmung, who has recruited the pot-healer as part of a multispecies specialist team sent to Plowman’s Planet for a mystical quest, which is to raise the sunken cathedral of Heldscalla from a surreal alien ocean.

According to the author’s biographer, Laurence Sutin, Dick didn’t much care for this book. See if you agree.


20

Foreigner
by C.J. Cherryh – 1994
Foreigner is the first of a thirteen-book series, so if you like it, you’re in luck. It’s a little slow-moving and introspective, so if you’re looking for a rapid-fire page-turner, this isn’t it.

Survivors of a lost spacecraft crash-land on a planet inhabited by a hostile, sentient alien race. The humans are relegated to second-class citizen status, and it remains that way for generations, until a human survives an assault by the aliens. ...

http://best-sci-fi-books.com/21-best-alien-science-fiction-books/
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I've read 13 of them.
 
I quite enjoyed Simak's 'Way Station' years ago.
Not that sophisticated, but it has some interesting characters in it.
 
Charles Stross, award-winning author interview
Merchant Princes & The Laundry Files – The past, present and future of the 12 year series

JMW: Hello this is Jean Marie Ward forBuzzyMag.com. With me today is Charles Stross, award-winning author of the cross-dimensional alt history series “The Merchant Princes
ir
” and my favorite slice of government life, “The Laundry Files.” Welcome, Charlie.

Charles Stross: Hi, thanks for inviting me here.

JMW: We’re so glad you could make it. You’ve been publishing both series, “The Merchant Princes” and “The Laundry Files” for over 12 years now. How do you juggle two such different worlds, both of which have worlds within worlds?

Charles Stross: Well, you’ve got to bear in mind that this is over a period of many, many years, and I’ve been writing “The Laundry Files” since 1998, nearer to 20 years than 12, and “The Merchant Princes
ir
” since 2001. The books take a few years in development and production before they surface on the shelves. The upshot is that I’m only writing an average of one of these books every couple of years, each. And there’s plenty of time to come back and to revisit the earlier works in the series, think of new ideas and carry on developing stuff. I’m currently in the middle to near the tail end of a spate of work I’m focusing on these two series. I’ve been endeavoring to work on three titles, three consecutive titles in each of these series simultaneously with result that starting in January of next year there is a new “Merchant Princes
ir
” universe trilogy coming out, one book per year while at the same time I’m in the middle of publishing three “Laundry Files
ir
” novels in a row. ...

http://buzzymag.com/charles-stross-scifi-fantasy-lovecraftian-horror-author-interview/

 
Naughty_Felid said:
Ringworld was rubbish
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I thought that Ringworld was OK, great premise, needed exploring further (though I guess that happened in the sequels, which I haven't read).

Dune, on the other hand... I read all 6 books, and struggle even now to think of the effort as worthwhile. Not only tedious, but barely worthy of the description "Sci-Fi".

Confession time: I've only read 4 books on that list.
 
GNC said:
Independence Day: Resurgence trailer:

Looks like two hours of things falling over and exploding. Er, hooray?
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Saw it a couple of weeks ago. Fair to good sequel, a couple of hours of fun. Don't try to tell them that: Ye Canna Change The laws of Physics! though. 6/10.
 
Peripart said:
I thought that Ringworld was OK, great premise, needed exploring further (though I guess that happened in the sequels, which I haven't read).

Dune, on the other hand... I read all 6 books, and struggle even now to think of the effort as worthwhile. Not only tedious, but barely worthy of the description "Sci-Fi".
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I've hardly read any SF since the turn of the century! But Ringworld and Dune are a little long in the tooth now.

I read Ringworld (and possibly some of the sequels), but as SF it fails the big test - such a world would be gravitationally unstable. The slightest deviation from perfect symmetry (perhaps by movement of people or vehicles) and, sooner or later, the whole kit and caboodle would collide with its sun! :eek:
More detail here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringworld#Errors

The original Dune was brilliant, but sadly the sequels got progressively worse. It was set in a universe where the spice from Dune gave the navigators' guild their strange abilities to control their starships through the weird complexities of interstellar space. That all sounds pretty SF to me. What more do you want? Giant worms in the deserts? Well, it's got them too! :p
 
rynner2 said:
The original Dune was brilliant, but sadly the sequels got progressively worse. It was set in a universe where the spice from Dune gave the navigators' guild their strange abilities to control their starships through the weird complexities of interstellar space. That all sounds pretty SF to me. What more do you want? Giant worms in the deserts? Well, it's got them too! :p
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I take your points, but in actual fact, there was little or no actual space travel in the books, and the stories seemed to be nothing more than religious allegory and political tedium - the "spacey" setting seemed hardly to get a look in.

I am content to be in a minority, though, and I'm certainly not looking to stir up an argument. Dune is considered a classic of its kind, and that's fair enough. One day, I might start the slow process of re-reading the books, and I'll be quite happy to revise my opinion if I like them better second time around.
 
ramonmercado said:
Saw it a couple of weeks ago. Fair to good sequel, a couple of hours of fun. Don't try to tell them that: Ye Canna Change The laws of Physics! though. 6/10.
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Indeed. Plenty of returning actors, some decent new characters, and a good, if silly, sequel to a good, if silly, film. Both ID films will now form part of my guilty pleasures list, to be watched whenever they're on the TV.

Liam Hemsworth was clearly copying Chris Pine's Kirk, but that's no crime.
 
rynner2 said:
The original Dune was brilliant, but sadly the sequels got progressively worse.
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^this^
I especially liked the conversions with sub-texts which were fun and the over-arcing idea that the Bene Gesserit had seeded more or less the known universe with legends and ideas to be used later.
 
Intelligent Life - A Scifi Short Film: A rather dim and ruthless colonel attempts to communicate woth an Alien in a First Contact scenario. 14m 25s. 6/10.
Click to expand...

I was wondering who was testing who. Still very well done getting there. :cool:
 
rynner2 said:
I've hardly read any SF since the turn of the century! But Ringworld and Dune are a little long in the tooth now.

I read Ringworld (and possibly some of the sequels), but as SF it fails the big test - such a world would be gravitationally unstable. The slightest deviation from perfect symmetry (perhaps by movement of people or vehicles) and, sooner or later, the whole kit and caboodle would collide with its sun! :eek:
More detail here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringworld#Errors
Click to expand...
I seem to recall that there was some kind of compensation mechanism on the Ringworld, but as these systems were breaking down, the Ringworld was becoming unstable.
All this talk of Ringworld reminds me - has anybody read Bob Shaw's 'Orbitsville'? Very similar to Ringworld. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Actually, anything by Bob Shaw is good.
 
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