Good Science fiction Hall of Fame

[farmerben]

Modertoar’s Note:    This thread is split off from the Bad Hall of Shame thread  

 

 

You can now listen to The Mote in God's Eye and The Gripping Hand.  Best aliens in all of Sci Fi.

Edited August 12 by Gargamel

[Gargamel]

27 minutes ago, farmerben said:

Best aliens in all of Sci Fi.

Nah, I’d say the Fuzzies in Little Fuzzy (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Fuzzy) by Piper.    Then reimagined by Scalzi recently.   The original is rare, but findable, but the sequels are near impossible to find.   The Scalzi is pretty good too, and much easier to find these days.  

[Vanamonde]

4 hours ago, farmerben said:

You can now listen to The Mote in God's Eye and The Gripping Hand.  Best aliens in all of Sci Fi.

Why is this in the bad SF thread? Mote is considered one of the best, though I was disappointed with Gripping. 

[darthgently]

4 hours ago, farmerben said:

You can now listen to The Mote in God's Eye and The Gripping Hand.  Best aliens in all of Sci Fi.

I can honestly say the Moteys inspired teenage me into just going crazy in the garage fabbing together strange stuff using whatever

17 minutes ago, Vanamonde said:

Why is this in the bad SF thread? Mote is considered one of the best, though I was disappointed with Gripping. 

Maybe "bad" in the James Brown sense?  Lol, idk.  We could change it to the "sick" sci-fi thread?

[Gargamel]

And since it’s a good idea to split this off into it’s own thread, it has been done. 

[darthgently]

Blade Runner, director's cut.

[AckSed]

I just picked up The Revolution from Rosinante by Alexis A. Gilliland. While the social stuff is extremely Of Its Time, because it dates from the Japanese dominance in the late early Eighties, (Japanese businessmen, Spanish convicts from the Alamo and Korean-Japanese ladies, oh my), the rotating station feels like it was meant to be built.

I mean, the first page is a rebuttal of a change order for an expensive dichroic mirror, to avoid the habitat absorbing too much heat from the sun. There's complaints about the workers absorbing too much radiation by doing an EVA even when the sun's at its solar minimum. And more and more.

Edited August 12 by AckSed

[magnemoe]

On 8/11/2024 at 8:02 PM, Vanamonde said:

Why is this in the bad SF thread? Mote is considered one of the best, though I was disappointed with Gripping. 

Mote was very good and the humans just had two cheats, an jump drive and an energy shield. Everything else is pretty hard. Yes you had good fusion and capital ship level energy weapons. 
The motiles had more cheating, biology don't work like that same with technology unless you have nanotech molecular assemblers but that breaks stuff way harder than hyperspace ramming. 
As stories they are top notch, Gripping is weaker but has an kind of happy ending, its stuff you do not want spoilers for.

On 8/11/2024 at 3:51 PM, Gargamel said:

Nah, I’d say the Fuzzies in Little Fuzzy (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Fuzzy) by Piper.    Then reimagined by Scalzi recently.   The original is rare, but findable, but the sequels are near impossible to find.   The Scalzi is pretty good too, and much easier to find these days.  

Ebooks don't run out off print. 
https://www.amazon.com/Little-Fuzzy-Unexpurgated-Halcyon-Classics-ebook/dp/B0039UUBFC?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Lqb6FbNuhdcMn596wrGL-MwCLt1RdjdyWhU3Xyy7FXHN-rnf5pwEnZ97o_bADJ7LzFg3bjJ0MK85ST6xUPzS9QWOiK-0V1qfrGSCAZj3TDBGVqOHhpKqPC5uV3k5O2ZAC1_poE5kLfzZFiyyVQF29Gg_iZTP4zicSqLQbxFbcMdx78sbPLg1XQ2WjnJ0m9EaEdvpjmbPnLzhtwIQgt1apOD9-WFqZ_KPhooOE-nUCvo.szHWy7L1mmMPRD6h3kiM8kNPZ2txROEVYJAB-JhqTiA&dib_tag=AUTHOR

[RKunze]

55 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

Ebooks don't run out off print. 

But the two sequels ("Fuzzy Sapiens" and"Fuzzies and other people") have never been published as an eBook - at least as far as I know. If I'm mistaken, please point me to a source - as @Vanamonde said, the sequels are almost impossible to get even on paper, let alone as eBook. I'd dearly love to read them.

As for the original "Little Fuzzy", you don't have to go to Amazon. Copyright for that one lapsed, and it is available from Project Gutenberg at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18137

Edit: @Gargamel is the fellow Little Fuzzy fan - sorry for the mistaken ping...

Edited August 12 by RKunze

[Gargamel]

58 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

Mote was very good and the humans just had two cheats, an jump drive and an energy shield. Everything else is pretty hard. Yes you had good fusion and capital ship level energy weapons. 
The motiles had more cheating, biology don't work like that same with technology unless you have nanotech molecular assemblers but that breaks stuff way harder than hyperspace ramming. 
As stories they are top notch, Gripping is weaker but has an kind of happy ending, its stuff you do not want spoilers for.

Ebooks don't run out off print. 
https://www.amazon.com/Little-Fuzzy-Unexpurgated-Halcyon-Classics-ebook/dp/B0039UUBFC?ref_=ast_author_dp&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Lqb6FbNuhdcMn596wrGL-MwCLt1RdjdyWhU3Xyy7FXHN-rnf5pwEnZ97o_bADJ7LzFg3bjJ0MK85ST6xUPzS9QWOiK-0V1qfrGSCAZj3TDBGVqOHhpKqPC5uV3k5O2ZAC1_poE5kLfzZFiyyVQF29Gg_iZTP4zicSqLQbxFbcMdx78sbPLg1XQ2WjnJ0m9EaEdvpjmbPnLzhtwIQgt1apOD9-WFqZ_KPhooOE-nUCvo.szHWy7L1mmMPRD6h3kiM8kNPZ2txROEVYJAB-JhqTiA&dib_tag=AUTHOR

The original is fairly easy to find, but last time I checked, the sequels were insanely difficult to get, even e book.    The problem was iirc, the two later stories were unpublished till after his death, and then on extremely limited runs.    When I picked up the collected series a bit back, I had to get it out of a second hand store in rural Alaska who happened to list their books on line.    But it has been a slight bit since I looked.   

[magnemoe]

On 8/12/2024 at 9:12 PM, RKunze said:

But the two sequels ("Fuzzy Sapiens" and"Fuzzies and other people") have never been published as an eBook - at least as far as I know. If I'm mistaken, please point me to a source - as @Vanamonde said, the sequels are almost impossible to get even on paper, let alone as eBook. I'd dearly love to read them.

As for the original "Little Fuzzy", you don't have to go to Amazon. Copyright for that one lapsed, and it is available from Project Gutenberg at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18137

Edit: @Gargamel is the fellow Little Fuzzy fan - sorry for the mistaken ping...

https://www.amazon.com/Fuzzy-Sapiens-Book-ebook/dp/B00AFUSBJ2/ref=pd_sim_d_sccl_1_1/135-4871936-1236525?pd_rd_w=dDZgw&content-id=amzn1.sym.fc475966-e837-48fc-9ed0-f4ca6ae9337b&pf_rd_p=fc475966-e837-48fc-9ed0-f4ca6ae9337b&pf_rd_r=EXPEEZYNJWEDTJA0QSZP&pd_rd_wg=B62PQ&pd_rd_r=2a1101d5-a2fd-4dc2-a2e4-a945abee228c&pd_rd_i=B00AFUSBJ2&psc=1
Fuzzy sapiens e-book. Now the 3rd is missing. But its an 4-6 by an new author. 
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PPWXCC4?ref_=dbs_p_pwh_rwt_anx_cl_0&storeType=ebooks
Fuzzies and other people is not an e-book as I can see but somehow its on my phone I think as I don't have an hardcover. 

[Superfluous J]

I'm'a throw out the TekWar TV show (never read the books) as surprisingly good Sci Fi for how cheesy it was.

In case you don't know, it's a show based off a book series written by none other than Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner. Now, I'm not saying it's perfect - the hackers go into this virtual reality thing where they fly around a colorful landscape to hack into companies and stuff - but the social near-future predictive stuff I found surprisingly spot on.

Like in one episode, they basically predicted the iPod. Now, predicting that we'll be able to walk around with little music players isn't all that impressive, but this show predicted that the maker would lock the users in with proprietary code and licenses. And self-driving cars. Sure that's a no-brainer, but did you think that then restrictions would be lifted on advertising, such that the "freeway" would become known as the "adway"? Coming soon to a major metropolitan area near you, I'd be willing to bet.

The show is by no means "good," but it is fun if you like a healthy dose of cheese with your science fiction.

[PakledHostage]

What do people here think of Ender's Game? The obvious "cheat" is the ansible, but I recall really enjoying the first book (and the movie they made of it). As one who remembers the '80s, I recall when it came out. In the usual '80s fashion,  grown-ups around me were tut-tutting it's distopian themes, as though us kids playing Atari would thereby turn us into warriors.  But even Reagan got on board at one point and suggested in a speech  that kids who played a lot of  video games would grow up to be excellent fighter pilots.

Edited August 14 by PakledHostage
Spelling

[Superfluous J]

6 hours ago, PakledHostage said:

What do people here think of Ender's Game?

It's one of my favorite books in spite of a few things, at least one of which breaks the forum rules to talk about.

In addition to the Ansible, there's that pesky antigravity device that was well hidden through most of the book and then dropped in our laps as a megaweapon. However aside from those few things (which are fine. If you don't bend the rules a bit it's not SCIENCE fiction, it's just regular old fiction) the story is frighteningly believable. The 2nd book, Ender's Shadow, is just as good. I heard bad things about the rest so skipped them. The movie was ... fine I guess but it missed out on a lot that I thought was important - including ACTUALLY SHOWING US THE F'IN GAMES I mean that's what I wanted to see I'd happily watch JUST the game for 2 hours and we get like 5 minutes and montage. Grumble grumble grumble.

To this day, whenever I'm about to do something difficult, I pause and think to myself, "The enemy's gate is down."

[Gargamel]

I can ignore the Ansible, as it’s somewhat grounded in theoretical physics, or at least when he wrote it.   
 

I actually enjoyed the following books.   Some were a little weird, but over all ok. 

[darthgently]

12 minutes ago, Gargamel said:

I can ignore the Ansible, as it’s somewhat grounded in theoretical physics, or at least when he wrote it.   
 

I actually enjoyed the following books.   Some were a little weird, but over all ok. 

There is some good sci-fi out there that went from excellent to good when theoretical physics overran it eventually.  Weber's  Honor Harrington series comes to mind where so much of the plot revolves around gravity waves being faster than light in their comms and sensor systems

[AckSed]

I'll give a shout-out to my favourite SF sitcom and novel series Red Dwarf. While the science was usually, "whatever makes today's plot work", there's harder stuff in the background and the books go into more detail:

The titular mining ship we see in the opening and ending sequence has a Bussard ramscoop, which conceivably could give it infinite range and acceleration (at least before it was figured out it would act like a space-bulldozer on the interstellar medium); holographic backups of people are so detailed and intricate, they simulate genetic code and bodily processes and are thus very expensive to run in terms of processing and energy; genetically-engineered lifeforms and robots made as worker races for humans populate the galaxy as humans are almost certainly extinct.

[Fizzlebop Smith]

   Just the Hall of Famers or can some Honorable Mentions make the board?

  I haven't read anything in a bit that i would consider to be the pinnacle of a genre, but some have definitely resonated.

While I really did love Enders Game when I was younger, the books about bean were more up my alley. A great deal of lore / world building.

   I love learing the stuff behind the scenes. I enjoyed reading about the shadow government created by the siblings.

  I particularly liked the single child rising to messiah figure was avoided somewhat for Bean. It was more of a Man vs Man internal conflict with bean struggling over familiarly obligation & desire to prevent a major geopolitical dumpster fire. It has been some years since I read the Shadow of the Hegemony and one about Valentine & Peter.

  Recently started up the Honor Harrington books. It will be second complete read through and is one of my favorite series of all time. I am a sucker for character arcs & character developement. 

 I think Weber does an amazing job of illustrating the macro and how it fits into the micro.The human equation  effects all decisions we make as intelligent beings.. a weighing of consequence and desire balanced by emotion and the rational mind.

  I also like the military focus, the author presents skill at describing the minutia of battle without bogging the reader down. Attention is paid to tactics / strategy and how they evolve over time with the arms race between polities.

  As weapons and communications systems evolve, you see the scope of warfare change.

  I felt the Honorverse books did a great job of showing the dichotomy and internal conflict that waged within us all. Most of those books I read multiple times are from a love of certain characters. Weber does a good job of capturing those flaws that make us real without giving into hyperbole or satirical parody.

 

Edited August 15 by Fizzlebop Smith

[farmerben]

I enjoyed the Ender's Game novels as well, including the sequels.  But by far my favorite author is Neal Stephanson.

 

[Gargamel]

First time I read SevenEves, I couldnt get into act III, just lost interest.     Second time I read it, finished it, still didn’t like act III.   Dunno, just didn’t enjoy it.   

On 8/15/2024 at 8:50 AM, Fizzlebop Smith said:

Recently started up the Honor Harrington books. It will be second complete read through and is one of my favorite series of all time. I am a sucker for character arcs & character developement. 

Heard this one mentioned a few times over the recent past, I’ll have to give it a go once I finish the 3 body problem, again.  
 

I don’t know why, but the first time I read it (3BP) , I was completely confused as to what was going on, the jumping between the VR and reality, and the I couldn’t keep any of the characters straight.    I enjoyed it then I guess, enough to look forward to the Netflix adaptation.   And after watching that, I gave the book another try.  No idea what my issue was previously, but this time I might have some issues keeping characters straight, the names throw me a bit, but I have no issues with the plot.   Dunno, guess it just clicked.    

[farmerben]

42 minutes ago, Gargamel said:

First time I read SevenEves, I couldnt get into act III, just lost interest.     Second time I read it, finished it, still didn’t like act III.   Dunno, just didn’t enjoy it.   

 

I know somebody else who said the same thing.  I liked it even though its very implausible.  Maybe I just like the concept of an orbital ring civilization.