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Yngwie Mangosteen posted:Did they do a bit about Picard and Professor X looking similar or were they cowards? They predate the X-Men films.
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Mar 18, 2024 06:54
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Yngwie Mangosteen posted:Did they do a bit about Picard and Professor X looking similar or were they cowards? They do yeah, there's a whole bit where they nudge at the camera about it. Which is even better because it predates the XMen movie by like 2 years
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Mar 18, 2024 06:59
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Zore posted:They do yeah, there's a whole bit where they nudge at the camera about it. Which is even better because it predates the XMen movie by like 2 years Now that's cool. Chris Claremont should've written a TNG ep.
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Mar 18, 2024 07:12
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Arsenic Lupin posted:It's not normal, but it's always nice to see. The Foglios withdrew Girl Genius from the Hugos after winning in 2009, 2010, and 2011, so somebody else could have a chance. They've never won since. Which was almost the intent. They won Best Graphic Story the first three times it was awarded and withdrew in 2012 specifically because they felt that if they kept winning the category would not be seen as valid. This has led to them being nominated fewer times than Howard Tayler has for Schlock Mercenary, but that's just a humorous byproduct.
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Mar 18, 2024 10:25
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I'm on a space opera binge lately and I'm curious if there are any obvious suggestions. Things I've read: Revelation space series, Expanse series, The Foundation, Red rising series and currently reading Dune. Would highly appreciate recommendations that deal with large scale space things! Preferably storylines that span multiple books.
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Mar 18, 2024 11:51
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Mikojan posted:I'm on a space opera binge lately and I'm curious if there are any obvious suggestions. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dread_Empire%27s_Fall …depending on your tolerance for jank also look up Jack Campbell and Glynn Stewart.
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Mar 18, 2024 14:05
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Heavy Metal posted:Now that's cool. Chris Claremont should've written a TNG ep. It's a really fun book. And while Chris Claremont never wrote a TNG ep, Dan Abnett (along with Ian Edgington) wrote a comic book sequel to Star Trek: First Contact, named Star Trek: Second Contact featuring the X-men that the novel Star Trek: The Next Generation/X-Men: Planet X is the sequel to. I have yet to read the comic, so I cannot comment on it and my Trek and X-men headcanons contain a significant gap.
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Mar 18, 2024 14:54
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Mikojan posted:I'm on a space opera binge lately and I'm curious if there are any obvious suggestions. CJ Cherryh's Pride of Chanur and its sequel trilogy, perhaps?
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Mar 18, 2024 15:07
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Declare by Tim Powers is $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000UKOMYU/ Good novel. I don't think it has been on sale, certainly not this low, for years. quote:As a young double agent infiltrating the Soviet spy network in Nazi-occupied Paris, Andrew Hale finds himself caught up in a secret, even more ruthless war. Two decades later, in 1963, he will be forced to confront again the nightmarethat has haunted his adult life: a lethal unfinished operation code-named Declare. From the corridors of Whitehall to the Arabian desert, from post-war Berlin to the streets of Cold War Moscow, Hale's desperate quest draws him into international politics and gritty espionage tradecraft -- and inexorably drives Hale, the fiery and beautiful Communist agent Elena Teresa Ceniza-Bendiga, and Kim Philby, mysterious traitor to the British cause, to a deadly confrontation on the high glaciers of Mount Ararat, in the very shadow of the fabulous and perilous Ark.
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Mar 18, 2024 15:09
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Declare loving owns, but it's another "genre of one" book so don't like it too much.
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Mar 18, 2024 15:10
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zoux posted:Declare loving owns, but it's another "genre of one" book so don't like it too much. I love Declare and I’ve been chasing a story like it since. The mix of historical characters, spy stuff, and other things I won’t spoil was so well done. I even thought the beginning was a bit slow and it’s still one of my favorites.
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Mar 18, 2024 15:15
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Doobie Keebler posted:I love Declare and I’ve been chasing a story like it since. The mix of historical characters, spy stuff, and other things I won’t spoil was so well done. I even thought the beginning was a bit slow and it’s still one of my favorites. I have not read Declare so take this with a grain of salt, but you may enjoy Glen David Gold's Carter Beats the Devil. It's about stage magic, the death of Warren Harding, and the Secret Service taking over as official bodyguards to the U.S. president. It does not feature any SF or fantasy elements that I can recall, but if you want a mystery built around a cast of historical figures, it's great.
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Mar 18, 2024 15:24
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Yngwie Mangosteen posted:Did they do a bit about Picard and Professor X looking similar or were they cowards? I think it's the same actor
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Mar 18, 2024 15:29
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PlushCow posted:Declare by Tim Powers is $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000UKOMYU/ One of my absolute favorites, like a John LeCarre novel if LeCarre were writing from the plot outline of an Indiana Jones movie. Must read.
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Mar 18, 2024 15:38
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Doobie Keebler posted:I love Declare and I’ve been chasing a story like it since.  Oh there is one but it's gonna cost you: The Hellboy/BPRD mignolaverse.
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Mar 18, 2024 15:44
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Declare is so fuckin good
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Mar 18, 2024 15:50
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PeterWeller posted:I have not read Declare so take this with a grain of salt, but you may enjoy Glen David Gold's Carter Beats the Devil. It's about stage magic, the death of Warren Harding, and the Secret Service taking over as official bodyguards to the U.S. president. It does not feature any SF or fantasy elements that I can recall, but if you want a mystery built around a cast of historical figures, it's great. Added to my list. Thanks!
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Mar 18, 2024 15:59
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I also haven't read Declare but the comic Planetary has good historical fiction bits. The main characters have powers and investigate the secret history of the world. Which means stuff like finding out what happened to (serial numbers filed off iterations of) the League of extraordinary, Superman, Green Lantern, the Hulk, Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, Godzilla... I love the setting of Hellboy so I guess I'm going to have to read Declare.
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Mar 18, 2024 17:07
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I just finished the first book of orconomics I thought it was going to be a metaphor for the housing crash but it seems to be a metaphor for how fascism operates by declaring people an under class and looting them to create economic "gains" for everyone else. Was way better than I expected while still being pretty predictable and simple and straightforward.
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Mar 18, 2024 17:17
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I watched Dune 2 this weekend and it got me thinking about various ways that sci-fi authors de-tech their universes to get around things like the singularity/magic-level tech and increase human involvement. Herbert did it with the Butlerian Jihad, Reynolds introduced the melding plague, and I can recall an author (Ken MacLeod?) who called nanotech, strong AI, genetic engineering, and one other thing I can't remember as the "four failed promises", basically things that we thought we would develop but never could. What are some others
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Mar 18, 2024 17:37
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zoux posted:I can recall an author (Ken MacLeod?) who called nanotech, strong AI, genetic engineering, and one other thing I can't remember as the "four failed promises", basically things that we thought we would develop but never could. Vernor Vinge uses that terminology in Deepness in the Sky. The irony, of course, is that these things *are* possible in that universe, just not where the story is set - gotta get further out from the galactic core.
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Mar 18, 2024 17:41
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zoux posted:I watched Dune 2 this weekend and it got me thinking about various ways that sci-fi authors de-tech their universes to get around things like the singularity/magic-level tech and increase human involvement. Herbert did it with the Butlerian Jihad, Reynolds introduced the melding plague, and I can recall an author (Ken MacLeod?) who called nanotech, strong AI, genetic engineering, and one other thing I can't remember as the "four failed promises", basically things that we thought we would develop but never could. A lot of SF literature has some element of that yea. Hell even Warhammer 40k has this with the AI wars around "the age of strife" I think Asimov's Foundation has something with robots being outlawed as well? In regards to Rvelation space, even before the melding plague took place some event caused high functioning AI to be prohibited. It's mentioned somewhere early in the first book if I remember right.
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Mar 18, 2024 18:13
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PeterWeller posted:I have not read Declare so take this with a grain of salt, but you may enjoy Glen David Gold's Carter Beats the Devil. It's about stage magic, the death of Warren Harding, and the Secret Service taking over as official bodyguards to the U.S. president. It does not feature any SF or fantasy elements that I can recall, but if you want a mystery built around a cast of historical figures, it's great.
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Mar 18, 2024 18:28
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Mikojan posted:I'm on a space opera binge lately and I'm curious if there are any obvious suggestions. Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained are sick, I just read those recently. I haven’t read the next set of books in the series, but there’s more if you’re into it. Check out Hyperion if you haven’t. Just do yourself a favor and stop after the second book. First one’s on sale right now: pradmer posted:Hyperion (#1) by Dan Simmons - $1.99
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Mar 18, 2024 18:37
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eighty-four merc posted:
Canterbury Tales but SF is such a good idea I’m surprised more SF authors haven’t tried it.
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Mar 18, 2024 18:39
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buffalo all day posted:Canterbury Tales but SF is such a good idea I’m surprised more SF authors haven’t tried it. Now I want "Decameron but in space"
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Mar 18, 2024 18:41
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eighty-four merc posted:Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained are sick, I just read those recently. I haven’t read the next set of books in the series, but there’s more if you’re into it. Hamilton is a bit hit or miss for me (sometimes both in the same book) but everything involving MorningLightMountain was a loving hit.
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Mar 18, 2024 18:43
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MockingQuantum posted:Now I want "Decameron but in space" This work bears upon its very front what must needs revive the sorrowful memory of the late space pestilence…
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Mar 18, 2024 18:46
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buffalo all day posted:This work bears upon its very front what must needs revive the sorrowful memory of the late space pestilence… I mean, I'm not opposed to space pestilence, but it wouldn't even need to be something like the black death really. I feel like there's some very fertile ground in even basic sci-fi tropes for a handful of people stuck on a space ship, waiting out any one of a number of possible catastrophes by telling stories.
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Mar 18, 2024 18:55
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eighty-four merc posted:Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained are sick, I just read those recently. I haven’t read the next set of books in the series, but there’s more if you’re into it. Checking out the hamilton chap. Seems like he wrote a trilorgy called 'the Void'. Is that one worth picking up as well?
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Mar 18, 2024 19:00
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Mikojan posted:I think Asimov's Foundation has something with robots being outlawed as well? It does - or more accurately, in the original trilogy there aren't any robots. The extended canon tying it into many of his other works is that the first human colonists, the Spacers, established fifty lightly populated worlds where their needs were seen to by robots while Earth was prevented from expanding further. Earth denizens were also forbidden to visit Spacer worlds to protect the Spacers from disease (they hadn't brought any with them, so their immune systems were depressed). As a reaction Earth outlawed robots, mostly because they were a Spacer thing but also to keep Spacers off Earth because they couldn't function without them. When Earthers were finally allowed to colonise as well, they spread massively and as the Spacers had feared, their own group of worlds quickly became insignificant because they no longer had the urge to expand and compete. Combined with their long lives leading to a low birth rate, they eventually died out. Meanwhile, the new worlds from Earth grew into what later became the Galactic Empire. Earth itself had been destroyed by a Spacer reprisal plot that led to the gradual irradiation of the crust and as the Empire formed, was forgotten as the Emperors decided that their capital of Trantor should be considered the centre of the universe and didn't want memories of the lost home world or the Spacer colonies detracting from it. In summary: in Foundation the knowledge that robots had even existed was only retained as a deep secret by a small insular society on Trantor, and the science of robotics was never rediscovered through a combination of factional rejection and deliberate suppression. But as originally written, there just aren't any.
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Mar 18, 2024 19:00
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Jedit posted:It does - or more accurately, in the original trilogy there aren't any robots. The extended canon tying it into many of his other works is that the first human colonists, the Spacers, established fifty lightly populated worlds where their needs were seen to by robots while Earth was prevented from expanding further. Earth denizens were also forbidden to visit Spacer worlds to protect the Spacers from disease (they hadn't brought any with them, so their immune systems were depressed). As a reaction Earth outlawed robots, mostly because they were a Spacer thing but also to keep Spacers off Earth because they couldn't function without them. When Earthers were finally allowed to colonise as well, they spread massively and as the Spacers had feared, their own group of worlds quickly became insignificant because they no longer had the urge to expand and compete. Combined with their long lives leading to a low birth rate, they eventually died out. Meanwhile, the new worlds from Earth grew into what later became the Galactic Empire. Earth itself had been destroyed by a Spacer reprisal plot that led to the gradual irradiation of the crust and as the Empire formed, was forgotten as the Emperors decided that their capital of Trantor should be considered the centre of the universe and didn't want memories of the lost home world or the Spacer colonies detracting from it. Dang, thanks for that. Maybe I'll get deeper into the foundation universe. For now I ordered: - house of suns - inhibition phase - Hyperion - Pandora's star + Judas unchained That, plus the 6 Dune books coming in should keep me occupied for a bit
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Mar 18, 2024 19:13
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Mikojan posted:Dang, thanks for that. Maybe I'll get deeper into the foundation universe. I hope you're starting Dune at the very start of the chronology with Dune: The Butlerian Jihad
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Mar 18, 2024 19:15
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MockingQuantum posted:I hope you're starting Dune at the very start of the chronology with Dune: The Butlerian Jihad I was told to avoid the tangential books at all cost because of the lousy writing, should I reconsider? If so, do I skip anything in the chronology? Also, I've seen some lore videos on the Dune background, so I have at least some notion of the jihad and the various factions. Mikojan fucked around with this message at 19:22 on Mar 18, 2024 |
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Mar 18, 2024 19:17
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Mikojan posted:I was told to avoid the tangential books at all cost because of the lousy writing, should I reconsider? If so, do I skip anything in the chronology? No I'm just trolling, you should definitely avoid anything by KJA/Brian Herbert. Start with Dune and only read the Frank Herbert books, and stop when you stop enjoying them. It's a steady decline in quality as you get through Frank's books (though opinions differ on how sharp a decline it is). I'd call Dune one of my favorite novels, and I made it through Heretics of Dune and haven't read any of Chapterhouse Dune, and I was perfectly fine with that experience. Though I would say if you finish Dune and are on the fence about continuing, it's probably worth reading Messiah of Dune. It's honestly kind of the back quarter of Dune, moreso than a standalone novel, so it presents a lot of consequences of what happens in the first book that are pretty important. If you end up hating the first book I'm not sure it'd change your mind, though. edit: Mikojan posted:Also, I've seen some lore videos on the Dune background, so I have at least some notion of the jihad and the various factions. You don't need a lot of the deep lore of the Dune setting to understand the books (and most of what KJA/Brian invented ranges from stuff that just didn't need explaining to absolutely asinine invention) and any background that is necessary to understand is probably in the appendix/glossary of the first book, which is pretty much required reading as you run into terms that aren't immediately explained in the book itself. MockingQuantum fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Mar 18, 2024 |
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Mar 18, 2024 19:22
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Mikojan posted:I was told to avoid the tangential books at all cost because of the lousy writing, should I reconsider? If so, do I skip anything in the chronology? Read them all and post about it.
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Mar 18, 2024 19:24
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Jordan7hm posted:Read them all and post about it. I've considered doing this off and on over the years but honestly so much of KJA's writing is pretty hard for me to get through, it's almost condescendingly stupid and basic at times
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Mar 18, 2024 19:25
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Yeah I just read the wiki summary of Sandworms of Dune and now I'm mad irl, don't read the prequels/sequels not written by Frank. His son and KJA basically take all of the strange mystery that is so integral to the atmosphere and vibe of Dune and they just straight up explain everything. It's total Star Wars EU syndrome too, where anyone who was ever mentioned in any of the original books have a crucial backstory that actually extends back through their families for thousands of years. Arguably the Butlerian Jihad wasn't Humans v AI but rather Humans who were fat and lazy because of AI and because a major theme of the books is "hard living makes hard men" living the WALL-E life would be anathema. In the Bad Son Books it is explicitly a war between humans and 12 cyborg AIs that stomp around in huge Battletech warframes and call themselves Cymeks. zoux fucked around with this message at 19:29 on Mar 18, 2024 |
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Mar 18, 2024 19:27
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MockingQuantum posted:Though I would say if you finish Dune and are on the fence about continuing, it's probably worth reading Messiah of Dune. It's honestly kind of the back quarter of Dune, moreso than a standalone novel, so it presents a lot of consequences of what happens in the first book that are pretty important. If you end up hating the first book I'm not sure it'd change your mind, though. The movie adaptation has charmed me so much that I'm very excited getting into the setting. On top of that I have read 60+ warhammer 40k books so I have developed some resistance to bad writing (apart from you Dan Abnett, you glorious hunk of a man) That said, I've been listening to an audiobook of the first one, while I wait for my paperbacks to arrive, and the writing is ... unique. The way Herbert deals with conversations has a bit of a weird touch to it. In some way it reads a bit like scripture for lack of a better description.
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Mar 18, 2024 19:37
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Mikojan posted:Dang, thanks for that. Maybe I'll get deeper into the foundation universe. There's honestly not that much to get into. Asimov himself only pegged it as being around 10-12 books outside the six he wrote and several of those were short story collections. Myself I'd say there are only five important ancillary books: the Elijah Baley trilogy (The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn), its sequel Robots and Empire, and Pebble in the Sky. And you can probably ignore Pebble, if it comes to it - it was Asimov's first novel and was retconned into the series through a side mention in The Currents of Space. Of course, the Complete Robot is worth reading for itself. I always liked the Powell and Donovan stories most; a pair of jobbing field testers who have to deal with the latest gently caress-up by the manufacturer. Jedit fucked around with this message at 19:46 on Mar 18, 2024 |
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Mar 18, 2024 19:43
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