Tuesday, August 02, 2005

What's yr take on...

What's yr take on scifi

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tony the Tiger. Reading "Pandora's Star" at the moment.

M said...

love the sci-fi. Didn't realise that until my post on Star Wars. Hey, just tried your suggestion and so far so good. Thanks Herge for all your help. You are very generous in sharing your knowledge. That totally ROCKS!! M.

Karen said...

Great. It's about 90% of the trash I read.

Faltanus said...

so much of it is absolutely ghastly, but wade through the garbage and occassionally you come across some really terrific stuff. i just finished Jaqueline Carey's Kushiel series. it is really quite brilliant - i highly recommend it.

Unknown said...

I with the Philip K. Dick school of thought in that sci-fi is an extrapolation of ideas & science wrapped up in a story. But not simply something futuristic.

So for example (and its one of my favourite movies so I aint knocking it) Star Wars is not sci-fi - its an adventure set in the, err, distant past. I'm not arguing this very well am I?

OK, so Back to the Future is sci-fi because it describes a theory of time travel, what might happen if this was possible. Rather than being a tale of people going backwards and forwards in time, Marty has to deal with the issues he creates when he alters the time line.

New technology doesn't make something sci-fi, it's describing the effect of this technology that makes it so.

PKD wrote an essay on the subject which is reprinted at the back of book 1 of the PKD short story collections. He explains this much more effectively than me.

So do I like sci-fi? Love it to bits.

garfer said...

Best if it has elements of horror or unease. Midwitch Cuckoos, Blade Runner, Alien, Aliens, Minority report: yep. Independence Day and its ilk: Nope.

Wyndham said...

The best sci-fi is about now, or at least the time it was written in, that's why I love period sci-fi. Currently reading The War In The Air by Mr Wells. Like any genre it has good and bad. But when sci-fi is bad, it's very, very bad. Oh, yes.

Wyndham said...

the Man In The High Castle. Now that's great sci-fi.

Unknown said...

I enjoyed reading Asimov's Foundation Series as a kid. Got into William Gibson and the Neuromancer series at Uni. All good stuff (at least the early works).

thordora said...

david brin is alright....Octavia Butler is pretty damn cool...otherwise...waaayyyy to "male" for me

Unknown said...

Aas, I took the kids to see Laura's Star, is that the same thing?

Sniffy said...

Some is OK, some is dreadful. I wouldn't automatically dismiss it, but it's probably not the first thing I'd go for for entertainment, either reading or TV/film.

Anonymous said...

edwaado, i don't believe so, it's the first of a doublet, by Peter F. Hamilton (also wrote The Naked God, among others).

Unknown said...

Yeah I know I was being daft.

Ship Creak said...

So then I take it 2001 ASO wasn't science fiction? Oh, yes, I see. It was because it discussed what might happen if you built a machine capable of reasoning you to death.

Wasn't that a similar story in Dark Star (which I'm still yet to see, but it's on my list...)

Herge Smith said...

Okay Ship, go away and watch 2001 until you understand it - what you described was not, by any stretch what 2001 is.

Nor is Dark Star.

Ship Creak said...

What, not even a tiny bit? I know enough to know it's not the actual plot of the movies, but I thought that it was at least a point that was made?

Know anywhere that rents out old movies like this? I don't wanna buy them, and borrowing is a pain for people because I take sooo long to get them back to people.

Unknown said...

Really obvious 2001 (movie) reference in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the Tim Burton movie)

swisslet said...

as with all other genres, there's good and there's bad. Good Sci-Fi is better than a bad novel. There's a lot of shit sci-fi about though.

and with that non-answer, I'll leave you.

thank you and goodnight.

ST

Herge Smith said...

Also, don't anyone believe edwaado for a second. He's only read two books, one of which I read to him.

And if you think I'm fibbing edwaado where's your top 5 reads?? And don't give it all that 'haven't got time' - you've got time for comments - make time for blogs.

Thank you.

Unknown said...

Look its in draft, I just need to finish it. I know I have no excuses since I have so much more free time than you - clearly I'm a useless waster.

Herge Smith said...

Oi oi - See, this is my point, you found time for this comment. Which was rubbish, and I will probably delete.

What do you think of my ditty?

Unknown said...

Haven't had time to look at it yet. Been working all evening, must sleep now...

Rowan said...

makes up for most of what i read, does gothic/horror count as sci-fi if it's written in a sci-fi way? If so, then that's 99% of what I read.