LaurieAG Posted March 19, 2013 Report Share Posted March 19, 2013 Moderation note: the first 5 posts of this thread were moved from Space forum thread Integrating with Alien Civilizations, because they're a discussion of SF, not that thread's main topic CraigD and Moontanman, Don't forget about the old masters and pioneers of scifi such as Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov just to name a couple. I have read almost every one of Heinlein's books and most of Asimovs. If you can get copy's of some of the pre 1960's "Amazing Stories" magazines you'd probably see how many people creatively expressed themselves during the McCarthy era. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Heinlein http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moontanman Posted March 23, 2013 Report Share Posted March 23, 2013 CraigD and Moontanman, Don't forget about the old masters and pioneers of scifi such as Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov just to name a couple. I have read almost every one of Heinlein's books and most of Asimovs. If you can get copy's of some of the pre 1960's "Amazing Stories" magazines you'd probably see how many people creatively expressed themselves during the McCarthy era. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Heinlein http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov Oh I won't forget I grew up on Heinlein and Asimov, Glory Road, Between Planets, The Rolling Stones, Farmer in the Sky, The Foundation series, lots of great reads... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lancewen Posted March 23, 2013 Report Share Posted March 23, 2013 Oh I won't forget I grew up on Heinlein and Asimov, Glory Road, Between Planets, The Rolling Stones, Farmer in the Sky, The Foundation series, lots of great reads... I've been trying to think of a good SF author that's not been read by many, and at the moment Fred Saberhagen's Berserker series comes to mind, see some covers at the link below. Great plot and very good reading. http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=fred+saberhagen+berserker+series&qpvt=fred+saberhagen+berserker+series&FORM=IGRE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moontanman Posted March 23, 2013 Report Share Posted March 23, 2013 I've been trying to think of a good SF author that's not been read by many, and at the moment Fred Saberhagen's Berserker series comes to mind, see some covers at the link below. Great plot and very good reading. http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=fred+saberhagen+berserker+series&qpvt=fred+saberhagen+berserker+series&FORM=IGRE I like Saberhagan too, his book of swords series is awesome... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_of_the_Swords Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lancewen Posted March 23, 2013 Report Share Posted March 23, 2013 I like Saberhagan too, his book of swords series is awesome... http://en.wikipedia....s_of_the_Swords Yes I liked that one too. I also liked EE Doc Smith's Lensman & Skylark series. I believe he started them both in the 1930's. He was way ahead of his time. http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=ee+doc+smith+book+list&FORM=HDRSC2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigD Posted March 23, 2013 Report Share Posted March 23, 2013 CraigD I am impressed I thought I was the only science fiction nerd here, we should hang sometime dude... Oh yeah, I’m a SF fan/geek/nerd or the paleo kind, from back before most of the present day terms for what we are were coined. I’m omnivorous, reading anything SF-ish looking that gets in my path, on occasion to unhealthy extremes – my wife sometimes that if she hadn’t come along, she imagines I might have wound up holed up in a poorly lit and ventilated storage container with an internet connection doing nothing but reading, eating, excreting, and sleeping, rather than the fine, upstanding pillar of the community and paragon of the American work ethic I am today. ;) Don't forget about the old masters and pioneers of scifi such as Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov just to name a couple. I have read almost every one of Heinlein's books and most of Asimovs.I have a special place in my heart for RAH, as I actually read some of his classic stories at about the age and circumstances for which they were intended (eg: Have Spacesuit - Will Travel at age 15, curled up in the pole-vault mat at my high school’s track). Years later, I defended his The Number of the Beast against throngs of disgruntled fans who said he’d lost his mind/mojo/moral compass when we wrote it after a long (for him) quiet period. My wife’s (who’s not a ravenous SF reader like me) favorite SF novels, and one of mine, is his Job: A Comedy of Justice Asimov's Foundation and Empire was, as best I've been able to determine, the first "adult" book I read, by my parents' account slowly and with limited comprehension at the age of 6. I still haven't finished reading all his books and stories - he wrote a lot! We should hang SF-ishly sometime – I’ll shunt these posts over to the Books Movies Games formus to make a place for that, and ‘cause we’re rather threadjacking the “Integrating with Alien Civilizations” thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moontanman Posted March 23, 2013 Report Share Posted March 23, 2013 have you read Varley's Gaen Trilogy Titan, Wizard, and Demon? Titan is a little bit slow but it sets the stage for two of the best books i have ever read, Demon is awesome, no other way to say it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigD Posted March 23, 2013 Report Share Posted March 23, 2013 have you read Varley's Gaen Trilogy Titan, Wizard, and Demon? Titan is a little bit slow but it sets the stage for two of the best books i have ever read, Demon is awesome, no other way to say it...Yes, about 30 years ago, starting shortly after Titan came out in paperback ca. 1980, then as quickly as I could borrow them from my then roommates, a married couple of college classmates who were as into SF as I, and had a bit more money. I was similarly awed. I'd read Silverberg's 1971 The World Inside perhaps a month before I read Titan, and over the years, have tended to merge this standalone novel with Varley’s trilogy, even though they’re set in different future periods and have very different scopes and styles. Though TWI is set on Earth in 2381, Titan in space from the 2020s (fat chance of that being an accurate prophesy :() through 2021 in Demon, TWI felt to me like nearer-future than the Gaea books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moontanman Posted March 23, 2013 Report Share Posted March 23, 2013 Yes, about 30 years ago, starting shortly after Titan came out in paperback ca. 1980, then as quickly as I could borrow them from my then roommates, a married couple of college classmates who were as into SF as I, and had a bit more money. I was similarly awed. I'd read Silverberg's 1971 The World Inside perhaps a month before I read Titan, and over the years, have tended to merge this standalone novel with Varley’s trilogy, even though they’re set in different future periods and have very different scopes and styles. Though TWI is set on Earth in 2381, Titan in space from the 2020s (fat chance of that being an accurate prophesy :() through 2021 in Demon, TWI felt to me like nearer-future than the Gaea books. I read them in the 80's too, they kinda fueled my obsession with space colonization via artificial habitats. I talked to Varley a few times he was less than proud of his trilogy for some reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moontanman Posted March 24, 2013 Report Share Posted March 24, 2013 Harry Turtledove wrote a great alternative history series... http://www.sfsite.com/~silverag/worldwar.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sigurdV Posted April 19, 2013 Report Share Posted April 19, 2013 Why not mention: Clifford Simak, Fredric Brown, Robert Sheckley,Hal Clement,Van Vogt,Keith Laumer...Heres a question: Who wrote only three books. one (maybe the best) copying a good part from Alexandre Dumas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eclipse Now Posted March 6, 2014 Report Share Posted March 6, 2014 Sounds like you guys are all discussing the classics, and things you remember fondly from your youth. I'm all for that! Love many of the books you're discussing, and I'm yet to check out Varley's space colonies. But for more recent awe-inspiring space opera, you just can't go past Peter F Hamilton. Night's-Dawn trilogy is a bit dark, but I *really* loved Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_F._Hamilton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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