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flying sparrow

written by Stargazer on Dec 11, 2008 09:36


	Last and First Men, and Star Maker are two new entires into my list of gratest sci-fi of all time. The first deals with future human evolution, where we get to explore the future incarnations of our species, a hundred years hence, then a thousand, then a hundred thousand, then unwards into untold millions of years. Star Maker, meanwhile, takes us on a flight through the universe, told from the perspective of a man who experiences some kind of out-of-body experience. We get to explore other worlds, and their lifeforms; some humanoid, and others very different. To put it simply: If you have any respect whatsoever to science fiction as a genre, and as a vessel for philosophy, you really need to read these books. Olaf Stapledon is one of the most unsung, and nearly forgotten heroes of 1930-literature. Another book I have recently read, and highly recomend, is Tau Zero by Poul Anderson. Beware of spoilers in the following text It picks up Einstein's relativity theories, and sets out running with them. We are set onboard the bussard ramjet Leonora Christine, sometime in the not-too-distant future. Traveling at close to light speed, carrying colonists from Earth to a nearby star, the ship suddenly pulls a "Apollo 13", and becomes unable to slow down. To make matters worse, the only way to keep the ship from being incinerated by cosmic rays, or even minute particles, is to keep the stardive going; which is to say: to keep accelerating. Forever. Thus, a journey that was supposed to be a quick run round the block in galactic terms, now becomes a grand voyage through space and time. While it is impossible for an object with mass to pass the lightspeed barrier, given enough energy, it can get close; so close that the speed is measured in "Tau" - minute percentages of the ultimate velocity. Einstein's law of relativity states that the faster you move through space, the slower you go through time, and soon, the crew of Leonora Christine will become all too aware of this fact, as decades, millenia, thousands, millions, even billions of years eventually race pass in mere minutes, and seconds of ship time. This is one of the rare books that managed to keep me reading from dusk till dawn, I simply couldn't put it down before I had finished it. Definitely recomended to anyone looking for hard sci-fi.

rawr

written by Raptorjedi on Dec 12, 2008 06:10


	I've been debating reading Tau Zero for a while now, and I started reading it when you mentioned it Gazer, and so far I'm liking it. You made the book sound better than WOWIO did :3= http://www.wowio.com/users/product.asp?BookId=4770 It's up there to read, for free, but only online. Edit: I finished the book, it was pretty good.

└> last changed by Raptorjedi on December 13, 2008 at 08:29

doing pushups

written by Megagun on May 31, 2009 22:43


	During the past few months, I've actually (gasp!) been reading stuff.. Let's see.... Rendezvous with Rama, Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, World of Ptavvs, A gift from Earth, Tales of Known Space, N-Space (short story collection), Flatlander (collection of all 'Gil the ARM' stories)... Liked all of it, though Niven's works is usually a bit hit-or-miss ish, and a lot of his stories start pretty boring, and only get great near the end. Vastly different from Card's and Clarke's work, all of which I read in just a few sittings. Currently reading Ringworld and liking it. Somewhat reminds me of Rendezvous with Rama, which I liked due to the explore-y-ness of it all.. On the plate: Neuromancer, Fahrenheit 451, entire HHG trilogy (delaying that until I have nothing else to read, since I already read that a few years ago)... Contemplating if I should get the other novels in the Ender's Game series, and if I should get some stuff from the Man-Kzin wars part of Known Space.

krasnyj bibliotekar

written by Serpens on Jun 02, 2009 21:47


	Only two days ago I finished reading Fiasco by Stanislaw Lem, our most famous writer. It's a very pessimistic novel about contact between two civilizations, a frequent theme in his books. As with all others, I can only recommend it. There's little action in the typical meaning of this word and the story progresses by focusing on contact attempts and their saddening consequences. Another thing is, there's basically no main hero, or rather - the whole expedition crew is the main hero. Plus, you can even observe how Lem's style evolved with time, as the first chapter was actually written many years before the rest of the book, probably just after Ananke, the last of pilot Pirx short stories, was done. (and you can expect Pirx to appear in Fiasco... kind of)

written by Draken on Jun 03, 2009 08:07


	The Ender books were good I've read another short story set sometime while Ender was at battleschool from the perspective of a heavily religious boy. But the later Ender books are written very differently, more for an older audience. I read "Speaker for the dead" set a few thousand years after the main story following Ender as an adult.

faces or a vase?

written by Tom on Jun 04, 2009 03:16


	Thanks for bumping this...I also finished A Fire Upon the Deep recently, which was quite good. The only Stanislaw Lem story I've read was "Trurl's Electronic Bard," which was also quite good. I should find some more of his stuff... Currently reading Kiln People by David Brin.

└> last changed by Tom on June 04, 2009 at 03:53

written by Sirpaper on Jun 04, 2009 04:31


	I actually just finished Ender's Game. Great book, with a lot of twists that I wasn't expecting at all. Now I need to start looking for the other Ender books.

hidden agenda

written by Trad.a on Jun 04, 2009 05:24


	After Ender's Game, the series splits into two branches. Ender's Shadow and its sequels focuses on Bean and the kids after they return to Earth while Speaker for the Dead and sequels is all about Ender's trials after the events of Game. I found the Shadow series to be all about action and adventure and really wild things.. If you enjoyed the philosophical side of Ender's Game more try Speaker for the Dead. For me, the Shadow series was more fun to read, if a lot more shallow. EDIT: Just started Rendezvous with Rama. Mega and others, did you pick up a certain Myst vibe from it too?

doing pushups

written by Megagun on Jun 04, 2009 06:24


	Never played Myst, so no.

i haz title: speed-g-dof

written by Speeder on Jun 05, 2009 21:32


	I just finished reading A Fire Upon the Deep. It is great, altough much of its concepts were not new to me (I played a online RPG, that now is obvious to me, the creator got several ideas from this book) Also there are a "zone" thing in the book (I will not spoil anymore and say even the right name) that I think that is just a stupid plot device or "writer trick" to allow some non-explaning of some other things on the plot. Altough it ended being central to the story, that "zone" concept, it still look to me like a cheap cheat.

lieutenant busybody

written by Fth on Jun 06, 2009 09:34


	I'm just about to finish "Ship of Destiny" by Robin Hobb, third in the Liveship Traders series. It'll be the sixth book of her I finish... and believe me, the things are huge. Robin Hobb writes fantasy tales in a world so vivid you'd think she's lived there for decades as part of her research. Her characters go through so many messed up things that the trials of the characters in any other books I read seem trivial at best. Great stuff, recommended! (I am speeking for the Farseer trilogy and the Liveship Traders trilogy. I've yet to get started on the Tawny Man and the Soldier's Son trilogies. All those books are set in different parts of the same world)

i haz title: speed-g-dof

written by Speeder on Jun 06, 2009 19:49


	I've read once a book that follows the adventure of a bunch of guys of a racen amed "Hradani" or something like that, that suffered of "Rage" that made them uberpowerfull but many considered a curse because they could not control themselves and caused friendly fire. It was really RPGey... But I can not remember the name of it It was awesome, even because the book was free (there was a site with truckloads of free books, LEGAL free books, like... freeware books...)