Sci-Fi

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Hands up those that are Sci-Fi Fans!
What is your favourite book/author?
What is your favourite movie/series?

My favourites are any books by Robert Heinlein and the books and series Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy.
I'm looking forward to the movie version that is now in post production in the UK.

Jeanette

[silvinator]

Definitely a sci-fi girl at heart! I love everything sci-fi, no matter how gory, corny or geeky it is.
I'm just starting to read the hitch hiker's guide to the galaxy and I'm loving it so far! It's such a hilarious read so far. I'm also a trekkie fan, voyager is my favourite of all the series. Stargate SG-1 is a good series to watch too. Basically, I wish we had something like the sci-fi channel over here, I'd be watching it 24/7!

[Striker (Tony)]

I love Barbie in Fantasia.....great book....read it over and over again...

[Starkler (Geoff)]

I just finished the entire star trek TNG series, all seven of them over about 8 months

Picard is my hero !

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Have you got all 5 books of the trilogy of the Hitch Hikers Guide ?
The others are .....
Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Life the Universe and Everything
So long and Thanks for all the Fish
and
Mostly Harmless

Its hilarious!

Jeanette

[silvinator]

no not yet jeanette. will soon. by the way, is that where your quote in your signature comes from? Sounds like something doug adams would say
geoff, i reckon janeway would beat picard in a starship battle any day!

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Haha no way Silvie ! Janeway way have a technological edge, but nobody outsmarts Picard

[mick pinner]

Love the old stuff Forbidden Planet, The Day The Earth Stood Still, Bamboo Saucer etc probably brings back a few memories for my fellow oldies, and the young ones won't have a clue what l'm talking about.
They've all been re-released on dvd as well, check out e-bay about $30 each.

[Jonathan]

The original Star Wars movies are great but the newer ones don't cut it for me, too much computer generated stuff. Awesome sound though if you crank out the Dolby 5.1.
Stargate series on TV is also very good. Would probably have never watched it if it wasn't for the original movie.
Sorry, I really can't get into any of the Star Trek TV series, the movies are ok though.

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

yes i was a big fan of SF as it used to be called before it morphed into sci-fi...that means Asimov, Larry Niven, James Blish, Brian Aldiss, Heinlein of course, Campbell. You young 'uns probably need a babel fish to figure out what i'm talking about...
babel fish..remember? from Hitchiker's ?

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Love Star Trek, Star Gate, Red Dwarf, Hitchhikers, Outer Limits. Because I have pay t.v. I watch Star Trek and Outer Limits every night (4 episodes of Star trek on sunday nights) I read Star trek books regularly, and other S.F. books.

Also love Forbidden Planet, Day the Earth stood still, Invaders from Mars, War of the Worlds (both Versions) etc. etc.

[parsec]

lexx of course

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

The quote is from a song in Monty Pythons "Meaning of Life". The last line of a song sung by Michael Palin in the "Live Liver Transplant " sketch.
Other authors I enjoy are Robert Silverberg, Arthur C Clark, Fritz Leiber and Poul Anderson.
Red Dwarf is great entertainment. So is Star Trek, but then I like Lost in Space as well.
Jeanette

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Yay for 'Lost In Space'.

How could I forget that, I grew up on it.

<b>"Danger Will Robinson, Danger, Danger"</b>

For some reason I don't like any of 'Star Wars'.

[rumples riot]

Favourite writers are Frank Herbert with Dune series and Issac Asimov with Foundation series.

As for Movies favourites are many in my DVD collection, but to name a few: Deep impact, armageddon, core, supernova, star wars (all episodes) Alien series, day after tomorrow, star trek (all of them) Matrix series and many many more.

For scifi series, Star gate, enterprise, voyager and next generation.

I am so into scifi that my friends often borrow my DVD's ten at a time. Guess they figure that it is cheaper than going to the video store to rent them.

I LOVE SCIFI, especially the political nature of it and the normative questions that it asks of us.

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Yes ... all of the above
There must be something about Sci-fi that has led us all into astronomy
I have read all the hitch hiker guide, listened to the BBC radio play & seen the television series.
Watched all the Star trek episodes (except enterprize which is not on DVD)
Was a big reader in my youth (many mango seasons ago!) of , Asimov, Heinlen, Micheal Moorcock & EEDoc Smith to name a few.
Currently working my way through the "Andromeda" series on DVD (another Gene Rodenberry creation)
I find now though, that the truth about the Universe is almost stranger than the fiction.
BTW jjjnettie

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

I find I can read my SF books over and again ( read the covers off quite a few as well ) The ability of some of these writers to predict the future is uncanny. What seemed like science fiction back then is now science fact.
There is a a short story, written in the late 1920's by an Australian author, called The Machine Stops. It predicted the internet as the main means of communication, entertainment and education.
Is there any decent SF being written at the moment? Or is the golden era well and truely over?
Jeanette

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Hmmm ... I think a lot of Sci Fi being written at the moment (particully Sci Fantasy) is old ideas rehashed.
BTW: as you are reading HGG, you would have to realize the signifigance of your 42nd birthday

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Oh, I just remembered another one.

I laugh my bottom off at '3rd Rock from the Sun'.




<i>laugh my bottom off</i>.
See, I'm following regulations!

And more S.F. movies I like are 'Philadelphia Experiment' 'Soylent Green' 'Farenheit 451' and the one where the wives in a western town were turned into robots (forgot it's name, not Stepford Wives).

[Vermin (Tom)]

I've read just about everything written by Asimov and Clark, plus many, many others like Harry Harrison, Stephen Donaldson, Frank Herbert, Poul Anderson, Philip K Dick, Aldus Huxley, Cordwainer Smith...etc. (my mum was a book rep).

I spent well over $500 on sci-fi books last year.

If you enjoy intelligent sci-fi these are absolute 5 star must reads:

Anything by Vernor Vinge. "A Deepness in the Sky" is particularly good, nothing this guy writes is bad though.

Dan Simmonds "Hyperion" (Series of books) - The first book is a sort of sci-fi Canterbury Tales, amazing scope and imagination. I'm looking forward to the sequel to "Illium" ("Olympos") another first rate series by this Author.

A. A. Attanasio "The Last Legends of Earth" - may be hard to find but well worth the hunt.

Audry Niffenegger "The Time Travellers Wife" - not my usual type of sci-fi but I could not put this heart wrenching book down, beautifully written and very clever - one of a kind.

Richard K Morgan "Altered Carbon" and "Broken Angels" - first rate detective sci-fi.

John C Wright "The Golden Age" - brilliant view of a very distant future. Arthur C. Clark's Third Law, about any advanced technology looking like magic to lesser civilisations is brilliantly realised in this trilogy. Has to be read to be believed. It is pretty heavy on the jargon though.

Peter F Hamilton "The Reality Dysfunction" (trilogy) - The Exorcist meets Star Wars - pure first rate pulp sci-fi with huge well thought out ideas

Theodore Sturgeon "More Than Human" - the writing style is so fluid it's like watching a movie in your own head, almost prose like, one of my all time favourites. It's even more astounding considering it was written over 50 years ago, most sci-fi does not hold up well to the passing of time. I first read this whole book in one sitting, and was very late for work the next day.

A quick glance at the Amazon reviews for these books will confirm the near cult status of all these titles, if you like sci-fi do your brain a favour and read them.