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good sci-fi?

Re: Meet?

blackpriester said:
Salve Chaos,

If you are in the mood, we could meet sometime and have a beer - I'm sure my Wiccan wife would be delighted to meet another "Randi-Geek" ;).

Anyway, we could drop a message to zee_dscherman and start a little Randi-Forum chapter here ;).

- m.
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No beer for me, thanks. But we MUST meet some day.
 
I just read Ringworld, and it was wonderful.

Does anyone know what Flatlander means? I kept seeing it in the book and not understanding where the term came from.
 
Ah, Ringworld...Great stuff, a classic. Flatlander is, as I recall, someone who dwells planetside, as opposed to a spacer.

I've been looking for a copy of Niven's A World of Ptaavs, which is apparently out of print. A "known space" story, it deals with the sole surviving Slaver.


I'm currently reading Gene Wolfe's new one, Knight. Not really sci-fi, it's more of a fantasy job. Quite good, however.
 
QuarkChild said:
I just read Ringworld, and it was wonderful.

Does anyone know what Flatlander means? I kept seeing it in the book and not understanding where the term came from.
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I can't remember from the book, but would have thought it is a reference to the classic "Flatland A romance of many dimensions" by Edwin A. Abbott.

You can find the text here: http://www.alcyone.com/max/lit/flatland/
 
I'll chime in here. I don't have anything new to add as quite a lot of authors have been mentioned. But two names where mentioned which I think deserves more attention.

Ken MacLeod. Brilliant SF with a political foundation. But don't be scared off by his personal personal ideas, his writing is as good as it gets.

Alistair Reynolds. Not sure if he is available in the US. But you can find him here. Dark, almost gothic feeling. Space opera. Brilliant.
 
QuarkChild said:
I just read Ringworld, and it was wonderful.

...
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Make sure you read the two follow ups: Ringworld Engineers and The Ringworld Throne ..

The third one fizzled a bit for me, but I managed to finish it..



Another book I reall enjoyed that has a similar theme was " The World is Round " by Tony Rothman
 
Darat said:

I can't remember from the book, but would have thought it is a reference to the classic "Flatland A romance of many dimensions" by Edwin A. Abbott.
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I've read "Flatland" and I don't think there's a connection. Having just read Protector, I think Bikewer's idea is correct. Flatlander is a resident of Earth, as opposed to Belter.
 
Bikewer said:

I've been looking for a copy of Niven's A World of Ptaavs, which is apparently out of print. A "known space" story, it deals with the sole surviving Slaver.
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I think it's in Three Books of Known Space, a collection. I got a copy from Amazon so it must be available somewhere.
 
"Flatlander" does indeed refer to people born and raised on a planet, as opposed to Lunies (born and raised on the Moon) and Belters (born and raised in the asteroid belt, the children spend their formative years inside a hollowed out rotated asteroid to allow reasonable bone development).

World of Ptaavs is indeed out of print, although it is available used from amazon. I have a copy, but I definitely won't be parted from it. It's a fantastic story and well worth getting hold of.
 
Thought I'd mention a couple I didn't see mentioned here (though I'll toss out another I love Heinlein, because he's my favorite by far). I'm going purely off memory, so there may be some inaccuracies.

Lois McMaster Bujold: Vorsorkian series (all of them). Starts with Cordelia's Honor (IIRC). GREAT books, better than the Honor Harrington series IMO (if you like the Honor books, you'll love this series)

Christopher Stasheff: more a mix of sci-fi and fantasy, but close enough to include him. I personally enjoyed the Warlock series, but he also co-authored some books with L Sprague de Camp.

Spider Robinson: He's classifed as sci-fi, but I think it's a stretch. It's not *quite* fantasy either. So I think they've just lumped him in. I love the Callahan series, but 'God is an Iron' is great (book of short stories). If you like Heinlein, he's worth reading (though you'll be annoyed at first that he's dubbed Heinlein's successor...though you may find yourself later agreeing. He's also the world's biggest Heinlein fanboy which is saying a lot).

Harry Turtledove: His books are listed as alternative history, but frankly that should be under sci-fi with how he writes. Guns of the South was a GREAT book. His alternative WWII series is also fantastic. If you're a history buff, all of his stuff is great.

Harry Harrison: (I know someone mentioned him) but the Stainless Steel Rat series usually doesn't get a lot of notice. I grew up on those books, so I think they're fantastic. (He also wrote "Make Room! Make Room!" which became the movie Soylent Green. Not a great plug but funny).

Anne McCafferty: Pern series, only the early books. As it goes on and on and on, it kinda craps out. (IMO)

I'm sure I'll add more later as I'll think 'oh man I didn't mention....' :D Also saw a few books posted I'll have to pick up, so thanks! :D
 
Fungrim said:
Ken MacLeod. Brilliant SF with a political foundation. But don't be scared off by his personal personal ideas, his writing is as good as it gets.
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Heh. I love MacLeod's personal ideas. It's kind of interesting to read an SF novel by someone who's bought the t-shirt, left-wing politics-wise. It's also interesting that his work is covetted by both lefties and Libertarians. I really enjoyed his Fall revolution trilogy (The Star Fraction; The Stone Canal; The Cassini Division and The Sky Road) of which I'd highly recommend the second and fourth books (there's nop particular order you have to read them in), but whilst his Engines of Light trilogy was entertaining and had some great jokes, other parts felt a little tired and occasionally too sketchy. Admittedly, it was a self-styled space opera, whatever that means in MacLeodian terms.

Wudang said:
I've just finished "Natural history" by Justina Robson - first I've read by her and it's very good.
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She's great. I especially liked the local settings of her first two books–Leeds in her first (Silver Screen) and York in her second (Mappa Mundi); the contrast with the technology she describes elsewhere is the stuff of greatness.

An author I'd to recommend is Trish Sullivan. I've only read two of her books: Someone To Watch Over Me, which is about a new technology which allows people to share each others senses; and Maul, which is set in a future devastated by a male-targetted plague, with a parallel story about teenage girls going shopping, but as envisioned by John Hughes and Paul Verhoeven after a heavy night on the whisky.

Edited to fix tags
 
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