Classic Science Fiction Discussion and Recommendations

[mimer]

Neal Stephenson, snow crash, if it hasn't been mentioned yet.

Also, william gibson, neuromancer and the whole sprawl set which i recently discovered and just fucking loved.

[Shahan]

not sure if this belongs, but awesome awesome short story...

[Velocity Kendall]

"Reading now Dark is the Sun by jose farmer."

Im loving it. its been unseasonally hot here so up midsomer common, book, booze, spliffs, peoples, wish it would never end. i almost slept out but the cows come stomp on you. Need Jum..
I dont mind his blunt style too much.. just because the pictures are so great. its what I hoped Hothouse by Brian Aldiss or Legacy by Greg Bear would be, but werent. Cordwainer Smith has a similar subject but a much more lyrical style. the trade off is much less nuts and bolts discription which PJF is good at i think.

[Velocity Kendall]

ive been looking for it for years. i found it


http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/b4...Williams/?si=0

this made me cry when I read it as a kid in 1995.

[Flake]

Not old enough to be classic yet, but I just read "The Windup Girl" by Paolo Bacigalupi.
Well worth a look, I mean crap books tend not to win the Hugo and Nebula in the same year.

It's not exactly a fun read but it'll stick with you..

[TheDirtSyndicate]

wow... so much here...
i feel like i've completely missed out. i've only read like MAYBE 2 books in this entire thread.
growing up i never really read scifi, i got hooked on fantasy stuff. tolkien, r. a. salvatore, the brain candy of margaret weis and tracy hickman... hell, just just those 3 authors alone i read upwards of 30 books.
one scifi book i did read during that time that i thought was pretty awesome was a canticle for liebowitz. by walter m. miller. and a few random philip k dick short stories.
then i got right into literature, or authors like chuck palahniuk (huge fan).
game of thrones is my first return to fantasy since i was a kid. currently on book 4.

[Velocity Kendall]

A Canticle for Liebowitz is one of the best books ever in any genre

[Chris Bennett]

What's the word on Game of Thrones out here?
Any good?

[arenhaus]

Game of Thrones is good, but taking a terrible long time to get done. Also became a character-and-storyline sprawl in the later installments, though there is hope that the next one will start bringing together the storylines that crawled to every corner like a bagful of brain-damaged snakes. At least that's what I think; most of what seems the major characters are either stationed in what seems like their place or base for the endgame, or on their way there.

[Partisan]

question !

I am currently looking for REALLY GOOD 60s and 70s sci-fi and sci-fi horror movies, any ideas folks ? ( I MEAN R E A L L Y G O O D !!! + good≠popular, so it has not to be the biggest blockbusters, but I do want those as well!)

[Velocity Kendall]

Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (1978) will fuck you up

[Chris Bennett]

You can't get any better than 2001 A Space Odyssey (circa 1969)
Kubrick captured the essence of Arthur. C. Clark's bittersweet nostalgia/melancholy that is evocked in all his work - a sort of sad wonderouness at the vastness, the loneliness, the otherness, the unknowable promise of the cosmos.
For sheer popcorn fun you might like 'Westworld' (circa 1970) - very well done nonsense.
'The Stepford Wives' (circa 1972?) is pretty good for sublty of mood, but please ignore the clumsy, simplistic femanist agenda and ludicrous plot motivations of the male characters. It's interesting how the film is only unsettling when the tropes of the horror genre are NOT used, and becomes hokey only in the last ten minutes when out of the creepy clear blue sky above Stepford, they bring on the rain, lightning and the shadowy old house. You'll learn a lot from that!

[arenhaus]

Except, as is the case with every Kubrick movie, the pacing is sooooo veeeeeeeery glaaaaaciiiiiaaaaaallyyyyyy slooooooooooooooooooowwwww...

[Velocity Kendall]

Except, as is the case with every Kubrick movie, the pacing is sooooo veeeeeeeery glaaaaaciiiiiaaaaaallyyyyyy slooooooooooooooooooowwwww...

2001 is my all time favourite movie, so Im biased, but I always loved how it literally gave everything space and time. One of my favourite scenes is the shuttle ride to the TMA excavation. These are real guys, theyve known eachother professionally for a long time, they're very afraid, but they talk about sandwiches and coffee trying to keep it light. And in the background you can hear Lux Aeterna, the song of the monolith, waiting for them after being buried in lunar regolith for the lifetime of man. It makes Prometheus look like a saturday morning cartoon.

The fact that it was made before the moon landings makes it even more impressive to me.

[Partisan]

there was one movie I forgot the name of but it was excellent ....they found some sort of Virus or organism and brought it to a lab that was so high secure (in terms of sterility) that they had to stay on each level for about 24hours before they could get to the next level ...anyone knows what the name was ?

[Partisan]

THIS totally fucks with your head ....its so creepy ...as creepy as it gets ..... this is what it must sound like at the Last Trump (not that this exists, but if it would)

[Velocity Kendall]

You aint heard nothin yet

[Velocity Kendall]

Also, I thought the movie had a sense of maturity and grandeur totally lacking the Clarke stories. Clarke like Dick is an ideas writer, his characters are all so flat and uninteresting but its ok cos every page is full of neat concepts. (Ironically though that flatness worked well here with the ultra-restrained, Right Stuff types aboard the Disco, and of course, Hal, but anyway) I guess my point is Clarke has a rather laboured workmanlike style whereas Kubrick has the deceptively light touch of the all round genius.
If Clarke had been in charge it wouldve been more like Peter Hyams 2010, not a bad movie, but not the towering work that 01 is.

In the movie, the tech is just as believable as in the book, more so in fact, but the politics and relationships seem more real-world. I think this in part comes from Clarke being a reclusive homosexual artist, whereas Kubrick was an entreprenuerial family man, but thats just speculation on my part. I love the conversation in the curving-floored cafe with Leonard Rossiter, and the video phone call home. It all seems concrete and real, while at the same time strange and wonderous. It took nearly 50 years to confirm that vidphone calls really are awkward as fuck.
And as for the ending, Clarke was all for discribing the things on the other side of the Stargate and spent page after page on it in the novella, whereas Kubrick was happy for us to just ride along as They dismantle Dave Bowman in astonishing, literally brain-melting fashion. This mystery deepens and enriches the rest of the story, in a way slightly deflated in the novella, and totally mismanaged in Prometheus.
Kubrick = The Man
My 2c..

OH BTW Ive been banging on about this for a while in Just Watched, but if you like 2001 check out Terence Malicks Tree of Life, preferably using a projector, a 10 foot high wall and some serious speakers. (Although I found it just as powerful on a laptop with headphones on a plane..) I thought it was a magnificent achievment, 2001 with women, and it blew me away.
I think it tried to show the tiniest details of life and the largest events in the universe, and show them as being equally meaningless/important.Or something! In any case I thought it was so so good.
However if you think 2001 is slow and A Clockwork Orange "a waste of time" avoid it like the plague and go back to playing Dance Dance Revolution ya dope. ;P

[Chris Bennett]

It makes Prometheus look like a saturday morning cartoon.

It makes every other SF movie look like a saturday morning cartoon!

[arenhaus]

there was one movie I forgot the name of but it was excellent ....they found some sort of Virus or organism and brought it to a lab that was so high secure (in terms of sterility) that they had to stay on each level for about 24hours before they could get to the next level ...anyone knows what the name was ?

"Andromeda Strain"?

[Chris Bennett]

It's either that or "Phase IV".
But I think arenhaus is probably right.

[Velocity Kendall]

I thought the 1978 Bodysnatchers was one of the darkest, scariest movies Id ever seen, (apart from Phase IV of course ) but in addition I submit Rosemary's Baby.

Hes got his fathers eyes!

PS For an exciting action sci fi you might not have seen before, check out The Hidden, with Kyle MacLaughlin, its way way better than it has any right to be.

[Partisan]

thanks arenhaus thats the one I meant ! and thanks all you others ...man I SO dig 60s and 70s sci-fi movies *happyface*

[Chris Bennett]

I highly recommed "Forbidden Planet". It's a 50s film but, boy oh boy it's wonderful. Transcendental. It's the shining pinacle of the 50s nostalgia for a better tomorrow. Now we look at it and are filled with a nostalgia for yesterday's tomorrows.

Barring one or two hokey moments, it's beautifully structured (nicked from Bill Shakespear's The Tempest) and devinely photographed and art directed with a pure sound effects sound track (no music). The scenes showing the world and technology of The Krell are awsome in the true meaning of that overused word - the way in which it is realised along with Walter Pigeon's marvelous voice, gives it a resonnance that gets deep under the skin. Makes the world of Avatar look like a corny, vulgar cliche.

[dpaint]

I highly recommed "Forbidden Planet". It's a 50s film but, boy oh boy it's wonderful. Transcendental. It's the shining pinacle of the 50s nostalgia for a better tomorrow. Now we look at it and are filled with a nostalgia for yeterday's tomorrows.
Barring one or two hokey moments, its beautifully structured (nicked from Bill Shakespear's The Tempest) and devinely photographed and art directed with a pure sound effects sound track (no music). The scenes showing the world and technology of The Krell are awsome in the true meaning of the word. The way in which it is realised along with Walter Pigeon's marvelous voice gives it a resonnance that just gets under the skin. Makes the world of Avatar look like a corny, vulgar cliche.

Anne Francis was a total hottie in that movie.

[Chris Bennett]

Yes sir-re-sir! Another excellent reason to watch it!
She ws also pretty hot in a 'Twilight Zone' episode about the deserted upper floor of a department store.

[Elwell]

Ann Francis stars in
Forbidden Planet
Wo oh oh oh oh oh ...

[dpaint]

Yes sir-re-sir! Another excellent reason to watch it!
She ws also pretty hot in a 'Twilight Zone' episode about the deserted upper floor of a department store.

Don't forget Honey West, where she is a private detective, drives a Cobra with a car phone and has a pet oselot

[Chris Bennett]

I don't think that was broadcast in the UK. Sounds like it could have frazzled my adolescent mind more than it already was. That was bad enough with Linda Thorson in 'The Avengers'...

[Star Eater]

Anybody read the Tripod Trilogy written by John Christopher? Written in the late 60s. The White Mountains, The City of Gold and Lead, The Pools of Fire

Still one of my favourite science fiction series. A prequel explaining how the tripods dominated earth was written called When the Tripods came.
When the trilogy begins, its centuries into the future, earth has basically been reduced to pre-industrial revolution and are subjugated by the tripods
which are 100 foot tall, well tripods. When people come of age in the various settlements, a big party is held and a tripod comes for them, they then
returned "capped". It does not turn them into drones...but just placates people into not having any ambition to ever rebel against their masters. The tripods
cant climb mountains so the human resistance is located in the alps. The protagonists are a couple of teenage boys who don't want to be capped and run away from home.

The prequel was interesting as it shows how the tripods took over. They were actually no match for our fighter planes and military, despite their massive size. (No cannons
no wheels, no planes, just big machines and tentacles.) so they subjugated mankind slowly by introducing their wonderful 'caps' and appealing to world leaders and
popular culture. (Kind of like V)

A series was attempted by the BBC, it was admirable but not that good.