Overrated Sci-Fi Novels...

Manus Celer Dei · Post by **Manus Celer Dei** » 2007-11-29 06:33pm

Adrian Laguna wrote:I'm pretty sure it's been accepted that every single one of the Space Odyssey books occurs in a parallel universe, such that the events are similar but not equal.

IIRC, Clark himself said something to that effect.

Gullible Jones · Post by **Gullible Jones** » 2007-11-29 07:25pm

Clarke also specifically stated that 2010 was a sequal to the movie, not the book.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2007-11-29 09:37pm

SylasGaunt wrote:Also I seem to recall things like hornet nests attacking and slaughtering bee hives.

I remember seeing a video about that: 30 hornets methodically slaughtering 30000 bees. I can't help but think of Ride of the Valkyries.

Nyrath · Post by **Nyrath** » 2007-11-30 12:52pm

Gullible Jones wrote:Clarke also specifically stated that 2010 was a sequal to the movie, not the book.

Yes, this helps deal with minor continuity glitches. Like the spacecraft Discovery being in orbit around the wrong planet.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2007-11-30 02:07pm

Manus Celer Dei wrote:
Adrian Laguna wrote:I'm pretty sure it's been accepted that every single one of the Space Odyssey books occurs in a parallel universe, such that the events are similar but not equal.
IIRC, Clark himself said something to that effect.

Arthur C. Clarke, in 2061, wrote:Just as 2010: Odyssey Two was not a direct sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey, so this book is not a linear sequel to 2010. They must all be considered as variations on the same theme, involving many of the same characters and situations, but not necessarily happening in the same universe.

Flagg · Post by **Flagg** » 2007-11-30 02:11pm

Darth Wong wrote:
SylasGaunt wrote:Also I seem to recall things like hornet nests attacking and slaughtering bee hives.
I remember seeing a video about that: 30 hornets methodically slaughtering 30000 bees. I can't help but think of Ride of the Valkyries.

Yeah, they are those massive Japanese hornets. The awesome thing about that is that some of the bee hives have come up with a defense where they blanket themselves over an individual hornet and creat friction that cooks it alive. They do that because if a single hornet escapes back to its hive, the hornets will descend on the bees and kill them off like you described. IIRC they actually eat the bee larvae or pupa.

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2007-12-08 01:23pm

Lusankya wrote: That said, I hate everything by David Brin. You'd think that if people were going around calling him a good author, then he'd actually be readable, but apparently not.

I didn't think much of his rambling diatribe against Star Wars, and that one of his novels was made into mediocre late 90s Kevin Costner movie, but I surprisingly enjoyed Heaven's Reach, the third and final novel for his Uplift trilogy, even though that was years ago and I was reading a long story arc out of order (but reading Ravenor Returned has not really ruined Ravanor anymore than watching the The Empire Strikes Back first ruining Revenge of the Sith).

Dune has been given a bad rap lately, but I bought it recently and I'm reading through it just fine - much better than The Man in the High Castle, still covers perfectly relevant topics today, and has aged well (even though I heard the subsequent sequels and spin-offs get increasingly more rum).

Post by **fgalkin** » 2007-12-08 02:38pm

Dune. Too heavy on the philobabble and faux-Islamic imagery, too light on things like plot and characterization. Think of it as Las Vegas hotel-fake, looks pretty on the outside, shallow on the inside.

And the sequels are much, much, worse from what I hear. Because I barely managed to get through Dune, I wasn't eager to try them out, so I don't know for sure.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin