Wanted: Good Scifi

[Atlan]

Anywhere we can find the changed version of Triplanetary?

On amazon, a new printing was done this year!
Triplanetary

[dworkin]

Regarding good SF, I remember a tongue in cheek article recomending the letter B. While good authors have all sorts of names picking one starting with B was always a good bet.

[rhoenix]

Regarding good SF, I remember a tongue in cheek article recomending the letter B. While good authors have all sorts of names picking one starting with B was always a good bet.

Ok, I can't let that one slide uncommented.

Why, exactly, is picking a name starting with "B" good?

[Bob the Gunslinger]

Regarding good SF, I remember a tongue in cheek article recomending the letter B. While good authors have all sorts of names picking one starting with B was always a good bet.

Not if you pick Greg Bear's Eon. It's title is also a description of how long it takes to read (subjectively).

I haven't seen Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep listed here. It doesn't fit the OP's requirements exactly, but it is good and most of the other suggestions don't really follow it either.

Alfred Bester has some great short stories, as do Asimov and Niven.

[Batman]

Since both Dune and Neuromancer have been mentioned as supposedly good SciFi (the first of which was boring as hell and the second while moderately entertaining was nothing to brag about) I'll chip in with Asimov's work (the ENTIRE Foundation trilogy, all 7 books of it), the Robot novels, and the Spacer ones, and a lot of Heinlein's early works. Mostly everything before he got overly interested in his characters getting laid. Also, Hammilton's 'Captain Future' novels and Zahn's 'Conquerors' trilogy as well as 'Angelmass' and 'The Icarus Hunt'.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

Regarding good SF, I remember a tongue in cheek article recomending the letter B. While good authors have all sorts of names picking one starting with B was always a good bet.

Ok, I can't let that one slide uncommented.

Why, exactly, is picking a name starting with "B" good?

Iain Banks, Steve Baxter, Greg Bear, Greg Benford, Ben Bova, Alfred Bester, Ray Bradbury, Aldris Budrys, Lois McMaster Bujold, and probably a few other big-time authors all have B names. Then there are the fantasy authors, such as Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, Steve Brust, and Marion Zimmer Bradley.

[rhoenix]

Many good suggestions from everyone here - you have my thanks; I'm making a good long list on Amazon of books to get. If you've any others, I'm still reading.

I was rather heartened actually that most of the suggestions were books.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

Bad Batman! The only Foundation books worth reading are the original trilogy! How can you complain about Heinlein's Dirty Old Man Phase and not Asimov's? Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth were chock full of overly-bosomed space Russians who will only advance the plot in exchange for sexual favors and smooth-brained farmer's daughters whom it is not a bad thing to take advantage of, not at all. Not to mention Galaxia. Why, Batman, would you tell anyone to read those later Foundation books?

Good Call on the others, though.

I also recommend reading some collections of short stories. You can find new authors and new ideas in them and they really are a lot of fun.

[rhoenix]

I also recommend reading some collections of short stories. You can find new authors and new ideas in them and they really are a lot of fun.

Agreed on that count - the book The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury is still giving me inspiration and food for thought.

[Batman]

Bad Batman! The only Foundation books worth reading are the original trilogy! How can you complain about Heinlein's Dirty Old Man Phase and not Asimov's? Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth were chock full of overly-bosomed space Russians who will only advance the plot in exchange for sexual favors and smooth-brained farmer's daughters whom it is not a bad thing to take advantage of, not at all.

That'd be the part were Asimov's books WEREN'T chock-full of them. There was absolutely too much of them and they did absolutely nothing to further the plot in the post-OT books, but UNlike Heinlein's later works, it had little to no influence on the PLOT.

Not to mention Galaxia. Why, Batman, would you tell anyone to read those later Foundation books?

Because they were damn good reads outside the completely unnecessary sex?

[Bob the Gunslinger]

That's where you and I disagree. I think Asimov completely ruined the Foundation series by including the robots and the entire Galaxia subplot/ending. Not only does it not fit in the Foundation series thematically, it is also written as complete fan-service and all around terrible science fiction.

[Samuel]

Ah yes, a split fanbase

I don't care about the sex- the problem is that you learn that everything in the previous books was irrelevant. The whole point of Foundation was the ability to set up the future. The later books introduce a ton of fridge logic by connecting it with the robot universe.

[Stark]

That's where you and I disagree. I think Asimov completely ruined the Foundation series by including the robots and the entire Galaxia subplot/ending. Not only does it not fit in the Foundation series thematically, it is also written as complete fan-service and all around terrible science fiction.

The worst thing he did was certainly cater to fatty nerds by trying to tie it all together. That doesn't make his earlier work any less good though (if by 'story' you mean 'thinly disguised logic puzzle').

[Count Chocula]

David Weber's Honor Harrington series are very thoroughly fleshed out and, in my opinion, well-done sci-fi. There's inertial compensation, lasers, missiles, great big ships, but not too overdone compared to SW and ST. If you don't mind a little Mary Sue-ism (okay mebbe a lot), there are also a lot of well-developed characters. The first half-dozen books in the series are available for free at http://www.baen.com. On Basilisk Station is one of my favorites.

[Samuel]

Do not get anyone started about the problems with Honor Harrington. Anyway, the question was for fleshed out cultures, not weapons.

[rhoenix]

I can do the Shiny Object thing on my own; in fact, that's the easy part. The harder part is creating living, breathing cultures that are not only consistent, but evolving due to stimuli - just like ours.

[Samuel]

I can do the Shiny Object thing on my own; in fact, that's the easy part. The harder part is creating living, breathing cultures that are not only consistent, but evolving due to stimuli - just like ours.

We can help! Give us the stimuli and we can come up with a range of responces to fit that.

[rhoenix]

I can do the Shiny Object thing on my own; in fact, that's the easy part. The harder part is creating living, breathing cultures that are not only consistent, but evolving due to stimuli - just like ours.

We can help! Give us the stimuli and we can come up with a range of responces to fit that.

I do and have with all my Fun With... threads in OSF, but my last one got no responses. So, I did the plotting work on my own, and started working with psychologists I know to get the little things right.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

The worst thing he did was certainly cater to fatty nerds by trying to tie it all together. That doesn't make his earlier work any less good though (if by 'story' you mean 'thinly disguised logic puzzle').

I agree. In fact, I find that only his earlier works (and definitely not all of them, but certainly the Foundation Trilogy) are his good books. There is nothing wrong with a good logic puzzle or transplanted historical lessen, provided that the reader approaches the work with the right expectations. It can be quite a nice distraction, like Sudoku with walking mechano-men and pew-pew layzors.

[Darth Hoth]

Anywhere we can find the changed version of Triplanetary?

On amazon, a new printing was done this year!
Triplanetary

It is still the Magazine version, though, with no connection to the Lensman series. Yes, it says otherwise on the back page, but that is how it is. I remember getting fairly angry when I realised (and had to order an antiquary in the UK for an old Pyramid edition) . . .

On the other hand, it includes Masters of Space . . .

[NecronLord]

Not if you pick Greg Bear's Eon. It's title is also a description of how long it takes to read (subjectively).

I started this about three days ago. Given my habit of reading a chunk of a book and then going 'ooh, shiny' and starting another before coming back to it, I don't know how long it'll actually take to read - but it doesn't seem that slow to me at all. So far.

Damn you Bob. You have filled me with trepidation.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

To be fair, Necronlord, I was in high school at the time I tried to read it. On the other hand, I finished Lord of the Rings, but couldn't get very far into Eon, so you just might want to keep that trepidation around for a while.

If you do finish the book, let me know what happens.