Do you like science fiction?

Love sci-fi. One time in the late 60's when I was at the San Francisco Airport (SFO), I bought every Heinlein paperback book they had on sale. Read them all, too.

First read Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land in college. Very different.

Currently, we are watching the sci-fi series(es) Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis. Very entertaining. We get them on DVD from Amazon.
 

Devi said:
Love sci-fi. One time in the late 60's when I was at the San Francisco Airport (SFO), I bought every Heinlein paperback book they had on sale. Read them all, too.

First read Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land in college. Very different.

Currently, we are watching the sci-fi series(es) Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis. Very entertaining. We get them on DVD from Amazon.
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@Devi Glad to see a fellow fan! I watched every episode of Stargate SG1 and Atlantis! I loved most of Robert Heinlein's books but found Stranger in a Strange Land and the follow-ups too much of a departure from his previous books! I read and enjoyed most of the sci-fi authors of his time (Silverberg, Simak, Farmer, Clarke, Anderson etc.) except for Philip K. Dick whose stories were a bit too grim for my taste. Yet, surprisingly, many sci-fi movies are based on his stories!
 
Old Salt said:
I watched every episode of Stargate SG1 and Atlantis! I loved most of Robert Heinlein's books but found Stranger in a Strange Land and the follow-ups too much of a departure from his previous books! I read and enjoyed most of the sci-fi authors of his time (Silverberg, Simak, Farmer, Clarke, Anderson etc.) except for Philip K. Dick whose stories were a bit too grim for my taste. Yet, surprisingly, many sci-fi movies are based on his stories!
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Yep, Stranger in a Strange Land started out great, but got ... well ... strange towards the end.

I've read other sci-fi authors, but I'm not recalling whom/what at the moment. There is also Isaac Asimov.
 
Devi said:
Yep, Stranger in a Strange Land started out great, but got ... well ... strange towards the end.

I've read other sci-fi authors, but I'm not recalling whom/what at the moment. There is also Isaac Asimov.
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I forgot the greatest of them all, Asimov, (I did mention him earlier) and to be honest had to look up sci-fi authors of the fifties and sixties because I had forgotten their names! :LOL:
 
Llynn said:
I read a lot of SF while in grade/high school. Then I seriously studied physics and the whole imaginary SF world faded away.
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Yea me too! But now in my old age I am starting to read some SF. Of course, as with most type of literature, works are much more sophisticated now since science has advanced so much in the last 60-70 years.
 
spectratg said:
Yea me too! But now in my old age I am starting to read some SF. Of course, as with most type of literature, works are much more sophisticated now since science has advanced so much in the last 60-70 years.
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I think ordinary SF changed too much for my taste in the eighties! I now read military SF a la David Weber! The Honor books are great!
 
Bob Mayer wrote and published (under the name Robert Doherty) a large series of Area 51 books. These were not UFO stories as such though they took off from that point and went into a great deal of other similar fringe material and mythology. Almost all of it is set "in present time" except for brief historical flashbacks.

This is military/political/adventure science fiction, and suspiciously enough an awful lot of the Stargate television franchise seems to have copied idea after idea from the Area 51 books. Maybe you can think Stargate but broader in scope and without the rubber noses and floppy shoes. Of course most of the Stargate fan base is there for its "Friends through the gate" ensemble sitcom aspects. They probably won't enjoy the Area 51 books which lack most of the slapstick and wise cracking.

Don't get me wrong, I like the Stargate series and movies but SG-1 and Atlantis in particular are really sitcoms. The 3rd series Universe tried to get serious and most of the fan base rebelled and still whinge about it today even though in season 2 the show was revamped with more 'splosions and enemies.
 
dilettante said:
Bob Mayer wrote and published (under the name Robert Doherty) a large series of Area 51 books. These were not UFO stories as such though they took off from that point and went into a great deal of other similar fringe material and mythology. Almost all of it is set "in present time" except for brief historical flashbacks.

This is military/political/adventure science fiction, and suspiciously enough an awful lot of the Stargate television franchise seems to have copied idea after idea from the Area 51 books. Maybe you can think Stargate but broader in scope and without the rubber noses and floppy shoes. Of course most of the Stargate fan base is there for its "Friends through the gate" ensemble sitcom aspects. They probably won't enjoy the Area 51 books which lack most of the slapstick and wise cracking.

Don't get me wrong, I like the Stargate series and movies but SG-1 and Atlantis in particular are really sitcoms. The 3rd series Universe tried to get serious and most of the fan base rebelled and still whinge about it today even though in season 2 the show was revamped with more 'splosions and enemies.
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@dilettante: Stargate SG1 premiered in 1997, Stargate SG1 books were first published in 2011 while the Bob Mayer books (often written by others) only showed up a year after, in 2012, so your slightly condescending critique seems to be off a bit! I don't mind, though! I always had a hard time digesting that all the alien cultures SG-1 came into contact with, spoke perfect English! I loved it just the same even though it wasn't perfect. To me it was perfect entertainment and that was enough! But Sitcom? I liked the bantering but sitcom? That's harsh! :)

Universe was a flop for a good reason. It departed too much from the format of the previous seasons and I found it boring because it basically took place in a starship with the occasional excursion into another world. I also had to stop watching after three episodes because close captioning was not available, and I need that in order to enjoy a show since my hearing is down.

And rubber noses and floppy shoes? Really? :LOL:
 
Funny, the Area 51 books that I have had soft-cover publication dates from 1997 to 2004. I know he wrote 4 more books later on, so maybe that's what you are thinking of?
 
dilettante said:
Funny, the Area 51 books that I have had soft-cover publication dates from 1997 to 2004. I know he wrote 4 more books later on, so maybe that's what you are thinking of?
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I couldn't find anything on Amazon but books co-written with others, except for audio books that came much later! The original idea for SG1 came from the movie Stargate (1994). Even if both shows were written in the same year there would have been a law- suit in the works by one or the other for copyright infringement, don't you think? But I'll have to leave it there. I'm not very good at research! :)
 

Do you like science fiction? Only if it is not real, I don't mind real fiction if it is scientific.​

 
Three Stargate fan YouTube channels had a livestream with Brad Wright today. There was even a brief appearance by RDA, but it might have been pre-recorded.
 
Have read almost no science fiction books for decades but do enjoy many popular science fiction movies, though not fantasy horror (ie Exorcist, Freddy, Halloween, etc), and less so comic book level scifi (Star Wars, Transformers), including the superhero genre. Note, I have always read lots of non-fiction science and technology books.

I watched the below a week ago that I also linked to on another thread. Free currently on tubitv. Arguably the scariest alien/space science fiction movie ever made thus appropriate as we near Halloween. Go ahead and really scare yourself.

The Thing (1982)

Last night OTA watched the 2005 Spielberg large production version HG Wells War of Worlds with Tom Cruise.
 
If you missed this you are in for a treat. Very grounded, no magic anti-gravity or transporters or ships flying in arcs like some atmospheric fighter jet.


Season 1 is very noir though that changes as the story evolves. I like seasons 1 to 3 the best, but there are 3 more seasons too.
 
This will sound very oxymoronic but I like the realistic sci fi😂. The really low budget sci fi that’s more horror than sci fi, I really dislike.
 
PeppermintPatty said:
This will sound very oxymoronic but I like the realistic sci fi😂. The really low budget sci fi that’s more horror than sci fi, I really dislike.
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Have you watched the series "Orphan Black" at all? Some people overlook it, since it is primarily focused on biotechnology and not space travel. Excellent series, and I see that a sequel series is expected in a year:


I think the new main character required a new actress but I suspect that it is the same character... or a "sister." Unlike the old show, this one appears to be in the future "for reasons."
 
dilettante said:
Have you watched the series "Orphan Black" at all? Some people overlook it, since it is primarily focused on biotechnology and not space travel. Excellent series, and I see that a sequel series is expected in a year:


I think the new main character required a new actress but I suspect that it is the same character... or a "sister." Unlike the old show, this one appears to be in the future "for reasons."
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Thank you. I’ll check it out.
 
I never cared for Clarke, and I agreed with his critics of the time:
Ellison's 1966 "Introduction" to "The Jigsaw Man" in Dangerous Visions noted that Niven "writes what is called 'hard' science fiction—i.e., his scientific extrapolation is based solidly in what is known at the date of his writing." In October, 1967, Algis Budrys observed that "Clarke, educated and intelligent, is supposed to be one of the big guns in 'hard' science fiction.... he is in fact the author of a clutch of mystical novels and only one or two 'hard' ones."
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If you like his stuff that's great. I never considered it science fiction myself. I'd put him in the camp with Ray Bradbury and Frank Herbert as essentially a fantasy author who cranked out boilerplate with science fictiony trappings. Almost the sort of thing an AI can generate today.

But those are old and very tired debates now.
 
dilettante said:
I never cared for Clarke, and I agreed with his critics of the time:

If you like his stuff that's great. I never considered it science fiction myself. I'd put him in the camp with Ray Bradbury and Frank Herbert as essentially a fantasy author who cranked out boilerplate with science fictiony trappings. Almost the sort of thing an AI can generate today.

But those are old and very tired debates now.
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Arthur C. Clarke has many honors, awards and recognition, of course there's bound to be some detractors when one is world renowned.
Frankly I've never heard of Algis Budrys...
 

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