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Does anybody here read Science Fiction/Fantasy?
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Posted by: freebird

I was wondering if anyone else here reads SF/Fantasy? Who are your favorite authors?

Multiple Choice Poll - choose more than 1 if you want.

Posted by: GoingToRussia

I've read a little of most. I use to be a big Kirt Vonagut fan. He really isn't concidered a science fiction writer but he has stories about this theme.

Posted by: Legal

I love SF/Fantasy

Among my favorite writes (some of them are listed in the poll) also are Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.

Olga (Legal's wife)

Posted by: matt235

I read Sci Fi but not really fantasy stuff. I prefer the gadgets associated with the outer space kind of things. My favorites are Douglas Adams (The hitchhiker's guide is a must) and C.S. Friedman (she seem to challenge my mind a bit and you will see me quote stuff from her every now and again)

later,

Posted by: blucatz

The Hitchhikers guide was a great book, but the movie totally sucked......LOL

Posted by: matt235

Quote:

Originally Posted by blucatz

The Hitchhikers guide was a great book, but the movie totally sucked......LOL

I would venture to say that Douglas Adams was rolling in his grave when that piece of junk hit the big screen. However, in something of a defense of the movie, this is a very difficult "story" to tell, thus the reason that no one before had even tried to film it. Needless to say, it still sucked.

I have the book and I go back and re-read it about every 8 years or so, just to make sure nothing changed in that time. Gotta stay current you know!

later,

Posted by: freebird

Quote:

Originally Posted by blucatz

The Hitchhikers guide was a great book, but the movie totally sucked......LOL

Do you mean the British TV show? What was wrong with it?

I saw the show when I was a teenager, it seemed pretty cool at the time...

Posted by: blucatz

Quote:

Originally Posted by freebird

Do you mean the British TV show? What was wrong with it?

I saw the show when I was a teenager, it seemed pretty cool at the time...

No, it was a movie that came out a couple of years ago, but it was British.

Posted by: freebird

Quote:

Originally Posted by matt235

I would venture to say that Douglas Adams was rolling in his grave when that piece of junk hit the big screen.

Oh. I only saw the TV show, not the movie, what was wrong with the movie version?

Posted by: matt235

Quote:

Originally Posted by freebird

Oh. I only saw the TV show, not the movie, what was wrong with the movie version?

I'm not sure how to explain it, but sometimes when you see a movie that just doesn't live up to the book you know it. I think that part of it is the fact that each person that has read the book has developed in their own mind how each scene should look, how the character look (especially the 2 headed Zaphod Beeblebrox), and how each part of the story takes place. In a movie like this, unless it is your movie that you created, produced and directed, it is not going to come out as you would hope for. To me it came off as an English version of a tele-novela shot inside a plastic ball.

I would say that overall they did an OK job with the FX, but their take on some of the oddities associated with the story (like when their ship goes into that hyper dimension flying mode that I can not remember the name of right now) just come off weird and not odd. In the case of Douglas Adams, odd is good, weird is not.

I would say the only part that I cared for was the very beginning before Earth was demolished for the super galactic freeway.

The best way to explain how the movie didn't fit the book is to rent the movie (don't buy it at all costs) and experience it for yourself.

Anyone else care to try to explain this one?

later,

p.s. I was going to take a date to see this movie (Czech girl her in Houston) when it came out. Boy am I glad I didn't do that!

Posted by: freebird

Quote:

Originally Posted by Legal

I love SF/Fantasy

Among my favorite writes (some of them are listed in the poll) also are Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.

Olga (Legal's wife)

Hi Olga!

I would be interested to learn a little more abour Russian SF, I want to ask Julie to find some books for me, but I don't know enough about the different authors.

I like what's known as "Hard Sci-Fi" that has alot of science & techincal details. My favorite Sci-Fi authors in this style are Larry Niven, Fred Saberhagen & Arthur Clarke

Have you heard of Niven's "Ringworld" books?

Known in Russian as "Мир-Кольцо",

Ларри НИВЕН
Лоуренс Ван Котт НИВЕН (Ларри НИВЕН) [Laurence Van Cott NIVEN (Larry NIVEN)] (р. 1938), американский писатель, автор романов "Мир птавов", "Дар с Земли", "Охранитель", "Мир-Кольцо", "Инженеры Кольца", "Трон Кольца", "Мир вне времени", "Летающие волшебники" (с Д.Джерролдом), "Мошка в зенице господней", "Ад", "Молот Люцифера", "Клятва верности", "Поступь шагов" (все пять - с Дж.Пурнеллом), "Магия уходит", "Интегральные деревья", "Кольцо дыма".
Дополнительные ссылки:
НИВЕН Л.
"Known Space": The Unofficial Larry NIVEN Home Page
Rendering Larry NIVEN's Ringworld
The Larry NIVEN Web Ring

Also Saberhagen's "Berzerker" series is excellent.

Саберхаген Фред. Берсеркер: Синяя смерть/Пер. с англ.; Худож. И.Варавин. -- М.: ЗАО Изд-во ЭКСМО-Пресс, 2000. -- 539 с. -- (Стальная Крыса). 7.000 экз. (п) ISBN 5-04-004071-7. -- Содерж.: С. 5-272: Трон Берсеркера/Пер. О.Степашкиной; С. 273-538: Синяя смерть/Пер. И.Непочатовой. -- Берсеркеры -- слепая бездушная сила, самые совершенные машины-убийцы, цель существования которых -- уничтожение любого проявления жизни во Вселенной. Казалось бы, остановить эту неукротимую мощь просто невозможно. Но зло не может править безраздельно. На пути безжалостных роботов встают хрупкие существа из плоти и крови -- люди, такие, как принц Хариварман, изгнанник с планеты Салутай, и капитан Нильс Доминго, семью которого уничтожили берсеркеры. Эти люди доказывают миру, что сила человеческой мысли и несгибаемость духа могут победить самых беспощадных механических чудовищ. [Fred(erick Thomas) Saberhagen. The Berserker Throne; Berserker: Blue Death].

Can you recommend any Russian authors who write in a similar style?

Posted by: stevo

Quote:

Originally Posted by freebird

Do you mean the British TV show? What was wrong with it?
I saw the show when I was a teenager, it seemed pretty cool at the time...

Even though the effects look a bit dated nowadays, the TV series - scripted by Douglas Adams himself - is still far better than the movie.

Posted by: GoingToRussia

... and C.S. Lewis takes the lead. Maybe because of the recent Narnia movies?

Posted by: eddie465

Quote:

Originally Posted by freebird

I was wondering if anyone else here reads SF/Fantasy? Who are your favorite authors?

You didn't include Harry Turtledove in your list

(I LOVE his alternate history stories). I LOVE SF!!! Fantasy, not so much.

Posted by: freebird

Quote:

Originally Posted by eddie465

You didn't include Harry Turtledove in your list

(I LOVE his alternate history stories). I LOVE SF!!! Fantasy, not so much.

The funny thing is, I just finished a book of his! {Agent of Byzantium} Very good, first one of his I have read.

My apologies, but they only let me put 15 choices on the poll, otherwise there are alot more I would include!

Posted by: matt235

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevo

Even though the effects look a bit dated nowadays, the TV series - scripted by Douglas Adams himself - is still far better than the movie.

Some stories can be "re-scripted" by other authors for TV or screen and still capture the story, but just about anything that Douglas Adam wrote is an example of how "re-scripting" doesn't work. His creative talent was so different from just about anyone else that only he could script the shows or movies and have it actually come off the right way. I wish he had still been alive to script and oversee the production of the movie. I think that is the only way it would have come off meeting the expectation of his readers.

Cheers,

Posted by: Legal

Quote:

Originally Posted by freebird

Hi Olga!

Can you recommend any Russian authors who write in a similar style?

freebird,

if there are so much technical details I prefer to watch movies.

I love novels by Alexander Beliaev, I'm attracted by the science fiction that is more close to reality.

Professor Dowell's head

Olga (Lega's wife)

Posted by: bladerunnerblue

I am a huge comic book geek but am not too crazy about reading science fiction novels or short stories,with the exception Harlan Ellison.

Posted by: GentleGiant

I thought the film version H2G2 was a US project?? The old BBC TV series was great BECAUSE of the naff special effects (laughingly, the Beeb were very proud of Zaphod's other head and showed it off on lots of programs during the run-up to the series).

The film tried to play everything as realistic, whereas Douglas wrote everything as a pi$$-take: NOTHING can beat the original Marvin.

I am adding Orson Scott Card to the "Others" list, his SciFi and Fantasy output is "Out of this world"; try reading "Enders Game" or "Wyrms"