NationStates Jolt Archive

Just wanted your opinions, which of the various sci-fi universes do you find most appealing?

1. Gundam (It really doesn't matter which saga, as long as it's not the saga that had G Gundam)
2. The Original Star Wars

like all of the above. But hate to say it, none of them are cool.

I only know Star Trek & Wars but Star Wars is better because they do not have this: "ooooh here's something new we haven't seen before"

Dune is really cool too, cooler than Star Wars, but that's a book series (though 2 movies were made of the first part)

Dune.
Babylon 5.

I really liked the second Master of Orion game. The third installment was crap.

Dune.

ditto.


Whilst not a universe, the Discworld would be my favorite though.

Regardless of your feelings for the various shows, I think that us normal people would probably prefer to live on Earth in Star Trek land. I'm not so sure about the others, but I know Star Wars for one isn't exactly a wonderful place to raise your children, although I do prefer the movies themselves as they're more 'fun'. Between the Empire of the old movies, the corruption of the new movies, and the Sith of the books, and the scum that prevails through all of them, it really isn't a nice place. Earth in Star Trek however is frequently referred to as 'heaven', and as I recall, there is no poverty, disease, war and not so much crime. Anyone who claims they'd rather live somewhere WITH those things is rather unusual to say the least. So I shall say the Star Trek universe is most appealing. Though I'd rather be a Jedi and steal your hat without going near you. My god what fun you could have with powers like those...

Best place to my mind would be Kalgan, of Asimov's Foundation Universe. Empires may fall, but pleasure planets keep up with the times...!

I really liked the second Master of Orion game. The third installment was crap.

I fully agree. I'm tempted to use the MOO3 disks as drink coasters...the two previous versions were GREAT, though, weren't they?

1. ALIEN VS PREDATOR

2. Mystery Science Theater 3000

Whos asking my second cousin Albet M.?

Marvel Comics Universe or The Matrix Universe (ignoring the last two movies because they were the epitome of suck, the first one let your imagination fill in the holes)

I'll go with Dune as well.

1.BattleTech
2.MOO
3.Fuki Kuri
4.Mech warrior darkage :A BattleTech universe
5.Star Wars
6.Star Terk

I'm also saying Dune.

Star Wars Universe- wouldn't want to live in the Empire, not sure about the Old Republic, either...

Star Trek- okay, but only if it's like in the original series, with aliens made of pipe-cleaners.

MOO- that'd be alright except for those pesky Antarans.

Dune keeps coming up. I don't know how enjoyable it'd be to live in the Dune universe, it seemed like a fairly joyless place, overall. Besides, the spice is made of...worm turd. WORM TURD!

Yeesh.

Star Trek

Any problem can be solved by talking nonsense.

Star Trek

Any problem can be solved by talking nonsense.

But in Gundam, you can simultaneously talk nonsense while blowing stuff up w/a giant robot

Dune as a UNIVERSE... there are more planets in it you know?

Asimov is cool, AND Discworld

I'd go for a really life-like universe, all people living in complete happiness... what a bunch of crap, or a totally un-life-like one... Just for the heck of it :P

Bah! Warhammer 40k is clearly the best sci-fi universe. I mean, Abaddon, the black crusades, a million some odd worlds, and necrons... Just too awsome to not be the clear winner.

Dune, followed closely by Star Trek.

Wow, Star Trek is clearly winning out over Star Wars. That's surprising.

Just wanted your opinions, which of the various sci-fi universes do you find most appealing?
Roger Zelazny's "Amber".

You can find any of those worlds within it if you spend enough time in Shadow. ^_^

stargate

What would Jesus do..... for a Klondike bar...
BEST SIGNATURE EVER! :eek:

On topic: To clear things up with the Shadow thing, if anyone was wondering, the True World (Amber) casts Shadows of itself, also known as dimensions and many other names. They aren't space; they're like different frequencies. I highly recommend the series...good read.

Bah! Warhammer 40k is clearly the best sci-fi universe. I mean, Abaddon, the black crusades, a million some odd worlds, and necrons... Just too awsome to not be the clear winner.

It's also really really really really stupid. Humanity stops inventing something about...now. For 38,000 years. My, that's plausible...

I'm tented to say Zelazny's Amber but I'm going to go with Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy's. Galaxy is just awesome whereas Amber is a backstabbing nest. I just don't want to bother with keeping tabs on my siblings.

im very intrigued by the universe of david brin's uplift "trilogy" (now sexogy?)

brin knows how to construct a universe

I havent actually read dune, but with all the recomendations going on in this thread i might have to give it a try. Never read any warhammer either, its a little bit embarassing to read a book based on a game of plastic soldiers.... :)

Including fantasy books id have to say Randland, from Robert Jordans wheel of time series is the best. The attention to detail is impressive to say the least. Sticking to sci-fi... Star trek wins hands down against star wars im afraid.

I'm tented to say Zelazny's Amber but I'm going to go with Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy's. Galaxy is just awesome whereas Amber is a backstabbing nest. I just don't want to bother with keeping tabs on my siblings.

I was going to say that, but then I remembered the small negative fact that the Earth gets destroyed in that universe.

I gotta go with Babylon 5!!

Also, anything with robots blowing things up would be cool (there are too many to list).

I was going to say that, but then I remembered the small negative fact that the Earth gets destroyed in that universe.
Only one of them! Oh alright, a couple, but there's still more where that came from...

Coolest universes in Sci-Fi?

Above all, Dune (Muad'Dib! Muad'Dib! Muad'Dib!), then the Foundation, and then Star Wars

The question wasn't which one would be the best to live in, but which one is the coolest, and lets face it, jihads, psychohistory, lightsabers and Empires in galactic turmoil is far cooler than the typical Star Trek show.

Of the listed options, I have to go with Warhammer 40,000. All the things you like about other sci-fi - the huge gothic battleships, the hordes of gibbering aliens, the big armour and the bigger war machines (The Adeptus Titanicus).

And there is, at the centre of it, the very dark realisation that, for all it's technology and millions of worlds, Humanity is the underdog, and they are gradually losing the war.... VERY gothic.

I unfortunately lost interest in most of the Warhammer game related stuff back in the early 90's, when Games Workshop decided to see just how much they can charge per piece - a trend that they still semm to progress with... but the scenario itself is one of the greatest collections of referential storytelling there is.

I would have to say Star Wars followed by Star Trek. I don't like the massive übertech and transhumanism in other sci-fi universes. I generally watch TV or read to get my mind off that sort of thing.

Iain M Banks' Culture novels (Consider Phlebas, The Player of Games, Use of Weapons, Excession, Inversions, Look to Windward and the novella The State of the Art.) Huge, hedonistic, deep.

If you haven't read them before it's best to start with Consider Phlebas. And Inversions is really only incidentally a Culture novel, if you want to be picky.

My top choice would be the Dune universe, followed by Star Wars.

One else I'd like to live in would be the world of Ender's Game.

For me, it's
Stargate SG-1
Stargate Atlantis
Babylon 5

For me, it's
Stargate SG-1
Stargate Atlantis
Babylon 5

SG is a cool show.
Atlantis is alright. But SG isn't much different than it is now. In fact, you may not even know it's different, considering that the stargate is all secret and stuff.

I vote Ender's Game.
Battletech is pretty sweet too.
And, um, the universe that I've done a little bit of planning for, for a book that I'm going to write if I ever get around to it...war between the milky way and Andromeda...how cool is that?

The one I'm creating ;)

Other than that, some that actually stood out in terms of their scope and creativity were those of the Dune and Ender's Game books, and the EVE: The Second Genesis game.

Stargate

Equilibrium

if i was ever to use someone elses universe for a project, i would LOVE to use that. So amazing, tetragrammaton!

I find the Farscape universe extremely intriguing, mostly because they leave it up in the air whether Earth is right next door or a hundred billion galaxies away, but I think I'd more like to live in the Star Trek universe, because Earth seems like utopia.

On a side note, has anyone read the entire six-book Dune series?

I find the Farscape universe extremely intriguing, mostly because they leave it up in the air whether Earth is right next door or a hundred billion galaxies away, but I think I'd more like to live in the Star Trek universe, because Earth seems like utopia.

On a side note, has anyone read the entire six-book Dune series?

Yes, and I want that time back. I should've spent it reading Kurt Vonnegut instead.

Yes, and I want that time back. I should've spent more time reading Kurt Vonnegut.

Okay, then maybe you can answer me this. I'm reading God Emperor of Dune, and I have to say it's nothing like the first three. I thought the first three were excellent, but this one is just dreck. I'm about 100 pages in and I can barely stand it. Should I even bother reading the rest of it?

The "Aliens"-verse...

Some great books mentioned. David Weber's Honor Harrington series is pretty good too. Good military sci-fi. Also good was Peter Hamilton's Reality Dysfunction Series.

Iain M Banks' Culture novels (Consider Phlebas, The Player of Games, Use of Weapons, Excession, Inversions, Look to Windward and the novella The State of the Art.) Huge, hedonistic, deep.

If you haven't read them before it's best to start with Consider Phlebas. And Inversions is really only incidentally a Culture novel, if you want to be picky.

damn, you beat me to it.

hey letila, you should check out these books. you'd also probably interested in ken macleod's stuff.

Okay, then maybe you can answer me this. I'm reading God Emperor of Dune, and I have to say it's nothing like the first three. I thought the first three were excellent, but this one is just dreck. I'm about 100 pages in and I can barely stand it. Should I even bother reading the rest of it?

Right, so... off the top of my head, 'Dune', 'Dune Messiah', 'Children of Dune', 'Go- oh yeah, now I remember...Duncan Idaho finds that for some weird reason, Leto II, now- how old? Very old, anyway, but now seemingly fused with the Sandtrout and positively dripping in melange 24/7, Leto II seems to be trying to populate Arrakis with...Duncan Idaho. The current ghola of Duncan discovers this, just as hundreds before him did, and...

...hang on, I might be mixing up 'God Emperor' with 'Heretics' which somehow manages to be even more stupifyingly dull and plodding than the one you're reading. Oops.

...well, I gotta admit, I was bored to the point of putting the book down, reading three or four quick Heinlein novels, and then convincing myself of the necessity to be completist about the whole Dune dealie and dutifully going back to read 'em. Put it this way: it took me ten years to finally get around to reading 'Chapterhouse', and I didn't feel any the better for it.

I really love Frank Herbert's writing. Let me name a few other titles by him for you, ones that I've read and re-read:

Whipping Star
The Godmakers
The Green Brain
Soul Catcher
The White Plague
The Eyes of Heisenberg

I've noticed that the major-chain bookstores seem only to be stocking the Dune books, most likely to prop up sales for Brian Herbert's add-on titles. This is indeed unfortunate, as Dune wasn't anywhere near the end-all and be-all of Mr. Herbert's body of work.

So, you really can quit while you're ahead. Who else/what else have you been reading?

I'd have to go with Dune. It's the 'best' because it was so well thought out and researched. Unlike most people, I prefered the last three to the first three.

In terms of visual appeal, Blade Runner looks the best.

Possibly one of Philip K. Dick's universes would be entertaining to live in. And I'd love to voyage on A. E. van Vogt's Space Beagle (although, I'd prefer it if the crew weren't all males, in fact, the more women, the better).

The universe in 3001 seemed pretty good. Or Rama.

Iain M Banks' Culture novels (Consider Phlebas, The Player of Games, Use of Weapons, Excession, Inversions, Look to Windward and the novella The State of the Art.) Huge, hedonistic, deep.

If you haven't read them before it's best to start with Consider Phlebas. And Inversions is really only incidentally a Culture novel, if you want to be picky.

That's one Hell of a good Sci-Fi universe, very entertaining. In some ways I like it better than my own stated choice. What about- was it Brian Stableford's-? Emortals universe. That seemed rather plush as well.

This poll is worthless, because the obvious winner has to be Star Wars.

Anyway, many of you voted for Stargate. Can anyone who watched McGyver watch Stargate and NOT think "Hey, this is wrong, McGyver has a gun!"? I've never been able to watch Stargate because its McGyver there.

Right, so... off the top of my head, 'Dune', 'Dune Messiah', 'Children of Dune', 'Go- oh yeah, now I remember...Duncan Idaho finds that for some weird reason, Leto II, now- how old? Very old, anyway, but now seemingly fused with the Sandtrout and positively dripping in melange 24/7, Leto II seems to be trying to populate Arrakis with...Duncan Idaho. The current ghola of Duncan discovers this, just as hundreds before him did, and...

...hang on, I might be mixing up 'God Emperor' with 'Heretics' which somehow manages to be even more stupifyingly dull and plodding than the one you're reading. Oops.

...well, I gotta admit, I was bored to the point of putting the book down, reading three or four quick Heinlein novels, and then convincing myself of the necessity to be completist about the whole Dune dealie and dutifully going back to read 'em. Put it this way: it took me ten years to finally get around to reading 'Chapterhouse', and I didn't feel any the better for it.

I really love Frank Herbert's writing. Let me name a few other titles by him for you, ones that I've read and re-read:

Whipping Star
The Godmakers
The Green Brain
Soul Catcher
The White Plague
The Eyes of Heisenberg

I've noticed that the major-chain bookstores seem only to be stocking the Dune books, most likely to prop up sales for Brian Herbert's add-on titles. This is indeed unfortunate, as Dune wasn't anywhere near the end-all and be-all of Mr. Herbert's body of work.

So, you really can quit while you're ahead. Who else/what else have you been reading?

As far as sci-fi goes, pretty much just Dune. And Blade Runner. That's it. I've never really liked sci-fi writing, which is weird because I love sci-fi television and movies.

This poll is worthless, because the obvious winner has to be Star Wars.

Anyway, many of you voted for Stargate. Can anyone who watched McGyver watch Stargate and NOT think "Hey, this is wrong, McGyver has a gun!"? I've never been able to watch Stargate because its McGyver there.

It's not weird. He just built it out of a paperclip, a stick of chewing gum, and pencil shavings.

Possibly one of Philip K. Dick's universes would be entertaining to live in.

Yeah maybe...but if I 'knew' I was in a Philip K. Dick universe, I'd always be thinking my TV set was out to murder me in my sleep, or that giant intradimensional beings were eyeing me for an entree. None too cozy.

As far as sci-fi goes, pretty much just Dune. And Blade Runner. That's it. I've never really liked sci-fi writing, which is weird because I love sci-fi television and movies.

Oh, what a shame. I'm sorry to hear that. I've found sci-fi writing usually far outstrips the TV/Film dealie. There's so much more to it, after all...

I'm not trying to sound snobby about it, I really do think it's too bad it doesn't seem to grab you. Ah well. To each their own.

I only know Star Trek & Wars but Star Wars is better because they do not have this: "ooooh here's something new we haven't seen before"

Dune is really cool too, cooler than Star Wars, but that's a book series (though 2 movies were made of the first part)
and at least two pc games 1st of the 90s was better

It's not weird. He just built it out of a paperclip, a stick of chewing gum, and pencil shavings.
It is weird. Not to say wrong. McGyver never ever used guns, and he didn't like violence in any other form either. Ah, what a rolemodel for today's youth.

It is weird. Not to say wrong. McGyver never ever used guns, and he didn't like violence in any other form either. Ah, what a rolemodel for today's youth.

If I remember correctly, except the teaser of the first episode. But that was probably before the character has been completely defined, so it might not count.

Dune.
Babylon 5.

Agreed!

the many diverse and wonderous worlds, galaxies and universes of real written science fictional literature
leave everything in the poll behind by parsecs.

for sciffy in media i'd go for b5

for almost sciffy quality fantasy i'd go for dark crystal

the universe a.e.schmitz's telzey amberdon stories is set in is one of my favorite

also r.a.lafferty's cameroi

but there are just too many to come to mind

in the best of real science fiction the plot tensions are not gratuitously simplistic conflicts such as those of
warfare, but the challanges of building and settling
harmoniously in unusual and often but not always difficult
and uninviting environments

would that there were more of us interested in rollplaying
such contexts

such as a post petrolium, post monetary and post warring
states world as i choose to perceive carlemnaria as being
set in, not one that has attemted to abondon tecnology but
to adopt it harmoniously and sustainably to those conditions

=^^=
.../\...

Dune.
Babylon 5.

Yeah. Dune and Babylon 5.

I shall not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I shall face my fear. I shall let it pass over me and through me. I will look with my inner eye and where the fear has gone there will be nothing. And only I will remain.

Earth in Star Trek however is frequently referred to as 'heaven', and as I recall, there is no poverty, disease, war and not so much crime.

No war? Um, have you ever watched Trek?

Foundation.

As partial as I am to Star Wars, the coolest universe is, by far, the one from Futurama. After all, in any other universe, you can't go from one end of the universe to the other in a week. And you don't have the Omicronians or Morbo the News Monster...or Dr. Zoidberg, perhaps the greatest TV character ever devised.

"Deus Ex" That isn't set too far in the future though.

Isaac Asimov's "Foundation"

Ian M Banks' "Culture"

Douglas Adams' "the Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy"

Foundation, Bablyon 5, and Dune

though the Uplift universe looks kinda interesting as well...

No war? Um, have you ever watched Trek?

Yes. And yes. Even though Deep Space Nine twisted ST into something that it wasn't supposed to be, then Voyager continued the trend, Earth was only attacked, what, once? By the Breen? Stay out of the ex-United States, and don't join Starfleet, and you're fine!

Dune & Foundation.

This poll is pretty bad :)

Dune & Foundation.

This poll is pretty bad :)

Heh, if he listed every sci-fi show, book and game that ever existed (I think there are comics too), it'd take half an hour to scroll down the page :D

Literary worlds in modern Sci-Fi That need mentioning

Deathstalker (green)
Pandora's Star (Hamilton)
Reality Disfunction (Hamilton)
Altered Carbon (Morgan)
Cyberpunk (Gibson)

TV that needs mentioning

Red dwarf

Movie rumours
Rifts
Hitch Hickers

RPG settings
Transhuman space

And many more I can't think of at the moment

Why has the Stargate Universe not been mentioned...? Philistines...!

Many coloured land.
Wraps things on earth up in a neat bundle. Explains goblins, dragons and where ginger people came from, what more could you want?

Anybody else here a fan of the Gundam worlds? (the ones w/the original Gundam and Gundam SEED)


Speaking of Gundam, I had a strange dream a couple of nights ago that seemed like a bizzare cross between Gundam and Zelda . . . .

Anybody else here a fan of the Gundam worlds? (the ones w/the original Gundam and Gundam SEED)


Speaking of Gundam, I had a strange dream a couple of nights ago that seemed like a bizzare cross between Gundam and Zelda . . . .
Forgive my ignorance but I've never heard of the Gundam worlds.
Re the Star gate universe, who ever said that, it was not mentioned because it is as consistant as the UK labour party and has more holes in it that the hull of the Titianic. Entertaining as the programe may or may not be.

Forgive my ignorance but I've never heard of the Gundam worlds.
Re the Star gate universe, who ever said that, it was not mentioned because it is as consistant as the UK labour party and has more holes in it that the hull of the Titianic. Entertaining as the programe may or may not be.

I dont think Gundam ever made it over to the UK . . . anyways, the original Mobile Suit Gundam aired in Japan in 1979. It was (and still is) probably the most realistic mecha anime of all time.

Humanity has partially migrated into space, living in space colonies in earth's orbit. However, a group of colonists declaring themselves 'Zeon' break away from the earth govt and declare war on the planet using weapons known as mobile suits (the most common was the 'Zaku'). The Earth Federation then develops it's own mobile suit called the Gundam - eventually Earth Federation mass produces them and they win the war.

There have been a couple of sequels made to the original (IE 08th MS Team) and then parallel timelines upon which different scenarios w/Gundams transpire

I dont think Gundam ever made it over to the UK . . . anyways, the original Mobile Suit Gundam aired in Japan in 1979. It was (and still is) probably the most realistic mecha anime of all time.

Humanity has partially migrated into space, living in space colonies in earth's orbit. However, a group of colonists declaring themselves 'Zeon' break away from the earth govt and declare war on the planet using weapons known as mobile suits (the most common was the 'Zaku'). The Earth Federation then develops it's own mobile suit called the Gundam - eventually Earth Federation mass produces them and they win the war.

There have been a couple of sequels made to the original (IE 08th MS Team) and then parallel timelines upon which different scenarios w/Gundams transpire
Sounds like a RPG background to me :-)

Sounds like a RPG background to me :-)

Gundam is far from an RPG

Warhammer 40K
Star Wars
Farscape
Andromeda

w00+ to Babylon 5, Stargate, MST3k, and Asimov!

and what about Doctor Who, any other fans?

But SG isn't much different than it is now. In fact, you may not even know it's different, considering that the stargate is all secret and stuff.

According to the previews, the stargate may be going public in the next episode tomorrow evening (at least from where I watch it in the eastern US)...

Stargate or Farscape either or.

[


Whilst not a universe, the Discworld would be my favorite though.

I'm with you on that. It is a universe though. Great A'tuin swims through it with the discworld on it's back. (And the elephants)[/QUOTE]

[


Whilst not a universe, the Discworld would be my favorite though.

I'm with you on that. It is a universe though. Great A'tuin swims through it with the discworld on it's back. (And the elephants)

Larry Niven's "Known Space" series is also among my favorites. They would make great films if properly done.

If we are talking about books too, I would say Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time universe while not Sci-FI I think it is awesome.

Favorite sci-fi universes of mine are Stargate,Futurama, Star Trek, Star Wars for TV.

In terms of books my favorites are the universe from Timothy Zahn's Conquerers trilogy, Timothy Zahn's "The Icarus Hunt" universe.

For computer games I like the universe from Tachyon: The Fringe. I also like the game.

For computer games, I suppose there's StarCraft. Although I don't fancy living there; Zerg are...nasty...

I dont think Gundam ever made it over to the UK .
It has. It is on one of the Cartoon Channels.

Do not ask me how I know this.

OMG what a hard question!

Of those in the poll, Star Trek is the best, particularly DS9.

But for the best, in no special order:
Science Fiction:
John Varley's 8 Worlds
George Alec Effinger's Marid Audran
RAH's Starship Troopers (most vehimently NOT Paul Verhoeven's EVIL, warped, bastardized, slandering of it. If you have seen the movie but haven't read the book, please, please read the book. Verhoeven's version is a vile piece of crap.)
Joe Haldeman's Forever War
Aliens
David Drake's Hammer's Slammers
David Brin's Uplift
C. J. Cherryh's Chanur
Asimov's Foundation
Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat
Daniel Keyes' Continuing Time
Keith Laumer's Bolo
Bruce Sterling's Mechanist/Shaper and post cyber-punk stuff

For Fantasy:
Glen Cook's Black Company, Darkwar, and Garrett
Steven Brust's Dragaeran/Vlad Taltos
Robert E. Howard's Conan
Papa Tolken
M.A.R. Barker's Tekumel (which I will go way out on a limb, and say beats Middle Earth as a completely envisioned fantasy universe)
Lawrence Watt-Evans' Ethshar and Lords of Dus
Robert Asprin's Myth Adventures
Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
Terry Pratchett's Diskworld
C.S. Lewis' Narnia
Eddings' world of the Belgariad and the Malloreon (over many screams of protest, I am sure)

Books by CS Friedman that I think have cool "universes"
Erna (coldfire Trilogy)
In Conquest Born

Foundation Series

Babylon 5

Dune

Homeworld (the Original over the subsiquent sequals)

Uplift Novels. I have read the entire first trilogy. while i do not like everything about his writing style, his idea of a universe is interesting

Saga of the Seven Sun (Kevin Anderson) I would like to live on Theron before it was attacked.

many many others, but those are my favorites.

Myst. The fact that with linking books, you can encompass every other sci fi universe in existance helps.

Favorite sci-fi universes of mine are Stargate,Futurama, Star Trek, Star Wars for TV.

In terms of books my favorites are the universe from Timothy Zahn's Conquerers trilogy, Timothy Zahn's "The Icarus Hunt" universe.

For computer games I like the universe from Tachyon: The Fringe. I also like the game.

Yay, someone's heard of Timothy Zahn. Anyway, for overall coolness, I'd have to go with the Warhammer 40k universe. Horrible place to live, the absence of technological advancement has all but stopped(due to the Machine Cult hoarding it and bans on AI), but the Imperium probably has the best military in all of the universes. The other races are cool too. I'm not much into the game but I've read almost all of the novels.

For a nice place to live, I'd have to go with the Star Trek universe. If I'm in the middle of Federation Space and away from any research labs, I should be quite safe. However, if I lived in the 40k universe, I'd be a happy Imperial citizen who would love to join the Imperial Navy.

Babylon 5 has the coolest fighters in my opinion. Starfuries aren't the best in all of the universes but I love the thrust vectoring ability. I want to be able to turn on a dime to shoot behind me...

I've always loved Star Wars(although not so much the NJO line of novels) but I probably wouldn't want to live there. Too much violence.