NationStates Jolt Archive

Please choose the work of science fiction (books, movies, whatever) that you think is the best (most well done, not just the strongest) in the following specific categories (not overall). Feel free to change or add to the categories if you feel the need.

Aliens
Military
Backstory (ancient history, setting up the world of the book/movie)
Future History
Robots
AI
Most Entertaining Physical Universe
Most Interesting Physical Universe
Artificial Construct
Terraforming and Planet Colonisation
Most Warped Time Travel Writings
And finally, who is your favorite out of the Big Five (Verne, Wells, Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein)

My own answers:

Best Science Fiction by Category

Best Aliens: Brin's Uplift series (G'kek, Traekei, and others)
Most Realistic Military: Star Wars (as evidenced in Episode 3 - Navy-type big spaceships, Airforce-type little spaceships, and Army all represented
Best Backstory (ancient history, setting up the world of the book/movie): Terry Brooks' Shannara series (also possibly tied into his other series) or Margret Weis' Deathgate series
Best Future History: Larry Niven's Known Space
Best Robots: Maybe the Borg? But they aren't really robots, are they?
Best AI: The Matrix, or Orson Scott Card's Jane in the Ender series.
Most Entertaining Physical Universe: Douglas Adams (Anything can randomly happen, and usually does)
Most Interesting Physical Universe: Vernor Vinge's Deepness in the Sky and Fire on the Deep
Best Construct: Greg Bear's asteroid in Eon, Eternity, and Legacy
Best Terraforming and Planet Colonisation: Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy
Most Warped Time Travel Writings: Heinlein
And finally, who is your favorite out of the Big Five (Verne, Wells, Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein) Tough choice. Not Verne.

I don't see those as the "categories" of science fiction. I view it as more along the lines of:

Hard Science Fiction
(SF based upon hard or even theoretical science and/or extrapolates from hard/theoretical science in order to tell the story)

Soft Science Fiction
(SF based on "suspension of disbelief"/wild scientific theories in order to tell the story. Not as chaotic as Science Fantasy, but less "believable" than Hard Science Fiction)

Science Fantasy
(Mixes elements of science fiction and fantasy. Anne McCaffrey's "Pern" series of books is a perfect example.)

Every one of your "categories" fits within one or more of these basic categories. Personally, I'm attracted to all types. It depends on the storyline.

For example, I really enjoyed Robert Doherty's "Area 51" series of books. They took the basic idea of aliens seeding the planet and acting as ancient humans' gods (ala Zachariah Sitchin) in order to explain almost all of history's unknown elements (Atlantis, similar pyramids on separate continents, etc) and string them together, along with a Tom Clancy-esque style of storytelling, into a coherent and engaging storyline.

I don't see those as the "categories" of science fiction. I view it as more along the lines of:

Hard Science Fiction

Soft Science Fiction


Science Fantasy


Yeah, I know those are the main categories -- maybe that was the wrong word to use. My point is, in the various works that you've read (or movies you've watched, which has created something special -- and what aspect of the created world did it relate to?

Best Aliens: Star Wars
Best Military: Jerry Pournelle's Falkenberg's Legion series
Best Backstory: Frank Herbert's Dune
Best Future History: Jerry Pournelle's Falkenberg's Legion series
Best Robots: Isaac Asimov's I, Robot
Best AI: The Matrix
Best Most Entertaining Physical Universe: Douglas Adams' The Hitchiker's guide to the Galaxy
Best Most Interesting Physical Universe: Masamune Shirow's Ghost in the Shell
Best Artificial Construct: Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey
Best Terraforming and Planet Colonisation: Frank Herbert's Dune Messiah and Children of Dune (terraforming)
Most Warped Time Travel Writings: S.M. Sterling's Conquistador
And finally, who is your favorite out of the Big Five (Verne, Wells, Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein): None of the above. I'd have to go with Frank Herbert.

Best Aliens: The cluster "wolf" aliens from Vinge's "A Fire Upon the Deep" (with McCaffrey's "Freedom" series (the Catteni) and the Borg as runners-up).

Most Realistic Military: Doherty's "Area 51" series

Best Backstory (ancient history, setting up the world of the book/movie): Doherty's "Area 51" series (for reasons stated in my previous post)

Best Future History: The "Road Warrior" series

Best Robots: Star Trek (Data is an android, I know.) or the Terminator series (yes, androids, again).

Best AI: The "Abomination" AI from Vinge's "A Fire Upon the Deep" (pure evil) or the combined AI/sentient matrix from Gibson's "Sprawl" series (Neuromancer/Count Zero/Mona Lisa Overdrive)

Most Entertaining Physical Universe: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Most Interesting Physical Universe: Vinge's "A Fire Upon the Deep" (haven't read Deepness in the Sky yet)

Best Construct: the combat pyramid in "Alien vs. Predator"

Best Terraforming and Planet Colonisation: Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles"

Most Warped Time Travel Writings: dunno. not big on time travel scifi.

And finally, who is your favorite out of the Big Five (Verne, Wells, Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein): Hmmmm. I like Verne's "steampunk" universe. A toss up between Verne and Heinlein.

(BTW, you're the only other person I know of other than myself and my mother that have even HEARD of Vernor Vinge. :D)

For example, I really enjoyed Robert Doherty's "Area 51" series of books. They took the basic idea of aliens seeding the planet and acting as ancient humans' gods (ala Zachariah Sitchin) in order to explain almost all of history's unknown elements (Atlantis, similar pyramids on separate continents, etc) and string them together, along with a Tom Clancy-esque style of storytelling, into a coherent and engaging storyline.

High fucking five man! I've met all of two people who've read those books. Amazing stuff he's done there.

Trivia: What is Doherty's real name? (Robert Doherty is one of several pen names he has).

Aliens: Asimov
Military: Asimov
Backstory (ancient history, setting up the world of the book/movie): Asimov
Future History: Asimov
Robots: Asimov
AI: Asimov
Most Entertaining Physical Universe : Asimov
Most Interesting Physical Universe: Asimov
Artificial Construct: Asimov
Terraforming and Planet Colonisation: Asimov
Most Warped Time Travel Writings: Asimov
And finally, who is your favorite out of the Big Five (Verne, Wells, Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein)[/QUOTE]

Asimov

High fucking five man! I've met all of two people who've read those books. Amazing stuff he's done there.

Trivia: What is Doherty's real name? (Robert Doherty is one of several pen names he has).
Bob Mayer. :D

I've also read "the Rock" and "the Line". I really like how he takes science fiction and Tom Clancy's military ideas and merges them seamlessly. *high fives back*

EDIT: I also have all of his "Atlantis" books (written under the name Greg Donegan), but I haven't gotten around to reading them yet. I'm currently re-reading Gibson's "Idoru" trilogy. :D

Aliens: Star Wars: Wookies, Nemoidians, whatever the heck yoda is

Military: Star Wars: giant walking tanks, space ships, can't beat that.

Backstory: Star Wars: Read the books, they are amazing

Future History: Star Wars takes place a long time ago so I obviously don't care about this.

Robots: Star Wars: Droids rule, they range from protocol to star fighters

AI: Star Wars: C-3PO, R2-D2, IG-88

Most Entertaining Physical Universe: Star Wars: The Force, enough said

Most Interesting Physical Universe: see above

Artificial Construct: Star Wars: The Death Star

Terraforming and Planet Colonization: Star Wars: in "Knight of the Old Republic" it is discovered that an ancient race pretty much colonized and terraformed the whole galaxy

Most Warped Time Travel: There's no time travel in Star Wars fool

And finally, who is your favorite out of the Big Five (Verne, Wells, Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein): None of the above, the winner is Lucas and the geniuses who write the Star Wars books (I don't have time to list them all, look them up)

Okay, so far, we have an Asimov fanboy and a Star Wars fanboy.

*sits back and waits for a Trekkie fanboy to show up* :p

None of the above, the winner is Lucas and the geniuses who write the Star Wars books (I don't have time to list them all, look them up)

Ah, that infrequent use of the word 'geniuses' in the sense of 'share-cropping hackworkers'.

Okay, so far, we have an Asimov fanboy and a Star Wars fanboy.

*sits back and waits for a Trekkie fanboy to show up* :p

No can do. Any call for PKD, Ian Watson, JG Ballard, (non-fantasy) Moorcock, Christopher Priest fanboy roles?


EDIT: oh yeah, Verne, by the way, not so much for his handful of famous novels, but instead for the oddities like Propeller Island, The English At The North Pole or The Master Of The World. I just find him so much more exciting to read than the others there, even though I do love Wells, Clarke* and early Heinlein.**




* that is, obviously, when it is actually him writing and not just lending his name to the product of some tedious fuckwit like Gentry Lee.

** Yes, Asimov is conspicuous by his absence here. His leaden fictional prose and one dimensional characters do nothing for me. I still fail completely to see the reasons for his popularity.

** Yes, Asimov is conspicuous by his absence here. His leaden fictional prose and one dimensional characters do nothing for me. I still fail completely to see the reasons for his popularity.
Asimov would be constrained to the dustbin of time if it weren't for the "Three Laws of Robotics". That's the ONLY notable thing he ever came up with.

Yep, he sucked so much that two of his stories have been turned into movies. One faithfully reproduced (Bicentennial Man) and one not so faithfully... Yep he sucked so much that he didn't win a single Nebula or Hugo :rolleyes: While I may be biased in his favor, you are most certainly biased against.

Asimov's fiction is not concerned with characters. It deals more with abstract concept and logical tricks. If you want character shit go read a romance novel. As far as his prose, I happen to like the style.

Aliens: Star Trek because it has so many different, and interesting aliens explored in such detail
Military: Stargate SG1
Backstory: Star Trek (it's hard for a book to compete with a TVseries for backstory just based on length)
Future History: Asimov with the overarching history of robotics that spans most his books
Robots: Asimov (of course!)
AI: Iain M. Banks Culture universe is a fantastic take on AI
Most Entertaining Physical Universe: Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's universe
Most Interesting Physical Universe: Asimov for "The Gods Themselves" though I suspect there's better stuff out there I just can't think of right now
Artificial Construct: Larry Niven's Ringworld (it's like this category was made for him!)
Terraforming and Planet Colonisation: Orson Scott Card for Xenocide
Most Warped Time Travel Writings: Star Trek TNG for episodes like 'Cause and Effect' and 'Time's Arrow'
And finally, who is your favorite out of the Big Five (Verne, Wells, Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein): Clark (Asimov comes in a close second, but he's just not half as good a writer)

For time travel I think Stargate SG1 deserves honorable mention for episodes like 'Window of Opportunity' and 'Moebius'. I've never read any written time travel sci-fi that I thought worked all that well.

I'm actually a treky fanboy, but I'm clever enough to try to conceal it with non Star Trek responses! :D

Aliens Lovecraft. Can't get more alien aliens than Lovecraft.
Military Star Wars Old Republic. I just have an odd fetish for martial arts priests up against heavy artilery.
Backstory (ancient history, setting up the world of the book/movie) Babylon 5. As long as you don't read the novels it just seems to flesh out seamlessly, despite the forced plot changes.
Robots Not sure. Most definitly not Star Wars. Why in the world would anyone invent robots that are genderless yet gay and total cowards. And what's with giving R2 a medal? I've had my coffee maker for about a year, should I buy it a cake?
AI Same as above.
Most Entertaining Physical Universe Terry Pratchett's Discworld. A world where things are less like they are and more like they look.
Most Interesting Physical Universe Hitchhiker's Guide novels. I just wish Adams had lived long enough to finish his last one.
Most Warped Time Travel Writings Probably Star Trek. Especially the "temporal cold war" stuff in it's newest incarnation.
And finally, who is your favorite out of the Big Five (Verne, Wells, Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein) Verne. I'll never get over that Victorian asthetic.

Please choose the work of science fiction (books, movies, whatever) that you think is the best (most well done, not just the strongest) in the following specific categories (not overall). Feel free to change or add to the categories if you feel the need.

Aliens-Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's Moties.

Military: Tough one, three way split between David Drake's Hammer's Slammers, Ringo's Legacy of the Alldenata Series, and Pournelle's work in Falkenberg's Legion

Backstory (ancient history, setting up the world of the book/movie): SM Sterling's Draka books.

Future History: The CoDominium! Pounelle

Robots: Asimov.

AI: Arthur Clarke's 2001

Most Entertaining Physical Universe: Douglas Adams

Most Interesting Physical Universe: Niven, Ringworld.


Artificial Construct: Ringworld


Terraforming and Planet Colonisation: Terraforming? No favourites. Colonisation: Niven/Pournelle The Legacy of Heorot.

Most Warped Time Travel Writings: Larry Niven's Essay on Time Travel from All the Myriad Ways. It's almost as funny as his treatise on Superman's sex-life (Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex)

And finally, who is your favorite out of the Big Five (Verne, Wells, Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein)[/QUOTE]

Meh... Early Heinlein would get my vote-in fact, anything prior to him turning dirty-old-man. Clarke was good for a while, but lost it somewhere around 1974 or so. Wells. HG Wells tried to use theories that were well-advanced for his time, while keeping things 'comprehensible' (the Ballistic launch of the Martians, and the use of then-new Bio theories...). Verne was too florid, and he left out significant details he shouldn't have.

Wells. If the choices were more 'open', I'd say that Niven or Pournelle are of the same stature as Heinlein and Asimov (at least!) in the community, and both have served to inspire several generations of good writers.

Yep, he sucked so much that two of his stories have been turned into movies. One faithfully reproduced (Bicentennial Man) and one not so faithfully...

Off the top of my head I can think of I, Robot and Fantastic Voyage, I suspect there may be at least one more film version of his work.

Yep he sucked so much that he didn't win a single Nebula or Hugo :rolleyes:


If those were actually a real standard, then Dave Langford with his 22 Hugo awards would be a 'better' writer than Asimov.

While I may be biased in his favor, you are most certainly biased against.

Certianly, however, I can justify my position by stating that I have actually read quite a few of his novels and short stories, so it isn't as if I formed my personal opinion ex nihilo.

Asimov's fiction is not concerned with characters. It deals more with abstract concept and logical tricks. If you want character shit go read a romance novel. As far as his prose, I happen to like the style.

The prose just does absolutely nothing for me, and looking at other writers we can see that focusing on abstract concepts or logical tricks does not neccessitate that other qualities of their novels must suffer.

Why Mazel Tov, it's Asimov,
A blessing upon your head,
For many a year I'd lived in fear,
That you were long since dead,
Or if alive, one fifty-five cold years had passed you by,
And left you weak, with poor physic,
Thin hair and rhumey eye,

But sure enough I've read your stuff,
Since I was but a lad and could hardly tell the good yarns from the bad,
And I've been reading you since I learned about you from my pa,
And he's been reading you since he learnt about you from his pa,

I'd had enough I said, Be still!
I've kept my old time spark,
My step is light, my eyes are bright,
My hair is thick and dark,

His look in brief, spelled disbelief,
So this is what I did,
I scowled you know and with one blow,
I killed that rotten kid!

- Issac Asimov

(Appologies for not reproducing poem perfectly.)

Military - Mobile Suit Gundam
Future History - 2001 A Space Odyssey
Robots - Mobile Suit Gundam (specifically 08th MS Team)
Artificial Construct (space colonies) - Mobile Suit Gundam
Most Entertaining Physical Universe: HG2G
Most Interesting - Flatland
Most Warped Time Travel Writings - HG Wells
And Arthur C. Clarke is awesome

Aliens: The Grendels, based on two books by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
Military: The Foundation Saga...Asimov
Backstory: The Lensman Series
Future History: 3001 AD Arthur C Clarke
Robots: Daneel Etc. By Asimov
AI: Dark City, (even better than the Matrix)
Most Entertaining Physical Universe: The Discworld series
Most Interesting Physical Universe: Star Trek
Artificial Construct: Arthur C Clarkes monoliths, they replicate, cover Jupiter and turn it into a second sun.
Terraforming and Planet Colonisation: Turtledoves, Worldwar/Colonisation series. Damm those Big Uglies
Most Warped Time Travel Writings: HG Wells
And finally, who is your favorite out of the Big Five (Verne, Wells, Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein): None of the above, where is Harry Turtledove, Ursula Le Guin and Walter M. Miller Jr.?

And finally, who is your favorite out of the Big Five (Verne, Wells, Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein): None of the above, where is Harry Turtledove, Ursula Le Guin and Walter M. Miller Jr.?

Basically it's just the first five grandmasters of Science Fiction. Each of them was an extremely prolific writer, was instrumental in making modern science fiction what it is today, lived to a ripe old age, and died (except for Clarke -- but he's in his 90's).

...(except for Clarke -- but he's in his 90's).

Not quite, he is only in his late 80's (b. 1917), and as such is a mere spring chicken compared to the oldest living sf writer - Jack Williamson (b. 1908). Williamson had already published his first sf work (1928) when Clarke was still in short pants.

Let's see here...

Aliens: The Medusa from "Meeting with Medusa". That's a real alien.
Military: Can't say I'm too big on military sci-fi. Probably Starship Troopers, the book, not the crappy movie. Heinlein was in the Navy, after all.
Backstory (ancient history, setting up the world of the book/movie): Dune, no contest. Special mention has to go to Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt.
Future History: Hmmm... this is a bit tricky, since there are so many. Jennifer Government? :)
Robots: Asimov's.
AI: "I have no mouth and I must scream".
Most Entertaining Physical Universe: "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy" and "Dirk Gently Holistic Detective Agency".
Most Interesting Physical Universe: The Riverworld.
Artificial Construct: The Ringworld and the tower in "Fountains of Paradise."
Terraforming and Planet Colonisation: Allen M. Steele's Coyote series and Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series.
Most Warped Time Travel Writings: No time travel per se, but I enjoy Harry Turtledove's alternate histories.
And finally, who is your favorite out of the Big Five (Verne, Wells, Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein): From this five only, Clarke and Asimov.

Aliens-Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's Moties.

Military: Tough one, three way split between David Drake's Hammer's Slammers, Ringo's Legacy of the Alldenata Series, and Pournelle's work in Falkenberg's Legion

Backstory (ancient history, setting up the world of the book/movie): SM Sterling's Draka books.

Future History: The CoDominium! Pounelle

Yes! Another Pournelle fan!

Aliens - Stanislaw Lem or Hal Clement are contenders here, but are beaten int submission by Olaf Stapledon.

Military - for 'realistic' stuff The Forever War by Haldeman, for ludicrous joyous corruscating beams of pure energy ripping asunder dirigible planets then E.E. 'Doc' Smith. I'm not a big fan of mil-sf.

Future History - Olaf Stapledon's Last And First Men

Most Interesting Physical Universe - Probably abbot's Flatland and those similar worlds which have come from other authors who have played about with his ideas (Rucker, Dewdney, Stewart and the like). Christopher Priest produced a very interesting universe in his Inverted World, wherein instead of having finitely large planets in infinite space there are infinitely large planets in finite space.

Most Warped Time Travel Writings - The Anubis Gates is probably my favourite time travel story, but is a lot less warped than some. Honourable mentions to Behold The Man by Moorcock, and the somewhat pedestrian but delightful The Lincoln Hunters by Tucker.

Aliens - Harry Turtledove's World War / Colonization series
Military - Patricia Anthony's Cold Allies
Backstory (ancient history, setting up the world of the book/movie) - Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld saga
AI - Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey or Iain M Banks' Excession
Artificial Construct - Gregory Benford's Artifact
Terraforming and Planet Colonisation - Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy
Most Warped Time Travel Writings - Vernon Vinge's Across Realtime
And finally, who is your favorite out of the Big Five (Verne, Wells, Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein) - Asimov, come on, he founded the space opera genre!

Left the other categories out, can't decide.

Aliens - Stanislaw Lem or Hal Clement are contenders here, but are beaten int submission by Olaf Stapledon.

Of course! How could I have forgotten Stapledon? And Lem's planet?

Anyway, if you want to see a movie adaptation of Stanislaw Lem's Solaris, get a copy of Sodherbeg's, the one with George Clooney, and then BURN IT!!! Burn it until no traces are left! You'd be making humanity a favour.

Then go and get Tarkovsky's. You'll be glad you did.

Then go and get Tarkovsky's. You'll be glad you did.

Haven't got round to seeing his take on Solaris yet. How does it compare to his take on Roadside Picnic?

Haven't got round to seeing his take on Solaris yet. How does it compare to his take on Roadside Picnic?
I don't know, I haven't seen that one.
Stalker, I think it is, right?

I don't know, I haven't seen that one.
Stalker, I think it is, right?

Uh-huh. Definitely worth watching, just as long as you aren't expecting an action-fest.

Aliens
The Chanur or the Kzin

Military
Heinlein's Starship Troopers, Halderman Forever War, Drake's Hammer's Slammers books, and Pournelle's Falkenberg's Legion books tied.

Backstory (ancient history, setting up the world of the book/movie)
Foundation

Future History
Sterling's Distraction or Varley's Eight Worlds

Robots
Asimov robots or P. K. Dick's androids from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

AI
Hmmm - undecided

Most Entertaining Physical Universe
Daley's Alacrity Fitzhugh books

Most Interesting Physical Universe
Varley's Eight Worlds

Artificial Construct
Ringworld

Terraforming and Planet Colonisation
Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy

Most Warped Time Travel Writings
Wells' Time Machine (that's about the only time travel story I like at all)

And finally, who is your favorite out of the Big Five (Verne, Wells, Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein)

Heinlein

Military - Patricia Anthony's Cold Allies

That was a good one, wasn't it. Seems to have been forgotten.

Niven is getting a lot of mentions here for someone who, in my opinion, passed his prime over thirty years ago. Sure, he has written some passable novels after Ringworld, such as the potboilers with the grendels and the Dream Park sequence, but nothing that compares to the promise shown by novels like Protector.* I think it something of a pity that he has just been revisiting old locations and tweaking old backstories for the past couple of decades.

Ach, heck, maybe I'm just disappointed that he never put the proposals outlined in Down In Flames into operation.






* Glossing over the fundamental problems with the tree-of-life and human origin therein for the sake of its qualities as a damn good read.

Off the top of my head I can think of I, Robot and Fantastic Voyage, I suspect there may be at least one more film version of his work.

So I am ignorant of movies.

If those were actually a real standard, then Dave Langford with his 22 Hugo awards would be a 'better' writer than Asimov.

It is a standard of that it’s deemed 'good.' Which generally means that he contributed something notable.

Certianly, however, I can justify my position by stating that I have actually read quite a few of his novels and short stories, so it isn't as if I formed my personal opinion ex nihilo.

I don't care much about your personal opinion on the matter. My more vehement statements were directed at 'nothing notable', and 'constrained to the dustbin of time', which was not written by you.

The prose just does absolutely nothing for me, and looking at other writers we can see that focusing on abstract concepts or logical tricks does not neccessitate that other qualities of their novels must suffer.

Ahh the wonderful world of opinion... I find Asimov's focus on concept and logic (and the desire to 'play fair' with the reader rather than throw in BS at the end of a Mystery to solve it) to the exclusion of other qualities makes the novel better because it unabashedly pursues those ventures. Whether or not you like that method has nothing to do with whether or not he contributed something of value.

I don't like many pieces of art. Or any of the art of a particular painter, particular the entire genre of abstract art. That's my personal opinion on the art. Doesn't mean I'm enough of a biased pain in the ass to say it contributes nothing of value to art.

Niven is getting a lot of mentions here for someone who, in my opinion, passed his prime over thirty years ago. Sure, he has written some passable novels after Ringworld, such as the potboilers with the grendels and the Dream Park sequence, but nothing that compares to the promise shown by novels like Protector.* I think it something of a pity that he has just been revisiting old locations and tweaking old backstories for the past couple of decades.

Ach, heck, maybe I'm just disappointed that he never put the proposals outlined in Down In Flames into operation.





* Glossing over the fundamental problems with the tree-of-life and human origin therein for the sake of its qualities as a damn good read.


Well the ringworld is still one of the most impressive things in SF - and remains uncopied, AFAIK (I can't think of anyone else who's tried one). And the Kzin - well as you might guess from my other choice of aliens, I just like big intelligent cats. :)

aliens: James P. Hogan's Hyadeans ("The Legend That Was Earth").

military(best commanding officer): Pham Nuwen, near-legendary Qeng Ho commander (Vernor Vinge's "Fire Upon The Deep", and "A Deepness In The Sky").

military(best armed forces): Frank Herbert's Sardaukar Warriors ("Dune").

backstory/future history: The Robots/Empire/Foundation series by Isaac Asimov.

robots: Philip K. Dick's "Leadies" from the short story, "The Defenders".

AI: none leap to mind. Sorry.

most entertaining physical universe: Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination".

most interesting physical universe: Roger MacBride Allen's "The Depths Of Time/Ocean Of Years/Shores Of Tomorrow Trilogy".

artificial construct: Asimov's R. Daneel Olivaw.

terraforming and planet colonisation: the audacious re-terraforming of the planet Solace in "The Shores Of Tomorrow" by Roger MacBride Allen.

most warped time travel writings: "Up The Line" by Bob Silverberg - serial consensual incest over thousands of years...

"big five": Of the five, I'll take Asimov, but there ought to be about twenty-five names on that list, including all the ones I've already mentioned. No Heinlein? Pohl? Vance? Ellison? Sturgeon? I could do this for a while, but I think you get my point. It's a smallish grab-bag of names you've put together...

Well the ringworld is still one of the most impressive things in SF - and remains uncopied, AFAIK (I can't think of anyone else who's tried one).

Ringworld? Huh. Small potatoes. It's just a slice out of a Dyson Sphere. Silverberg beat Niven to the punch there with his Across A Billion Years.

And finally, who is your favorite out of the Big Five (Verne, Wells, Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein)

"big five": Of the five, I'll take Asimov, but there ought to be about twenty-five names on that list, including all the ones I've already mentioned. No Heinlein?

?

Aliens-Buggers from the Ender series by Card
Military-Space: Above and Beyond by somebody at FOX
Backstory-Star Wars series by Lucas followed closely by Foundation series by Asimov
Future History-Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein
Robots-Robot series, Asimov
AI-AI by Speilberg.
Artificial Construct-Rama by Clarke (but only the first book)
Big Five: Heinlein, with Asimov as a close second

Aliens: Star Trek (all sorts of strange alien societies)

Military: Babylon 5 (tons of cool space battles with huge ships)

Future History: DUNE (10,000 years of future history)

Robots: I, Robot (duh)

AI: 2001 Space Odyssey (HAL sums it all up)

Terraforming and Planet Colonisation: Mars Series (Martian environmentalists vs Developers)

Most Warped Time Travel: Star Trek (every other episode is some sort of temporal phenomenon)

And finally, who is your favorite out of the Big Five (Verne, Wells, Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein): Clarke

Robots: I, Robot (duh)

The book, or the seemingly completely unrelated advertising campai--I mean, movie?

?

Hey, whaddaya know. Serves me right for posting so soon after getting back into town. Travel-lag is a bitch. Adulterated brownies don't help.

My bad. Apologies.

Yes! Another Pournelle fan!
Can you suggest some books by Pournelle? I read "The Mote in God's Eye" while running through books by Niven, and enjoyed it immensely, but I don't know any other books by Pournell. I could just look him up online, but I was wondering if you had any personal favorites to get me started :)

And finally, who is your favorite out of the Big Five (Verne, Wells, Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein)


VERNE

Can you suggest some books by Pournelle? I read "The Mote in God's Eye" while running through books by Niven, and enjoyed it immensely, but I don't know any other books by Pournell. I could just look him up online, but I was wondering if you had any personal favorites to get me started :)

If you like military SF, try Falkenberg's Legion. It's a bit dated now, but the author's experience in the armed forces shows.

http://www.jerrypournelle.com/ is one place to go - but be warned that, IMHO, he's probabaly bloged something to piss you off.

Footfall, Lucifer's Hammer, and Fallen Angels, all co-written with Niven, are fun mind-candy reads. The first two made it to the #1　and #2 spots respectively on the NYT bestsellers list. The third is fun if you've had any experience with SF fandom - especially conventions. (The whole story is SF fans save the world - in fact that could be said for all three, to some degree. :))

Ringworld? Huh. Small potatoes. It's just a slice out of a Dyson Sphere. Silverberg beat Niven to the punch there with his Across A Billion Years.

Yeah, but thats's why it was so qualified w/one of and AFAIK. Sad to say, I haven't read a whole lot of Bob's stuff - mostly the Valentine books.

Yeah, but thats's why it was so qualified w/one of and AFAIK. Sad to say, I haven't read a whole lot of Bob's stuff - mostly the Valentine books.

Silverblob is definitely worth further investigation: he produced a lot of somewhat hackwork (but still very satisfying and rounded work) from the mid-60s to the late-70s, within which there lurk some real gems: Dying Inside, Downward To The Earth, Nightwings, Thorns, The Man In The Maze, for example. Even his less successful works from this period are just a touch dull, rather than fundamentally flawed. I had hoped that the publication of Thebes Of The Hundred Gates marked a return to form, and great though it was, he immediately returned to producing 400+ page novels. My rule of thumb for Silverberg: if the page count lurks somewhere between 160-220 pages, then the chance are that it is going to be one of his better works. But, hey, I just seem to like short novels that can be read in an evening.*




* post composed after a couple of pints and a couple of whiskeys. Apologies for strange constructions, anacoluthons and similar grammatical crimes.