NationStates Jolt Archive

It's all in the question. What's the best tech for Sci-fi?:

Past Tech: Using olde technology. Can't think of any examples.

Modern Tech: Using technology we possess or could make if given the blueprints. This excludea Alien tech or time travelers. Think movies like Sphere or Contact.

Post-Modern Tech: Basically. movies set in 40 years time which contains our technology which has been improved upon and could very well be possible. Think Event Horizon or similar.

Future Tech: Technology we cannot begin to weild today. Basically Star Trek movies.

I was pondering this question whilst watching a sci-fi yesterday, and a case of terminal boredom led to this tread.

It's all in the question. What's the best tech for Sci-fi?:

Past Tech: Using olde technology. Can't think of any examples.Are you referring to Post Apocolyptic movies like Mad Max, WaterWorld, Planet of the Apes?

Modern Tech: Using technology we possess or could make if given the blueprints. This excludea Alien tech or time travelers. Think movies like Sphere or Contact.actually Sphere is a future-tech (possibly alien) sent back in time.

Post-Modern Tech: Basically. movies set in 40 years time which contains our technology which has been improved upon and could very well be possible. Think Event Horizon or similar.that would include most Sci-fi. unless you're including television series like the Stargate series.

Future Tech: Technology we cannot begin to weild today. Basically Star Trek movies.

I was pondering this question whilst watching a sci-fi yesterday, and a case of terminal boredom led to this tread.

I voted for Future tech for Sci-fi is about possiblities and potential. to reach for goals that for now, seem impossible.

Future Tech. Why? Because it’s Star Wars! :D

Star Trek, since it has the most advanced technology for a TV show to date, and since Borg drones are so neat-looking.

Future tech. It was inevitably going to be whichever Space: Above and Beyond, Babylon 5, and Firefly fall into.

I'm more interested in specific technologies though. Nanotechnology is always fun, laser and plasma weapons rock, and you just can't beat FTL spaceflight.

I'm toying with the idea of a TV show based around a military unit which uses mecha. There's a real shortage of them. Think something between SAaB and Heavy Gear.

EDIT: I presume 'past tech' refers to either things such as Space 1889 (Victorian era scifi PnP RPG), or you are referring to sci-fi written way back when, such as Jules Verne or H.G. Wells?

Are you referring to Post Apocolyptic movies like Mad Max, WaterWorld, Planet of the Apes?

I suppose you can include that if you want, although I was originally thinking of movies set in olde times.

[/QUOTE]that would include most Sci-fi. unless you're including television series like the Stargate series.[/QUOTE]

Probably would, I agree. It's at your discretion whether or not you include T.V.

I voted for Future tech for Sci-fi is about possiblities and potential. to reach for goals that for now, seem impossible.

Good point. I went for P-MT as I like the idea that it "really could happen".

Freaky gothic tech you have to pray to in order to get it to work.

No, not Windows 95.

I'm toying with the idea of a TV show based around a military unit which uses mecha. There's a real shortage of them. Think something between SAaB and Heavy Gear.

EDIT: I presume 'past tech' refers to either things such as Space 1889 (Victorian era scifi PnP RPG), or you are referring to sci-fi written way back when, such as Jules Verne or H.G. Wells?

I would comment if I knew what you were refering to when you say "SAaB".

Answer to edit: Both. If it primarily involves humans with more primative technology than today, it counts IMO.

I'm going for spec tech (short for speculative technology; see post-modern), as it is most capable of addressing upcoming issues, and leaves the truly human element largely untouched.

Strap tech (short for extrapolative technology; see future tech) is too close to fantasy 99 times out of 100, and descends into a mess of archetypes really quickly.

Strap tech (short for extrapolative technology; see future tech) is too close to fantasy 99 times out of 100, and descends into a mess of archetypes really quickly.
That’s probably why I like it. :D

No tech is necessary for making good Sci-fi. What is required for making good Sci-fi are good storylines, characters, and a non-stop supply of good coffee.

Oh, and imagination.

The only "tech" you should need is a functioning computer, a working typewriter, or failing either of those, a pad of paper and a pencil.

Freaky gothic tech you have to pray to in order to get it to work.

No, not Windows 95.

Mac?

No tech is necessary for making good Sci-fi. What is required for making good Sci-fi are good storylines, characters, and a non-stop supply of good coffee.

Oh, and imagination.

The only "tech" you should need is a functioning computer, a working typewriter, or failing either of those, a pad of paper and a pencil.
You would bring writing into a thread about sci-fi.

I'm toying with the idea of a TV show based around a military unit which uses mecha. There's a real shortage of them. Think something between SAaB and Heavy Gear.

Please, don't tell me you've never heard of all those Gundam series and Neon Genesis Evangelion (Not to mention the dozens of other series that center on mecha). There is hardly a shortage.

No tech is necessary for making good Sci-fi. What is required for making good Sci-fi are good storylines, characters, and a non-stop supply of good coffee.

Oh, and imagination.

The only "tech" you should need is a functioning computer, a working typewriter, or failing either of those, a pad of paper and a pencil.hmmm sorry, can't think of any good sci-fi that has no tech.

can you provide examples?

Please, don't tell me you've never heard of all those Gundam series and Neon Genesis Evangelion (Not to mention the dozens of other series that center on mecha). There is hardly a shortage.BTW... did you see the Live Action Gundam Movie? It was called G-Savior.

You would bring writing into a thread about sci-fi.

Writing is the heart and soul of Science Fiction.

Television and movies are, more often than not, FX sequences strung together by pedantic melodrama lightly seasoned with ideas copped from Science Fiction authors. Add celebrities to taste, pepper with "memorable" (cough) one-liners, and hey presto!

More worthless product designed to fritter away time and sell product(s).

Ho hum.

I'll take the original, written format anyday. There's a helluva lot more that can be done with the written word than'll ever be done in a visual medium.

Writing is the heart and soul of Science Fiction.

Television and movies are, more often than not, FX sequences strung together by pedantic melodrama lightly seasoned with ideas copped from Science Fiction authors. Add celebrities to taste, pepper with "memorable" (cough) one-liners, and hey presto!

More worthless product designed to fritter away time and sell product(s).

Ho hum.

I'll take the original, written format anyday. There's a helluva lot more that can be done with the written word than'll ever be done in a visual medium.oh... you're talking books... but even sci-fi books have tech. and thus the poll still applies to them as well.

BTW... did you see the Live Action Gundam Movie? It was called G-Savior.

No, but I heard it sucked.

hmmm sorry, can't think of any good sci-fi that has no tech.

can you provide examples?

How much tech do you consider Ender's Game to have, seeing as only the Ansible is currently impossible.

oh... you're talking books... but even sci-fi books have tech. and thus the poll still applies to them as well.
Not necessarily so - see below. Of course, there are many other examples, but I didn't want to have to comb through my entire library.
hmmm sorry, can't think of any good sci-fi that has no tech.

can you provide examples?

Okay, let's give it a whirl:

Written science fiction:

Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham
The Drowned World - J.G. Ballard
Hello America - J.G. Ballard
Lest Darkness Fall - A.E. Van Vogt
The Region Between - Harlan Ellison
A Boy And His Dog - Harlan Ellison
A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller, Jr
The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Slaughter-house Five - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Animal Farm - George Orwell
The Cool War - Frederick Pohl
The Synthetic Man - Theodore Sturgeon

I would further recommend the collected short fiction of Philip K. Dick, select short fiction by Alfred Bester, Robert Silverberg, Spider Robinson, and Rod Serling.

Television and/or Film science fiction:

Village of the Damned
Man Facing Southwest
The Puppet Masters
The Thing/The Thing From Another World
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
On The Beach
Time Bandits
The Butterfly Effect
Jaws
Soylent Green
Capricorn One
The Man Who Fell To Earth
A Clockwork Orange
Selected episodes of the original 'Outer Limits' television series
Selected episodes of the original 'Twilight Zone' television series

More or less. Some might take exception to the inclusion of Jaws, some might say that tech is implied in The Man Who Fell To Earth, or resent the inclusion of Time Bandits or Capricorn One (for various reasons), but I'm fairly happy with what I've come up with.

All I'm saying is you don't need laser cannons, imperiled princesses, or FTL ships to make Science Fiction. You need an imagination. Panaflex cameras are optional. And their inclusion usually means having to insert a car chase or two into your vision.

-snip-

Animal Farm?!? Sci-fi?!?

Animal Farm?!? Sci-fi?!?

Sure. Sci-fi. You don't think a farm, eventually run by bipedal, talking, clothed pigs after a bloody revolution to be Sci-fi themed?

I sure as Hell do.

Sure. Sci-fi. You don't think a farm, eventually run by bipedal, talking, clothed pigs after a bloody revolution to be Sci-fi themed?

I sure as Hell do.

So Thomas the Tank Engine is Sci-fi? Or every childrens' book, for that matter?

So Thomas the Tank Engine is Sci-fi? Or every childrens' book, for that matter?

'Animal farm' is not specifically written for children. The question asked of me was to list non-tech oriented works of science fiction (not specifically literary works, as was my original intent in posting my list). Thomas the Tank Engine wouldn't qualify in this instance, as tech is involved.

There have been marvellous books with Science Fiction themes aimed at a jeuvenile audience, as well as at children. If I'd thought of any specific jeuvie titles that met the 'non-tech' qualification, I might very well have included them as well.

So, we disagree on 'Animal farm'. No problem. I'm picking up a decidely snide tone from you though, Noble Men, and really, none is required in this instance. I never decided to start contributing to your thread for any purpose other than to add to the discussion. If you'd prefer to narrow the scope of the conversation so as to exclude non-tech Science Fiction or even to exclude written Science Fiction or Science Fiction authors, I suppose that is your prerogative as the original thread-starter, but it strikes me as being most unfortunate.

I'll respect your wishes.

'Animal farm' is not specifically written for children. The question asked of me was to list non-tech oriented works of science fiction (not specifically literary works, as was my original intent in posting my list). Thomas the Tank Engine wouldn't qualify in this instance, as tech is involved.

There have been marvellous books with Science Fiction themes aimed at a jeuvenile audience, as well as at children. If I'd thought of any specific jeuvie titles that met the 'non-tech' qualification, I might very well have included them as well.

So, we disagree on 'Animal farm'. No problem. I'm picking up a decidely snide tone from you though, Noble Men, and really, none is required in this instance. I never decided to start contributing to your thread for any purpose other than to add to the discussion. If you'd prefer to narrow the scope of the conversation so as to exclude non-tech Science Fiction or even to exclude written Science Fiction or Science Fiction authors, I suppose that is your prerogative as the original thread-starter, but it strikes me as being most unfortunate.

I'll respect your wishes.

First off, I thought Animal Farm was aimed at children. My bad.

And my tone was not supposed to be snide. Surprised maybe, but not snide. Not intentionally at any rate. Tone is so hard to convey on the Internet...

And if you wish to discuss non-tech or written sci-fi go ahead. I can't really stop you, and I wouldn't if I could.

Derailing this thread was never my intent. If you'd all prefer to discuss Gundams, it's no skin off my nose. So, okay, tech. Hmm. Has anyone here seen the film, 'Quatermass And The Pit', also known as, '5 Million Years To Earth'?

Interesting idea: Mars was once the home to a thriving race of insectoids, possessing a 'hive-mind' and capable of using a certain subconscious unity of will to weed out imperfections within their rigidly stratified society.

In the dim past, Martians captured and domesticated proto-humans from Earth to act as slave labour in establishing an eventual Martian colony on Earth. To that end, the Martians descended to Earth, domesticated proto-humans in tow, via a spacecraft. Due to some forgotten mishap, some of the proto-humans slipped free of the Martian's direct control, and interbred with their Terrestrial counterparts, leaving their masters (and their ship) abandoned in what would, millions of years later, be settled and developed as London, England.

Forward to the present (early 1960s):

In the midst of excavating along the London Tube system, the deformed skulls of the mutated proto-human skulls are discovered, and soon after, the Martian spacecraft. The military responds to the discovery as though the ship is in fact an unexploded German weapon dating back to the London Blitz.

The immediate area the ship is found in is known as 'Hobbs Lane'. It is found through research to have been known originally as 'Hob's Lane', and that the place has long been known, but seldom acknowledged, by local-area residents as being 'haunted' in some way - a sense of debilitating, all-pervading fear seems to infect even those possessing the strongest constitutions, with other claims of devillish apparitions also mentioned in historical texts pertaining to the area.

Quatermass conjectures that the long-buried ship is not simply a conveyance, but also a means of focusing and tramsitting thoughts, and Martian race-memories, using whatever available energy exists as a power source. With an inadvertant supply of electricity to draw from, the ship proceeds to manipulate those humans still possessing recessive traits shared by their mutant proto-human forebears to behave in the fashion of their long-dead Martian overlords. Unknowing Londoners are called upon by the ship to once again 'purify the strain' and use massed, subconscious collective mental force to psychokinetically murder those who do not possess the shared 'Martian' genes.

There's a few other bits of fun thrown in for good measure (and they're tech, too!), but I wondered how the Martian technology would fit into the thread poll. Would the Martian tech be considered "Past tech"?

Past Tech: Alchemy as in Full-Metal Alchemist or Hudson Hawk, the nucleation of a new ultra high pressure phase of water such as in Steamboy, Ator: The Fighting Eagle and his neolithic hangglider.

First off, I thought Animal Farm was aimed at children. My bad.
And here I though it was allegory about the Soviet Union.

And here I though it was allegory about the Soviet Union.

It's that, too.

So how about the Martian tech? Past tech, or- ?

hmmm sorry, can't think of any good sci-fi that has no tech.

can you provide examples?


Okay, let's give it a whirl:<snip>
Erm, what was that one. A book about cavemen, no tech more advanced than a bow. Possibly by one of the biggies. Eh, I dunno. That was definitely SF. I would define SF as a genre that explores new ways of looking at the world, and exploring the impacts of this new way on a large group of people.

About the poll, I prefer post-modern, as FT tends to degenerate into Fantasy. I'm more interested in where we go from here, than what life will be like in ten zillion years time. BTW my favourite SF author is Kim Stanley Robinson, for the record.

It's that, too.

So how about the Martian tech? Past tech, or- ?
I wouldn't have said so, the film was probably MT, as it was set in our time etc. etc. As for the martians, probably FT, though it's bordering on fantasy.

Its not technology that makes a good sci-fi in my opinion. I liked books such as the giver with a certain kind of sicioty, in the case of the giver, a utopia. I also like time-travel books.

Modern Tech: Using technology we possess or could make if given the blueprints. This excludea Alien tech or time travelers. Think movies like Sphere ...
...have you even seen that movie?

My opinion...the best tech for sci-fi movies is fictional tech... It puts the "fi" in "sci-fi" after all..

hmmm sorry, can't think of any good sci-fi that has no tech.

can you provide examples?

Olaf Stapledon - Nebula Maker and Star Maker - two novels detailing the evolution of conscious planetary/stellar/larger bodies in the solar system. Although the bodies are capable of doing things they never develop any technology or technical systems, but just act as if they were really big animals.

How much tech do you consider Ender's Game to have, seeing as only the Ansible is currently impossible.

Sidenote: 'ansible' is an anagram of 'lesbian', it remains unclear whether this was intentional on Ursula K. Le Guin's part.

Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham
The Drowned World - J.G. Ballard
Hello America - J.G. Ballard
...
A Boy And His Dog - Harlan Ellison
A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller, Jr
The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Slaughter-house Five - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Animal Farm - George Orwell


Nipping through the ones of those that I remember having read...

Wyndham: set in C20th England, and technology doesn't disappear, in fact a primitive technology is utilised in defending the new homesteads.

Ballard: the focus isn't directly technological in either, but both are certainly stories which act against a backdrop of technology (in essence are two stories of reactions against technology). The protagonist of The Drowned World wraps himselves in the trappings of technology only to later reject them, and in Hello America I would take some convincing that Love and Hate aren't technology.

Ellison: again despite the central characters rejection of technology, he still encounters a technological society in the underground suburb, and this is a necessary part of the novel as we see his reaction against that technology.

Miller: Dude, it has a lightbulb, several nuclear holocausts and an interstellar space program in it. By what definition are these not technology?

Vonnegut: has spaceships in it, which pretty clearly marks it out as technological, even if the focus is very much elsewhere with Vonnegut's standard slightly schmaltzy emotional narrative.

Orwell: probably the closest to a novel lacking technology here, but we see that the animals by adopting the ways of man and their vestments such as clothes and tools are buying into a technology.

Bah! I'm torn between Past Tech (mainly because I *love* Steampunk) and Future Tech (because ANYTHING goes.)

Now, first thing, I am not disagreeing with you about writing. Good writing is necessary.

now your list and the choices with the poll. Unfortunatly, I can only comment on the one's I have read/seen.


Written science fiction:

Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham (modern tech.)
The Drowned World - J.G. Ballard
Hello America - J.G. Ballard
Lest Darkness Fall - A.E. Van Vogt
The Region Between - Harlan Ellison
A Boy And His Dog - Harlan Ellison (Old tech if using post-apocolyptc definition.)
A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller, Jr
The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Slaughter-house Five - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.(Modern tech)
Animal Farm - George Orwell (Modern Tech/Post-Modern Tech tho I think this is more fantasy)
The Cool War - Frederick Pohl
The Synthetic Man - Theodore Sturgeon

I would further recommend the collected short fiction of Philip K. Dick, select short fiction by Alfred Bester, Robert Silverberg, Spider Robinson, and Rod Serling. (bolded I have read and would fall in various catagories... including Fantasy.)

Television and/or Film science fiction:

Village of the Damned
Man Facing Southwest
The Puppet Masters (Modern Tech = Starring Donald Sutherland. Past Tech if you're talking about the living puppets)
The Thing/The Thing From Another World (Modern Tech)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Modern Tech)
On The Beach
Time Bandits (Future Tech)
The Butterfly Effect (Post-Modern Tech)
Jaws (Modern Tech) - [Tho this can be considered Horror, not Sci Fi]
Soylent Green (Post-Modern Tech)
Capricorn One (Modern Tech)
The Man Who Fell To Earth (Modern Tech from what I've heard about it.)
A Clockwork Orange (Post-Modern Tech)
Selected episodes of the original 'Outer Limits' television series (Various but mostly Modern Tech)
Selected episodes of the original 'Twilight Zone' television series (Various but mostly Modern Tech)

More or less. Some might take exception to the inclusion of Jaws, some might say that tech is implied in The Man Who Fell To Earth, or resent the inclusion of Time Bandits or Capricorn One (for various reasons), but I'm fairly happy with what I've come up with.

All I'm saying is you don't need laser cannons, imperiled princesses, or FTL ships to make Science Fiction. You need an imagination. Panaflex cameras are optional. And their inclusion usually means having to insert a car chase or two into your vision.
Oh I agree with your last paragraph... "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" is a great example of poor writing but lots of special effects. (and a lesson for everyone else... Series Pilots don't make good movies without some touching up.)

But the question was on What [level of] tech makes the best sci-fi.

Sidenote: 'ansible' is an anagram of 'lesbian', it remains unclear whether this was intentional on Ursula K. Le Guin's part.


Probably not, unless Orson Scott Card is a pseudonym or something.

{snip}

There's a few other bits of fun thrown in for good measure (and they're tech, too!), but I wondered how the Martian technology would fit into the thread poll. Would the Martian tech be considered "Past tech"?Under his definition of "Past Tech" don't see why not...

what would that make Mission to Mars... Post modern or past tech?

I voted Future-tech, but now I remember that I was voting for Star Wars and Babylon 5, which are actually more fantasy.

So, if we're talking pure/hard scifi: Probably Heinlein and Card, as they're the most I've read, sad to say. So, still future tech, just no lightsabers or Rangers.

Just out of curiosity, what is steampunk? I'd just heard the term recently. Is that like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? Basically, primitive technology applied for advanced results? (A steam-powered Star Destroyer?)

Just out of curiosity, what is steampunk? I'd just heard the term recently. Is that like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? Basically, primitive technology applied for advanced results? (A steam-powered Star Destroyer?)

That is pretty much right; League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Van Helsing, and even Wild Wild West are examples of Steampunk. If you want to get a general idea of what it is (and more examples) check out the Wikipedia entry for it. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk)

There is no "best" tech level. I'm going to have to agree with Coppertamia and Dobbsworld in saying the writing is much more important than the tech level. Well written SF sometimes does "star" the tech, but it can just as easily push the tech into the background or leave it vauge.


Just out of curiosity, what is steampunk? I'd just heard the term recently. Is that like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? Basically, primitive technology applied for advanced results? (A steam-powered Star Destroyer?)

Steampunk is alternate history SF set in a historical period, most often the Victorian age. It has strong influances from the scientific romance genre (of the Victorian age) and (often) cyberpunk.

While there are some proto-steampunk books, like Morlock Night, The Difference Engine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Difference_Engine), in which Babbage's analytical engine sets off the information age a century early.
There's also this: http://www.steampunk.com/


As for other examples of past tech, there are lots of other examples from alternate history. One of my favorite examples is The Two Georges, set in an alternate US where the UK kept it's North American colonies, and the pace of technological change was significantly slowed down.

Derailing this thread was never my intent. If you'd all prefer to discuss Gundams, it's no skin off my nose. So, okay, tech. Hmm. Has anyone here seen the film, 'Quatermass And The Pit', also known as, '5 Million Years To Earth'?

Yup: but personally I prefer the original BBC 6 part series that pre-dates the movie version. Yeah, it is utterly skint (cue people looking out the window describing the riots enveloping contemporaray london) and has some pretty cod pseudo-technological devices (yes, I'm looking at you, 'brain pattern visualiser' or whatever you are called), but still works better as a piece of TV drama, if only because watching it now the years intervening since it was made have made it seem more like a historical document than a piece of speculative fiction.

'pologies for the crap typing, couple of drinks and a half bottle of spirits does that to a man...

While there are some proto-steampunk books, like Morlock Night, url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Difference_Engine]The Difference Engine[/url], in which Babbage's analytical engine sets off the information age a century early.

[rant_on]Good to see that someone else here has enjoyed Morlock Night. Personally I found the much lauded The Difference Engine to be a steaming pile of crap, but then I always found Gibson to be a case of style over substance (his short story in Mirror Shades being the pretty much solitary exception 'The Gernsback Continuum', IIRC, while Sterling always seemed to be the chap with the real gift (frex Involution Ocean... but then I was always somewhat predisposed to loving sf novels that clocked in at under 200 pages or thereabouts), even if he has spectacularly failed to deliver on it time and time again.

No discussion of Steampunk is really complete without at least a nodding acknowledgement of Moorcock's Oswald Bastable series, a set of alternate universe novels which are basically extended riffs on HG Wells short stories or novels - The Land Leviathans, The War In The Air, and one the name of which temporarily eludes me. For all his overly hackwork tendencies Moorcock certainly appears here as an oft-overlooked visionary voice, and with the connections between these pseudo-Edwardian/Victorian novels and his Jerry Cornelius series he came close to pre-empting the whole crossover movement betwixt cyberpunk and steampunk.

[/rant_off]

Probably not, unless Orson Scott Card is a pseudonym or something.

Pah. You do know what novel the term 'ansible' first appeared in? If not then there is a gap in your sf reading - Rocannon's World, published 1966*, written by Ursula K. LeGuin. Should I take this opportunity to take advantage of the extremely dubious Mormon religious 'texts' and OSC's reverence of them and reference to them in his novels to make some allusion to him once again drawing on blatant fictional creations in his own work....


* cf. OSC's use of the term in his 1985 (yup, 19 years later) novel Ender's Game... I don't seem to recall any mention of ansibles in his earlier short story/novella that he based the novel upon, but anyhow, that was only published in the early 80's IIRC. My case, if indeed I have one, is rested.

As for other examples of past tech, there are lots of other examples from alternate history. One of my favorite examples is The Two Georges, set in an alternate US where the UK kept it's North American colonies, and the pace of technological change was significantly slowed down.

One of my favourite alternate US-history novels is the sadly oft-ignored A transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! by Harry Harrison, in which the British empire never relinquished control over the colonies in the new world. A fairly unresonant work, but one which definitely satisfies, even if it does fall prey to the Tuckerisms of including other sf writers as walk-on characters (ACC, 'frex).

Harrison remains something of a mystery to me, for every ten or twenty of the hack-work potboilers that he produces he then knocks out an almost perfect sf novel, but then slumps back into production of material which seems to be motivated only by a desire to keep paying the bills.

One thing to add, I like Battlestar: Galactica, the new rendition series. Olmos plays well, as well as the doctor. It just seems realistic in an unrealistic way, very humanly. Anyways, I like the technology on that show, it isn't confusing or "way out there", it just seems perfect for an exiled-fleet setting.

I voted for post-modern, if for no other reason than the example given (Event Horizon) is one of my favorite movies ever. :p

[rant_on]Good to see that someone else here has enjoyed Morlock Night. Personally I found the much lauded The Difference Engine to be a steaming pile of crap, but then I always found Gibson to be a case of style over substance (his short story in Mirror Shades being the pretty much solitary exception 'The Gernsback Continuum', IIRC, while Sterling always seemed to be the chap with the real gift (frex Involution Ocean... but then I was always somewhat predisposed to loving sf novels that clocked in at under 200 pages or thereabouts), even if he has spectacularly failed to deliver on it time and time again.

I oh so agree on Gibson vs Sterling.

No discussion of Steampunk is really complete without at least a nodding acknowledgement of Moorcock's Oswald Bastable series, a set of alternate universe novels which are basically extended riffs on HG Wells short stories or novels - The Land Leviathans, The War In The Air, and one the name of which temporarily eludes me. For all his overly hackwork tendencies Moorcock certainly appears here as an oft-overlooked visionary voice, and with the connections between these pseudo-Edwardian/Victorian novels and his Jerry Cornelius series he came close to pre-empting the whole crossover movement betwixt cyberpunk and steampunk.

[/rant_off]

Some more to add to the list of books that need reading. :D

<snip>
The Synthetic Man - Theodore Sturgeon

I would further recommend the collected short fiction of Philip K. Dick, select short fiction by Alfred Bester, Robert Silverberg, Spider Robinson, and Rod Serling.

</snip>


Dobbs, have ever told you I love you?

Though imo, More Than Human is Sturgeon's best (though tbh I don't recall reading The Synthetic Man :S)

Also, I would recommend anything by Alfred Bester and Philip K Dick. Especially the amazing Tiger! Tiger!

Though staying on topic. I'll have to join the corus of "It doesn't matter," though I tend to stay away from hyper advanced tech since it is largely filled with with stuff such as Star Wars/Trek and intergalactic vessels, give me Dick's paranoid schizophrenic who's reality is crashing down around him anyday.

What about alien Bio tech? Starships that are in fact massive lifeforms and Living computers made form organic tissue are a couple examples of this technology class which I feel has a great deal of potential for cool sci fi.

Especially the amazing Tiger! Tiger!

Possibly the only 1950s sf novel which has a rapist as its central protagonist...