# Science fiction



## savarin (Dec 19, 2017)

There have been quite a few references to various science authors and themes amongst the many messages so I just wondered how many of us still read the stuff and who your favourite authors are.
I learnt to read around the age of 4 with science fiction and have kept the addiction going my whole life. 
In my early teens it was Robert Heinlein, Issac Asimov, Arther C Clarke, Brian Aldiss, Poul Anderson and Clifford Simak, late teens it was frank Herbert, Hal Clement, E C Tubb and of course Phillip K Dick with subscriptions to Galaxy, Analogue and If (I still have my collection of these pulps)
There have been so many throughout all the following years that its impossible to recall them all but I'm still avidly devouring them as I come upon them obtaining that sense of wonder and thought provoking ideas.
Such as Neil Asher, Peter Hamilton, and on and on and on.
Yes, I am addicted and have been all my life.


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## kvt (Dec 19, 2017)

I also read Sci fi I am in to the dragons and such at this time.   Have been reading more and more on a tablet and purchase less paper or I would have no place to put them.   I have done reading and due to jobs Ive had I did more technical reading at times than I like.   But have now gravitated back to the SCI FI again.


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## MikeWi (Dec 19, 2017)

Savarin, My history is pretty much identical to yours. I've been collecting books since I was a kid.  For space reasons (no pun intended) they've always been paper backs so some of them can barely be opened without them breaking now.  I'm a little saddened that Hard Sci Fi is so hard to come by, but it's been getting better in recent years. Fantasy nearly took over everything. I should admit I read that too though.


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## savarin (Dec 19, 2017)

I cant stick Game of thrones, even more so the tv series but he wrote a book I really enjoyed many years ago called Tuff Voyaging.


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## whitmore (Dec 19, 2017)

[QUOTE="savarin, post: 538032, member: 17861" I really enjoyed many years ago called [Tuf] Voyaging.[/QUOTE]

Other good writing on the ecoscience frontier is Janet Kagan's* Mirabile.*
Consider Larry Niven, Charles Stross, John Barnes, and Ken MacLeod, too;
thought-provoking is the watchword.

...but sometimes I just reread E. E. "Doc" Smith


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## PHPaul (Dec 20, 2017)

I've subscribed to Analog magazine continuously since I was introduced to it in the early 70's.

Pretty much all the big names in straight SciFi, and a couple in the Dragons/Fantasy genre.  I've got a fairly complete collection of Heinlein and Spider Robinson in paperback.


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## PHPaul (Dec 20, 2017)

whitmore said:


> ...but sometimes I just reread E. E. "Doc" Smith



Doc Smith's Lensman series is what turned me on to SciFi originally.  I would read each installment in a marathon sitting, couldn't get enough of it.

I tried re-reading it a while back but I guess my tastes have changed, couldn't get back into it.


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## MozamPete (Dec 20, 2017)

I have recently subscribed to Audible and started listening to science fiction on the drive to works - I have a 70 mile round trip to and from work on my own each day so it help to pass the time.  They seem to have a good selection of science fiction - classics and new stuff.

Although at present I just couldn't help re-listening to the original 1970's BBC radio version of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, so not very hard core science fiction.


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## Grumpy Gator (Dec 20, 2017)

_ I started with Jules Vern, H.G.Wells, and Lovecraft. To this day when I know I'm going to be in a waiting room somewhere I always bring a book with me.
My parents and grandparents read to me as I child. Peter Pan, Oz, and J.R.R. Tolkien. On the radio, on Saturday nights there was the GE Mystery Theater, reruns of the Shadow and Flash Gorden and Buck Rodgers.
Books top movies in my opinion.You exercise your mind when you read. Watching a movie leaves no room for your imagination. 
**G**  _


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## kvt (Dec 20, 2017)

Due to constant moving in the AF I got rid of most of my books with each move.   Then got into reading on tablet,   but like Grumpygator I always take a some reading with them to the DOC, etc.   I also get to work early so read before work,   and prior to going to bed most nights.  
Gave my original Tolkien set to my daughter a few years ago as she got into reading them.   Now she even reads all my electronic books as I finish them.


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## PHPaul (Dec 20, 2017)

I was a bit runty/sickly as a kid, took up books as soon as I could read.  Black Beauty, Treasure Island, Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, whatever I could get my hands on.

I think the Kindle is a godsend.  I take mine to ANY appointment, it's like carrying a whole library with you.


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## chips&more (Dec 20, 2017)

Your big telescope project makes more sense now. Looking for ET are you?


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## gzoerner (Dec 20, 2017)

The "Three-Body Problem" trilogy by Cixin Liu is highly recommended.  Volume 2 is: "The Dark Forest" and Volume 3 is "Death's End."  I found these to be at least as good as the very best of Heinlein or Asimov.  The premise of the story is thought provoking with some interesting physics thrown in.


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## eugene13 (Dec 20, 2017)

savarin said:


> In my early teens it was Robert Heinlein, Issac Asimov, Arther C Clarke, Brian Aldiss, Poul Anderson and Clifford Simak, late teens it was frank Herbert, Hal Clement, E C Tubb and of course Phillip K Dick


My favorite was always Heinlein but I read the others as well, the only si-fi writer I don't like is L. Ron Hubbard. I tried to read his stuff but it never made any sense to me.


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## markba633csi (Dec 20, 2017)

We had "The Star Beast" by Heinlein in my grade school library.  I'm not well read, but I like Philip K. Dick, Asimov, Bester
Bradbury did a neat one about folks escaping into the past and special police tasked with bringing them back to the future. Forget the title.
Also liked "The Invaders" TV show.  And Outer Limits. Night Gallery. TZ. Trek. Hitchcock's "Monster Museum" book (still have it)
M


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## savarin (Dec 20, 2017)

Ahh, L Ron Hubbard, the hack writer who churned out nothing but garbage in all genres
Same story with different names and places, nothing actually happening in any of them.
I once wasted some of my life reading every one of the ten series battlefield earth in the hope that something would actually happen. I well remember saying to myself "C'mon, something must happen" It never did and I will never get that time back again. And lets not mention the movie of the same name.
Now the Doc was pure boys own adventure.
Anyone noticed how many of Philip K. Dick's stories have been made into movies?
As a kid I was hooked on the British radio serial "Journey into Space" with Jet Morgan, Lemmy and Doc. Ahhh, wonderful days. 
I am in total awe of those authors who have held my attention over the years and kept me entertained with fun, adventure and deep thoughts its just a pity I cant give everyone of them the accolades they deserve.
I wonder if being steeped into so much speculative fiction is what makes so many of us question how to do things and break away from the accepted norm or in other words "Think for ourselves"


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## eugene13 (Dec 21, 2017)

You have to have an open mind when you read si-fi and that leads to" thinking for yourself".  The cool thing is that some of the space travel stuff has came true.  I just finished reading "Endurance" by Scott Kelly, he spent a year on the International Space Station


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## wawoodman (Dec 21, 2017)

I’ve been reading it since the middle 50s, and I’ve read the same authors as the rest of you. Asimov, Zelazny, and just about everybody in between. I’ve gone through hard sf, military, fantasy, alternate history, humor, political... the list goes on forever. About the only thing I don’t like is the urban fantasy/vampire stuff. But every now and then, something there catches my eye, and I read it, anyway.

My library has gone over 3000 volumes, and so I’m using a Kindle Paperwhite these days.


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## C-Bag (Jan 28, 2018)

savarin said:


> There have been quite a few references to various science authors and themes amongst the many messages so I just wondered how many of us still read the stuff and who your favourite authors are.
> I learnt to read around the age of 4 with science fiction and have kept the addiction going my whole life.
> In my early teens it was Robert Heinlein, Issac Asimov, Arther C Clarke, Brian Aldiss, Poul Anderson and Clifford Simak, late teens it was frank Herbert, Hal Clement, E C Tubb and of course Phillip K Dick with subscriptions to Galaxy, Analogue and If (I still have my collection of these pulps)
> There have been so many throughout all the following years that its impossible to recall them all but I'm still avidly devouring them as I come upon them obtaining that sense of wonder and thought provoking ideas.
> ...



I grew up on Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke. It was the science and the creative directions they took it in that absolutely hooked me. Wasn't into fantasy until Tolkien and still am not grabbed by it. Always loved PKD but am so amazed that so many of his books have been made into movies. I read everything I could find of his. It's sad nobody could be brave enough to make his books into faithful movies but for the most part they were pretty close. That led me to William Gibson and to me he was the continuation deeper into PKD's dark paranoid future where there was three stories/characters going on effecting each other's universe without them knowing it. And lots of hard science that was ahead of its time. The few try's of making Gibson books into movies have been dismal at best. The last book to movie conversion was The Martian. Damon did a great job, he was the character but they just butchered the whole story   The book was so good, (great science, adventure and attitude)and if I'd not read it I would have enjoyed the movie ok. I really have no idea why they changed and chopped off so much. 

Of course there have been many other great authors in there like Brin, Zelazny, etc.

Because I do my own manufacturing and supply I am busy all day on my own. I no longer seem to have the time to sit down and read. I'm also so beat if I try and read I nod. Most of what I'm doing is not challenging mentally so I've converted over to audio books exclusively and listen to them while I work, walk the dog and run errands. I've also gotten into some great WWII biographys. The stories are so fantastic, they read like sci-fy


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## PHPaul (Jan 28, 2018)

I have subscribed to Analog magazine continuously since a friend introduced me to it in the early 70's.  Over the years there have always been a few where "I just read that entire story and I have NO idea what it was about" but in general I enjoy every issue cover-to-cover.

My guilty pleasure is a good old fashioned Space Opera.  Christopher Nuttall and Micheal Z. Williamson do good ones.


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## Joncooey (Feb 7, 2018)

I'm with Grumpygator; H.G.Wells.  He was a heck of a smart guy.  War of the Worlds was written in 1896, I think.  Really advanced ideology and he has lots of titles.  I liked 'The day of the Comet'.


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## 34_40 (Feb 7, 2018)

Any fans of Terry Brooks?


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## savarin (Feb 7, 2018)

[QUOTE="C-Bag, post: 550823, member: 45394" I really have no idea why they changed and chopped off so much.[/QUOTE]

Since when has Hollywood ever been accused of following the original story faithfully?
(it must have happened but must have been a movie I never watched)


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## Whyemier (Feb 18, 2018)

I grew up on Science fiction and Westerns.  Mostly got started when I was about 11 yr old.  My mother went to the hospital for a few days to give birth to my younger sister.  She didn't have anyone to watch us so left us all in the care of my older brother who was 13.  OH joy!  Any way she bought a slew of books and mags for us to read while she was gone doing the deed.  _(Actually this taught me to read more than school ever did.)_

Since then I have tried to write Sci-Fi but wasn't too successful.  The two books I wrote sold less than half a dozen copies _(to friends I guess, who knows?)_.  Guess I really didn't do the research to know what I was writing about. _(OR; My writing could have been written rotten.) _ Could have been worse, I might not have tried at all and always regretted it.


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## grzdomagala (Feb 18, 2018)

My first contact with SciFi was Verne "From the earth to the moon" (still remember that book after 35 years) then Wells and other "old" authors. More modern western scifi writers like Heinlein or Philip Dick were not available for me at this time - i grew up in Poland and local libraries did have very limited assortment. Luckily they had Lem and quite a collection of soviet authors like Strugacki brothers or Kir Bułyczow.
I recently read one of Cixin Liu books (i think it was "Deaths end") - i find the writing good and story interesting but couldn't stand main protagonist - she constantly made most catastrophic decisions possible for absolutly retarded reasons yet somehow survived


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## GA Gyro (Feb 18, 2018)

Yeah, many of us learned of science fiction when we were young, and enjoyed it.
I found myself picking up a new book, reading a chapter, and determining it was 'sci-fi'... rather than true science fiction.
In my mind, the difference was whether it challenged my thinking... or was cheesy...
The Jr college I went to, actually had a literature class in Science Fiction... albeit it was taught by a goofball... easy credit... 

Heinlein, Clarke, Assimov, etc... all good writers of the time!

Somehow, the fantasy stuff never appealed to me... and with a very few exceptions... the stuff on the big screen and TV is just warmed over sci-fi (the cable channel is appropriately named IMO).  
Now one exception to that was the BattleStar Galactica series a decade ago... while it did have too much drama for my taste (and as always on TV... an excessive amount of sexual scenes)... it was fun to watch and kept my attention.  Probably the sense of adventure.

Sadly, we as a society seem to have lost our sense of wonder and creativity... replacing it with arguing over politics... however that is a different forum!

I hope some creativity emerges in the future... as current writings and movies and TV are becoming BORING!

Geez... wonder if that is why we have shops full of cool tools and gadgets... grin!


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## Rick Leslie (Feb 18, 2018)

I too grew up reading sci-fi but I don't recall many of the authors. I do remember Verne, Wells, Azimov, Clakre and Bradbury. I tend to like the interstellar novels more than anything. Never was a fan of dragons and hobbits but to each his own. Never was a true Trekkie but still follow the franchise. 
It seems funny that yesterday's science fiction has become today's science fact.


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