The best sci fi ever is...............

[ascan1984]

Babylon 5. Nothing will ever beat that.

 

[contracommando]

I agree. The concept of the arc was, at that time, revolutionary (especially for modern American Syndication). Also, the show was original (so much so, that DS9 constantly ripped off their material), unique, well written, and imaginative. <br /><br />Advantages over Star Trek:<br /><br />1) No “alien of the week”: an alien character with only minor anatomical differences from the average human - nose ridges, for example.<br /><br />2) The good guys didn’t always win, or always solve the problem in the last 5 minutes of the episode.<br /><br />3) People are portrayed realistically, not in a superficial “morally evolved” context.<br /><br />4) The ships obeyed the laws of physics (mostly) and employ realistic technology-no Heisenberg compensators.<br /><br />5) Humanity was not the most advanced race, or the most powerful or the most “morally evolved.”<br /><br />6) The 20th century wasn’t always portrayed as corrupt and greedy.<br /><br />7) Only 3 time travel episodes (and 2 were part of the same thing- “to be continued”)…and they never went back in time to when the show was shooting-the 90s (Star Trek did this constantly).<br /><br />8) Originality.<br /><br />9) Rick Berman wasn’t involved. <br /><br />10) The Shadows ruled, the dominion was lame.<br />

 

[mariecurie]

That's funny, I was just saying somewhere else that I liked and miss B5.<br />I admired the character development of Molari especially; he was more human than the Humans if you know what I mean.<br />I liked what they did with Jakar too.<br /><br /><font color="black">It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value. Arthur C. Clarke<br /><br /></font>

 

[avaunt]

Yeah, what I saw of it was pretty bloody good. I especially liked how the tech, and officer ranks of people had multi-skills, were seen halfway through tasks, seemed fully rounded.<br /><br />Garibaldi could have been more ruthless, and bloody-minded, if you asked me for a change. <br /><br />If we set up something similar today, you would have your high-minded officers, and public face. If we had any sense, we would ALSO have almost feral people as response for what Iain M Banks euphemistically terms "Special Circumstances".<br /><br />No question, if we are talking televison programmes, B5 is the best we have, or sadly are likely ever to see.<br /><br />Books, there is no question. Iain M Banks' "Culture" novels.<br /><br />They would make TV that was too good to waste on NON-initiates. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />

 

[mariecurie]

<font color="yellow">Books, there is no question. Iain M Banks' "Culture" novels. <br /><font color="white">I have never heard of these. Why should I read them?<br /><br /><font color="black">I've decided life is too fragile to finish a book I dislike just because it cost $16.95 and everyone else loved it. <br />Or eat a fried egg with a broken yolk (which I hate) when the dog would leap over the St. Louis Arch for it. <br />…Erma Bombeck</font></font></font>

 

[nacnud]

Because they are very good stories about people.

 

[mariecurie]

(yawn)<br /><br /><font color="black">Why can't somebody give us a list of things that everybody thinks and nobody says, <br />and another list of things that everybody says and nobody thinks<br />…Oliver Wendell Holmes</font>

 

[avaunt]

"Why should I read them?". <br /><br />If only to smile with pleasure at the names he has the "Minds" of the "Culture" ships give themselves. <br /><br />These are large, ultimately potent flying WORLDS, some of them, with equal voting rights on "Culture" decisions with the other entities, plus of course, actual control of themselves, their resources, and their weapons. Only peer pressure keeps them obeying the "Rules" of the culture, and actually, some don't. <br /><br />MC, imagine someone really witty, smart and inventive, wrote stories about REAL people, in REAL situations, that just incidentally happen in a massively technologicaly advanced framework. <br /><br />ACCIDENTALLY they are sciencefiction, and ACTUALLY they are the lifesbreathandsoul of the genre. <br /><br />Quite literally they are the best sci fi writing you will ever encounter. And AMAZINGLY, it doesn't matter which you pick up first, though just for the pleasure it gives to see him reach further, and write closer to perfection, i suggest you read them in publishing order, but honestly, it doesn't matter. <br /><br />Seriously, you will enjoy them, they wll piece into your mental framework, and images will stay with you for good. <br /><br />Seriously, in a throw-a-way part of the novel "Excession" he comes closer to describing the centre of bravery, and patriotism, and duty, then I have ever seen done by anyone else, INCLUDING W.L.S.Churchill. <br /><br />And all through the books he examines what the best of us have been working towards in modern culture, with our equality, and our tolerance, and how it ought to be backed up with brute force and determination, if we DO believe our convictions to be good. <br /><br />(You should read them cause we TELL you too? ? ? ?, no, no, too simple, too direct ) <br />

 

[mariecurie]

That, at least, is a draw.<br />I will put them on the list and thank you.<br />I am currently finishing a re-read of Jack Chalkers "Well of Souls" series which I am enjoying immensely.<br /><br /><font color="black">Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today - but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all. <br />...Isaac Asimov</font>

 

[yevaud]

Nathan Brazil! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[mariecurie]

Exactly.<br />God in the guise of a Markovian in the guise of a Human in the guise of a decrepit old space pirate.<br /><br />Mavra Chang is probably my favorite SciFi heroine.

 

[yevaud]

Four Lords of the Diamond -- Jack Chalker <br /><br />(who I am sad to report passed away in February)<br /> <br /> 1. Lilith: A Snake in the Grass (1981) <br /> 2. Cerberus: A Wolf in the Fold (1981) <br /> 3. Charon: A Dragon at the Gate (1982) <br /> 4. Medusa: A Tiger by the Tail (1983) <br /> <br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[mariecurie]

Are you "highly recommending these?"<br /><br />If I am to do all this reading I won't be here very much, you know...

 

[yevaud]

Yes, I do. Chalker didn't receive gigantic acclaim, mostly because he wrote deliberately for a mass market.<br /><br />But they're excellent books. Warning: each is lengthy. But well worth the read (been reading SF since I was 10...in 1968. Amassed quite a list of "must reads" since then). <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[rjoshb]

Anything by Jonathan Hogan.

 

[ptcruiser]

I haven't read them in years, but Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination are both amazing.

 

[CalliArcale]

I've been meaning to read some of his stuff ever since finding out that J Michael Strazynski used his name for a particular infamous Psi Cop on Babylon 5. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[lampblack]

Just call me an old fogey who read most of his science fiction 20 years ago. I don't believe anything will ever beat Arthur C. Clarke's "2001" -- the book, not the movie.<br /><br />The movie had great special effects for its day, but it wandered and at times lacked any discernable plot. The book, on the other hand, was a grand adventure. It was cogent, well-written, and imaginative in the extreme.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#0000ff"><strong>Just tell the truth and let the chips fall...</strong></font> </div>

 

[jetman1]

Exactly. the best.

 

[vmiguy]

The book "We All Died At Breakaway Station" is the best book of any kind I have ever read. After reading it, I was amazed it was only about 150 pages, just a tiny paperback novel. The story is about a human space fleet at Breakaway Station which is crewed by men and women who have all died at least once and have been repaired and re-animated (because we are losing THAT badly). they are trying to keep a communications conduit open for a message to get through which could at least make the fighting even for once. the situation is so desperate that a hospital ship is kept at the battle site just to draw alien firepower and keep the fighting from ending before the message can get through.<br /><br />A must read for everyone!

 

[rainofsteel]

I cannot list any single work by itself.<br /><br />In no particular order.<br /><br />Books:<br /><ul type="square"><li>Starship Troopers ~ <b>Robert A. Heinlein</b><li>Stranger in a Strange Land ~ <b>Robert A. Heinlein</b><li>The Moon is a Harsh Mistress ~ <b>Robert A. Heinlein</b><li>The Foundation Trilogy ~ <b>Isaac Asimov</b><li>The Forever War ~ <b>Joe Haldeman</b><li>Dorsai! ~ <b>Gordon R. Dickson</b><li>Ender's Game ~ <b>Orson Scott Card</b><li>The Worthing Saga ~ <b>Orson Scott Card</b><li>The Saga of the Well World ~ <b>Jack L. Chalker</b><li>The Ophiuchi Hotline ~ <b>John Varley</b><li>The Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat ~ <b>Harry Harrison</b><li>Lord Valentine's Castle ~ <b>Robert Silverberg</b><li>The Terran Inheritance ~ <b>Brian Daley</b><li>The Hyperion Cantos ~ <b>Dan Simmons</b><li>The Golden Age ~ <b>John C. Wright</b><li>The Risen Empire ~ <b>Scott Westerfield</b><li>Orbital Resonance ~ <b>John Barnes</b><li>Lord of Light ~ <b>Roger Zelazny</b><li>The Long Run ~ <b>Daniel Keys Moran</b><li>Dune ~ <b>Frank Herbert</b><li>Ringworld ~ <b>Larry Niven</b><li>The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ~ <b>Douglas Adams</b><li>Aristoi ~ <b>Walter Jon Williams</b><li>Hardwired ~ <b>Walter Jon Williams</b><li>Voice of the Whirlwind ~ <b>Walter Jon Williams</b><li>Gateway ~ <b>Fredrick Pohl</b><li>Ivory ~ <b>Mike Resnick</b><li>The Man Who Used the Universe ~ <b>Alan Dean Foster</b><li>On Basilisk Station ~ <b>David Weber</b><li>Crystal Singer ~ <b>Anne Mccaffrey</b><li>The Original Dragonrider Trilogy ~ <b>Anne Mccaffrey</b><li>Nausicaa ~ <b>Miyazaki Hayao</b><li>On a Pale Horse ~ <b>Piers Anthony</b><li>The Giant's Trilogy ~ <b>James P. Hogan</b><br /></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></ul><br /><br />Movies:<br /><ul type="square"><li>Star Wars <li>The Matrix <li>Dark City <li>The Fifth Element<li>Blade Runner <li>Aliens <li>Soylent Green<li>Tron (Yeah, it was a little cheesy, but what the heck)<li>I, Robot<br /></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></ul>

 

[vogon13]

Like to see Dark City mentioned. Excellent flick.<br /><br />Watch it as a double feature with Memento.<br /><br />{my Memento theory is Leonard Shelby does not actually have a nuerological impairment, time itself is screwing with him. That makes it a sci-fi film}<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[kane007]

Dark City, was that the one with Keifer Sutherland?

 

[yevaud]

You have 2 and possibly 3 of my top-ten novel list mentioned. <br /><br />*I doff my hat at another Fen* <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[rainofsteel]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p><b>kane007 wrote:</b><br /><br />Dark City, was that the one with Keifer Sutherland?<br /><p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br />I believe he was <b>Dr. Daniel Schreber</b>.<br /><br />There are a few severe logical flaws in the movie, but great acting, sets, direction, ideas, a stunning soundtrack, and of course, Jennifer Connelly, all make it for it and then some.