Posted on 02/09/2013 4:41:00 PM PST by narses
TechRepublic member lcallander asked me for some suggested reading material, with a rather intriguing sci-fi stipulation:
“I was rereading an old post, where guys were reminiscing about reading ‘Heinlein, Asimov, and Clark,’ my personal favorites. I got out of reading SF in the ’80s and am bewildered by the variety today. What do guys who liked H, A, and C read today?”
Well, that’s a really interesting question. I’m really only able to answer the Heinlein part of it, since I’ve read very, very little Clarke or Asimov (blasphemy, I know). John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War, The Ghost Brigades, and The Last Colony are openly admitted Heinlein pastiches, the first of which won the Campbell Award and was nominated for the Hugo.
Scalzi’s style is breezy and easy to pick up, so I’d start there. I’m also told (though haven’t read) that John Varley’s Red Thunder and Red Lightning ably pick up the Rocket Ship Galileo torch. That’s about the extent of my advice.
Thankfully, Amazon.com can actually help some here. (Shocking, I know.) See, Amazon has a nice bit of collaborative filtering that lets you view items that Amazon customers bought before and after buying a product that you’re interested in. That’s a fancy way of saying: These people bought X and also bought Y, so if you like X, odds are you’ll also like Y.
So, let’s take Stranger in a Strange Land (my favorite Heinlein novel) and check out its extended list of Customers Also Bought items, scrolling until we find some modern stuff not written by Uncle Bob himself. Filtering out the usual suspects of Hugo winners who get bought out of sheer notoriety, we find: Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Now, let’s do the same thing with Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama, and we get: Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. For Asimov’s Foundation we get: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.
Do this for a number of books by Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein, and you’ll begin to get a picture of where adherents of the Old Masters go to sate their sci-fi thirst today. Do the same for Hyperion, Red Mars, and Ender’s Game, and you’ll link into a web of recommendations that open whole new doors of possibility.
Of course, for all of Amazon’s tech, there’s nothing like a good old-fashioned reader recommendation. So, how about it Geekenders — what modern writer (published since 1990) would most satisfy a fan of Asimov, Clarke, and/or Heinlein? Post your recommendations in the comments sections. With any luck, we can help a fellow member out (and maybe even attract some SFSignal attention).
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I keep reading that James Cameron is doing the movie ‘real soon now’ along with Speilburg, Then I read he has Battle Angel Alita ready to go into production ‘real soon now’.
BTA was another great one. Limited, but great comcept.
I love comics. I got out when Marvel and DC went full tilt PC. After Age of Apocalypse that was it for me. And what those fools at Marvel did to Rachel summers will never be forgiven ;) Never could find any manga/Graphic Novels outside Naruto locally and for some reason, dispute my GITS fanboyness, never ordered any of the GNs for GITS.
Might need to do that.
“...the Oragami episode “The boy who folds Cranes’ if I remember the title right) had to be the deepest of the bunch.”
Yeah. There’s a bunch of sort of wistful stories with GitS. And tasteful cyborg uber-violence. It’s amazing they got made with as much skill as they did, animation over here is pretty much shrek. I do think that WALL-E was a tremendous sci-fi story.
Freegards
What really get me with a lot of anime (not the Hentai/Tentacle porn stuff) is that it’s what Hollywood should be. Great, “Adult” stories, plots as deep as the ocean, characters you can forget are nit real with the greatest of ease...
But over there, they don’t write to the lowest common denominator like we do here. At least not to the same degree. Sure they do the wild and wacky stuff and the porn. But their GITS style stuff is better than most anything we have done for a long time.
The last mainstream comic I was into from Marvel was Havok and Woverine from epic, the ‘graphic arm’ of Marvel. It had two artists, one doing wolverine, the other Havok, both doing fully painted art. Late 80’s. wiki doesn’t have a page I can find, they should.
http://www.amazon.com/Havok-Wolverine-Meltdown-Walter-Simonson/dp/B000721DBQ
After that great writing and art, I couldn’t hack DC or Marvel anymore, I was on to Cerebus, Akira, Appleseed, and Nausicaa.
Akira and Nausicaa are two comics you should read, if you ever have the chance. I mean they are classics of the type. Greatly expanded story and scope in both cases as far as anime vs comic. You are probably getting 50% or more story in both cases maybe vs the anime. AND the writers are drawing it all like friggen masters.
I remember seeing battle angel alita anime back in the day, never read the comics to compare, although I have seen them in shops. I dug the anime.
Another anime that I thought had a lot of heart was this weird thing called ‘fooly cooley’. Completely wacky, but it had some really cool story parts too. I think I only saw it on cartoon network though so it might have been all cut up as far as I know.
Freegards
Yep ..... Weber, Drake, and Ringo are filling the shoes of the masters.
I’ll add Lois McMasters Bujold to the list for the series on Miles Vorkosigan. The stories are tight and easy to read, with great characters and a nice mix of humor.
I’ve been a sci-fi fan for over 50 years, and my “keepers” library is over 3k. The new stuff that I get urges to re-read are these four.
Saw some Fooly. Whacked out and hilarious. Try Excel Saga for more of that craziness ;)
Some other great Anime for anyone interested...
Hard / Serious Sci fi...
Gasaraki...get this NOW.
Spriggian...Pretty good story
Steamboy (american/Japanese colab)
Gunparade March
Geneshaft
For more ‘fun’ sci fi Anime (fun being in the eye of the beer-holder)
Gunbuster
Divergence Eve/Misaki Chronicles
Burst Angel
Full Metal Panic
And of course, the two classics aside from Akira..
Bubblegum Crisis/AD Police
Neon Genesis Evangelion (with End of Evangelion)
“What really get me with a lot of anime (not the Hentai/Tentacle porn stuff) is that it’s what Hollywood should be. Great, “Adult” stories, plots as deep as the ocean, characters you can forget are nit real with the greatest of ease...”
Preaching to the choir, dude. Think about what Pixar should be doing along with the general family stuff.
Take a franchise like Robert E. Howard’s Conan. Awesome American stories that have never been put on the big screen as they should. Although the first Conan is a cool Swords and Sorcery movie, it is an aweful Conan movie. It cries out to be animated, like Frazetta come to life with a budget, uncut. They had an awesome chance with ‘a Princess of Mars’ and blew it. Although ‘John Carter’ isn’t completely horrendous, it isn’t what I picture from ERB and a studio like Pixar should have been able to get close.
Imagine Pixar doing a straight up episodic take on Jack Vance’s the Dying Earth or Planet of Adventure. And they are episodic picaresque stories anyhow.
I thought Samurai Jack might be the best thing cartoon network ever did, might be the best western cartoon in recent years. Adventure Time is pretty cool too, though.
Freegards
I just don’t know what goes through the minds of Hollywood creative types...other than Cocaine. The budgets given to some of their flops could take classic already proven stories and...
There’s the choir bit again ;)
Heavy Metal redone with about $100 Mill would be interesting.
Hell, Rocket Robin Hood and a hundred mil would be interesting. But these idiots can’t find a classic author, take his classic story and make it work?
Idiots.
I’ve only seen some of that, never even heard of many of them.
Steamboy the movie was visually stunning, and had a classic story. But it wasn’t up there with an an Akira or GitS.
I dimly rememebr bubblegum crisis and I take it they still play that neon genesis thing series on cartoon network.
Which has the best art? Which has the best story? The best of both?
Any compare favourably with GitS series?
Freegards
“Heavy Metal redone with about $100 Mill would be interesting.”
Supposedly Rodriguez might re-do Bakshi’s ‘fire and ice’ with a budget. Can you imagine the drug stuff in Heavy Metal flying today? I bet they wouldn’t even have nudity! No nudity in HEAVY METAL!!
Freegards
Story and art, Gasaraki. Hands down. It was 23 episodes. Real deep military/politics and some Japanese mythology. The art was good/high quality but the story carried it overall.
People love it or hate it.
The AD police spinoff was midlin on art but the stories (3 about 20 min each) was not kid stuff. Hard Cyborg/police drama.
Gunparade March was another love or hate it with a solid story.
Fullmetal Panic split hard sci fi with Japanese teen comedy but was a lot more deep/good than the previews let on by far. Very philosophical.
If you can find any of them, especially Gasaraki, you will not likely be disappointed.
Bedtime for Bonzo ;)
Thanks, my string’s run out too.
Freegards
Vance is great..Green Majic got me hooked
Free speculative fiction has tons of great
books for free
bflr
My novel “Sirat: Through the Fires of Hell” is inspired by Heinlein.
And ChocolateChipCookie, who wrote Survival Mom: How to Prepare Your Family for Everyday Disasters and Worst-Case Scenarios
I agree. His story was great. Here’s a direct link to it for those interested.
http://www.dansimmons.com/news/message/2006_04.htm
Farmer had a few good ones. Niven 9Ringworld/Hammner’s Hammer, etc.) had some good ones.
Orwell was trying to warn us about people like Obama.
Vance has to be my favourite. It’s a shame he isn’t generally mentioned with Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke or Bradbury. For my money he is better than any of those, Heinlein and Bradbury being the best of that bunch and Clarke the most influential in the ‘real world.’
Here’s his new website, lots of cool pictures in the photo album part.
Freegards
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