Posted on 07/27/2006 6:49:43 PM PDT by marc costanzo
The essay below was originally written in the early Spring of 2001:
With the passing away of LEXX ends an intriguing albeit tawdry experiment in Sci-fantasy. One that breaks with conventions, or should I say cliches of TV sci-fi of the 90's . The politically correct pabulum, the multicultural indoctrination, the BladeRunner motifs, and not the least; the steroid mutated superbabes that can punch the lights out of men, but never get punched back in return !?
How about creating a new sci-fi anthology with none of the puerile baggage of Rod Serling, Rockne Obannon, Michael J. Stracinsky, etc .. It is time to end their reign of un-American cynicism and fatalism !
Sounds more than reasonable, to me.
Ugh, I feel round teeth chewing yellow plants.
Heinlein was one of a kind. The best, period.
I thought Lexx ended in 2002.
I have a huge collection of older sci-fi. Nothing current has been much worth reading , imo. I love the old stuff.
Dystopian works can be very good if they're thoughtful. The problem isn't that too much science fiction is dystopian, but that it's thoughtlessly so. It's all just "oooo... here's a future filled with big ol' mean corporations". You could pick out a hundred of them that combined don't have anything as thought-provoking as your average 10 pages of 1984.<<
Yes, but ven George Orwell was guilty of anti-Americanism:
"these damn Yanks are turning our Britain into their very own Airstrip-One"
It's an interesting thing, that every Heinline novel from about 1960 on, except I think for his last one, makes some passing reference to sex-changes. I've never quite known what to make of that.
Much as I enjoyed (and still enjoy) his juvies, just about everything he wrote in his last thirty or so years boils down to people flying around the universe arguing endlessly about sex and who's in charge.
>>REAL science fiction affecionados NEVER use the term "sci fi."<<
Is that a distinction without a difference ?
Ah, just imagine of Rumsfeld was a kzin...
Reporter: Have you considered the option of drawing down troop strength in the face increased Iraqi resistence?
Rumsfeld: Eater of herbivore droppings! Our troops will bring glory to the Patriarch, Doobyia Boosh. Now is the time to thrust victory into the haunches of fortune, not grovel like a guilty female. Your ears are mine!
But the Stainless Steel Rat books are fun.
Doesn't anyone here read Poul Anderson, who gave us the Great Arch-capitalist, Nicholas van Rijn? And the man who was the model for 007, Dominic Flandry? (Flandry pre-dated Bond.)
And for something truly different, but seriously conservative, try Jack Vance.
That's OK. With the mad rsuh by liberals for embryonic stem cell genocide American society will become an unending campy B Science Fiction movie.
Niven and Pournelle are the protege's of RAH. They have chosen to endorse Baen.COM by allowing them to make available, for free, their collaboration Fallen Angels as an ebook.
Separate from Baen, if you haven't read the collaborations between Niven and Pournelle you haven't really read either of them. They do their best work together. I spent a very long drunken weekend with them at a con and have known Jerry for years through his computer journalism work. They bring out the best in each other. I particularly recommend Lucifer's Hammer and Footfall. Both are products of the 70s and don't stand up to 30 years of science, but great books none the less. Lucifer's Hammer is the ultimate "something hits the Earth" book and Footfall is the ultimate "someone invades the Earth" book, IMHO.
Rick Cook, who did the Wizardry series, the first two books of which are also in the free library, is an IEEE fellow. If you know squat about computers you'll get all of the jokes. If you don't you still will probably enjoy the books. And I bet Clarke likes his stuff (inside joke - see Clarke's Law).
Koontz is probably envious of Ringo's military SF, with Ringo having been a member of the 82nd.brings some great verisimilitude to his stuff. Alien omnivores not withstanding.
Check out the library. It's free. Tell me you don't find authors to list among those you cite in the mix you provide. I bet you you'll be pleased. You named giants. These are their heirs.
"I hear tell of a "Princess of Mars" series."
Sounds interesting, do you have any refs for it?
Marc, how about a one hour TV movie based on The Cold Equations? That would get things hopping.
Very un-PC and shows just how cold the world can be.
>>Yes, I like William Gibson - but one of him is enough. ;) <<
Gibson is the well poisoner !
He is an American expatriot who ran off to Canada in the early 70's to drop acid - - that where you get the opening page of Neuromancer .
Gibson did not originate this trend, Philip K Dick did in the 1960's !
His 1950's short story SECOND VARIETY was turned into that 1996 stinker(made in Canada) SCREAMERS
Deathworld Trilogy would make a nice mini-series too.
>Ah, just imagine of Rumsfeld was a kzin... <
Well, Tony Snow did take the "Speaker to Animals" job...
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