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who wrote "the years of the city?" was it anderson? or pournelle? i can't remember. god that book was terrible.
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I wasn't born with enough middle fingers.
[Brandon Roderick? You mean Brock's Toadie?][Hanged from Yggdrasil] -
I have to go with what I own since I dont read much Sci-fi anymore.
Asimov- Foundation
Herbert- Dune
I dont own any of his but he was the first Sci-fi I read
Van VogtWe need seperate human-only games for MP/PBEM that dont include the over-simplifications required to have a good AI
If any man be thirsty, let him come unto me and drink. Vampire 7:37
Just one old soldiers opinion. E Tenebris Lux. Pax quaeritur bello.Comment
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Roger Zelazny, Kurt Vonnegut, William S. Burroughs"In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed. But they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love. They had 500 years of democracy and peace. And what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
—Orson Welles as Harry LimeComment
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I'm currently reading a sci-fi novel by Edwina Currie out of sheer morbid curiosity. It doesn't dissapoint!Comment
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The Good: Issac Asimov, Peter F. Hamilton (don't like the Greg Mandel stuff, though), Alastair Reynolds (no-one's mentioned him yet???), Iain M Banks, Greg Egan (really mind-blowing), Ken Macleod (Scottish commie libertarian sci-fi) and some others I've forgotten.
The Meh: Clarke, Bova, Turtledove and some others I can't even remember.Comment
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Good timing. I just finished the Greg Mandel stuff, (not his best but he was younger then, and it wasn't that bad
) I'm reading Reynolds new book now.
I can't say which are the three best. My tastes have changed over the many decades, and even over a few weeks. Sometimes looking for heavy Science and other times, light space opera. So my favorite three may be different tomorrow.
Asimov is up there.
As also mentioned, the Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle partnership is right up there, (they're not that bad by themselves)
Drake is good when I'm looking for pure entertainment.
And other authors when more concerned with the actual science behind them.It's almost as if all his overconfident, absolutist assertions were spoonfed to him by a trusted website or subreddit. Sheeple
RIP Tony Bogey & Baron OComment
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Asimov, Niven, Haldeman12-17-10 Mohamed Bouazizi NEVER FORGET
Stadtluft Macht Frei
Killing it is the new killing it
Ultima Ratio RegumComment
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Niven, Brin, and Clarke, though I have to mention Lem, Asimov,and Card. Adams as a humorist.If you don't like reality, change it! me
"Oh no! I am bested!" Drake
"it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong" Voltaire
"Patriotism is a pernecious, psychopathic form of idiocy" George Bernard ShawComment
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I think this category needs to be broadened to the 5 best. But in any event, for my own account, I vote for...
Dick
Herbert
AsimovI came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891Comment
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Clarke's novels are mostly abdOriginally posted by Sandman
The Good: Issac Asimov, Peter F. Hamilton (don't like the Greg Mandel stuff, though), Alastair Reynolds (no-one's mentioned him yet???), Iain M Banks, Greg Egan (really mind-blowing), Ken Macleod (Scottish commie libertarian sci-fi) and some others I've forgotten.
The Meh: Clarke, Bova, Turtledove and some others I can't even remember.
where he is good is his short stories (even through he is still notmy favorite)
JMJon Miller-
I AM.CANADIAN
GENERATION 35: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social experiment.Comment
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I changed my mind, scratch Burroughs and add Douglas Adams"In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed. But they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love. They had 500 years of democracy and peace. And what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
—Orson Welles as Harry LimeComment
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Of those no longer writing: Herbert, Dick, James Blish. And Hal Clement, who's Half Life is one of the finest novels in the past 15 years.
Of those who are coasting on past glories: Niven, Ellison (my opinion of Loinburger just shot through the roof for that choice), and Clarke.
Of those who specialize in my favorite sub-genre, space opera: Vinge, Hamilton, and Banks. In changing order, depending upon my mood.
Of those who just write damn fine novels: Tepper, Simmons (he woulda made the space opera list if his last SO wasn't nothing but a rehashing of his first SO, Hyperion), A. Reynolds.
Crap that I just can't stop reading due to genetic deficiencies or something: Turtledove.Last edited by JohnT; July 21, 2004, 20:36.Comment
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Oh, and I forgot Kim Stanley Robinson. He fits in there somewhere.
Overrated bumblers: David Brin, Douglas Adams (he really isn't that funny), Jack Chalker.
And, in a way, Asimov. Influential? Yes. Good writer? Ehhhhh.... no. Especially his early stuff.Comment
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Asimov, Heinlein, Niven.
A good new author: Ian Douglas
Authors I once liked but can't stand anymore:
1) Turtledove - He drops in an alternate history theme over some sappy human experience dialogue. He has way to many characters in his books and the alternate events in his book are just a culmination of overdone anecdotes that entice people to buy his boring books. Civil War? World War? Just a bunch of what-ifs with no guts.
2) Ben Bova - His early works with Dan Randolph were good. Randolph was a good hero, the science was realistic, and the motivation behind the characters was actually something everyone could connect with.
Unfortunately, in his later attempts to continue the "Tour" world he has diluted his characters to the point where they are just shells. His finale for the series "Rock Rats" was the horrid "The Silent War". Long story short: Opportunities for an emotional roller coaster ride of novel, complete with plenty of heavy duty plot lines - but Bova falls flat and lets the series die with the major players basically saying "Ah well, that was fun, let's all go home". I was pissed when I finally finished it. A real waste of money.
EDIT: SpellingLast edited by Harry Tuttle; July 21, 2004, 22:38.Comment
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Asimov, Pournelle/Niven, Bradbury"Just puttin on the foil" - Jeff Hanson
“In a democracy, I realize you don’t need to talk to the top leader to know how the country feels. When I go to a dictatorship, I only have to talk to one person and that’s the dictator, because he speaks for all the people.” - Jimmy CarterComment
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