Some classic Sci-fi stories

Started by DocJon · 19 posts · 3,871 views

  2. #2
    DocJon wrote:The Screwfly Solution. I may have posted this a year or 2 back. Great old story - an award-winner, I think.
    http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/c...n/sheldon1.html


    &now I take my cat, she is black as the night and a smoothy and the neatly printed Screwfly Solution with me and go to bed. Seems like a good bad lecture to me. 🙂 Tried before to read it but never found the right time.

    [...] It was a perfectly quite night and just the right timing for this short story. A kind of its art piece of literature. I love the means the author generated the story´s tension with, switching of perspective - I hate the end - but it makes perfectly sense and is the only possible consequence of the story´s plot.

    It felt great to have that pitch black - nice for the eyes - predator at my side. She is adding mystic. Normally sleeps in her chair, just on some nights she likes to stay inside rather, signaling her intention with "talking" until I open the door, then running inside, later jumping on my lap whilst I am sitting in front of the PC and following me then on to the bed. She has a special medication I am aplicating 1 time a month so she won´t get infested from flees etc.
    So actually I never take my cat with me to bed - she has to be up to that. Yesterday - I was lucky. 🙂
  3. #3
    My very favorite sci-fi line in a book has to be hands down.

    "I'll start in the middle, go to the beginning and the end will take care of it's self."
    A short story called Repent Harlequin said the ticktocman.
  4. #4
    Duck wrote:My very favorite sci-fi line in a book has to be hands down.

    "I'll start in the middle, go to the beginning and the end will take care of it's self."
    A short story called Repent Harlequin said the ticktocman.


    Rather than being only one line isn't it more the time thread the narrator is spinning?

    And is it worth the reading? Did u read it through all the way or is all that a Duck's special internal joke with its private innuendos?
  5. #5
    Nope Saint, this one is a short story from an author named Harlan Ellison - I just think that opening line is the coolest.
  6. #6
    Duck wrote:Nope Saint, this one is a short story from an author named Harlan Ellison - I just think that opening line is the coolest.

    Harlan's a GREAT sci-fi writer - just ask him!

  7. #7
    DocJon wrote:Harlan's a GREAT sci-fi writer - just ask him!



    Yeah Doc, that´s what u say. Harlan probably is.

    I am sure tho Duck did not read much more of the book thanjust the mere title and stopped paying attention because the first sentence stuck so to him.

    And asking him will be of no use. Look how many questions I asked already: four.
    And he answered just one of them. Seems he thinks he is talking to himself or his picture in the mirror on an early morning whilst shaving the old-fashioned way with a badly grinded knife. 🙂
  8. #8
    saintchism wrote:Yeah Doc, that´s what u say. Harlan probably is.

    I am sure tho Duck did not read much more of the book thanjust the mere title and stopped paying attention because the first sentence stuck so to him.

    And asking him will be of no use. Look how many questions I asked already: four.
    And he answered just one of them. Seems he thinks he is talking to himself or his picture in the mirror on an early morning whilst shaving the old-fashioned way with a badly grinded knife. 🙂


    Well well well Saint, looks like Christmas has come early for you this year.
    Look what Santa has in his bag just for you

  9. #9
    Do not meddle in the affairs of Duck, for he is blunt and quick to anger.

    With apologies to J.R.R. Tolkien.
  10. #10
    I've read dozens of sci-fi/fantasy books, but the one constant is I can never remember are author names past a couple of days later. Just bad with names and faces.

    I can and do like to re-read my favorites tho. Dune and the Red/Blue/Green Mars trilogy. The Red Mars was THE book that best introduced the space elevator as a working concept, and terraforming on a grand scale.

    Perhaps its the way I speed read books, but they don't seem to stay with me long 🙁
  11. #11
    lexx wrote:I've read dozens of sci-fi/fantasy books, but the one constant is I can never remember are author names past a couple of days later. Just bad with names and faces.

    Don't worry about it Lexx, sure u got other qualities: e.g. shooting ur enemy when u r in die mode hiding out somewhere 🙂

    I can and do like to re-read my favorites tho. Dune and the Red/Blue/Green Mars trilogy. The Red Mars was THE book that best introduced the space elevator as a working concept, and terraforming on a grand scale.

    Perhaps its the way I speed read books, but they don't seem to stay with me long 🙁
    I think its just the way u set ur prioties. And why not: books cannot escape. U can always read them again if u r up to it. 🙂


    Do not meddle in the affairs of Duck, for he is blunt and quick to anger.
    With apologies to J.R.R. Tolkien.


    So..., huh, his affairs... in this case coincidently they r my affairs too. 🙂 He responded a little half heartedly to my questions.
    ... no biggy. just want some more answers... that's all there is to it.

    Oh no, wait a second.
    If I am honest, really honest 🤔 I have to admit, ....
    I thought he might come out with a somewhat emotional respond.
    He did.
    So that's nice. I like it. Its so much Duck.
    so much fun. And he does not like my brain kisses. 😏
    And he likes me to shut up....
    Definitly how I imagine Duck.

    U call him J.R.R. Tolkien - that's ma favorite, well author.
    He is superb. Love and have his trilogy and the hobbit here with me.

    Just getting to know ppl around here better. 🙂

    Well well well Saint, looks like Christmas has come early for you this year.
    Look what Santa has in his bag just for you


    That's just all too true - my d e e r friend Duck, he came in the shape of Sarge and brought me some very special camp fire music. 🙂
    Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash talking to eachother.

    The rest of the post's content is vocabulary that is not saved in ma language data base,
    but as u probably found out by now, in case u want to invite me for a drink - I took it as an invitation - 🙂 :

    Martini is cool,
    coffee is hot,
    whiskey is lovely,
    beer is mir (mir = german and easy to translate, huh).
  12. #12
    Back on topic....

    Three of my favorite authors for sci-fi are called the three B's
    David Brin
    Greg Bear **
    Gregory Benford

    These three authors have based their Sci-Fi in real science, so every story is plausible scientifically - not just whiz bang comic book sci-fi

    ** Bear is starting to get to political lately leaning way too far left and liberal for his books to be enjoyable for me lately though.
    Ant-gun
    Anti-Republican

    He puts a lot of pro-liberal brain droppings in to his work now and thinks the reader must be with him or to stupid to know the difference, (but I guess it is fiction) so I tend to sorbet my brain with Robert Heinlein to get the bad taste of Bear's political drivel out of my skull what it gets too thick.
  13. #13
    Duck wrote:Back on topic....

    Three of my favorite authors for sci-fi are called the three B's
    David Brin
    Greg Bear **
    Gregory Benford

    These three authors have based their Sci-Fi in real science, so every story is plausible scientifically - not just whiz bang comic book sci-fi

    ** Bear is starting to get to political lately leaning way too far left and liberal for his books to be enjoyable for me lately though.
    Ant-gun
    Anti-Republican


    An ANT gun? Good lord man, I can't support that!

    Would it fire THESE?
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraponera

    So much for being back on topic. . . 🙂

    Heinlein has done some enjoyable stuff, but man, did he go overboard with the sexual liberation & incest. . .eeewww! He squicked me out even as a horny teen.

    Not an OBVIOUS sci-fi story, but it was on the "Twilight Zone": An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.
    http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/375
  14. #14
    but man, did he go overboard with the sexual liberation & incest. . .eeewww! He squicked me out even as a horny teen.


    Have not ran across that one yet. I too would be disgusted - not worth completing in that case.

    Ant gun - whoops.
  15. #15
    DocJon wrote:An ANT gun? Good lord man, I can't support that!

    Would it fire THESE?
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraponera

    So much for being back on topic. . . 🙂

    Not an OBVIOUS sci-fi story, but it was on the "Twilight Zone": An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.
    http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/375


    Thanks, Doc. Will be my next print out. I need something to distract me.
    Lately I am not into films or movies that much.

    These ants r really bad, but us humans r certainly worse with our "humanoid" inteligence.
    Making this an initial rite to manhood. Urrrr.
  16. #16
    I've pretty much cleaned my local library out of Sci-Fi stories and am going to have to start utilizing the inter-library loan.

    David Weber/John Ringo "March Upcountry" series about a young Prince's transformation from a spoiled little shit to a leader. Lots and lots of guns, treachery, and action in general. It is four books and overall is excellent.

    John Scalzi's "Old Man's War" - has a sequel that I haven't read yet but is about old people recruited to be soldiers in an interstellar war. They are given basically a rejuvination/cyborg treatment, trained, and let loose. Very good.

    Neal Stephenson's "Anathem" is really interesting with lots of philosophy in it. It takes place on a world where the only "religion" is done by monks in cloisters and is based around mathematics instead of god. Each cloister has subgroups within it that keep themselves secluded from society for 1, 10, 100, or 1000 years and then they open the gates and interact for a short period of time to share research, recruit new members, and find out what has happened in the world. The book starts with that and then gets twisted into something entirely different. It's long and a bit dense, but I thought it was very good.

    Reading Kage Bakers "Company" novels right now and the story is very good although I am only on book 5. Quick reads generally.
  17. #17
    Damn I just had a good review and hit close window instead of post *sigh*

    Take two


    I like series better than single books if at all possible, that allows authors the space to tell a good story.

    David Brin's Uplift saga is a good set,
    Basically no race has ever made it to the stars with out a patron and indentured servitude for 100,000 years - except Earth. naturally we do not know the "order of things" and are considered rouge, we uplift dolphins as our cohorts in space exploration and find the ships of fate that belong to the Progenitors, the fabled First Race who seeded wisdom throughout the stars.

    Also Harry Turtledove great author if your in to alternate time line / alt-history books.

    Worldwar & Colonization Series - Aliens invade in the middle of World War II. Earth has to decide keep fighting eachother or put aside the issues at hand and fight the aliens.

    A good single Turtledove book is Guns of the South -
    The Confederate Army is supplied with AK-47's by time traveling members of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging from the early 21st century. and small amounts of other supplies (including nitroglycerine tablets for treating Lee's heart condition), leading to a Southern victory in the war.
    It ends nothing like you would think it does - great read ofr a stand a lone book.
  18. #18
    I read "Guns of the South". Not bad. I thought how it ended was an interesting idea.

    I'm in the middle of a real good sci-fi series called about a guy called "Repairman Jack". He's a fix-it guy, like I recall the Equalizer TV show being about. He has no Social Security #, pays no taxes, has a real Libertarian worldview. He helps ppl with problems, and lives off the money he makes doing that. He runs into weird happenings, and the books take a sci-fi turn. I think Duck might want to give them a try. TRY to read them in order, as they DO build upon each other, and events in previous books are referenced, and have an effect on future books. Each book is not a reboot.

    http://www.repairmanjack.com/faq_III.htm


    I just started reading the Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher. They're the books the series of the same name from the Sci-Fi channel was based on.