cutting42
Arrived at B4 Hacker Ergo
I remember listening to the Radio 4 adaptation when I were a nipper, a big part of developing my SciFi addiction I think
Asimov’s foundation.
- Thread starter Frizzy
- Start date
I remember listening to the Radio 4 adaptation when I were a nipper, a big part of developing my SciFi addiction I think
Ali T
pfm Member
Yes JM or SD would be great, as would the Culture novels.
cutting42
Arrived at B4 Hacker Ergo
I just tried to look it up, maybe I was mistaken, I can only find reference to a 2009 serial. I am convinced I heard it when I was young, maybe a book at bedtime???
Darren
So gentle when he tries to understand.
Or magnificent in their scope and epic in sheer imagination. Each to their own.
Jim Audiomisc
pfm Member
Yes, it was clearly very popular and had lots of detail, etc. But for me the cut-down version in ASF was enough.
Dave H.
Revolutionary relativist
Never read the books as a kid - tried to take one out of a local library when I was little and the lady wouldn’t let me have it because she didn’t think I’d be able to read it. Never got round to trying again.
But watched the first episode of the series last night and thought it was very good. Looking forward to watching more.
But watched the first episode of the series last night and thought it was very good. Looking forward to watching more.
narabdela
who?
I was a fan of the books longer ago than I care to remember. I was just about to give up after twenty minutes of that first episode, but it started to perk up after that. Let's see how the second one goes. Fingers crossed.
Jezzer
Unspecified
It’s either that or a five hour film…
(I read Dune as a teenager and again about 10 years ago. Enjoyed it both times. The David Lynch version of Dune is terrible)
I’m a big fan of The Expanse on Amazon Prime.
Darren
So gentle when he tries to understand.
Those were the days! Suffered the same way.
Darren
So gentle when he tries to understand.
That keeps getting said but I dont entirely agree. Some things were excellent - the still suits, the guild navigator, the guild highliner, the personal shields. Loved all that stuff.
Jezzer
Unspecified
True, it did have its moments, it was certainly epic in scale, but it was all too rushed, too weird (thanks David Lynch you weirdo) and some of the visual effects were appalling.
Jim Audiomisc
pfm Member
Good Grief! What a dreadful 'librarian'! The ones at my local libraries were delighted to see any child borrowing pretty much any book! One even pointed out that I could get my parents to have tickets and use theirs as well as mine... in the end I also used my Gran's as well! They'd have said, " If you don't like that book, we have lots of others that are different".
cutting42
Arrived at B4 Hacker Ergo
I liked it as well once I watched it 5 times to understand it (not read the book at that time).
ps well apart from Sting of course
Many of Clarke's books contain a core of real science, or extrapolations of. Asimov's books are much less believable I think - e.g. (in Foundation) the idea of being able to accurately predict the detailed future of humanity using some mathematical equation. I remember enjoying the Foundation trilogy as a teenager, but when I tried to re-read recently I just found it rather silly! I remember enjoying "The Gods Themselves" when it came out, maybe I should try re-reading that.
Jim Audiomisc
pfm Member
IIRC The later books about the Foundation took on board that the nature of it wasn't as appeared in the first trilogy.
Frizzy
Liberal anarchist
Most science fiction at its best is a means of planting seeds in the imagination, there are a few ‘writers’ Heinlein, Bradbury, Ursula le quin, h g wells, but on whole a lot of the best was written in the fifties and sixties for magazines, comics and film scripts.
Forbidden planet is still my all time fave sf film, as a teen it sent my imagination to places that enriched my mind.
Forbidden planet is still my all time fave sf film, as a teen it sent my imagination to places that enriched my mind.
Joe Hutch
Mate of the bloke
When I was 11 or 12 I got told off by my local librarian for reading the books too quickly, 'If you're not careful, you'll have soon read the lot!' (In hindsight, she may have been joking).
For me it was Gollancz SF books with yellow jackets. I didn't care who the author was, I just worked my way through the library's relatively small selection. I can't remember much about any of them, really. I was more into time travel/alternative history stories than space opera stuff about the Planet Zarg on the outer edge of the Crab Nebula.
Bob Edwards
pfm Member
That's part of the reason I prefer Clarke. There are certainly extrapolations he got wrong, but for the most part his works seem more plausible.
Another pair of writers I enjoyed were Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, particularly Lucifer's Hammer (which had me running to my 8th grade science teacher asking her how to convert ergs to megatons) and The Mote In God's Eye along with the sequel, The Gripping Hand.
MarkW
Full Speed & Pagan
Morgan Freeman's production company owns the movie rights to RWR - no one's been able to write a credible treatment. Given what these kinds of films cost to make, you have to line up some big name stars and be able to promote it with big racy trailers. The book is big on tension, but is perhaps a bit short on cinematic drama for modern audiences. The days when you could produce 2001:A Space Whatsit for spare change are long gone and investors want their money back and then some (natch).