Extra-terrestrial yacht club

Re: Did he write ...

Good man! That's the one. It was driving me mad trying to remember

I don't read as much SF as I once did. The truely great authors who cut their teeth on the old mags are now mainly gone. There are some superb recent authors (eg Gibson, Orson Scott Card, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Kim Stanley Robinson, Vernor Vinge, Paul McAuley, Ben Bova etc - you'll notice I tend towards 'hard' SF where pople actually understand science), but their work is infrequent as writing the good books takes time. There are far too many derivative fantasy novels who churn out dozens of sequels, and some pure dross

<hr width=100% size=1>Me transmitte sursum, caledoni
 
Re: Did he write ...

I like the hard SF books as well (i.e. those based on real future), but can also enjoy the decent fantasy - after all Heinleins Glory Road is an example of that genre. Examples of this type that I have read are the Darkover stories, Julian May, Donaldson, Lensman series

I also have a soft spot for the Macaffrey stories (particularly the Pern sequence),
David Eddings, and some of the Terry Brooks stories



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I understand that they have very big tides up there though - especially the springs at the times of Full Earth and New Earth.

John

<hr width=100% size=1>I am the cat but I am only 6.
 
Re: Did he write ...

McCaffrey - wonderful.She's not a heavy weight author, but she writes characters well, and there is some real science in her Pern series (which she was sensible enough to seek out)

Lensman series, what can I say.I grew up on them!....I bought them as fast as my pocket money would allow, and then spent the rest of my money on batteries so I could read them under the blankets in bed! <g>. Thge epitome of pulp fiction and space opera. Considering they were written mainly in the 40's and 50's they were well ahead of their time. Did you know Doc was a personal friend of Heinlein, and that Admiral Nimitz based the design of the US Navy ships' Combat Information Centers on Doc's ideas for displaying the battle situation, 'The Tank'


Donaldson had his moments, but not up there with the truely greats

May, Brooks, Eddings, Brooks...good plane material if you can't find anything else in the airport, and the films onboad are dire <g>

<hr width=100% size=1>Me transmitte sursum, caledoni
 
Another problem: here at home we have to contend with old bikes and supermarket trolleys - up there, I am reliably informed the problem is all the old space hardware left by the US. quite a serious hazard to navigation and not all charted yet - and the locals have got the idea and clamped all the Lunar buggies they left behind so local transport is a bit of a problem. Pres Bush has so far refused to pay the parking fines....

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Re: Did he write ...

I've always got the Ian M. Banks books as they've come out recently. Proper SF, well written, with spaceships and robots. One or two are really stunning, but I thought the last couple were not really up to scratch. The new one is supposed to be good, but is only out in hardback at the moment though.

Do you remember Perry Rodan? I think there was a team writing them at one a month in the seventies and eighties, almost like a comic book. I only ever bought the first one but the series ran to well over a hundred.

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