Going too far... WAY too far!

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Gyro Gearloose
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Re: Going too far... WAY too far!

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eslapion wrote:
Gyro Gearloose wrote:I think the only people who would be upset about that word are the Colonists on Plateau.
/supernerd reference
Perhaps to this book ?
Precisely. You are indeed a supernerd, perhaps even an ultrageek.

I like this novel. It's one of those books I've kept to read again every couple of years.


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Re: Going too far... WAY too far!

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Gyro Gearloose wrote:
eslapion wrote:
Gyro Gearloose wrote:I think the only people who would be upset about that word are the Colonists on Plateau.
/supernerd reference
Perhaps to this book ?
Precisely. You are indeed a supernerd, perhaps even an ultrageek.

I like this novel. It's one of those books I've kept to read again every couple of years.
Then you are much more of a nerd than I am.

I read it about 25 years ago and that was enough for me. Don't get me wrong, it's a good book but that's where it ends for me.

"The Long arm of Gil Hamilton" sat on my bookshelf for about 20 years before I decided to give it a try. It was nice too but that's also where I draw the line.

If you want astounding with the Larry Niven signature then read the Fleet of Worlds series. Ending with Fate of Worlds which is a finale to both the Ringworld books as well as the Fleet of Worlds. Now that I would read again more than once.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleet_of_Worlds

Prequels to Ringworld:
ImageImageImageImage

Sequel to Ringworld's Children:
Image
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Re: Going too far... WAY too far!

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eslapion wrote: Then you are much more of a nerd than I am.
I am a different kind of nerd. I don't enjoy the Ringworld novels after Engineers. I like early Niven stories because of their simplicity.

I like Protector, World of Ptavvs, and A World Out Of Time. There's less of the deus ex machina fantasy tech in there (although plenty of improbable stuff), just a simple story with a character whose motivations are clear. The early Niven stuff also seems fascinated by psy power stuff, like it was fashionable in the '60s and '70s. Like Teela's luck... It makes it less hard sci-fi and just a bit more fun. I like the '60s flavor with the warp drives but computers that are still mainframes in the ARM's basement. It really shows that few people knew just what computers would become. Niven suddenly shoehorns in sprayable computers and webeyes in his newer novels and it just sticks out like a sore thumb to me.

The Integral Trees and The Smoke Ring are also books I like to re-read every so often.

I am not a big of fan of this modern trend of overly long and sprawling sci-fi epics with 12 books weighing in at 800 pages each... Just to re-spin the same basic stories I've read before. 9600 pages to say "Oh wow these guys live inside a black hole and are re-engineering the entire universe!" Yawn, read all about it in Pohl's Gateway novels and it at least had some fun and wonder in it!

Although now and then I find longer novels that are very fun to re-read, simply because I have no idea what's going on and each reading is fun in a different way. Kingsbury's "Psychohistorical Crisis" is one such novel, and I don't like it just because I worked with his son...

I also like humor in my sci-fi, and action... Keith Laumer and Rudy Rucker novels are great entertainment.
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Re: Going too far... WAY too far!

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When I was younger and I read the Ringworld series of books, what I loved about them is their sense of scale.

I thought to myself this can never be made into a movie because of such huge scale it has. Now after seeing Avatar back in 2009, I begin to think maybe these can be turned into movies.

To be honest with you, I felt "The Ringworld's Throne" was boring and IMHO shouldn't exist... maybe it can altogether be removed without losing too much of a good story. That's where the webeyes and other nanotechnology intellectual masturbation popped up and yes, it went too far.

Ringworld's Children, on the other hand, I really like. Especially the usage that was done of the Quantum level II drive and the fact Louis Wu was turned protector for a period of time.

My absolute joy moment, which I saw coming was:
"Where is the Ringworld ?"
"Yah."
"Yah ?"

And everything Baedeker (aka Hindmost) waged his way through to get access to/control of has vanished into oblivion, estimated distance of 3000 light years, well away from the fringe war which could rip apart.

In Fate of Worlds, Puppeteers also use the QL2 drive in a few astounding ways.

The Fleet of Worlds series I really like a lot because it makes sense, it's NOT people with clear motivations, how could anyone have clear motivations when faced with complete discovery of the total unknown, it is perfectly logical and coherent. It is complex people with "interests" faced with the immense complexity of places and beings they were never confronted to ever before.

i.e.: How Sigmund Ausfaller reacts when he figures out what the Outsiders are really about is a majestic slap in the face and a giant surprise. "Dire consequences"... what a hollow threat!

To me, that's far more interesting than a Star Wars like "clear motivations". Everyone's motivation is to stay alive and get the best you can from what life has to offer and this is made clear with Louis Wu's attitude in Betrayer of Worlds. If you take too much risks then you don't value your life, if you don't take any then you don't really live.

Fleet of Worlds et al brings coherence to many things that seemed incoherent in the Ringworld and Ringworld Engineers - such as Teela's hypothetical luck which was in fact just one of the ploys Nessus used to piss off the then young Kzin "Spreaker to animals" in order to get the tools needed to free his worlds from the tyranny of a biological supercomputer, the hive mind Ol't'ro.

It also explains why the "hindmost" seen in Ringworld is only a hologram - Chiron is a virtual creature.

There is no such thing as good vs bad or clear motivations, there is a bunch of people and sentient creatures trying to get the best possible outcome for themselves and those who matter to them, there is a handful of civilizations and their "interests". Such broad objectives never allow you to have "clear motivations" - unless you're a 5 years old kid with no clue of the complexity of life.

P.S.: The planet buster from Destroyer of Worlds is a magnificient toy too. Don't we all want one!!
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Re: Going too far... WAY too far!

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eslapion wrote:unless you're a 5 years old kid with no clue of the complexity of life.
Uh, it's precisely because I have a "clue of the complexity of life" that I want fun sci-fi. If I wanted complexity, I'll read my WWII history or watch the news...
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Re: Going too far... WAY too far!

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Simple fun sci-fi for Gyro...
Image
Clear motivations too... SUCK SUCK SUCK !

P.S.: THUMP! I want my planet buster now! THUMP-THUMP!
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Re: Going too far... WAY too far!

Post by Gyro Gearloose »

Oh brother...
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