Favorite Sci-Fi (if you must, Fantasy as well) Universes?

Started by Queequeg, May 12, 2009, 12:24:16 AM

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Neil

Hard to say.  My moods always change.  I always liked Known Space to one degree or another.  Foundation is neat.
I do not hate you, nor do I love you, but you are made out of atoms which I can use for something else.

Ed Anger

Battletech, succession wars, pre-clan bullshit

Black Company. At least the North. Screw that shit in Taglios.

The Dread Empire

Pournelle's CoDominium/Empire of Man

Traveller. pre virus and New Era

Starfire, before David Weber fucked with it.
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

Scipio

What I speak out of my mouth is the truth.  It burns like fire.
-Jose Canseco

There you go, giving a fuck when it ain't your turn to give a fuck.
-Every cop, The Wire

"It is always good to be known for one's Krapp."
-John Hurt

Neil

Quote from: Ed Anger on May 12, 2009, 07:34:35 AM
Battletech, succession wars, pre-clan bullshit
The Succession Wars were great, the Clan Wars were alright, the Dark Ages retarded.
QuoteTraveller. pre virus and New Era
Yeah, that was a wacky change.  Fucking Dulinor.
I do not hate you, nor do I love you, but you are made out of atoms which I can use for something else.

KRonn

Books: Song of Ice and Fire (George RR Martin), Rama. Dune, and probably others I can't think of.

Movies/TV: Stargate SG1 is a favorite. Star Trek though I've become tired of them, Babylon 5 which I got into late, Dune, Star Wars though a bit cartoonish I like it over all.


PDH

Quote from: grumbler on May 12, 2009, 07:09:02 AM
A universesto add for consideration:
H.B. Piper's Terro-Human Future History.  Built around the idea that history repeats itself, the series has fun for both history and SF fans.
:thumbsup:
I always loved Piper, and the effort to show that his T-F Future History was indeed coherent should have made this work better appreciated.
I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
-Umberto Eco

-------
"I'm pretty sure my level of depression has nothing to do with how much of a fucking asshole you are."

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Malthus

The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

Eddie Teach

Quote from: Viking on May 12, 2009, 07:21:48 AM
so you basically consider all of sci-fi and fantasy "not worth writing" ? or have I misunderstood you?

You misunderstood.
To sleep, perchance to dream. But in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?

Ed Anger

I'm slightly surprised that Spellus isn't a fan of Turtledove's Videssos, since it is Byzantium/Persia/Armenia with magic.
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

grumbler

Quote from: Ed Anger on May 12, 2009, 09:06:40 AM
I'm slightly surprised that Spellus isn't a fan of Turtledove's Videssos, since it is Byzantium/Persia/Armenia with magic.
Probably not even he could get through all 5 books (and that doesn't include however many books were in the later several series set in other time frames).

The whole problem with the Videssos 'verse is that, literally, "goddidit."  Given the actual existence of an omnipotent god and an omnipotent devil, the meaningless actions of a few mortals becomes uninteresting.

The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

Syt

Quote from: Ed Anger on May 12, 2009, 09:06:40 AM
I'm slightly surprised that Spellus isn't a fan of Turtledove's Videssos, since it is Byzantium/Persia/Armenia with magic.

I'm more surprised, even, that no one mentioned Gor yet.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

Ed Anger

Quote from: Syt on May 12, 2009, 09:28:56 AM
Quote from: Ed Anger on May 12, 2009, 09:06:40 AM
I'm slightly surprised that Spellus isn't a fan of Turtledove's Videssos, since it is Byzantium/Persia/Armenia with magic.

I'm more surprised, even, that no one mentioned Gor yet.

It slipped my mind.  :blush:
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

Viking

Quote from: Syt on May 12, 2009, 09:28:56 AM
Quote from: Ed Anger on May 12, 2009, 09:06:40 AM
I'm slightly surprised that Spellus isn't a fan of Turtledove's Videssos, since it is Byzantium/Persia/Armenia with magic.

I'm more surprised, even, that no one mentioned Gor yet.
:bleeding:

Edit: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4996410.stm

Edit2:There are an estimated 25,000 Goreans worldwide.
First Maxim - "There are only two amounts, too few and enough."
First Corollary - "You cannot have too many soldiers, only too few supplies."
Second Maxim - "Be willing to exchange a bad idea for a good one."
Second Corollary - "You can only be wrong or agree with me."

A terrorist which starts a slaughter quoting Locke, Burke and Mill has completely missed the point.
The fact remains that the only person or group to applaud the Norway massacre are random Islamists.

Ed Anger

Quote from: Viking on May 12, 2009, 09:31:56 AM
Quote from: Syt on May 12, 2009, 09:28:56 AM
Quote from: Ed Anger on May 12, 2009, 09:06:40 AM
I'm slightly surprised that Spellus isn't a fan of Turtledove's Videssos, since it is Byzantium/Persia/Armenia with magic.

I'm more surprised, even, that no one mentioned Gor yet.
:bleeding:



Edit: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4996410.stm
:lol:
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

Josquius

Quote from: grumbler on May 12, 2009, 07:09:02 AM
Viking, I would agree with your evaluations above, but note that Firefly wasn't supposed to be a coherent, logical universe like most of the others you name.  It was a setting, not a "universe" per se, and had few fast and firm rules.  Thus, if the story needed to have cattle being moved by starship like they had historical been moved by train, you could do it even if it made no sense in any larger context.

It was a fun show and a fun setting, but there was no "there" there.  I certainly don't feel deprived by the lack of any further stories in that 'verse.

A universesto add for consideration:
H.B. Piper's Terro-Human Future History.  Built around the idea that history repeats itself, the series has fun for both history and SF fans.


I'd agree on Firefly.
It was quite a shitty, very nonsencial universe. But a awesome, awesome series.
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