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

[sbr]

There are only 3 Star Wars movies.

And the last one of those was borderline.

ewoks =

Quit being such a faggot.

I'm a faggot for not likeing ewoks? 

[Syt]

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.

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

Edit2:There are an estimated 25,000 Goreans worldwide.

HOTT

[The Brain]

Haven't read a lot of SF and Fantasy, especially not in the last 15-20 years. Anyway...

Some universes I like:

LotR: sentimental reasons mainly.

Warhammer 40k: a triumph of corporate creativity. Great subtlety, especially considering that it is a commercial game setting for kids.

[vinraith]

Urth of the New Sun.

Oh good, someone else here has read those books.

And yeah, in my original post I completely forgot Asimov's Foundation, which certainly belongs on the list.

[Faeelin]

Oh good, someone else here has read those books.

And yeah, in my original post I completely forgot Asimov's Foundation, which certainly belongs on the list.

I don't get the foundation love. They were cute, sure, but they were also a bit... I dunno. Maybe it's just the way they're dated, to me. "Oh, this is my fission powered garbage can. And behold the triumph of Foundation miniaturization, a pocket calculator!"

I think the bigger problem is my enjoyment of the first three books was ruined by the stuff he wrote later, in his grand scheme to tie all his stories together.

Aasimov could write astonishingly well, though, and showed something that is now passe in most scifi, optimism about the future. The Stars, Like Dust, is a bit silly at times, but it's very clearly of a time when people (or at least white male scifi authors) felt optimistic about the future.

[Faeelin]

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.

Doesn't this ruin most fantasy works then?

Even Tolkien, in LOTR, talks about some sort of invisible hand guiding things so righteousness prevails.

[saskganesh]

Middle Earth, though its trite now, as it has lost a lot of mystique.

... Westeros (damn you FatMan)

Tigana (a one shot, but a good one). Kaye is pretty good at creating "alternatives." As he would create a new world every book, but all based on some period of real history, his worlds seemed to make enough sense without him having to spend a lot of time on it.

the alt NA in Piper's "Lord Kalvan". I loved the politics around the gunpowder controlling church.

[Neil]

I'm a faggot for not likeing ewoks? 

Yes.  Trying to be too cool for school only results in failure and faggotry.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

I like the various multiverses in both Marvel & DC comics. as far as movies go Trek-verse probably. though I like the Star Wars universe also. (much more than most of the movies.... so much potential) also Firefly is a nice and well defined considering the dearth of material. B5-verse is also very cool.

[The Brain]

Westeros fails since it happens to be a bland industrial city in central Sweden.

[vinraith]

I'm a faggot for not likeing ewoks? 

Yes.  Trying to be too cool for school only results in failure and faggotry.

While the ewok hate is has grown to a kind of frantic nerd rage reserved for people that care too damn much about those movies to begin with, it's not unreasonable to mourn the original, darker plot elements of that third movie. Han sacrificing himself to destroy the Death Star, for example, always struck me as a poetic way to go out (and a way to avoid hundreds of crappy novels about him, for that matter).

[Viking]

Westeros fails since it happens to be a bland industrial city in central Sweden.

I know Belgium is fiction, but I didn't think Västerås was fictional as well?

[grumbler]

I don't get the foundation love. They were cute, sure, but they were also a bit... I dunno. Maybe it's just the way they're dated, to me. "Oh, this is my fission powered garbage can. And behold the triumph of Foundation miniaturization, a pocket calculator!"

The originals suffered from this, but also from the fact that the only memorable character in them was The Mule, and he was memorable solely because Asimov made him a freak.

I think the bigger problem is my enjoyment of the first three books was ruined by the stuff he wrote later, in his grand scheme to tie all his stories together.

Aasimov could write astonishingly well, though, and showed something that is now passe in most scifi, optimism about the future. The Stars, Like Dust, is a bit silly at times, but it's very clearly of a time when people (or at least white male scifi authors) felt optimistic about the future.

The later books definitely lacked even the limited appeal of the first books.  Asimov was like Niven, I think:  he could create great concepts for stories, but was a mediocre writer at best so most of these great story ideas became mediocre books.

[Neil]

While the ewok hate is has grown to a kind of frantic nerd rage reserved for people that care too damn much about those movies to begin with, it's not unreasonable to mourn the original, darker plot elements of that third movie. Han sacrificing himself to destroy the Death Star, for example, always struck me as a poetic way to go out (and a way to avoid hundreds of crappy novels about him, for that matter).

I don't have any problem with a happy ending.

The ewoks taught us an invaluable lesson about racism, and so are just fine.

[grumbler]

Doesn't this ruin most fantasy works then?

Even Tolkien, in LOTR, talks about some sort of invisible hand guiding things so righteousness prevails.

In LOTR, the "supernatural" forces acting for good have little ability other than to subtly effect weather and the like.  In The legion series, the good guys triumph when the devil literally drags his minion (the main bad guy) into hell, in the middle of the climactic battle.