Sci-fi/Fantasy recommendations

[The Brain]

Wow. A billion years? Has this ever been bettered? Maybe in 20-30 years we'll be able to write stories about 10 billion years from now (!).

People didn't know you could count to a billion before 1930.  By 1960, the limit was 30 billion. This was discovered by having everyone on Earth count to ten which made about 30 billion.  I've head at CERN they are working on a program to find the highest number possible by having everyone in the world count to a hundred, but they have run into a lot of problems due to large swaths of the population being unable to count beyond the number of fingers and toes they have.

This is why most successful mathematicians are Kentuckians.

[Razgovory]

The tendency to use lose their digits in youthful games of Possum Ball, has caused them to discard the crutch of counting on their fingers.

[Razgovory]

It's a product of it's era, and how it helped to re-define that era of sci-fi.  Much of what made Dune unique is now commonplace.  The very far-future setting, the epic scope, the detailed world-design.

What made Dune so fresh was its future mix of science and "magic" psychological effects.  While the writing included a lot of "telling, not showing" elements, much of what the audience was told was false and many of the narrators unreliable.  I enjoyed the way that Herbert had the reader and the characters discover a number of misapprehensions together.

Never cared for space wizards, but that's a personal thing.

[The Brain]

Languish is the mind killer.

[mongers]

What about some British authors other than Tolkien and CS Lewis?

[Queequeg]

It's not wizardry, exactly.  Actually, wasn't a lot of Dune's science kind of trendy in the mid-60s? 

[The Brain]

What about some British authors other than Tolkien and CS Lewis?

Michael Moorcock.

"The fly smiled at him."

[mongers]

What about some British authors other than Tolkien and CS Lewis?

Michael Moorcock.

"The fly smiled at him."

Some Moorcock can be fun and entertaining, though a lot, as he'd probably admit was written for rent money etc. 


That's not to say he isn't a real talent; I'd be happy to string together lines like some of his lesser sentences. 

[Malthus]

What about some British authors other than Tolkien and CS Lewis?

What about Peake?

I know it won't be popular in these parts, but I love Gormenghast. 

[The Brain]

What about some British authors other than Tolkien and CS Lewis?

What about Peake?

I know it won't be popular in these parts, but I love Gormenghast. 

[mongers]

Since Shelf started this thread, what about this one, set around 10 miles from his family ancestral seat:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/A-Dream-Wessex-Christopher-Priest/dp/057512153X/ref=pd_cp_b_0/278-4424391-6112363

Don't read the positive reviews, as they seem to give away too many key plot points. 

[Eddie Teach]

What about some British authors other than Tolkien and CS Lewis?

J.K. Rowling 

[Barrister]

What about some British authors other than Tolkien and CS Lewis?

J.K. Rowling 

All kidding aside Harry Potter is a fine recommendation to sci-fi/fantasy fans who haven't read it yet.

[The Brain]

What about some British authors other than Tolkien and CS Lewis?

J.K. Rowling 

All kidding aside Harry Potter is a fine recommendation to sci-fi/fantasy fans who haven't read it yet.

[Ideologue]

It's not wizardry, exactly.  Actually, wasn't a lot of Dune's science kind of trendy in the mid-60s?

I think the Soviets had abandoned the search for a killing word by that point.

I've never read Dune, and there's a good chance I never will.  There's still like twenty Arthur C. Clarke novels I haven't read yet.  I'll probably listen to "Big Battle" on the proper occasion, however.