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Mordoch
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Denver, Colorado
Jan 2002
time: 05:30
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I nominate The Mote in Gods Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
quote:
In the year 3016, the Second Empire of Man spans hundreds of star systems, thanks to the faster-than-light Alderson Drive. No other intelligent beings have ever been encountered, not until a light sail probe enters a human system carrying a dead alien. The probe is traced to the Mote, an isolated star in a thick dust cloud, and an expedition is dispatched.
In the Mote the humans find an ancient civilization--at least one million years old--that has always been bottled up in their cloistered solar system for lack of a star drive. The Moties are welcoming and kind, yet rather evasive about certain aspects of their society. It seems the Moties have a dark problem, one they've been unable to solve in over a million years.
This is the first collaboration between Niven and Pournelle, two masters of hard science fiction, and it combines Pournelle's interest in the military and sociology with Niven's talent for creating interesting, believable aliens. The novel meticulously examines every aspect of First Contact, from the Moties' biology, society, and art, to the effects of the meeting on humanity's economics, politics, and religions. And all the while suspense builds as we watch the humans struggle toward the truth. |
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...785750?v=glance
This book is a sci-fi classic which looks at what might happen with first contact with an alien species in a way that other novels don't. What makes it particularly interesting is the level of paranoia that the humans show in dealing with the alien Moties, while the Moties have their own secrets to conceal.
Last edited by Mordoch on 13-09-2003 at 07:19
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Immortal Wombat
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in perpetuity
Dec 2000
time: 05:30
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Barefoot in the Head by Brian Aldiss.
quote:
In a world torn apart by hallucinogenic madness, a Europe in ruins, people ride the riff of the psychedelic music playing nonstop in their brains. After the "Kuwaiti millionaire" pilots flying French-made attack aircraft have aerosoled the Old World of Europe back into a mental Stone Age with the ultimate chemical weapon. A befuddled mass awaits the Messiah, an acid Moses ready to lead his people out of Past Times, and into the new. Man the Driver cometh.
Brian Aldiss' book Barefoot in the Head (Faber, 1969) is a no-contest work of genius. It's an acid Ulysses, difficult in proportion to the revelations contained. And it is quite a difficult book, a jungle of homonyms and allusive puns. Out of Serbia comes Charteris, his mind subverted by the persistent psychedelic agent dropped on Europe by an Arab coalition. He senses that the barriers of mind and time have fallen, and that the New Order is ready to be born. In a twisted Gurdjieffian gestalt, he sees himself as a spider, sitting in the middle of a web, each strand of which is another possible reality, all valid, the universe a multivalued matrix of potentiality. Through this matrix rolls Man the Driver, the avatar of the Metaphor of the Road. Charteris comes out of the continent to England, gathering his people for the great road trip back to the Wilderness world of the New Mind, where the wrongness of the Old world may be shed. He sees his Road as an endless chain of photographs, each freezing a tiny instant of time, from which any number of things may arise, which only can be known to Man the Driver.
The road trip is a combination of Mad Max, a portable Glastonbury Festival, and a literate language game. Many chapters end with the lyrics of the camp-follower bands or poetic meditations on the story, a strange acid haiku. The minds' eye points-of-view of Charteris and his travelling companion Angeline portrays the breakdown of their old mental structures under the influence of the PCA bombs. On one hand, Europe is falling under the spell of a chemical dance of madness, which is destroying civilization. On the other, Charteris' crusade is developing the tools to work within a new reality, and to make the choice between the known errors of the Old world and the possibilities of the New.
Barefoot in the Head's hallucinogenic, punning, stream-of-consciousness narrative makes this is a tale for clear heads; don't try and read it when you're dozin'. It just won't work. Four stars for story as well as challenge. Aldiss' near-future works are always good (also check out his recent Somewhere East of Life, Carroll & Graf, New York 1994), and this is his masterpiece. |
Trippy but awesome.
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Jon Miller
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quote:
Originally posted by Boshko
The Coldfire ones Jon? |
I am actually not sure about those ones (but I would put them greater than or equal to in conquest born)
the other one (stand alone, I think) I deffinitely think is better (something about aleins within)
Jon Miller
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Jon Miller
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I liked Rendevous with Rama but it was only good not great and the other books got progressively worse (soon reaching very very bad)
I would like to nominate cyteen by cherryh
Jon Miller
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Koyaanisqatsi
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of Maine paupers.
May 1999
time: 00:30
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James P. Hogan, The Proteus Operation
Not a serious or heavy-duty sci-fi by any means, but it is a fun book with a strong plot and an entertaining read. From the author:
quote:
The story opens in the 1970's of a world in which England capitulated in 1940, Japan went the other way in 1941 and attacked the Soviet Union from the east, and the U.S. remained isolationist until it was too late. The result is a world dominated by totalitarian empires, in which the only vestiges left of the Western democracies are North America and Australia-New Zealand. JFK is President, the Japanese are initiating a move on the Hawaiian islands as a prelude to isolating the last two Western strongholds, and the brightest future that anyone on this side can expect to is to go down fighting. . . .
Until an unexpected development involving some astonishing technology offers the possibility of sending people back in a bid to change things. Because of limits with the capability, we can't send them back beyond January, 1939. So everything that happened before that--Hitler's coming to power; the reoccupation of the Rhineland; Czechoslovakia and Munich; the Austrian Anschluss--we're stuck with. Also, the number of people we can send is restricted to a dozen. So whom would you pick to make up such a mission, that would have the best chance of making a difference? |
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Mordoch
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Denver, Colorado
Jan 2002
time: 05:30
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quote:
Originally posted by dv8ed
James P. Hogan, The Proteus Operation
Not a serious or heavy-duty sci-fi by any means, but it is a fun book with a strong plot and an entertaining read. |
I realize we're supposed to be nominating books right now instead of talking about them in general, but it would seem that one of the most decisive things these people could do would be take technology from the 1970's back to 1939. Taking actual pieces of technology and blue prints would be the best, but even sending back people with details knowledge of key technologies could work. Was this considered in the actual book?
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Mordoch
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Denver, Colorado
Jan 2002
time: 05:30
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quote:
Originally posted by dv8ed
In fact, that's one of the major problems... |
By this do you mean this is one of the major things the book addresses, or that for some inexplicable reason the people involved with setting up the mission didn't consider this possibility at all?
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Jon Miller
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quote:
Originally posted by Wraith
--"the other one (stand alone, I think) I deffinitely think is better (something about aleins within)"
The Alien Shore perhaps? Or The Madness Season?
Wraith
"Fred the alien," Yang thought disgustedly. "What next?"
-- The Madness Season - C. S. Friedman |
actually I like both better
but I thought that The Alien Shore was very good
Jon Miller
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flipside
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for Sean Marcelo
Jun 2003
time: 05:30
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no nomination but read Iain Bank's "culture" series. They are very good at developing certain themes and yet the characterisation is still strong.
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13-09-2003 05:04
ACK!
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