Rabrrrrrr
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Sat Feb-07-04 07:17 PM
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Just started Niven's "Ringworld" today |
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Edited on Sat Feb-07-04 07:18 PM by Rabrrrrrr
Wow! Never read it before, and haven't read any real science fiction (like, the old stuff) in years.
(I heave a really deep satisfied sigh.......) there's just nothing like the older style of science-fiction. Not the new stuff is bad - it's also great - but wow, I realize how much I've missed this older stuff.
Also bought Clark's Rendezvous with Rama, which I've never read.
Please, don't offer any spoilers about either book - I don't want to know the ending.
I just miss this style of writing. Not that it's better or worse, but no one writes this way any more.
ALSO: does anyone know if anyone's written a science fiction book about Dyson spheres?
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Kamika
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Sat Feb-07-04 07:20 PM
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Isn't ringworld more of a comic fantasy book?
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Rabrrrrrr
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Sat Feb-07-04 07:21 PM
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Kamika
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Sat Feb-07-04 07:24 PM
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4. Isn't ringworld the book about that magician |
Rabrrrrrr
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Sat Feb-07-04 07:27 PM
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6. No, it's about a ringworld - |
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Edited on Sat Feb-07-04 07:28 PM by Rabrrrrrr
which kind of like a dyson sphere, except a band, not a sphere. It's set set in the future.
In the book, a couple humans and two other aliens go to it to find out what it is, after one alien race discoveres it's presence via telescopes.
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C_eh_N_eh_D_eh
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Sat Feb-07-04 07:33 PM
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8. You're thinking of Terry Pratchett's "Discworld". |
Kamika
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Sat Feb-07-04 07:46 PM
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Thanks..
Easy to get confused
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nostamj
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Sat Feb-07-04 07:22 PM
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3. you are in for a WONDERFUL adventure |
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enjoy! Niven is a world-builder
and if you haven't yet:
Varley's GAEA Trilogy anything by Forward and the Brin "Uplift Universe" trilogy and MZB "Darkover" and Dan Simmons "Hyperion" series and anything Sherri Tepper writes
and... well, that should keep anyone busy! ;-)
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Dudley_DUright
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Sat Feb-07-04 07:26 PM
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5. Brin has more books than the original three in the uplift series |
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I have them all in my library. Another excellent book outside the uplift series is "Earth".
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nostamj
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Sat Feb-07-04 07:35 PM
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12. i know D_D! I know... |
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I have read every word in print (that I know of) by Brin, Varley, Forward, Baxter, Hamilton (how did I skip THE REALITY DYSFUNCTION in my first list!!??) along with Niven and others.
and yes, "earth" was great. and btw, if you haven't read Varley's GOLDEN GLOBE yet...... a totally original and genuinely FUNNY read. one-of-a-kind!
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Dudley_DUright
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Sat Feb-07-04 07:39 PM
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17. Thanks for the recommendation |
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I am always looking for good new (to me anyway) authors.
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nostamj
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Sat Feb-07-04 07:43 PM
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19. if you like Brin you will like Varley |
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he hasn't written that much, but each one is a gem. TITAN/WIZARD/DEMON, STEEL BEACH, GOLDEN GLOBE
he is a true "world-builder" with the ability (like Brin & Forward) to bring you *into* an alien consciousness....
oh, i do go on about my favs!
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Kellanved
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Sat Feb-07-04 07:28 PM
Response to Original message |
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Edited on Sat Feb-07-04 07:28 PM by Kellanved
Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker features "Dyson" spheres - it's 20 years older than Dyson's theory. Other than that I remember a Star Trek episode and I have one novel (unread) on my shelf that seems to feature one: Williams & Dix: Echoes of Earth .
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Rabrrrrrr
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Sat Feb-07-04 07:34 PM
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10. yeah, TNG's "relics" had a Dyson sphere |
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But that was more about aging and being outdated than the Sphere itself.
Thanks for the book recommendations! I didn't realize someone else posited Dyson spheres before Dyson.
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slack
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Sat Feb-07-04 07:33 PM
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try "The Mote in God's Eye" by Niven & Pournelle.
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bubblesby2002
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Sat Feb-07-04 07:36 PM
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13. I loved that book and get it out every once in while and |
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re-read it. It's about time for me to read it again.
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Rabrrrrrr
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Sat Feb-07-04 07:38 PM
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16. And I loved Niven's take on Dante's "Inferno" |
HawkerHurricane
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Sat Feb-07-04 07:35 PM
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11. One Ring(world) to rule them all... |
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The Ringworld books (now a trilogy) are awesome 'hard' science fiction...
And the second was inspired by a mistake in the first caught by a fan...
I can also recommend Larry Niven's Protector* The Mote in God's Eye Man - Kzin Wars* Tales of Known Space* King David's Spaceship
*stories that tie in to Ringworld. Many of Larry Niven's books tie into a 'history' of humanity and it's neighbors... But they stand up on thier own, and don't need to be read in any order. But I recomend (strongly) Protector before reading any of the others, as it seems to be the 'base' story.
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nostamj
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Sat Feb-07-04 07:36 PM
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14. "The Mote in God's Eye" absolute must |
Dudley_DUright
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Sat Feb-07-04 07:41 PM
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18. Got to love those Kzin with their pink parasol ears |
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Edited on Sat Feb-07-04 07:47 PM by Dudley_DUright
and their nasty claws and teeth.
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HawkerHurricane
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Sat Feb-07-04 08:00 PM
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21. Scream and Leap (Kzin battle tactics) |
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The Kzin thought they'd have it easy against the peace loving monkey boys from Earth. After all, hadn't they given up on war over 200 years ago? But faster than you could say Ghengis Khan or Napoleon, the vegetable eating Humans were all over the Kzin like stink on a ape. And that is when the Kzin found out why Humanity had given up on warfare. Because they were very, very good at it. (from the back cover of Man-Kzin Wars)
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Rabrrrrrr
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Sat Feb-07-04 08:36 PM
Response to Reply #21 |
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Very briefly alluded to in Ringworld (when I finished reading today, I'd just passed like page 78, and there was a brief mention about the warfare style of the humans vs. Kzin on like page 75, plus, of course, the earlier talking about how the Kzin would lose like 2/3 of their forces in ever attack).
So if there's anything after that, I don't know.
But, I'm gonna leave DU and go read more of the book in a little bit. :-)
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pfitz59
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Sat Feb-07-04 07:37 PM
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hobbes159
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Sat Feb-07-04 09:08 PM
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23. The Ringworld is often studied in physics classes |
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It's a good exercise in calculating orbital mechanics and other things (not my field though!) Niven actually included a lot of outside work from people into the physics of the Ringworld in his second book, "The Ringworld Engineers". For example (from the author's note in "Engineers"):
A Florida high school class determined the need for the spillpipe system.
From a Cambridge professor came an estimate for the tensile strength of scrith.
During a speech in Boston someone in the audience pointed out that, mathematically, the Ringworld can be treated as a suspension bridge with no endpoints.
From all directions came news of the need for attitude jets. (During the 1971 World Science Fiction Convention, MIT students were chanting in the hotel hallways: THE RING WORLD IS UNSTABLE!)
I also highly recommend anything by David Brin. "Earth" is one of my favorites; "Heart of the Comet" (about colonizing Halley's Comet) is also excellent...
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gate of the sun
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Sat Feb-07-04 09:31 PM
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the first sci-fi ever read when I was 17 that was many years ago. for awhile I read arthur C. clarke with a venegance then proceeded on to many other great and not so great Sci-fi writers..Ringworld read that too didn't leave a lasting memory I'm sorry to say.
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