Elizabeth Moon - Vatta's War (5 books)

 

 

I cannot praise Elizabeth Moon enough. Her stories are always deep with well thought-out settings, characters and themes and feel incredibly authentic because of her very impressive and varied background which includes serving in the marines, being a paramedic and being in local government not to mention various hobbies that have obviously come in handy when writing like fencing and biology

Now I know where you got your nickname from.

A space opera TV series that borrows loosely from Star Wars, Star Trek, and Firefly:

 

It is a loose federation of alien species and worlds linked together by an ancient network of interdimensional channels ('gravity threads') that provide the equivalent of FTL travel. The main characters are members of a team belonging an organization that is  intended to enforce interstellar treaties. These grant rights and protections to the federation members, among these humans. Individuals are recruited to the organization based on their character and certain special qualities; whether it be advanced weapon skills, super-technical expertise, biopsionic powers, unusually adaptive physiology, or what have you. The team possesses a small vessel--roughly the equivalent of the Firefly vessel--plus ground skimming technology, tactical weaponry, an advanced med bay, and some colorful AI bots and droids.

You can try reading John Scalzi's Old Mans War series. It's not outstanding or anything but it's not terrible. It's like a ham sandwich. It's not exciting but sometimes you just want a ham sandwich.

That's the one I was going to mention. For some reason I really liked it, although I liked the first half more than the 2nd half. And like Malcador, I'd also say skip Zoe's Tale.

 

Haven't read much of anything recently, so I doubt I'd know of something Tale hasn't at least heard of before, and for TV/movies ... well, I haven't been very keen on such lately. I still watch a fair bit at times, but with a growing sense of generational alienation. Or just grumpiness.

 

Continuum is good for a Time Travel fix. 3rd season just started and is laying down the rules for Time Travel. Eureka was one of my favorites if you want something lighter. Defiance should be starting up again soon(Technically post-apocalyptic, but with aliens and more of a western frontier feel), as will Orphan Black (Clones).

Fan of all those shows, though Continuum isn't starting in the states until next week. One of Defiance's creators was a guy behind Farscape, so I'm hoping it gets up to that level, despite the small scope it is starting with.

 

I like Continuum, the second season was killer.

Schlock Mercenary by Howard Taylor

 

http://youtu.be/2cssgHm9KLE

 

http://youtu.be/3OdP17ZeEv8

 

 

Schlock Mercenary by Howard Taylor

When does that start to get good? I've tried reading it from the start a few times since he's one of the contributors to the Writing Excuses podcast, but those first strips are painful.

 

 

 

Continuum is good for a Time Travel fix. 3rd season just started and is laying down the rules for Time Travel. Eureka was one of my favorites if you want something lighter. Defiance should be starting up again soon(Technically post-apocalyptic, but with aliens and more of a western frontier feel), as will Orphan Black (Clones).

Fan of all those shows, though Continuum isn't starting in the states until next week. One of Defiance's creators was a guy behind Farscape, so I'm hoping it gets up to that level, despite the small scope it is starting with.

I like Continuum, the second season was killer.

Season 3 is messed up so far. Not in a bad way, but very game changing. Its darker.

 

Schlock Mercenary by Howard Taylor

When does that start to get good? I've tried reading it from the start a few times since he's one of the contributors to the Writing Excuses podcast, but those first strips are painful.

 

 

Sorry, I can't remember. it's been ages since I've read them. It did get better but if you're hating the early ones then it's probably not for you.

The Grimnoir series by Larry Correia's really good. Magic has been popping up in more and more people over the past century. At the current time Japan has ROFLSTOMPed Russia and now has giant zeppelin battleships and controls much of northern asia. Edison and Tesla were both Cogs who made insane inventions. In the case of Tesla, "Peace Rays" which are basically giant particle accelerator Death Rays

Sliders was good. Well except for the final two seasons.

I think you could argue its "sf-ness" based on the fact that its not a big SF concept show, and certainly a lower budget one considering its age and syndicated program status, but I was a fan of the Stahunter/Starhunter 2300 series. Bounty hunters on a re-purposed luxury space cruiser travel between earth and the outer planets (FTL is thought to be possible in the universe but hasn't been achieved) where various planets / moons are their own autonomous "states".

 

A lot of it is "bounty of the week" stuff, but its fun enough. There is a through story in both seasons, though, about human genetic potential, alien DNA, the pursuit of FTL and familial drama (in both seasons people are searching for missing family members and trouble with relatives is a common occurrence) First season has Michael Pare' as the ships lead who is using the bounty hunting jobs to look for his kidnapped son; the second season follows the son looking for his missing father. Tanya Allen's Percy Montana and Stephen Marcus' Rudolpho are bright spots in both series/seasons.

I don't know if it counts as classic Sci-Fi or not, but I'm a sucker for the original Philip Jose Farmer Riverworld books.

 

http://www.pjfarmer.com/riverwld.htm

 

To Your Scattered Bodies Go is groovier than a groovy thing riding a PVC unicorn. Highly recommended.

 

Oh, and if you dig the idea of Sam Clemens and Hermann Goering building rival riverboats and conducting naval warfare on a terra-formed planet where all humans have been mysteriously resurrected... then this is the series for you.

I liked RiverWorld, the movie was also good.

Edit: that just reminded me, Jules Verne's "Mysterious Island".
Seriously, when in doubt go for the classics. If you don't enjoy them at least you can look sophisticated in polite company.

 

Edited April 2, 201411 yr by Orogun01