The Sci-fi and Fantasy thread

  • Ok, here my try of the translation of Nephele's post:

    Currently I´m re-reading some old, much-loved cyperpunk books - to be exact THE novels that really kicked off the Cyberpunk genre: Neuromancer, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive by Wiliam Gibson. And frankly, they are still as entertaining as they were 20 years ago.

    Of course I also read the usual writers. I read Tolkien the first time when I was 9 years old, as well as the Cronicles of Narnia and Alice in Wonderland. I´m stil a big Tokien fan today, even if I sometimes wonder, while reading, if the "Silicon Anti-Defamation League" knows about that stuff. More than 20 years of Discworld leave their marks. :)
    I liked Narnia as a child, but I never really fell in love with it.
    And Alice... I read the two books years later again and I´m thinking that with mushrooms there is more fun. (I bet the author himself took some. Did you notice how often mushrooms show up?)
    My all-time favourites are these three German authors: ETA Hoffman, Michael Ende and Walter Moers. All their books were translated to English, so if someone wants to read some more unfamiliar writers, try them out. :)

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    Zumindest Michael Ende's Bücher (und die Filme): Momo und Die unendliche Geschichte sollten auch im Englischen bekannt sein. ;)

    At least Michael Ende´s books Momo and The Neverending Story should be know in English, too. There were also movies. ;)

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    Nephele: Trau dich nur auch englisch zu schreiben. Egal wie fehlerhaft, es wird sicher keiner Lachen. Ich hab mir in englischen Foren mein Schulenglisch wieder aufgefrischt. Solang du nicht versuchst Sprichwörter eins zu eins zu überstzen kann nix passieren. ;) :P

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  • @ idril: yes, right Karl May is also a good example of overly christian allegories.And i used to love him as a kid! :( Perhaps i lost some of my innocence ...And i have to state that i'm christian myself, i just can't stand this "my religion is better than yours, my god is the only one who can make you go to paradise" phrases.(they exist in many religions, not only in christianity)
    @ MiaSkywalker: Oh! Yes! Patricia McKillip! I enjoyed her Riddle Master triology a lot. Couldn't lay my hands on her other books though, perhaps i've to search again....
    @ Nephele: Ja,ja der gute Terry haust immer irgendwo im Hintergrund und gibt Kommentare! :D ich liebe diesen hintergründigen Humor, der Patrizier ist meine absolute Lieblingsfigur von der Scheibenwelt.
    Zählen eigentlich die Shadow Run Bücher auch zur Kategorie Cyberpunk? Die ersten drei fand ich echt Klasse, sehr originell eine hochtechnologisierte Welt in der Magie und magische Wesen ebenbürtig zur Technik existiert zu erschaffen....Hut ab!

  • MilkaQ: I found most of her books through Amazon; they were used. But that was years ago, and I'm not sure you can anymore. They've all been out of print for ages, although you can probably buy them for Kindle on Amazon. They might even be free, though I doubt it; it takes 50 years for a book to become public domain. Riddle Master is actually what hooked me onto her. But I really think Forgotten Beasts was her best work. It's just so poetic and beautiful, almost like you're in a surreal dream. :) I've read a few other of her more obscure works and felt similarly, but I always go back to Eld in the end. :) Btw, I have named many of my EQ2 characters after characters from Riddle Master. What does that say about me?

    @Nepehe: Those cyberpunk books sound interesting - I'll have to look into them. I can't read German so I certainly hope there's an English version for them! :)

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    My Garden - My Dragon Cave Scroll

  • William Gibson is an American writer, so no problem with that ;)
    I used to read cyberpunk, too, Gibson, Walter Jon Williams, Jon Courtenay Grimwood - but well, we're living in cyberpunk now, in a way, so it lost its appeal a bit.

  • Thanks for the translation. <3
    MilkaQ:
    Mein Lieblingszitat stammt von Granny Wetterwax "Natürlich weiß ich das es Götter gibt, aber man muß deshalb noch lange nicht an sie glauben. Das ermutigt sie nur."
    Shadow Run ist das Ergebnis der ersten Cyberpunkwelle, das die auch mit Magie hadwerken passt irgendwie schon zum Cyberpunk. Die Verindung von Technik, magie und Co finde ich ohnehin sehr reiizvoll und benutze sie selbst ganz gerne. Auch wenn bis jetzt noch in beiden Richtungen nicht viel passiert ist, wer mal reinlesen will: http://hochharzhexe.de/?p=6 Viertes Kapitel ist grad in der Überarbeitung.

  • Ok, I don't know German, but I just saw the words Shadow Run! I used to play a tabletop RPG by that name - it was a lot of fun! I had a character who could jack in to computers, and had some cyborg body parts, I think. It was a very fun game. :)

    Is that the same Shadow Run? Or are you referring to a book or set of books by that name?

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    My Garden - My Dragon Cave Scroll

  • @ idril: yes, right Karl May is also a good example of overly christian allegories.And i used to love him as a kid! :( Perhaps i lost some of my innocence ...And i have to state that i'm christian myself, i just can't stand this "my religion is better than yours, my god is the only one who can make you go to paradise" phrases.(they exist in many religions, not only in christianity)

    Can´t remember any christian allegories, to be honest, I was in primary school when I read the books. I was more refering to the depiction of native americans. No one would believe what and how he wrote about Indians today, some would probably even feel offended. Maybe it was a bad example....
    But I can´t stand overly religious beliefs neither. And to go back to sci-fi again, that´s why I really hated the Ori in the later seasons of Stargate SG-1. On the other side, with the Ori they creatores reacted to current events. ;)

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  • I watched Wonderland, and I loved it, but they canceled it. I stopped watching Grimm for lack of time, same with the original Once Upon a Time. Never watched Supernatural. I'm sure I would have liked it, but once again; no time.

    I don't really watch TV much at all. Wonderland was it while it was on. Once Upon a Time and Grimm were the only two shows I watched during their first season; then I stopped having time and never watched them for the second season. I don't watch anything else at all.

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    My Garden - My Dragon Cave Scroll

  • Really, they canceled Wonderland? :( I didn´t know that yet. The Knave is my favourite character. I love his accent. :D I hope the main show doesn´t get canceled too. I need my weekly dose of Hook. ;)

    I like Grimm, although the 3rd season is a bit weak, mainly because of the German in it. And the Wesen lore mostly being in German and so. :)

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  • Well, that's what I was told. I was very disappointed; it ended on a cliffhanger and I want to know what happens to the Knave. I love him too - he's just awesome. :) Alice is a little too "perfect", but she's a great foil for the Knave.

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    My Garden - My Dragon Cave Scroll

  • Ok, I just did some checking. Last summer someone I trusted told me that the show was canceled and that it wouldn't be on this year. Because I don't watch television I don't look at the TV guide, and because I trusted her, I didn't check. Because of what you said, I just looked at the site and discovered that I've missed this entire season. I'm really pissed at her right now. She acted like she KNEW it had been canceled, and it was a foregone conclusion. I strongly dislike watching shows online (you get interrupted even worse than on TV, the image is poor quality, and my computer room isn't exactly set up for me to sit and view something comfortably), so I'm going to have to get the show in DVD now to catch up on it. That means that I will never be able to watch it while it airs, because they won't release a season on DVD until after the next season is over. It was the ONLY show I watched, so now I am understandably quite irritated with the person that misinformed me.

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    My Garden - My Dragon Cave Scroll

  • Ah, I was confused by your comment, because I haven´t read anywhere that it had been canceled. According to wikipedia they intended from the beginning to go only for a 13 episodes season. They haven´t renewed teh show for a 2nd season, though... yet...

    I don´t watch TV either. I don´t even have one. I mainly get my shows from the internet. If I had to wait till a show is aired over here I´d had to wait for about a year. X( And I prefer to watch everything in English...

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  • I watch things mostly on netflix or hulu - watched Grimm and it was good - then I seem to have missed some because next time I looked season 3 was on and they aren't showing season 2 - so I'm stuck. I really liked Once upon a time for the first season - after that it got kind of - hmmm - I guess like wow when is the happily ever after gonna get here. :) Haven't tried the Wonderland version yet.

    This genre however is my thing lol. Grew up on the original star trek and have sampled a bit of most Sci Fi since then. As for books you gals have brought back some very fond memories. LOVE Tanith Lee and Anne McCaffrey. Idril you hafta read at least the first few of the Pern books. Like any limited universe series some of the later ones can be kind of repetitive - retelling parts of the same story from someone elses perspective, she was still a superb writer. I wanna be a Gold rider lol. Adored Flinx and his little snake - wish there were more of those books. Think I've read everything mentioned so far except maybe the cyberpunk stuff - may hafta find them. I have too many authors I love to list em all. Currently working my way thru Orson Scott Card's 2 sets of 4 lol. Previously I'd only read Ender's Game and the first book from Bean's point of view so it was a pleasant surprise to find out there was more.

  • You wish there were MORE Flynx books? You do realize he wrote 14 or 15 of them, right? :) I've got the entire series on audiobook, and the reader is fantastic. I love that series almost as much as I do both the Riddlemaster and Belgariad series. :)

    Yes, Pern was fun. I got a bit soured on it with some of Anne McCaffrey's attitudes right before she passed away. I will still read the books, I just have to deliberately ignore what her personality was like towards her fans. (She was NOT very nice towards her fans at the end.)

    Seriously, though, if like high fantasy and you've never read anything by Patricia Wrede you MUST read some of her stuff. Some of her books are out of print and hard to find (and expensive), but the Enchanted Forest Chronicles are not. I read EFC in almost the reverse chronological order, because that's the way she wrote them. She actually wrote the third book first, then went back and wrote the first two books. She realized that some of the characters she had only touched on briefly in that book were just too intriguing and had to have more written about them. But that series is more tongue in cheek than most of her works. The books of hers that are very hard to find are fantastic; I think most of them are in the same fantasy universe, but aren't necessarily related titles. (A few are, but you can read one without reading the others, and although you may not know the entire backstory, it doesn't make the story difficult to understand. It's just that if you read ALL of the books the depth is richer than if you don't.) EFC, however, IS a related series; you can read book 3 by itself, but you don't want to read 1 and/or 2 without reading all three. Technically EFC is for "young adults" but I enjoyed it; it's light reading that is fun and amusing.

    At this point I think I'm going to buy Wonderland on DVD when it's out, so I can watch it all, since I've missed a lot of it. I only watched Once Upon a Time the first season, but didn't have time the second season. Now I'd need to watch the earlier seasons in order to catch up, but my parents - who watch it regularly - say it's not as good as the first season. So I might not.

    I don't watch netflix or hulu. I don't know if our TV is set up for it, and I hate watching things on my computer. I buy DVDs and watch those. Then I don't have to worry about wonky internet connections or anything crazy like that.

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    My Garden - My Dragon Cave Scroll

  • I watch my shows mostly on my computer. I'd prefer tv, because then there'll be subtitles, but most of what I like just doesn't get shown over here. I don't buy DVDs because I don't re-watch which makes them a waste of money.

    I'm still watching Once Upon a Time, though I haven't really liked it after first season. But sometimes it does have good episodes and some good character have been introduced. I am disappointed with the latest developments since they brought back a character I'd hoped they'd got rid of for good.

    Grimm is currently one of my favourites to watch. I almost gave it up because second season was pretty bad, but season three has been great so far.

    Does Person of Interest count as sci-fi? It's set in basically today, but I think the Machine counts as a sci-fi element. I'm also watching Agents of SHIELD and I'm looking forward to when Sleepy Hollow will be back on screen.