A small thing for SciFi writers. - Page 4

Ninjalawyer · 08-13-2014, 10:45 AM

For hard SF, I really liked Stephen Baxter's short story collections (one I recall was Vacuum Diagrams). The couple of novels of his I've read I wasn't in love with (Manifold Time and Manifold Space) because the characters seemed flat to me, but his short stories moved along at a brisk enough pace that I didn't notice.

Rizla · 08-17-2014, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ninjalawyer

For hard SF, I really liked Stephen Baxter's short story collections (one I recall was Vacuum Diagrams). The couple of novels of his I've read I wasn't in love with (Manifold Time and Manifold Space) because the characters seemed flat to me, but his short stories moved along at a brisk enough pace that I didn't notice.

Yeah, I find a lot of his stuff cold. IMO his best work is The Time Ships and Time's Eye written with Arthur C Clarke.

HarryT · 08-17-2014, 12:49 PM

"The Time Ships" is excellent - an authorised sequel to H.G. Wells's "The Time Machine". You're right that characterisation isn't Baxter's strength, but even so I think he writes excellent books.

VydorScope · 08-17-2014, 04:17 PM

This calls for:

(warning - one curse on the screen - audio is clean)

ApK · 08-17-2014, 07:18 PM

Where was there a curse on the screen??

Dngrsone · 08-18-2014, 12:37 AM

I didn't see it either.

cromag · 08-18-2014, 03:40 AM

If you have "Annotations On" it comes up at about the 1:05 mark. If you have that setting Off it doesn't come up.

VydorScope · 08-18-2014, 07:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cromag

If you have "Annotations On" it comes up at about the 1:05 mark. If you have that setting Off it doesn't come up.

Yeah, what he said.

ApK · 08-18-2014, 07:49 AM

OIC.

Hey, one more thought on the suck/blow issue.
If I lived INSIDE a tire, and some one opened the valve, I would say my air was being sucked out. If one of my fellow tire dwellers increased the pressure inside until it ruptured the valve, I'd say it was blown out.

Not sure that this changes anything but it does make me want to write an sf story about a race of beings living in our tires.

bizzybody · 08-18-2014, 04:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ApK

OIC.
Not sure that this changes anything but it does make me want to write an sf story about a race of beings living in our tires.

Go for it. Could become a series the readers wouldn't get tired of. Could have inter-rubber fights between the tyrians and the tirans.

'Course both factions are all radialians who have only dim racial memories of their primitive biasorply ancestors, though some of the scientists insist there's a "missing link" in the beltedbiasors, especially the steel ones.

I've heard that a vulgar insult common among radalians is to call someone who insists on doing things the old way is to call the individual "an old biasor".

ApK · 08-18-2014, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bizzybody

Go for it. Could become a series the readers wouldn't get tired of. Could have inter-rubber fights between the tyrians and the tirans.

'Course both factions are all radialians who have only dim racial memories of their primitive biasorply ancestors, though some of the scientists insist there's a "missing link" in the beltedbiasors, especially the steel ones.

I've heard that a vulgar insult common among radalians is to call someone who insists on doing things the old way is to call the individual "an old biasor".

Hehe....looks like it's virtually writing itself already.
Keep going, you're on a...ahem....roll. :-)

crich70 · 08-18-2014, 05:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ApK

Hehe....looks like it's virtually writing itself already.
Keep going, you're on a...ahem....roll. :-)

And hopefully you won't get 'tired'of the story before finding a good ending.

I wonder how they will explain a spacial disruption/warping of the universe (i.e. a flat tire).

cromag · 08-18-2014, 09:14 PM

Think carefully, guys. I once had a field mouse take refuge in one of my hub caps (warmed by the brakes on a cold winter day). I didn't find him until after my next road trip, which involved some moderately high speed driving on a state highway.

Centripetal force is a killer!

crich70 · 08-18-2014, 10:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cromag

Think carefully, guys. I once had a field mouse take refuge in one of my hub caps (warmed by the brakes on a cold winter day). I didn't find him until after my next road trip, which involved some moderately high speed driving on a state highway.

Centripetal force is a killer!

But if the 'beings' were tiny enough wouldn't they then possibly be able to deal with the results of the centripetal forces without injury? I mean their surface area would have to be very minute for a whole race of beings to live inside a tire and they'd have to have evolved there in the 1st place so that they were able to take it. I could see them working up a whole mythology to explain why such forces struck at times, and of course their sense of time could be a lot different from ours. Robert L. Forward wrote two books "Dragon's Egg" and "Starquake" about alien beings who live on the surface of a neutron star. So I could see very tiny beings evolving within a tire being able to exist even with such forces coming now and then. Perhaps from their pov there is a period of upset every few 1000 yrs or so which is on average every 8-10 hrs our time as the driver of the car goes to and from work, and now and then these periods come early or late depending on if the driver goes into work early or stays late.

ApK · 08-19-2014, 09:11 AM

I'm also trying to figure out a way to integrate a story line where the tire race could wipe the midi-chlorians out of existence, like totally, from the the entirety of the multiverse space-time continuum, so they will never have existed and never be spoken of again.
And then at the end, I could have the car they are in run over Jar Jar Binks.

I know this might seem like topic drift, but it's not. Those Star Wars elements most definitely suck and blow.

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08-13-2014, 10:45 AM	#46
Ninjalawyer Guru Posts: 826 Karma: 18573626 Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Touch, Nexus 7 (2013)	For hard SF, I really liked Stephen Baxter's short story collections (one I recall was Vacuum Diagrams). The couple of novels of his I've read I wasn't in love with (Manifold Time and Manifold Space) because the characters seemed flat to me, but his short stories moved along at a brisk enough pace that I didn't notice.

08-17-2014, 12:49 PM	#48
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	"The Time Ships" is excellent - an authorised sequel to H.G. Wells's "The Time Machine". You're right that characterisation isn't Baxter's strength, but even so I think he writes excellent books.

08-17-2014, 04:17 PM	#49
VydorScope Wizard Posts: 3,418 Karma: 35207650 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: iPad	This calls for: (warning - one curse on the screen - audio is clean)

08-17-2014, 07:18 PM	#50
ApK Award-Winning Participant Posts: 7,316 Karma: 67862884 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: NJ, USA Device: Kindle	Where was there a curse on the screen??

08-18-2014, 12:37 AM	#51
Dngrsone Almost legible Posts: 1,457 Karma: 4611110 Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: In a high desert, CA Device: Galaxy Note 9, Galaxy Tab A (2017), Likebook P78	I didn't see it either.

08-18-2014, 03:40 AM	#52
cromag Surfin the alpha waves ~~ Posts: 24,279 Karma: 459220161 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: New Jersey Device: Jetbook Lite & Mini, Nook STR, Kobo, Hanvon N516, Kindle 2, Androids	If you have "Annotations On" it comes up at about the 1:05 mark. If you have that setting Off it doesn't come up.

08-18-2014, 07:49 AM	#54
ApK Award-Winning Participant Posts: 7,316 Karma: 67862884 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: NJ, USA Device: Kindle	OIC. Hey, one more thought on the suck/blow issue. If I lived INSIDE a tire, and some one opened the valve, I would say my air was being sucked out. If one of my fellow tire dwellers increased the pressure inside until it ruptured the valve, I'd say it was blown out. Not sure that this changes anything but it does make me want to write an sf story about a race of beings living in our tires.

08-18-2014, 09:14 PM	#58
cromag Surfin the alpha waves ~~ Posts: 24,279 Karma: 459220161 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: New Jersey Device: Jetbook Lite & Mini, Nook STR, Kobo, Hanvon N516, Kindle 2, Androids	Think carefully, guys. I once had a field mouse take refuge in one of my hub caps (warmed by the brakes on a cold winter day). I didn't find him until after my next road trip, which involved some moderately high speed driving on a state highway. Centripetal force is a killer!

08-19-2014, 09:11 AM	#60
ApK Award-Winning Participant Posts: 7,316 Karma: 67862884 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: NJ, USA Device: Kindle	I'm also trying to figure out a way to integrate a story line where the tire race could wipe the midi-chlorians out of existence, like totally, from the the entirety of the multiverse space-time continuum, so they will never have existed and never be spoken of again. And then at the end, I could have the car they are in run over Jar Jar Binks. I know this might seem like topic drift, but it's not. Those Star Wars elements most definitely suck and blow.