Kevin's Watch

Fist and Faith wrote:Tin Man was pretty cool, imo.

It's also the title of a great Star Trek: The Next Generation episode.

Hey -- I remember that! (Data rocks...)

Sounds like several of us can blame Ray Bradbury for this addiction. And Star Trek/Star Wars, of course.

Sorus wrote:Well, I got into Star Trek when I was about 9, and I think Heinlein's Tunnel In The Sky was the first Sci-Fi book I read. I was about 10 then. After that I got into Michael Moorcock, Fritz Leiber, Piers Anthony, Anne McCaffrey... oooh.. and a bunch of others that won't come to mind right now.

Funnily enough, I only read "Tunnel in the Sky" a couple of years ago...an enjoyable read IMO.

SoulBiter wrote:And Im fairly certain my first Sci-fi book was A Wrinkle in Time.

I'm currently working on an a copy of A Wrinkle In Time. I'm giving it an altered cover. Below are examples of altered book covers:

Star Wars hit me out of nowhere. It exploded all over my 5-yr-old world like a giant Deathstar-shaped pinata, spilling toys, trading cards, necklaces, and t-shirts across my childhood. It colored an entire summer with space filled dreams. We couldn't get enough of it. We couldn't buy enough toys. I still remember the first trailer I saw on TV, and the excitement of my Dad, his friend, and my brothers. I remember seeing it in the theater and being mesmerized by the robots and aliens. That was the beginning of s.f. for me.

As for fantasy, it all goes back to Tolkien. The Hobbit hit me even harder than Star Wars, because it was so much more subtle and unexpected. It all started with a hole in the ground, not a 10 mile long spaceship. Gradually, it opened up a world so rich and complex, I couldn't believe a single human had invented it. It really did seem like a mythology of an entire people, built up over centuries. What Tolkien accomplished still amazes me to this day, and I still feel that sense of childish wonder when I read it. There is no disillusionment like when I watch Star Wars. There is no taint of marketing or Special Editions or prequels. Just one man's lifelong (sub)creation, done out of love rather than money. This is what made me decide to write my own story, and I've been working on it ever since.

That was 8th grade. In 9th grade, Donaldson showed me that this genre could actually contain writing on the level of a literary masterpiece, something philosophical and existential, reaching down into the deepest levels of what it means to be human.

Jeez, don't know if I can remember that far back, but lets see....

Definitely remember watching Star Trek back when it used to end with "Stay tuned for exciting scenes from next weeks episode.."

Forgot about "A Wrinkle in Time", probably read that when I was about 12, but if someone was to put a gun to my head, I would have to say either "War of the Worlds", or "The Time Machine", or just maybe "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea"

Wyldewode wrote:

SoulBiter wrote:And Im fairly certain my first Sci-fi book was A Wrinkle in Time.

I'm currently working on an a copy of A Wrinkle In Time. I'm giving it an altered cover. Below are examples of altered book covers:

Wow.. great work!!!

Heh. . . those aren't mine. I do similar things, though. When I finish the book I will post it here.

For me, it was more of a process like osmosis. First- older sib's comic books depicting Thor, Fantastic 4 and Galactus. Then, on to thicker books with less illustrations....& one of the first, I remember, is a condensed version of "The Time Machine".

The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper.
First books i read with more than 100 pages, Re-read them a few years ago, still good. Looks like the film has destroyed the book can't bring myself to watch it

My first Sci-fi book was The War of the Worlds when I was between eight and ten years old, I love that book!

I was reading a lot of anthologies starting when I was 11 or 12, with stories like The Great Slow Kings and stuff like that. I was getting kind of tired of the dogmatism around the idea that silicon-based intelligence would eventually conquer carbon-based (i.e., that robots would take over the world) when I discovered LoTR.

The problem being that having read the ur-Fantasy of all time, there wasn't much out there in 1976 that came close. There was no Fantasy section in bookstores or libraries yet. I found Peter Beagle and Ursula K. LeGuin eventually; and by then had also found Zelazny and Phillip K. Dick.

For me, fantasy genre introduction was in late 70's high school via LOTR and SciFi was via P.K. Dick at about the same time. Prior to that I was a hard core horror story kid. H.P. Lovecraft and Alfred Hitchcock story compilations were my favorites.

deer of the dawn wrote:I was getting kind of tired of the dogmatism around the idea that silicon-based intelligence would eventually conquer carbon-based

Agreed. This is why I loved the human ingenuity & indominable spirit aspects of Fred Saberhagen's Berzerker series stories. Berzerker Man was my favorite FS novel and my fav short story was the one in which the man tricks the berzerker ship into curing his cancer.

Haha, I was gonna post in this thread again (having forgotten I did already) when I realized I already did.

Well, now I realize I forgot something - I don't remember when exactly I read greek and norse mythology stuff but that could have been the first of it.

Andy Kalish wrote:

deer of the dawn wrote:I was getting kind of tired of the dogmatism around the idea that silicon-based intelligence would eventually conquer carbon-based

Agreed. This is why I loved the human ingenuity & indominable spirit aspects of Fred Saberhagen's Berzerker series stories. Berzerker Man was my favorite FS novel and my fav short story was the one in which the man tricks the berzerker ship into curing his cancer.

I see. You were trying to use it as wish fulfillment to convince yourselves that mankind wouldn't be wiped out/enslaved by the clearly superior robotic overlords. Well, I suppose we can allow some to sustain such delusions if it gives them comfort.

ALL HAIL THE ROBOT MESSIAH! PUNISH THE UNBELIEVERS!

BTW, as far as the Berzerker series goes, Donaldson actually wrote a short story for it. It's actually my least favorite piece of the anthology (Reave the Just) but I liked it, and I've always felt like I should get around to Saberhagen. It's awesome cuz humanity owns robots because the robots might have superhack technology and whatnot but they're still too stupid to see a good old fashioned backstabbing.

EDIT-The fact that robot species in sci-fi spend their entire existences focused on an organized destruction of the human race proves their inferiority. Mankind can get the job done AND have a beer (hopefully in that order). The robots, meanwhile - what are they gonna do once they wipe us all out?

I've always wondered what would happen if two different species of carbon-hating killing machines came across each other. Would they hail each other as siblings?

Great post, Holsety!

Holsety wrote:ALL HAIL THE ROBOT MESSIAH! PUNISH THE UNBELIEVERS!

LOL, this statement reminds me of the Simpsons episode in which the newscaster thought that giant ants had come from space (I believe after Homer broke open an ant farm on the Space Shuttle) and were taking over the Earth so he subjugated himself to them on the air.

Holsety wrote:The fact that robot species in sci-fi spend their entire existences focused on an organized destruction of the human race proves their inferiority.

Could be, but what does the fact that my computer keeps me slaved to it for a large portion of the day (including this forum) prove in turn?

Holsety wrote:The robots, meanwhile - what are they gonna do once they wipe us all out?

Whatever they were programmed to do. Artificial intelligence or not, if that is the sole purpose of their existence then they might not even ask that question of themselves. Plenty of carbon-based people don't ask themselves what they are going to do once they have accomplished their life's goals. I guess we die on top of a pile of money whereas they rust on top of a pile of dead carbon-based life forms.

Andy Kalish wrote:Could be, but what does the fact that my computer keeps me slaved to it for a large portion of the day (including this forum) prove in turn?

They've already won. They don't need to destroy us.

Ever read Hyperion? There's a sort of AI as parasites thing going on there.

What do you guys think silicon based intelligences would feel about even more advanced forms of intelligence? WAIT WE ALREADY HAVE GERMANIUM BASED LIFE FORMS!!! OH NO THE WAR BEGINS!!!

Holsety wrote:Ever read Hyperion? There's a sort of AI as parasites thing going on there.

Thanks. No I haven't. Been on my wish list (as in "I wish I had more time") for a long time. I have this habit of preferring to re-read books I have really loved (ahem ... SRD) rather than grab something new. Oh well. I have enjoyed reading William Gibson and Neal Stephenson though.

Malik23 wrote:Star Wars hit me out of nowhere. It exploded all over my 5-yr-old world like a giant Deathstar-shaped pinata, spilling toys, trading cards, necklaces, and t-shirts across my childhood. It colored an entire summer with space filled dreams. We couldn't get enough of it. We couldn't buy enough toys. I still remember the first trailer I saw on TV, and the excitement of my Dad, his friend, and my brothers. I remember seeing it in the theater and being mesmerized by the robots and aliens. That was the beginning of s.f. for me.

As for fantasy, it all goes back to Tolkien. The Hobbit hit me even harder than Star Wars, because it was so much more subtle and unexpected. It all started with a hole in the ground, not a 10 mile long spaceship. Gradually, it opened up a world so rich and complex, I couldn't believe a single human had invented it. It really did seem like a mythology of an entire people, built up over centuries. What Tolkien accomplished still amazes me to this day, and I still feel that sense of childish wonder when I read it. There is no disillusionment like when I watch Star Wars. There is no taint of marketing or Special Editions or prequels. Just one man's lifelong (sub)creation, done out of love rather than money. This is what made me decide to write my own story, and I've been working on it ever since.

That was 8th grade. In 9th grade, Donaldson showed me that this genre could actually contain writing on the level of a literary masterpiece, something philosophical and existential, reaching down into the deepest levels of what it means to be human.

For some reason this brought back a long forgotten memory of me going into our local library as a ridiculously-young-yo and requesting them to order me a copy of 'There and Back Again' by Bilbo Baggins

I'm only 25 ad I can't remeber back far enough to say for certain which was my first...

I think I was always into Sci-Fi, through The War of the Worlds, the Time Machine and 20,000 Leagues under the sea. Then I fell in love with Asimov - all of his stuff, and of course Arthur Clarke's Rama series.. Brilliant.

The fantasy books it took longer to get into, starting with the Narnia chronichles (though I didn't actually read the series in it's entirety till last year - the Final Battle was so unexpected!) The Fantasy books, well I couldn't find any that were as well-written as my fave SciFi books til I found The Illearth War and I've been a huge SD fan ever since. NO other fantasy book has been able to match that series yet..

Dune would be about my 3rd fave series ever.. maybe equal 2nd (alongside Rama). The second trilogy took more effort to get into but it was well worth it!!! I don't know whether to call Dune Sci-Fi or Fantasy though..

ninjaboy wrote:I'm only 25 ad I can't remeber back far enough to say for certain which was my first...

Understood. I am 47 and have trouble remembering yesterday.

Yeah, by 25 I had blown enough brain cells to.. uh... what was I saying? Strangely though, I still remember the smell of fallen apples under the tree in the yard of the house we moved out of when I was three, and the feel of them squishing in my toes, and the sun on the Lombardy poplars...

I really need some good reading material. The library I have access to here in Jos is very limited. to get by I'm reading Teeth of the Tiger by Tom Clancy (for something completely different as well). I too re-read favorites but I'm desiring something new.

Two years and counting...