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March 28, 2024, 11:10:36 PM

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Nerds of CAB, help a brother out

Started by Funcrusher, March 20, 2018, 10:08:56 PM

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Funcrusher

So, my dad has Parkinson's, he's in the hospital at the moment and wants some of his books to read.

He reads sci-fi mostly fiction wise, and he thinks that the plot of the book or books he wants is something about a star that switches on and off every ten years, an alien civilisation, who might be called The Primes, or The Primes might not be the aliens. It might be a humans make first contact type thing. He thinks it's a more modern author, not the Asimov/Heinlein era. He reads current bods like Alastair Reynolds and Peter F Hamilton. He thinks it might be a trilogy. Given that my Dads mind is a bit foggy with the Parkinsons these days, this could be a Borroughs cut up of various books, or it might actually exist. Does this ring any bells with anyone?

Funcrusher

I think I've answered my own question - seems to be the Commonwealth Saga by Peter F Hamilton.

Zero Gravitas

Yep, Pandora's Star & Judas Unchained, all about that bastard MorningLightMountain.

Funcrusher


mothman

If it turns out to not be the case - it sounds like Pandora's Star, but that only "switches off" once - then you might want to try A Deepness In The Sky by Vernor Vinge; that has a star that keeps "switching on & off," but over the period of a couple of hundred years. not ten.

Funcrusher

Quote from: mothman on March 21, 2018, 09:31:00 PM
If it turns out to not be the case - it sounds like Pandora's Star, but that only "switches off" once - then you might want to try A Deepness In The Sky by Vernor Vinge; that has a star that keeps "switching on & off," but over the period of a couple of hundred years. not ten.

He does also read Vernor Vinge, so I'll look into that as well. Cheers.

Dropshadow

It's almost definitely Vernor Vinge's "A Deepness in the Sky". It sounds like he's confusing the aliens with another of his books called "A Fire Upon the Deep" in which the aliens are called "Tines".

mothman

A Deepness In The Sky is a prequel to A Fire Upon The Deep. And the Primes (in Hamilton's Commonwealth books) are sort of a "colony" species of sorts (sentient Immotiles mentally controlling brainless Motiles), while the Tines (in Vinge's Deep) are also a "colony" species (individuals join together in packs to achieve sentience), so there's another way in which they could get mixed up.

Hope your dad's OK. My dad has just been diagnosed with early Alzheimer's, dreading how this is going to go.

Funcrusher

Big thanks to Mothman and Dropshadow. I hunted high and low for the Peter Hamilton books and couldn't find them but I think those Vernor Vinge books were there so I'll grab those, as I think he is mixing up the two series. Much appreciated.

Zero Gravitas

Quote from: Funcrusher on March 22, 2018, 09:01:52 AM
...I hunted high and low for the Peter Hamilton books and couldn't find them...

Definitely can't have been it, Hamilton has never given birth to a novel weighing less than 9 pounds.

RedRevolver

I'm 99% sure that my father is going to will me his entire collection of sci-fi novels which can only be quantified as a fuck tonne.

He's trying to get me to read the Ringworld series by Larry Niven. I showed some interest once in Discworld, this isn't pretentious 19th century Russian literature or modernist American drivel, what the fuck is he doing?

Funcrusher

Quote from: Zero Gravitas on March 22, 2018, 09:53:12 PM
Definitely can't have been it, Hamilton has never given birth to a novel weighing less than 9 pounds.

My dad says he has copies of those two books, but like you say all the Hamilton books seem to be huge, so where they've gone I don't know.

mothman

Quote from: RedRevolver on March 22, 2018, 11:42:22 PM
I'm 99% sure that my father is going to will me his entire collection of sci-fi novels which can only be quantified as a fuck tonne.

He's trying to get me to read the Ringworld series by Larry Niven. I showed some interest once in Discworld, this isn't pretentious 19th century Russian literature or modernist American drivel, what the fuck is he doing?

Rongworld is probably the pint at which Niven's Known Space saga largely disappeared up its own arse. Much of thr early stories and books, whole horribly dated in its groovy 70s ways (and even back then, Niven's frequent - and recently deceased - collaborator Jerry Pournelle never bought the sociology of the future human society), reain readable. It's like the saga reached a point of critical mass where there was already too much backstory and events to keep track of anymore. And since the Ringworld itself largely depends on one specific of his alien races in particular - I won't spoil it by saying which one - and that particular species was always a rather daft conceit anyway, it's like he's shooting himself in the foot.

I greatly enjoy many of Niven's books and stories but I'm not sure I like him. I could go on about it, at length!

Funcrusher

Quote from: mothman on March 23, 2018, 06:51:45 PM
Rongworld is probably the pint at which Niven's Known Space saga largely disappeared up its own arse. Much of thr early stories and books, whole horribly dated in its groovy 70s ways (and even back then, Niven's frequent - and recently deceased - collaborator Jerry Pournelle never bought the sociology of the future human society), reain readable. It's like the saga reached a point of critical mass where there was already too much backstory and events to keep track of anymore. And since the Ringworld itself largely depends on one specific of his alien races in particular - I won't spoil it by saying which one - and that particular species was always a rather daft conceit anyway, it's like he's shooting himself in the foot.

I greatly enjoy many of Niven's books and stories but I'm not sure I like him. I could go on about it, at length!

Aren't Niven and Pournelle a bit reactionary, aliens as Commie menace type stuff? Never read any, just seen them on my Dad's bookshelf.

mothman

Niven, certainly - old family money, supported himself writing using his inheritance. Never had to work a day in his life and it shows in his writings. Plus had a major hard-on for Robert A. Heinlein, who was to all intents & purposes a fascist. There's a well-documented occasion in the early 80s I believe, when Niven hosted a symposium of writers at his house, where (one of?) the subject was the future of space travel. Arthur C. Clarke tried to make a case for a peaceful, demilitarised, non-nationalistic exploration of space, but then Heinlein really laid into him, raving about the US' manifest destiny; Clarke was too much of a gentleman to respond in kind; the other attendees waited for the ground to swallow them up; and the host, rather than try to calm things down, just sat thre geeking out on his idol's rantings.

Zero Gravitas

Quote from: mothman on March 23, 2018, 11:51:15 PMNiven...Heinlein...Clarke

Jeez, and I thought reading Neal Asher's blog was a bummer (not to mention The Departure).

One expects these golden old chaps to behave like Roddenberry predicted we would, no like he actually did.

Pranet

Double post again, as are almost half of my posts.

Pranet


Recently read Ringworld and although in some ways I quite enjoyed it- it is fairly readable- on the other hand it was fucking awful and really seemed to hate women in a very nasty way. Certainly puts into perspective the sort of society Ursula Le Guin was entering at about this time. I'm almost happy to read that he was a cunt in real life too.

Conversely, I recently read some Arthur C Clarke short stories for the first time since I was a kid and found them very enjoyable.

Edit- I always, always click on quote instead of edit damn it.