Proposal Discussion What to take and what to leave...

Dejay

Dejay
Memnoch said:
Oh dear, yet another sci-fi series to go on the pile of must reads! Thanks Dejay! :)
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You're welcome :D I read Revelation Space, Redemption Ark then Absolution Gap. Whatever you do, don't read Galactic North before finishing the books lol. The Prefect and Chasm City come chronologically first, but I'd still start with Revelation Space.

A while ago I had a bit of down time, away from my usual PC setup. I started reading and tried to find a good list of sci fi. Between "young adult" trash and "space opera" it's hard to find the gems. Something that lists "contains space travel", "quality of writing" and "plausibility". Ideally hard sci fi that is modern and realistic and has cool ideas and action but isn't full of tropes or bad writing.
Maybe we should compile a list of all the good books and make a sticky? It would be near impossible to do this alone and Elite fans will have a unique predisposition to hard sci fi ;) Or is there already a list somewhere on the forum?

Some of the stuff I've read recently and would recommend:
  • John Scalzi - Old Man's War Series
  • Robert A. Heinlein - Starship Troopers
  • Joe Haldeman - Forever War, Peace and War, Forever Peace
  • Isaac Asimov - Empire Series
  • John Scalzi - Redshirts
  • John Steakly - Armor
  • Douglas Adams - Hitchhikers Guide Series
  • Card Orson - Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Ender in Exile
  • Philip K - Ubik
  • Isaac Asimov - Robot Series
  • Dan Simmons - Hyperion Cantos Series
  • Alastair Reynolds - Revelation Space
  • Alastair Reynolds - Poseidon's Children, Blue Remembered Earth
  • Stanislaw Lem - Solaris
  • Lois Lowry - The Giver
  • George Orwell - Nineteen Eighty-Four

Yet to read / finish
  • Rob Reid - Year Zero (very funny)
  • Aldous Huxley - Brave New World
  • Philip K - Time Out Of Joint

Chock said:
I quite like the feel of Harry Harrison's novels, his most famous of which are very much the 'one man against the universe' types of affairs.
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What top book(s) would you recommend for reading?
 

Hellhawk666

Hellhawk666
I don't know why, but for some reason I've always associated Elite with golden and silver age SF - Robert Heinlein, Robert Sheckley, Isaac Azimov, Arthur C. Clark, Brian Stableford, Robert Silverberg, James White, Bert Chandler - even Andre Norton. I guess it's what I was reading at the time I first played the game.

But all that said - Firefly :)
 
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blibbka

B
To chip in - I can see the Alien aesthetic having it's place in ED. Especially the vision of space travel in the future as being more "21st century space truckers" rather than Top Gun cream of humanity.

Most of all, I'm pleased that ED doesn't owe a great deal to any of these sci-fi behemoths; it's not derivative and that is a distinction in it's self.
 

Amos

A
I am sure someone else has mentioned it before on this thread, organic ships would be cool and anything from babylon 5 as that show rocked
 

blibbka

B
Dejay said:
A while ago I had a bit of down time, away from my usual PC setup. I started reading and tried to find a good list of sci fi. Between "young adult" trash and "space opera" it's hard to find the gems. Something that lists "contains space travel", "quality of writing" and "plausibility". Ideally hard sci fi that is modern and realistic and has cool ideas and action but isn't full of tropes or bad writing.
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I used to read a lot of Sci-Fi (when I was in my late teens). I devoured all of Asimov's Foundation books. Looking for another Asimov I was intrigued by the book's next to his on the shelf by some guy with the surname "Banks", and thus followed a period devouring Ian M Banks' Sci-Fi, starting with "Use of Weapons" and then onwards. In truth my favourite Banks books are the ones that lie in the realm of slightly delirious dark fantasy rather than pure Sci-Fi E.g. The Bridge, Walking on Glass. But I digress ...

A friend recently lent me the Revelation Space books and I enjoyed them. But although there are many great ideas, I did find the writing a bit uneven, the characterisation a bit cliched and the story kind of meandered a bit. I don't mean to sound over-critical though - I did enjoy the books and love some of the ideas.

One name I haven't heard mentioned here is Olaf Stapledon, author of First and Last Men. The scope of imagination in that book is mind-boggling, and it side-steps problems in characterisation and dialogue by virtue of being written as a "future history". Has anyone else here read it?

No sure what you could bring into Elite from such a book though, apart from the absolutely colossal scope.
 

Zieman

Zieman
Thargon said:
I'm trying to think what the best one to start with would be :)
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I started years ago with the short story Great Wall of Mars by accident (read it in a sci-fi antology), happens to be the first story chronologically (Revelation Space universe chronology) too. :eek:

Next book in the same universe I got my hands on was Redemption Ark, same character appearing again as one of the protagonists, but that was a bit too big leap I think.

IMHO one should look up the Revelation Space universe chronology and read the short stories and books in chronological order, starting with Great Wall of Mars. On the other hand, starting with Revelation Space, to continue with Redemption Ark and Absolution Gap and then all the rest as delving deeper into the history of that universe might be fun way too.

As a compromise I'd suggest starting with Great Wall of Mars and Glacial (found in the collection Galactic North), Chasm City next and then the Revelation Space 'trilogy', then the rest.

To each his/her own. :)
 

Thargon

Thargon
The first book I read was 'Absolution Gap' so it was a bit of a "hit" to take - it really confused the heck out of me.

Then I realised some time later that I started in the middle of the series DOH!
Reading some of the earlier stuff gave it a bit more backstory and foundation, but it did highlight that the order of reading didn't really matter much as a lot of the series are very loosely coupled and don't generally refer to events in earlier books that much, so it was all good.
 

JeffRyan

JeffRyan
I was watching Doctor Who over the weekend and I thought the sound of the revived series is something that would fit quite well. That orchestral but quirky soundtrack with majesty, mystery, drama and a touch of silliness would fit. And it's British in it's sound too. I think the overall feel would work.
 

Kulin

Kulin
My favorite games beside Elite, Privateer and Freelancer are games like Fallout 1+2. Wastelands, full of hostiles with a few human settlements. I really love the survival aspects of this games. I also like DayZ or Starbound, where you start with nothing and build up your character.

So my idea is some kind of an survival-mode Elite.

The Story is easily told: You missjumped with your small space craft and you don't even have the slightest idea where you are. All Systems are trashed. All you have left is some fuel and a cargo/fuel scoop. The System you are in seems to have a few planets, gas giants, a asteroid field and a few space wrecks with some beginner equipment. But its also infested with unmanned, mad drone ships that attack anything. And a small, automated space station, a leftover from a long gone civilization, that offers - after searching some wreck for access data - some basic services, including the replication of blue prints from your ships database.

Early Goals:
At first you need to search the system for some equipment to get a foot on the ground. Then you can collect ore to build up your ship or even build a new ship hull at the automated base to finally build an jump drive. This should take a while.

Middle Game Goals:
Search the surroundings for other civilizations. Build up relations. Eventually set up a base in an empty system and lure some settlers to let them build up an economy. Or search for leads to a way home. Or try to explore the surroundings to find out more about the story about the mad drones and the creators of the automated star-bases scattered in the nearby systems.

Endgame:
Make your way home or stay and create a huge colonized star system with a working economy (or more of them) and make sure they dont try to get independant. Or get involved into faction wars. Or just make your living as a merc/trader. You could also play through the storyline about the creators of the automated star bases.

Would be nice to make a mod for this. Not sure if this is even possible with the modding tools announced.
 

Zieman

Zieman
Thargon said:
The first book I read was 'Absolution Gap' so it was a bit of a "hit" to take - it really confused the heck out of me.

Then I realised some time later that I started in the middle of the series DOH!
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Middle of the series? At the end of the series really - only short story Galactic North happens (mostly) later... :)
 

CMDR Texas Stu

CMDR Texas Stu
I kind of like the idea of a black market version of the "Cry Baby" from FireFly's pilot episode (you know, the one they didn't show first?) that's a drum electronics package that remote-activated sends a distress signal (or something?) that makes your ship seem like 'small potatoes' by priority and gives you a chance to get away before the pirate/bounty hunter/Gal Cop finds out it's a ploy. By that time you've left the system.
 
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