That's wonderful that Canticle was on your middle school reading list. I think the closest we got to any SF was 1984.

If you like Tom Clancy you might like Jerry Pournelle's work, or David Weber's (which GKC and I have been talking about through this thread). The action tends to move a bit faster in Pournelle, not that there isn't a lot of action in Weber, only that there is a lot of character development and political intrigue in between the action sequences. I'm sure GKC could recommend more if you're interested.


I don't know if there's middle ground or not but I didn't like it. Well, I should temper that statement. I didn't like what I heard about it, so I never read it.

I almost never like humor/satire as the foundation for my SF. No Discworld for me. But the opera bouffe of the HITCHHIKER series I liked a great deal, esp. in the radio version, the BBC TV version, and, lastly, in the books, that being the order I experienced the work. I would hate to not know why the answer is said to be 42.

GKC

It is typical of Adams' absurdist humor, what he is actually saying is that existence is meaningless and random...which is the theme of the 'Hitchhiker's Guide', which is an explicitly atheistic work.

And, also, funny.

I do wish I had my copy of GUIDE signed.


But I do have my copy of DIRK GENTLY'S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY signed.


You mean it's not 42?

GKC

CANTICLE is in my top 3 favorite SF books. Sometimes it moves up to 1, sometimes down to 3.

GKC

Indeed, it is very funny.....

If I had to vote I would probably put Mote at #1. But Canticle is definitely up there.

Sometimes MOTE is #1, sometimes, #2. I think it depends on the weather.

GKC

So we have Mote and Canticle in your top 3. What's the other one?

It varies, depending on the climate. Sometimes I'm yearning for my childhood, and it's Heinlein's ROLLING STONES or SPACE CADET, or STARMAN JONES.

Sometimes it's the whole FOUNDATION TRILOGY, or Jack McDevitt's TALENT FOR WAR. Less often, it's Vernor Vinge's A FIRE UPON THE DEEP. Or more likely van Vogt's VOYAGE OF THE SPACE BEAGLE (he was the first SF author I ever met), Sometimes I lose control and try to shove all the Weber-authored Honorverse in there. Sometimes I lose focus and think it's John Myers Myers SILVERLOCK or Tim Powers DECLARE, or the first three Deryni novels by Kurtz. Randall Garret's Lord Darcy books, esp. TOO MANY MAGICIANS, alternate history in which magic functions, scientifically. Niven's RINGWORLD. A large chunk of Poul Anderson: KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS can fill in, for many others of his. Gene Wolfe's NIGHTSIDE THE LONG SUN, to stop naming multi-title groups.

These circulate and weave in and out. But MOTE and CANTICLE always come at the top, somewhere.

After titles like these, things get crowded, fast.

And you?

GKC

If I had to choose, it would probably be Foundation. There aren't many more SF books I can pick up, open to a random page, and start reading.

They're working on a Foundation movie....produced by Dean Devlin and directed Roland Emmerich...the same team responsible for Independence Day and 2012....which means it will probably star Will Smith and will suck.....it seems Issac Asimov and Philip K Dick are both cursed to never have a decent movie adaptation.

OK by me, as for as Philip is concerned.

GKC

Sounds good to me.

GKC

The Mule is probably my favorite foundation book, but if I were stranded on an island it'd have to be Card's Ender's Game right now.....

FOUNDATION is a poor choice for an Asimov-inspired movie IMHO. A better choice would be one of the Lije Nailey/R. Daneel Olivaw books.

I think it will prove to be pretty close to impossible to adapt, their choices will be to either scrap the actual storyline entirely and make up something else with the same name (which is almost certainly what they will do) or to follow the book and end up making the most boring move ever...

Agreed. It is not movie material at all as it is. It's not even a single story! I don't think a movie that's a series of brief vignettes would work at all.

I could totally see The Caves of Steel working as a movie, though.

It can, as movies like M*A*S*H and A Christmas Story prove, but it is very difficult to do...

I don't think that's quite the same because Foundation's vignettes would have completely different characters.