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Liu Cixin's War of the Worlds (2019)

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Re: Liu Cixin's War of the Worlds (2019)

#111

Post by breuleux »

hoseja wrote: post #98
breuleux wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even the "neat" sci-fi ideas are often complete nonsense, such as the whole concept of sophons, which leverage a neat fringe idea of theoretical physics while running afoul of boring, well-established physics.

What's the well-established inner structure of an electron?

I'm not talking about the inner structure, I'm talking about the part where they unfold a proton in such a way that it envelops their entire planet and blocks all incoming light from their sun, meaning that it is continuously absorbing quadrillions of watts of power, although it still has the mass of a proton. It's grotesque, like bouncing off asteroids with gold leaf, but what's telling to me is that I don't think the author thought about it at all.

And then they send it off and control it remotely using quantum entanglement, except that entanglement, as far as we know, cannot be used to transmit information faster than light, let alone momentum. Furthermore, in order to be effective at anything, the sophon has to observe the world and transmit information back and forth, except that the capture and transmission of any nontrivial amount of information exceeds the mass energy of a proton by several orders of magnitude.

Re: Liu Cixin's War of the Worlds (2019)

#112

Post by xandrius »

marcellus23 wrote: post #110
xandrius wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any non-space related books (non-series are ok)? Just curious :)

I'm not sure I know of any that are similar to the 3 Body Problem that don't involve space. But if you're just asking about SF in general... Spin, which I mentioned above, takes place entirely on Earth. But it's definitely at least somewhat "space-related" in terms of its plot. Caves of Steel by Asimov is a certified classic who-dunnit in a far-future underground New York City. If you're interested in golden age scif…

Thank you so much, I'll explore those :)

Re: Liu Cixin's War of the Worlds (2019)

#113

Post by freilanzer »

ajross wrote: post #50
breuleux wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even the "neat" sci-fi ideas are often complete nonsense, such as the whole concept of sophons, which leverage a neat fringe idea of theoretical physics while running afoul of boring, well-established physics.

Isn't that true for basically all speculative sci-fi? The point to the form is to pick an idea with "enough plausibility" and extend it to an interesting implication. Not all "sci-fi" can be (or should be) 2001 or The Martian; Foundation and Dune are kinda good books too.

> Foundation and Dune are kinda good books too.

Kind of?!

Re: Liu Cixin's War of the Worlds (2019)

#114

Post by freilanzer »

marcellus23 wrote: post #105
xandrius wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you give me your top 3 sci-fi books/series? My favourite one so far was Broken Earth trilogy. I'm looking for something new and really awesome but I'm not interested in a series with more than 3-4 books (as they rarely keep the same level of quality across the series).

If you're interested in series, I recommend the one beginning with Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton. It's only two books, but it's a great space opera to dive into. Spin by Robert Charles Wilson is also good. I haven't read the sequel(s) but the first book can be treated as a standalone, and has some big ideas. Finally, the Algebraist by Iain M. Banks remains one of my all-time favorites.

> Finally, the Algebraist by Iain M. Banks remains one of my all-time favorites.

Funny. I have given up on the book after the first half since it bored me and I had to stop.

Re: Liu Cixin's War of the Worlds (2019)

#115

Post by freilanzer »

simonblack wrote: post #100
xandrius wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think it's going to be US vs China, you're going to be absolutely wrong. If it remains a cold war then it's about friction and who can last longer but if it becomes active, the world will split into 3 factions as WWII and the numbers will shift.

the world will split into 3 factions One of those factions will be the West. Unfortunately for the West, the West is too small to be a major player and will be a big loser in WW3. Modern warfare is just arithmetic, and the West just doesn't have the numbers that stack up. The whole of the West is smaller than just China by itself. Also China has far more manufacturing capacity than the whole of the West combined. The…

> plus the advanced technology of Russia

Yeah, I see this advanced technology at play in the Ukraine at the moment....

Re: Liu Cixin's War of the Worlds (2019)

#116

Post by allarm »

peteforde wrote: post #83
bookofjoe wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try the 30-episode Chinese version: it's superb.

My friend and I had a hard time staying awake through the first episode. It was just incredibly slow. Each to their own.

I don't think that the fact that you struggled to make it through the first episode says anything about the show though.

Re: Liu Cixin's War of the Worlds (2019)

#117

Post by marcellus23 »

freilanzer wrote: post #114
marcellus23 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're interested in series, I recommend the one beginning with Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton. It's only two books, but it's a great space opera to dive into. Spin by Robert Charles Wilson is also good. I haven't read the sequel(s) but the first book can be treated as a standalone, and has some big ideas. Finally, the Algebraist by Iain M. Banks remains one of my all-time favorites.

> Finally, the Algebraist by Iain M. Banks remains one of my all-time favorites. Funny. I have given up on the book after the first half since it bored me and I had to stop.

To each their own. I can understand that, since it is a pretty long book, and if you're not interested in the Dweller culture or the political background of the Hegemony (? — I think that's what the government is called) by the halfway point, you probably won't enjoy it. Have you tried any other Banks books?

Re: Liu Cixin's War of the Worlds (2019)

#118

Post by peteforde »

allarm wrote: post #116
peteforde wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My friend and I had a hard time staying awake through the first episode. It was just incredibly slow. Each to their own.

I don't think that the fact that you struggled to make it through the first episode says anything about the show though.

I suppose our votes cancel each other out.

Re: Liu Cixin's War of the Worlds (2019)

#119

Post by freilanzer »

marcellus23 wrote: post #117
freilanzer wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Finally, the Algebraist by Iain M. Banks remains one of my all-time favorites. Funny. I have given up on the book after the first half since it bored me and I had to stop.

To each their own. I can understand that, since it is a pretty long book, and if you're not interested in the Dweller culture or the political background of the Hegemony (? — I think that's what the government is called) by the halfway point, you probably won't enjoy it. Have you tried any other Banks books?

> Have you tried any other Banks books?

I can't remember any, if so. Most likely I have 1-2 audio books.

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